Pens Go 1-1 Over Weekend

Things have been rather hectic for myself over the last few days so this will be relatively short as well.

I'm happy with the weekend's results for the most part.

The 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings was what I expected in that game. The Kings are not a team the Penguins should lose to. They showed up and competed and got the valuable two points in the standings.

The lone goal given up by the Pens can't really be blamed on anyone on the ice. It was a 5-on-3 powerplay goal on a bomb by Drew Doughty that was tipped by Michal Handzus.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


The blame here will go on the two guys in the penalty box. In this case, Mark Eaton and Jordan Staal took minor penalties 20 seconds apart that eventually set up this goal.

All around I was happy with the performance in this game and even Sunday's 3-1 loss to the hated Flyers.

The Penguins once again wore the ugly powder blue jerseys and paid for it as a result. Can we please stop this experiment already?

For the most part, the Pens dominated the game and forced Martin Biron to win the game for Philadelphia.

The Pens got a few pucks behind Biron, but just not over the goal-line. On several occasions a Flyers player was there to clear the puck out of danger, or Biron somehow found the puck just in time.

The first Flyers goal is entirely Rob Scuderi's fault.

With the Flyers on a powerplay in the first period, Mike Knuble fired a shot on Marc-Andre Fleury who made the save, but left a rebound. Scuderi attempted to clear the puck up the middle of the ice on his backhand while staring Fleury in the face and completely whiffed on it.

The attempted clear became a direct pass to Simon Gagne who buried the puck behind Fleury for the early 1-0 lead.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


The second goal was another penalty killing mishap in the second period. With the Flyers breaking into the zone and driving to the net, Brooks Orpik made a play on his man as he should have.

Mark Eaton was visibly confused and somehow didn't notice Scott Hartnell racing to the backpost looking for the easy tap-in goal. Jeff Carter saw Hartnell and attempted a pass to him that ended up hitting Hartnell in the skate and going in. The goal was reviewed and deemed legit.

Eaton takes the full point on this one for not blocking the pass and not picking up the backside player.

The Flyers third goal was an empty netter and I will not assign points for empty net goals, unless a Penguin puts it in their own net.

The effort was there, but the bounces went Philadelphia's way. Simple as that. No need to dwell on it. The Penguins just need to focus on continuing to play with high energy and effort and things will work out in the end.

Up next are the recently vastly improved Calgary Flames in what should be a good measuring stick for the Penguins. The Flames come to town on Wednesday.

Updated Hal Gill Quotient Standings:

Kris Letang - 6.34 - 15 GP
Marc-Andre Fleury - 5.08 - 17 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 5.08 - 16 GP
Hal Gill - 5.34 - 17 GP
Mark Eaton - 6.33 - 18 GP
Brooks Orpik - 5.09 - 18 GP
Rob Scuderi - 4.50 - 18 GP
Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 6 GP - TRADED
Jordan Staal - 2.88 - 18 GP
Evgeni Malkin - 2.0 - 18 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 18 GP
Ruslan Fedotenko - 1.0 18 GP
Tyler Kennedy - 1.0 - 18 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .83 - 18 GP
Max Talbot - 1.0 - 18 GP
Sidney Crosby - 0.5 - 4 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 5 GP - WAIVED

Pens Destroy Thrashers 6-2

Well, it's about time the Pens won a game and didn't force me to down a bottle of Tums.

This one was over before it started as the Thrashers were without several players, but most notably Ilya Kovalchuk.

The 6-2 win tonight ties the Pens with the Flyers for 4th in the Eastern Conference, but the Flyers have three games in hand.

There were some anxious moments early when Bryan Little banged home his own rebound just 34 seconds into the game.

The only reason this puck ended up in the net is because of Hal Gill who practically handed the lead to Atlanta.

Gill received a pass behind the net from Rob Scuderi and attempted a pass up the boards to Evgeni Malkin. The problem here is that Gill can't handle a puck to save his life and as such, the pass went awry.

Viktor Kozlov picked off the pass and one-touched it on to Little. After a give-and-go with Todd White, Little was wide open at the top of the left faceoff circle. Marc-Andre Fleury made a great first save, but his momentum took him out of the crease and Little slammed the rebound home.

Little should not have been as open as he was. The only reason he was that open was because Gill got confused as to where he was supposed to be and slid over to White was already being marked by Scuderi.

Gill is taking the full point in the standings on this one.

Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


Lucky for him, this was Malkin's night to shine as he gathered five points to put him over 100 on the season.

Midway through the first period, the Penguins went on a 5-on-3 powerplay and completely controlled the play. They would have scored had Johan Hedberg not done the splits and robbed Bill Guerin on the backpost.

Right after the two-man advantage ended Malkin fed Guerin who found Sergei Gonchar at the point. Gonchar teed it up and found the twine around a screen set up by Chris Kunitz to tie the game at 1-1.

With under a minute to play in the period, the Penguins went back on the powerplay and Kunitz found the back of the net on a rebound shot by Sidney Crosby. Kunitz has been unconscious since coming to Pittsburgh and is showing no signs of waking up any time soon. Malkin got the secondary assist for his second point of the night.

With the Penguins up 3-1, Malkin decided it was time to put on a show for the fans. Both sides were short a man and a short 4-on-4 play took place. Malkin won the draw back to Kris Letang who made a quick pass to Gonchar. Again, Gonchar wasted no time in letting one fly and Malkin was there to deposit the rebound into the empty net for his third point.

Just 43 seconds later Malkin connected again on a one-timer from the farside halfboards that beat Hedberg clean.

Malkin capped his evening when he took a big hit, but sprung Gonchar and Mark Eaton for a 2-on-1 on Hedberg. Gonchar waited out the defenseman and slid a slick pass to Eaton, who had a wide open net to make the score 6-2.

The Mellon Arena starting chanting "Geno! Geno!" for a majority of the third period hoping that he would get the hat trick and he had a golden opportunity to do so.

With about three minutes to play, Malkin was hauled down on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. As he closed in on Hedberg, he threw a bunch of head and shoulder fakes to try and confuse the goaltender, but it did not work. Hedberg stuck with him and forced Malkin to shoot wide.

The game turned nasty and tensions finally boiled over late in the third period. A melee ensued behind Fleury's net that saw Eric Godard and Boris Valabik engage in a very short fight. Valabik threw one haymaker and immediately dropped to the ice favoring his shoulder. He skated directly to the gate and did not return.

Earlier, Matt Cooke went to put a hit on Zach Bogosian, but ended up colliding with the young defenseman's knee. Bogosian tried to stay in the game, but eventually left and did not return.

Jordan Staal scored his 20th goal of the season on the lone goal that Malkin didn't figure in on in the game. Staal has taken his game to a new level since Dan Bylsma became coach. Something tells me he likes the aggressive forecheck and wide open playstyle that the Pens have shown of late.

As for the second Thrashers goal:

Chris Thorburn moves out of the corner with the puck and Max Talbot draped all over him. Brooks Orpik slides over to him leaving Eric Boulton open with space five feet away from Fleury.

Boulton attempts a pass through Eaton, but the puck hits a stick and pops up and appears to hit Eaton in the face or upper chest and bounce behind Fleury to cut the lead to 5-2.

Talbot will receive 0.5 for allowing his man to beat him in the corner and Orpik gets the other 0.5 for not staying with his man when Thorburn had nothing to shoot at and would have had to make an incredible shot with Talbot in hot pursuit.

Updated Hal Gill Quotient Standings:

Kris Letang - 6.34 - 13 GP
Marc-Andre Fleury - 5.08 - 15 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 5.08 - 14 GP
Hal Gill - 5.34 - 15 GP
Mark Eaton - 4.83 - 16 GP
Brooks Orpik - 5.09 - 16 GP
Rob Scuderi - 3.50 - 16 GP
Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 6 GP - TRADED
Jordan Staal - 2.38 - 16 GP
Evgeni Malkin - 2.0 - 16 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 16 GP
Ruslan Fedotenko - 1.0 16 GP
Tyler Kennedy - 1.0 - 16 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .83 - 16 GP
Max Talbot - 1.0 - 16 GP
Sidney Crosby - 0.5 - 12 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 5 GP - WAIVED

Up next for the Penguins are the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night at the Igloo.

Pens Score 4 In 3rd, Win 6-4

If there was any doubt that the Penguins are trying to kill me before this weekend, it has officially been erased.

Why would a team willingly do this to its fan base? I have no answers, but I'm convinced that's what's going on here.

With a two-goal lead in the third against Ottawa, they blow it and later lose in the shootout to Ottawa.

Sunday against Boston, just more of the same.

