THE BOYS OF WINTER

Life Lessons

2011-02-25T16:32:00.000-05:00

It is with much regret that I give my dear readers some bad news, unfortunately at one of the most exciting times of the year -- the trade dealine, where the Penguins have already bolstered their forward ranks by reaquiring AK-27 (or 72), RW Alexei Kovalev for a draft pick, and finally pulled the trigger on the fantastic and long-rumored potential deal discussed here for the first time more than a year ago to acquire Dallas' LW James Neal (and blueliner Matt Niskanen) for defenseman Alex Goligoski.

I have to go on hiatus for a while.

I'm not sure if my leave of absence will be temporary or permanent at this point, but I can tell you that it's absolutely necessary. For as meaningful as this blog has been to me, and for as much as I've always prided myself on being a regular writer for everyone who visits this site, I've gained a different, more informed perspective recently that certain things are more important in life. Sometimes, priorities get shifted around. This is one of those times in my world.

With luck, I'll be able to pick this back up someday, but if not, I won't have any regrets. It's been a great, almost 3 year ride here, my friends. The Boys of Winter have certainly given me a lot to talk about -- and all of us a great deal of excitement -- during that time. Penguin fans are among the luckiest in the game, because their franchise is one of the crown jewels in the league. The best part is that there's no sign of that ending anytime soon.

Simply, it's been an privilege to write about and cover the Penguins, and to share my thoughts and feelings with all of you. Hopefully you've enjoyed following me, and I thank all of you for doing so.

With that, I'll wrap up with the mantra I often closed with here, and encourage everyone to always scream it proudly:

L E T ' S G O P E N S ! ! !

Fleury Stones Islanders; Pens Win 1-0

2011-01-26T07:37:00.000-05:00

While Pittsburgh Penguins' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury has had a great deal of success in his young career so far and has been able to put together stretches of really good goaltending, the thing he's still growing into is long-term consistency.

I'm talking Martin Brodeur-type stuff here.

The last year or two in the tail of his career aside, one of the best things Brodeur always brought to the table year after year after year was strong play night-in and night-out. Couple that with the many nights he was spectacular and it's no wonder why he's going to go down as one of the, if not the, greatest goaltender to ever play this game when he retires.

Fleury may just be starting to settle into that part of his career now, as he continued his remarkable 3 month run into the All-Star break by shuting out the New York Islanders last night, 1-0, at the CONSOL Energy Center.

Fleury stopped 29 Islander shots in the win, with several of them being good scoring chances. And the Flower needed to come through that way last night, too, because Craig Adams scored the only Penguin goal against rookie New York goalie Kevin Poulin about 8 minutes into the third period -- and on a play that was the direct result of rookie Dustin Jeffrey cleanly winning an offensive-zone faceoff, to boot.

"He's been our backbone," head coach Dan Bylsma said of #29's play this year.

Of course, Fleury won't complain about the help he got from his posts on a few Islander shots last night, but the fact of the matter is that he has now put together a stretch where he's allowed no more than 2 goals in 22 of his last 30 games, and not more than 3 goals in a single game since October.

That's dependability, folks. That's the type of goaltending that helps a franchise compete for Stanley Cups year in and year out.

Kudos to Fleury's teammates, too, who have done a great job without their Captain, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin the last few weeks.

Without Sid, Pittsburgh has captured points in 6 of 9 games, and has won 5 of their last 6. That's helped keep them competitve at the top of the Atlantic and league overall standings, which the Philadelphia Flyers continue to lead with 71 points and a 33-12-5 record.

Pittsburgh is 5 points back at 31-15-4. The Tampa Bay Lightning have 67 points, while the Vancouver Canucks have 69.

Catching the Flyers isn't going to be easy. They're playing great hockey, winning 10 of their last 12, and going 18-6 in their last 24 overall. But expect Pittsburgh to be right in the mix down the stretch.

Now that we're at the All-Star break, it's a great time to pause and look ahead ---- to the trade deadline, which is Monday, February 28.

I'll have a more detailed look-see at how the Penguins might approach this year's deadline later this week.

Thanks for reading.

Crosby To Miss 9th Straight Game As Penguins Ready For Islanders

2011-01-25T07:51:00.000-05:00

As the Pittsburgh Penguins prepare to face-off against the New York Islanders tonight at the CONSOL Energy Center (7:00 PM, EST) in their final game before this weekend's All-Star festivities, Captain Sidney Crosby spoke with the media yesterday as he continues to recover from his concussion.

Crosby is still not symptom free, even 3 weeks after the hits which are believed to have caused his current predicament -- one from Washington Capitals' center David Steckel in the Winter Classic and another from Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman on January 5.

Primarily, he's still dealing with headaches, and the admittedly frustrating part for Crosby is that there doesn't appear to be a consistent cause for them.

"It's brutal," Crosby said. "You sit around and can't do anything. Early on, I could barely watch TV, but I've been able to do that more. It's the things you take for granted and do every day, like driving."

Crosby's headaches have lessened the last few days, so he seems to be on the mend, but there remains no timetable for him to even resume dry land training, let alone to get on the ice and play again. Because of that, his absence is likely to continue to be measured in terms of weeks, not days.

"It's really difficult. It doesn't get any easier with each day that goes by. It gets tougher and tougher to work your way back into it," Crosby said.

Not surprisingly, Penguins' GM Ray Shero announced yesterday that Crosby -- the league's leading vote-getter by a wide margin -- will not play in the upcoming All-Star game, nor attend any of the weekend's festivities.

"Sidney is making progress in his recovery, but still is not completely symptom-free," said Shero.

Crosby's concussion has gotten a lot of attention in the national media the last few weeks, and it's likely to get even more attention when league executives convene together during the All-Star game this weekend and probably re-kindle debate on whether Rule 48 -- which the league passed last year in response to some wickedly violent blows to the head, including one laid on Boston Bruins' center Marc Savard by Crosby's teammate, Matt Cooke -- goes far enough, especially since most observers feel that when Steckel hit Crosby, it was mostly incidental contact.

Rule 48 banned all blindside, backside or lateral checks to the head of another player and, without a doubt, instituting that rule has been a step in the right direction for the league.

But Crosby's concussion has generated good diagloue about whether all blows to the head -- no matter in which direction, and no matter whether intentional or not -- should be subject to penalty, fine and/or suspension.

Make no mistake, Crosby's concussion has proven to be serious, and more scary for his future than I and many others first anticipated.

He has to be immensely careful getting back and, when he does, Penguin fans should do a little praying and hope that Crosby doesn't sustain another blow to the head in the next few seasons, because it's pretty well established at this point -- both as a matter of medicine and as a matter of documented record on the ice with other NHL players -- that once you have a concussion, you're more susceptible to another.

And if you start accumulating them rapidly, one star-studded career can be brought to an end quickly.

Look no further than the case of Savard, one of the league's better talents who missed about 3 months after Cooke laid him out last year, only to return for a handful of playoff games before the Bruins were eliminated from the post-season, then be diagnosed with recurring symptoms this summer when he resumed training.

That kept Savard on the shelf for the first few months of this year. Since he's returned, he's already had 2 incidents on the ice taking checks where his head was subject to some contact with the glass or boards -- including an 'everyday' hit from Pens' blueliner Deryk Engelland in a game a few weeks ago. Those collisions left him wobbly and now he's back on the sidelines once more after being diagnosed with a moderate concussion.

It's also worth pointing out that Savard, a consistent point-per-game player, appeared a shadow of his former self on the ice in the 25 games he did play this season, scoring only 2 goals and about 10 points.

Concussions are serious, folks. I'm all out for holding Crosby on the sidelines for as long as it takes. I'd rather see 15 more consistently excellent years out of him in a Pittsburgh uniform than 5 years plagued by recurring concussion symptoms. It's just not worth it.

While Evgeni Malkin doesn't have a concussion like Crosby does, he does have a sinus infection and has continued to deal with a recurring knee problem, both of which will conspire to keep him not only out of the lineup tonight against the Isles but -- like Crosby -- probably out of this weekend's All-Star game and festivities, as well.

The Penguins haven't made a final decision on the latter point, but there's really little incentive for their organization to give Geno the go-ahead to play there. The infection will probably go away by then, but the knee issue has given him trouble for 6-8 weeks now, and he needs more rest.
Pittsburgh should take the built-in break the schedule gives them at this time of year and let Malkin maximize that for his own health.

With hope that Staal and the Pens' blueliners lead the way tonight, I'll have a game recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!

Penguins Hold On To Beat Carolina, 3-2

2011-01-24T17:18:00.000-05:00

Without star centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for the second straight game, the Pittsburgh Penguins had to dig deep Saturday night at The Bird House against a Carolina Hurricanes' club that had been winning games at a near .700% clip the last month or so, and who always gives them trouble.

After breaking a 0-0 logjam with 3 goals in a span of 10 minutes of hockey starting from the end of the second period to about 7 minutes into the third, the Pens survived 2 goals from Carolina in the last four minutes and held on for a big, 3-2 victory.

Dustin Jeffrey -- called back up in Malkin's absence -- scored his second of the season on a slapshot, while Mark Letestu and Pascal Dupuis (shorthanded) also tallied for the Boys of Winter to give them the necessary margin of victory.

Dupuis' goal, which ended up being the game-winner, was a particularly nice effort, as he took a pass from Jordan Staal, broke in on a semi-breakaway and beat Hurricanes' netminder Cam Ward with a backhand high to the glove side.

It was clearly a play the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner should have stopped, but one Dupuis is not likely to make any apologies for -- especially given the late Carolina goals by Sergei Samsonov and Gronk's brother Eric with Ward on the bench for an extra attacker made things interesting.

The Pens outshot Carolina 31-26 on the night. Marc-Andre Fleury had 24 saves in getting the win for Pittsburgh.

It was the Pens' third win over the Hurricanes this year, which marked the first time in more than 12 seasons that the Pens' actually could say they won a season series between the clubs.

It's a shame Pittsburgh's 4-game Conference Final sweep of Carolina a few seasons ago doesn't count in that picture.

The local hockey club now has one more game before the upcoming weekend's All-Star break, and that's tomorrow at home against the New York Islanders (7:00 PM EST).

I'll have more on that game tomorrow, and more on where things are with Crosby, since there's some more recent news on that front.

Thanks for reading ...

Pens Double A Unit Comes Up Empty In Shutout Loss To New Jersey

2011-01-21T07:17:00.000-05:00

Going into last night's game with the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center somewhere in the swampland, the Pittsburgh Penguins had 62 points in the standings.

That was about a country mile ahead of New Jersey, who had only TWENTY NINE.

But without three of their best players, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Marc-Andre Fleury -- the first two of which sat out with injury, and the latter of which got the night off -- the Penguins mustered little in a 2-0 shutout defeat the Devils earned on the strength of first period goals by Brian Rolston and Nick Palmieri.

That was about as interesting as this game got.

The Penguins were pretty physical in this one, but put up only 23 shots against Devils' netminder Martin Brodeur, and few of them represented good scoring chances.

Even hot forwards Jordan Staal and Chris Kunitz weren't able to get on the board in this one.

Brent Johnson, making his first start since a 2-1 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens on January 6, stopped 18 of the 20 pucks New Jersey through at him.

While it was no surprise that Crosby missed the game, and understandable to give Fleury a rest, missing Malkin was somewhat of a surprise for Pittsburgh.

Malkin has battled a knee injury at various points this season, and he tweaked it again when he went down awkwardly in lats Saturday's 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins in Beantown.

While Geno suited up and played in Tuesday's 4-1 home win over the Detroit Red Wings, he didn't have nearly the ice time he's accustomed to, logging only about 15 minutes in that game, as opposed to the 20 he usually gets.

At this point, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect Malkin to be shut down until after the All-Star game next weekend. He may even have to miss that contest. Either way, he probably requires some dedicated rest time to be healthy. His play has continued to suffer and, while that can't solely be accountable to his injury, it certainly hasn't helped, either.

The Boys of Winter return home to face off against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night.

More soon.

Staal, Fleury Lead Penguins To Wins Over Boston, Hated Red Wings

2011-01-19T09:09:00.000-05:00

First of all, sorry for my mini-hiatus the last few days. That's what a severely sprained ankle will do to you.

The good news is that positive things have been happening in Penguin-land during my absence.

While the Pens' Captain, Sidney Crosby, continues to miss time with post-concussion syndrome and just yesterday was dragged into a controversy about how -- according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, anyway -- he intended to skip the NHL's All-Star game on purpose to express his displeasure with the league's failure to discipline the players who concussed him (more on that later), his teammates have picked up their bootstraps in his absence and, following wins over the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon and the Detroit Red Wings last night at The Bird House, have now won 3 straight.

Center Jordan Staal and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury have been going a lot of the heavy lifting recently, and the last two victories were no different.

After tallying 3 points and his first goal of the season last week in Montreal during a victory over the Canadiens, Gronk kept it going on Saturday with the game-winning goal in the third period (and an assist), and the opening tally to get the Pens' going last night against Detroit.

#11 now has 6 points in his last three games and, after being reunited with Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy, is dominating in all three zones right now.

As I've said in this space before, it's going to be extremely interesting to see whether Head Coach Dan Bylsma keeps that trio together when Crosby returns. While the plan has always been to play Staal and Malkin together at that point, #11, #24 and #48 are playing so well right now that it may be hard to separate them.

In the end, the Penguins may just stick to the 3-center model that has been their staple the last several seasons. That may be best for the team even if it comes at the expense of getting Evgeni Malkin going and instead leaving him with little to pick from for linemates because the team is winning, and if they are, why change it? Geno has been struggling some all season anyway -- as he did last year -- so breaking up the Gronk unit just to stick to a "plan" or try to get Malkin in a groove again may be more detrimental to the team than good.

For his part, Fleury has been even better the last few games than he has been over the last few months, and that's saying something.

He stopped 20 third period shots to make Staal's game winner stand up against the Bruins, and in the process, helped the Penguins avoid blowing their third 2-goal lead against Boston in the same number of games this season. Sure, after early goals by Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis, the Bruins did their damage to tie the game in a 12-second span in the second period, but obviously the Flower had enough after that, slamming the door in the final 20 minutes.

And he picked up from where he left off in that one last night against the Red Wings, stopping 36 of 37 shots and looking sharp from start to finish.

Last night's game had an interesting feel, with the Penguins minus Crosby and Detroit missing a litany of top players, including Pavel Datsyuk, Dan Cleary, Tomas Holmstrom, and #1 goaltender Jimmy Howard.

That said, take nothing away from Pittsburgh last night. They took advantage of their chances and made the Red Wings pay, and that was evident just a few minutes into the game when Tyler Kennedy stole the puck from Detroit 3rd string goaltender Joey McDonald behind the net and fed it out in front for Staal to have an easy, open-net tap-in.

Pittsburgh continued rolling after that. Just a few minutes later, Chris Conner was stopped on a near breakaway when he was checked by a Detroit player at the last minute and rendered unable to get off a shot before crashing into McDonald.

There was a fair question as to whether a penalty (if not a penalty shot) should have been awarded on the play, but there was no such question when Conner had a similar chance just past the halfway mark of the first period and was hooked from behind just as he was in the clear and about to shoot.

Conner got the penalty shot call that time mand ade no mistake on the opportunity, burying the puck between McDonald's legs on a backhand deke for the first penalty shot goal scored by a Penguin player in the last 12 tries dating back to January, 2007, when former Pen Jarkko Ruutu did the trick.

While both of those goals were big, Chris Kunitz' tally late in the 2nd frame may have been the biggest.

Johan Franzen had just scored for Detroit to make the game 2-1, and the Red Wings were getting momentum, but when #14 scored on a rebound to restore Pittsburgh's 2 goal lead, the Pens had their equilibrium back. Fleury did the rest in the third period until Matt Cooke scored an empty net goal to seal it.

With that win and the two before it, the Penguins still sit second in the Atlantic Division with 62 points, 3 behind the Atlantic and NHL-leading Philadelphia Flyers, who have 65.

The Vancouver Canucks also have 65 points in the West, but Pittsburgh and Detroit now fall right in behind them and the Flyers.

As far as Crosby goes, While Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos has now passed #87 in the goal-scoring department and has moved to within just a few points of him in the overall scoring race, the Pens' Captain spoke publicly yesterday to deny the story published in the Toronto Globe and Mail that he would purposely skip the All-Star game.

"If I can be there, I'll be there," said Crosby, adding -- unfortunately -- that the chances seemed just "slight" that he'd be ready to return by then.

Crosby seems to be getting better, indicating that he has some good days, but still isn't symptom free, and that has kept him from doing any exercising whatsoever.

At this point, it's not likely that Crosby will suit up anytime in the Penguins' next 3 games before the All-Star break, and his continuing absence has again ramped up the debate about whether the NHL is doing enough to protect its players from head-shots. Now, both agents and -- as the piece eariler indicates -- even members of the hated Red Wings' organization are speaking out a little on his behalf.

Certainly, having the league's best player on the shelf for an extended period of time beacuse of a concussion brings the issue more to the forefront.

One thing I will say, however, is that Crosby has been inappropriately labeled a hypocrite by many who see his cries for more protection now as contrary to his supposed silence after Cooke laid a severe concussion on Bruins' center Marc Savard last year.

I couldn't agree more with the opinion of Pens' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Beat Writer Dave Molinari, who a few days ago appropriately pointed out how uninformed those critics really are, because Crosby did indicate at the time Cooke laid out Savard that the league needs to fix "pretty quickly" for the benefit of the players the confusion between what hits are legal and what aren't

Pittsburgh goes to the swampland next to face the Devils on Thursday.

More soon.

NOTES:

The Penguins' announced after the game last night that rookie center Mark Letestu has signed a two-year, one-way contract extension which will pay him 1.25 million total, or approximately $625K per year.

It's A Wrap: 24/7 Penguins Capitals Closes In Remarkable Fashion

2011-01-14T08:27:00.000-05:00

The fourth and final installment of HBO's 24/7 Penguins Capitals Road to the Winter Classic series wasted no time zeroing in on what the three previous episodes had been building up to.

1-1-11.

To do that, the cameras first shined on the Washington Capitals and superstar winger Alexander Ovechkin.

Not in a flattering way, mind you.

As the Caps' practiced outdoors at a makeshift rink in Arlington, VA to try and get ready for the elements and the game, we were able to see several of the Washington players experimenting with things that they wouldn't otherwise ordinarily use -- and in ways they wouldn't ordinarily use them.

Or at least we can hope.

Especially since one of those things was eye black that Ovechkin put around his mouth.

Uh .... yeah.

Meanwhile, back in the world of the normal hockey club, center Jordan Staal was meeting with Pens' GM Ray Shero and Head Coach Dan Bylsma to discuss whether or not he would be cleared to play in the New Year's Day game.

After hearing Shero and Blysma say they were a little concerned about him coming back to soon, I was amused by Staal's pleas to have them be more specific about exactly what it is they were worried about -- just like most skeptical 22-year olds would be with their parents.

In the end, good on the Penguins for giving Gronk the go-ahead to suit up and enjoy the experience in what has otherwise been a miserable first part of the season for him in the press box the entire time.

In an amusing moment, after Staal left the room, Shero playfully asks Bylsma about the team's 2-1 shootout loss to the New York Islanders the prior evening:

"What the fuck happened last night, Dan?"

Meanwhile, the next day at the Pens' Winter Classic practice @ Heinz Field, we got to see the team stage a shootout competition --- not for determining January's mustache boy, but instead to have the loser have to go all the way to the top of the stadium and touch the section 527 sign.

True to form, Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was taunting EVERYONE in the shootout, saying things to his teammates like "F- off you bitches". Then, with the ultimate insult, he taunted Staal as he was the last player to approach him and in need of a goal to keep things tied ---- "you're going up," Fleury said.

Sure enough, the guy who may have still been the most out of shape was stopped by The Flower and had to do the Heinz Field steps. There was great camera footage of that along the way, too.

Meanwhile, later that day, viewers got a great treat in witnessing a bunch of NHL officials, including NHL Vice-President Bill Daly and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell, among others, participate in a conference call to debate a key decision -- whether to postpone the scheduled 1 PM game and push it back becuase of inclement weather conditions.

Of course, in the end, that's what they decided to do, wisely moving the game to 8 PM to avoid a well-known bad forecast and providing sufficient notice to everyone involved in advance.

So, with the stage set for the first evening Winter Classic under the lights in primetime, the players and coaches are getting revved up.

First, we see the Caps' fat assclown coach, Bruce Boudreau telling his team about what's at stake, and then proclaiming that, while it's only 2 points, "it's two fucking points we're going to take from these pricks."

Then, in a further motivational move, he posts an article from Pittsburgh radio personality Mark Madden, who wrote a piece for the Beaver County Times newspaper that the Capitals don't have what it takes to beat the Penguins in a 7-game series.

Next we see Ovechkin trying to ramp himself up in the locker room before the game, saying "fuck this shitsburgh team"

Perhaps my favorite part of the episode came next when HBO showed my man, Pens' backup goaltender Brent Johnson -- one of the locker room leaders when it comes to music -- cuing up his Ipod before the game for he and his teammates to get ready.

The song of choice?

Burning Heart, by Survivor --- from the Original Motion Picture Soundrack to one of the greatest movies of all time, Rocky IV.

Yeah, I'm italian.

Anyway, HBO did a fantastic job with that, showing only picture footage of the teams getting ready without any audio, and pricelessly set it all to that song.

Just outstanding stuff.

Nearly as outstanding was the look Pens' LW Matt Cooke was giving Ovechkin in their team's line, which formed right next to Pittsburgh's line as the teams walked out into the stadium. It was like Cooke was ready to spear Ovechkin in the throat right there.

Once all the pomp and circumstance was through and we moved to game action, HBO's footage went up a notch, if that were even possible.

One of the most notable moments was when Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby was complaining about not getting a penalty shot to referee Paul Devorski after being hauled down by Caps' blueliner Mike Green.

Devorski did call a holding penalty, but I couldn't believe he had the nerve to say to Crosby, "I give you a power play and you give me attitude about it" when it was clearly a penalty -- at least.

What was Crosby supposed to do? Thank him for making the obvious call he should have?

Crosby had a fair beef that it should have been a penalty shot since he was in front of Green with a clear path to the net when Green held him from behind, and in expressing that to Devorski after Devorski said what he did, Crosby said that, in fact, it was a penalty shot "because I've watched 80 fucking games this year and it's a penalty shot every time."

While there was a lot of other great stuff during what ended up as a disappointing 3-1 Penguins' loss, almost as good as Crosby's comment was Cooke telling Caps' center Niklas Backstrom that if he slashes him again, he's going to take his teeth out.

After the game was over, you heard Boudreau standing there with his team waiting to see if there was going to be a handshake, saying "make them come to us".

Then, when the Penguins didn't come over (nice), he said "fuck 'em all"

In the locker room, we got to see a Washington team that hasn't won the Stanley Cup once (let alone 3 times, like the local hockey club), be led in celebratory fashion by Boudreau, saying "It's not the Cup but it feels pretty f'in good!"

Please.

For his part, the thing I found most notable about Bylsma talking with the Penguin players in the locker room after the defeat was not what he said, but how he said it.

You could just see the player in him coming out -- wishing he was out there with his team. He's still has that competitive fire in him, and I think that helps him as a coach. It was really neat to see that up close and personal in the locker room in a way that hadn't been shown in the previous 3 episodes.

I will say that I thought the end of the episode -- and the series -- was a little cheesy, showing a washing machine up close washing jerseys, as if to signify that it's back to the grind of even more games in the long, regular season cycle that makes up an NHL year.

Overall, I think the last episode was on par with the first for the best one of the series, and can't say enough about the series as a whole. It was fantastic, and it gave the NHL great publicity.

In fact, there's no doubt in my mind that HBO will return to do another 24/7 series next year. They'll probably lead up to the Winter Classic again and focus on whichever teams are chosen for that next season, but where it's really going to get interesting is whether or not they'll try to go for the real prize in coming years, which would be to follow a team or two through the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Logistics exist in doing that (for example, if the team gets eliminated early, then what do you do?), but there's already some sentiment for trying it, and HBO might be willing to do that.

Even if they don't, though, the production they did this year has been deemed such a success in the entire sporting world that HBO is probably going to try to take the concept to the other sports. And then the NHL will get a lot of credit and good publicity for helping pioneer what it's like to capture a professional sports team during actual game play, rather than, for example, in training camp, as HBO's Hard Knocks series has already done.

Let's face it -- the National Hockey League as a whole is on a really good run the last few years. TV ratings are up, interest in the game is rising, and there are a bevy of young stars and rivalries -- including the Penguins and Capitals -- that have put the league in the spotlight, and done it in a good way. Commissioner Gary Bettman deserves some credit for that, and the hope here is that the NHL is able to parlay its recent success into a new TV deal (which the league is due for this summer) that actually pays them money they can share with their member clubs.

Of course, that's something that just doesn't exist right now, as the NHL receives no rights fee to permit NBC and Versus to televise their constests.

Either way, both the league and the Pittsburgh Penguins have done a great job being in the spotlight, and that's an exciting thing.

Next up for the flightless birds is a game tomorrow afternoon in Boston against the Bruins. Sidney Crosby won't be in the lineup for that, and probably won't return to the lineup early next week after all, as had been initially hoped after he sustained his concussion. I guess we won't know for sure because Bylsma has said he will no longer provide daily updates on #87's condition, so we'll just have to wait and see.

I'll try to have a recap Sunday.

Let's Go Pens!

Ain't Nuthin' But a G-Thing: GoGo, Gronk Power Penguins Past Canadiens, 5-2

2011-01-13T08:41:00.000-05:00

About two months ago, after the Pittsburgh Penguins led the Boston Bruins 4-2 before imploding in the third period at home and giving up 5 unanswered goals on the way to a come-from-ahead 7-4 defeat, they went on a pretty nice run afterwards.

In fact, a single team didn't beat them in regulation for the next 15 games over a span of six weeks -- a streak that included 12 straight wins.

After another 3rd period collapse in another home loss to Boston earlier this week, perhaps the Penguins are ready to go on another long winning streak?

If last night's 5-2 road victory against the Montreal Canadiens is any indication, that may very well be the case.

The Penguins dominated Montreal for most of last night's game, outshooting them 36-22 and looking like the Edmonton Oilers circa-1984.

Pittsburgh skated like the wind through the neutral zone all evening long and obviously made a better effort -- probably at the behest of their coach -- to get to the offensive zone quickly and often.

It all started with the Pens capitalizing on a 4-on-2 rush about 13 minutes into the first period, when Alex Goligoski zinged one top-corner, glove side past Habs' netminder Carey Price after taking a pass from LW Chris Kunitz.

After a blip on the screen in the form of goals from Canadiens' forwards Tomas Plekanec later in the first period and David Desharnais 2 minutes into the second period, Pittsburgh responded by throwing up FOUR unanswered power-play goals the rest of the way, starting with Tyler Kennedy's 7th of the year at the 4 minute mark.

TK's goal was made possible by a big offensive zone faceoff win by Jordan Staal, who cleanly go the puck back to defenseman Kris Letang at the point, and then watched as Tanger slid it to Kennedy in the right circle, whose shot beat Price under the arm short side.

Staal decided to get into the act himself about 10 seconds before the second period ended, taking a loose puck from almost the same spot where Kennedy did and beating Price in just about the same way TK did -- short side, past the arm.

It was Staal's first goal this season, and first in about 8 months.

GoGo scored his second of the game -- this time on the man-advantage -- two minutes into the third period by chipping a loose puck past Price from the crease, but all that did was give the Penguins the dreaded two-goal lead they coughed up Monday night against the Bruins.

This time, however, Pittsburgh finished the job when Kunitz deflected a Letang shot past Price at the 11 and 1/2 minute mark, which is where the game finished at 5-2, cuing Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury to have a little fun by crossing his arms like the Bell Center was his house before being mobbed by his teammates.

For those who didn't notice, that's exactly what Price did after the Canadiens' shootout victory over the Penguins last week.

Clearly, Pittsburgh didn't get Price's best game last night, and Montreal also was missing Mike Camalleri in the contest (who sat out with the flu), but they'll get no sympathy from me since the Pens didn't have that Crosby guy in their lineup.

However, they did have Staal (1 goal, 2 assists), Goligoski (2 goals, 1 assist) and Letang (3 assists), and those were the three guys who drove Pittsburgh's offense.

While he's still been inconsistent at times, GoGo showed he has a wealth of offensive ability out there. He moves and shoots the puck extremely smoothly, and in a track meet like last night, those skills come to the forefront.

Tanger, meanwhile, has been leading the charge offensively from the blueline most of the season. His three points gave him 40 on the year and raised him up to within one of Detroit Red Wings' defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and Atlanta Thrashers' rearguard Dustin Byfuglien for the lead among blueliner scoring league-wide. He's also an impressive +20 on the season.

Finally, for Staal's part, well .... I think everyone would agree that it was nice to see him contribute. He hadn't scored a single point since his return as he's been shaking the rust of his game, but he showed what kind of impact he can have last night when he gets things going.

With Crosby out of the lineup, Pittsburgh is going to need guys like him and Malkin to step up and lead the team offensively.

While I'm talking about Geno, I have to say that he had a solid overall game last night, too. Still, no matter how many shots or scoring chances Malkin generates, he's still struggling to put up points, and that's something he HAS to find a way to do if Pittsburgh is going to have any long-term success.

Pittsburgh gets its second chance for revenge Saturday afternoon when it visits Beantown for a rematch against the Bruins at 1:00 PM.

Way to go boys ...

More soon.

24/7 Penguins/Capitals Episode III Sets Stage for Fantastic Finale

2011-01-12T08:51:00.000-05:00

For anyone who missed the third episode of 24/7 Penguins Capitals: Road to the Winter Classic, shame on you for 6 weeks.

I know there's been a bit of delay in talking about my take on that episode -- and the finale, for that matter -- but, frankly, HBO's initial foray into reality hockey is already timeless, and there's never a bad time to enjoy it again.

Episode III started off in an interesting way.

By showing how tough hockey players are.

It began with Caps' forward Mike Knuble in the dentist's chair getting metal brackets removed from his mouth after healing from a broken jaw, then continued with the focus on the dent in the face of Pens' defenseman Ben Lovejoy after taking a puck there.

Of course, Evgeni Malkin couldn't resist being the comedian when he approached Lovejoy on the table in the Penguins' locker room after the game and told him that Lovejoy's battle scar was 'awesome', only to top that by suggesting that Lovejoy shouldn't worry about it becuase "girls love".

Later on, of course, Lovejoy's dent swelled up to look like a softball.

Did I mention Washington forward Matt Bradley undergoing finger surgery in this one, too?

Once HBO moved on from the injuries, they spent most of the rest of the episode covering the Pens' and Caps' matchup on 12-23, which ended up as a dramatic 3-2 shootout victory for the local hockey club.

The lead in to that contest was fantastic, with a little extra behind-the-scenes footage of how the teams game plan for each other, including Washington's intent to match up center Nicklas Backstrom against Sidney Crosby, and their focus on trying to get Evegni Malkin off his game by being physical on him in the hope he would take stupid penalties.

Of course, their belief about Geno bore out to be truthful later on -- at least for that game -- but not everyone in the Caps' organization is as prophetic, including star winger Alexander Ovechkin, who said before the contest that "It's gonna' be like a war. We have to win."

How did that work out? Uh, yeah.

For his part, Pens' Head Coach Dan Bylsma was critical of Washington's netminder, Michael Neuvirth, telling his mates that "this goalie is not that good" and trying to get them going by encouraging them in his Bylsma-esque way to "get 'em bitches."

Perhaps the oddest thing of the game-coverage from HBO on this one was their footage of Mary, Washington's poor 'timeout coordinator', who took a puck in the head when it went out of play.

That's right, the Capitals actually have a f'ucking timeout coordinator.

As far as exclusives during the game go, HBO managed to capture Pens' Captain and NHL ambassador Sidney Crosby ripping the official a new one for calling him on what he (and I, for another) felt was a phantom penalty, saying in great colorful language -- among other things -- "that's a fucking joke."

