Penguin Hits And Happenings: Holiday Edition

As we come up on Christmas, I thought it was a good time to examine some holiday hits and happenings surrounding the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Most people expect that the Pens are readying themselves for their match up against the Washington Capitals in their first clash of the season Thursday night in front of the HBO cameras.  Undoubtedly, Pittsburgh has had that game circled on its calendar most of the season, but the Pens need to be sure they don't overlook the Florida Panthers, who visit CONSOL Energy Center first tonight (7:oo PM EST).

The Panthers are on a little bit of a roll lately -- having won 5 of their last 7 games -- and are getting their usual strong netminding from Tomas Vokoun, who whitewashed the top team in the league (at least according to the standings), the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-0, Monday night.

Pittsburgh will have to bring their lunch pails against Florida if they want to win, but if the way they played two evenings ago in roughing up the Phoenix Coyotes is any indication, they should be fine.

Evgeni Malkin led the way in that game, tying a career-high with 5 points.  He now has 8 in his last 3 games (including 5 goals) and is again above a point-per-game clip, with 30 points in 29 contests on the season.

Not coincidentally, Malkin has surged to the third spot overall among all forwards in balloting for the National Hockey League All-Star game, as of yesterday.

If Malkin stays there, he'll secure a starting forward position along with his teammate and Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby, who leads all players in voting by a country mile and is a lock to start the game.

Obviously, Sid's strong play all year long to-date hasn't just captured the attention of the Canadian News Media, leading sports outlets in the U.S. or NHL executives.  

And the same appears true of defenseman Kris Letang.

Tanger is starting to get some nice recognition in national media circles for his play on the ice this season.

He's even been mentioned as a potential Norris Trophy candidate, as the bottom feature of this article makes plain.

It should be no surprise, then -- especially given the media-savvy nature of Penguin fans -- that Letang is second overall in the All-Star balloting (and first in write-in votes).  With Crosby and Malkin, he is poised to give Pittsburgh 3 starters in the league's annual showcase for the first time since Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Kevin Stevens were all starters in the game more than 15 years ago.

One can only wonder whether Pens' Center Jordan Staal might someday join that group -- something which, beyond wonder, certainly won't be possible unless Gronk first gets back on the ice and resumes playing.

Staal skated hard yesterday -- by himself -- for 30 minutes before the Pens practiced.  He had a device on his broken hand and held a stick, but participated in no stickhandling or puck drills.

With him not even on the horizon of being cleared for practice for probably another 10-14 days, it looks like he's going to have the misfortune of missing next weekend's Winter Classic.

Like most Penguin fans, I'm excited to see how well the team can play with #11 back in the lineup.  Considering how well they've been playing lately, that has to be a scary proposition for the opposition.

Speaking of scary, tonight we get to see more of the horror that is Washington Coach Bruce Boudreau, as the second episode of 24/7 debuts this evening (10:00 PM EST/replay @ 11:00 PM EST).

Now that the Caps' have won their last two games, it seems as if some of the pressure that Washington -- and Boudreau -- were under during their 8-game losing streak may have subsided somewhat.

That's too bad.  I was actually hoping they'd fire Boudreau during the 24/7 series.

Well, maybe at least he won't have ketchup or BBQ sauce on his face this time.

I know I'll be tuned in to find out tonight.

I'll have a recap of the Pens/Panthers tomorrow, and I'll also have tomorrow a preview of the Pens/Caps faceoff tomorrow evening.

Let's Go Pens!