The Penguins have scored an average of 2.22 goals through their first 23 games, placing them below all but four teams in the NHL rankings.

It hasn’t mattered that their payroll, which flirts with the league’s salary-cap ceiling, includes some of the most celebrated offensive talents in recent hockey history.

To wit:

Sidney Crosby, a two-time scoring champion, is on pace to finish with 53 points.

Phil Kessel, acquired this summer for his goal-scoring, has seven, which projects to 25 over a full season. That would match his fewest since he got 19 in 2007-08.

Evgeni Malkin, despite scoring seven goals in the past six games, still hasn’t reached a point-per-game pace.

But while the Penguins might be the most conspicuous example of a team with an underachieving offense, they hardly are the only one struggling to manufacture goals.

Only five NHL clubs are averaging more than three per game; Anaheim and Philadelphia are generating fewer than two.

Not surprisingly, explanations for the decline in scoring in recent seasons are far more numerous than goals have been.

Well-structured defensive systems. An increased emphasis on shot-blocking. Lax enforcement of the rules, which results in fewer power plays. More athletic goaltenders wearing unduly large equipment.

An informal survey of Penguins players found little, if any, support for the more radical ideas circulating to bump up scoring - making the nets larger, for example - but they did offer a few suggestions that could lead to more goals.

Several mentioned prohibiting players from leaving their feet when blocking a shot.

Patric Hornqvist proposed having delayed penalties enforced, even if the team in line to get a power play scores before there’s a stoppage in play.

Eric Fehr floated the notion of eliminating the coach’s challenge that was introduced this season.

“I think the coach’s challenge is taking away more goals than it’s giving us,” he said. “They’re trying to add goals, and then they put in a rule that’s actually taking them away from us. That doesn’t make sense.”

One concept that has considerable, though not universal, support among the Penguins is having minor penalties run the full two minutes, regardless of how many times the team with the extra man scores.

“I’m sure it would help scoring,” left winger Chris Kunitz said. “Anything that puts a team at a disadvantage and the other at an advantage, you’re going to get offense from it.”

That is the way major penalties are handled and was standard procedure with minors, as well, until the 1956-57 season, when the league revised the rule because Montreal’s power play was scoring with staggering regularity.

Matt Cullen, a longtime penalty-killer, believes shrinking goalie equipment is the best way to increase scoring, but sees merit in allowing minor penalties to run the full 120 seconds.