---

Penguins Get Bruined

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost the home portion in the first game of a home-and-home series with the red-hot Boston Bruins 5-2 on Tuesday night.  The seemingly unstoppable Bruins won their 9th straight game and finished the month of December with an amazing 12-1 record.  Even more impressive, they are 23-2-1 since the beginning of November.  For the Penguins, it has been a December to forget as their record for the month sunk to 5-8-1.  To their credit, the struggling Penguins put up 34-shots against the oppressive Bruins defense and were robbed several times by the stellar play of goaltender Tim Thomas.  The difference maker ultimately was Boston’s special teams, which scored 2 powerplay goals and a short-hander while stopping the few man-advantage opportunities for the Penguins.  Officiating seemed to favor the Bruins with some questionable calls against the Penguins, most notably a hooking call against Evgeni Malkin sprawling on the ice with one hand on his stick.  I saw at least 2 more obvious hooks by the Bruins uncalled.  That, however, is the type of adversity that great teams find ways to play through and tonight it just wasn’t in the cards for the Penguins against a team as strong as the Bruins. 

With the game moving at a frenzied pace in the 1st period, Marc-Andre Fleury was outstanding in net and stopped all 16-shots thrown his way.  The Penguins took two penalties in the first period, but managed to escape unscathed.  Then, with 3-minutes left in the period, the Penguins’ Dustin Jeffrey threw a sharp angle shot on net that rebounded out to Ruslan Fedotenko and then onto the backhand of Petr Sykora in front of a gaping net.  Sykora threw his 13th goal of the season into the net to make it 1-0, giving Dustin Jeffrey his first NHL-point.  Fedotenko picked up the other assist.  Just 50-seconds later, the Penguins went on the powerplay but were ultimately unable to connect and extend their 1-goal lead.  The Penguins were outshot 16-10 in the first, with 5-shots coming from the Bruins powerplay.

In the 2nd period, the Penguins found themselves in penalty trouble as they found themselves short-handed three times with no powerplay chances of their own to balance things out.  What’s worse, the league’s #3 powerplay made them pay as the Bruins scored on the first 2-chances.  At 4:24, Brooks Orpik took 2-minutes for intereference that led to a powerplay goal by Zdeno Chara, from P.J. Axelsson and Dennis Wideman.  Chara ended up sneaking in a wide-open back door at 4:46 where he took a cross-ice pass to make an easy goal.  Then at 8:56, Evgeni Malkin was called for a questionable hooking penalty as he was mostly prone on the ice with one hand on his stick.  Just 34-seconds later, Marc Savard roofed an impressive powerplay goal that rocketed over Fleury’s shoulder as he hugged the post and sent the water bottle airborne.  David Krejci and Dennis Wideman picked up the assists on the play to make it 2-1.  At 15:13, the Penguins managed to tie it back up as Sidney Crosby gloved down a failed clearing attempt by Zdeno Chara and passed the puck across the ice to Pascal Dupuis who launched a missile over Tim Thomas’ shoulder to make it 2-2.  The tie was short-lived, however, as Phil Kessel grabbed a turnover off from Evgeni Malkin and passed it to Marc Savard before getting it back and beating Marc-Andre Fleury at 6:43 to make it 3-2, Boston.   The Bruins again outshot the Penguins 14-11 in the period, and were 2-for-3 on the powerplay.

Although the Penguins went into the 3rd period down by just a goal, they lost any momentum they could have had when Sidney Crosby turned over the puck and they gave up a short-handed goal at 5:38 instead of converting on a rare powerplay opportunity.  Athough the Penguins did manage to outshoot the Bruins in the 3rd, the short-handed goal seemed to punctuate how the rest of the period would play out.  On the short-hander, it was Martin St. Pierre with a nifty wrister for his first goal of the season on a pass from none other than the NHL’s plus/minus leader Marc Savard.  Then at 9:38, the Bruins put the game completely out of reach as Dennis Wideman notched his 8th of the season from Zdeno Chara and P.J. Axelsson to make it 5-2.  Late in the frame, call-up Tim Wallace got a shot to the back of the head by Milan Lucic and he responded with a valiant attempt against the much larger Lucic.  A number of shots were exchanged, and while it was hardly a fair matchup, Wallace held his own in the lengthy battle.  Personally, I would have preferred to have seen a Godard or Bissonnette on the Penguins’ side as I suspect that result would have resonated with Lucic longer, but that was an impossible scenario with both players out of the lineup. 