With the Pens trailing 3-2 heading to the third period against the Bruins, I was hoping and begging for a win. They've made a season out of third period comebacks and blown leads, so why not one more for good measure?

I'm already in my paranoid playoff antics mode where apparently if I put my pants on wrong, the team is doomed.

Prime example?

I hadn't shaved during the recent seven-game win streak. Then, before the Columbus game on Thursday I had to shave out of necessity for work. The result? 4-3 loss in a shootout. The hockey gods then punished me some more with yesterday's 4-3 shootout loss against Ottawa. I'm so screwed and it's only March.

Moving onto today's third period where the question was, "could the Pens do it again?"

Yep. Sure enough the Pens delivered in a big way.

Blake Wheeler had a holding penalty called on him just 28 seconds into the final frame and the Pens pounced on the opportunity.

Sergei Gonchar fired a wrist shot through traffic from the point that bounced off something in front and dropped dramatically to the ice and behind Tim Thomas to tie the game at 3-3.

The initial call was that Chris Kunitz had deflected it, but it was later deemed that he did not. Why is this important? This was his second goal of the game. Still not important right? Read on.

Sixteen seconds later, Bill Guerin blocked a shot and the puck ricocheted to Kunitz who had a breakaway from his own blueline. With a little shoulder fake he got Thomas to open the pads and Kunitz slipped it through the opening for what appeared to be his third goal of the game and second career hat trick.

Thankfully, I was not in attendance and throwing my hat. If I had been, I'd want my hat back for sure.

In typical Penguin fashion, Petr Sykora takes a hooking call about a minute after Kunitz's go-ahead goal. As a result, Michael Ryder picks off a clearing attempt by Brooks Orpik and roofs it over the glove of Mathieu Garon to tie the game at 4-4.

Orpik will take the full 1.0 in this for an absolutely awful clearing attempt up the middle of the ice. Use the boards big guy or make sure you have a clear lane to get rid of the puck.

Just under seven minutes later, Jordan Staal protects the puck in the corner to the right of Thomas and finds Sykora in his sweet spot in the high slot. Sykora rifles a one-timer past Thomas to send the Mellon Arena into a frenzy with a 5-4 lead.

The Bruins upped the pressure and had some very good chances late to tie the game, but Garon and the Pens were up to the task.

The Pens iced the game when Staal picked off a pass from Zdeno Chara and deposited the puck into the empty cage with 57 seconds to play.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


I can't even begin to put into words the magnitude of this win. Huge does not do it justice. Normally, the Pens fold on the second day of back to back games. I was fully expecting the team to come out flat after yesterday's physical game with the Senators, but such wasn't the case.

This team has a new attitude about them. They want it now. They know they are feared and are preying on that fear in the opponent. The new aggressive forecheck is a nightmare to play against because you never know when it's coming.

Dan Bylsma has a system that fits this team like a glove and it's working. 10-1-3 under him is proof enough. Imagine where this team could be had Shero and Co. pulled the trigger on Michel Therrien a month sooner when it should have happened.

The Penguins have 11 games remaining in the regular season and currently sit 5th in the Eastern Conference with 82 points. Most teams they are battling with for playoff positioning have a game or two in hand, so it's time to start hoping for some losses from those teams to even things out.

Here's the other three goals against to update the Hal Gill Quotient:

Goal #1 - Mark Recchi Tips In A Mark Stuart Blast

The puck gets dumped into the far corner and Kris Letang is forced to retrieve it because Mark Eaton was slow to react. Letang attemps a pass to Staal in the faceoff circle, but the puck bonces away from Staal and right to Stuart who unloads a bomb. Letang and Eaton are both standing next to each other and Recchi is untouched in the slot and deflects the puck past Garon to tie the game at 1-1.

Points assigned: Letang gets 0.5 for the bad pass to Staal and Eaton gets the other 0.5 for not moving over and covering Recchi in the slot.

Goal #2 - Phil Kessel Tap In On Backdoor

Chara fires a wrist shot on goal through a crowd from the point. Wheeler beats Sidney Crosby to the rebound and passes through the slot to a streaking Kessel who buries it into the empty net behind Garon for the 2-1 lead.

Points assigned: Crosby gets 0.5 for being late to the rebound and allowing Wheeler to get the pass off. Eaton gets the other 0.5 goes to Eaton for looking lost and not blocking the pass to Kessel. Can we break up the pairing of Eaton and Letang please?

Goal #3 - Wheeler Shorthanded One-Timer From 3 Feet

This was the point in the game I thought would be the back breaker, but the Pens rebounded nicely as noted above.

Anyway, Wheeler leads the shorthanded rush up the ice and fires a puck off the side of the net. Evgeni Malkin comes back into the zone hard and drills Wheeler in the corner to free up the puck. Gonchar whiffs on it and David Krejci steals it away and feeds Wheeler out front for the easy goal.

Points assigned: Malkin gets 0.5 for a weak attempt at getting Gonchar the puck after the big hit. Gonchar gets the other 0.5 for his half of the mishap in the corner that resulted in the goal.

Updated Hal Gill Quotient Standings:

Kris Letang - 6.34 - 12 GP
Marc-Andre Fleury - 5.08 - 14 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 5.08 - 13 GP
Hal Gill - 4.34 - 14 GP
Mark Eaton - 4.83 - 15 GP
Brooks Orpik - 4.59 - 15 GP
Rob Scuderi - 3.50 - 15 GP
Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 6 GP - TRADED
Jordan Staal - 2.38 - 15 GP
Evgeni Malkin - 2.0 - 15 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 15 GP
Ruslan Fedotenko - 1.0 15 GP
Tyler Kennedy - 1.0 - 15 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .83 - 15 GP
Max Talbot - 0.5 - 15 GP
Sidney Crosby - 0.5 - 11 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 5 GP - WAIVED

Up next for the Penguins are the Atlanta Thrashers in the third game of an eight-game homestand on Tuesday night.

Pens Vs. Sens LIVE!

I haven't been able to do one of these in a while, but this should be fun.

The Cardiac Kids are back at it today opening up a franchise record eight-game homestand. A solid homestand here should solidify the Pens place in the playoffs and it all starts today against the hated Senators.

The Pens are coming into this game off a 4-3 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.

The reason there wasn't a post about that game is because of the massive chest pains and stomach pains that game caused me.

Down 3-0 after an early goal in the third period, the Pens storm back to tie the game with three goals in 3:08 to tie it.

In overtime, Chris Kunitz cleanly beats Steve Mason, but catches iron. Seconds later, Ruslan Fedotenko channeled Sidney Crosby's hands and deked two defenders out of their skates. Mason came out to challenge and Fedotenko slides a nice pass to Kris Letang who was streaking in from the point. Letang fires a one-timer only to be flat out robbed by Mason's blocker.

In the shootout, Kristian Huselius scored the lone goal in the third round for the win.

During the intermissions today, I'll break down the three goals against in the Columbus game to update the Hal Gill Quotient.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


Some things to keep in mind today:

- Lead after two periods and your odds of winning are very good as Ottawa is just 1-25-2 when trailing after two periods.

- Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to be the starting goaltender today with Mathieu Garon getting the call tomorrow against Boston.

- Petr Sykora is still listed as day-to-day, but could play this weekend. When he plays is the question.

- The Sentors lead the season series 2-1.

- Kunitz has caught fire since coming to Pittsburgh and has eight points in his last nine games. Thank you Ray Shero!

- The Pens are 9-1-2 under Dan Bylsma.

- Brian Elliot in net for the Senators

First Period

20:00 - Pens wearing the ugly powder blue jerseys.......

19:00 - Looks as if Sykora is in the lineup according to the Hockey Night In Canada crew. PP coming for the Pens. Mike Fisher for roughing.

18:17 - Couple solid chances down low for Bill Guerin, but Elliot is up to the task early

17:00 - Penalty killed, but some very good puck movement by the boys in blue and some solid saves by Elliot.

15:20 - Daniel Alfredsson rings a wrister off the iron behind Fleury, but it stays out.

14:07 - Senators get a ton of pressure thanks to two horrible pass attempts and turnovers by Hal Gill.

13:55 - SCORE! 1-0 PENGUINS - Eric Godard with an amazing individual effort. Who knew the big fella could skate like that?! Godard flew up the far boards to chase down a puck, beating the defenseman no less. He hauls in the puck along the wall by the hashmarks and makes a power move to the net looking for a teammate in the slot, but the pass goes off a Senator skate and behind Elliot.

13:30 - Fleury stones Mike Comrie on a breakaway. Nice save Flower.