Then, viewers got a treat when they had a chance to see the NHL's war room in Toronto, Canada review the play in overtime when Caps' defenseman Mike Green tried to slide a puck past Penguins' goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, only to have the Flower snatch it with his glove just before or as it was crossing the goal line.

Because Fleury's glove basically obstructed the view of the puck, video footage on the play did not show the puck completely crossing the line -- as it has to in order for a goal to be scored -- so the call on the ice (no-goal) was upheld. Still, it was great to hear those guys in the league office communicate with the on-ice officials. Having a glimpse into one of those conversations was fascinating.

After the victory and celebration on the ice by your Boys of Winter following Pascal Dupuis' 7th round shootout goal, HBO quickly shifted the scene to show some Christmas footage from, among others, the homes of Pens' forward Mike Rupp and Head Coach Dan Bylsma.

What Christmas theme did we get to see from Washington's side?

Well, of course, Boudreau shopping at a local mall and making vintage remarks like, "I smell food."

That hardly held a candle to his best line, though:

"It's never too early for ice cream."

And if that doesn't take the cake for the best one-liner of the episode, then that honor has to go to Pens' forward Matt Cooke, who teased teammate Paul Martin -- the Penguins' mustache boy in December for losing the team's monthly shootout competition at practice to see who has to grow a mustache for the month -- becuase of his light-colored growth, saying that they were going to "Just-For-Men" it for the upcoming Winter Classic.

Priceless.

Episode III ends with league officials building the rink @ Heinz Field for the teams' epic 1-1-11 clash.

In my opinion, the third episode of the series was better than the second, but not quite up to par with the opener. Still, just amazing work by the HBO crews.

Visit again for my summary of the finale of the series, which was magnificent.

In the meantime, pull for the black and gold tonight as they are back in action on the road in Montreal against the Canadiens for the second time in less than a week -- and are in need of a victory much more than they were the last time.

Crosby is not expected to play in tonight's game, as he's still suffering post-concussion symptoms.

Winger Aaron Asham is expected to play, however.

Recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!

Trouble Bruin'? Pens' Home Collapse In Third Allows Boston Comeback Victory (AGAIN)

2011-01-11T08:37:00.002-05:00

We've all been in the situation.

At the bar. Drinks are flowin'. Conversation is rollin'. A little nightlife ... a little dancing. Then, at her house afterwards takin' care of business thinking you scored the conquest of the year.

Suddenly, the next morning, you wake up and -- in the blink of an eye -- realize things aren't quite as they seemed.

She looks like the bottom of your shoe in the light, has six toes and is spewing venom at you for the condition you left her bathroom in after the dump you took the night before.

Yep, it's a very thin line in the business, folks, and so it was for the Pittsburgh Penguins last night at the CONSOL Energy Center as they watched a late 2-0 third period lead evaporate into a nightmare 4-2 defeat in the final 200 seconds of the game.

Flashbacks to two months ago, anyone?

That's right. That's the game where the Penguins had another two goal lead on the Bruins, at home, in the third period, and promptly went out and watched goaltender Brent Johnson fish 5 pucks out of his net in the final frame of a 7-4 loss.

The Penguins looked to have things under control last night. They played relatively good hockey for 55 minutes on national television, and had built their two goal advantage on the strength of an beautiful, top-shelf even-strength goal by Mike Rupp and a power-play tally by Kris Letang, both in the second period against Bruins' backup goaltender -- with only 3 wins all season coming into the game -- Tukka Rask.

The Bruins were pressing the play in the third, but Pittsburgh's netminder on this evening, #1 man Marc-Andre Fleury, was consistenly slamming the door.

Then, the zebras took over, calling a ridiculous boarding minor on defenseman Brooks Orpik for not being able to stop from shoving a Bruins' player into the wall after he turned and showed his back to the Pens' assistant captain at the last second.

As I digress for a minute, did I mention how ridiculous that call was?

Those calls are garbage. That's exactly what NFL players have complained about this season under the bevy of significant fines their league office has dolled out to players hitting 'defenseless' receivers on passing plays.

Ask Steelers' linebacker James Harrison what he's supposed to do when a receiver changes his position at the last minute after he's already initiated his tackle, and see what he says.

It's the same thing in hockey, but it's been going on for years.  A player lines up to check another player shoulder to shoulder, only to have the player along the wall turn and face the glass, showing his back to the checking player at the last minute.   In that situation, the checking player will almost ALWAYS get the penalty, even though he can't do anything about the fact he was already in the act of making his check and the player about to get hit changed his position at the last second and did the stupid thing of making himself more vulnerable.

ANYway, the result of the call on Orpik last night was a knuckler from Bruins' defenseman Zdeno Chara that somehow got past Fleury from the point on the power play, and that only served to give Boston enough momentum to score again 12 seconds later when Brad Marchant capitalized on Chris Kunitz' laziness by beating him to the front of the net --- EASILY -- and depositing a pass behind Fleury for a tie score with about 3 minutes to go.

As if the Orpik call wasn't bad enough, the blind mice decided to call Jordan Staal for holding when he checked Bruins' blueliner Denis Seidenberg along the wall, and finished his check by pinning him there long enough for him to reach the puck -- that had squirted past him down the boards -- first.

Apparently, too long for the guys in black and white.

Normally, I could appreciate the possibility of holding up a player too long on the wall.

But in this case, Seidenberg was finished. He was basically on the ice. It's not like he was keeping his legs moving while still trying to get to the puck.

That penalty gave Boston the power play for just about the rest of the game and Mark Recchi made them pay when he knocked a rebound of a shot out of the air and past Fleury for what would be the game winner (Bruins' forward Gregory Campbell's subsequent empty-net goal notwithstanding).

On Recchi's goal, Fleury made a spectacular save on Boston winger Blake Wheeler, doing an excelling job holding his position on a shot cutting back against the grain, but when Pascal Dupuis took his turn at being lazy on the PK, Recchi had just enough time to capitalize from in front uncontested.

And so, for their part, after being outshot 13-2 in the final frame, the Penguins had their second blown third period lead to Boston in their own barn in two months.

For my part, I just about punched a hole in my flatscreen.

The Penguins have to be frustrated over this one -- their 5th loss in their last 6 games, including the last 3 straight without their Captain, Sidney Crosby. I know I am, and I'm not a part of the locker room.

"I don't know what happened," Rupp said afterwards. "We were up two goals.  That should be a gimme."

What will be most interesting about the defeat, however, is how the Penguins respond to it in an effort to get out of their funk.

They played 55 good minutes of hockey. Can they forget about the last 5 and move on like a championship contender would? After all, some in local media circles (okay, Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) are questioning that championship pedigree.

While I'm sometimes bothered by the quick-to-pessimism approach that Rossi frequently takes -- including this time -- I appreciate a part of his sentiment: other than the Penguins' 12-game run, they've played mostly .500 hockey before and after that.

Interestingly, it was much the same last season.

After Pittsburgh started the year so strongly, they played mostly .500 hockey from December on, without getting on a real run when things mattered most --- down the stretch of the season.

And you saw what happened to them in the playoffs. They managed to hold off Ottawa, but weren't clicking on enough cylinders to get it done against Montreal.

Unlike Rossi, I'm not ready to do anything like question the Pens' pedigree right now. As is usually the case with these Penguins, what they do now doesn't matter nearly like what they do in the spring does. Even Rossi would acknowledge that. Pittsburgh has time to get things together until then.

That would, of course, start with getting #87 back in the lineup.

Dan Blysma said yesterday that Crosby is "progressing" and "getting better", but would not offer any more crystal of a timetable for his return.

In the meantime, Disco Dan reunited the "nightmare" line of Staal, Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy last night, and let Evgeni Malkin center Kunitz and Dupuis.

Overall, I think that played to good results, and I'd expect to continue to see those top 2 lines -- at least for the foreseeable short-term until Sid returns to the lineup. It remains to be seen, however, whether Blysma will go back to the Staal and Malkin experiment for an extended period of time at that point.

Pittsburgh goes to Montreal (again) to play the Habs' tomorrow night, before getting a rematch with the Bruins in Boston on Saturday afternoon in it's continuing tournament against the Northeast Division.

More soon.

NOTES:

The Penguins' called up forward Dustin Jeffrey from Wilkes-Barre Scranton of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis yesterday, since winger Aaron Asham came down with the flu and was unable to suit up. Malkin, Orpik and Chris Conner also have been dealing with the bug, and both Orpik and Conner missed practice the day before, but played last night. Jeffrey had about 6 total minutes of ice-time.

Midseason Grades: Penguins At The Halfway Point

2011-01-10T08:56:00.000-05:00

After Wednesday's 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Pittsburgh Penguins reached the halfway point of their season.

For them, 41 games in the books added up to an impressive 26-12-3 record that was good for 55 points, first in the Atlantic Division and first overall in the Eastern Conference.

While it's hard to consider the Penguins as anything other than one of the elite clubs in the National Hockey League right now, their team performance has been a bit streaky during the season's first half.

After about 15 games, they were playing .500 hockey. They followed that up by going on a 12-game winning streak. Since then, they've eased off the pedal and again are at a .500 clip in the last 12 or so contests.

Still, through the season's first half, they are one of the 3 best defensive clubs in the game, and also score per contest in the top 7.   That's a strong combination.

So now that we know how the team grades out, what about individual player grades?

Similar to what I've been doing for the last several years at the mid-point of the season, you'll find below my individual player grades for this year's group of Pittsbugh Penguins.

The list will not include a grade for players who have only been with the club for a handful of contests -- like Dustin Jeffrey, for example -- or guys who have been on the shelf most of the season (Jordan Staal, that means you).

It will, however, give a grade for those who have been around most of the year so far, and will do so based on actual performance when compared to expected performance going into the season.

The list will be in order from those who are at the top of the class, to those that have a lot of work to do.

So, without further adieu, let's lead off with our Valedectorian, shall we?

SIDNEY CROSBY - A+ : I can't say anything about Sid that hasn't already been said. He's played the best hockey of his career this year in what former linemate Bill Guerin has called "an assault on the league". Even owner Mario Lemieux couldn't stop gushing over him in advance of the Winter Classic: "For him to go out there and do the things he does every night, every shift, its incredible. What's he's doing now is much more impressive than what I did years ago." Those are compliments that a 25-game scoring streak -- the longest in the NHL in 18 seasons -- and an average of two points per game during the stretch will get you.

KRIS LETANG - A : Like Crosby, Letang is having a career year. Fresh from the constraints of having Sergei Gonchar be the top dog on the blueline, Letang has blossomed and fully realized his potential this season. With 36 points in 41 games and a +21 rating, Tanger has been one of the best blueliners in the game in the season's first half. His selection to the All-Star team as a WRITE-IN candidate and talk about him being a Norris Trophy contender says everything about how well he's played.

MARC-ANDRE FLEURY - A : I must admit, there was a point earlier this season when I was really starting to be concerned about Fleury, but to be honest, I and everyone else had fair reason to be. To be sure, however, after a 1-6 record and personal numbers that would embarass even a backup goaltender, Fleury has bounced back to post some of the best statistics of his career. At the halfway point, he was 18-9-1 with a GAA hovering around 2.25 and a save %-age around .920. He also had a stretch where he didn't allow more than 2 goals for 10 straight games. The Penguins will need him to be at that level down the stretch this season -- and, more importantly -- in the post-season.

BRENT JOHNSON - A- : While we're talking about goaltending, it's time Johnson got his props. He saved the Penguins' bacon and kept them competitive early in the season while Fleury was trying to get his act together and, even after coming back down to earth the last 3 or 4 outings, still posts strong numbers with an 8-3-2 record, a 2.04 GAA, and a .927 save %-age. The key for Johnson is keeping things simple and using his big frame to take up the net. When he's in the zone, he's doing that.

CHRIS KUNITZ - B+ : Kunitz is probably playing his best hockey as a Pittsburgh Penguin this season. He's stayed relatively healthy and is on pace for just under 30 goals. Meanwhile, he's continuing to do what he always does, which is bang bodies on the forecheck, go to the front of the net, and create space for that #87 guy on his line. If Kunitz continues to do all of that in the 2nd half of the year and playoffs, he will finally start justifying his 3.75 million annual salary.

BROOKS ORPIK - B+ : I'm not sure I've ever given Orpik a grade below a "B", and that's a testament to how good he is at what he does. He's one of the best hitters in the game on the blueline, and offers a needed edge to the Penguins' that most other members of that rearguard corps don't offer. On top of that, he skates better than most defenseman in the game, and is fast developing into one of the league's better leaders.   The Penguins have gotten all of that -- and more -- from #44 this season so far.

ALEX GOLIGOSKI - B+ : GoGo flies under the radar locally and nationally because he plays on the Pens' third blueline pairing and has a boatload of talented and pricey two-way defensemen in front of him, but his performance this season shouldn't go overlooked. His plus/minus is on par with Letang's as one of the top figures in the game, and he has 7 goals and 23 points at the mid-point. More importantly, he's added a good deal of consistency to his play this year, which has been missing in the past. He'll need to keep that up because the organ-I-zation has a boatload of top prospects on the blueline trying to push him out the door.

MATT COOKE - B+ : Cooke was one of the few veterans who Pens' GM Ray Shero was willing to give a 3-year contract to, and Cooke has repaid him kindly by showing that his excellent performance last year can be duplicated. Cooke is on pace for near 20 goals and 40 points again, all the while displaying the typical grittiness night in and night out that personifies his game. He's well-respected in the locker-room, too.

CHRIS CONNER - B :  When Conner got called up to the Penguins in November, the team went on a tear. While it's going too far to suggest he was a big reason why, it also would be folly to overlook his contribution to the third line during that period. For an undersized guy, he's acquitted himself well, scoring about 10 points in just over 25 games. He's got fair hands, great speed, and works well on the forecheck, and those are the reasons why he's had so much success this year thusfar. It will be interesting to see what role he maintains with the club in the season's second half.

DERYK ENGELLAND - B: Engelland rise through the Penguins' system over the years has been relatively nondescript. This year, however, he took a big leap -- both figuratively and literally over teammate Ben Lovejoy -- to get most of the games as the team's 6th defenseman on the blueline. In doing so, he's shown himself to be one of the league's toughest fighters, scoring KO's over respected heavyweights Colton Orr and Jody Shelly. More importantly, he's demonstrated that he can play a steady, defensive game and not be overwhelmed in his own zone.

PASCAL DUPUIS - B- :  Duper has played pretty much the way everyone expected him to this season, which is to say, chip in 15-20 goals (which is the pace he's on), use his speed, and be solid defensively. In my opinion, though, Pascal has been even better than he typically is in his own zone and on the backcheck, which is why I've given him a bit of a higher grade. He's an important piece to Pittsburgh's puzzle.

PAUL MARTIN - B- : Martin started off the season like gangbusters, with 7 points in his first 7 games, before tailing off and adding only 11 more in the next 34 contests. Still, he's a steady, reliable, two-way defender on Pittsburgh's second pair. While the first half of his first term in a 5-year deal with the Penguins should be considered a success so far, he can give the Pens more in the 2nd half.

TYLER KENNEDY - B- : Going into training camp this year, Kennedy -- despite his history with the team -- was on the bubble and being pushed for a roster spot by guys like Dustin Jeffrey and Eric Tangradi after a subpar 2009/2010 season. Well, TK has bounced back as a reliable contributor who has chipped in enough offensively to be on a pace for near 40 points. There are still parts of his game to work on, but he seems to solidified himself as a regular again after an above-average first half of the season.

MARK LETESTU - B- : After building on a strong pre-season, center Mark Letestu was another guy that started off the year like gangbusters, and in doing so, made the Penguins look like they had unearthed a potential offensive impact player out of nowhere. After a hot start, however, Letestu has settled into giving the team more of what the Penguins reasonably expected from him after being in their system for several years -- strong and smart 2-way play with occasional offensive upside. I'm still very intrigued by what Letestu could do with a permanent gig in the top 6, but Pittsburgh is probably better off relying on him to make them a deeper team on the third line.

ZYBNEK MICHALEK - C+ : The big "Z" had a rough start to his first year as a Penguin after being forced to sit out almost 10 games with a shoulder injury. Since that time, he's combined with Paul Martin to stabilize Pittsburgh's 2nd pairing and, with his ability to suck up shots like a Hoover vacuum cleaner, is a huge reason why the team's penalty killing outfit is one of the best in the game. Still, Michalek can improve his play at even strength in the 2nd half, and needs to if he wants to end the year without the current 'minus' rating he has. I'm anxious to see -- and value -- him after the post-season.

EVGENI MALKIN - C+ : After winning the Conn Smythe Trophy and Art Ross Trophy as playoff MVP and regular season scoring leader, respectively, following the 2008/2009 seaosn, Malkin had a down year last season. I and many others thought that was an aberration, but surprisingly, Malkin's struggles have continued this year. Geno has battled a little bit of a knee injury in the season's first half, but still has performed below expectations as a guy not even putting up a point per game this. Malkin has incredible talent -- some of the best in the game -- and the Penguins need him on all cylinders if they are going to do any damage in the post-season this year. If he continues to struggle the rest of the year, there's going to be more and more talk about trading him because of his $8.7 million dollar salary.

CRAIG ADAMS - C+ : For a 4th liner, it's hard to get Adams out of the lineup. That's probably because he's physical, smart and kills penalties so well. Adams just needs to keep doing what he's doing. Not only will that keep the coaching staff happy, it will keep me happy. And we know how important that is.

MAX TALBOT - C : It's going to be an interesting remainder of the season for the Penguins' biggest character and most important locker room presence, Max Talbot. After injuries cut short his season last year just months removed from scoring both Pittsburgh goals in game 7 of the 2008/2009 Stanley Cup Final, Talbot has bounced back to retain a regular place in the lineup this year and be mostly injury-free. Still, with only 11 points in the season's first half, Talbot is capable of more. The playoffs will probably tell this season's tale for him.

BEN LOVEJOY - C : Lovejoy went into the year expected to lock down the team's 6th spot on the blueline, then went out and lost the job to teammate Deryk Engelland. When he did get in the lineup during the team's first 30 games, he was average. Lately, he's played better, though, and is getting into the lineup more. The key for Lovejoy is to play within his limitations and not do too much.

MIKE RUPP - C- : Rupper adds so much to the team in the physical department that it's hard to grade him here. He's continued to be strong in the corners, on the wall and on the forecheck, so I have no problems with him in those areas. But where Rupp is capable of more is on the scoresheet. He has better hands than most people think, as his double-digit goal totals last year prove. While even I admit that Rupp probably overachieved in that department last season, I think he's underachieving in that area through the first half.

ERIC GODARD - C- : Godard still does what he does when he is in the lineup, which is stir up the opposition and drop the mits. The emergence of Deryk Engelland, however, has led to Godard getting only 13 games this year so far. This is the final year of Godard's contract, so if he isn't moved at the trade deadline, I would expect that he'll have to find a new place of employment next season.

HILARY DUFF'S HUSBAND (A.K.A. MIKE COMRIE) - D : Comrie may have had the best training camp of anyone on the team. He was slick offensively and looked like he'd become the best free-agent bargain in the NHL this season. Then games started to count and Comrie looked below average. He tallied only 5 points (and no goals) in 16 games and when he went out of the lineup, Pittsburgh went on its long winning streak. As that streak ended, it was revealed that Comrie was going to have surgery for a hip problem that had plagued him since the 2nd game of the season. After going under the knife, he's out until April, and at this point, it's hard to imagine him having an important role in the post-season when he returns. But hey, I'm sure he's getting taken care of at home in the meantime.

That's all boys and girls.  I'll have a recap tomorrow of the nationally-televised showdown between the Penguins and Boston Bruins tonight (7:30 PM EST, VERSUS) at the Bird House.   If the Penguins have had trouble scoring goals lately without their Captain, it's not going to get any easier tonight against one of the best netminders in the league, Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas.

Let's Go Pens!

Pens' Lose To Wild: I Hope It's Not A Trend ...

2011-01-09T09:01:00.000-05:00

Wednesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Pittsburgh Penguins scored 8 goals in a win over the Tampa Bay Lightning with their Captain contributing only one assist on the scoresheet.

However, in the two games since -- with Sidney Crosby sitting out both because of post-concussion symptoms -- the Pens have scored one goal in two games, both of which were losses not coincidentally, including last night's miserable 4-0 whitewashing by the Minnesota Wild at the CONSOL Energy Center.

I certainly hope this isn't a trend, because I don't see the Penguins' Captain returning for at least several more games.

The Penguins looked like a lost and frustrated group last night -- again unable to generate offense because of an inability to get pucks deep or get speed going.

There just wasn't a lot to write home about in this one folks.

Chuck Kobasew and Martin Havlat scored in the first period for Minnesota, and Cal Clutterbuck and Kyle Brodziak added 3rd period tallies for the Wild, the last of which into an empty net, in sending the Penguins to their second straight defeat.

Pittsburgh was outshot 37-26 on the night, and failed on 4 power play chances.

Marc-Andre Fleury took the loss, continuing the Pens' miserable record against the Wild in the last half a dozen or so seasons, when I believe they have only beat Minnesota one time --- and have lost 4 or 5 in row to them in Pittsburgh

Much more interesting than the on-ice action last night, though, was the comments made earlier in the day by Crosby, who spoke publicly for the first time since being diagnosed with a concussion.

And, in a bit of a surprise stance, the league's best player and ambassador was somewhat critical of the league in the way it handled the two hits he sustained which have combined to give him the neck stiffness and headaches he's been dealing with the last few days.

"You talk about head shots and dealing with them, and that's been something that's been a pretty big point of interest with everybody" Crosby said. "When looking at those hits .... there's no puck there -- and a direct hit to the head on both of them. If you want to go through the criteria, I think they fit all those."

I know Crosby is frustrated, and I can't stand seeing him out of the Penguins' lineup, but as I said here a few days ago, I'm still not seeing it.

For those who haven't seen the hits, the hit Washington Capitals' forward David Stecklel laid on Crosby at the end of the second period of Saturday night's Winter Classic can be found here, while the even simpler hit that Lightning defenseman Victor Headman put on Sid wednesday evening can be found here.

In my mind, Crosby is out of the lineup more because of the Steckel hit because it was a lot harder -- or perhaps the cumulative effect of both -- but as I said, I don't think either were penalties or anything close to fine or suspension-worthy.

In associating the word "blindside" with those hits, it tends to bring to mind the two most vicious blindside hits the NHL has seen in recent years -- and the impetus to bring about the league's rule changes trying to target those hits. Of course, those were the hits that Fhiladelphia Flyers' forwrad Mike Richards laid on Florida Panthers' forward David Booth and the hit that his own teammate, Matt Cooke, put on Bruins' forward Marc Savard.

In my opinion, both hits Crosby sustained weren't really anything like those checks. The Hedman one was pretty much a simple push when Crosby was already up against the boards, and I still continue to see the Steckel hit (which I have viewed over and over and over again for anything I may have missed) as incidental contact --- contact that, unfortunately, occurred between #87 and a player much bigger than him.

It doesn't sound as if Crosby is going to continue to make an issue out of what happened, but it certainly was interesting to see the face of the league seemingly speak out -- albeit carefully -- against the NHL for not taking action to punish or discipline the hits (and players) that have left him concussed.

For their part, head coach Dan Bylsma reiterated yesterday that Crosby was evaluated by doctors after the Steckel hit and before Pittsburgh's next game against the Lightning. According to him, Crosby's neck was a little sore, but that wasn't viewed as a concussion related symptom.

I presume the other symptoms must have come later, because while neck stiffness isn't the most obvious concussion symptom like headaches and dizzyness are, neck soreness can be a symptom of a concussion.

Let's hope the Penguins and their team doctors at least considered the possibility that Sid might be having concussion-related symtpoms after Crosby's direct hit to the head by Steckel -- even if they only came in the form of neck pain.

Regardless, the Penguins need to find a way to start generating some offense, and they'll have a chance to do so again starting tomorrow night against the Boston Bruins.

I know I still owe some 24/7 reviews, and a post of team-grades at the halfway point of the season. I'll try to get something up on at least one of those subjects tomorrow. It's been a crazy weekend.

Thanks for reading ....

Crosby Has Mild Concussion; Sits Out 2-1 Shootout Loss in Montreal

2011-01-07T08:09:00.000-05:00

It's no wonder he was mostly held off the scoresheet while his teammates put an 8 on the board.

Penguins' Captain and NHL scoring leader Sidney Crosby had a concussion.

After tallying only a single assist among the 20+ points his team rang up on Wednesday night at home in an 8-1 beating of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and after flying with the team postgame to Montreal where the Penguins would play the Canadiens last night, Crosby took a separate charter back to Pittsburgh yesterday before the game -- ultimately a 2-1 shootout loss -- where team doctors there diagnosed him with a 'mild concussion'.

Prior to yesterday's contest when Head Coach Dan Bylsma announced that Crosby wouldn't be in the lineup, he said simply that Crosby had an 'upper body injury'.

After the game, though, Bylsma got word from the experts back home and -- together with announcing the diagnosis -- spread the word that Crosby would be out about a week.

Concussions are always a concern because with each one, a player is said to be more susceptible to another, but the good news is that this one seems to be of the more basic variety.

What's quite curious about the situation, however, is the decision to play Crosby against the Lightning when -- as I and many others speculate -- the concussion was sustained in the Winter Classic when Washington Capitals' forward David Steckel caught Crosby in the head with a pretty solid blow when he was skating up the ice late in the second period.

Bylsma wouldn't confirm that's when the concussion occurred. In fact, prior to last night's game, he said the opposite -- that the injury was sustained in Wednesday's game.

Crosby did have his head and face shoved up against the glass by Lightning blueliner Victor Hedman in the game -- a hit that left Crosby with a stunned grimace -- but he continued to play after that hit, just like he did in the third period of the Winter Classic after the Steckel hit.

Disco Dan added last night that Crosby was seen by doctors at Heinz Field, and again Wednesday night after the win against the Lightning, but when he woke up in the morning in Montreal, he didn't feel good.

That's when they decided to send #87 back home.

Things without Crosby were no picnic last night against the Canadiens, either.

In a complete contrast with the night before, the Penguins weren't able to generate much offense. They got an early goal from Aaron Asham -- who actually had been a healthy scratch against the Lightning but returned last night -- but that was the extent of their production.

In fact, they were outscored by some french guy with more vowels in his name than I have fingers.

Okay -- maybe not that many -- but Benoit Pouliot scored Montreal's only goal in regulation in the 2nd period, then scored their only goal in 5 chances in the shootout against Pens' netminder Brent Johnson.

That might have been good enough for Pittsburgh to pull out the extra point on most nights, but with defenseman Kris Letang and forwards Pascal Dupuis, Evgeni Malkin, Mark Letestu and Chris Kunitz all failing to beat Habs' goalie Carey Price on their turns in the shootout, the bruised and battered Penguins suffered a 2-1 defeat.

While Pittsburgh ultimately outshot Montreal 32-23 on the night, I don't think the ice was titled quite that much.

The Pens had the better of the play in the opening frame, but Montreal did a better job generating good chances most of the rest of the way and -- save for a few real good chances that Jordan Staal had but could not convert -- let a tall and confident Carey Price easily toss aside most of what the Penguins threw at him from the outside .

In fact, the Boys of Winter could very well consider themselves fortunate to get the point, since they had to kill off about 3 and 1/2 consecutive shorthanded minutes with the third period winding down -- including two straight minutes of 5-on-3 time -- thanks to several consecutive penalties, two of which involved shooting the puck over the glass from their own zone.

That's a penalty that's happened to Pittsburgh a bit too much lately, and something they definitely have to be more careful of.

The Penguins also had to deal with adjusted lines last night with Crosby out of action.

Letestu stepped up to center the #1 line with Kunitz and Dupuis, so Bylsma could leave the 2nd line with Staal, Malkin and Tyler Kennedy intact. Max Talbot centered the third line in Letestu's place, and Asham stepped in on the left side there because LW Matt Cooke also missed last night's game. He had to fly back to Pittsburgh with Crosby for what has only been disclosed as "personal reasons".

Finally, on top of those changes, the Penguins had to dress 7 defenseman just to field a full roster, and that led to Deryk Engelland getting about 5 minutes of action on the wing in the game.

So, the Penguins will lick their wounds and return home, where they will next face the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night at the CONSOL Energy Center.

While Crosby won't play, there's no word yet on Cooke's status, and there may even be a bit of a question about the playing status of Malkin, who had an awkward fall late in the third period last night after Montreal forward Scott Gomez pitchforked Malkin's skate blade out from underneath him and forced him to twist his left knee -- the same one that was injured for him earlier this season -- and do a bit of a split, to boot.

While Malkin thankfully returned to play, he was said to be favoring the leg a little bit after the game.

Personally, I thought he might have pulled a groin.

Anyway, in light of all this, there's a chance that someone from Wilkes-Barre is going to join the club in time for tomorrow's contest. We'll see.

More this weekend ...

Pens Jolt Lightning And Win By A Touchdown, 8-1

2011-01-06T08:37:00.001-05:00

Okay, so their timing was off by one game.

If there was a game to win by a touchdown, it was the Pittsburgh Penguins' LAST game.

You know, the one at the football stadium against the Washington Capitals?

Yeah, that Heinz Field Winter Classic thing.

Well, since that didn't work out, I suppose the Penguins will have to be content with beating the Tampa Bay Lightning by a touchdown instead, which they did last night at the CONSOL Energy Center by running up a 5-0 first period lead and ultimately browbeating the Lightning, 8-1.

Pittsburgh certainly wasted no time getting back into their regular routine last night without the HBO cameras around and without all the buildup that accompanied them kicking off the New Year in primetime, as Evgeni Malkin intercepted a pass right off the opening faceoff won by the Lightning, danced into the offensive zone, then flipped a puck past new Tampa Bay goaltender Dwayne Roloson -- the hero from the night before in the Lightning's 1-0 overtime win over the Caps.

Before most people were even in their seats, the onslaught continued 2 minutes later when an Alex Goligoski point shot went off forward Chris Conner's skate and behind Roloson, and then Tyler Kennedy chased Roloson to the bench at the 7 minute mark when he broke across the slot and showed a lot of patience before firing a shot that went through Roloson's legs and off the skate of Lightning blueliner Pavel Kubina and in for a 3-0 lead.

LW Chris Kunitz wasted no time welcoming new Tampa Bay netminder Dan Ellis to the party by beating him top corner glove side 30 seconds later, and Kunitz added another goal before the period ended when he deflected a Goligoski point shot past Ellis on the power play.

Leading 5-0 at that point, the Penguins had to wonder whether they were going to hit double digits before the end of the second frame.   They hadn't scored 5 goals in the opening period of a game in the last 18 or so years.

You knew Tampa should have just packed up and returned to Florida a few minutes into the second period when Steven Stamkos was awarded a penalty shot, but lost both the puck and his skate edge when he just fell down 45-feet out as he approached Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

That was just desserts for a lame call awarding the shot in the first place, if you ask me.

Meanwhile, Roloson returned to the game in the 2nd period in time for Pens' forward Mark Letestu to flash some incredible individual skill when he scored to make it 6-0 past the 12 minute mark.  Test tube took a nice, short dish pass from Tyler Kennedy before going inside out on Roloson, leaving him on the parkway headed to the airport (as Pens' hall-of-fame radio play-by-play man Mike Lange would say), and roofing a backhander into the otherwise vacated cage.

Credit has to go to TK on the play. He made just an oustanding pass to Letestu. I spoke yesterday in this space how he needs to do more besides skate fast and shoot pucks. He definitely did the job on that sequence.

Kunitz kept things going when he notched a hat trick before the period expired, deflecting another GoGo point shot past Roloson on the power play for a 7-0 advantage.

While former Penguin Adam Hall managed to bang one past Fleury early in the third period, Goligoski quickly reminded Tampa of their place when he finished a 4-on-1 rush a minute later by scoring on a wrister from the slot top corner, glove side over Ellis -- who had been re-inserted into the game for more abuse.

At 8-1, that pretty much put the Lightning out of their misery.

Pittsburgh outshot the Lighting 41-32 on the night.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned Sidney Crosby's name a single time in this post so-far. That's because -- surprisingly -- he was mostly a non-factor last night.   His only point in the 8-goal Penguin outburst was an assist on Kunitz's first goal.

Center Jordan Staal also went pointless on the night while making his 'home' debut.