• VIDEO:  Game Highlights
• PHOTOS:  In-Game Photos
• Game Rosters
• Game Summary
• Boxscore
• Shot Summary
• Faceoff Summary
• Penguins’ TOI Report

Jordan Staal became the youngest player to appear in 200 NHL games at 20 years, 111 days, four days younger than San Jose’s Patrick Marleau was when he played in his 200th during the 1999-2000 season.  The Penguins are heading to Boston next for a New Year’s Day rematch against the Bruins.

Comment on this post: - (1) Posts

Fleury Stands Tall in Net, Penguins Prep for Habs

The Pittsburgh Penguins found a way to win a tough post-Christmas road game in New Jersey on Friday night as Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 37-shots to post his first shutout of the season.  Ruslan Fedotenko got the lone Penguins’ goal on a feed by Evgeni Malkin.  The goal was Fedotenko’s 9th of the season, while Malkin picked up his league leading 44th-assist and 59th point.  Malkin has established an 11-point lead in assists and 12-point lead in points and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  The Penguins will be back in Pittsburgh tonight as they host the Montreal Canadiens at Mellon Arena.  Last night’s win put the Penguins a point ahead of New Jersey, while a regulation win tonight would put the Penguins 2-points ahead of Montreal.  The Penguins will be looking to build momentum for home-and-home games against the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins on Tuesday and Thursday.

Rob Rossi’s Trib Total Media Minute

Coach Therrien Game Day Interview

Hal Gill Game Day Interview

Paul Bissonnette Game Day Interview

Sidney Crosby Game Day Interview

Comment on this post: - (1) Posts

Penguins Struck by Lowly Lightning, Shut-Out 2-0

As a Pittsburgh Penguins’ fan, you are undoubtedly beside yourself with frustration after watching your hockey team lose to the last place Tampa Bay Lightning (8-16-9).  If that weren’t depressing enough, they were outshot 29-15 and shut-out 2-0 by a team that normally gives up 33.5 shots and 2.88 goals per game.  Granted the Penguins were playing the second night of back-to-back games, but this was a game that they were “supposed to win”.  These are the games that you can’t lose if you are going to be competitive in the league and be a contender.  Unfortunately, tonight’s loss extends the struggles of a team that had one of their best starts in years, but has fallen prey to a 4-6-1 record during the month of December.  Last season, the Penguins found their glue and played some of their best team hockey as they struggled through seemingly insurmountable injuries to key players.  This season, a series of injuries to role forwards, top defensemen and the #1 goalie has created a more predictable outcome in which the Penguins have (at least temporarily) lost their way.  They appear to have lost their confidence as well which is a hard thing to recover, especially in a tough schedule like the Penguins have had in December. 

Some observations from tonight’s game. 

Offensively, the Penguins have got to start putting traffic in front of the net and shooting the puck.  It is hard to score on a goaltender in today’s NHL if he can see the shot, especially if most of the shots are coming from the outside.   The Penguins also need to stop the fancy pass attempts in the offensive zone and just shoot the puck.  Too many shooting opportunities are being given up in favor of a passing play.  Too many blind passes are being easily picked off and turned over because nobody is home.  The Penguins gave the puck away 11 times tonight.  If the Penguins start thinking shoot instead of trying to make the perfect passing play, they are apt to create more scoring chances off from rebounds rather than wasted puck possession time and turnovers.  The one place where the passing play could be used more effectively is on the breakout through the neutral zone and getting into the offensive zone.  Too often the Penguins are relying on the dump-and-chase.  If you are going to play that game, you need to be able to win the race to the puck in the corners, and that hasn’t been happening.  As a result, it becomes a game of dump and chase it back into your own defensive zone as the opposing team gains possession and heads down the ice.  In the 3rd period tonight, the Penguins fell prey to the Lightning trap and couldn’t find a way past it.  As a result, and despite playing from behind in the 3rd period, the Penguins didn’t register their first shot until 11-minutes in.  They need to find a way to break through the trap or they will be victims of it all season long.  Finally, the Penguins did seem snake bit tonight as they missed the net on the few excellent opportunities that they did have. 

Defensively, the Penguins are leaving the goaltender out to hang too often.  It is unacceptable for one (or sometimes two) opposing players to find themselves open in front of the net with the puck multiple times during a game.  With Hal Gill out of the lineup, this has become much more noticeable lately and tonight was no exception.  Poor decisions were also made with defensemen trying to play the puck when they should take the body, and vice versa.  The Penguins also struggled clearing the puck out of their own zone.  Marc-Andre Fleury did his part as he stopped 27 of 29-shots for a 0.931 save percentage.  Ryan Whitney was back in the lineup for his first game and played quite well given the long layoff with just one AHL conditioning game under his belt. 