11:24 - 1-1 Tie Chris Campoli fires a wrister from the point off a face-off. The puck had eyes and hit something in front of the net to deflect past Fleury. Malkin takes the blame on this one for losing the draw cleanly and then losing his man off the draw who set the screen. Full point for Geno.

5:34 - There hasn't been a whistle in a long time until Kunitz takes a tripping call. Sens head to the powerplay. Just as an observation, Gill has looked awful so far in this game. Every time he gets the puck on his stick, his hands turn to stone and he panics. Breathe Baby Huey Breathe!

4:27 - Pascal Dupuis runs over Nick Foligno for no reason. 53 seconds of 5-on-3 coming...

1:59 - Penalties killed, but the Sens rang two more posts on consecutive shots. Fleury getting help from his best friends.

End of period one and we're toed at 1-1. Pens lead 9-7 in shots, but most of those came early in the period.

Not a bad period, but the Penguins need to work on their in-zone play right now. Sens are getting to many good looks off turnovers and bad breakout passing.

In the offensive zone, the Pens need to stop looking for the pretty play and just fire it on net. Look what happened when Godard threw it on net. I rest my case.

Now let's go back to Thursday's game and breakdown the first goal:

Fedor Tyutin leads Huselius into the zone with a pass through a couple of Pens, but Kris Letang got caught flat-footed and a little out of position and ended up chasing Huselius instead of being in his face. Huselies protects the puck an moves to the top of the left faceoff circle. He fires a shot, but Letang recovered slightly to get a stick on Huselius' stick, but it wasn't enough to stop the shot. Instead, the puck comes off the stick as a changeup and beats Fleury through the 5-hole.

Points assigned - Letang 0.5 for being out of position, Fleury 0.5 for overreacting to the changeup and getting beat between the legs.

Second Period

17:43 - Elliot makes a nice save on a Sykora one-timer from the high slot. Pens are picking up the physical play early in the period.

16:14 - Dupuis takes his second penalty of the game on a trip on Brian Lee. Nice acting job by Lee.

14:04 - SCORE!!! 2-1 Pens! - SIDNEY CROSBY WITH A TAP IN ON A BEAUTIFUL TIC TAC GOAL FROM JORDAN STAAL AND MARK EATON. The goal comes just after the penalty to Dupuis had expired. Eaton brought the puck up ice and hit Sid in stride. After a weak clearing attempt, Staal sends the puck down low to Eaton who finds Crosby wide-open on the backpost for the tap in goal.

12:58 - Fedotenko takes a high-sticking penalty after failing to lift Jason Spezza's stick and catching him in the face instead.

10:05 - Comrie throws an elbow into Brooks Orpik's face while trying to get around him. PP Pens.

8:37 - Chris Phillips is not happy with a by Kunitz on Chris Neil and a melee ensues. Phillips goes after Kunitz, Crosby goes after Phillips, Neil joins the fracas and everyone on the ice pairs off in the scrum. Phillips is physically manhandled by a linesman while trying to kill someone. Nice job zebra.

5:57 - Pens can't find the back of the net on a couple solid chances by Tyler Kennedy and Staal. Pens are starting to find some open ice to move into now though. Looks like the goal woke them up a little.

5:20 - Trademark glove save by Fleury. Nothing less than what we've come to expect out of the young goaltender. Still looks impressive every time though.

4:12 - Jesse Winchester holds Staal. PP Pens. Time to make the Sens pay for taking these penalties.

1:34 - SCORE!!! 3-1 PENS! - Kennedy buries a wrister on a 2-on-1 from Matt Cooke after Cooke stole the puck from Campoli at the Pens' blueline. Prety play again.

End of period two and the Pens have a 3-1 lead. Remember that stat about the Sens and their record after two periods when trailing that's noted above.

The other 2 goals from the Columbus game will be broken down after the game.

Third Period

19:36 - Sens head to the powerplay after a hold by Sergei Gonchar, who has played a solid game so far.

16:59 - Penalty over. Fleury covers up the puck and takes a bump from Neil. Fleury punches Neil in the back of the leg with the blocker and another scrum ensues. Way to protect your paint Fleury, but he takes the penalty for slashing. Odd call, but in any event, the Sens have another PP.

15:59 - Dany Heatley drills Gonchar in the teeth with the stick while trying to lift his stick and draws blood. No word yet on how many missing teeth Gonchar might have now, but it's a four-minute penalty to Heatley.

13:50 - Anton Volchenkov has a "lower body injury" and will not return to this game.

11:13 - Kennedy has been something else lately. He's been flying around making plays and taking good shots. He's definitely been one of the best players on the ice today.

12-00 - 3-2 Pens - Foligno rips a wrister to the shortside twine through a sea of blue bodies. Fleury never saw it as Orpik, Staal and Gonchar were all screening him.

7:08 - Malkin gets wide open in the slot and takes a hard wrister, but Elliot is up to the task and leaves no rebound.

6:06- 3-3 Tie - Phillips ties it on a horrible turnover by Scuderi who attempted a breakoutpass/clearing attept. Heatley fires it off Fleury's shoulder and the puck rolls down him into the pain and Phillips pounds it home. This is all on Scuderi.

3:09 - I cant take this. Another two goal lead blown in the third period. Staring OT in the face for a 4th straight game.

2:02 - After a brilliant skate save by Fleury, Malkin kills the logo on Elliot's jersey again.

:5.8 - Gonchar battling with Heatley and somehow the refs call a tripping penalty on Gonchar. Complete and utter diver by Heatley.

End of period 3 and we go to overtime for the fourth straight game.

Overtime

4:36 - Huge save by Fleury on a cross-crease pass from Spezza to Heatley. Keeps us alive for now.

4:25 - Another save by Fleury on a slapper by Heatley.

3:58 - Fleury eats one in the chest on a bomb by Filip Kuba.

3:45 - Fleury makes two big saves on Alfredsson and Spezza off a rebound. Pens losing every draw so far.

1:48 - Fleury is standing on his head to keep the Pens alive in this game. Fans are on their feet chanting "Fleury! Fleury! Fleury!"

End of overtime and we head to a shootout for the fourth straight game. Unofficial NHL record has been set by the Pens for most consecutive shootouts.

Pens got a couple chances including a 2-on-1 with Crosby and Malkin, but Elliot got the shoulder on a rising shot by Geno.

If the Pens win this shootout, everyone owes this win to Fleury for his spectacular play tonight especially in overtime.

Shootout

Pens will shoot first.

Letang the first shooter - Letang bails on his usual move and Elliot makes the save.

Alfredsson - Dekes around the sprawling Fleury and the Sens lead 1-0.

Sykora - Stoned by Elliot on the backhand.

Spezza - Fleury makes a nice save on a backhander by Spezza to keep the Pens alive.

Crosby the last hope - SCORES!

Ruutu - Fleury makes the save and we're going to extras.

Malkin - Elects to shoot and not make a move and Elliot saves it with the glove.

Fisher - Fleury slams the door on the 5-hole and we play on.

Kunitz - Dekes Elliot out of hi jock, but goes over the net.

Comrie - Slides the pucks under the outstretched pad of Fleury and the Sens win the shootout 2-1 and the game 4-3.

Here's the remaining two goals:

Goal #2: Jackets dump the puck into the zone and Fleury comes out to play it. There's a big miscommunication between Letang and Fleury, which allows Antoine Vermette to steal the puck and fire an aerial pass out front from his knees. The pass connects with Jason Williams who fires a backhander from the slot to the shelf over Fleury's glove.

Points assigned: Letang and Fleury get 0.5 each for their little mishap behind the net that led to the goal.

Goal #3: Gonchar has the puck in the corner and coughs it up to Williams who finds Vermette out near the blueline in the high slot. Vermette tees one up and blasts it by Fleury for the 3-0 lead.

Points assigned: Gonchar takes full blame on this one as Fleury had no chance to stop that rocket.

Updated Hal Gill Quotient Standings:

Kris Letang - 5.84 - 11 GP
Marc-Andre Fleury - 5.08 - 14 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 4.58 - 12 GP
Hal Gill - 4.34 - 13 GP
Mark Eaton - 3.83 - 14 GP
Brooks Orpik - 3.59 - 14 GP
Rob Scuderi - 3.50 - 14 GP
Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 6 GP - TRADED
Jordan Staal - 2.38 - 14 GP
Evgeni Malkin - 1.5 - 14 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 14 GP
Ruslan Fedotenko - 1.0 14 GP
Tyler Kennedy - 1.0 - 14 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .83 - 14 GP
Max Talbot - 0.5 - 14 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 5 GP - WAIVED

Pens don't have long to think about this one that got away as the Bruins come to town tomorrow. Hopefully, this will teach them a lesson about those awful powder blue jerseys. For the love of God, STOP WEARING THEM! Show me a powder blue penguin in nature and I'll drop my argument. Until then, my point stands.