And, considering that Malkin's only point of the game was on his opening goal, most of the damage done against Tampa Bay occurred at the hands of Pittsburgh's support players, together with blueliners Goligoski -- who finished with 4 points on the night -- and Kris Letang, who had 3 assists.

Sure, the Penguins were given a little bit of a break by the schedule maker on this one, what with the Lightning playing in a key division battle the night before against one of their biggest rivals.

But aside from the fact that the Pens will repay that favor since they have to play in Montreal tonight against the Canadiens, Tampa Bay still came into the game as one of the better clubs in the Eastern Conference, tied with Pittsburgh and the Philadelphia Flyers for the top spot with 53 points. And remember, they achieved that total with some of the worst goaltending in the league this season --- which is why they went out and acquired Roloson a few days ago -- and that says something about their club.

However, last night's game may have showed that, for all their supreme offensive skill up front, they may not quite be ready to compete with the big boys in the East yet -- especially on the blueline.

That's all for now boys and girls. I'll have a recap of tonight's Pens'/Canadiens tilt tomorrow. I know I didn't get something up yesterday on the third 24/7 episode, so what I'll just do at this point is post a piece reviewing that episode and last night's outstanding 24/7 finale. Hopefully that will come this weekend.

I also hope to have mid-season grades sometime this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Let's Go Pens!

Penguins In The Spotlight As Lightning Come To Town

2011-01-05T08:36:00.000-05:00

As the Pittsburgh Penguins prepare to hop back on the proverbial horse tonight and resume their NHL schedule against Steven Stamkos and the Tampa Bay Lightning at the CONSOL Energy Center (7:00 PM EST), the glare of the hockey world continues to focus on Pittsburgh.

Yesterday, Sidney Crosby was named the NHL's #1 star for the month of December. Thanks to his 24 points in 13 December games -- including 8 multiple point efforts -- he was given the award over red-hot Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo and ageless Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom.

This was the second straight month the Pens' Captain earned the league's #1 star, after taking home that prize in November, too.

On top of that, we learned that the Penguins are going to take the NHL All-Star game -- this year in Raleigh, NC, home of the Carolina Hurricanes on January 30 -- by storm.

Not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Penguin players were voted by the fans to play in the game -- centers Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, defenseman Kris Letang, and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

"It's pretty cool that we all get to go there together," Fleury said.

Given that only the top six players in the voting were chosen, the final tally speaks volumes as to the popularity of the Penguins nationwide.

While Crosby -- the top vote getter -- was an obvious choice, the Penguins should get a lot of satisfaction from having the other 3 players selected.

That's not to say they aren't deserving; it's just that there are interesting stories behind each of the their selections.

For openers, Malkin is not really having a good year. He battled a knee problem in the first half of the season that limited his production and, just when it looked like he was coming out of his shell, he's taken a bit of a step back the last 3 or 4 games.

Right now, he's on pace for a career low in goals and points, and his form is a far cry from that which made him an Art Ross and Conn Smythe Trophy winner just two years ago.

Obviously, Penguin fans nationwide still support him.

Fleury, meanwhile, looked completely and totally lost to start the season. At one point in early November, he had a 1-6 record and statistics that would embarrass a backup goaltender.

Since that time, however, he's 16-3-2 and on pace to have career best numbers in wins, goals-against-average and save percentage. There's a reason the Penguins went through a stretch where they didn't allow more than 2 goals in 10 straight games. He's looked as good between the pipes in the last two months than he ever has.

"Probably the one all-star pick that pleases me the most is his," said head coach Dan Bylsma of Fleury's selection.

Letang may just be the most incredible story of the 4, though. Other than Crosby, Letang is probably the most deserving all-star in the group. He's 4th in the league in points among blueliners and has the third best plus-minus among all players leaguewide.

But what makes Letang's voting numbers so amazing is that he wasn't even on the original NHL ballot.

That's right ... every single one of his 400,000+ votes came by way of the write-in variety, and that's something that I can't ever recall happening in 28 years of following this great game.

Of course, voting these days can take place by text message and over the internet, but the point is that you have to type his name in to choose him.

"It feels unbelievable" (to be selected), said Letang.

Now, while Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Letang were all selected by the fans to start the game, I'm not certain whether they're actually going to start the game. That's typically how it works, but this year, after the league chooses the remaining all-stars, the league is going to select captains who get to pick their players among them -- sort of like a pick-up game. While the format will be new and interesting, and probably a bit more fun, I have no clue how they will determine who starts. Perhaps the Captains will decide that, too. If not them, it will probably be the coaches.

Either way, kudos to those four players for being selected to represent Pittsburgh in the league's All-Star game.

It's the first time the Penguins have had 4 players in the showcase for almost two decades.

Speaking of All-Stars, at least two players who will surely be joining Crosby, Malkin, Letang and Fleury on the ice in Raleigh will be wearing visiting uniforms tonight, with Stamkos and Martin St. Louis leading Tampa Bay into town.

The Lightning are coming off a 1-0 overtime win last night against the Washignton Capitals in DC behind the strength of 34 saves from their new goaltender, Dwayne Roloson -- acquired about 3 days ago from the New York Islanders.

While there's no word on whether the Penguins will see him between the pipes tonight, they certainly will have to deal with two of the most dangerous forwards in the league.

Stamkos has 31 goals -- one behind Crosby's 32 for the league-lead -- and is second in points behind Sid in the overall scoring race (65-56).

Meanwhile, St. Louis has quietly risen to third place in the points race, and scored the game-winner last night to raise his team's point total to 53.

And, in case you still look down on the Lightning as a less-than-accomplished team, you should know that their point total is the same as that held by the local hockey club, and one point ahead of Washington for the Southeast Division lead.

For their part, the Penguins look to get back on track tonight after coming out on the wrong end in 3 of their last 4 games.

To do that, it appears as if their second line may have a little bit of a different look this evening.

Sure, Jordan Staal remains slated to center Malkin on that line, but if practice yesterday was any indication, they are going to be joined on by RW Tyler Kennedy, who would play his off-wing on the left side.

"He adds a disruption factor and a speed factor to a line that other guys on our team don't match," Bylsma said. "He has speed on the forecheck, chasing pucks down, tenacity wise pursuing the puck."

While it's hard to argue with Blysma's assessment of Kennedy's game, the problem with Kennedy is that he hasn't proven the ability to consistently finish.

One goal in his last 19 games pretty much says everything you need to know in that department.

Now, admittedly, the Penguins don't have an overwhelming amount of clearly better options than Kennedy (Talbot? Cooke?). And, I won't deny that no matter who's on the other side, you count on Gronk and Geno to do most of the scoring on that line. But TK has to do more than just skate and be tenacious. Let's hope he can handle the puck with those guys, too.

It's going to be interesting to see how that plays out, and see if Chris Conner continues to be a healthy scratch, as he was in the Winter Classic.

I'll have a recap tomorrow. Before that, though, look for a piece from me later about the 3rd installment of HBO's 24/7 series which aired last week. I know I haven't gotten anything up on that (been a bit hectic with the New Year and that Winter Classic thing), but I should have something posted before the finale of that quartet of episodes, which premiers this evening (10:00 PM EST). After all, that's the episode that chronicled the Penguins' 3-2 shootout win over Washington on the road 2 days before Christmas, so I can't miss the opportunity to speak on that.

Thanks for reading .....

Engelland Signs 3-Year Contract Extension

2011-01-04T09:25:00.000-05:00

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced yesterday that they extended rugged defenseman Deryk Engelland's contract for 3 years at $1.7 million dollars.

The deal is a guaranteed, one-way contract with an annual cap hit of around .56 of a million dollars.

While Engelland has fast developed a reputation as one of the toughest fighters in the NHL -- ask Colton Orr and Jody Shelley about that if you have any doubts -- he's also proven himself to be a pretty solid 6/7 defenseman in the league.

Engelland has gotten better defensively in the season's first half, and adds a needed physical element in the corners and in front of the Pens' goal. If he continues to do that while providing the intimidation factor, his contract can only be considered a bargain for Pittsburgh.

"His ability to play defense and to defend and to be physical against good players is the biggest thing he's shown this year," head coach Dan Bylsma said.

Obviously, many in the organization are happy that Engelland has developed into someone the team can trot out there on a regular basis and feel fairly comfortable about it, but let's face it --- while Engelland has been around the organization for several years, I don't think many people saw him taking the jump he did this year.

If the Penguins' brass and GM Ray Shero had anticipated Engelland playing so well, they probably wouldn't have signed Ben Lovejoy to a similar contract before the season.

Lovejoy, of course, was who the Pens thought would capture and hold down the spot as their #6 blueliner this year.

The Penguins are going to have an interesting conundrum on their blueline the next several years. Just about every regular in their lineup at that position is under contract for at least the next several seasons, and Pittsburgh is very, very deep in their organization with prospects on defense.

In fact, their top prospect on the back end -- Simon Despres -- is almost NHL ready as it is, and the Penguins have several other strong rearguards in the pipeline that are probably going to be ready to take things to the next level at some point.

What does all of that mean?

Trades.

I'm not suggesting Shero will make such a move before this year's February 28 trading deadline, but with all of the depth the franchise has at that position, it only makes sense that he'll move a blueliner or two eventually -- and probably for help up front. The only questions are when it will happen, and who's going to go.

Moreover, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see it be someone from the big club. If it happens that way, I'm afraid that Alex Goligoski is the most likely one to move, both beacuse of his skill set and role on the team, as well as the fact that he has a reasonable cap hit on a soon-to-be expiring contract.

In short, the Penguins could probably get decent value for the offensive blueliner.

Obviously, time will tell.

Meanwhile, it appears that some of the Winter Classic television rating information I talked about yesterday may have been incomplete.

Yesterday, I wrote that the game appeared to score a 1.8 rating. Later, it seemed to be reported at a 2.3. Then, news broke that Saturday's Winter Classic was the most watched game in the National Hockey League in 36 years, with an average of 4.5 million people tuning in to watch the game in primetime.

That's a 22% increase over last year's 3.7 milion who tuned in to watch the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers play in the 2010 Winter Classic, and .1 million more than those who watched the 2009 Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.

Now, I'm not in television, so I don't understand how you can have a 1.8 rating (or even a 2.3 rating) be less than last year's 2.6 rating, yet have 4.5 million people tuned in compared to 3.7 million, but like most other numbers in this world, I'm sure they can be skewed any way desired to make a point.

Hey, I'm all for the league tooting its own horn in any way that will help them secure a good national TV deal at the end of this season, so if number-skewing is what it takes to spin the public perception, you won't find any objection here.

Where you will find an objection, however, is in the Penguins' locker room.

To David Steckel's hit on Sidney Crosby late in the 2nd period of the Winter Classic, that is.

There's been increasing hub-bub about this hit in the days since the game. I didn't talk about it in either of my two post-Winter Classic pieces because I didn't see anything to it.

And, frankly, I still don't.

The Penguins, obviously, don't feel the same way about the hit.

"It was definitely dirty," said Pens' defenseman Brooks Orpik.

"It was not a clean play," said forward Mike Rupp. "If anybody would have seen it, I promise there would have been a reaction."

For those who haven't seen the play, it can be found here.

Now, I've watched this footage over and over and I don't see any ill intent on Steckel's part whatsoever. I don't see him turning his stride towards Crosby at the last second, as some Penguins have alleged, nor do I see him doing anything which looks like he's trying to take a cheap shot at Pittsburgh's Captain.

To me, it appears that Steckel is looking ahead watching the play going up the ice and trying to get in on the rush --- then Crosby makes a sudden turn into his path. The fact that Steckel is about a half a foot taller than Crosby is what would put his shoulder at Sid's head-level.

Perhaps even more would be made of this is Crosby suffered a serious injury on the play. As it was, he was only temporarily dazed, and no long term harm was done.

As far as I'm concerned, it's much-ado about nothing, even if Orpik doesn't think so.

"We still play him a couple of times," he said.

More tomorrow on the Pens/Lightning.

A Classic It Wasn't: Pens' Fall To Soggy Conditions, Caps, 3-1 In Winter Classic

2011-01-02T08:55:00.001-05:00

Last night, in front of 68,111 fans, the bright lights of Heinz Field, all the eyes of NBC and the sporting world in prime time during the NHL's 4th Winter Classic -- this time between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals -- it was easy to come up with one word to describe what would otherwise be a difficult event to summarize.

Wet.

After pushing back the game the day before from a 1 PM Saturday start to an 8 PM evening gig based on the threat of rain mostly only up to a certain point, the league got more soggy weather than they bargained for during, and even after, what ended up being a 3-1 Washington victory.

Oh sure, it rained during the day as predicted, although it probably stopped prior to the game a bit sooner than anticipated.

What wasn't forcast, however, was the amount of rain that started again during the second period and really picked up for 10 minutes into the 3rd.

Both teams had to play on a pretty soggy surface that was evident not only by just looking at the rink, but by watching the bouncing puck and the inability of either team -- especially the Penguins -- to get any flow to their game last night.

On an evening when Pittsburgh would have been well suited to dump the puck in and bang bodies, they couldn't do that because they couldn't rely on their normally-quick skaters to even get to the puck through poor ice conditions.

And it goes without saying that they weren't able to rely on their speed through the neutral zone to generate any offense either.

And so, it was up to the pluggers and muckers to do the job last night.

Unfortunately, on this one evening anyway, the Capitals got more from theirs than the Penguins' did.

After Pens' forward Evgeni Malkin scored an early 2nd period tally on a semi-breakaway by beating Washington netminder Simeon Varlamov through the legs, Mike Knuble tied it later that period on a scramble in front of the net, and Eric Fehr (ERIC FEHR?!?) added two third period tallies to win the game for the Caps' and send a lot of Penguin fans -- myself included -- home unhappy.

While there wasn't much beauty to the action last night, Fehr's third goal was a nice top-corner wrist shot as he broke in somewhat uncontested on Fleury and capitalized on a nice give-and-go with teammate Jason Chimera.

Interestingly, one of the factors that played into that goal was the teams switching sides a few minutes earlier at the 10 minute mark of that final frame. That's a specific rule for the Winter Classic so the weather conditions aren't more favorable to one team over the other, but the consequence last night was the Pens' again having the long change from their bench, and on Fehr's goal, that's exactly what kept Pascal Dupuis from catching Fehr on the backcheck after he snuck behind teammate Paul Martin.

Still, the bigger heartburn in the game was Washington's second goal early in the third period -- also by Fehr -- made possible when Fleury misplayed the puck on a dumparound behind the Pens' net and unforutnately, had the puck go right to a Capitals' player. That player was Caps' forward Marcus Johansson, and he wasted about as much time getting it to Fehr in front as Fehr did shooting it into the empty, vacated cage for a 2-1 Caps' lead.

When he scored later, that was all Washington needed for the win.

Curiously, the game involved two more plays where goals were waved off because of contact with the goalie -- but without a goaltender interference penalty being called. That was the same call that hurt the Penguins about a week and a half ago in a loss to the New York Rangers, but I suppose with one on each side last night, they washed each other out.

That, of course, was fitting irony.

To their credit, while the conditions clearly slowed them down, not one Penguin -- including their Captain, Sidney Crosby, who went pointless for the second straight game and, together with Washington star Captain Alexander Ovechkin, failed to hit the scoresheet in this one -- complained. At least publicly.

Despite adjusting his skate edges to account for the tough ice before the game, Crosby said afterwards that, "the conditions were all right." He later added -- in league-ambassador form -- that "it was a privilege" to be a part of the game.

Even Fleury said "the conditions weren't that bad."

The best you could get was from Pens' LW Chris Kunitz who summed up how difficult it was to corral the biscuit in the weather when he said, "it didn't seem like the puck would always sit in the proper area of your stick"

After misplaying the biscuit behind the goal, I'm sure that's something Fleury must agree with.

Frankly, I can't figure how the Pens' put up 33 shots to the Capitals' 32 in this one.

For their part, Washington was obviously exuberant after the game.

"What a wonderful hockey experience," said Caps' GM George McPhee.

"It's one of the best feelings of my life," said Ovechkin.

Still, it's undeniable that this game had more meaning and more value to a Washington franchise still trying to find their way after an 8-game losing streak in December.

Would it have been great for the Penguins to win it?

You betcha.

As it was, they'll have to settle for the privilege of just playing the host.

Wet host, that is.

Anybody have an umbrella?

NOTES:

I'll have more on the game tomorrow, including word on the ratings, the impact of the game on the league as a whole, what's next for the Penguins, and a note on the return of center Jordan Staal, who played for the first time all season.

Winter Classic Hits and Happenings: Rain, Rain Go Away

2010-12-31T07:53:00.000-05:00

It's going to be a damp one at Heinz Field on Saturday, folks.

With all eyes on the National Hockey League and it's signature event between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals currently scheduled for 1:00 PM on Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field, the websites of The Weather Channel and Accuweather, among others, are on overdrive.

As of right now, the forecast for almost all of Saturday looks -- in a word -- terrible.

The temperatures are supposed to be surprisingly fantastic (in the 50's), but there is a 100% chance of rain, and it's expected to add up to about an inch before the day is over.

Meanwhile, the NHL seems hell-bent on making a mistake -- er, playing this game on Saturday sometime -- at all costs, even if it involves baseball-style rain delays.

Obviously, there's a lot that goes into the decision of when to play the game, including television considerations, ice conditions, and player safety, among others.

What doesn't seem to -- BUT SHOULD BE -- a consideration is fan enjoyment.

The Winter Classic has become the NHL's signature crossover event to try and grow the game, and with the league seemingly less interested in setting up ideal conditions for it than they are keeping it on New Year's Day -- whether just to be able to say it was played sometime that day, or avoid conflicts with interest in NFL games the day after -- I'm not sure how they're going to do that this year.

The right thing for the league to do is examine the forecast tonight or first thing tomorrow morning -- there shouldn't be any problem doing that, because at this point, so much rain is at stake, variations in the degree or time of it probably won't matter much -- and make a call to officially push the game back to later in the evening Saturday. They could even push it back to Sunday when, by the way, the weather is expected to be clear and dry, albeit about 20 degrees colder.

I don't know about you, but I'd take 20 degrees colder in dry weather 11 times out of 10 for this one.

Moving the game like that would continue to let the hype build without all the uncertainty that comes with it for everyone involved -- players, league officials, local students performing in the band, musical acts performing between periods, the fans, etc.

Whether the league actually shows some brains and does that or not remains to be seen. The league has not set a drop-dead time for announcing any changes to the schedule. Instead, they've said simply that they'll get word out at "the appropriate time" if there are any changes.

It seems likely that the league is going to leave the 1 PM start time in place and instead delay the game, keeping everyone hanging around @ Heinz field for hour after hour after hour just waiting.

Leave it to the NHL to find a way to jack this event up for everyone.

Okay, enough ranting. Let's change gears for a minute and talk about the players.

Of course, a discussion about the players involved in this tilt leads everyone to talk about Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby and Capitals' Captain Alexander Ovechkin, but there's already been enough written about those two, so the guy I want to talk about is Pittsburgh center Jordan Staal.

As most people know, Staal hasn't played a game this season after missing the first 6 weeks while still recovering from several offseason surgerys to correct a torn foot tendon and the infection that followed, then suffering a broken hand in practice on his verge of returning to the lineup in early November.

One day before the Classic, there's still no word as to whether or not Gronk may suit up in the team's baby blues for the contest. He's been skating and stickhandling and participating in all drills with his teammates in practice all week.

Staal also had a repeat x-ray this week that seemed to show no problems and proper healing.

As I've said, if #11 can deal with the contact and otherwise show little or no limitation out there, he deserves the opportunity to play in this special event simply because he's had a miserable year being on the shelf the whole season.

Now, if risk of re-injury is there, then he obviously shouldn't go, because the Penguins have longer-term goals in mind this year.

As it is, though, it appears any risk of re-injury is low or non-existent.

There's been no word from the team or staff (although that may come today) about Staal's status for tomorrow, so I'm hoping that's just because the Penguins are planning on surprising the hockey world with his return.

Finally, with nice weather fortunately scheduled TODAY, there's going to be a little preliminary event over at Heinz Field this morning @ 9:30 AM when the Penguins' alumni face-off against the Capitals' alumni.

The headliner of this game is undoubtedly the Pens' owner, Mario Lemieux, who will be suiting up with many of his former champion star and Hall-of-Fame teammates, including Paul Coffey, Ron Francis, Larry Murphy and Brian Trottier, among others.

Sniper Peter Bondra and former 60-goal scorer Denis Maruk headline a Washington lineup that really pales in comparison to the local club's alumni.

In fact, I look at the rosters of both clubs and it's obvious why one team's franchise has 3 Stanley Cup Championships and the other has a grand total of ZERO.

Still, it's going to be great to see the magnificent one on skates again. In the pre-game practice sessions this week, he's looked fantastic.

Forgetting for a moment the fact that he still seems to have the hands and wizardry to do damage in today's league even at 45, he's been smiling ear-to-ear on the ice and has appeared to genuinely enjoy himself and the stage that he's helped build for his franchise.

Good for Lemieux. It's going to be great to see him wearing #66 again.

That's all for now, dear readers.

Enjoy the Classic tomorrow wherever you are, and celebrate a safe and enjoyable New Year.

Let's Go Pens!

TRAPPED! Islanders Slam The Door On Pens, Crosby's 25-Game Point Streak

2010-12-30T09:02:00.001-05:00

It takes a lot of things to score at least one point in 25 consecutive National Hockey League games.

Consistency, for one.

Skilled teammates who finish your chances, for another.

Even some luck.

Apparently, the New York Islanders aren't on that list, and that's unforuntate, because last night at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, the Pittsburgh Penguins matched up against the Isles for the first time during Captain Sidney Crosby's extended run.

Pittsburgh was 11-1-1 against the Islanders the last 2 years and 16-4-1 dating back the last +, and since the Isles were the team that Crosby has scored more against than any team in his career, everything seemed ripe to keep the run going.

Instead, all New York did last night was trap the Penguins right to a grinding halt in a 2-1 shootout defeat, and end Crosby's streak in the process.

"It would have been nice to keep things going, but it was one of those games," Crosby said afterwards.

The Pens' were a little sluggish last night, but they also ran square into a New York squad that has recently instituted a new defensive system under their latest coach, Jack Capuano.

Worse, it seemed to me that part of their game plan last night included sending out a particular player to 'shadow' Crosby, since he had Frans Nielsen in his face most of the evening.

That tactic just isn't done a great deal in the NHL anymore. In the 1980's, it was a constant practice.

Still, Crosby had a few good chances in the game. He hit the crossbar at one point, and watched teammate Paul Martin miss a golden chance to get him a helper. For the most part, though, he was bottled up.

The Penguins couldn't even get him a point using trickery, which they might have been attempting with about 7 minutes left in the 1-1 tie game when the zebras called a penalty shot after deeming that Islanders' defenseman Bruno Gervais covered up the puck in the crease with his hand.

I wasn't able to see Gervais actually close his hand on the biscuit, but when the call was made, Pens' head coach Dan Blysma sent Crosby quickly over the boards and on to the ice in the hope of having him take the shot, despite the fact that he wasn't on the ice when the call was made.

With the little matter of a rule requiring that a person on the ice take the penalty shot in the situation when the puck is covered with a hand in the crease by someone not a goaltender, that effort didn't work, so Bylsma instead chose Kris Letang to take the shot.

While it was Letang's first career penalty shot, he has been very sick on them in the shootout, so the Penguins had to feel good about the chance to go up 2-1 fairly late in the game, even if it would have left Crosby still searching for a point.

Unforunately, Letang was stopped by Isles' netminder Rick DiPietro, and ultimately, the game went into overtime.

That was the 12th consecutive time a Penguin has been stopped on a penalty shot, by the way -- a rather dubious team record, if you ask me.

Anyway, Pittsburgh had a good chance in the extra frame -- not just to win the game, but have Crosby keep his streak alive -- when they were awared a power play for the final 75 seconds, but they didn't really get off a good scoring chance.

And so, at the end of 65 minutes, with Chris Conner having scored the Pens' only goal, and since any shootout goals don't count towards personal statistics, Sid's streak was over.

Worse, Crosby was stopped in the shootout, to boot. And while Letang and Evegni Malkin scored for the Penguins, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury had a surprisingly rough time against the non-descript Islanders' shooters.

Coming into the shootout, Fleury had allowed only 1 goal on 9 attempts this year. For some reason, though, Rob Schremp, Neilsen, and P.A. Parentau -- with 12 less goals combined than Crosby has scored by himself this year -- all made it look easy against the Flower last night, and that was enough to give the Islanders a rare win against Pittsburgh.

Forgetting for a moment that Crosby's streak was starting to get more and more national attention as he chased the top 2 in league history -- 51 straight games held by Wayne Gretzky, and 46 straight by his owner, #66 -- the fact that Crosby was able to score for 25 straight games is an amazing accomplishment.

As it was, while it didn't even top Lemieux's 28 game run with the Pens, it still was the 11th longest ever in the history of the game, and the longest in the league in the last 18 seasons. Sid did an amazing job during the run, too, scoring 24 goals and 26 assists for 50 points in those 25 games.

Averaging 2 points per game during that run and knowing that he scored at least one in every game -- meaning that for every game he only scored one point, there was another game where he had at least 3 -- was pretty special.

But the reality is that too many variables go into scoring on any given night, especially in the league these days when it's generally harder to score than it was during the years Wayne and Mario were running up their streaks.

The fact that Sid's run is over right before the Winter Classic this weekend is extra disappointing, because you know the streak would have been something that everyone on NBC and in league circles talked about surrounding the game. It would have given an already-incredibly hyped game even more drama. As it is, we'll have to settle for the Penguins/Capitals.

Well, I think that will be fine, thankyouverymuch.

Heading into the Classic, after last night's shootout loss (and the point that goes with it), Pittsburgh has a 25-11-3 record, good for 53 points, currently first overall in the Atlantic Division, Eastern Conference, and overall NHL standings.

The Capitals, meanwhile, are 22-12-5, first in the Southeast Division, and 2nd in the East.

I'll have more on the Classic tomorrow, as the teams get ready, and as everyone weather-watches.

NOTES:

Brent Johnson dressed to back up Fleury in last night's game, which means the Pens' returned John Curry to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Forward Mike Comrie is now officially on the shelf and set to be babied by wife Hilary Duff for 3-4 months, which the team announced yesterday after revealing that he had recent, 'successful' hip surgery in Colorado. Of course, they didn't mention the Duff part. He may be back for the playoffs, but what role he might have at that time -- if any at all -- is almost impossible to guess at this point.

Meanwhile, center Jordan Staal continues to skate and practice with the team, which he's been doing for the last several days. He's involved in all puck drills and full contact, and is said to feel good. It remains to be seen whether he'll be cleared to play in the elements this weekend. I'm hoping he gets the chance, though. He deserves a little enjoyment in what has otherwise been a miserable season on the shelf for him so far.

Bounceback Kids Do It Again: Pens Thrash Atlanta, 6-3

2010-12-29T09:40:00.000-05:00

It's goes without saying that a good team wins 12 games in a row.

The sign of a team better than just good, however, is the ability to bounce back after a loss and keep yourselves from spiriling into something like an 8-game losing streak.

It's just another lesson for the Capitals to take from the Penguins, so I hope they were paying attention last night when Pittsburgh pulled up their bootstraps and ran their record against the Southeast Division to 9-1 this year with a 6-3 beating of the Atlanta Thrashers at CONSOL Energy Center.

Pittsburgh was hoping to get a much better start last night than it did against the Ottawa Senators on Sunday, but the players instead found themselves behind the 8 ball less than a minute into the game when Atlanta forward Evander Kane snuck in on a rush, got behind the Pens' "D", took a pass and buried it behind a sprawling Marc-Andre Fleury for a 1-0 Thrasher lead.

Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby didn't wait long after that to run his scoring streak to 25 games, taking a pass from defenseman Kris Letang to the left of Atlanta netminder Ondrej Pavelec and easily whipping it into the open cage on the power play to tie the score about 6-7 minutes later.

When Thrashers' star blueliner Dustin Byfuglien then capitalized on the Penguins leaving him alone at the point by drilling a bullet by Fleury to make it 2-1 Atlanta later that period, Crosby took his cue again, this time taking a nice pass from Alex Goligoski on the move at the Thrashers' blueline, deftly splitting Atlanta defensemen Brent Sopel and Ron Hainsey in Lemieux-like fashion, then going top corner, glove side on Pavelec to tie the score at 2 before the first intermission.

In case anyone hadn't noticed, Crosby is just dangerously wicked right now.

The game started to turn in the Pens' favor in the second period, as they outshot Atlanta 10-1 to start the frame, then were rewarded when LW Matt Cooke made a nice play to steal the puck on the forecheck behind the Atlanta goal and quickly feed an oncoming Craig Adams, who scored his first goal in 28 games by flicking a wrister off the crossbar and past Pavelec for a shorthanded tally and a 3-2 Pittsburgh advantage about 11 minutes in.

The score remained that way heading to the third period, but it didn't stay that way for long.

9 seconds into the final frame, off the opening face-off, Crosby bowled into the Atlanta zone from left to right and fed the puck in to an oncoming Chris Kunitz, who easily tapped it in virtually uncontested on the doorstep for a 4-2 Pens lead.

Putting the pedal down, Mark Letestu scored at the 13 minute mark after making a nice play to pressure an Atlanta defender (I can't recall who), then steal the puck from him, then stickhandle around him, then show the patience of Job before sliding the puck around Pavelec for a 5-2 Pens' lead.

Everyone in attendance thought Sid got the HT a few minutes later when he took a point shot that went in, but it turned out that Cooke deflected the puck past Pavelec on the way in, so he got the tally at around the 16 minute mark, and Crosby got the assist -- his 4th point of the night.

Eric Boulton scored for Atlanta less than a minute later, but all that did was dent Fleury's personal statistics and put another notch -- one of the few lately -- on the board where the Pens' allowed an opponent to score more than two goals.

The final was 6-3.

Kudos to the Pittsburgh PK in this one, for killing off 7 of 8 Atlanta man-advantage opportunities in the game. That group was sharp all night long, even faacing another 5-on-3, which has been a bit of a disturbing trend lately.

With the win, the Pens are now 25-11-2 for 52 points. That continues to leave them as the top dog in the NHL, 2 up on the Detroit Red Wings, 3 up on the Philadelphia Flyers -- who took a bath at the hands of the Canucks in Vancouver last night, 6-2 -- and 3 up on the Capitals in the Eastern Conference standings.

Both Washington and Philadelphia have 49 points, by the way.

With no rest for the weary, the Penguins hit the road immediately after last night's game and went to long island, where they will match up with the Islanders tonight in the 2nd half of back-to-back games -- a scenario that Pittsburgh has been very good with this season, but remains something they have to be careful about because, a 7-2 shellacking by the New York Rangers on Monday night aside, the Isles' have been playing well on the 4-0-1 run they put together prior to that. Let's hope the Islanders are done with their credible play and are instead ready to crash back down to earth.

Let's also hope that Pittsburgh doesn't get caught looking ahead to the Winter Classic showdown this weekend with Washington. With so much hype surrounding that event, and only one more game against a bottom-feeder team on consecutive nights in the way, it's unfortunately easy to envision a scenario where the Penguins might stumble tonight.

Pittsburgh has been focused for the better part of the last two months, though, so I'll be looking for more of that from them this evening.

I'll also be anxious to see who starts in goal. I'm not sure if Brent Johnson is healthy enough to play. We'll see.

I'll have a recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!

Episode II of 24/7 Penguins/Capitals Is Continued Excellence

2010-12-28T08:24:00.000-05:00

I just can't say enough about HBO's epic reality series, "24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the Winter Classic".

The first episode was almost legendary in its behind-the-scenes look at both clubs. If you missed my take on that premier, you can read it here.

While I'm talking about the initial 24/7 edition, I strongly recommend that, if you haven't seen it, you do so before reading on below because the second installment of the 4-part series that I'm about to share my thoughts on builds on some things that went on in the first show.

Not surprisingly, episode II picks up where episode I left off, with the Penguins looking for 13 straight wins and on the plane into Philadelphia for their showdown against the arch-rival Flyers in a nationally televised contest.