So the Penguins finish up 4-games in 6-nights with a 2-2 record.  The remainder of the month won’t be any easier for the Penguins as they take on the Devils on the road on Friday and then the Canadiens at home on Saturday before finishing the month at home against the Bruins on Tuesday.  Somehwere in all of this, they need to find a way to start consistently putting together some wins.  With teams like New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York surging in the standings, the Penguins can ill afford to stay in a funk much longer.

Comment on this post: - (1) Posts

Penguins Nip Sabres in OT on Controversial Goal by Crosby

The Pittsburgh Penguins came back from a 2-goal defecit against the Buffalo Sabres to force the extra frame and then won the game 4-3 on a controversial overtime goal by Sidney Crosby.  The game-winning goal which was deflected in by Crosby looked as if it may have hit his stick above the crossbar (high stick), but the on-ice official with a good line of sight called it a goal and the video review was ruled inconclusive.  Nonetheless, it looked questionable from the difficult to discern high angle view of the game camera, adding to the likely displeasure of Sabres fans.  While Crosby got the game-winner and finally put in his first goal of the month, the first star of the game was clearly rookie defenseman Alex Goligoski who put in 2-goals of his own and added a helper on the OT-goal.  Evgeni Malkin continued his domination of the league scoring race by adding 3-assists, to give him 9-points (3G, 6A) in just his last 3-games.  The come from behind win was a much needed victory for the Penguins who struggled at times in the game and committed numerous penalties.  They will look to use this game as a spring board to get back on track and put the month of December behind them.

In the first period, the Penguins got off on the wrong foot.  Just 1-minute into the game, Marc-Andre Fleury gave up a goal on a slap shot by Daniel Paille to fall behind 1-0.  Teppo Numminen and Adam Mair assisted on Paille’s 4th goal of the season.  The Penguins pressed hard though and outshot the Sabres 11-7 despite picking up the period’s lone penalty on an interference call to Brooks Orpik.  It would end up being the only period in which the Penguins outshot the Sabres, however.

In the second period, Buffalo struck again at 5:23 as Ales Kotalik found the twine on a wrist shot that beat Fleury to make it 2-0.  Daniel Paille and Adam Mair combined for the assists on Kotalik’s 8th tally of the season.  Just a little under a minute later, however, the Penguins took advantage of a bad line change by the Sabres as Pascal Dupuis chipped a goal high over Ryan Miller’s shoulder at 6:18 to cut the Sabres lead in half.  Miroslav Satan and Brooks Orpik picked up the assists on the quick conversion.  Then at 12:23, Evgeni Malkin set up Alex Goligoski for a blast that found its way through traffic and into the net to tie the game 2-2.  Ruslan Fedotenko joined Malkin on the assist.  At 14:46, Eric Godard boarded a Sabres’ player behind his own net and then got in a fight (or rather a slow dance)  with Andrew Peters.  Neither player got in any shots and the Penguins found themselves short-handed for 2-minutes on Godard’s boarding minor.  The Penguins were unsuccessful on the ensuing penalty kill as the defense left Clarke MacArthur standing all alone in front of Marc-Andre Fleury.  MacArthur quickly moved from the backhand to a wrister that Fleury had no chance of stopping.  Ales Kotalik and Teppo Numminen picked up the assists to make it 3-2.  The Penguins, who found themselves in a bit of penalty trouble in the second period, were outshot 15-6 and were 1-for-3 on the penalty kill.   

In the third period, the Penguins finally got a break at 10:35 when Daniel Paille took a roughing penalty for a hit to the head of Alex Goligoski.  It took Alex Goligoski just 42-seconds to make Paille pay as he collected a feed from Evgeni Malkin and launched a roofer through traffic that sailed over Miller’s shoulder to tie the game 3-3.  Jordan Staal joined Malkin on the assist, as Goligoski picked up his 2nd of the night and 6th of the season.  Marc-Andre Fleury came up big in the 3rd period as he stopped 13-shots to force the overtime.  e was particularly effective in helping his team kill off 4-minutes of penalty time as Philippe Boucher sat for hooking and high sticking.  The Penguins managed to get just 3-shots on net. 

In the sudden death overtime period, the Penguins needed just 43-seconds to score the game-winner.  Standing in front of the net and battling with a Sabres’ defenseman, Crosby deflected an arcing shot by Evgeni Malkin down and into the net.  After a lengthy review, the call was made that the puck was not hit with a high stick and the goal was awarded to the Penguins. 