Pens Storm Back In 3rd, Win 4-3 In Shootout For 7th Straight Win

Is this really happening? The Penguins really are on a seven-game winning streak after a 4-3 shootout win over the Panthers tonight?

Seriously?

This isn't a joke?

Part of me feels like I'm in a coma and the abnormal delusional part of my brain is creating a false reality, in which the Penguins mysteriously show their true colors as a dominant team in the NHL, after treading along for most of the season in utter mediocrity.

If this really is true, where was this team all season?!

Granted the Pens didn't have the help that Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin have provided since coming over, but come on. The addition of those two guys is the sole reason this team woke up?

The dramatic change in play tells me that Michel Therrien lost this team months ago and that Ray Shero wasted too much time in replacing him.

The Penguins are now 9-1-1 since Dan Bylsma took over. Yeah, 9-1-1. Pretty nuts isn't it? It's like when the Pens called up a kid by the name of Patrick Lalime to lead them down the stretch and then into the playoffs. Hopefully history doesn't repeat itself with Bylsma compared to Lalime, who became about as useful as an orange pylon in the cage.

The Penguins absolutely dominated the majority of this game and were rewarded for their efforts. They outshot the Panthers 50-21 for the game. Tomas Vokoun played a phenomenal game between the pipes, but was no match for Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin in the shootout. Seriously, look at the move Geno pulled on Vokoun to win the game. Vokoun had no idea what hit him.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com - Watch to see Hal Gill actually hit someone!


The game wasn't a cakewalk though. The Pens had a 1-0 lead after the first period and were dictating the pace of the game. Matt Cooke and Brooks Orpik were hitting anything that moved like this was a playoff game.

The second period saw the Panthers take back some control and thanks to some fortunate bounces and breaks, a 3-1 lead heading into the final frame.

The Therrien Pens would have packed it in and gotten down on themselves and lost this game by five. Thankfully, those days are long gone. The Bylsma Penguins are starting to believe in themselves once again and showed it again tonight.

They scored two goals in just over 3:30 of play to tie the game at 3-3 with over 14 minutes to play thanks to Jordan Staal and Sidney Crosby. This quick rally put the Panthers on their heels and the Pens were just unable to bury another one in regulation or overtime.

Vokoun flat out robbed Staal shortly after Crosby tied the game. Staal was moving toward the backpost in the slot and fired a one-timer off a rebound to the gaping net, but Vokoun dove over out of nowhere to smother the puck and preserve his team's chances.

Quick note about Crosby's goal. Guerin notched career assist #400 on the play. This makes two career milestones since coming to Pittsburgh. Welcome home Bill!

Malkin scored his 30th goal of the season on a nasty backhanded from just outside the crease with his back to Vokoun and a defenseman draped all over him. Rather than trying to make a move, Geno just rips the puck behind him without even looking. Vokoun looked around after the puck got by him searching for answers about how Malkin got that puck by him.

As for the Panthers, let's break down the three goals:

Goal #1 - Nick Boynton Wrister From The Point

Malkin tried chipping a puck up the boards from the corner, but got nothing on it. Keith Ballard held it in and passed it to the slot to David Booth who immediately passed it back to Boynton at the near side point.

Boynton let a wrist shot go through a screen masterfully set up by Brooks Orpik. Marc-Andre Fleury never saw the puck go over his right shoulder.

Points assigned: Malkin gets 0.5 for a bad pass up the boards, Orpik gets 0.5 for stepping in front of Fleury and not blocking the shot.

Goal #2 - Kamil Kreps Bangs Home Rebound

Boynton fires a low shot on Fleury and Kreps was in the right place at the right time with no one on him to hammer home the rebound past Fleury.

Points assigned: Mark Eaton takes the full 1.0 for being entirely out of position. Letang forced his man around the net, at which point Eaton should have slid over to cover Letang's position. Instead, Eaton followed his man out past the hash marks and never realized he blew the coverage until the red light was on.

Goal #3 - Ballard Deflects Home Rebound In Mid-Air Behind Fleury

The coverage in the defensive zone was pretty good except that no one picked up Ballard streaking to the backpost. Ville Peltonen threw a shot on net from a bad angle, but the resulting rebound went right to Ballard. Fleury made the right move in trying to deflect the puck to the boards, but just got unlucky with it.

Points assigned: Tyler Kennedy takes the full 1.0. Ballard was his man and he didn't do anything to prevent him from getting to the net.

Updated Hal Gill Quotient Standings:

Kris Letang - 4.84 - 10 GP
Hal Gill - 4.34 - 12 GP
Marc-Andre Fleury - 4.08 - 13 GP
Mark Eaton - 3.83 - 13 GP
Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 6 GP - TRADED
Sergei Gonchar - 3.25 - 11 GP
Brooks Orpik - 3.25 - 13 GP
Jordan Staal - 2.25 - 13 GP
Rob Scuderi - 1.50 - 13 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 13 GP
Ruslan Fedotenko - 1.0 13 GP
Tyler Kennedy - 1.0 - 13 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .83 - 13 GP
Max Talbot - 0.5 - 13 GP
Evgeni Malkin - 0.5 - 13 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 5 GP - WAIVED

Pens Pull Away In 3rd For 5th Straight Win

Am I really sitting here writing about a five-game winning streak for the Penguins?

If the Penguins do go on to make the playoffs, they will be the best prepared team in the conference. Why? They have been playing playoff type hockey since the middle of February. They are approaching every game with a life or death mentality and it's paying off.

Tonights 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers (the 6-seed in the Eastern Conference), was huge. The Rangers also won again tonight, so now there is a three-way tie for the 6-seed.

The Penguins are now one point out of 5th and four points out of fourth thanks to the Flames beating up on the Flyers tonight.

Dan Bylsma is making a serious push to drop the "interim" off his title if you ask me. The team is now 7-1-1 since he took over. Let's also remember that the Pens have not been stellar on the road this season, and they now have won four straight on this five-game road trip. The trip concludes Sunday in Washington.

Some observations tonight:

- The top line of Bill Guerin - Sidney Crosby - Chris Kunitz will be a force. Their timing is just a hair off right now, but that's to be expected. Give them a couple games and practices and things will start to flow much better. A sign of things to come would be Crosby's goal tonight. Guerin hit him in stride and Sid does the rest by splitting the flat-footed defense.

- Some people will claim that the Pens got all the breaks in this game. I could see that to some degree. I don't have the exact number of posts the Panthers hit tonight, but needless to say if a couple of those go in, who knows how the game turns out.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


- Marc-Andre Fleury was brilliant when he needed to be. The lone goal against was kind of flukey. More on that later.

- Tyler Kennedy needs to shoot the puck more. I was unaware that he had as big a cannon as he does. Watch the highlights provided here to see the bomb he dropped on Tomas Vokoun in the third period. His second goal on the one-timer tap-in from Evgeni Malkin was just plain pretty.

- I'm very excited to see Sergei Gonchar quarterbacking the power play with Malkin, Crosby, Petr Sykora and Guerin camping out in front of the net. Guerin might want to invest in a full cage for his helmet though. I love Gonchar's shoot at will mindset, but his accuracy isn't exactly perfect.

- The Panthers' color guy (Denis Potvin I believe) needs an education. Kris Letang got drilled from behind in the second period and Cory Stillman received a penalty for charging. Keep in mind, the hit was FROM BEHIND. Is it a charging call? Debatable, but if you look up penalties in the rule book, you'll see an infraction for "HITTING FROM BEHIND!"


Hockey Penalties: Hitting From Behind -- powered by eHow.com

He redeemed himself later by saying he hated the Penguins powder blue third jerseys. I concur. I don't support this team any less because of the ugly third jerseys, but you won't catch me wearing one.

- Hal Gill was actually effective tonight. At various points in the game he actually dropped to the ice to block a shot and succeeded. At another point the Panthers' announcer claimed Gill hit someone in the corner. I still need video proof, but I like the effort. There was a play in the third period though, where he dropped to a knee and his man spun right around him and drilled the post. To quote Meatloaf "two outta three ain't bad."

Speaking of Hal Gill, it's time to update the Hal Gill Quotient after tonight's game. It's normally a good day when I only have to break down one goal.

Goal #1 - Radek Dvorak fires puck off the bottom of the post, puck flutters into the air off Fleury and barely drops in over the line.

The Panthers dump the puck into the zone and Fleury comes out to play it and is forced to throw it to the near corner. Brooks Orpik is a coasting back into the zone and gets beat to the puck. Crosby chases his man around the net who feeds Dvorak who gets the fortunate bounce.

