Pittsburgh is 0-17-0-1 since Jan. 12 and has only two wins in its last 26 outings.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – As the Pittsburgh Penguins skid toward one of the worst records by any non-expansion team in pro sports history, maybe the 1989-90 Quebec Nordiques offer some hope and encouragement.

Les Nordiques were the role models for losing, a miscast group of stars-to-be (Joe Sakic) or stars who no longer were (Guy Lafleur) that won only 12 of 80 games. None of the team’s goalies had a goals-against average below 4.61, and the Nords finished 70 points behind division-winning Boston.

The Penguins are 11-42-5-4, so they probably won’t quite reach a Nordiques-like level of ineptitude – they must lose all but one of their final 20 to do so – but their rapid fall from grace has been steep and almost without rival in recent NHL history.

Three years after reaching the Eastern Conference finals and 11 years after winning a league-record 17 straight games, the two-time Stanley Cup champions haul an 18-game losing streak into Wednesday’s game at Phoenix. No team in NHL history has lost so many in a row.

Just don’t look for the streak in the NHL’s record book. The Penguins’ 3-2 loss in St. Louis on Feb. 14 came in overtime, so their official record since their last victory Jan. 12 in Philadelphia is 0-17-0-1.

But technicalities can’t cover up what’s going wrong with the Penguins, and that’s a lot. They have lost 14 straight at home – yes, that is a record – and are 2-23-0-1 over their last 26 games.

“Obviously, we’re getting sick of losing,” rookie forward Ryan Malone said.

“We keep losing the same way over and over,” rookie defenseman Brooks Orpik said. “It’s frustrating. It’s disheartening.”

To put their losing in perspective, their .192 winning percentage (when overtime losses are counted and ties are discarded) is below the .265 of last year’s hopeless Detroit Tigers (43-119). It’s above the impossibly low .110 of the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers (9-73), but not as good as the most renowned losers ever, the 1962 Mets (40-120, .250).

That’s where those ’89-’90 Nordiques come into play.

Just like these Penguins, who have won only 66 of 226 over the last three seasons, the Nordiques’ losing wasn’t confined to a single dreadful season. A succession of poor finishes allowed them to draft a stream of stars (Sakic, Mats Sundin, Adam Foote, Owen Nolan, Eric Lindros) who became the foundation of their two Stanley Cup-winning teams in Colorado or were traded for others who did (Peter Forsberg).

The Penguins, who quickly disintegrated after they could no longer afford to pay their former stars (Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Robert Lang), have already drafted goalie-of-the-future Marc-Andre Fleury. A last-place finish would give them a nearly 50-50 chance of winning the draft lottery and getting the No. 1 pick, almost certain to be Russian star Alexander Ovechkin.

Landing Ovechkin, just as drafting Mario Lemieux did in 1984, might accelerate the Penguins’ rebuilding effort by years. So could a more franchise-friendly collective bargaining agreement.

First, the Penguins must put this season behind them, and that won’t be easy. They must win five more games – no lock for this team – to avoid setting a franchise record for fewest victories, currently held by that 1983-84 team (16-58-6).

No matter how quickly players such as Malone (18 goals) or Orpik develop, their play can’t disguise the forgettable years by Kelly Buchberger (no goals or assists in 56 games), Rico Fata (a minus-38 rating) or Aleksey Morozov (33-game goal drought).

Clearly, the season is wearing on first-year coach Eddie Olczyk, who gets high marks from opposing coaches for always having his team ready to play. It’s how they’re playing that’s the problem – opposing players constantly left alone in prime scoring areas, checks that aren’t delivered, key power plays that never seem to get killed, makable saves that repeatedly become gift goals.

“It’s almost a broken record,” Orpik said. “The coaches can yell and scream all they want but, if we don’t start figuring it out ourselves, what are we going to do?”

Perhaps they don’t want to know the answer.

“The young guys here are going to remember this for years to come,” Malone said. “We’re going to try to finish the season hard and take everything we can out of it.”

As long as that doesn’t include any more NHL records.

“We want to be better,” goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin said. “But it’s not easy.”