Of course, we all know how the game turned out, so there's no need to revisit that defeat, but viewers got to see a neat clip of Penguins' Captain Sidney Crosby in his hotel room the night before watching with linemate Pascal Dupuis the fight between Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and Brandon Dubinsky of the New York Rangers in their game the night before.

That naturally leads to Sid talking about a similar fight he engaged in earlier this year in a game against the Dallas Stars when he dropped the mitts with Dallas blueliner Matt Niskanen with the Pens' in a 4-0 hole.

Crosby says that he told Niskanen they were going to go, and Niskanen's response was, "Are you serious?"
Needless to say, you know how Crosby answered that question.

The episode continues with some great footage from the on-ice session that the Pens have on the afternoon of every home game for every staff member or alumni player who wants to suit up for a little casual shinny.

With the Penguins and Capitals' alumni game scheduled the day before the upcoming Winter Classic and coming up quickly, some of the alumni skated that afternoon, and that group included some guy named Lemeiux.

Not surprisingly, the HBO cameras had a special treat capturing him on the ice, showing the same tall and smooth skating stride at 45 as he had when he was 30.

Better still, it looked like Lemieux was enjoying himself just as much out there, with a smile from ear to ear I would expect to see again during the actual alumni game.

One of the most interesting things which followed that footage was a scene of the NHL officials in their changing area after the game the next night between the Pens' and Rangers -- a 4-1 New York victory -- patting themselves on the back for making what they continued to believe was the right call on a goal Evgeni Malkin had waved off which would have tied the game in the third period.

The call wasn't a penalty, but a reset and faceoff for Dupuis not permitting Rangers' goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to get in position to make a save.

Forgetting for a minute the fact that New York rearguard Michael Rozsival backed Dupuis into Lundqvist, I'll say that -- by the letter of the rule book, anyway -- the zebras were probably right. My problem, however, is the fact that the type of contact Dupuis and Lundqvist had on that play goes on constantly, and that ruling is almost-never made.

Skipping past that scene, viewers of episode II then got to see something else they never get to catch a glimpse of --- a coach and GM talking with a player and telling him that he is being sent back down to the minors.

That's what happened in this instance when Pens' Head Coach Dan Bylsma and GM Ray Shero met alone with recent call-up Dustin Jeffrey in the locker room to tell him he was headed back to Wilkes-Barre of the American Hockey League.

Fascinating stuff.

Back on the Capitals' side of things, I then learned something I didn't know before --- that former San Jose Sharks' netminder Arturs Irbe is actually Washington's goalie coach.

Are you kidding me?

No wonder question marks surround their team's goaltending.

And it's also no wonder more question marks don't surround what the hell the Caps' trainer was doing to Ovechkin on the massage table in the next scene.

That was quite a flogging.

Maybe he was attracted to Ovie's tramp stamp on his lower back?

On the lighter side, we then got to see Pens' LW Matt Cooke playing a prank on former teammate Paul Bissonette, now of the Phoenix Coyotes, in advance of Pittsburgh's next game with the Yotes, which Cookie deftly pulls off by sneaking into the visiting locker room and not only cutting Bissonette's skate blades, but also putting gum in his gloves.

The world of pranks among hockey players is well-known, but what I didn't know before is that those guys actually have an opportunity to do it to a visiting player.

Viewers also finally got to see Washington win a game during this series, when they beat the Ottawa Senators to halt their 8-game losing streak.

I know .... that's a shame.

But not as much of a shame as them celebrating in their locker room afterwards like they won the Stanley Cup, which went down in plain sight of every HBO viewer.

Personally, I'd like to take their 'shovel' that they give to the team's hardest worker after every win -- which we also learned in this episode -- and use it to try and trim the waistline of their pregnant coach.

Violence aside, I'll end with the focus on the 'home' team, including one of Crosby's superstitions being a 5 PM game-day peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Of course, that goes down right before he puts on his 'lucky cup' -- a jock strap which looks like it's been used by 3 different generations within his family.

The worst part is I bet that it's actually been sewn and put back together again like Humpty Dumpty so he can keep using it.

There were fewer one liners from the 2nd episode compared to the first, but for me, the best ones in episdoe II were Pens' forward Mike Rupp telling Crosby during practice that he was wearing a 'sick fanny pack', and Pittsburgh Hall of Fame Radio Play-By-Play Man Mike Lange with the call of "Holy Cheese and Crackers" on one of Crosby's goals.

All in all, another fantastic 60 minutes in this series.

Overall, I don't feel it was quite up to the level of the first episode, and I feel that way notwithstanding that there probably was more buzz to the premier of the entire series. Of course, that was true, but substantively, I also feel that episode I was slightly better than the 2nd installment.

However, I have little doubt that the 3rd episode -- which premiers tomorrow night (10:00 PM EST) -- is going to raise the stakes again, since that show will cover the team's first matchup of the season, last Thursday's pre-Christmas thrilling Pens' 7-round shootout victory over Washington.

Can't wait to catch all the footage on camera from that one.

Remember, the Pens' host the Atlanta Thrashers tonight at The Bird House (7:00 PM EST), looking to get back on track after Sunday's defeat in Ottawa.

Recap tomorrow. Let's Go Pens!

Holiday Hangover: Sens Beat Pens

2010-12-27T08:31:00.000-05:00

It may not have been like Phil working over the tiger in The Hangover, but last night must have seemed a lot like a hangover for the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Ottawa Senators north of the border at Scotiabank place.

Maybe it was the huge win they banked in their last game -- a shootout victory over the arch rival Washington Capitals.

Maybe it was a post holiday-thing.

Either way, Ottawa took it to the Penguins in the first period and by the time 60 minutes were done, sent Pittsburgh home on the wrong end of a dissatisfying 3-1 defeat.

First, Carrie Underwood's husband -- Mike Fisher -- stuck a knife in Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby by scoring with him in the penalty box for a 1-0 lead, and then defenseman Erik Karlsson twisted it by scoring later that period on a delayed penalty that also belonged to #87 to make it 2-0.

When Karlsson added his second goal of the night on another power play 20 seconds into the 2nd frame, the game was quickly unraveling for The Boys of Winter.

The Penguins stabilized their play, though, and took the pace to the Senators for most of the final two periods. In fact, after being outshot 12-6 in the first period, the Pens' outshot Ottawa by a whopping 39-12 the rest of the game.

Unfortunately, they were only able to get one of the 45 pucks they put on Ottawa netminder Brian Elliott past him, and that occurred with about 3 minutes left in the game.

Right about at that point, things were looking bleak for the prospect of Sid extending his career-long points streak to 24 games, but at least the hockey gods smiled on him for a moment when his quick shot from in tight was stopped by Elliott, but the rebound bounced off the pants of Ottawa defenseman Matt Carkner and just inside the far post to give Sid his 30th goal of the year and keep the streak alive.

Sid had to feel some redemption there -- especially since he was the victim of those first period penalties, as well as another cheap call in the third period -- but it really was too little, too late for Pittsburgh.

They had little jump off the hop in this one, and the early penalties also hurt their momentum -- much like it did against the Capitals early on the other night.

The fact of the matter, though, is that the game against Ottawa last night was poorly called on both sides throughout the contest.

Calls were missed and ignored and then, not surprisingly, the game got chippy.  Pittsburgh enforcer Eric Godard, for one, was on the wrong end of a fight with Carkner early in the game after taking a right to the eye. His return was announced as doubtful, but when he did come back, he got one more shift and -- despite a very swollen eye and a look that suggested he was a few apples short of a bushel -- tried to engage Carkner again.

Perhaps fortunately for Godard, at least on this night, Carkner declined and Godard got a 10-minute misconduct penalty for his trouble.

Those were his 2 shifts on the evening.

The physicality in the game also ramped up after Pens' blueliner Kris Letang nailed Senators' star forward Jason Spezza into the boards early in the 2nd period, leaving him crumped on the ice for about 10 seconds before Spezza quickly gathered himself and immediatley went off to the locker room significantly favoring one of his arms.

Without trying to be a homer, I didn't see Letang at fault on the play. He had actually started into his check on Spezza near the boards when Spezza turned his back to him. There was nothing Tanger could do.

There was a lot of garbage in the game after that, though, with the Senators' Jarkko Ruutu and Chris Neil acting stupid -- or put another way, just doing what they usually do -- and Mike Foligno tangling with Deryk Engelland, which teammate Chris Phillips realized was a mistake before quickly intervening.

Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury didn't have a bad game, but I think he'd tell you that he's played better. He did have a beautiful stop on a penalty shot by Foligno in the third period that was awarded after a play where it looked like Foligno might have actually scored.

In super slow motion replay -- and isolated close up -- of Foligno's live shot a few seconds before, it appeared to show a shade of white between the puck and edge of the red goal line, but apparently the folks in Toronto felt differently and decided to affirm the on-ice ruling of the zebras last night that there was no goal.

All in all, the Penguins just weren't able to get on track in this contest, and their power play also came up empty for them in 4 chances when they really needed some production from it to match what the Senators were doing with their man advantage against the Pens' #1 ranked PK unit.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the game, though, was the play of Elliott in the net for Ottawa.

I mean, this was the same guy that the Penguins made look bad in last year's first round playoff series, and a guy that had won only 1 of his last 10 decisions.

Last night, he was suddenly unbeatable.  A lot of what Pittsburgh threw at him hit him in the chest, and he looked a lot more confident and controlled than he has in the past.

Sure, the Penguins hit a post or two, and watched the likes of Chris Kunitz and Paul Martin fail on prime scoring chances, but Elliott clearly was a different goaltender in this one.

What wasn't a surprise was the play of Karlsson, who had a rough start to this season, but is starting to come on strong lately.

Karlsson has a little bit of Kris Letang in him. He's not the defensive player Letang has, and doesn't have a lot of edge in his game defensively like #58, but he skates extremely well and has strong offenisve instincts.

It's a good thing because that other blueliner of theirs who wears #55 is having a terrible season and has even been called a collassal flop by the local media.

Anyway, the Penguins return home for a tilt on Tuesday against the Atlanta Thrashers, who continue to surprise folks this season, and then on Wednesday on the road against the New York Islanders, before the weekend's Winter Classic.

Speaking of the Classic, I'll have a review of episode 2 of HBO's "24/7 Penguins Capitals: Road To The Winter Classic" series tomorrow. I caught it when it premiered last week, but with the Pens'/Caps' game last Thursday, then the holiday, I haven't been able to sit down and speak on it.

More then.

NOTES:

Backup goaltender Brent Johnson sat out last night's game still dealing with what seemed to be a groin injury sustained in last Wednesday's win over the Florida Panthers, while forward and teammate Aaron Asham also missed last night's game with the same ailment.

Meanwhile, Jordan Staal skated with his teammates yesterday morning for the first time since November 1. I don't know whether he's been cleared for full contact, but I assume that his participation involved puck drills. I have not been able to confirm that, however.

Not surprisingly, Staal is pushing the team to be released to play for this weekend's Winter Classic. I still don't think that's likely, especially since the Penguins haven't even announced a formal timetable for his return. I was under the impression that team brass hoped to establish that this week.

While we've seen Gronk return from injury much faster than anyone ever anticipated, I don't know whether that will be the case again this weekend or not.   We'll see.

Pens/Caps -- Round One: Not Quite A Classic, But Still A Win

2010-12-24T00:03:00.000-05:00

The Washington Capitals have had the Pittsburgh Penguins' regular season number the last two years, winning 7 of their last 8 meetings.

Those victories included one last year in Washington in a shootout where the Penguins came back to tie the game in regulation late and then scored on their first two shootout attempts after a scoreless overtime. At that point, with the Caps' missing on their first opportunity, Pittsburgh was only one save away from a big win.

Defying all wisdom, Washington scored on their next two attempts while the Penguins missed their third try, then veteran Mike Knuble scored the first shootout goal of his career to end it and send yours truly -- who was there in person -- home miserable.

So things looked again last night at the Verizon center in the first clash of these two titans this season.

Sidney Crosby scored early in the first period on a nice deflection to extend his scoring streak to 23 straight games and give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead, and then Evgeni Malkin had a chance to up that lead to 2-0 when he was awarded a penalty shot in the first period, but Geno has been miserable on those in his career and it was no different tonight, as he was easily stopped by Caps' goaltender Michael Neuvirth -- making his first career start against the Penguins.

Not surprisingly, Washington defenseman Mike Green made that miss hurt when he capitalized on Washington's second extended 5-on-3 advantage of the game, each due to a Penguin player shooting the puck out of action from their own zone.

Green got the puck alone in the high slot and zinged in a top corner, glove side wrist shot to tie the score in the second period.

While Pittsburgh probably was outplayed for most of the first two periods, that was primarily because they were so busy killing penalties. Since they were shorthanded so often, they had a hard time getting to their game and instead had to rely on goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to bail them out.

And that's exactly what the Flower did -- stopping 24 of 25 shots through 2 periods, and looking good doing it.

When Chris Kunitz scored on a rebound just seconds into the third period and his teammates finally got their share of power plays (4) in that final frame, they started to get into a zone and it looked like they had the game under control.

Until defenseman Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski carelessly managed the puck on one of their power plays and allowed Knuble to score SHORTHANDED to tie the game with about 4 minutes left.

After a scoreless overtime that included a ten-bell save by Fleury on Green to keep the game tied, the shootout required 7 rounds to decide the contest.

Letang and Caps' forward Alexander Ovechkin both scored on their shootout chances -- each team's first -- then watched as 11 other skaters (6 Washington players and 5 from those in the black and gold) miss their opportunities.

Fleury, in particular, was extremely solid in shutting down the Caps' big guns on their attempts.

Which, of course, allowed Pascal Dupuis to come down with Pittsburgh's seventh shot and make it look easy, burying a shot above the glove hand of Neuvirth so quickly that the netminder hardly flinched on the play, and sending the Capitals back to their locker room with the HBO cameras losers who failed to keep the momentum of their modest 2-game win streak.

Clearly, the Home Box Office had to be thrilled with the drama they got from tonight's game.

But not as much as the Penguins were happy to get on that plane a joyous bunch after their 3rd straight win -- and very difficult second of back-to-back victories.

Of course, the little matter of reclaiming the top spot in the Atlantic Division and overall in the NHL back from the Philadelphia Flyers helps, too.

But that's what a 17-3-1 run in your last 21 games will do for you.

If tonight was an appetizer for the upcoming Winter Classic next weekend, it was a good one. Not a great one, as there were a lot of penalties and a lot of sloppiness during the game, but still excellent for drama and physicality --- including Ovechkin headhunting Malkin early in the game again like he did several years ago.

And, of course, the result.

With the Penguins now basking in tonight's win and enjoying their Christmas, Sidney Crosby and the boys can only look forward to their next matchup with Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals @ Heinz Field on New Year's Day.

I'm sure glad 87 is on our side. Not only is he better on the ice, his one liners are better too:

Truth Serum From Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin

Let's Go Pens!

Penguins Avoid Cat-Trap; Roll Over Florida, 5-2

2010-12-23T08:38:00.000-05:00

With tonight's showdown against the arch-rival Washington Capitals losing, it was undeniable that last night's game at The Bird House against a Florida Panther squad that had been on a little bit of a roll lately was the quintenessential trap game.

The problem was that the Penguins were to fast for the Cats to capture, with the Penguins rolling to an early 3-1 lead in less than 11 minutes of first period action, and ultimately defeating the Panthers, 5-2.

Mark Letestu got the Pens on the board first with a nice goal 90 seconds in, beating a Panther backchecker on the rush and taking a pass from Tyler Kennedy, before showing nice patience in deking Florida netminder Tomas Vokoun to the ice and sliding the puck behind him.

While Stephen Weiss snuck a goal under the arm of Pens' backup netminder Brent Johnson -- giving starter Marc-Andre Fleury the night off -- less than 90 seconds later, Sidney Crosby gave Pittsburgh the advantage again when he extended his career-high scoring streak to 22 games just prior to the 8 minute mark of the period, taking a pass from linemate Chris Kunitz steaming up the left wing, and lasering a slapshot under Vokoun's arm, far side for a 2-0 lead.

At 22 games, Crosby's streak is now tied for the second longest in the last 18 seasons, even with Dany Heatley's 22-game run in 2005 and 8 games off a 30-gamer Mats Sundin had when playing for the Quebec Nordiques in 1992/1993.

When Matt Cooke capitalized on an Evgeni Malkin rebound just minutes later to make it 3-1, Florida head coach Peter Deboer had seen enough. He pulled Vokoun -- who had shutout the Philadelphia Flyers on the road just 2 days earlier -- in favor of backup Scott Clemmensen.

It was the second straight game in which the Penguins chased the opponent's starting goaltender, after sending Phoenix's Jason Labarbara to the bench on Monday night.

After getting into a first period scrap, 6th defenseman Ben Lovejoy -- getting the call last night instead of Deryk Engelland (and obviously trying to make him proud) -- scored his first career NHL goal in the second period and gave the Pens' a 4-1 lead in the process.

Lovejoy also added 11 stitches for good measure when he took a puck to the face in the 3rd period.

Coming out for that final frame, Fleury took over between the pipes, because Johnson suffered a minor groin injury late in the second period. And, rather than have a relaxing time back there, he was quite busy.

To their credit, Florida worked hard, and didn't wilt. They put up 16 shots in the 3rd and their efforts paid off when defenseman Bryan McCabe scored with about 3 minutes to go in the game to keep things interesting.

But Pascal Dupuis added an empty netter for Pittsburgh to finish the scoring and keep the Pens' rolling going into this evening.

The Panthers actually outshot the Pens, 37-34 on the night.

With the win, the Penguins moved to within 1 point of the Flyers in the Atlantic (and for the overall NHL lead) and since Philadelphia is off until next Tuesday, the Pens can pass them tonight with a victory over the Capitals, or Sunday, in their next game after the Christmas break, with a victory on the road over the Ottawa Senators.

With all eyes on the league on the game tonight, Pittsburgh will likely recall a goaltender -- either Brad Thessien or John Curry -- to back up Fleury this evening in Washington, because Johnson is not expected to be ready to go.

Winger Aaron Asham also seems questionable for the game, as he sat out most of the third period last night with an undisclosed problem. If he can't go, it will be interesting to see if the Pens' make a call up, or put Eric Godard in the lineup. The Caps' have an enforcer -- DJ King -- but he's only played 8 games on the season, and with Washington having bounced back to win 2 games in a row leading into this evening's throwdown, they aren't likely to change their lineup much.

I'll try to get a recap of the game up tomorrow, but can't offer any promises as I get ready for Santa's appearance on the home front.

Let's Go Pens!

Penguin Hits And Happenings: Holiday Edition

2010-12-22T08:04:00.000-05:00

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!

Geno Goes Coyote Hunting; Pens Win

2010-12-21T08:30:00.000-05:00

Following a 12-game winning streak with two straight losses that coincidentally occurred when he returned to action following a 4-game absence due to a knee injury, Pittsburgh Penguins' forward Evgeni Malkin joked before yesterday's game against the Phoenix Coyotes at the CONSOL Energy Center that the team couldn't win with him in the linup.

And this even though Geno was the only Penguin goal-scorer with 3 tallies in those two consecutive losses.

As it turned out, that was just an encore, though. Last night, Malkin served up the main course, scoring 2 goals and adding 3 assists for a 5-point night in the Penguins' 6-1 romp over a beleaguered Phoenix Coyotes squad that had to feel hunted from the drop of the puck.

"It's really fun to see him take over a game like that," said Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby said of Geno in the locker-room afterwards.

It started in the first period when Geno assisted on a power play goal by defenseman Kris Letang, who unleashed a 50-foot bullet that beat Coyotes' netminder Jason Labarbara glove hand for a 1-0 Pens lead.

Then, in the waning seconds of the first period, Crosby faced off for a draw on a 4-on-4 against Coyotes' faceoff ace Vernon Fiddler. When Fiddler was tossed out of the circle, forward Lauri Korpikoski came in to take it.

Well, that was a clear mismatch for one of the better face-off guys in the game, and Crosby proved that by easily winning the draw against Korpikoski and going forward with the puck, slipping it behind him before sneaking around him to grab it.

That caught Phoenix blueliner Adrian Aucoin in no-man's land, not knowing whether to go to Crosby or cover the near winger --- Malkin --- and the Pens' Captain made Aucoin pay too, slipping a pass to Malkin in the slot and watching him easily beat Labarbara far side for a 2-0 lead.

The Penguins' power play then urned things up in the 2nd period, as the Geno and Crosby show continued.

Malkin got a man-advantage goal less than a minute into the frame, taking a puck from Crosby on a quick pass from the side boards before beating Labarbara for a 3-0 lead, then Crsoby followed-suit, hitting on almost the exact same play about 2 minutes later -- taking a pass from Malkin off the boards before top-shelfing one past Labarara for a 4-0 advantage.

At that point, Pittsburgh was 3-for-3 on the power play. They finished 3-for-5 on the game.

Matt Cooke then upped the Pens' lead to 5-0 before the game was half old and with Malkin adding an assist on that play -- tying a career-high with his 5th point in only about 28 minutes of work -- Phoenix coach Dave Tippett saved Labarbara from any further beating by pulling him from the cage.

Good thing, too, because the Penguins were headed fast towards double digits at that time, and they have rung up as many as 8 on Labarbara before when he played for the New York Rangers.

Plus, with Malkin playing the way he was playing, an assault on Toronto Maple Leafs' Darryl Sittler's record of 10 points in a game wasn't out of the question either.

"I was just trying to keep up with him," said Crosby.

But Malkin's scoring run ground to somewhat of halt when the Penguins had to do some extended work killing off a 5-on-3 disadvantage for about 2 minutes and 45 seconds late in the second period, thanks to 3 consecutive penalties on Mike Rupp, Cooke and Defenseman Brooks Orpik. Fortuantely, the Pens' PK stepped up big and slammed the door on the Phoenix power play, not allowing a goal at any point during that stretch.

In fact, the Coyotes came up empty on 8 chances with the extra man in the game, and that was the first time in 8 games that the Pens' penalty killing unit didn't allow a power-play goal against. After a long period of sustained excellence, they had allowed one in the previous 7 contests.

In the third period, Coyotes' forward Wojtek Wolski deflected one past Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury -- on a play where the puck actually went off Wolski, then the mask of Fleury, then in -- to ruin #29's shutout bid, but Chris Conner added a late goal against Phoenix backup goaltender Matt Climie to wipe that away, and that wrapped up the scoring in a 6-1 final.

Crosby, whose scoring streak extended his career-high run to 21 straight games when he assisted on Geno's first goal, had 3 total points on the night. He's now 10 up on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos.

With the win last night, and the hot Philadelphia Flyers laying a surprising 5-0 goose egg on home ice against the Pens' next opponent Wednesday night -- the Florida Panthers -- the Pens moved to within 3 points of Philadelphia for the Atlantic Division and NHL points lead.

Unlike the Washington Capitals, who weren't able to keep a defeat or two from morphing into an 8-game losing streak before they finally stopped that run Sunday night against a woeful Ottawa Senators team, Pittsburgh did last night what great teams do: they stopped a mini-rut from developing into something bigger. After two straight defeats -- and 4 days of rest -- they came out strong, clearly looking to get back on their game and back in the win column.

"I liked the way our team was focused and ready to go," said head coach Dan Bylsma.

Not coincidentally, Pittsburgh outshot the Coyotes 38-27 last night. In their prior 2 games against Philadelphia and the Rangers, the Pens were surprisingly outshot by a good margin in each. That's not how they play and, obviously, not how they win hockey games.

Anyway, it was good to see them get back in the "W" column. Let's hope the Pens can bag one more Wednesday and get another roll going efore the big Thursday night showdown against the Capitals in Washington in front of the HBO cameras. Pittsburgh can't look by the Panthers, though, because as Tomas Vokoun showed in slamming the door on the Flyers' last night, they can win on the strength of his play in the net alone.

More soon.

NOTES: Blysma announced before the game that forward Mike Comrie, who has been out the last 3 weeks or so, may need surgery on his hip to correct a condition that has been plaguing him since he injured it in the season's second game. Bylsma said Comrie tried to play through it for about a month -- obviously very poorly -- and then the team elected to try rest and rehabilitation to see if it would improve, with no success. An official decision hasn't been made yet, but if Comrie undergoes surgery, his time off will likely be measured in months, not weeks. Not that it will make any real difference in the club's fortunes ....

24/7 Penguins/Capitals Kicks Off In Outstanding Fashion

2010-12-17T09:31:00.000-05:00

HBO's first episode of its legendary 24/7 reality series featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals premiered Wednesday night to rave reviews throughout the hockey world in particular and sporting world in general.

Here and here are just two examples of that.

There's a reason HBO is in the business, folks, and if you missed Wednesday's night's opening episode of the 4-part series, shame on you for 6 weeks, because they just did a fantastic job with the production.

I've been a Penguins and hockey fan for 28 seasons, so I've been around the game long enough to know the way some things work behind the scenes, but some of the things HBO put out there for public consumption surprised even me. I was riveted to my television like my wife when one of the Real Housewives shows comes on.

And that was only after one episode.

The thing that struck me most about the entire 60 minutes is the stark contrast between the styles of the two clubs.

The Penguins seem to be much more of a team. They have more camaraderie among their players and in the locker room than Washington does, and just appear to generally care more about each other.

And I don't think those presentations are solely attributable to the contrasting streaks the teams were on during HBO's coverage this last week.

Sure, the Penguins being on a 12-game winning streak, while the Capitals being on a 6-game losing run played into the storyline. Capitals' coach Bruce Boudreau went as far to mention in one of his locker room addresses that it was a tough week because the HBO cameras were around and he's sure the Penguins are all smiles in their room because of the way they are playing -- in obvious contrast to his team's work lately.

Still, losing streak aside, there was little in the way of team togetherness on display in anything the Capitals did. Okay -- they skated with families on a rink around the National Mall. That may be good for public service, but isn't a team bonding moment.

Meanwhile, we saw the Penguins' players participate in a team Christmas party with their families, engage in a snowball fight on the streets in Buffalo, play a prank on rookies' Ben Lovejoy and Mark Letestu by putting all their hotel room furniture in the hallway, joke and laugh during their team shootout competition to determine the monthly 'moustache boy', and banter with each other throughout -- whether on the plane or in the locker room.

Some of the show's best quips and lines came from all of those moments, by the way:

1) Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury flipping the tables on teammate Max Talbot and calling him a "douche" on the plane (an obvious reference to how he famously referred to Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin in an off-season radio interview), then telling the cameras that his road roommate likes to get naked;

2) Pascal Dupuis greeting teammate Evgeni Malkin on his way in the building with a simple, "F-U Geno";

3) Lovejoy coming across all the furniture in the hallway and saying, "We're going to get to the bottom of who did this, and probably do nothing about it.";

4) Talbot first telling one of his teammates' young infant daughters (it was unclear which) at the holiday party never to date a hockey player, then later on playing with Matt Cooke's son, openly (and playfully) accusing him of spearing him, then pretending to drop his gloves with him; and

5) Finally, Talbot approaching Santa Claus at the same party later on and -- with his eyes on two hot female elves on each side of Kris Kringle -- saying to Santa, "I want for Christmas your two little helpers".

Boy I hope we re-sign Talbot just for his character.  You can't underestimate what he brings to the team and the locker room.

While Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovehckin were also mentioned at various times throughout the first episode -- including a segment on Ovechkin shaving as a component to a new endorsement deal he has with Gillette -- I thought HBO did a great job of keeping the focus on both teams rather than those individual players.

In fact, I think the network did a great job just picking up on the teams mid-season.  That couldn't have been easy, but with transitions and references to both teams as Stanley Cup contenders, they quickly segwayed to talking about a run-of-the-mill regular season game in December for the Penguins against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Anyway, while Sid and Ovie weren't the main focus of the first episode, head coaches Dan Bylsma and Boudreau did have more of a starring role, and I thought it was fascinating to watch both.

While we know Bylsma is generally regarded as a players' coach, the glimpse we got of the way he addressed his team in the locker room before games and during games only reaffirmed that notion.

He was energetic, and focused on the Penguins' style of play. We know that 'getting to our game' is one of his main principles, and that clearly came out during the episode.

Interestingly, though, we got to see a little bit about how he intereats with his guys behind the scenes ... trying to pump them up and get them going. Seeing him credit defenseman Deryk Engelland for his fight with Toronto tough guy Colton Orr -- and the 3 stitches Engelland had to get in his eye afterwards -- was a treat.   As was hearing Blysma rally his guys by saying things like "get after 'em bitches"

It was also fascinating to catch of glimpse of Blysma meeting with Pens' GM Ray Shero and evaluating his players' performance after the Toronto game. Hearing him be frank and say in reference to Cooke that "I didn't like his game" was a rare glimpse into what really goes on when a coach and GM talk.

Meanwhile, on the Capitals' end, it's hard to single out a particular thing that took the cake when it came to Boudreau.

Probably because there were so many things that actually did.

First of all, the guy is even fatter than I thought. You talk about Santa Claus having a bowl full of jelly? Boudreau has about 3X that. I mean, how does this guy look below his gut and see his penis?

Wait a minute .... he has none anyway, so who cares.

Okay, his weight aside (which is hard to ignore when there are shots of him during the episode with ketchup or barbeque sauce or something all over his face), the other thing we learned about him during episode 1 of this series is his ability to drop the F-bomb.

During one locker room speech that lasted about 60 seconds after Washington looked pretty lost in dropping their 4th straight to the Florida Panthers, 3-0, the guy dropped it 15 times, I kid you not.  Among those highlights were something like, "so it isn't f'in working for the last 10 days, stop feeling f'in sorry for yourselves, get your f'in heads out of your asses and make it f'in work!"

That may not be the exact quote, but that's only because there were so many uses of the F-word and so many criticisms of his team, I couldn't keep up!

I confess -- one of the most enjoyable parts of the first episode of the series was seeing the Caps' struggle so badly. I mean, really --- watching the 'behind the scenes' of that was outstanding. When I heard Boudreau say on the bench to his players down 3-0 to the Rangers, "I'm f'in sick and tired of losing," I couldn't help but smile.

Since that deficit morphed into a 7-zip loss and their 6th straight defeat, I guess Ovechkin getting into a fight and trying to rally the bench afterwards by saying, "F'in come on for F- sakes!" didn't work too well.

Another moment that made me smile was seeing Boudreau tell his players after their 5th straight defeat that they played well, and that "you play that f'in good tomorrow, I guarantee you'll walk away with 2 points."

Uh, yeah. That worked out.

Boudreau has to be almost out of motivational tactics, doesn't he?  I mean, he even had his assistant coach, former Capital Dean Evason, berate his team after 2 periods in the Ranger game instead of him. How about this gem from Evason?:

"F'ing COMPETE! Someone grab their f'in sock and compete, PLEASE!"

All in all, the show left me longing for more, and very anxious for the next episode. Hell, I wish they could follow the Penguins all year like this. That would be amazing.

While the tenor of next week's show will likely change somewhat, since the Penguins have now dropped 2 straight this week after their winning streak ended, it's going to be especially interesting to see in future weeks whether the upcoming games between the two teams -- first next Thursday, 12-23, then the Winter Classic -- impact the way the episodes turn out.

In fact, if Washington continues to struggle, playing the Penguins could be a good thing for them, because it may bring out the competitive beast that for some reason is in their collective closets right now.

All of it will make for compelling hockey. And compelling television.

More soon.

Penguins Relapse In Third Period Collapsing Loss To Rangers

2010-12-16T08:47:00.000-05:00

Maybe another long winning streak for the Pittsburgh Penguins is on the immediate horizon?

After all, that's what happened the last time the Pens suffered a third period collapse, back on November 10 against the Boston Bruins when they and goaltender Brent Johnson allowed the Bruins to overcome a 4-2 deficit with 5 third-period goals in a 7-4 defeat.

Johnson was back at it again last night, holding a 1-0 lead over the blueshirts when he was front and center in another third-period collapse that morphed into a 4-1 win for New York and the second straight loss for Pittsburgh.

Coming off their first loss in 13 games the night before in Philadelphia, the Penguins cranked it up against the Rangers in the first period last night -- particularly late in the period, when they went on a charge and dominated New York for the final 5 or so minutes of the frame.