Points assigned - Orpik gets 0.5 for not hustling back to the puck. Letang gets 0.5 for letting Dvorak get complete body position on him and free to take the shot.

Updated Hal Gill Quotient Standings:

Hal Gill - 4.34 - 10 GP
Marc-Andre Fleury - 4.08 - 11 GP
Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 6 GP - TRADED
Kris Letang - 3.34 - 8 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 2.75 - 9 GP
Brooks Orpik - 2.75 - 11 GP
Mark Eaton - 2.33 - 11 GP
Jordan Staal - 2.25 - 11 GP
Rob Scuderi - 1.50 - 11 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 11 GP
Ruslan Fedotenko - 1.0 11 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .83 - 11 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 5 GP - WAIVED

Biron's Gaffe Gives Pens Much Needed Win

I'm still shaking as I type this. What an incredible hockey game in Philadelphia today. It's a shame it ended the way it did though.

Who am I kidding? THANK YOU MARTIN BIRON!

Here's what happened late in the third period with the score tied 4-4:

Biron comes way out to beat Pascal Dupuis to the puck. Biron ends up sliding on his face/side to the top of the right circle with the puck in his glove. Now for those of you not up on hockey rules, he cannot cover the puck out that high without getting a delay of game penalty. With what happened next, the two minute penalty may have been the better option.

Biron turns his back to Dupuis and gets to his knees. He attempts to flip the puck away from danger with his glove, but the puck gets caught in the webbing and goes straight up in the air, hits him in the back and rolls down to the now assembled crowd around him.

Somehow, Dupuis gets his stick on the puck and throws it toward the net. Sidney Crosby beats his man with a pool-cue shot to the empty cage for the eventual game-winning goal.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


Complete insanity would best describe the goal and the rest of the third period.

The Pens led 3-1 after two and everything was going their way. They were dictating the pace and play for the majority of the first 40 minutes. Then Mike Richards scored his seventh shorthanded goal of the season to cut the lead to 3-2.

Ryan Whitney had the puck at the point on the far side and attempted a pass to Sergei Gonchar along the blueline that Richards read beautifully. Richards was in clean from his own blueline and made a nifty move on Marc-Andre Fleury to slip it between the pads for the goal.

That goal gave the Flyers a new found life and left me sick to my stomach.

Exactly three minutes and thirty seconds later, Hal Gill breaks his stick in the defensive zone with Philly applying good pressure. Petr Sykora slides down to hand him his stick.

Naturally, the puck comes back to the point to Matt Carle who easily gets away from Sykora and finds Braydon Coburn across the blueline. Coburn unloads on a one-timer and Penguins' defenseman Rob Scuderi failed to block the shot. In fact, Scuderi got a petty impressive tip-in goal to tie the game at 3-3.

The Pens would not be outdone however, as they re-gained the lead just over three minutes later on a great effort by Dupuis.

Gonchar moved into the neutral zone and attempted a pass to Dupuis that missed. It was now a race for the puck to beat out an icing call for Dupuis, who did just that.

Dupuis easily beats his man to the puck and chips it to Crosby at the bottom of the nearside faceoff circle from his knees. Crosby threads he needle through three Flyers to Ruslan Fedotenko, who was wide open in the slot. Fedotenko made no mistake and buries it behind Biron for his second goal of the game.

I'm now breathing a little easier because the Pens didn't fold again. They kept skating despite blowing another two-goal lead in the third period. This stat made me feel a little better too. The Pens were 20-1 this season when scoring four goals in a game, according to FSN Pittsburgh. Make that 21-1 now.

Five minutes later, the Flyers struck back again to tie it at 4-4. Fleury made an impressive rebound save on Simon Gagne forcing a faceoff to his right. The Penguins win the draw and the puck comes to Gonchar, who has his stick fail him miserably.

Gagne steals the puck and passes it to Richards amid the confusion of Max Talbot handing his stick to Gonchar. Richards finds Mike Knuble streaking to the back post and Brooks Orpik was very late to pick him up. Knuble has an empty net to hit and he doesn't miss.

A few minutes later, Biron decides he doesn't like winning and hands the Pens two points. Thanks again Marty!

I can't take this. It's February and I'm already teetering on that line of having an ulcer or a heart attack. Take your pick.

As for what happened earlier in the game, Joffrey Lupul put the Flyers up 1-0 after the first period on a rebound goal. Scott Hartnell threw one on net up high on Fleury, who left a rebound at the feet of Orpik who whiffed on the clearing attempt. Lupul pounced and beat Fleury. In Orpik's defense, the puck was bouncing but you still have to make a play on it.

Here's another daunting stat for you. Before the game the Flyers were 21-2 when leading after the first period. Make that 21-3 now.

Despite the early deficit, the Pens were getting their chances and Dan Bylsma changed up the lines for the start of the second period by putting Crosby with Evgeni Malkin.

That duo made Bylsma look like a genius.

Just 21 seconds into the frame, Malkin picks off a pass and leads the rush up ice. As they enter the zone he feeds Fedotenko who immediately drops the puck back to Crosby.

Sid the Kid unleashes a wicked wrister from long range that catches iron and goes in to tie the game at 1-1.

I have to say from personal experience, there's nothing worse in net than hearing iron ringing behind you and having the red light come on. Those posts are supposed to be your friend and when they get angry at you, you could be in for a long night.

Just about seven minutes later, the Penguins take the lead on the powerplay. I know! A powerplay goal from a team that has been struggling of late with the man-advantage.

Crosby had the puck on the far-side half-boards and lays a nice pass cross-ice through the box to Ryan Whitney.

Whitney feeds the trigger man Gonchar, who tees it up and bombs one on net that Malkin tips home. The FSN crew showed a super slow-mo replay of it and the puck actually deflected twice just feet from Biron.

Gonchar's shot hit Sykora in the skate and then Malkin's stick. Easiest assist of Sykora's career I'm sure, but the Pens weren't done lighting the lamp in the period.

Five minutes later some controversy occurs.

Crosby and Dupuis lead the rush up the ice. Sid flips a pass to Dupuis just before they hit the blueline, but it appeared as if Dupuis was in the zone ahead of the puck.

The rule states that if you have control of the puck, your body can enter the zone ahead of the puck.

Upon further review, Dupuis did have control of the puck so the linesman made the correct call. Dupuis sees and finds Fedotenko screaming into the zone for a one-timer off the crossbar and in.

At the end of the period, the Pens were forced to kill a four-minute double minor to Malkin. The Pens applied fantastic pressure and held the Flyers to only two shots.

Unfortunately, the Pens don't have much time to celebrate this big win over their cross-state rivals. They travel to Washington to take on the Caps in NBC's Game of the Week.

These two wins are huge, but a win tomorrow puts us on a streak.

Here's the updated Hal Gill Quotient:

Ryan Whitney - 3.5 - 5 GP
Kris Letang - 2.84 - 3 Games Played
Marc-Andre Fleury - 2.33 - 5 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 1.75 - 4 GP
Hal Gill - 1.59 - 4 GP
Mark Eaton - 1.83 - 5 GP
Brooks Orpik - 1.25
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 5 GP
Jordan Staal - 1.0 - 5 GP
Rob Scuderi - 0.5
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 4 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .33 - 5 GP

Pens Get Critical Win Over Habs

I'm just going to come out and say it now. I haven't felt like this during or after a game since Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals last year.

Speaking of last year's team. Everyone's favorite traitor, Judas, got into his first fight in two years last night. Someone might want to remind him to keep his jersey on next time, but I'd say he gets the slight edge for flailing around and landing a couple punches on Ryan Suter, who got the take down. See video of it here.

I had playoff jitters watching this game. There I said it. Yes, I know we're in 10th in the Eastern Conference right now, but if we have any chance of getting in we need to start putting some wins on the board. Especially against teams who are ahead of us in the standings.

Onto the game:

The Pens came out flying and with a lot more jump than I've been accustomed to seeing of late. Shockingly enough, the Pens shut the Habs down entirely in the first period. As a result, the Pens got on the board first on a rebound goal by Petr Sykora. Canadiens' goalie Carey Price made a good save on Bill Thomas' initial shot, but left a fat rebound for Sykora to chip into the cage.

The pace of play in the first period was rather slow, which surprised me a little bit considering that both these teams have fantastic speed and transition games. The Pens outshot the Habs 8-3 in the first period. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Pens hold an opponent to under 10 shots in a period for once. Holding them to three just doesn't happen.

The slow pace continue for only a couple minutes in the second period before both sides switched it into overdrive. Each side only registered eight shots, but the scoring chances were plentiful.

