The Pittsburgh Penguins are down 3-1 in their series against the New York Rangers, which means they’re one loss away from a summer of second-guessing, major re-tinkering and a full evaluation of GM Jim Rutherford’s performance. (That David Perron trade … woof.)

Rutherford was tasked with adding essential depth players to the Penguins forward group, and the results have been inconsistent. But one addition has made a difference in the playoffs: Max Lapierre, the devious veteran forward, whom they acquired for Marcel Goc from the St. Louis Blues.

Look, he’s not what you’d call a “measurably good player.” He was an epic drag on possession in the regular season, he had 11 points in 80 games and he only skated 11:10 per game. But he’s doing that “Max Lapierre thing” in the playoffs, which is why Rutherford acquired him: Other than Steve Downie, there’s not another crap-stirrer on the roster, not another player whose antics make an opponent’s blood boil.

Case in point: Game 4 between the Pens and Rangers, and a Dominic Moore penalty that should have never been.

At 17:58 of the first period, Lapierre skated over to Moore near the Penguins bench. Moore raised his arm and pushed into Lapierre’s sternum.

Lapierre then grabbed his face and leaned over the Penguins bench, feigning injury. Moore was given two minutes for roughing.

How amazing was that sell job? His own teammates were concerned for his well-being!

Alain Vigneault went nuts on the Rangers bench. The announcers crucified Lapierre’s antics.

But again: It’s the playoffs. You win by any means necessary. Embellishment is a tactic. Diving is a tactic. The fact is that an adult film star, Lapierre’s greatest talent is faking it.

Back in 2011, when the Vancouver Canucks were playing the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup, Lapierre had one of the Lapierre’est games of his career: Scoring the lone goal of a 1-0 win, and embellishing a spearing call against Zdeno Chara that remains an Academy Award-level performance:

This led to an exchange after the game with Scott Burnside of ESPN, one that we actually just recalled with Burnside on Marek Vs. Wyshynski:

Q. Max, looked like you were mortally wounded when you had that encounter with Zdeno Chara. I wondered how you were able to carry on after that. Describe the emotion of being one win away from the Stanley Cup.

MAXIM LAPIERRE: I think we know it's going to be the biggest game of our life in Boston, and Boston is going to be ready. We're going to have to be ready for a challenge.

Ouch.

If you listen to the Chara clip, you’ll hear the announcers claiming that the referees are on to Lapierre and that he has a reputation and won’t be able to get away with this stuff.

THAT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO.

Again, he’s a diving, conniving rat. He’s not, ahem, among our elite hockey talents – the ultimate image of him from Game 4 was lying on his stomach, watching Kevin Hayes scoring the game-winning in overtime.

But for what he does, and what the Penguins needed, he’s been one of the few effective depth players in the roster in this series, love’em or hate’em.

But mostly hate’em.

s/t Tony Vela