That sequence involved one stretch where the Pens maintained possession of the puck in the New York zone for nealy 90 seconds, generating scoring chance after scoring chance and taking momentum of the game in the process.

That culminated in a beautiful individual goal by Evgeni Malkin -- his 3rd in the last two games after missing 4 contests with a knee injury -- when he took a pass from Sidney Crosby down the left wing, cut sharply to the goal, deked Rangers' netminder Henrik Lundqvist to the ice, and slid the puck behind him while going the other way.

Since my words probably don't do the goal justice, just watch it here.

With his assist, Crosby raised his point scoring streak to a career-high 20 games, by the way.

The Pens' lead held up into the third period when a bad penalty call against LW Matt Cooke put Pittsburgh a man down just before the halfway mark of the frame.

Cooke was rushing to get the puck in the corner deep in the Rangers zone. He was in a footrace with New York player Derek Stepan. No other players were in the area and it should have been plain to anyone watching -- including the guys in black and white stripes -- that they were going to battle to get the biscuit.

As the two players approached the puck, Cooke tried to get position on Stepan with his shoulder and outmuscle him.

He did, and knocked Stepan down about 3-5 feet before either player got to the puck, which had come to a dead rest close to both men.

Unfortunately, the official saw that as a tripping call, and not long after Cooke was sent off to the box, former Penguin cast-off Erik Christensen made them pay by beating Johnson with a high wrister from 30 feet to tie the score.

Johnson was too far back in his net on the play, and went down too early.

But Christensen's goal didn't sting as much as the one by the next Rangers' retread to score 15 seconds later. That was when Alexander Frolov found a loose puck and tossed it by Johnson from the low slot, suddenly transforming what had been a Penguins' lead into one held by the guys wearing blue.

Not long after, it appeared that Geno had scored again on a rush to tie the game, but in the immediate aftermath of the goal when Lundqvist complained to the officials about supposedly being interfered with by Pens' LW Pascal Dupuis, the goal was waved off.

No penalty was called on the Dupuis on the play, which wasn't surprising since he was basically backed into Lunqvist by Rangers' defenseman Michael Rozsival; still, the goaltender interference was sufficient in the eyes of the referree to make the play dead, since he determined that Lundqvist was not able to get into position.

So, with even additional wind out of their sails, New York forward Artem Anisimov scored on a wrister from 35 feet a minute or two later -- on another play that Johnson went down too soon on -- and forward Brian Boyle finished off the ignomity of the game by beating a defeated Johnson and making it 4-1 just 90 seconds later.

Johnson looked pretty good in the first two periods in this game, but morphed in the third period into what we see from him on occasion -- dropping down to his knees to soon and not challenging shooters. As a backup, he tends to slip into that mode more often. He wasn't doing that early in the season when he was playing as sharply as any netminder in the game, but obviously, with the Flower back on top of the world and manning the Pens' cage on most nights these days, that's what you're going to get from Johnny, unfortunately.

I'm certain Fleury would not have allowed the Christensen and Anisimov goals, if not the one by Boyle, too.

But, it is what it is.

And with that, even though the Penguins probably outplayed the Rangers most of the night and outshot them 28-22, and even though New York lost key forward Ryan Callahan in the first period when he broke his hand blocking a shot by Pens' defenseman Kris Letang, it was the opportunistic Rangers that got the "W".

Worse, thanks to the Flyers winning again last night, the Pens' are now suddenly 3 points back in the Atlantic.

Hey, at least Washington lost their 7th straight game.

Anyway, with a bad taste in their mouth and 2 straight losses after reeling off 12 straight wins, the Penguins are now forced to sit back and wait until next Monday to play again when the Phoenix Coyotes come to town.

Expect a bit more focus and attention to detail for the HBO cameras in the next few practices.

Sepaking of which, I'll have a ton on the first 24/7 Episode -- which premiered last night -- tomorrow. For those who haven't seen it, find a way to. It was fantastic.

NOTES:
As expected, LW Chris Kunitz missed his second straight game last night with an undisclosed injury. It probably made sense to keep him out of the lineup since the Penguins are off until Monday. Kunitz isn't dealing with anything overwhelming -- he's just a bit banged up -- so hopefully he'll return to action against the 'Yotes.

Defenseman Ben Lovejoy dressed in place of blueliner Deryk Engelland last night, too.

Pittsburgh's top prospect, defenseman Simon Despres, was selected to play for Canada's entry in the World Junior Championships, starting later this month. That's great recognition for the strong season he's having with the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Despres is only going to be better for the experience at the WJC.

Unlucky 13 -- Flyers Defeat Penguins, 3-2

2010-12-15T07:39:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been in a hotel or office building elevator wondering why you can't find the button to the 13th floor?

Superstition, my dear readers.

People don't like the #13.

Apparently, the Pittsburgh Penguins don't either.

The Pens had an opportunity to extend their winning streak to 13 games last night at the Wachovia Center against their arch rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, and had this little matter of first place overall in the NHL standings at-stake as well.

But between letting the Flyers dictate the tempo of the game and not being able to get out of their own way on the path to the penalty box, Pittsburgh fell to the Flyers, 3-2, last night -- their third loss (all by the same count) to Philadelphia in 4 games this season.

Philadlephia came out strong in the first period and was rewarded for it when Penguin killer Claude Giroux scored 12 minutes into the game to make it 1-0. Giroux did a nice job to finish the play, but the Penguins had their hand in it, too.

First, Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury lost his stick when he came out of the net to play the puck. Second, the Flyers were able to get Giroux out with Daniel Briere and Scott Hartnell -- their best line of late -- against the Pens' 3rd defensive pairing of Alex Goligoski and Deryk Engelland. That paid dividends when both blueliners in black and gold failed to take a man and failed to clear a loose puck in front of Fleury before Giroux picked it up and tossed it in.

Pittsburgh evened the score on the power play in the 2nd period when Evgeni Malkin -- playing his first game after missing 4 contests with a sore right knee -- lasered in a shot from the right circle.

Sidney Crosby got the second assist on Geno's tally, by the way, extending his scoring streak to 19 games, tying a career-high.

The 1-1 tie in the game didn't last long, though, as Nikolai Zherdev gave Philadelphia a 2-1 lead on a nice individual effort about 4 minutes later.

Zherdev lead a rush into the Penguins' zone that was either a 2-on-1 or 3-on-2, depending on how you evaluated whether Pens' defenseman Zbynek Michalek was in the play or not. Primarily, it was Brooks Orpik defending.

Zherdev came down the left wing, backed Orpik in and ultimately got him to leave his feet to try and block Zherdev's effort (whether shot or pass), at which time the Flyer forward quickly pulled up and cut towards the slot. Rather than dish it to a linemate who was steaming up the right side, however (because Michalek dove back in the play to cut that off), Zherdev just waited a second or two and beat Fleury cleanly to the stick side uncontested.

Pens' assistant coach Todd Rierden -- who works with the team's defensemen -- teaches them that it's okay to leave their feet when necessary.   Generally, Pittsburgh's blueliners do a good job of that.

But as I've said in this space before, timing and circumstance means everything.

Zherdev showed nice patience on the play, but him scoring with both Orpik and Michalek on the ice says something, doesn't it?   And not just about their play, quite frankly, but about how the Pens' found themselves defending that odd-man rush in the first place.

Geno struck again, though, with an assist by #87, early in the 3rd period on another power-play -- this time a 4-on-3 -- to even the score, but once again, the Penguins weren't able to hold the lead.

Carrot top scored on the power play with about 10 minutes to go to give Philadelphia the 3-2 advantage. Pittsburgh had several chances to tie the game late in the third on the power play with a pulled netminder, but defenseman Kris Letang missed the net on 2 good one-timer chances from about 45 feet, making the Flyers' lead one they would not relinquish.

And with that, the franchise's second longest winning streak came to an end, as did their run of 7 straight wins on the road -- a streak which itself was tied for the most ever put together by the organization.

The Flower's 11 game winning streak also was snapped.

I hate to give Philadelphia credit -- so I won't -- but I will say that they took the play to the Penguins in this game. They outshot the Pens 12-7 in the opening frame and, when the game was on the line in the third period, 14-5. Overall, the shot totals for the game were 37-23.

The Flyers are a strong offensive club, but the Penguins didn't play nearly as well defensively in this one as they had been.  In fact, it was the first time in the last 11 games that they allowed more than 2 goals.

The other thing the Penguins can look in the mirror and find fault with this morning was their penchant for taking penalties at inopportune times -- and sometimes bad penalties, to boot.

After each of their goals, they took penalties, and there were several times in the game when they took back-to-back penalties. Then, when Malkin took a terrible penalty in the third period -- the Pens' 6th infraction of the game -- Philadelphia finally capitalized.

"It's a stupid penalty, and my fault," Malkin said of the call.

Sure, giving a talented team like the Flyers that many chances on the man-advantage is playing with fire, but the bigger issue for Pittsburgh last night was that the penalties they were taking killed their momentum and kept them from developing any of their own flow in the game.

With the defeat, the Flyers leapfrogged the Penguins into first place in the Atlantic Division -- and overall in the NHL -- with 45 points, while the Pens' have 44. Philadelphia is in action again tonight, as are the Penguins, who return home to The Bird House to host the New York Rangers.

Pittsburgh is undefeated in the second game in back-to-back sets this season, and they generally play good against the Rangers at home, so lets hope they take advantage of the opportunity they have this evening to put last night's defeat in the rear-view mirror quickly. Especially since they don't play again until next Monday. I'm sure they don't want to sit on 2 straight losses for that long.

I'll have a recap of that game tomorrow, and I'll also have a recap of the first 1-hour episode of HBO's well-hyped and highly anticipated 24/7 series featuring the Penguins and Washington Capitals, which airs tonight at 10:00 PM EST (encore at 11:00 PM EST). Can't wait for that ....

NOTES:

LW Chris Kunitz did not play against the Flyers last night. He's dealing with an undisclosed injury (head coach Dan Bylsma said he's just "banged up"). Malkin took his spot in the lineup and on Crosby's wing for the game. It's likely Pittsburgh will go with the same look tonight, since Kunitz will probably sit again.

Crosby and Capitals' star winger Alexander Ovechkin will be guests on "The Price is Right" this coming Monday, together with former NHL player Jeremy Roenick, where they will help give away a 'showcase showdown' package involving tickets to the Winter Classic and other related prizes.

There Will Be No Brotherly Love Tonight

2010-12-14T08:06:00.000-05:00

Someone in an orange jersey whining like a baby?

A familiar sight for Pittsburgh Penguin fans to be sure.

Let's hope we see more of that tonight, as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers face-off in a nationally-televised showdown at the Wachovia Center for first place in the National Hockey League (7:00 PM EST, VERSUS).

And, of course, that's not the only thing on the line in this one.

The Penguins, 15-1-1 in their last 17 overall, are looking to run their winning streak to 13 games, and Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby is looking to tie his career-best 19-game scoring run.

In the last 18 contests, Sid has rang up 20 goals and 16 assists for 36 points.

As if playing in Philadelphia -- where he has historically tortured the Flyers -- doesn't give him any further incentive to pad those numbers this evening, right?

Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury -- sure to be between the pipes in the hostile Wachovia center -- by the way, also has won 11 straight. That's a career best for him, too.

Meanwhile, for as much as it pains me to say it, the Flyers are also playing some good hockey lately. To be sure, it takes that to stick with Pittsburgh in the standings these days.

Philadelphia is 7-1-3 in their last 11. They also went through a stretch prior to that where they were 9-0-1.

They are 19-7-5 with 43 points overall, while Pittsburgh is 21-8-2 with 44 points.

The Flyers and Pens have squared off 3 times this year already -- all during the first month of the season -- with the Flyers winning 2 of those. One of them was the opening game at the CONSOL Energy Center, which Philadelphia spoiled by winning 3-2. After that, the Penguins whupped the Flyers in Philadelphia 5-1 the next week, before the Flyers game back and won another 3-2 game in Pittsburgh a few weeks later.

The Flyers are led by the usual cast of villians -- Captain Mike Richards and forwards Jeff Carter and Daniel Briere. Richards leads the team in scoring this year with 30 points in 31 games, while Briere is their leading goal scorer with 16.

The guy the Penguins have to watch out for tonight, however, is Claude Giroux.

Giroux has 14 goals and 14 assists on the season and has fast ascended into the upper echelon of skilled forwards on the Flyers' team. Worse, he has killed the Penguins in the past -- particularly while shorthanded.

Meanwhile, the Pens will have some interesting lineup decisions to make tonight.

Center/Winger Evgeni Malkin -- who has missed the last 4 games with a sore right knee -- may or may not return to the lineup tonight. He's been practicing the last few days and appears just about ready to go.

Whether he plays or not may actually be tied to the health and status of LW Chris Kunitz, who missed practice yesterday beacuse, according to Head Coach Dan Bylsma, he's "banged up". He's questionable for tonight.

If Kunitz doesn't go, Malkin may just slide into his spot on the top line with the Captain.

If Malkin doesn't play tonight, odds are he will return tomorrow night when the Penguins host the New York Rangers back at The Bird House.

If #14 and #71 are a go tonight, what will the Penguins do with forward Dustin Jeffrey? The Penguins -- in theory, at least -- almost certainly called him up to play and not sit in the press box.

Jeffrey had a real strong first game for Pittsburgh on Saturday night against the Sabres, notching a goal and an assist, and looking like he did when he was dominating the American Hockey League all season long.

If he plays, who do you sit? The Penguins' third line has been rolling, so you don't want to tinker with that unit. That would leave the likes of Craig Adams and Mike Rupp to pick from. Rupp provides a valuable presence in the lineup in a game against Philadelphia, so he's likely to stick. That would mean Adams is most likely to sit out if Kunitz, Malkin and Jeffrey were to all play.

Of course, all of this assumes that Blysma won't dress Eric Godard for the game, either.

While Godard would typically play against the Flyers in anticipation of the rough going, the need to have him in the lineup might have been negated when Philadelphia enforcer Jody Shelley was suspended two games over the weekend for a hit from behind.

Since he'll miss tonight's game -- and since blueliner Deryk Engelland will also almost assuredly dress for Pittsburgh, too -- that probably puts Godard in the press box for the evening.

One guy who won't be in the lineup for the Penguins tonight -- still -- is forward Jordan Staal.

When Staal broke a bone in his hand about 6 weeks ago, the hope was that he might be able to return to the lineup in mid-December. Perhaps even for tonight's game.

That timetable was pushed back last week, however, when it was revealed that Staal may have suffered a bit of a setback in the healing process.

I'm still not certain of exactly what is going on with Staal (and I'm not sure anyone following the team truly is either), but it seems that one of two things are happening.

For one, Staal may still have a broken bone in his hand. A report surfaced last week that the x-ray Gronk had early last week revealed that he had another, small broken bone to deal with.

Disco Dan denied that report specifically, and tossed out another explanation for Staal's current status, saying that some calcification of his bone was detected.

Bylsma further indicated that was a regular part of the healing process and that Staal remained on track with his rehabilitation.

For his part, Staal has been silent on the matter. He's been skating for a few weeks and has started to work with his stick and the puck.

Still, it doesn't look like he's going to be back in the lineup until closer to the end of the month, which would mark the near-8 week mark for him.

At this point, I'm just hoping he returns for the Winter Classic on 1-1.

That's all for now, boys and girls. Lock down for tonight's showdown. The environment in Philadelphia when these two teams play is always elevated.  The buzz is likely to be even more heightened this evening. Expect it to be a near-playoff atmosphere.

I'll have a recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!

Post-Surgery Recap: A Dirty Dozen and Counting

2010-12-13T08:47:00.000-05:00

Boys and girls, I apologize for my hiatus. I went under the knife last week to rid myself of a pesky kidney stone. After recovering for several days, I'm back in the mix.

The Boys of Winter, of course, didn't miss a beat while I was away, running their winning streak to 12 straight games with back-to-back 5-2 defeats over the Toronto Maple Leafs last Wednesday at The Bird House, and over the Buffalo Sabres Saturday night in New York.

Both games were among the most physical of the season for Pittsburgh, with both the Leafs and Sabres trying to physically push around the Penguins in general -- and Captain Sidney Crosby in particular.

All both clubs got for their trouble was a beating both on the ice and on the scoreboard.

Wednesday night, Crosby rang up 2 more goals, one in the first period and another late in the second to raise his scoring streak to 17 games. The Penguins had a 4-0 lead at that point and were really taking it to the Maple Leafs, with the highlight being Pascal Dupuis scoring on a shorthanded 2-on-0 break.

Still, weary of another comeback by a Toronto club that had erased multiple-goal deficits in their last two contests coming into the game -- including a 3-goal, third period hole which they overcame just 2 days earlier to beat the Washington Capitals in a shootout -- Pittsburgh clamped down in the third period.

The Leafs were able to get two goals in the first 9 minutes of the period, but when Pens' forward Mark Letestu squashed that rally with his second goal of the game with just under 3 minutes to go, Pittsburgh had their 11th straight win in the bag.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, by the way, stopped 24 shots for his 10th straight victory in that game.

One of the most interesting dynamics in the contest was former Penguin Colby Armstrong taking a little bit of a run at his good friend, Crosby, in the first period.

As I watched Crosby show his displeasure with Armstrong on the play, all I could think of was what 105.9 The X afternoon Radio host Mark Madden said earlier that afternoon.

He was right on the mark when the brought up how Armstrong likes to skate into the defensive zone to catch players off guard with hits down low. He did that a ton when he was with the Penguins -- and angered a lot of opponents with those legal, but borderline, hits along the way.

Madden wondered whether Armstrong would ever do that to Crosby, especially since Colby has now been gone for a few seasons.

And then sure enough, it almost happened that night. It wasn't as bad -- and it was in front of the net, rather than in the corner where Armstrong likes to try and lay someone out -- but clearly, Crosby and the Penguins took exception, as evidenced by the several fights that happened throughout the game.

Those bouts included a rematch between Pens' heavyweight Deryk Engelland and Leafs' enforcer Colton Orr.

As everyone recalls, in their first meeting early this season, Engelland knocked Orr out cold with a right to the chin.

While Engelland didn't render Orr unconscious this time, he again got the obvious victory in their bout.

As did Pittsburgh sheriff Eric Godard -- again in the lineup with Evgeni Malkin still dealing with a knee problem -- when he got ahold of Toronto defenseman Jay Rosehill in the the third period.

Rosehill was running around a little bit and, after a fight between Pens' forward Mike Rupp and Leafs' blueliner Mike Komisarek just seconds earlier, Pens' head coach Dan Bylsma put Godard out on Crosby's line for the next shift.

Sure enough, Rosehill was dumb enough to take a cheap shot at Pittsburgh defenseman Paul Martin -- and then Crosby -- while Godard was out there.

All he got for his trouble was a bloody face thanks to Godard's fists.

After the beating his team took, I heard perhaps the quote of the year from Toronto coach Ron Wilson when he was asked after the game about the Penguins' dominance:

"The turning point in the game was when they dropped the puck for the opening faceoff," Wilson said.

Going into the weekend then, you'd think the Sabres would have learned after watching film of Wednesday's game that the Penguins wouldn't be pushed around. Strangely enough, though, they tried the same tactics Saturday evening -- with Buffalo defenseman Tyler Myers taking a dangerous run at Crosby early in the game, and then Sabres' blueliner and Pittsburgh native Mike Weber punching Crosby in the face repeatedly in the second period.

At this point, it's becoming clear that there aren't any legal means to stop the Pens' Captain and the incredible, 80's-like scoring streak he's on. So, teams are going to target him physically to try and do that instead.

Truth be known, however, the officials in the game -- Ian Walsh and Kevin Pollack -- just let the contest get out of hand a little. That's why it was as chippy as it was, and that's why both teams were taking liberties out there.

Again, however, it was to no avail, largely thanks to rookie Dustin Jeffrey and his band of grinders.

Jeffrey had been called up from Wilkes-Barre the day before and, with Malkin again sitting out with his knee problem, got inserted into the lineup.

Bylsma said that Jeffrey's play in the American Hockey League -- where he was tied for the league lead in scoring with 30 points in 25 games while leading the Baby Pens to a 21-5 record -- was begging for a call-up for the last 6 weeks.

Well, all Jeffrey did was make Blymsa look like a genius, scoring the game's opening goal just under 7 minutes into the contest, then adding a helper in the third period while doing some nice work down low to get the puck in front for Rupp to bang home.

Aaron Asham also scored on a fantastic top corner slap shot from the right circle in the first period, and his tally along with Alex Goligoski's game winner in the third period and Matt Cooke's empty net goal were more than enough for the Penguins to bag their 12th straight "W".

Crosby, by the way, was pretty quiet on the night, but did assist on GoGo's game-winner to run his scoring streak to 18 games.

While the Penguins continued their historical dominance over Sabres' goaltender Ryan Miller in the game, the Flower was real strong between the pipes for Pittsburgh at the other end again, stopping 34 of 36 shots this time to run his record to 14-6-1.

Fleury's personal statistics are also starting to show he's one of the best goaltenders in the game. His GAA is now at 2.31, and his save %-age is at .914.

All those numbers are incredible, considering where Fleury ranked in each of those categories after the season's first 10 games. That's how good he has been.

And that's how good the Penguins continue to play defensively, too.

Going into last night's games, Pittsburgh had the league's best goal differential, at +30, meaning they've scored 30 more goals than they have allowed.

Blueliner Zbynek Michalek has been especially impressive lately, swallowing up shot and after shot like a Hoover vacuum cleaner in front of Fleury. His current plus/minus of -3 doesn't accurately portray how strong he has been in recent weeks.

Up next for the Penguins as they look for 13 straight wins are their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, Tuesday night in Philadelphia.

I'll have a preview of that monster game tomorrow, and I'll take a look at what I expect will be some interesting lineup decisions for the head coach.

I'll also have a word about Pens' center Jordan Staal's status. As most know, Staal's recovery from a broken hand was in the news again within the last few days.

More then.

16 + 10 = 1

2010-12-07T08:18:00.000-05:00

The streak(s) go on.

Pittsburgh Penguins' center and Captain Sidney Crosby did it again last night at The Bird House against the New Jersey Devils.

Sid figured in on both Penguin goals -- scoring one and assisting on the other -- to extend his point streak to 16 games and, in the process, lead Pittsburgh to a 2-1 victory.

It was the Pens' 10th consecutive win and, missing Evgeni Malkin for the second straight game with a knee injury, you-know-who led the way.

After the Penguins allowed a power play goal for the third straight game -- this time by Devils' forward Brian Rolston at just past the 14 minute mark of the first period -- Crosby took over.

His first point was a beauty, as he took a laser 50 foot pass from Pascal Dupuis while crossing the Devils' blueline.

The puck was in his feet, but no matter -- he just calmly kicked it up to his skate while moving at about 100 MPH.

As soon as it hit his blade, he knew what he was going to do with it, and that was dish it to linemate Chris Kunitz, streaking in the opposite side and above the hash marks.

Kunitz one-timed the biscuit and blew it by Devils' netminder Johan Hedberg to tie the score.

Crosby's goal at the 12 minute mark of the 2nd period came as he quietly freed himself to Hedberg's left and scored when a loose puck came to him.

That made it 2-1 and, behind Marc-Andre Fleury's 27 other saves, was all the Penguins' needed on the night.

With the victory, and the Washington Capitals' blowing a 4-1 lead and losing last night 5-4 in a shootout to the Toronto Maple Leafs -- who the Penguins' next play on Wednesday evening -- the Penguins now occupy the top spot in the entire National Hockey League with 40 points and a 19-8-2 record.

Their 10-game winning streak is their second longest in franchise history, now topping the 9-game streak they had in 1999.

Of course, Sid has been at the center of all of this.

Two or three weeks ago, the talk around the league was that Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos may, all of a sudden, be the league's best player.

Uh, that didn't last long.

Now, Crosby's praises are being sang (again) from one national outlet to another.

Now, he's captured the NHL's player-of-the-month award for November, and their most recent player-of-the-week honor.

Ho-hum.

Of course, the other key to Pittsburgh's great run the last 3 weeks has been their play in their own zone, and once again, the Penguins' team defense stood tall last night.

Now, New Jersey certainly hasn't been lighting the league on fire this season. But they do have several skilled players. Last night's game wasn't the Penguins' best team effort up front -- going 0-for-6 on the power-play is fairly miserable -- but they did the job in their own end once more.

While goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has turned his season around, there's a reason why he's 11-0-1 in his last 12 starts, folks.

Defense.

The Penguins simply aren't making many mistakes, and when they do, the Flower has been there. It's a beautiful thing to see because, with their offense, they are capable of striking at any time, and those two things are a good recipe for a lot of victories.

How are things going to be when Malkin returns to the lineup and Jordan Staal comes off the injured list?

Scary for the opposition, that's how.

And certainly, that has to make former Penguin Billy Guerin proud.

Guerin formally announced his retirement from the National Hockey League yesterday and the Pittsburgh organization was honored when Guerin chose to retire officially as a Penguin.

"We were only here a short time, but my family and I developed such a deep connection to the city, the team, and the fans. It was amazing," Guerin said yesterday in a statement.

Guerin, of course, arrived in town thanks to another trade deadline steal-of-a-deal by Pens' GM Ray Shero, this time with the New York Islanders in which the Penguins coughed up only a conditional draft pick (which ended up being a 3rd rounder) for a player who was a key component in their run to the franchise's 3rd Stanley Cup just months later.

Number 13, as everyone remembers, scored a key overtime goal in the 2nd game of the first round against the Philadelphia Flyers to put them in a 2-0 series hole they never completely recovered from.

Guerin had 21 goals and 24 assists in 78 games last season -- his final one in the NHL. After being drafted 5th overall in the 1989 draft by the Devils and suiting up with several other clubs along the way, the 4-time all-star finished his career as one of the best U.S. born players of all time, with more goals than assists (429/427) and 856 total points in 1,263 games.

Billy G and his family had a well-deserved pre-game ceremony in his honor last night before the game, in which Penguins' ownership team provided him with a jersey, a lithograph and a trip to Hawaii.

Just first-class stuff for the Penguins' organization.

Guerin's retirement was not unexpected, though, as word had leaked that he was going to walk away from the game. In the meantime, he's been doing spot-analysis of NHL games on Versus and -- more importantly -- has been shadowing Penguins' assistant to the General Manager Tom Fitzgerald for several weeks trying to learn the business side of hockey.

If things go as planned, Pittsburgh will ultimately bring Guerin into the fold somewhere in their hockey operations department, and there's no doubt that he'd be a great addition there.

Meanwhile, the Penguins look for the lucky 11 on Wednesday.

More soon.

Penguins Turn Blue Jackets Yellow With 7-2 Beating For 9th Straight Victory

2010-12-04T23:08:00.000-05:00

Missing their second best offensive player, Evgeni Malkin, with a sore knee for tonight's game against the Penguins' nearest geographic rival in the Columbus Blue Jackets, logic would have it that Pittsburgh would play a traditional, close-to-the-vest road game and hope to win a tight one against a team that has played well this year and is a challenge to defeat in their own barn.

Instead, the Penguins took the Blue Jackets behind that barn and slaughtered them to the tune of 7-2.

They chased Columbus goaltender Steve Mason after about 15 minutes once they already had 3 power play goals in the bag and the Blue Jackets in a 4-zip hole on 13 total shots.

Paul Martin got two of those three power play goals -- both unassisted, to boot. The first one was a centering pass that went off Blue Jackets' rearguard Mike Commodore and squeezed through Mason's legs just enough to go over the goal line.

After an even strength goal by Mike Rupp -- who nudged the puck fully over the goal line after an Eric Godard shot just got through Mason's legs enough to sit there -- Martin took a loose puck on the move in Columbus' zone, skated about 30 feet ridiculously unabated from just inside the blue line into the slot, then drilled a wrister between Mason's 5-hole (again) for a second power play marker and a 3-0 lead.

When Sidney Crosby raised his scoring streak to 15 games with another wicked deflection on the power play just after the 15-minute mark, Mason got an early shower, and former Penguin Mathieu Garon -- who was undressed to the tune of 5-0 the night before in Buffalo against the Sabres -- came in to take his abuse.

And that misery began only 3 minutes into the second period when the Pens' third line of Chris Conner, Tyler Kennedy and Mark Letestu finished off a strong shift by having TK get to a loose rebound in front and bang it by Garon off the far post and in.

Pittsburgh's 5-0 lead at that point actually only lasted a few minutes, but Columbus had to break the rules to get on the board.

Blue Jackets' forward Sami Pahlsson cross-checked Pens' defenseman Zbynek Michalek to the ice to the left of Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury without it being called, and right after that -- before Michalek could get up and back in the play -- Pahlsson deflected a point shot past Fleury for Columbus' first goal of the night.

Any momentum boost the Blue Jackets were hoping for after that tally was promptly squashed by the Pens' Captain when he finished a 2-on-1 by taking a beautiful saucer pass across his body from linemate Chris Kunitz and beat the sprawling Garon easily to raise Pittsburgh's lead back up to 6-1.

When defenseman Deryk Engelland wired a top-corner, seeing-eye slapshot in past Garon from the blueline at the near boards with less than 2 minutes left in the second period to make it 7-1, it was all over but the cryin for about the 5,000 Blue Jackets fans in attendance.

And it was nothing but cheers for just about the equal number of loud and vocal Penguin fans who made the trip to Columbus to root on the Boys of Winter.

The Pens' actually had the temerity to let up another power play goal -- their second in two straight games after killing off 32 in a row prior to Thursday's win over the Atlanta Thrashers -- but all that did was serve to dent the team's PK statistics and Fleury's goals against average.

Pittsburgh outshot Columbus 35-23 on the night and, plain and simple, dominated them in every facet of the game.

At one point, I actually thought the Penguins were going to score the same number of goals as they were going for games on their winning streak, which is now up to 9 in a row and counting.

Crosby had a chance for his third hat trick in the last 4 games in the third period, but by that time, the Penguins had understandably let up off the accelerator.

With the victory, the Penguins raised their record to 18-8-2, good for 38 points and continued possession of first place in the Atlantic Division, 2 points ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Pens also have now moved into a tie with the Washington Captials for the top overall spot in the Eastern Conferene and entire league. That was possible when the Caps' lost 3-1 to the Thrashers tonight.

Pittsburgh returns home to The Bird House on Monday night to go for ten straight against the second worst team in the NHL, division rival New Jersey.

Let's hope Malkin is back for that one, and that the Penguins don't take the Devils lightly. For as terrible as they have been playing, they're still a team that owned the Penguins last season.

Way to go boys.

More soon.

Sidney Crosby - 3, Atlanta Thrashers - 2

2010-12-03T08:14:00.000-05:00

Pittsburgh Penguin fans have seen a lot of things from their superstar center and Captain since he came into the NHL in 2005.

Things like Stanley Cups, scoring championships, and gold medals.

Now, he's completely outscoring other teams.

Like, for instance, in last night's game against the Atlanta Thrashers at the CONSOL Energy Center, which the Penguins won 3-2 on the strength of Crosby's natural hat-trick.

"He's dominating good teams by himself right now," said Pittsburgh RW Tyler Kennedy.

"He's just unbelievable," said fellow teammate Pascal Dupuis.

So much for Atlanta's 6-game winning streak.

Crosby's effort last night was his 7th career HT, and his second straight at home after racking up one the last time he and his teammates suited up at The Bird House and beat the Calgary Flames last Saturday afternoon.

Crosby now has 21 goals in 27 games, and is on pace for 64 this season. Add in his 23 assists, and his 44 points this year thusfar are now good for a 4-point edge on Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos in the league scoring race.

And, oh, Crosby also is working on a 14-game scoring streak and averaging more than 2 points a game during it, with 14 goals and 15 assists during that stretch.

Not coincidentally, Pittsburgh is now on an 8-game winning streak.  In fact, they are 10-0-1 in their last 11, and 11-1-1 in their last 13, all of which has been good enough to finally vault them past the Philadelphia Flyers and into first place in the Atlantic Division with 36 points. They also are 2 behind the Washington Capitals -- who lost last night to the Dallas Stars -- for the top spot league-wide.