Montreal tied it up after Andrei Kostitsyn picked off an errant Matt Cooke pass to lead the Habs on a 3-on-2 the other way. Kostitsyn and Tomas Plekanec played keep away with some nifty passing up the ice. The passing forced Sergei Gonchar to attack the puck carrying Kostitsyn, who dropped it back to Plekanec, who beat Marc-Andre Fleury between the wickets to tie it up at 1-1.

Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


Normally, this would have been the point in the game when the Pens would have folded and given up, but tonight was very different.

Just over one minute later, Ryan Whitney received a pass across the blueline from Mark Eaton and got every bit of the shot. Somehow Miroslav Satan got a stick on it to deflect it past Price to put the Pens back on top 2-1.

If you thought the see-saw action was done there, boy are you wrong. We're just getting started.

Now, here's where I about lost it tonight for the first time. Sykora takes an obvious hooking penalty to essentially save a good scoring chance from turning the red light on. I'm fine with that. On the ensuing powerplay, the puck goes behind the net. Rob Scuderi goes to play it and gets clipped with a stick in the face. The whistle blows, but there's no penalty called somehow.

Literally 15 seconds later, Max Talbot gets called for slashing which even had the CBC broadcast crew wondering why it was called. Thanks Paul Devorski.

Of course, the puck gets worked back to the point and Mathieu Schneider lets one fly and finds twine to knot the game at 2-2. Devorski with the assist and a half point in the Hal Gill Quotient. Jordan Staal set up a pretty nice screen for Fleury, so he gets the other half.

As the second period comes to a close, I can't help but wonder if the third period is going to be another nightmare or if Dan Bylsma whipped the boys into shape.

Turns out, the boys were ready to play and wasted no time in re-taking the lead. It only took 29 seconds for the following to transpire:

Ruslan Fedotenko gains the blueline and drops the puck back to Sidney Crosby who lead Evgeni Malkin a little too far, but it's no problem for Geno. Instead of peeling off and retrieving the puck on the half-wall, he lays out and fires a rocket of a one-timer past Price while diving. Poor Carey Price having two spectacular goals scored by the two top Russian players in the league. If you haven't seen Alex Ovechkin's goal last night, CLICK HERE.

Two and a half minutes later, the Penguins work the puck deep behind the net. A scramble ensues and somehow Talbot finds the loose puck and buries it behind Price to put the home team up 4-2.

I start thinking to myself, "where has this team been all season? They can clearly score goals at will as long as they put forth the effort."

Of course those were the words of almost certain death, as 13 seconds after Talbot's goal, Kostitsyn strikes back to cut the lead in half to 4-3. Right off the ensuing draw after Talbot's goal, Kostitsyn breaks into the Pens zone and fires a wrister to the shelf over Fleury who would love to have that one back.

Ok fine, we're still up 4-3. I can live with that. As long as they don't deflate, we can still pull this out.

Again I spoke too soon.

Just over three minutes after Kostitsyn's goal, Plekanec lets a slapper go from the left faceoff circle and beats Fleury over the glove to tie the game at 4-4. Eaton didn't do a great job of getting out of Fleury's line of sight, but even if he had I'm not so sure he would have stopped it. Hats off to Plekanec for picking a corner for sure.

Now that we're tied 4-4, I'm about to lose it again. I had all sorts of rants I was testing out in my head for this post until Gonchar silenced the angry voices in my head.

The Pens gained control of the puck in the Habs end and were able to move the puck around pretty well. Eventually, Fedotenko settles the puck and lays a soft pass over to Gonchar, who showed no ill-effects from the shoulder surgery that kept him out of the lineup all season.

Gonchar moved into the slot and uncorked a slapper through traffic to light the lamp and give the Pens a 5-4 lead. No chance for Price at all.

The goal marks five goals in just over six minutes of play. Are you kidding me? My blood pressure medication isn't refillable until April and runs out in June. I may have to invest in some Tums to get me through the rest of this season.

Minutes later, Fleury came up with a big save on a 2-on-1 to preserve the lead and the Pens bench seemed to feed off it...as they should.

The rest of the period was played with end to end rushes and chances galore, but no more goals. Pens hold on to win 5-4. Welcome back Gonchar, you've been sorely missed.

This team showed me a couple things tonight though:

First, the new aggressive forechecking scheme that Bylsma put in place looks like it could be something other teams will lose sleep over. It took a little to see it in action and it's not quite perfect yet, but the Pens were attacking the puck with two guys at all times rather than pulling back and clogging the neutral zone hoping for turnovers.

Second, and more importantly, they showed a desperation tonight that should have kicked in three weeks ago at minimum. They have a team that can win hockey games. There's no business losing to teams like the Leafs and Islanders with the roster they have. Is the current roster a Stanley Cup contender? Not even close. Are they a playoff team? Absolutely.

Crosby was interviewed after the game and said that it felt good to be rewarded for the effort they put in tonight. Read that again. He said effort. I swear the team is reading these posts at times. No effort results in no success. Put the effort in and look what happens. It shouldn't be a difficult concept to grasp.

Hopefully the momentum they gained from this see-saw tilt will carry over into this weekend's big games against the Flyers on Saturday and Capitals on Sunday.

Here's the updated Hal Gill Quotient with how many games each has played since I started testing this hypothesis. I'm working out a few kinks and will have a better method to fully show these results in the coming weeks:

Kris Letang - 2.84 - 3 Games Played
Ryan Whitney - 2.5 - 4 GP
Mark Eaton - 1.83 - 4 GP
Marc-Andre Fleury - 1.83 -4 GP
Sergei Gonchar - 1.50 - 3GP
Hal Gill - 1.34 - 3 GP
Matt Cooke - 1.0 - 4 GP
Jordan Staal - 1.0 - 4 GP
Referee Paul Devorski - 0.5 - 1 Game Reffed
Bill Thomas - .33 - 4 GP
Pascal Dupuis - .33 - 4 GP

Eklund Inserts Foot In Mouth...Again

Just an update on yesterday's post about Evgeni Malkin being traded to the Thrashers for Ilya Kovalchuk and other considerations.

Eklund, who seemed to be about 99% sure this deal was happening yesterday, has backed off this one ever so slightly today saying:

The Penguins and Thrashers are still chatting according to sources, and as said yesterday it is uncertain how Malkin and Kovalchuk play into this, but it is fairly certain that they could be discussed. The Pens are also talking to Nashville and Edmonton about a deal that is a "good plan B or 1A."

I wonder if his sudden change of heart had anything to do with what was posted here yesterday. Or, could it be that the Penguins writer on his site essentially flipped him the bird in his latest post addressing the rumor?

I read that article last night and had a very long and hard laugh over it. Eklund called out on his own site. Fantastic.

As for the second part of that update involving Edmonton and Nashville, he may be onto something there.

I've read on more reliable sites and heard rumors during broadcasts of games, that the Pens were interested in Erik Cole and could be interested in the likes of J.P. Dumont and Ville Koistinen.

Is Cole the dream winger for Sidney Crosby? No. Is he an improvement over Miroslav Satan or anyone else not named Malkin or Petr Sykora? Absolutely.

I'm still not opposed to having Dumont and Koistinen, but I question why we'd be bringing in another offensive defenseman when we've already got four others on the roster.

I'm still compiling a list of players I've seen that may be available at the deadline to see who I'd like to come to Pittsburgh. The trade deadline is March 4, and with each passing second the frenzy gets closer and closer.

I have a feeling this deadline is going to be insane and leaving Eklund in tears over how wrong he continues to be.

Eklund Owes Me New Pants

This will be short and sweet, but I felt compelled to comment on Eklund's latest "trade rumor" about the Penguins.

We've already discussed how it would make no sense for the Pens to trade Jordan Staal and others to Atlanta for Ilya Kovalchuk from a financial standpoint. I think Eklund read that post and realized how utterly wrong that sounded and then decided to tweak it today.

According to his latest post, the Penguins are talking about trading Evgeni Malkin to the Thrashers for Kovalchuk and something else.

You read that correctly. Malkin for Kovalchuk and a doggy bag of players or picks.

Umm....

Do I really need to go into why this will not happen and why this would be the worst move the Penguins have made in recent history?

It's pretty self -explanatory I would think. I literally laughed so hard when I saw this that tears were coming down my face.

The only logical big name players that could/will be moved at the deadline are Staal and Ryan Whitney. I'm not counting Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko as big names, but they could also be on their way out.

If I'm Ray Shero, I blow up the roster and start over. Get rid of everyone except for Sidney Crosby, Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Brooks Orpik and Max Talbot.