• VIDEO:  Game Hghlights
• PHOTOS:  In-Game Photos
• Game Rosters
• Game Summary
• Event Summary
• Boxscore
• Shots Summary
• Faceoff Summary
• Penguins’ Ice Time Report

Alex Goligoski (2G, 1A) and Evgeni Malkin (3A) led the Penguins with 3-points each.  Sidney Crosby (1G), Pascal Dupuis (1G), Ruslan Fedotenko (1A), Miroslav Satan (1A), Jordan Staal (1A) and Brooks Orpik (1A) all had 1-point.  Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 32-of-35 shots for a 0.914 save percentage.  Alex Goligoski and Kris Letang led the team in shots with 3 each, while Mark Eaton, Petr Sykora, Jordan Staal, Miroslav Satan and Sidney Crosby each had 2-shots.  Sidney Crosby was excellent in the faceoff circle winning 16 of 23 for 70%.  Pascal Dupuis led all forwards with 20:32 in ice time, while Rob Scuderi led all defensemen with 22:13.  The Penguins out-hit the Sabres 16-10 with Pascal Dupuis and Matt Cooke registering 4-hits each.  The Sabres blocked 14-shots while the Penguins blocked 11. 

The Penguins return to Mellon Arena for their final pre-Christmas game on Tuesday night against the strugglin Tampa Bay Lightning.

Comment on this post: - (1) Posts

Penguins Uninspired in 7-3 Loss to Leafs

The Pittsburgh Penguins found themselves in very unfamiliar territory on Saturday night as the Mellon Arena’s “standing-room only” crowd showered them with boos during a sloppy, undisciplined, and uninspired 7-3 loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs.  With the Penguins being outshot 33-13 through the first 2-periods, Marc-Andre Fleury was given little help from his teammates when he needed it most.  Fleury ended up giving up 5-goals, including 2-while the Penguins were short-handed, before being pulled in favor of Dany Sabourin after the 2nd intermission.  Evgeni Malkin’s 1st period goal and 3rd period assist were just enough to negate two sloppy turnovers he committed that led to a pair of Maple Leafs’ goals.  Just to prove that when things go bad they go horribly bad, Eric Godard waited too long to engage the Leafs physically in an attempt to rouse some life in his team.  When Godard finally did drop the gloves, he was left standing alone like a jilted bride at the altar as the Leafs’ Andre Deveaux smartly refused to oblige.  Godard’s actions sent him flying solo into the penalty box and resulted in a Maple Leaf’s powerplay goal to give them a 5-1 lead late in the 2nd.  Early in the 3rd, when the Penguins still had a remote chance of a comeback, Sidney Crosby’s frustrations boiled over in the form of an undisciplined cross-check and the Maple Leafs again made the Penguins pay with a powerplay goal to make it unrecoverable at 7-2.

In the 1st period, the Leafs got out to a great start by peppering Marc-Andre Fleury at every chance they could.  The aggressive play gave the Leafs a 16-6 advantage in shots in the period and put the Penguins firmly on their heels.  At 6:56, call-up Ryan Stone took the game’s first penalty on a 2-minute roughing call.  In the ensuing powerplay, the Leafs converted on a backhander by Dominic Moore, with assists by Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle.  At 9:49, Evgeni Malkin stepped onto the ice and took a nice up-ice pass from Miroslav Satan, crossed the blueline and walked in to beat Vesa Toskala with a nifty backhand maneuver.  Mark Eaton picked up the other assist on the play to tie it 1-1.  The Leafs needed just a little over a minute to regain the lead as Jeremy Williams snapped his 4th goal of the season past Fleury at 11:03.  Jason Blake and Tomas Kaberle racked up the assists.  Then again at 12:56, the Leafs scored again to make it 3-1 as Jonas Frogren’s slap shot got past Fleury again.  Nik Antropov and Matt Stajan contributed on the play and earned the assists.  The Penguins ended up going 0-for-1 on the powerplay and 0-for-1 on the penalty kill in the period.