Crosby's goals last night were all above-the-line.  After the Penguins allowed a power play goal by Thrashers' forward Bryan Little for the first time in 32 chances 6 minutes into the first period, Crosby tied the score later in the frame by capitalizing on a nice Chris Kunitz pass to the left of Atlanta netminder Ondrej Pavelec.

In the second period, he struck twice -- first on a breakaway, beating Pavelec easily on the backhand after taking a nice lead pass from Aaron Asham, then on an incredible deflection, redirecting a shot from defenseman Brooks Orpik that was easily 3-5 wide past a stunned Pavelec.

That tally gave the Pens' a 3-1 lead and, despite a goal later in that second frame by Atlanta center Nik Antropov after he took advantage of an Evgeni Malkin turnover, the Thrashers got no closer.

In fact, Pittsburgh did in the third period what it's been doing so well lately, which is clamp down defensively. Atlanta only had 5 shots in the final frame, which made it easily for goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to win again.  He stopped 20 of 22 Thrasher shots overall.

Pittsburgh also outhit Atlanta by a whopping 36-15 tally on the night. Max Talbot was one of the guys leading that parade, and while I'm talking about Talbot, props to him for throwing himself in front of a booming shot from Thrasher blueliner Dustin Byfuglien as the seconds were ticking off the game clock late in the 3rd.

At this point, all the Penguins are trying to do is keep it going. They'll have a tough task in their next game on Saturday night in Columbus against the Blue Jackets because Columbus is a team that's playing pretty well this season, and are tough to play against in their own barn.

That said, there's always a lot of great Penguin fan support in columbus because it's so close to Pittsburgh. I've experienced that personally and I'm sure it won't be any different this weekend.

More soon.

NOTES: The Penguins played without forwards Eric Godard and Mike Comrie, as well as defenseman Ben Lovejoy last night. Godard and Lovejoy haven't played much lately and have been sitting as healthy scratches. Comrie would be a healthy scratch if he wasn't otherwise injured, but he's been battling a lower body injury the last week or so. His ailment is believed to be a groin problem. While this is where I'd normally make jokes about whether his wife had a hand in helping him sustain that injury, or whether she should have more of a hand in nursing him back to health, I won't go to that level this time.

Wait a minute ..... I just did.

Dirty Birds Ready For Showdown With Thrashers

2010-12-02T14:50:00.000-05:00

A little over a week ago, I wrote HERE about reports that Pittsburgh Penguins' 5th-liner Mike Comrie regularly received sext messages from his wife, actress/singer/writer Hilary Duff.

Now, it appears to some that Comrie may not be the only dirty Penguin.

In the aftermath of the Penguins' clockwork 3-1 win over the New York Rangers on Monday night at Madison Square Garden, New York forwards Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky basically accused Pens' captain Sidney Crosby of being a dirty player.

The focus of their ire was mainly a sequence about 3/4 of the way through the first period when Crosby was trying to get up the ice, only to have Callahan obstruct his progress along the way.

As Crosby was fighting to get away, he got caught up with Callahan a little bit, and his foot came through the Ranger's foot-path at the same time Crosby finally was able to successfully shrug Callahan off and toss him to the ice.

The play can be found HERE, for those who are interested.

Personally, I think it's much ado about nothing. It's no coincidence that Callahan -- not Crosby -- got called for the penalty on the play. In fact, Sid was only trying to get away from the type of obstruction the National Hockey League is letting slowly creep back into the game.

Most curiously, though, what both Callahan and Dubinsky had to say -- which can be found in the Ranger Rants blog HERE -- actually provoked a response from the usually straight-laced Pittsburgh Captain.

"How many penalty minutes do I have this year if I'm that dirty?" asked Crosby (and it's 15, to set the record straight). "I mean, please. Show me all those dirty plays."

While Canada's Newsmaker Of The Year probably doesn't need to be concerned with getting a dirty reputation around the league, one fellow Penguin who could stand to be a little more dirty -- as in dirty around the net and in the high-traffic areas -- is Evegni Malkin.

Head Coach Dan Blysma spoke out on Malkin's behalf a few days ago, indicating how good he's been playing in areas that don't always show up on the scoresheet.

"I think we'd all like to see him put up bigger numbers and have the type of season he had two seasons ago, but I see him doing a lot of things better in his game this year than last year," said Bylsma.

"There's a lot of good in his game,"

Maybe so, but all the intangibles don't justify an $8.7 million dollar annual salary, and neither does Malkin being on a pace for only 72 points this season.

The Penguins have excelled right now despite outstanding play from Malkin, and that says something about how strong they have been defensively -- and in their all-around play -- but make no mistake about it, what sets them apart as a true force is Malkin making the opposition have to concern themselves with him one shift after tracing Crosby around the ice.

Malkin needs to get back to being the dominant player he has shown everyone can be, and to do that, he has to start going to the net more with the puck. He needs to battle down low and score some ugly ones. Once he gets rolling that way, he'll probably start gripping and ripping it into the net from the wing on the power play.

And tonight would be a good time for all of that to start, because the Penguins welcome into town for a 7 PM matchup at The Bird House the second hottest team in hockey, the Atlanta Thrashers.

Atlanta rides a 6-game winning streak into town tonight, bettered only by the home club's seven in a row, and they've done it on the strength of strong goaltending from Ondrej Pavelec and both leadership and scoring on the blueline from rearguards Dustin Byfuglien -- who leads all defenseman in scoring this year with 10 goals and 27 points in 25 games -- and Tobias Enstrom.

Of course, Byfuglien is a former Chicago Blackhawk from last season's Stanley Cup winning team, and another former 'Hawk, Andrew Ladd, has had a superb season for Atlanta so far, too.

Ladd leads all Thrasher forwards in scoring with 8 goals and 25 points.

The Penguins are going to have their hands full tonight, but the vibe around the team leading into this evening's game is an exciting one. Pittsburgh is eager to match their play against another team who's at the top of their game.

It's going to be a good one. Looking for 8 in a row, I'll have a recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!

New York, New York: Penguins Smother Rangers For Seventh Straight Win

2010-11-30T08:57:00.000-05:00

Yawn.

This is what it has come to for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Be opportunistic offensively. Play stifiling defense. Don't allow a power play goal. Get the usual effort from your #1 goaltender.

And so it was last night, as the Pens broke out the same blueprint to beat the blueshirts at Madison Square Garden, 3-1, for their seventh straight victory, and 10th in their last 12 games.

Pittsburgh got an early goal from forward Max Talbot 5 minutes into the game when he came from the blindside to steal a puck from a Ranger player (I forget who) that gloved the biscuit out of the air in his own zone and put it down to play it, only to find that Fu-Man-Chu swooped in, got to it first, and quickly snapped a puck to the far side past surprised New York netminder Henrik Lundqvist.

When Defenseman Kris Letang and forward Chris Conner then scored goals about a minute apart just beyond the halfway mark of the second period, the game might as well have been all over but the cryin.

Sidney Crosby was the primary assist on Letang's marker, by the way, dishing him a beautiful pass in the slot to finish a 3-on-2 rush, and in the process, upping his scoring streak to 13 games.

Marion Gaborik scored in the third period for New York, but all that did was nick The Flower's quest to lower his personal statistics some more, which he otherwise did in stopping all 25 of the other Ranger shots in the game.

As he has over the last three weeks, Fleury once more looked tall, confident and controlled between the pipes.

The Pens' PK unit also came up big again, killing off all 3 man-advantages the Rangers had in the contest, including two in the third period when New York was desperately trying to get back in the game.

Let me tell you folks --- Brooks Orpik, Zybnek Michalek, Paul Martin, Matt Cooke, Pascal Dupuis, Craig Adams and Talbot are not just killing off every penalty against, they are making it look easy. They jump over the boards with confidence killing penalties, and it's simple to see why. They cut off passing lanes well, show tenacity down low, demonstrate intelligence around the net, and transition off each other so well when the opposition has the puck around the outside.

And when pucks get through, Fleury slams the door.

One thing that all the players on the team haven't gotten enough credit for -- and which, I think, is an important ingredient to the unit's success -- is the fact that they simply don't take very many penalties against in the first place.

It's one thing if a PK unit has to knock off 5 or 6 power plays a game. When that happens, the odds of your opponents breaking through eventually are fairly good.

But the Penguins are only taking 2 or 3 or, at most, 4 penalties against per contest. They've done that consistently over the last few weeks, and that little foundational element to success of the PK when they do have to go over the boards shouldn't be overlooked.

It's funny --- I'm acutally highly anxious each time Pittsburgh has to kill a penalty now because I want to see how many straight they can kill. They're up to 32 and counting.

Now 16-8-2 and tied atop the Atlantic Division with the Philadelphia Flyers with 34 points, Pittsburgh is off until Thursday when they visit a hot Thrashers team in Atlanta that has won 5 straight games behind the hot goaltending of Ondrej Pavelec and strong play of defenseman-convert Dustin Byfuglien.

More soon.

Happy Holidays: Penguins Gobble Up Sabres, Senators, Flames

2010-11-29T08:51:00.000-05:00

The Pittsburgh Penguins will lose again this season.

At some point.

They'll probably even allow a power-play goal.

Maybe.

But their train is rolling on the fast track right now and devouring pretty much anything in its path.

Finishing off a 5-game-in-8-day stretch, the Penguins swept through their last three contests with wins against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night (1-0), the Ottawa Senators on Friday afternoon (2-1), and the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon (4-1).

You know, it's a good thing I've been doing this blog for several years or I'd start to think that their strong play was attributable to my absence over the holidays.

In reality, though, it has more to do with strong defensive work, led by none other than goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Ironically, Fleury wasn't supposed to start Wednesday's game, as it was the team's second of two on their annual Dad's trip.  Since Fleury started the first of those two games on Monday at Florida against the Panthers, Head Coach Dan Bylsma's plan was for backup Brent Johnson to start.

But Johnson has been battling a bit of an illness the last several days, and that forced Disco Dan to give #29 the call again.

The Flower has been as hot lately as he was cold to start the season, and he continued that great work Wednesday night in Buffalo when he stopped all 30 shots the Sabres threw at him and, in the process, helped a Pascal Dupuis tally in the first period stand up as the only goal the Penguins would need to win.

Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby made a nice play to assist on Dupuis' goal, and extended his scoring streak to 10 games in doing so.

On Friday afternoon back at home against the Senators, Crosby ran that streak to 11 when he got the 2nd helper on the Penguins' first of two power-play goals in the game.

Evgeni Malkin got that goal in the 2nd period, tying the game at 1 after a first period tally by Ottawa forward Jesse Winchester gave the Sens the early lead.

In truth, the Penguins were fortunate they were only down 1-zip at that point, because Pittsburgh looked like they were excessively lethargic on the ice after their Thanksgiving meals the day before.

At least they all did except Fleury, who was exceptional in stopping the OTHER 20 pucks Ottawa threw at him in the 1st period ALONE, then slammed the door on the other 23 they tossed his direction in the final two periods.

#29 finished with 43 saves on 44 total Senators shots, and earned the deserving #1 star as a result of it once defenseman Alex Goligoski got the game-winning power play goal in the third period on the back-end of two penalties called on Ottawa forward Chris Kelly on the same sequence.

It's a good thing the Pens got those man-advantage goals because, despite putting up 40 shots of their own against Ottawa goaltender Pascal LeClaire, they failed to get one past him at even strength.

But with that win in the bag, the Penguins continued their momentum by burning out the Calgary Flames on Saturday thanks to Sidney Crosby's 6th career hat trick.

With the 3 tallies, not only did Sid up his scoring streak to 12 games -- a league high this season -- he managed to net his 200th career goal in the process.

His strong work in the game also gave him a sniff of one of the many feats accomplished by his now-former landlord and current Penguins' owner Mario Lemieux that is unlikely to ever be matched.

Crosby scored on the power play, at even strength, and short-handed in the game.   His short-handed goal was an empty net tally, to boot. What upset him the most, however, was the fact that he had a chance to score another way earlier in the game when he had a penalty shot against Flames' netminder Mikko Kiprusoff, but let the finn swallow him up pretty easily.

Crosby moved in and gave the high leg kick deke that he used so famously to abuse Montreal Canadiens' netminder Carey Price in a shootout several seasons ago, but Kiprusoff had none of it this time.

Had Crosby moved in with more speed, and made the kick fake a second later, he might have gotten Kiprusoff to bite. As it was, he was going a bit too slow, and made the move too far out for Kiprsoff to really go for it.

Had Crosby scored on that goal, he would have come close to matching Lemieux's magical game against the New Jersey Devils on New Year's Eve in 1988 when he did something no other player has ever done in the history of this great game: score 5 goals 5 different ways -- at even strength, on the power play, short-handed, on a penalty shot, and into an empty net.

Of course, Crosby's short-handed tally against Calgary doubled as an empty-net goal, so it wouldn't have been quite up to Lemieux's feat had he even scored on the penalty shot earlier, but it would have been close.

Curiously, for as good in the shootout as he has become, Crosby is now 0-for-3 in his career on penalty shots.   Still, his effort Saturday afternoon was good enough for him to overtake Steven Stamkos as the league's scoring leader.

Sid now has 18 goals and 22 assists for 40 points in 25 games.

Defenseman Kris Letang had a real strong game against the Flames as well, assisting on 3 of the 4 Pens' goals, including the first of the contest -- and only other one by a Penguin not wearing #87 on his back -- by winger Aaron Asham.

Brent Johnson was also solid in the pipes for Pittsburgh, getting the start and only allowing a late goal by Calgary forward Rene Bourque. He stopped 30 of 31 shots overall.

While the Penguins caught Calgary on the final contest of a 5-game east coast road trip, the Penguins deservedly showed them no mercy, crossing the 40 barrier in shots for the 2nd straight game (they had 43 in all). If it wasn't for Kiprusoff, the score would have been a lot worse.

With their last 3 victories, the Penguins have raised their record to an impressive 15-8-2, good for 32 points, but still second in the Atlantic Division, two points behind the Philadelphia Flyers.

With six straight wins and a 9-1-1 record in their last 11, Pittsburgh is also now only 4 points off the Washington Capitals for the best record in the NHL.

One thing the Penguins have done well during this latest stretch is beat teams they should beat.

Take a look at their victims the last month or so and you see the likes of the Carolina Hurricanes, the Senators, the Atlanta Thrashers, the Sabres, the Senators, etc.   Sure, admittedly, not world-beaters, all. And the Penguins' schedule looks more like that in coming weeks, with games against the Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs, among others.

But this is the National Hockey League folks. Every team comes to play every night and somewhere along the line, any team can beat you. Stringing together the stretch of victories the Penguins have lately is a feat no matter who the opponents have been.

Perhaps the best part about the Pens' latest run, though, is that they've been doing it with good defense and even better penalty killing.

After their stellar effort the last three games, when they only gave up two total goals, Pittsburgh is now 5th overall in goals against per game, at 2.44.

Better still, their PK unit is now the top ranked group in the entire National Hockey League, killing off penalties at a 90.2% clip. They haven't let up a power play goal in the last 30 plus chances against.

And all this without stalwart Selke Trophy nominee Jordan Staal, who is now skating, but still not gripping a stick with anything other than a strange contraption on his broken hand. He's still about 3 weeks or so away from returning.

Tonight, the Pens' incredible PK run and their team winning streak are back on the line in New York against the Rangers (7:00 PM EST).

I'm back in the post-holiday groove, so I'll have a recap tomorrow. Thanks for your patience with me as I fully digested my turkey.

Let's Go Pens!

Mike Comrie In The Spotlight

2010-11-24T15:10:00.000-05:00

As the Pittsburgh Penguins get ready to finish their Dad's Trip tonight in Buffalo against the Sabres, it looks like frequently-scratched forward Mike Comrie is going to get a chance to get back in the lineup this evening.

It's been a tough season for Comrie -- something that has been well-documented everywhere, including in this space.

Everyone hoped he'd be a $500K steal when Pens' GM Ray Shero took the chance on him late in free agency, and after a hot pre-season, it looked like he might be just that.

One quarter into the season, though, he's given Penguin Nation something to talk about for all the wrong reasons.

Hey -- at least we can enjoy the 'celebrity' factor his wife, actress/singer/author Hilary Duff, brings to the blogosphere.

Recently, Mrs. Comrie was interviewed on a radio show, where she talked -- among other things -- about how she and the Mr. sext each other to keep their long-distance relationship fresh.

No word on whether this actually goes on in the CONSOL Energy Center press box, where Comrie has spent so much time lately.

The first part of that radio interview can be found HERE

The second part of the interview -- where the sexting remarks are referenced at the beginning -- can be found HERE, which is a post from a few days ago by one of the best hockey bloggers on this planet, Greg Wyshynski, who regularly writes on his Yahoo Puck Daddy blog.

While things in Comrie's world are clearly hot off the ice, we can only hope he'll make the best of his anticipated appearance on the ice tonight against a Sabres' team that is going to be missing franchise goaltender Ryan Miller, who suffered a groin injury a few days ago and won't be able to go.

In his place, the Penguins are likely to see rookie netminder Jhonas Enroth.

Buffalo will also be missing forward Tim Connolly tonight, who also is dealing with an injury.

They will, however, have former Penguin Jordan Leopold in the lineup.

Leopold, who is having a strong season for the Sabres after leaving Pittsburgh in the off-season and signing a 3-year deal with the Sabres, leads the Sabres' in ice-time and points among blueliners, with 5 goals and 14 points in 22 games. He's playing with 2nd year rearguard Tyler Myers, and it's a good thing because after a stellar rookie season, Myers has terribly regressed in year 2.

Myers is a -8 in 22 games.

Brent Johnson is expected to start in goal for the Penguins tonight.

Defenseman Deryk Engelland, as anticipated, will also be back in the lineup.

Let's Go Pens!

Penguins' Special Teams Shine In Win Over Panthers

2010-11-23T08:23:00.001-05:00

Going into last night's game against the Florida Panthers in the Sunshine State, the Pittsburgh Penguins were on a 5-1-1 run and had a chance to continue to build on that streak against a team that played them closely last season in four separate one-goal games (including three in overtime).

In games that close, we all know that special teams often can make the difference.

And so it went again last night in the first contest against the Panthers this year, as the Penguins' special teams brought home a 3-2 victory thanks to two first-period power play goals in 3 overall chances, and a penalty killing unit that again was stellar, snuffing out all 5 Florida power plays in the game -- including one late in the third period.

Kris Letang got the Pens' on the board first 4 minutes in on a slapshot from the right point. It was the culmination of a sequence that started with a clean face-off win by Captain Sidney Crosby in Florida's zone.

Obviously not satisfied with that work, Crosby upped the Pens' lead to 2-0 seven minutes later when he finished a 3-on-2 with Evgeni Malkin and Tyler Kennedy by taking TK's crossing pass in the low slot and getting Panthers' netminder Tomas Vokoun to slide out of position before easily depositing a backhand into the vacated cage.

Cory Stillman scored for Florida later that period on a play that required video review to see if Stillman knocked the puck into the net with his hand. From what I could see on the replays, it was difficult to tell whether Stillman got the puck with his glove or the shaft of his stick, but the call on the ice was a goal, and there obviously wasn't enough evidence in Toronto to overturn that.

Panthers' defenseman Bryan McCabe then tied the game in the second period on what looked like an innocent 2-on-2 rush into the Pens' zone.

That is, until Pens' center Mark Letestu flubbed his effort to intercept Florida forward David Booth's attempted pass to the oncoming blueliner.

Letestu did have the puck on his stick for a minute but didn't corral it cleanly, and it just rolled right off his blade to McCabe, who shot the puck in one motion from 30 feet on Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Fleury got a piece of McCabe's shot, but it squeaked under his arm. In my opinion, Fleury could have had that one, although he might have let his guard down for a half-second when he thought Letestu had the play covered.

Fortunately for Pittsburgh, the Pens' rookie atoned for his miscue in the third period.

With about 7 minutes left in the game, Letestu took the puck into Florida's zone and drove hard down the near boards just around and past the defending McCabe enough that he was able to curl a one-armed pass back towards the right circle to the oncoming Chris Conner.

Conner made no mistake, quickly releasing the puck and beating the surprised Vokoun above the right pad near side for a 3-2 Pittsburgh lead.

"A great play all around, from the breakout to the entry to the final play and the finish," said Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby of Conner's goal.

Florida got no closer, and with that, game 1 of Pittsburgh's annual fathers trip was a wrap. Fleury stopped 27 of 29 shots overall, and the Pens' ran their streak to 6-1-1 in their last 8.

Given that the Pens have historically tried to give every guy on the roster a chance to play in front of their dad during the 2-game journey each year, there will probably be a few lineup changes when Pittsburgh visits Buffalo to play the Sabres Wednesday night.

Last night, defenseman Deryk Engelland and forwards Mike Comrie and Mike Rupp were healthy scratches. While Comrie has been sitting, Engelland and Rupp watched from the press box at the expense of Ben Lovejoy and Eric Godard. Expect both of those two to watch the Sabres' game in street clothes while Engelland and Rupp return to the lineup.

And even though Comrie has been just a shade short of awful this year, I wouldn't rule out him getting back in the lineup on Wednesday either. If he does play, I'm not sure who will sit at this point. Of course, with the team playing so well overall, Head Coach Dan Bylsma may opt against changing his lineup that much and keep Comrie out of the lineup.

We'll see.

By the way, I may not have the opportunity to post a timely recap of that game on Turkey day, since this is the first year my family and I are hosting everyone on the holiday, and that means chances are my wife will have me completely pre-occupied that morning. If I don't get anything up right away, forgive me in advance. And have a happy Thanksgiving.

More soon.

Penguins At The Quarter Pole

2010-11-21T09:25:00.000-05:00

As the Pittsburgh Penguins hit the approximate quarter pole of this season, it's a great time to take a look at where they've been and where they're going.

They currently have an 11-8-2 record, good for 24 points and 2nd in the Atlantic Division. After the Philadelphia Flyers' shootout victory over the Washington Capitals last night, they trail their cross-state rivals by 4 points.

Pittsburgh also sits tied for 4th in the conference behind those two squads and the Montreal Canadiens, and even with the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning.

League-wide, the Penguins are 5th overall in scoring. They are 3rd in the East in that category.

On the goals-against side, they are 6th overall in the East, but tied for only 17th overall in the entire NHL.

While I'd rather not talk about this, I have to. The Penguins are 25th overall on the power-play, clicking at a continued substandard 13.5%. As it has often been around here, the Penguins' individual parts remain more efficient than the sum of the collective whole --- at least on its underachieving man-advantage.

And this, despite having more power plays than any other team in the National Hockey League.

On the opposite side of the ledger, it's hard to do anything but praise the Penguins' penalty killers, which are ranked 4th overall and killing an impressive 88.5% of the penalties called against them.

The Penguins lead the league in fewest shots against, at 27.1 per game, and are 12th overall in the number of shots per contest they take, at 31.6. Western Conference powers Detroit, Chicago and San Jose -- probably not surprisingly -- are at the top of the latter list.

Individually, the Penguins players have run hot and cold this year so far, which makes their record not that all surprising. After all, if you take the 5-1-1 streak they are currently on out of the picture, you can see that their record is one of an average hockey team and nothing more.

Still, Captain Sidney Crosby has had a real strong start to the season -- one of the best in his career in fact. He currently has 33 points on the strength of 14 goals and 19 assists in 21 games. He's on an 8-game point streak with 18 points in the last 10 games overall, and on pace for 55 goals and 129 points, both of which would be career highs.

He remains one point behind Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the league lead.

Defenseman Kris Letang is 2nd overall in scoring among blueliners with 3 goals and 15 assists for 18 points in 21 games. He's also a +9.

For comparison's sake, defenseman Sergei Gonchar -- who signed with the Ottawa Senators in the off-season -- is ranked 13th among blueliners with 4 goals and 13 points. He's an awful minus 13 on the season, though.

Another guy off to a pretty good start to the season is LW Matt Cooke, who has 4 goals and 11 points in 21 games. He's also a +8 on the year.

Flipping the script forces us to look at defenseman Zbynek Michalek, who is a -5 in 12 games -- a statistic that doesn't speak highly to the level of defensive excellence he was expected to bring to the team. I'm willing to continue to give Michalek a pass, however, as the shoulder injury he suffered which cost him 9 games interrupted his ability to get more familiar with the system and otherwise blend more seamlessly with his teammates. In the second half of the season, I'm expecting him to really pick it up.

Fellow blueliners Alex Goligoski and Paul Martin have cooled considerably from the hot starts they had when the two of them and Letang were 2, 3 and 4 in overall scoring among defensemen in the first 10 games of the season.

Of course, slowing down after a fast start is nothing new for Goligoski, but it's curious for Martin.  One would have expected him to start slowly in a new system then heat up, but it's been the opposite for him.

Up front, Hilary Duff's husband (a.k.a. Mike Comrie) is the poster child for how you can't put too much stock in a great pre-season.

Comrie was on fire before the year started, leading the Penguins in goals and looking like the biggest $500K bargain in the game.

Since then, he only has 5 assists, is a -4, and has been a healthy scratch enough times that he's only suited up in 15 contests. He's now riding the pine in favor of Wilkes-Barre call-up Chris Conner and, worse, it doesn't look like Comrie is going to get back in the lineup anytime soon.

Rookie Mark Letestu is another guy that has gone the way of the Antarctic.

#10 had 7 points in his first 7 games this year and was making a real impact up front for the Penguins, but in the 14 contests that have followed, he's only put up 2 points.

To his defense, Letestu was getting a lot of time in the top 6 during that intital stretch, and he's since been confined to the 3rd line and 2nd power-play unit, but he still has shown he's capable of producing more than he has even in those roles. I was real excited about the Penguins' having an 'impact' rookie on their roster who wasn't a first round pick for the first time in a while, but my hopes might have been premature.

Finally, a lot already has been said about Marc-Andre Fleury this season, and I'm not sure revisiting all of it here makes much sense. And that's true even more since his whole first quarter itself has been a dichotomy. First he was a disaster, and now he looks more like the Fleury of old. Let's see what happens for him in the 2nd quarter of the season. At that point, we can better evaluate him at the midpoint.

THREE THINGS THE PENGUINS NEED TO KEEP DOING

1) Keep up the good work on the penalty kill. The Pens' PK has helped them win games, including against the Vancouver Canucks this past wednesday. For as long as the power-play keeps failing them, the penalty killers can keep them in the mix.

2) Produce from the backline. Even with Goligoski and Martin cooling off, the Penguins still have more points from their blueliners than any team in the game. For a squad with a suspect group of wingers, Pittsburgh needs production from their defense to keep up. They've been getting it and it makes a difference.

3) Make sure Marc-Andre Fleury stays in his groove. For as oustanding as Brent Johnson was while Fleury was trying to get his head screwed on straight, we all knew that him playing at that level had a shelf life. Fleury has put together a string of strong starts and, not coincidentally, the team is on a run as well. Pittsburgh needs him to maintain that if they are going to climb the standings in the 2nd quarter.

THREE THINGS THE PENGUINS NEED TO CHANGE

1) Keep Jordan Staal out of the trainers' room. The Penguins have been fortunate the last 4 years to have Gronk on the ice with them game-in and game-out since it's obvious now what they miss when he's not in the lineup. It's hard to imagine Staal's frustrating run of injuries continuing and that's a good thing because the team is a lot better in both ends with him out there.

2) Do something -- anything -- with the power play. The Penguins have done a decent job moving the puck around on the man advantage this season, and that's something they've preached a lot more with Head Coach Dan Bylsma running the PP this year. But even with all the skilled individual talent the Penguins have, skillfully passing the puck to find the open man doesn't always cut the mustard on the power play. The Penguins need to do a better job outworking other teams and getting dirty goals around the cage when they're up a man.

3) Find a way to get Evgeni Malkin to return to form. Malkin has shown better signs of recapturing his game during the Penguins' last little run of success, and that may be attributed to sliding him back to his natural center position during that stretch. It's probably worth keeping him there for the next month or so and not necessarily shifting him back to wing when Staal returns. Of course, Malkin was subpar last season while suiting up exclusively at the center spot, too, but Geno hasn't been nearly the difference maker he can be, and getting him back up to speed should be just about as much of a team priority as it was to get Fleury back in groove.

Okay boys and girls, that's my quarter-pole analysis. Feel free to let me know what you think. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing if the Penguins can continue their run this week leading into the Thanksgiving holiday.

More soon.

Sidney Crosby Is Ridiculous

2010-11-20T15:32:00.000-05:00

How good is Sidney Crosby with the puck?

We've seen highlight shootout-winning goals ... an Olympic gold-medal winner ... heck, even a shot up a ramp through field goal uprights.

But for those who have yet to see this wicked piece of artwork on nhl.com or pittsburghpenguins.com, click on THIS and take a gander at what #87 can do with the puck when he's just fooling around.

I'm not sure what's more impresive -- the fact that he can zing five straight shots from 35 feet, EACH one in off the iron; or that he can knock a pyramid of pucks off the bench boards basically ONE AT A TIME TOP TO BOTTOM, from about 50 feet, then pick off the puck that rolls down the wall with a single shot from the same distance.

There's little Sidney Crosby does doesn't amaze anymore, but that was some footage.

And while I'm talking about Crosby, here's one other great piece about him from Pittsburgh Magazine.

Okay ... this was just an extra. Come back tomorrow for my look at the squad after the 1st quarter.

This Time Penguins, Crosby Finish The Job

2010-11-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

The Pittsburgh Penguins had to be feeling a little deja vu late in their game against the Carolina Hurricanes last night at The Bird House.

After all, just 2 games before, they took a lead in the third period before allowing their opponent -- then the New York Rangers -- to tie the game late, and that's just what Carolina did last evening, scoring with less than a minute in the contest to tie the score at 4.

Surely Pittsburgh had to be concerned about the possibility of blowing their 5th lead in a game this season already -- a malady that plagued them over and over again two years ago.

But there would be no relapse this time, as the Penguins and Hurricanes went through the overtime scoreless, and the Pens won decisively in the shootout, 5-4, on goals from Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby.

The win allowed the Penguins to raise their record to 11-8-2 and get 2 points closer to the division-leading Philadelphia Flyers, who have 26.

Pittsburgh is now 5-1-1 in their last 7 contests.

And they beat the odds a little bit to get there too, since Carolina was 7-0 this year when scoring first, which is exactly what they did last night less than a minute into the game when Brandon Sutter scored to make it 1-0.

The Hurricanes did a great job attacking with speed on Sutter's goal. They only had 3 forwards on the rush to go against the Penguins' 2 blueliners and 2 backcheckers, but they moved the puck around so quickly that they were able to create a brief 2-on-1 at the end of the rush that Sutter finished.

The Penguins obviously learned something from that because they did the same thing past the 11 minute mark of the 1st when Crosby used a quick pass at the Canes' blueline to allow Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz to create a late 2-on-1 on their rush, and Kunitz made no mistake tying the score by lifting a puck over the shoulder of Carolina backup netminder Justin Peters.

Pittsburgh took the lead about 3 minutes later, this time finishing a 3-on-1 rush when a Kris Letang shot from the slot caromed off the Carolina defenseman and went right to Crosby to Peters' right. Rather than shoot it in himself, Sid easily tapped the puck across the open crease to a wide-open Tyler Kennedy for the goal.

Before the period ended however, Patrick Dwyer tied the game at 2 by bouncing on a loose puck in front of Penguins' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and chipping it by him.

Pittsburgh went back in front at the 8 minute mark of the 2nd period when Crosby easily whipped a rebound of a Zbynek Michalek point shot past Peters.

Malkin got the 2nd assist on the play, his 250th of his career and 400th career point.

Unfortunately, that lead was short lived as Jussi Jokinen tied the score about 3 minutes later, getting loose to Fleury's right and finishing a nice pass from defenseman Jamie McBain across the low slot.

But the Pens' got a break at the 9 minute mark of the third period when Kunitz was awarded his second goal of the night -- on a power play -- following a sequence where he got a shot off from down low against Peters that Peters seemed to corral just enough for a whistle, before the puck ultimately did slide across the goal line.

When the zebras went to the NHL's War Room in Toronto to review the play, however, they must have noticed something different north of the border, because they awarded Kunitz the goal.

Clearly, the puck did go over the line, but on the live replay -- with the audio -- it seems pretty clear that the referree did blow his whistle before that happened.