Everyone else can go and I wouldn't be upset over it for very long. I'll pull together a wish list of players I'd like, but if you saw yesterday's post, you'll see that Milan Hejduk is at the top of the list.

Stay tuned for more.

Pens Get Outshot Again, But Win 2nd Straight!

Despite being outshot once again, the Penguins were able to knock off the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 last night at the Igloo.

I was unable to watch the game as I was continuing down the long road of earning my PBA card. Look out Pete Weber, I'm coming for you.

Anyway, from what I have seen of the game I've noticed a couple things that look different.

First off, what has gotten into Kris Letang? Kid must be eating his Wheaties because his shot looks harder and harder with every game. Not to mention the sniper-like accuracy he's showing of late. His first goal last night was kind of flukey, but the second one was a thing of beauty.

Sidney Crosby enters the zone and lays a nice little drop pass to Letang who uncorks a wrister from the left faceoff dot to the shelf over Wade Dubielewicz's shoulder.

Incredible shot. Here's some highlights for your viewing pleasure from our good friends at NHL.com:



The other thing I noticed was that Marc-Andre Fleury appears to be returning to form. Of course now that I've said this, he's screwed. I can tell the hockey gods aren't looking down on me in an approving manner right now, but it's true.

Fleury looks much more confident and controlled in the paint of late. He's making the saves he should be making and is making the big saves when the team needs him to.

The Penguins feed off Fleury when he gets in a groove. He'll make a big save he probably shouldn't have made and the Pens go back the other way and get a scoring chance of their own.

For a team who has appeared to lack heart and drive of late, maybe the confidence of winning two in a row at home will mean good things for tomorrow's match-up with Judas and Detroit. (Yeah, I'm still bitter about Hossa rejecting a multi-year deal to go try and get a charity ring with the Wings so he will forever be referred to as Judas.)

The Pens were able to get a wild 7-6 win over the Wings earlier this season when Jordan Staal took control and scored a hat trick to get them back into it. If they are able to come out tomorrow and get a huge win over the Wings you can bet the rest of the league will groan in unison about the Pens being out of the funk.

I Don't Get It

I have been meaning to update this blog for some time now, but have been utterly disgusted by what I have seen from the Pens this season.

Everything seemed to be going well until Marc-Andre Fleury missed a few games with a groin injury. Then, Dany Sabourin comes in and sucks up the joint and we haven't recovered since.

Now, granted injuries have played a major part of why this ever deepening suckfest has continued.

Why Michael Therrien hasn't been fired yet is beyond me. There hasn't been any consistency in the roster for most of the season. We're rotating 7 defensemen through the lineup nightly.

Again, injuries play into this, but it's no wonder the team looks out of sync. How can you possibly build chemistry when you don't know who you'll be playing with on a given night?

Now we're on a 4-game losing streak after losing to Tampa Bay Lightning tonight.

Wait....we won?

Really?......Wow.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but tonight's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning was an eye-opener.

Down 3-0 after two, Evgeni Malkin spoke up in the locker room and essentially called everyone out. Now his lack of English speaking skills might have made this speech an instant YouTube classic, but it apparently worked.

The Pens stormed back to tie it and then Malkin fittingly gets the game winner in overtime with 16 seconds left after Max Talbot got robbed by the refs just seconds earlier.

Everyone reporting on the Pens has given a few examples of supposed "turning points" to get out of this funk. There's the two solid wins against the New York Rangers in the last couple weeks, a big win over the Philadelphia Flyers blah blah blah.

Already I'm seeing people calling this another "turning point." I really want to believe it this time, but this team has not responded well to any of the aforementioned big wins. They come out almost expecting to win and you can't just win games because you want to win. You need to put in the effort for 60 minutes, grind it out and do whatever it takes. Period.

Tonight's game was very different from the other big wins thought. Granted it was against the hapless Bolts, but maybe just maybe they'll wake up this time.

There's also a ridiculous rumor on hockeybuzz.com from Mr. Hardly Ever Right Eklund saying that the Pens might bring Mark Recchi back to town.

Really? Are you kidding me?

Don't get me wrong, Recchi is a legend in Pittsburgh and I'd welcome him back, but we need scorers. Not guys on the verge of retirement. We could use some veterans on the roster sure, but come on.

The only upside to this deal is that I would be able to take the tags off the Recchi jersey I got as a gift 2 days before we cut him two years ago. Yeah, I'm one of those people that doesn't wear jerseys of people not on the team. It's a pet peeve of mine showing up to games and seeing wrong jerseys.

What would we give Tampa for Recchi anyway? One of the draft picks we got from them this past offseason as compensation for them speaking to Gary Roberts and Ryan Malone?

Get off your high horse Eklund for the love of God. I could sit around all day and post "rumors" that could go down from "sources." I don't doubt you know some people, but I'm fairly certain half the rumors you post are trades you concocted in NHL 09.

Not to mention his other rumor right now about the Dallas Stars thinking about bringing Sean Avery back.

Excuse me for a second.

(Excessive laughter....wiping tears away.)

You have got to be absolutely kidding me. Why would they bring him back now when the team is just starting to turn things around and play better? Makes no sense. Not to mention not even the Rangers would want him at this point.

Get a clue man.

Pens Put Flyers On Brink Of Elimination

When the game ended tonight, I was talking with Gopher and a very strange feeling came over me. I was happy and very excited obviously, but there was something very different about tonight and I'm not entirely sure why.

I was nervous as usual for the entire third period until Ryan Malone scored to put us up 3-1 and then I started to breathe just a little easier. I couldn't get too excited though since I was at work listening on a 2 minute delay over the web and was tied up with a bunch of stuff relating to the West Virginia Primary tonight.

As I was posting the story about the Penguins to our sites the feeling hit me. The nerves were mysteriously gone in quick fashion for the first time in months.

I was numb.

That's about as best I can describe it. As I wrote the headline "Pens Take Commanding 3-0 Lead Over Flyers" the magnitude of it all hit me.

We're one win away from being in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 91-92 when I was still parading around the house in my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pajamas. Yeah, I had them, what of it? You know you did too.

Now by no means am I saying this series is over, but for the third time in this postseason we have a 3-0 lead. I'll repeat that because even I don't believe I even just typed that and it's true.

The Penguins have a 3-0 lead for the third time this postseason.

I asked for a split and I've at least gotten it. I would much rather have won Game 3 to go up 3-0 like we did than give Philly fans an added edge to get riled up for Game 4 with a chance to tie the series on home ice. You could almost hear the air get sucked out of the building when Malone tucked the puck behind Martin Biron to put the Pens up 3-1. It was almost like when Marian Hossa skated up the middle of the ice and made about 3 guys look stupid and caught Biron off-guard to put us up 2-0 early in the first.



Of course like a little kid, I'm greedy and now want to see us break out the brooms and get rid of Philadelphia quickly. I never thought that I'd see the Pens ever go on a run like they are on right now.

This is like watching the results of my latest Stanley Cup run in NHL 2K8 coming to life. After tonight's game, we are now 11-1 in the playoffs. That doesn't even look right and my head is starting to hurt from trying to wrap my brain around that thought.

Also, Sid the Kid is now the league leader in points for the playoffs. Let's not forget how impressive that is seeing as how he's played in fewer games than any of the other guys near the top of the leader-board. If you'll also notice that Malkin is only one point behind Sid.

Pavel Datsyuk (17) and Henrik Zetterberg (18) are close to Sid who's got 19, but they have both played in 1 more game so far.

Like I said, I'm just numb right now. I don't want to get too excited about being one game from the Stanley Cup Finals since I've been on the good end of a 3-0 series lead being blown. (Thanks Yankees for giving us Sox fans the ultimate bragging rights for all eternity until you guys do the same to us.)

Game 4 is on Thursday and by then we may know who the Western Conference representative will be since Dallas has been awful against Detroit who also leads 3-0.

It's kind of funny how the best series of the playoffs were in the first round when the seeding was much more lopsided. We had three Game 7s in the first round and since then we've had one Game 6 and might not even see a Game 5 in the conference finals. Didn't think that would be the case, but yet here we are.

Pens Lead 2-0, I Should Go Away More Often

Ok, the title bears a little explanation I know. This past weekend I was sunning it up in Cancun, Mexico. Jealous? I am and I was just there. As a result of the trip I missed all of Game 1 and most of Game 2. I returned home in time to see Evgeni Malkin make a terrible pass that got picked off by Mike Richards who then scored shorthanded.

My timing is impeccable.