In the 2nd period, the Leafs continued their offensive onslaught as they outshot the Penguins 17-7.  Things went bad 8:31 into the period when Evgeni Malkin opted to dangerously carry the puck right in front of his own net in traffic rather than go around behind it.  Realizing he made a bad decision, he tried to dump the puck off to a Penguins defensemen.  Instead, he put the puck squarely on the tape of Niklas Hagman right in front of the Penguins’ net.  Hagman wasted no time roofing thepuck over the shoulder of a shell-shocked and surprised Fleury to make it 4-1.  At 14:39, Eric Godard dropped the gloves but was turned down for the dance as mentioned above.  At 16:20, with 19-seconds left on the ensuing powerplay, Pavel Kubina made the Penguins pay as his slap shot found the twine behind Fleury.  Nik Antropov and Tomas Kaberle picked up the assists on the play to make it 5-1 Leafs.  Then at 19:40, Matt Cooke was on the receiving end of a punch to the head by Jaime Sifers.  A scuffle ensued that sent both Cooke and Sifers to the box for roughing, with Sifers getting the extra two for initiating the dust-up with the shot to Cooke’s head.  The Penguins failed to score in the 20-second of thier powerplay at the end of the 2nd, and were 1-for-2 on the penalty kill in the period.  The Penguins late powerplay carried over into the 3rd, but Marc-Andre Fleury would watch it from the bench as he was pulled in favor of Dany Sabourin. 

In the 3rd period, it looked like the Penguins might be able to turn the sinking ship around as they quickly scored on the powerplay just 58-seconds in.  Petr Sykora redirected a pass from Evgeni Malkin into the net behind Vesa Toskala to make it 5-2 with plenty of time left for a miracle comeback.  Kris Letang was also in on the action with an assist.  However, at 5:23 the Leafs eliminated any hail mary momentum that the Penguins were trying to build as they again found the back of the net on a snap shot by Alexei Ponikarovsky that found its way past Dany Sabourin.  Matt Stajan assisted on the Leafs’ 6th goal of the evening to restore the Penguins’ 4-goal defecit.  At 6:19, Sidney Crosby flexed his lumber a few times into a Leafs’ player and earned a seat in the penalty box.  The Leafs responded by rubbing salt in an already sore wound as Nik Antropov wristed their 7th goal of the night into the net.  Alexei Ponikarovsky and Jaime Sifers picked up the assists.  At 9:50, Eric Godard decided he had had enough and he also cross-checked a Leafs’ player and took a game misconduct so that he could get showered up early.  At 17:01, Petr Sykora tipped in a token goal for the Penguins off from a shot by Alex Goligoski to end the scoring at 7-3.  But there was a little more action before this one ended.  At 17:38, Ruslan Fedotenko briefly lost his mind as he took on the much bigger Andre Deveaux.  A surprised Deveaux decided not to turtle away this time like he had earlier with Godard and gave Rusty a few good shots before the linesmen came to his rescue.  Then, as if a 7-3 drubbing wasn’t enough, Brooks Orpik took a nasty stick to the face from Antropov at 18:08 that sent him to the ice with blood running out of his mouth.  The resulting 1:52 of a 4-minute powerplay was fruitless for the Penguins.  The Penguins did manage to outshoot the Leafs 10-7 in the 3rd, but it was utterly useless.     

• VIDEO:  Game Highlights
• VIDEO:  Post-Game Press Conference w/Coach Therrien - “We didn’t show up”
• VIDEO:  Sidney Crosby Post-Game – “We can’t get away with not working hard”
• VIDEO:  Kris Letang Post-Game – “We beat ourselves.  We didn’t show up”
• VIDEO:  Marc-Andre Fleury Post-Game – “Not a good game” 
• PHOTOS:  In-Game Photos
• Game Rosters
• Game Summary
• Boxscore
• Shots Summary
• Faceoff Summary
• Penguins Ice Time Report

The Penguins will have tomorrow to regroup and get their collective act together before heading to Buffalo on Monday to take on the Sabres and then back to Pittsburgh on Tuesday night to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Comment on this post: - (1) Posts

Malkin and Fleury Shine in 6-3 Win Over Thrashers

The Pittsburgh Penguins returned from a 4-day layoff to beat the Atlanta Thrashers 6-3 as they were powered by the offensive prowess of Evgeni Malkin and the excellent netminding of Marc-Andre Fleury.  Malkin picked up 4-points (2G, 2A) to continue his dominating lead in the league scoring race, while Fleury made several highlight reel saves as he stopped 28-of-31 shots in his first action since November 15th.  Malkin’s 4-point night gives him 53-points (14G, 39A) in 31-games, or 1.71 points per game, putting him on pace for a 140-point season.  He is 7-points ahead of Sidney Crosby who is 2nd in the scoring race, and 10-points ahead of 3rd place Alexander Ovechkin.  Despite beating a team near the bottom of the league standings, the Penguins relished the much needed win after losing 4 of their last 5 games.  Although the win was decisive on the scoreboard, the Penguins were outshot 31-20 in the game and were a bit sloppy in their own end as they gave up 7 turnovers.  Marc-Andre Fleury was outstanding in net and showed no signs of the groin injury that has kept him out of the lineup for over a month. 