Which ALSO means he had the intent to blow the whistle even before THAT. When the official loses sight of the puck, intend to stop the action is all that is needed to make the play dead, so I'm not sure what the big boys in Canada were considering when they overruled the official on the ice and gave Pittsburgh the marker. Certainly they look at plays with audio for that reason.

All that goal did, however, was set the stage for Jokinen's tying goal with less than a minute left in the game -- a goal which happened on a strange play with the puck bouncing around in the Penguins' zone and Carolina getting a bit of a break when Hurricanes' forward Eric Staal collided with Pens' blueliner Brooks Oprik (and actually knocked him down) only to find the biscuit finally settled down conveniently at his feet. He quickly tapped it to Jokinen about 5-7 feet away, and that was just enough to keep Fleury slightly out of position and unable to stop Jokinen's quick wrister.

Once Pittsburgh got to the shootout, though, they clearly had the advantage against the inexperienced Peters, and sure enough, that's the way it played out, with Letang beating him on a backhand and the Captain slipping one between his legs.

When Fleury stopped Canes' forward Jeff Skinner and then Jokinen, it was all over but the cryin' for Carolina.

Sidney Crosby finished with his goal and helpers on all three Penguin tallies, while Malkin added two more assists to go with his 400th career point. Add in Kunitz' two goals and the big guys carried the load for Pittsburgh last night.

Pittsburgh outshot Carolina, 36-34, by the way.

With his 4 points on the evening, Crosby now has 33 on the year and remains one point behind Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning -- who had 4 points of his own the night before in a barn-burning 8-7 win over the Flyers -- for the league lead. Stamkos still leads the league in goals, however, and is on an incredible goal-a-game pace with 19 in 19 contests. He's turning out to be a wizard in this league, and making people forget about Alexander Ovechkin, who sits back a ways in the points race with 25 points. At least for now.

The Pens' go on the road next for their two games before turkey day. Monday they are in Florida against the Panthers; Wednesday they are in Buffalo against the Sabres.

Next time, I'll take a look at our Boys of Winter and evaluate them at this season's quarter-pole.

Stay tuned.

Penguins Beat Canucks In Most Complete Game Of Season

2010-11-18T10:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I spoke in this space about my eagerness to find out how much mettle the Pittsburgh Penguins would show in their next game against Western Conference power Vancouver after their come-from-ahead home OT loss to the New York Rangers on Monday night.

About my anxiousness to see if they'd answer the bell and continue a string of fairly solid play without being brought down by those discouraging circumstances.

Ding.

The Penguins played their most complete game of the season last night in washing their hands of the Vancouver Canucks to the tune of 3-1.

Pittsburgh had just about everything they needed in this game offensively, defensively, and between the pipes.

Offensively, they got out to an early 1-0 lead in the first period when Captain Sidney Crosby just happened to step out of the penalty box when a loose puck came by.

Heading in on a breakaway against Canadian Olympic teammate and Canucks' netminder Roberto Luongo, Sid skated in with purpose and just blew a wrister past Luongo low on the stick side.

The Pens blitzed Luongo and the Canucks with 2 goals in less than a minute in the second period, with Max Talbot scoring on a wraparound -- shorthanded, no less -- and Aaron Asham chipping in a loose puck to pad the Pittsburgh lead to 3-0.

While Vancouver defenseman Dan Hamhuis scored not long after to make it 3-1 on a play where the Penguins got caught running around in their own zone a bit, Marc-Andre Fleury just slammed the door the rest of the way and the Canucks got no closer.

I have to say, this was Fleury's best game this season. I haven't seen him that confident in the cage in a while. He was focused all night, and made several solid stops -- 29 of 30 overall.

The Flower was also very controlled with his movements last night, I thought, which for him is a sign his head is really in the game.

Fleury got a lot of help from the Penguins defensively last night, too. The Canucks can bring it up front, and were strong at times in the offensive zone moving the puck around last night. But the Pens' largely kept them to the outside and limited their good scoring chances.

Pittsburgh's penalty killers also shut down the Canucks power play on all 5 chances last night. They've been fabulous all year -- after all, the PK was ranked 4th best in the league coming into the game -- but Vancouver rolled into The Bird House last night touting one of the NHL's best man-advantages on the road.

Individually, blueliners Brooks' Orpik and Zbynek Michalek were particuarly tough last night. They both had real strong games.

Despite the Penguins' relative control of the game for most of the 60 minutes the teams shared the ice, at least some Canucks' players walked away from their trip to town relatively unimpressed with Pittsburgh.

"This is a team I think we should beat," said Canucks' winger Daniel Sedin.

"I don't think Pittsburgh did anything special," said Luongo.

I don't care that this was their last game on a 9-day, 5-contest road trip. Personally, I'd love to see the Canucks again in the Stanley Cup Final.

Wait a minute -- Luongo isn't good enough to get them there.

Oops.

The Penguins are now 4-1-1 in their last 6. They're 2nd in the Atlantic Division, 4th in the Eastern Conference, and 8th-best league-wide with 22 points. Let's hope they can keep it going in their next contest, at CONSOL on Friday night against a Carolina Hurricanes' team that waxed the Ottawa Senators, 7-1, last night, behind a hat trick by Center Eric Staal.

More soon.

The Rollercoaster Continues

2010-11-17T09:47:00.000-05:00

Just when it looks like the Penguins are going to start to build some momentum, they find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Monday night at The Bird House, the Penguins played a pretty strong hockey game against the arch-rival New York Rangers.

For about 58 minutes.

While trailing at the 57 minute mark thanks to a Rangers' goal by former Penguin Erik Christensen, Pittsburgh had peppered New York netminder Henrik Lundqvist all game, and were pressing for the tying goal, which they finally got when LW Chris Kunitz chipped in a rebound with 2 and 1/2 minutes left in the game.

Riding that momentum, Pens' LW Matt Cooke then whipped the CONSOL Energy Center crowd into a frenzy by beating Lundqvist short side about 35 seconds later for a sudden -- and shocking -- 2-1 advantage.

To top things off, Lundqvist was so upset about the Cooke goal, he smashed and broke his stick over the crossbar, then earned a two-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by tossing the broken handle of it over towards one of the referrees near the penalty box.

So, with less than 2-minutes left and a stunning 2-1 lead, the Penguins were going on a power play. Of course, the power play had miserably failed all night up to that point, going 0-for-5, But fortunately, for them, they didn't have to score on this man-advantage. All they had to do was run out the clock. They'd win, and get a big emotional boost in the process.

"We had a chokehold on the game," Cooke said.

But the Penguins found a new way to fail.

Not once.

Not twice.

Three times.

In one sequence.

First of all, for some inexplicable reason, head coach Dan Bylsma sent out his top power play unit.

MEMO TO THE COACH: YOU DON'T NEED TO SCORE THERE!

Unfortunately, though Evgeni Malkin apparently tried to do just that. He had the puck on the near boards and sent a careless pass towards the middle of the ice, where Ranger penalty killer Brandon Dubinsky easily took the puck and rushed up the ice. He was joined by New York rearguard Marc Staal.

Not a good decision by Geno, for sure, but even then, the Penguins had all 5 guys back on the play.

2-on-5 doesn't seem like very good odds, does it?

Well, they are when two of the guys can't stop Dubinsky from making a pass to Staal while the other 3 lazily cover him. Sure enough, Staal gets off a shot that Pens' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury can't really see because of how many backcheckers are in the area. Worse, since he's not expecting a real shot there, Fleury's back in his net.

The puck goes off his shoulder and in to unbelievably tie the score with 86 seconds left.

Then, in overtime, the Penguins' star off-season blue line additions decided to go swimming.

First, defenseman Zbynek Michalek blew a tire and went down at center ice, allowing Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan to go in 2-on-1 against partner Paul Martin.

Dubinsky was carrying the puck down the near side and instead of shading towards Callahan -- as you're supposed to do when defending that rush -- Martin drifted towards Dubinsky.

Then, he left his feet to try and block a pass from coming across.

That's not always a bad play, but if you do it, your timing and positioning have to be right.

Martin's was not.

While Dubinsky showed great patience in curl-dragging the puck, Martin slid himself and his desperately-reaching stick both right out of the play past Dubinsky, then watched him feed the puck to Callahan at Fleury's left for effectively what amounted to a 2-on-0 tap-in game-winner.

And with that, the Penguins got a point, a whole lot of heartache, and blunted momentum following 2-straight wins.

The optimist in me sees that the Penguins are playing better hockey of late. They are generating a lot of shots, and getting more to of their game that way.

But they are still making questionable decisions out there. And while I can't blame Fleury for Staal's tying goal because him even being in that position was more a by-product of those bad decisions his teammates were making, it sure would have been nice to see him step up and just get his body in the way.

In the end, Pittsburgh gave the game away.

And the challenge the Penguins now face tonight back at CONSOL against a very good Vancouver Canucks team is to show how they can bounce back.

It won't be easy against the reigning Hart and Art Ross trophy winner Henrik Sedin, brother Daniel, Roberto Luongo and company, that's for sure, but I'm anxious to see what kind of mettle they put on display.

Recap tomorrow.

Weekend Recap: Pens, Fleury Show Mettle -- Sweep Lightning and Thrashers

2010-11-14T07:34:00.000-05:00

Reeling a bit after blowing a 4-2 third-period lead to the tune of 5 goals and a 7-4 home loss to the Boston Bruins this past Wednesday night, the Penguins had two choices going into their weekend slate of games -- on Friday at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and on Saturday on the road against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Find a way to bounce back.

Or continue to spiral into the season's quarter pole with seemingly little direction.

The Penguins wisely chose the former -- temporarily at least -- by stepping up their game when it counted to beat the Lightning, 5-1, then followed that up with a 4-2 victory over the Thrashers.

Both games were close, but Pittsburgh took over each in the third period.

And they did so behind beleaguered netminder Marc-Andre Fleury, who started -- and played well in -- both contests.

Fleury was particularly good early in each game, making several good saves to keep the Pens' in each until they were able to take over in the third period.

After a scoreless first period on Friday night against Tampa Bay, the Pens' upped the ante in the second period with a deflection goal by Pascal Dupuis -- his 5th of the season -- and an virtual open netter by pinching rearguard Alex Goligoski.

While Lightning All-Star Steven Stamkos took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play early in the 3rd period to tie the game, Pittsburgh held the fort and then blew the game open with 3 goals ina 6-minute span -- including a 2-on-1 goal by Max Talbot, a goal by Captain Sidney Crosby, and the first career NHL goal by defenseman Deryk Engelland on a point blast.

The Penguins did a great job against the Lightning defensively. They only allowed Tampa 16 shots in the game, and shut down the Lightning power play on every chance out of 8 except the 5-on-3 tally by Stamkos.

Pittsburgh had to rely on Fleury a lot more on Saturday night, and again, he was up for the task. The Flower made several big stops and let the Penguins ultimately pull away from what had been a 1-1 3rd period tie which had been forged to that point thanks to goals by defenseman Brent Sopel for Atlanta and Evgeni Malkin for the Penguins.

When Crosby tallied once and Malkin scored twice (including an empty netter, for a hat trick) in the third period, it was clear that the Penguins have started to regain their focus some.

Sid assisted on both of Malkin's 3rd period scores, by the way, giving him 5-straight multi-point games right now -- a first of his career, believe it or not. He's playing really well right now.

After the weekend, the Penguins now sit at 9-8-1 and 2nd place in the Atlantic Division with 19 points. They're 5 behind the first-place Philadelphia Flyers, and they're right back in action back at The Bird House looking to gain more ground tomorrow (Monday) night hosting the New York Rangers for the first time this season.

Can they -- and Fleury -- keep it going? That will be a true test of how much identity they've gained over the weekend. While the two back-to-back wins this weekend were positive, the Penguins need to get on a streak, beacuse the stark reality of their uneven play so far this season remains evident simply by recognizing that if the Rangers beat them, they're still at a below-standard .500 record.

We'll see.

More this week.

Situation Serious: Pens Blow 2-Goal Third Period Lead; Collapse To Bruins 7-4

2010-11-11T09:15:00.000-05:00

What in the hell was that?!?!

Leading 4-2 going into the third period last night in their first game at The Bird House in more than a week, the Pittsburgh Penguins had a meltdown of significant proportions, allowing 5 goals in a 16-minute span and embarrassing themselves on their home ice in falling 7-4 to the Boston Bruins.

If Head Coach Dan Bylsma wants to put on a clinic for his players on how to NOT play defensively, all he has to do is cue up last night's game tape.

And it started early.

After winger Aaron Asham got his first goal as a Penguin just over a minute into the game to get the crowd rolling, defenseman Alex Goligoski foreshadowed what would be an abysmal night for him when he turned the puck over behind his own net, leading to a sequence which allowed 42-year old former Penguin Mark Recchi to tie the score at about the 8 minute-mark of the first.

After Bruins forward Brad Marchand scored following a neutral zone turnover by LW Chris Kunitz, rearguard Brooks Oprik tied it at 2 before the period ended, then the Penguins took control in the second on goals by Kunitz and Captain Sidney Crosby, both in the final 5 minutes of the frame.

You'd think that would give Pittsburgh strong momentum going into the final period, right?

"The talk in our dressing room going out for the third was managing the puck," Bylsma said after the game.

I can only assume they meant managing it for THEMSELVES, but if I'm right after stepping out on a limb on that one, they must have missed the mesage, because all they did when they actually got out there to play the final twenty minutes was manage it for the Bruins.

Boston forward Nathan Horton made it 4-3 about 4 minutes in, shooting a laser past screened Pens' netminder Brent Johnson after capitalizing on some lackadaisical play from the Penguins in their own zone.

Before the Penguin fans could stop booing Horton's goal, Bruins' rearguard Zdeno Chara tied it at 4 by finishing a 3-on-2 rush with a shot from the slot that went over Johnson's shoulder as he dropped to his knees a bit early.

8 minutes later, the bleeding started again, when Goligoski made a bad decision to try and pinch in and keep a puck in on the wall in the offensive zone -- especially since he failed -- and that led to a 2-on-1 which Bruins' goon Shawn Thornton finished by again seeing Johnson go down to soon and beating him over the shoulder to make it 5-4.

The onslaught continued a little more than 3 minutes later when Pittsburgh defenseman Zbynek Michalek got meekly checked off the puck by the aging Recchi while trying to retrieve it behind his own net, then watched helplessly as Recchi slid the puck to teammate Blake Wheeler in front, who quickly beat a stunned Johnson with a backhand.

Milan Lucic ended the madness with an empty net goal before the horn finally -- mercifully -- sounded.

The Penguins actually outshot Boston 46-33 in this game, if you believe that. But, as Crosby said afterwards, "We got into playing risky hockey. We made big mistakes."

Typical of a team below .500, really, but still difficult to watch.

Goligoski, as I mentioned, was awful in this game. Michalek has struggled mightily of late, too. Ben Lovejoy -- who got in the lineup at the expense of teammate Deryk Engelland, who played poorly in the Pens' last game in Phoenix and even was benched for a period of time -- was an overwhelmingly unimpressive -3 in the contest.

There's no doubt that the Penguins' defensive zone play and decision-making needs a lot of work. To see how they fared in those areas last night (READ: POORLY) erases a lot of the good things they had accomplished in the last two games against the Anaheim Ducks and Phoenix.

Only 7 other teams now have given up more goals than the local hockey club has this season so far.

If Pittsburgh doesn't straighten those areas out soon, they could be embarrassed again in their next game on Friday when a strong offensive team in the Tampa Bay Lightning visit the CONSOL Energy Center.

Another thing worth noting is that Johnson was below-average last night between the pipes as well.

In his last two starts, he's allowed 11 goals, with an intervening strong performance in relief of Marc-Andre Fleury against the Coyotes on Saturday.

Could the bloom be starting to come off Johnson's rose? Him going down to his knees as often -- and as early -- as he did last night was a clear sign he was fighting the puck.

Fleury night have his chance to start several games in a row sooner than many anticipated.

Either way, it's a gloomy Thursday in Penguin Nation after last night's sobering defeat.

More soon.

Penguin Hits and Happenings: Conner Recalled; Johnson to Start Against Bruins; What To Do With Fleury?

2010-11-10T14:58:00.002-05:00

Coming off a stretch of 7 of 8 away from The Bird House, the Pittsburgh Penguins return home to the CONSOL Energy Center tonight to host the Boston Bruins (7:00 PM EST) and kick off a stretch where they'll play 7 of their next 10 games at home.

The Bruins -- 7-3-1 on the year so far -- will pose a good challenge for the Pens' tonight. They've been fantastic defensively, while just getting enough offensive contributions to win.

For their part, Pittsburgh has done a better job of getting to its game the last two times out, against the Anaheim Ducks and Phoenix Coyotes, respectively. And that's true even if they split those games.

Brent Johnson is going to get the call in the net for the Boys of Winter tonight.

Undoubtedly, he'll match up opposite one of the few guys in the league who can say he has better statistics than Johnson this year -- Boston netminder Tim Thomas, who's been off-the-charts white hot this season to-date.

The Bruins will be missing forwards David Krejci, Marco Sturm, and Marc Savard, the latter of which has been back on the shelf this whole season after having some recurring concussion symptoms this summer following the blow he took to the head last March on a hit from Pens' forward Matt Cooke.

Savard's case is a bit of curious one, since he returned to play in the post-season for the Bruins last year seemingly without any problems. For some reason, though, he began to have issues again this past summer while preparing for this season.

Pittsburgh recalled forward Chris Conner yesterday and he joined the team for the morning skate today. He isn't expected to be in the lineup, though, and instead was brought up more for insurance, since several members of the team have been battling the flu bug recently, including Johnson and Hilary Duff's husband, among others.

(Who doesn't think Comrie just wanted to say home and have his wife take care of him? Ahem.)

It looks like Evgeni Malkin is going to play tonight --- this after leaving yesterday's practice early while he still deals with a bit of a sore knee.

If Geno can get it going again, it might take some of the attention in Pittsburgh and national media circles off goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, whose continued poor play has kept him on the short list of topics associated with the Penguins worth talking about.

Fleury has acknowledged having just about no confidence right now, but he's going to have to shake that off. Head Coach Dan Byslma has attempted to give him some rope to work out his issues, but it hasn't happened yet.

Whether Fleury is at the stage of his career now where he should be so affected mentally by a slump is a topic for another day, but in the meantime, Captain Sidney Crosby suggested yesterday that, like any player, Fleury needs to get into a groove for several consecutive games to shake out of his malaise.

Of course, in the immeidate aftermath of that, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Rob Rossi wrote an unnecessarily-hyped column in yesterday's editions saying that Crosby and Blysma -- who wouldn't commit to giving Fleury that many games in a row right now -- are at odds over how to deal with Fleury's issues.

In other words, play him for multiple games in a row regardless of the result, or ask him to recover his confidence bit by bit -- even if it takes a longer time -- will they ride the hot Johnson.

Personally, I think there's much ado about nothing on this point.

Crosby speaks the truth, in my estimation. Fleury probably does need an extended stretch to get back going. But I agree with Blysma -- Fleury has been so bad, you just can't afford to give that to him right now.

Blysma wants to see more from Fleury on the concentration and focus front -- starting in practice.

The time will come when Fleury gets his chance to get that many games in a row. Personally, I think Bylsma is handling it right. The Penguins need the points now. And better to wait to do it until the team is playing better overall without all the abject inconsistentcy they're showing all the time right now.

By then, let's hope Fleury's confidence problem doesn't go from the current 3-alarm stage its in to a full-blazing 5-alarm mess. For him and the franchise.

Recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!

Status Stable: Penguins Come Back To Defeat Coyotes

2010-11-08T14:05:00.000-05:00

You heard it here first, folks.

In my last post, following the Penguins' 3-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks last Friday night, I spoke of the difficulty the team has had recently because of a lack of production from several key components up front.

Those players who were on the "WANTED" poster were Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz, Mark Letestu and Mike Comrie.

And for what it's worth, those sentiments were echoed by Pens' Radio host Bob Grove, who opened the broadcast of Saturday night's game against the Phoenix Coyotes in Glendale, AZ by highlighting the struggles of those same 4 players.

In fact, the only thing Grover didn't say -- even though he should have -- was that he read by blog before the pre-game show.

Then it was obviously not a conicidence that after the Penguins got key contributions from 3 of those 4 players (Comrie was obviously still off somewhere taking care of Hilary's needs), Pittsburgh buckled down and showed the gumption that has been missing so often this year thusfar by overcoming an early 2-0 deficit and another terrible showing from goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to beat Phoenix 4-3 in a shootout.

To go with a goal by Sidney Crosby, Malkin and Kunitz both scored in regulation, while Letestu added a key assist on Kunitz' tying goal before being the only shooter to score in the shootout to give the Pens' the win and save them from an extremely disappointing 1-3 road trip.

Not to mention an ugly flight home.

Brent Johnson is another player that had a lot to do with this win, coming in after Fleury allowed 2 goals on the first 5 shots he faced, and looking strong and confident in stopping 22 of 23 shots the rest of the way, while his teammates ran up 36 on Coyotes' netminder Ilya Bryzgalov.

In fact, the only puck to get by Johnson pinballed by him on a play that started with a bad break when the puck bounced right over defenseman Alex Goligoski's stick just as he tried to clear the zone with it. Otherwise, he was solid the rest of the way.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Fleury, who looked a little uncertain and tentative on the first Coyotes' goal, then let another biscuit squeeze between his legs for their second goal -- a play that was somewhat controversial and required video review.

Speaking of requiring further review, the current state of the Penguins' goaltending may soon be next on the menu.

Fleury was notably dejected after being pulled Saturday night. After being designated as the surprise starter before the game by head coach Dan Bylsma, it was obvious that Disco Dan was trying jumpstart Fleury. By giving him a chance to rebound after suffering defeat Friday night, the reasoning went, it would boost the Flower's confidence.

And, if the Penguins stuck to their game plan and won, it would give him an even greater boost.

Well, so much for that plan.

After being yanked, Fleury sat on the bench for the remainder of the period with his mask and gloves still on, obviously discouraged and despondent over his continued inability to come up with anything resembling confident, consistent goaltending.

Then he watched Brent Johnson do it all again for the Penguins in relief, including slamming the door on all 3 Coyotes' shootout attempts.

Just when you think #29's confidence can't sink lower, it does.

And each time it does, it looks like the hill to climb to get out of his malaise gets even bigger.

"Obviously not a good result or what you want from your starting goaltender," said Bylsma after the game. "Marc has been a big time goaltender and has got to be a big time goaltender. He's got to find that."

But will he? And if so, how long is it really going to take?

One month into the season, there are more and more doubts about the former, and assuming you even get past that, there's nothing but wide guesswork at this point about the latter.

And in the meantime, the Penguins are meandering along at .500 with inconsistent play from other parts of their lineup and a power play that other teams want to send on the ice.

In short, Pittsburgh isn't playing well enough to just allow Fleury to work out his struggles. And becuase of that, it will shock nobody if Bylsma continues to give Johnson a bulk of the work in the near future, starting with the Pens' next game on Wednesday at home against red-hot goaltender Tim Thomas and the Boston Bruins.

I certainly can't sanction anything less. Fleury is just awful right now, and shows no signs of getting over his funk.

I'm not going to pass any long-term judgments right now, but if this pattern continues through year-end, it's only going to be fair to start to wonder ......

For now, at least the Pens' cardiac condition is stable.

More later this week.

Penguins Compete Again; Still Lose To Ducks, 3-2

2010-11-06T08:45:00.000-04:00

Well, it looked like the real Pittsburgh Penguins showed up on Friday night at the Honda Center against the Anaheim Ducks.

But whether that's a good thing or a bad thing remains the question.

Now, compared to Wednesday night's abysmal 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, the Pens were a lot better. That's positive.

They competed harder, skated better and hit more.

But it still added up to a 3-2 defeat to the last place team in the Pacific Division.

Anyone knows that when you play the Ducks, you have to corral their top line of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan. Anaheim is basically a one-trick pony with that group of 3.

Maybe the Penguins missed that memo while they were just worried about bouncing back from Wednesday's loss.

(and that says something, doesn't it?)

Anyway, Ryan got the Ducks on the board first in the 2nd period beating Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury -- starting after Brent Johnson's defeat to the Stars' 2 days earlier -- easily from about 35 feet with a clear shot.

While not a soft goal, stopping shots he has a clear look at from that distance has been one of Fleury's several issues this season.

Getzlaf increased Anaheim's lead to 2-0 about 5 minutes later by crashing the net and getting the benefit of a bit of a bounce to slip the puck by Fleury.

Ducks' forward Saku Koivu made it 3-zip about 2 minutes later when he went to the net and deposited a rebound into an empty cage after Fleury a bit carelessly took himself out of position making a save on a shot from Anaheim blueliner Lubomir Visnovsky.

Sidney Crosby helped make the score close by scoring twice -- the first time on the power play (YES .... ON THE POWER PLAY) before the second period ended when he tipped a shot past Ducks' goaltender Jonas Hiller, and the second time 3 minutes into the final frame when he beat Hiller five-hole -- but that's as close as they got.

Pittsburgh did outshoot Anaheim 32-19 in the game and 27-12 over the final two periods, but it wasn't enough. They lost for the second straight game and 5 out of the last 6.

You simply can't put yourself in a 3-0 hole and expect to win. Especially against a guy like Hiller, who is a lot like current St. Louis Blue and former Montreal Canadien Nemesis Jaroslav Halak. He thrives on a lot of work and can frustrate a team.

And so, with Fleury now at 1-6 on the season and the Pens' now below .500, the Penguins will try to salvage that very record on their road trip tonight against the Phoenix Coyotes (9:00 PM EST).

Head Coach Disco Dan Bylsma needs to get the troops together before things start to get ugly with his team.

Maybe he can start by getting a search party together for Evgeni Malkin -- a guy who's world-class talent has allowed him to score only 9 points and a -5 rating in 13 games this year so far.

Wherever he's found, he's probably with Hilary Duff's husband (a.k.a, Mike Comrie) who continues to go dry after a blazing pre-season. Comrie has yet to score this year in 13 games and is -3.

LW Chris Kunitz is probably there, too. #14 was supposedly healthy and ready for a bit of a bounceback season this year, but has only 6 points in 14 games despite playing on the top line and getting 1st power play minutes. He, too, is -3.

Even Pens' rookie Mark Letestu, who started the season on fire, has cooled noticeably of late. He doesn't have a point in 5 or 6 games, still sitting at 7 for the season.

If Pittsburgh doesn't start getting contributions from those guys, they're going to continue to middle around winning and losing games with equal regularity.

Needless to say, that's below standard in Penguin nation.

Will the struggling group bounceback tonight? We'll see.

More soon.

Let's Go Pens!

Jekyll & Hyde -- Penguins Awful In Absorbing 5-2 Loss To Dallas

2010-11-04T19:35:00.000-04:00

One game after a controlling road performance against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Pittsburgh Penguins continued their road trip in Dallas against the Stars at American Airlines Arena last night.

Or, at least someone masquerading as the Penguins showed up.

Pittsburgh looked listless and was "outbattled and outplayed" according to Dan Bylsma in a miserable 5-2 defeat.

"They played with a purpose, and we didn't," said Pens' forward Mike Rupp of the loss.

Rupp and his teammates gave goaltender Brent Johnson little help and, for the first time this season, he suffered a regulation loss, stopping only 24 of 29 Stars' shots in defeat.

Dallas got up early on the Pens' 2-0 in the first period on the strength of goals by defenseman Stephane Robidas and center Brad Richards, but just as it looked like the Penguins were going to get back in the game in the 2nd period when Tyler Kennedy, the wheels came off for Pittsburgh when Steve Ott scored just past the 10-minute mark, and winger Loui Eriksson added a penalty shot goal just a minute later to effectively put the game away at 4-1.

That prompted an immediate series of fisticuffs between the teams -- and mostly initiated by the Penguins, but not by the likes of Eric Godard and Deryk Engelland, who were both in the lineup last night.

Instead, Kris Letang, Captain Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz all dropped the mitts in succession.

Letang was goaded into a boat with Stars' Captain Brendan Morrow, and agreed to go despite the fact that he's been suffering from a hand injury.

As a result, he didn't return for the rest of the 2nd period, but did play in the 3rd.

Because Crosby took offense to Morrow going after Letang, he went after Stars' blueliner Matt Niskanen and handled him pretty easily.

Kunitz and Stars' winger Jamie Benn followed that up with a spirited fight.

At least the Penguins showed some spirit that way, because it was pretty much missing in every other facet of their game last night, and late goals traded by LW Matt Cooke and a second one by Eriksson did little to change anything but the final score.

While so many things were disturbing about the loss, not the least of which is that it continued a trend where the Penguins haven't played anything other than average hockey (and their 6-6-1 record in the standings right now confirms that), perhaps the most troublesome thing to come out of last night's contest in this writer's opinion is that the team's power play again came up empty, this time in 4 chances (including a 5-on-3 in the first period) against the league's worst penalty kill

Pittsburgh has now failed to score a power play goal in 26 consecutive opportunities, and that doesn't begin to indicate how their failures on the man-advantage are getting to the point where they are a severe liability for the club.

And so, the Penguins continue on their road trip tomorrow night in Anaheim at the Honda Center against the Ducks, before heading over to Phoenix where they'll probably play in front of about 7,000 people against the Coyotes on Saturday night.

The Penguins can no longer rely on injuries as an excuse for their average record, since just about everyone -- including Evegni Malkin, who played last night -- is back in the lineup (except for Jordan Staal).

Instead, they're having major issues with focus, inconsistency and decision-making, to say nothing of the awful power-play.

And if they don't turn it around soon, the heat is only going to get hotter in their kitchen.

A Bad Break

2010-11-02T09:09:00.000-04:00

It's a confirmed (bad) break.

After leaving practice yesterday following a freak hand injury, the Penguins' announced that 2-way center Jordan Staal suffered a broken right hand, and would be out approximately 6 weeks, give or take.

According to Pens' GM Ray Shero, Staal got hit with a puck and just suffered a freak accident.

Staal will have surgery today to repair the break. With luck, he should be back before Christmas.

Gronk's latest injury is a tough blow for him and the team, who looks like it may now have to continue to play without a full compliment of players until near the New Year. In part because of that, it's hard for it to be a surprise that they're middling along a little bit right now at 6-5-1.

I hate to think where Pittsburgh would be without the incredible play of goaltender Brent Johnson so far this season.

That said, what choice do the Penguins have but to adjust and keep rolling? They've been playing without Staal for a month now; they just have to do it longer.

Now that #11 is going to stay on the shelf for a while, can Hilary Duff's husband please stand up and be accounted for?

I'll preview the Penguins and Stars' matchup tomorrow.

Jordan Staal Suffers Another Injury

2010-11-01T15:52:00.000-04:00

After missing 4-5 months while dealing with a torn tendon on the top of his foot -- and the extremely stubborn infection which followed -- Penguins' Selke Trophy Finalist Jordan Staal had been practicing for the last 10-14 days and was poised to give Pittsburgh a big boost by returning to the lineup on Wednesday night against the Dallas Stars.

Now, after suffering what is preliminarily being reported as a fairly meaningful hand injury in practice today, it appears that Staal won't be making his season debut against Dallas after all and instead will be out "weeks" because of this latest problem.

There's no word yet on exactly how the injury occured; more on that may be revealed tomorrow.

What doesn't need to be revealed, however, is how discouraging this is -- not only for the team that was on the verge of having him battle with them in game action once again, but also for a player who was noticably frustrated with the many setbacks he had to overcome from his foot injury just to get to this point.

Staal's latest malady clearly makes it a bit more important that the Penguins get Evegni Malkin back in the lineup Wednesday, as well.

Malkin missed Saturday's 3-0 shutout victory at Carolina with a bruised knee and is regarded as day-to-day right now.

To go from the expectation that both of those guys would be in the lineup to possibly having neither is a difficult blow.

Another player who is questionable for Wednesday is Kris Letang, who also is dealing with an injured hand. Letang played some of the game against the Hurricanes, but couldn't finish.

On the bright side, it looks as if defenseman Zbynek Michalek will be able to return Wednesday. He's been on track for several days now and, unless the injury bug continues to bite the team, should see his first action since early in the season when he suffered his shoulder injury.