Before you start saying "Oh poor baby. Missed two hockey games because he was in paradise," think about this. There was no way for me to even know the score of Game 1. None. We got ESPN in the room, but it was ESPN Latin America or something. I watched 90 minutes of SportsCenter in Spanish for nothing. Even the bottom line failed to show anything about the NHL, but I saw enough NBA highlights to think I was still in the States.

Anyway, I got the score of Game 1 from the girlfriend's brother who was able to check it on his phone. Gotta love technology.

I didn't think this whole thing through either. In my head when we planned this trip I was all pumped to go. Then I realized that it would be playoff time and the further the Penguins advanced the more I realized I screwed myself. If you go back and look at a recent post about how you know you love your team too much, you'll see why I was amped up and fidgety this entire weekend.

I must say, if you've never been to Cancun...GET ON A PLANE AND GO RIGHT NOW. You won't get many travel tips from me, but this was an amazing trip and I can't wait to go back someday.

Now back to hockey.

I can't really say much about Game 1 other than that I'm happy we won. All I saw of it were the highlights and I was laughing hysterically at Malkin's shorthanded breakaway goal. He pulled his best Zdeno Chara penalty shot impression and put the game away.

As for Game 2. There was some controversy in the first period when a shot by Gonchar deflected off a bunch of things and appeared to cross the goal-line with Sid hacking away on the doorstep. Video replay was inconclusive and the Pens remained up 1-0. In my humble opinion and since I played goalie for some time, that puck was in the net. No question. I'm just glad this didn't come back and bite us later in the game.

I was not impressed at all with how they played in this game. They were real sloppy and at times lacked focus, yet somehow we found a way to win with of all people but Max Talbot.

Here's what I'm hoping for. The Penguins need to lock Talbot up for a few years and I'll have a new jersey. We named our cat Max because of Talbot. (The girlfriend refuses to admit this, but while she was suggesting names for the cat I waited for her to pick one that had a Pens player's name. As soon as she called out Max, I pounced.) He's by far one of my favorite guys on the team because of his work ethic and the energy he brings to the lineup.

Let's not forget that this whole thing was set up because of a Philly turnover at their own blueline and somehow they couldn't get the puck away from Georges Laraque who dumped it down to Gary Roberts in the corner. Roberts then makes a brilliant no-look pass to a wide open Talbot in the slot who made me jump out of my chair and scare my own little Max.

From that moment on, the Pens looked like the team that has gotten to this point. They absolutely shut the Flyers down for the last 10 minutes of the game and only surrendered one good chance. This new weapon in their arsenal is something I haven't seen out of this team forever. The discipline this team has at this age is what frustrates the daylights out of me when I see stupid penalties being taken. We have the guys to shut a game down like we did in Game 2 and that alone has been a huge factor in their success to this point.

Marc-Andre Fleury was great once again, as was Martin Biron. I was thinking about this earlier today. Biron hasn't played poorly in this series. Did anyone see the sprawling save he made on Crosby after a failed clearing attempt left him in no-man's land? I was half out of my chair dancing around when my jaw hit the floor to see Biron's glove snag that puck.

What has hurt Philly to this point is their turnovers. You can't turn the puck over against a team like Pittsburgh and expect to get away with it. The elite players the Pens have will kill you if you just cough it up to them. Look at Detroit for another example of this.

In any event, we head back to Philly up 2-0 with Game 3 tonight. Of course I'd love to sweep them out of the playoffs, who wouldn't? Again, I don't think we sweep this. All I'm really looking for out of these next two games is another split like we got against the Rangers in the last round. If we head back to Pittsburgh up 3-1 for Game 5 I'll feel pretty good about our chances.

Pens Push Rangers To Brink

Before I get into this ridiculous game, I'm making an announcement. With the end to the NHL season fast approaching, I am starting to realize that getting a post up about the greatest sport in the world will be rather difficult come mid-June. From here on out I'm going to start commenting on big stories from other sports. This is just to fill the void that the hockey-less summer will provide until the draft and Free Agent period and such. Fear not puckheads, the main focus of this blog will remain hockey related. You will also begin seeing some guest posts from the infamous Gopher as we roll along. Thanks for all the support, it's much appreciated. Now...

The game has been over for a few hours now and I have just one question. Did that just really happen? My blood pressure just returned to normal about 5 minutes ago and my hands are still shaking after being put through the torture that was Game 3. Think I’m joking? Call up Tums and ask them who their best customer is cause it’s this guy.

During the game I looked at a co-worker and said, “I remember when the Pens weren’t in the playoffs over the last couple years. I remember saying then that I wished we were in the playoffs. Now that we’re in again, I’m slowly realizing why I have a love/hate relationship with seeing the Pens in the playoffs.”

Here’s why, when they weren’t in it was much easier to just sit back and complain about how terrible we were and look ahead to the future to when we would be back in the playoffs again. There was no pressure, no high blood pressure, no ulcers etc. Now that we’re in the playoffs again and doing well, I’m afraid to even speak about the team to friends and family, much less come on here and write for you all for fear of waking up from what has got to be a dream. Every second that goes by feels like an eternity during the games. Every goal scored against feels like someone is stabbing me in the chest. Every goal we score results in a near orgasmic euphoria. I know this may sound nuts, but real fans out there know what I’m talking about. For as much as I hate the nervousness and torture of watching playoff hockey, I love every minute of it. It’s just a good thing that the playoffs only last for a couple months each year because I never would have seen my 24th birthday.

Anyway onto tonight’s game. The only complaint I have tonight about the game is the same one you’ve heard me say about this team down the stretch. We had a near cataclysmic meltdown in the second period. We led 3-1 after the first and yet for some reason I knew the letdown was coming. Even as I saw it happening I couldn’t turn away. It was like watching a train wreck where you want to look away, but try as you might, you just can’t do it. I was talking to my buddy Gopher during the game and while he was running around his living room when the Jagr walked around the cage and rifled a wrister past Fleury for the tying goal, I said to Gopher “Remember that letdown I’ve been harping on? You’ve now witnessed it first hand.”

Michael Therrien immediately calls a time out, which was obviously the correct move as the Rangers tied the game in just over a minute. You’d think the time out would have been a wake up call to the Pens. Nope. They came out after the breather just as flat as they had started the period and if not for the sweet sweet sound of iron, the Rangers would have led 4-3 and I would have been throwing things. Instead, the puck rings out and a couple minutes later Ryan Hollweg takes a completely stupid boarding penalty and Malkin comes to the rescue once again.



That was the key moment in the game tonight. I work right up the street from MSG and I felt the wind blow immediately after the Malkin goal. My theory is that the breeze that went by was the rush of air being let out of the arena. It was that huge.

The Pens then come out in the third period and played the same lock down defense they played in Game 2 and got the insurance marker to put us up 5-3.

You could see the Rangers just weren’t skating the way they had for the first two periods. They had accepted that they were losing this game and were just going through the motions. Their power play was atrocious in the third period. All five guys were just standing around playing patty-cake with each other. There was no passion, no effort. I’m not complaining as a Pens fan, just merely stating what I saw.

All I wanted in NY was a split and we’ve already earned it. Now we have a chance to make quick work of the Rangers and rest up for either Montreal or Philadelphia. I’m not overlooking the fact that twice in NHL history a team has come back from an 0-3 hole to win the series and the Pens were one of those team that have blown the lead. This series is not over. We need to come out in Game 4 and weather the storm again, bide our time and play our game. If we do that, we just might pull off the sweep.

==================================================================================

As stated above here's some thoughts about other stories in sports right now.

Roger Clemens

Has anyone ever had this big of a fall from grace? To compare this sports icon's fall from the top you'd have to look to the likes of Britney Spears. Both were near the top of their respective games, only to see them go into a tail spin that has no bottom in sight.

We recently find out that Roger Clemens might not just be lying about juicing up since he left Boston. Now, he's apparently had an affair with country music singer Mindy McCreedy. No big deal right? Just another famous person having an affair. Here's the golden nugget that had me rather disgusted as well as most of the people who read about or saw this on SportsCenter.

Allegedly now and unconfirmed, but rumor has it that the Rocket was nailing her before she could have appeared on MTV's "My Super Sweet 16." Might be a little too vague there, but in case you didn't get the joke....SHE MAY HAVE BEEN AS YOUNG AS 15 YEARS OLD!

Here's what she looks like now. Mugshot Goodness!! I don't care who you are, if I woke up next to that in the morning I'd be in my car speeding away in such a way that would make Dale Earnhardt Jr. jealous.

I really hope that this turns out to be false, because I really hate seeing people fall from their ivory towers. Really, I do. I don't wish bad things on anyone, even if that person left my favorite team and left me with some bad blood. I only hoped that his career numbers would continue to plummet like they were in his last year in Boston, never did I imagine this would happen.