In the 1st period, the Penguins hopped out to a quick lead as they scored at 5:32.  Taking advantage of a Thrashers’ player who broke his stick on a shot, the Penguins moved the puck quickly out of their zone and up the ice.  Jordan Staal moved the puck to call-up Tim Wallace who found Matt Cooke streaking toward the blueline with a nice cross ice pass.  Cooke protected the puck as he skated into the Thrashers’ zone and let a quick snap shot that beat Ondrej Pavelec on the short side.  Then at 9:40, Evgeni Malkin embarrassed Todd White as he just walked right through him by the side of the goal to put the puck into the empty side of the net.  Petr Sykora assisted on Malkin’s 13th goal of the season to make it 2-0.  At 19:21, however, the Thrashers cut the lead in half as Marty Reasoner was credited with a goal that caromed recklessly off from sticks and bodies to beat Fleury.  Ilya Kovalchuk and Chris Thorburn were credited with the assists that made it 2-1 after one.  A scuffle in front of the net ensued after the goal as Brooks Orpik and Sidney Crosby roughed it up with Boris Valabik, who had fallen awkwardly onto Orpik’s leg during the play.  The 2-on-1 scuffle led to a pair of penalties to the Penguins to send them into the 2nd period shorthanded.  The Penguins were outshot 9-6 in the period and were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.  Despite being outshot, Marc-Andre Fleury made a number of beautiful saves including a great glove save on Colby Armstrong to keep the Thrashers in check.

In the 2nd, the Penguins managed to kill off the carryover penalties to Orpik and Crosby before getting a man advantage of their own just 3-minutes into the period, thanks to a holding call on Joseph Crabb.  The Penguins needed just 31-seconds on the powerplay to score on a blast by Evgeni Malkin that appeared to deflect into the net off from Jordan Staal’s leg to make it 3-1.  The powerplay goal was originally given to Malkin, but then later changed to Staal with assists by Malkin and Crosby.  Then at 4:27, former Penguin Colby Armstrong got called for high sticking Evgeni Malkin.  Although it appeared that Malkin showed the referee that there was some blood, Armstrong was assessed a 2-minute minor.  With a little over 30-seconds left on the powerplay, Miroslav Satan found himself all alone in front of goaltender Pavelec and on the receiving end of a beautiful centering pass by Jeff Taffe.  Satan moved the puck to his backhand and easily beat the netminder to make it 4-1.  Ruslan Fedotenko picked up the other assist on the poweplay goal.  At 7:32, with Mark Eaton in the penalty box for hooking, the Thrashers again cut the lead in half as Bryan Little wristed a shot past Fleury to make it 4-2.  Todd White and Vyacheslav Kozlov made the assists on the powerplay goal.  However, just 32-seconds later, the Penguins stole it back on a blistering slapshot by Philippe Boucher to make it 5-2.  Evgeni Malkin picked up his league leading 39th assist on the play along with Petr Sykora.  The goal ended up chasing Pavelec out of the net in favor of former Penguin netminder Johan Hedberg.  The Penguins ended the period being outshot by the Thrashers 10-9, were 2-for-3 on the powerplay and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.  Fleury was again fabulous in net and made a beautiful kick save and glove save on Eric Perrin with 7:07 left in the period.

Into the 3rd period, the Penguins had to hold off a surging Atlanta Thrashers team as they were outshot 12-5 in the final frame.  The Thrashers came within 2-goals of the Penguins after Miroslav Satan errantly passed the puck to Colby Armstrong loitering all alone in the Penguins zone at 14:55.  Armstrong picked his spot and beat his former teammate Fleury with a slapper to make it 5-3.  But that was the closest they would come as Fleury went on to shut things down despite seeing plenty of rubber in the period.  Late in the period, the Thrashers pulled Hedberg out for the extra attacker but were unable to get one by the Penguins.  With 27-seconds left on the clock, Rob Scuderi moved the puck to Sidney Crosby up the wall who had the chance to put the puck into the empty net, but dished off to Evgeni Malkin instead who easily skated it into the open goal mouth to make it 6-3.  Scuderi and Crosby picked up the assists on the final tally of the game.   