I hope to have more information on Staal tomorrow.

Stay tuned ....

Weekend Recap: Pens Continue Sluggish Play And Lose To Flyers Before Bouncing Back To Shutout Carolina

2010-10-31T02:27:00.000-04:00

Brent Johnson to the rescue.

Again.

After returning home from a road trip that finished with a lackluster come-from-ahead loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, the Penguins returned home to The Bird House and played a carbon-copy of that contest in falling to the hated Philadelphia Flyers Friday, before having a ten-minute, closed-door, players-only post-game meeting, then traveling to Carolina and watching goaltender Brent Johnson slam the door and save his teammates again, shutting out the Hurricanes, 3-zip.

The Flyers' game Friday night was a miserable one for the Penguins after the first 20 minutes.

Sure, at the drop of the puck they were great. The bell rang and the fisticuffs came, and the Penguins came out on the winning end of each bout, with LW Matt Cooke getting the better of Philadelphia Captain Mike Richards at the opening faceoff and defenseman Deryk Engelland severely bloodying the eye of Flyers' heavyweight Jody Shelly.

Not long after, defenseman Kris Letang finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play beautifully to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

But like in Tampa on Wednesday night, things unraveled in the final 40 minutes, and it started with a shorthanded goal to Flyers' forward Claude Giroux in the second -- the 2nd time he's scored a man down for Philadelphia in 3 games against the Pens' this year.

Daniel Carillo then tipped a seeing eye shot that somehow found its way through the pads of Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury -- starting for the 2nd consecutive game, despite the miserable defeat to the Lighning the other night -- later that period, and then Giroux scored again in the final frame to really put Pittsburgh behind the 8-ball.

A late goal by RW Tyler Kennedy only changed the Flyers' margin of victory, which finished at 3-2.

For the 4th straight game, the Penguins power-play failed them, going 0-6 in the defeat.

Apparently, the closed-door meeting helped, because Pittsburgh came out flying earlier tonight against the Hurricanes, looking to shelve the inconsistency that's been plaguing them and establish their identity.

They played a full 60-minutes with heart and energy. And they did it without C/RW Evgeni Malkin, who suffered a bruised knee in the game against the Flyers and wasn't able to go against Carolina after testing it in the pre-game skate.

No matter. Pascal Dupuis scored twice for the Penguins (he now has 4 on the year), and those tallies sandwiched one by Maxime Talbot.

That was 2 more than Johnson needed in stopping 33 shots -- and looking good doing it -- to record his 14th career shutout, and first in nearly 5 seasons.

BJ is now 5-0-1 on the year and second in both goals againts average and save %-age league-wide.

Crosby had 2 helpers tonight as well, and while the power play came up empty again, Pittsburgh only had 2 opportunities to break their bad run on the man-advantage.

They'll have to wait until Wednesday night to try again, though, when they continue their road trip in Dallas against the Stars, before going on to play the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night, and then the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday night.

I bet we'll see Johnson between the pipes again in the next one, and really -- how could Head Coach Dan Bylsma not play him??? He's just too hot. Give him the nod that night, let Fleury try his luck against an underachieving Ducks' squad Friday, and then go back to Johnson against a stingy Phoenix team at the end of the trip when you might need him most.

Fleury is going to need a lot of games to get him back in the groove, but now just isn't time to give the action to #29. Pittsburgh needs wins.

I'll have an update on Geno's injury next time., as well as a status check on defenseman Kris Letang, who suffered a hand injury against Carolina and didn't finish the game.

Finally, I'll get everyone up to speed on where Michalek and Staal are, too.

More soon.

Penguins Unveil Winter Classic Uniforms

2010-10-28T14:53:00.001-04:00

This afternoon, the Pittsburgh Penguins unveiled the new jerseys they will wear for this year's Winter Classic @ Heinz Field, and on two other occasions this year:

Kudos to the organization for going with the franchise's original logo, colors and number style. Those decisions get a A+.

But just like trying to drink so much you convince yourself that the DUFF (not to be confused with Hilary -- instead, Designated Ugly Fat Friend) you're preoccupied with is worth your time so your friend can get a much better piece, trying too hard usually ends up with bad results.

The striping at the bottom and on the sleeves is also a homage to the team's first jersey, but those stripes were much less pronounced, and therefore didn't look as bad.

The stripes on these jerseys are -- in a word -- hideous.

In fact, I heard a rumor that when Brent Johnson saw them, he vomited so hard, he pulled a hamstring and forced Dan Bylsma to go back with Fleury tomorrow night against the Flyers.

Okay, that's only somewhat of a true story.

Johnson doesn't have a hammy problem, but Blysma is said to be going back with #29 tomorrow night.

I can neither confirm or deny the vomiting (fortunately).

More tomorrow.

Lightning Beat Adams And His Uninspired Teammates, 5-3

2010-10-28T08:44:00.000-04:00

When defensive forward Craig Adams scores 3 points in a game -- let alone 3 in one period -- as he did last night in Pittsburgh's final game of a 3-game road trip against the Tampa Bay Lightning, one has to like the Penguins' chances of winning.

That is, unless your starting goaltender lets up a few more soft ones, your power play goes 0-for in the third straight game, and most of the rest of the cast look more uninspiring than Rosie O'Donnell coming out of the shower.

And so it went for the Penguins last night, racing out to a 3-1 lead on the strength of Adams' contributions and chasing a Lightning goaltender -- Mike Smith -- who has always given them trouble, then blowing that lead and falling 5-3 to Tampa Bay.

The Penguins finished their road trip a disappointing 1-1-1.

Pens' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury took the loss last night. He's now 1-4 on the season, and his goals against average and save percentage are even less unappealing than his record.

Worse, Fleury's uneven and disappointing play this year continued last night, letting up a soft early goal to a no-name Lightning forward, Dana Tyrell, on the first shot he faced.

The second goal Fleury allowed to Teddy Purcell was no gem either, coming on an straightforward 2-on-2 rush where Purcell just beat Fleury with an average wrist shot to the glove side from the left circle.

Sure, Fleury came up with some big stops in the 2nd period, including on a penalty shot to Tampa Bay forward Sean Bergenheim, but those stops do nothing to wipe away his continued penchant for allowing easy goals.

Undoubtedly, Brent Johnson will be back in the net tomorrow night as the Penguins' return home to The Bird House to play the Philadelphia Flyers.

Meanwhile, most of the rest of the Penguins looked like they were more interested in being at Mons Venus than they did on the ice last night.

Captain Sidney Crosby and RW Evegni Malkin were mostly non-factors, finishing a combined -3. It's no conicidence that the Penguins lost last night and on Saturday night against St. Louis without real contributions from those guys.

Disappointing forward Mike Comrie also continued to be a non-factor, and even was benched for periods of time in the 2nd and 3rd frame last night. (Hilary has to be distracting him too much at home).

Even star rookie Mark Letestu hasn't made the same impact the last few games.

It's good at least a few of the Penguins role players showed up last night, though, or it might have been ugly. Adams scored a nice shorthanded goal for his first tally in the equivalent of almost 1 and 1/2 regular seasons, finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with Matt Cooke and tying the game at 1 after Tyrell's opening goal for the Lightning.

Cooke then finished off a 3-on-2 rush Adams' started by beating his man to the net and depositing a rebound over Smith, before Adams fed Pascal Dupuis for the 3rd tally to make it 3-1.

The Penguins were off and running at that point but simply couldn't sustain their momentum.

After Purcell made it 3-2 before the first period ended, Tampa forward Vincent LeCavalier tied the game in the 2nd on a 5-on-3 power play goal.

In the 3rd period, when the moment was there for the Penguins to seize and perhaps take 5 out of 6 points on this trip with a strong 20 minutes, Martin St. Louis stole the show for Tampa Bay, beating defenseman Ben Lovejoy to break in on Fleury and avoid his pokecheck by chipping the puck over him for a 4-3 lead, then outracing Alex Goligoski in the final minute to seal things with an empty net goal.

And so, the Penguins returned home last night with a sour taste in their mouth after the way their road trip ended.

Let's hope they don't have a spooky Halloween weekend against the Flyers and, on Saturday night, in Carolina.

More soon.

NOTES:

Forward Aaron Asham suited up for the Pens for the first time this year last night and didn't look like he missed a beat. He'll surely be amped up to face his former team on Friday night.

The Penguins will reveal their Winter Classic jerseys later today. I'll have a report on that later this afternoon or tomorrow.

Penguins Demote Tangradi, Hutchinson; Ready For Asham's Return

2010-10-26T09:42:00.000-04:00

As the Pittsburgh Penguins get ready to conclude their 3 game road trip tomorrow night at the St. Pete Times forum in Tampa against the Lightning, they made some roster moves yesterday.

With Brooks' Orpik's return to the lineup on Saturday against the St. Louis Blues -- and with him suffering no ill effects afterwards -- the Pens' demoted defenseman Andrew Hutchinson to Wilkes-Barre of the American Hockey League.

No surprise there, really. Hutchinson didn't play poorly with the big club in 5 games. In fact, in many ways, he held his own. On the other hand, he was a -3 in those contests and, between him and teammates on the blueline Ben Lovejoy and Deryk Engelland, he was going to be the first to go down.

Of more import is the fact that with Hutchinson to Wilkes-Barre went the Pens' top forward prospect, Eric Tangradi.

Sending Tangradi down was mostly a by-product of forward Aaron Asham's readiness to return to the lineup Wednesday night after being out of the lineup since the next-to-last pre-season game with a shoulder injury. Pittsburgh needed a roster spot for Asham and Tangradi doesn't need to clear waivers to be demoted.

Other factors went in to sending him down, however. Tangradi only had 1 goal and 1 assist (and a plus/minus of -1) in his 9-game cup-of-coffee to start the season, and in recent games, has rolled primarily on the 4th line -- a place where he isn't going to continue developing all that well.

Or at least not the way the team wants.

Tangradi needs top 6 minutes and the hope is that he will go down to undefeated Wilkes-Barre (6-0) and dominate up-front on one of the best teams in the AHL.

The team is putting on a public face about how Tangradi is mostly NHL ready and just needs a little more seasoning before he'll be an impact regular with the big club.

I'm not necessarily convinced, however.

At least not yet.

Tangradi was supposed to be a top prospect when he was acquired with LW Chris Kunitz in the deal that sent defensman Ryan Whitney to the Anaheim Ducks --- and understandably so given his physical talents. But while he has proven he has the size and strength to work in front of the net, in the corners and along the wall, he hasn't shown top-caliber hands he needs to consistently contribute offensively at the NHL level so far, and that gives me some concern as to whether he'll ultimately develop into the reliable top-6 forward prospect the Penguins have been missing in their organization for quite some time.

I'm certainly not writing off the BIG DOG, but he needs to show the type of offensive punch with the Baby Penguins that a guy like Dustin Jeffrey showed last season -- something along the lines of 30-35 goals and a 65-70 point season.

Asham, meanwhile, is very eager to get into the lineup, and who can blame him?

Coincidentally, he's coming back just in time to face his former team -- the Philadelphia Flyers -- who visit the CONSOL Energy Center on Friday night.

Teammate Jordan Staal also continues to come along nicely in his recovery. He's been a full participant in practice for going on 5 days or so now, and is probably about a week or so away from returning. I'd look for him to rejoin the lineup sometime on the Penguins' next road trip, a 4-gamer which starts Saturday night in Carolina against the Hurricanes and continues out on the West Coast next week.

Joining him back in the lineup probably at some point during that trip will be defenseman Zbynek Michalek, who is now also practicing with the team.

Michalek is at the 2-week point since he suffered his shoulder injury, so participating in full-contact drills at this point is a positive development for him.

I'll be anxious to see which players up front and on the blueline Head Coach Dan Bylsma decides to scratch when both #11 and #4 get back. The Penguins have a lot of solid numbers right now and a few players who have been regulars in the lineup so far are going to have to take a different view of the action in the very near future.

The press-box view.

Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to be in goal tomorrow night, by the way. He'll be challenged by a Lightning squad that has an impressive collection of offensive forwards and who are playing well as a team.

More soon.

Penguins Sing The Blues In St. Louis

2010-10-24T00:01:00.000-04:00

There's not much to say about this one folks.

On the 2nd game of their 3-game road trip tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins battled hard for more than 60 minutes against St. Louis and last year's playoff nemesis, goaltender Jaroslav Halak -- now of the Blues -- and ended up in their second straight overtime game.

But this time the Penguins didn't have the extra-time magic they did 2 nights earlier in Nashville, falling 1-zip to the Blues when defenseman Eric Johnson beat Pens' netminder Brent Johnson from the slot for the game's only tally 50 seconds into overtime.

Johnson played a strong game for Pittsburgh, too, rejecting St. Louis' other 23 shots in his first loss of the year. Halak -- not surprisingly, perhaps -- did the same, stopping all 31 Penguins' shots (and looking good doing it) for his second straight win after beating the Chicago Blackhawks the evening before.

There really isn't much to take from this loss. It was a tough one -- no doubt. The Penguins had their chances against Halak, but couldn't break-through, whether on 4 power-plays or at any time 5-on-5 in regulation.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin -- both so hot of late -- were (obviously) completely kept off the board. Crosby finished with 5 shots in the contest, and that doesn't count the 1o-bell clanger he put off the post with less than 10 minutes left in the third.

The Penguins were just an inch or two away from victory there.

Then, minutes later, your fortunes turn.

And it's particularly tought to swallow when you play 60 minutes of solid hockey, as Pittsburgh did tonight. Their frustration was embodied by Brent Johnson doing everything in his power to avoid shattering his goalstick on the post after letting up the game-winner following a real strong effort from all of his teammates.

Unfortunately, Johnson and the Pens will have several days to chew on this defeat, as they're not scheduled to play again until next Wednesday in Tampa against the Lightning. The Pens' chartered there after the game and will practice a few times in Florida while getting some R&R in my favorite road city leading up to that one.

Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to get the call in net that evening.

More this week.

NOTES: Pens' defenseman Brooks Orpik returned to the lineup tonight, and looked pretty good out there on the ice. He was as smooth and physical as ever. We'll see if Aaron Asham looks the same way on Wednesday, when he is expected to make his Penguins' regular season debut against the Lightning after suffering a shoulder injury that's kept him out of the lineup since the next-to-last Pens' preseason game against the Blackhawks.

Music To My Ears: Penguins Defeat Predators In OT

2010-10-22T09:03:00.000-04:00

It was hitch-a-ride night in cowtown last night at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

As in, hop on the back of the Pens' Captain, as Sidney Crosby's virtuoso performance helped the Penguins win a hockey game in Nashville for the first time in 11 years (and only 2nd time ever), and stay on the winning track with a 4-3 overtime victory.

In an extremely physical, fast-paced, and entertaining October hockey game between two non-conference rivals, Crosby paced the way with two goals and a lead assist on the game winner by defenseman Kris Letang -- a slap shot that rocketed by Predators' goaltender Pekka Rinne for the "W".

After a bit of a slow start, Crosby is tied for the league lead in scoring with former teammate Marion Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Evgeni Malkin also was dominant in the game, as he scored and added an assist while playing much of the night on a line with Crosby.

That ceratinly was not Blysma's intent entering the contest, but when those two got the occasional shift together as the game went along, they were just too dominant to separate. That was especially true in the 2nd half of the game when the Penguins just took over, outshooting Nashville 17-5 in the third period and 20-8 including the overtime.

And Pittsburgh needed to step on the gas, too, because they were challenged by a good Predators club who had an early 1-0 lead, took advantage of a careless retaliatory penalty from Crosby in the 2nd period to score a power-play goal, and stayed ahead or right with the Pens' throughout the rest of the contest until Crosby's tying goal with about 7 minutes left preceded Letang's game winner.

Speaking of Letang, he, too, had a fantastic outing last night. In addition to his goal in overtime, he added two assists and was +2 on the night.

Tanger is now tied for second in the league in plus/minus at +9 on the season.

In fact, Letang, Goligoski and Paul Martin sit 2, 3, and 4 in league scoring among all blueliners this year so far. They've really given the Penguins great punch from the back end, and have taken advantage of the increased minutes given to them following the absences of teammates Brooks Orpik and Zbynek Michalek.

They are validating what many thought going into the season --- with their offseason additions and growth, the Penguins would have among one of the best groups of rearguards in the league this year, despite the loss of Sergei Gonchar.

In the pipes, let's give some credit to Marc-Andre Fleury, who came up with a pretty strong game last night for his first win of the season.

Fleury stopped 21 of 24 shots and bounced back from an early goal-against that wasn't his fault. While the goal was really accountable to his teammates' open and obvious dementia about who was covering which Predator player on the ice, it still could have set him back.

It didn't though, as #29 made several strong stops in the game, including on 3 different breakaways by Nashville forwards J.P. Dumont, Joel Ward, and Steve Sullivan.

Fleury got a little help from his post and forward Pascal Dupuis at one key point in the game, too. Fleury took a high shot in OT that he stopped at first, but had it roll up over him. After it did that, the puck hit the crossbar and laid right down in the crease dangerously close to the goal line before Dupuis came to the rescue, swiped it away, and gave Letang a chance to give Pittsburgh the extra point.

Obviously, everyone in the Pens' locker room after the game was excited to help get Fleury his first "W".

"It's a great feeling to get a win," said Dupuis. "The best feeling is getting a win for Flower."

Will Fleury start on Saturday night in the Pens' next game in St. Louis, though? That remains to be seen. Bylsma might go back to him, although his intentions were to play Johnson on this trip, too. In fact, Saturday night's game was one the Penguins had pegged at the beginning of the season to play BJ in, so it will be interesting to see what the Head Coach decides to do.

Regardless, the Penguins will come into the game winners of 4 straight and 5 of 6, and atop the Atlantic Division standings with 10 points.

More over the weekend.

Will The Penguins Become Predators In Nashville Tonight?

2010-10-21T14:03:00.000-04:00

On a small roll where they've won 3 games in a row, 4 of their last 5, and are generally playing their best and most confident hockey of the young season thusfar, the Pittsburgh Penguins waltz into a place tonight where they've traditionally played very poorly -- Nashville -- to face a Predators squad that's one of only two teams in the league to have yet to lose in regulation (3-0-2) (8:00 PM EST).

The Penguins have lost a number of games in Nashville in recent years, and in fact, have only beaten the Predators 4 times in 13 tries since they came into the league.

Trying to help Pittsburgh get over that honkey-tonk hump tonight will be goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. You remember him, right? The Penguins' #1 goaltender who is 0-3 on the season with some of the most miserable statistics in the game -- and who has sat on the bench the last week and watched backup Brent Johnson start 3 games in 4 days and play very well in the process of winning all 3.

It's obviously going to be very interesting to see what #29 has to offer this evening. If Nashville pops a couple behind Fleury early, it's not going to be good for his probably already-fragile confidence.

And the goaltending controversy that has been just percolating under the surface so far will slide more towards the brew setting.

Make no mistake about one thing. While most intelligent Penguins' observers realize and recognize that Fleury has to be the guy to lead the team to the promised land, and that his recent stretch of poor play is (thusfar, anyway) nothing more than a small blip on the radar of an 82-game regular season, many of those same people can't seem to grasp what message it was that Head Coach Dan Bylsma may have been sending to Fleury by going with BJ for three straight games despite them all being in a 4-night stretch.

The answer to that is simple. There was no message to Fleury.

Blysma was just trying to win games.

Now.

Remember, the games now are worth the same 2 points that they're worth in March, and by starting Johnson in this last stretch, Bylsma was doing nothing other than relying on the hot hand and giving his team the best chance to win.

Fleury simply hasn't had his MOJO since the beginning of the regular season. Sure, you have to keep him in the mix and help him get it back at some point, but there's plenty of time for that. And it may take Fleury weeks or a month or more to truly get back into the puck-stopping groove we're typically accustomed to seeing him in around here.

In the meantime, though, you owe it to the other 19 guys to go with the goaltender who you believe gives you the best chance to get a "W".

Lately, that's undoubtedly been Johnson, and the Penguins are lucky to have a backup of his caliber.

Meanwhile, while Fleury will return to the net tonight, several of his injured teammates are also likely to return at some point during the Pens' curent 3 game trip to Nashville, St. Louis (Saturday) and Tampa (next Wednesday).

Defenseman Brooks Orpik is likely the closest to coming back. Orpik has been dealing with a continued groin and abdominal injury. He's been practicing with the team full bore for the last several days and, at this point, it's just a matter of #44 having his full timing back and getting as close to 100% as possible.

Another guy likely to return on this trip is winger Aaron Asham. Like Orpik, Asham also has been skating and practicing full-go with the team. #45 has yet to see regular season action in black-and-gold after suffering a shoulder injury in the Penguins' next-to-last pre-season game against the Chicago Blackhawks. But Asham's been putting in additional time to test that shoulder more and more the last several days, and is only a game or two away from returning.

The last of the Penguins' walking wounded -- and maybe the most important -- Jordan Staal, has also been skating and practicing with his teammates the last two to three days. Better yet, Staal has looked pretty good doing it.

While his recovery from the severed tendon he suffered on his foot has been a long time in the making -- and complete with several setbacks -- his recovery and timetable for returning is finally accelerating.

Rapidly.

While Staal probably won't be back on this road trip as he continues to strengthen his foot/leg and work on his on-ice conditioning, it shouldn't be too long after that before he gets back in the lineup. Early November is not unreasonable for him at this point at all, and that would be an improvement from what I expected, since I didn't think he'd be back until the holidays (hopefully more Thanksgiving rather than Christmas).

Good for #11.

Pittsburgh will have one thing going for them tonight. While they're still a bit shorthanded, the Predators will be without key defenseman Ryan Suter for the contest.

Suter is typically paired with Captain Shea Weber on Nashville's #1 D-pairing, but Suter suffered a lower body injury in the Predators' last game, and is out for a few games.

Let's hope the Penguins can take advantage of that and keep their streak going tonight.

I'll have a recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!

Penguins Win 3rd Straight; Throttle Senators 5-2

2010-10-19T07:45:00.001-04:00

Undeniably, there was a lot to celebrate last night at the CONSOL Energy Center.

Sergei Gonchar's return to Pittsburgh, where he was cheered heartily by a sellout crowd after watching a scoreboard video tribute to his career in black and gold.

And the Penguins continuing to roll, winning their third straight game and 4th in the last 5 by pasting Gonchar's new team -- the Ottawa Senators -- to the tune of 5-2.

Gonchar, playing as a visitor agains the Penguins for the first time in more than 5 seasons, must have had a hard time sorting out his mixed feelings about being in town again, because he was TERRIBLE in the game. He was on the ice for all five goals-against. And, like many of his teammates, looked bad in the process.

Forward Mark Letestu continued to shine last night by scoring the opening goal 8 minutes into the game by taking a nice feed in the slot from teammate Mike Comrie before blistering a water-bottle wrist shot top-shelf past Senators' netminder Brian Elliott for a power play marker and early 1-0 Penguins' edge.

Talk about a goal-scorer's goal? That was it folks. And it's just more kudos for the rookie who looks like he clearly belongs, and not just in a support role, either.

Sidney Crosby added another man-advantage tally about five minutes later taking the rebound of an Alex Goligoski shot off the lively back boards and quickly depositing it behind Elliott before he could get to the post.

The power play, by the way, finished 2-for-3 on the night, and is 7 for its last 28 -- a strong 25% during that stretch.

Evgeni Malkin padded the Pens' lead to 3-0 before the period ended by hustling to a loose puck around Elliott off a face-off in Ottawa's zone and swiping it by him.

While Daniel Alfredsson gave Ottawa fans a moment of hope by scoring early in the second period, it required a picture-perfect, top-corner, off the post/crossbar shot past a screened Brent Johnson.

But the Penguins didn't waste any time squashing any momentum that goal may have generated.

Forward Pascal Dupuis got his first of the year when a centering pass intended for teammate Chris Kunitz off a rush went behind Elliott off an Ottawa defender, and less than 30 seconds later, defenseman Kris Letang sailed one past Elliott through a maze of players to give Pittsburgh a 5-1 advantage.

The Senators got a goal from Chris Campoli in the third period, but Johnson continued his strong play and shut Ottawa down the rest of the way. He stopped 32 of 34 shots and was the game's #1 star.

For as strong as Johnson was, indications are that Head Coach Dan Bylsma may go back to Marc-Andre Fleury for the Penguins' next game, Thursday in Nashville against the Predators. That's a stretch where the Pens have 7 of their next 8 on the road, so Fleury is bound to get back in the lineup at some point.

Blysma has actually said some good things about Fleury the last several days, publicly reminding everyone that Fleury is the Penguins' #1 and franchise goaltender. This after making some surprising remarks last week that were critical of Fleury's play.

Personally, I agree with that general sentiment. As I've already said in this space, Fleury has to be the guy if the Penguins are going to get to the promised land again. But right now, I see nothing wrong with riding Johnson. He's playing great and deserves to continue to get a fair amount -- if not more -- playing time.

I mean, with him playing the way he is right now, he gives the team the best chance to win. And if Blysma agrees, how can he not continue to put #1 between the pipes? He owes it to the other 19 players who dress.

All in all, though, a good problem to have, would you say?

More later this week.

Crosby, Johnson Help Penguins Dominate Flyers In Their Own Barn, 5-1

2010-10-17T09:17:00.000-04:00

Make no mistake -- the Pittsburgh Penguins have played some fairly inconsistent and uneven hockey the first few weeks of the regular season.

And they've either been missing or lost some key people along the way too, namely defenseman Brooks Orpik and Zbynek Michalek, along with forward Jordan Staal.

Look up at the Atlantic Division standings today, however, and you'll see the local hockey club somehow at the top of the heap with a 3-3 record, after last night's second straight win, this time over the arch-rival Flyers, 5-1.

Backup goaltender Brent Johnson --starting on back-to-back nights for his first time as a Penguin -- was again strong, stopping 29 of 30 shots in the victory, and allowing only the game-opening power play tally to Flyers' forward Daniel Briere.

Johnson is now 3-0 on the season with an incredible save %-age of .953 and a sub 2.00 goals against average.

Sidney Crosby also stepped out into the limelight for the first time this year last night, scoring two goals in the third period -- on both parts of a 5-on-3 power play, no less, including a slapper from center point -- and added a helper for 3 points on the night against a team he commonly raises his game against almost every single time.

Pittsburgh's power play, by the way, went 2-for-8, and while they still have a ton of work to do to get better, they came through for the second straight game when they were needed the most, this time up 2-1 and with a chance to put a nail in the Flyers' coffin early in the final frame.

And that's exactly what the man-advantage -- and Crosby -- did.

Even if the power play still can improve by leaps and bounds, at least the Penguins are getting a ton of man-advantage chances. They lead the league in that category.

The Penguins also got a goal from Chris Kunitz on a mini-breakaway in the first period last night, a second period tally from Mark Letestu, and an empty net goal from Matt Cooke.

Speaking of Letestu, more props are in order for him. He outworked about 3 Flyers in front of the goal for his tally -- including stalwart Philadelphia Blueliner Chris Pronger, who couldn't even stop him illegally by holding his stick on the play.

Letestu continues to be a real impressive player for the Penguins. He's making a real impact on the ice, and doing it with not just great hockey smarts, but hard work. He battles for pucks over every square inch of the ice.

(Hilary Duff's husband, a.k.a., Mike Comrie, could learn a thing or two from him).

And so, the Penguins might finally be gaining a little bit of momentum here. They'll have another chance to keep that going in their next game, tomorrow night at home against former Penguin Sergei Gonchar and the Ottawa Senators.

As I said before the Philadelphia game, the most interesting thing worth watching will again be who Head Coach Dan Bylsma starts in goal.

Does he go with the hot hand in Johnson, or give Fleury a chance to get his game right?

There's been some skeptism raised in the local media that Bylsma may have made the wrong call by going back to Johnson last night. In other words, there was less to gain in the short term (wins) and more to lose in the long term by seeing Johnson continue to succeed, dealing further blows to Marc-Andre Fleury's confidence, and potentially creating a goaltending controversy.

Even without the benefit of hindsight, I'm not sure I see it that way.

Johnson is clearly the man right now, and he deserves to be given a little bit of the ball. Especially while his teammates continue to play shorthanded and work to get the other aspects of their game straightened out. He's just oozing confidence in the net. You can see it in his positioning and the way he's tracking the play.

And I don't think giving Johnson extra starts right now masquerades anyone into thinking that #29 isn't your #1 goaltender. Penguin Nation knows that if the team is going to go anywhere long term, Fleury has to be their guy. And I think the team and coaching staff knows that, too.

Fleury will get his chance again. But it's hard for Blysma to play Fleury just for those intangible reasons right now, don't you think? In other words, if he believes Johnson gives his team the best chance to win at the present time, wouldn't he be doing a disservice to the other players on the team by not putting him in the lineup?

I think, yes. And I think that's why he's riding Johnson right now.

The Penguins should be thankful they have another guy they can put in who gives them that goaltending.

More this week.

Pens Beat Islanders It OT For First Win At The Bird House

2010-10-16T08:39:00.000-04:00

We all knew the Penguins would win a game at the CONSOL Energy Center.

Someday.

No moment like the present, though, and Pittsburgh finally broke through for their first 2 points on home ice last night when defenseman Alex Goligoski scored on a 4-on-3 power play just under 2 minutes into overtime to beat the New York Islanders., 3-2.

All I can say is --- IT'S ABOUT TIME!

And not just for the Penguins to win a game in The Bird House.

But also for the man-advantage -- which has looked only like a man DISadvantage since the beginning of the season -- to FINALLY come through for the Pens.

After going a miserable 0-for-7 during the first 3 periods and continuing to pass up opportunity after opportunity, it delivered when the team needed it most.

After losing the first three games on home ice -- all by one goal -- how bad would it have felt to lose last night's game against a team that hasn't won in Pittsburgh since 2007? Sure, those games were across the street, but after building a 2-0 lead in the second period on the strength of goals from forwards Mike Rupp and Eric Tangradi, (the latter's first in the National Hockey League, by the way) it would have been a disaster had they come from ahead to drop last night's contest.

But the Penguins' best players so far this year saved them, to wit:

Goligoski, who now has 3 goals (most in the league among blueliners) and 5 points (second) to lead the team in scoring at this early stage;

Mark Letestu, who assisted on both Penguins' goals last night, and now has 4 points to lead the team among forwards -- which is more than a couple guys getting paid $8.7 million dollars a season to do that, by the way;

Brent Johnson, the only goaltender to win a game for Pittsburgh this year, who again was strong in stopping 22 of 24 shots --- and who may just get the call again in the pipes tonight when the Penguins visit Philadelphia to face-off against the arch-rival Flyers (6:00 PM EST)

One other thing of note about the game. The Penguins held firm defensively despite playing with only 5 rearguards for more than half of it after defenseman Kris Letang got tossed from the game on an absurd 5-minute major penalty and game misconduct for an open-ice, shoulder-to-shoulder hit on Islanders forward Blake Comeau.

As we all probably know, the league has instituted automatic 5-minute major and game misconduct penalties to anyone who targets the head of another player with a hit from behind or from the side when they're defenseless, but this hit was nothing like that, and the officials last night completely blew that call.

It's not Letang's fault Comeau spun around and acted like he got shot on contact. Heck, after being on the ice for a few minutes and watching his teammate, Josh Bailey, jump Letang to seek retribution after the hit, Comeau continued to play and even assisted on both Islanders' goals to tie the game later that same period -- a power-play marker by Bailey after he served his two-minute penalty for chasing Letang down, then a later tally by defenseman Radek Martinek to tie it.

Give me a break.

The point is, kudos to the Penguins' defenders -- including 3 guys who played basically all of last year in the AHL, Lovejoy, Engelland and Hutchinson -- for standing tall in the face of adversity.

As I said, big game tonight. The most interesting thing to see will be whether Head Coach Dan Bylsma goes back to Johnson between the pipes, or whether he gives Fleury a chance to start straightening out his uneven play so far this year.

I'm also hoping from a virtuoso effort from our Captain tonight. We need a big game from him on back-to-back nights with the team still shorthanded on the blueline.

Recap tomorrow.

Let's Go Pens!