• VIDEO:  Game Highlights
• PHOTOS:  In-Game Photos
• Game Rosters
• Game Summary
• Boxscore
• Shot Summary
• Faceoffs Summary
• Pittsburgh Ice Time Report

Evgeni Malkin picked up 4-points (2G, 2A), while Jordan Staal (1G, 1A), Sidney Crosby (2A) and Petr Sykora (2A) each had 2-points.  Matt Cooke (1G), Miroslav Satan (1G), Philippe Boucher (1G), Tim Wallace (1A), Ruslan Fedotenko (1A), Jeff Taffe (1A) and Rob Scuderi (1A) all contributed with a point.  Petr Sykora led the team with 4-shots on net, while Evgeni Malkin and AHL call-up Ryan Stone each had 3-shots.  Jordan Staal (13/22) led all Penguins with a 59% faceoff win percentage, but collectively the team was outplayed in the faceoff circle winning only 44% of the draws.  The Penguins out-hit the Thrashers 23-17.  Evgeni Malkin led all players with 24:23 of ice time and Rob Scuderi led all Defensemen with 24:00 in ice time.  The active Penguins defense blocked 15-shots on net. 

The Penguins return to Mellon Arena on Saturday night where they will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Comment on this post: - (1) Posts

Malkin Tribute Video

This weekend, I downloaded MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 14 Plus (Trial Version) to check out its capabilities, as I had asked my wife for the software for Christmas (and I think it is in the mail!).  Since I am new to video editing, I thought I might learn a bit by creating a sample video, and what better subject to choose for a sample video than hockey?!  I have to say that I had a blast creating the video below, even though it may be somewhat amateurish (a result of my rookie editing prowess and not the software’s capabilities).  So, I present to you my virgin tour into video editing.  I decided to create an Evgeni Malkin Tribute video since he currently leads the NHL scoring race.  The video quality is great in full size, but had to be compromised somewhat here for site bandwidth purposes (the original file is 115MB…this small version is a scant 12.8MB and it shows in the video quality):

My Malkin Tribute Video

If you are interested in Video editing, I have to say that this software package is incredible for the price.  Although there is a (small) bit of a learning curve, it offers tremendous audio/video capture/edit capabilities for the price!  If interested, you can Click here to view more info about the software at the Magix website.  I give it 5-stars!

Dupuis and Sykie Both Get Tricky as Pens Blowout Isles 9-2

The Pittsburgh Penguins exploded for 9 goals on Thursday night as they buried the troubled New York Islanders 9-2 at Mellon Arena.  Petr Sykora netted his first career hat trick after going 44 multi-goal games without one, the longest such streak in NHL history.  Pascal Dupuis also cashed in on his first career hat trick, uncorking his dry spell to double his season total in just one game.  Philippe Boucher, playing in his first game after missing 6 to injury, also scored for the Penguins as did Evgeni Malkin and Miroslav Satan.  In all, 9-Penguins players had a multi-point night and the team collectively had a +25 rating.  John Curry had another good night in net as he stopped 24 of 26 for a 0.923 save percentage.

In the 1st period, the Penguins jumped to a decisive lead as they outshot the Islanders 19-5 and outscored them 4-1 on the board.  Pascal Dupuis kicked it off with his 4th goal of the season after taking a cross-ice pass from Miroslav Satan and getting off a hard blast from the top of the circle that trickled through Islanders’ netminder Joey MacDonald.  Sidney Crosby followed the puck into the net for good measure.  Miroslav Satan and Rob Scuderi picked up the assists on the goal at 6:25.  The Islanders then got into severe penalty trouble as they took 4 sequential penalties, 3 coming in a span of less than 2-minutes to set up some 5-on-3 time for the Penguins.  Playing with a 2-man advantage at 13:49, Miroslav Satan collected a cross-crease pass from Sidney Crosby and quickly moved it to his forehand to wrist it into the net to make it 2-0.  Matt Cooke joined Crosby on the assist.  Then at 16:54, Matt Cooke went off for a tripping call and the Islanders converted on a hard slap shot by Mark Streit through traffic.  Doug Weight and Trent Hunter collected the assists on the powerplay goal.  The Penguins bounced back just 11-seconds later as Petr Sykora collected a cross ice pass from Evgeni Malkin and blasted a slapper past MacDonald to make it 3-1.  Ruslan Fedotenko combined with Malkin on the assists.  Then at 18:19, Philippe Boucher scored his first goal as a Pittsburgh Penguin as he launched a slapshot through traffic from near the blueline that deflected off from an Islanders defender.  Sidney Crosby and Miroslav Satan picked up assists on the Boucher goal.  The Penguins outshot the Islanders 19-5 in the period, went 1-for-4 on the powerplay and 0-for-1 on the kill.   

In the 2nd period, the Islanders started with Yann Danis in goal to replace Joey MacDonald, but he too would would soon fall prey to the hungry Penguins.  At 2:12, Evgeni Malkin fed Alex Goligoski who fired a hard wrister and then Evgeni collected the juicy rebound and beat Danis from the side of the net to make it 5-1.  Petr Sykora joined Goligoski on the assist as Malkin collected his 12th goal of the season.  The Penguins kept rolling after Bill Guerin took a slashing penalty at 7:07, as Petr Sykora took a feed from Alex Goligoski and wristed a shot past Danis from between the circles to make it 6-1.  Max Talbot collected the other assist on Sykora’s powerplay goal.  Then, a few minutes later it appeared that Petr Sykora had finally scored the elusive first hat trick after 44 multi-point games as the puck was clearly poked into the net before the whistle sounded.  However, the referee waved it off saying he had lost sight of it and was preparing to blow the whistle before the puck went in.  The video replay showed that had it counted, it was probably scored by Ruslan Fedotenko.  After receiving some condolences from his teammates, Sykora finally picked up his first career hat trick on the powerplay at 15:42 as he wristed the puck into the net from between the circles again on a laser pass from Sidney Crosby to make it 7-1.  Jordan Staal joined Sidney Crosby on the assist.   At 19:29, an ever-hungry Pascal Dupuis picked up his 2nd goal of the night as he came streaking into the zone late and took a beautiful wrap pass from Jordan Staal and drove it into the net.  Rob Scuderi picked up the other assist as the Penguins finished the 2nd period leading 8-1.  The Penguins outshot the Islanders 14-10 in the 2nd and were 2-for-4 on the powerplay and 1-for-1 on the kill.

In the 3rd period, the Penguins had to be careful as the Islanders started to get a bit chippy with the game fully out of reach.  At 11:33, Evgeni Malkin and Ruslan Fedotenko got into a scuffle with Andy Hilbert and they all sat 2-minutes for roughing with the Islanders getting the benefit of a powerplay.  At 12:55, however, Doug Weight got called for hooking to even the advantage for some 4-on-4 play.  The Islanders finally found some offense with the open ice at 13:06 as Andy Sutton found a way to beat John Curry to make it 8-2.  But it was far too little, and far too late for the Islanders.  At 16:48, Pascal Dupuis took a beautiful feed from Matt Cooke and drove home his 3rd goal of the night to join Petr Sykora for his first career hat trick.  Brooks Orpik joined Matt Cooke on the assist, and the Penguins won the game 9-2 amid the crowd chanting “We Want 10, We Want 10!”.  It was an electric night at the Mellon Arena!  The Islanders ended up outshooting the Penguins in the final frame 11-5,

• VIDEO:  Game Highlights
• VIDEO:  Coach Therrien Post-Game Press Conference
• VIDEO:  Petr Sykora Post-Game
• VIDEO:  Sidney Crosby Post-Game
• VIDEO:  Pascal Dupuis Post-Game
• VIDEO:  John Curry Post-Game
• AUDIO:  Mike Lange Highlights
• PHOTOS:  In-Game Photos
• Game Rosters
• Game Summary
• Boxscore
• Shots Summary
• Faceoff Summary
• Penguins Ice-Time Report

Petr Sykora picked up 4-points (3G, 1A), while Pascal Dupuis (3G), Miroslav Satan (1G, 2A) and Sidney Crosby (3A) all had a 3-point night.  Evgeni Malkin (1G, 1A), Matt Cooke (2), Alex Goligoski (2A), Jordan Staal (2A) and Rob Scuderi (2A) all had 2-points.  Philippe Boucher (1G), Max Talbot (1A), Brooks Orpik (1A) and Ruslan Fedotenko (1A) each collected a point and rounded out the 13-Penguins players to find their way on to the scoresheet.  Pascal Dupuis led the game with 6-shots on net, while Petr Sykora, Kris Letang, Miroslav Satan and Sidney Crosby each had 5.  Evgeni Malkin fired 4 on net.  Tim Wallace and Mark Eaton each connected for 3-hits.  Kris Letand led all Penguins with 23:53 in ice time, while Sidney Crosby led all forwards with 21:33. 

The Penguins head to Philadelphia on Saturday for a 1PM matinee game.  The Flyers posted a 6-5 come from behind victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night after falling behind 5-1.

Comment on this post: - (1) Posts

Pens Look to Conquer Their Demons (and the Devils)

The Pittsburgh Penguins hit the road on Wednesday night eager to put their struggles behind them as they head to New Jersey thirsty for a win against the Devils.  After a tremendous start, the Penguins (15-8-4) have struggled in their last 8-games, posting a 3-4-1 record.  The Devils, on the other hand, have lost just once in their last 8-games in a 4-1 defeat to the Penguins.  Against the Devils, the Penguins are 1-0-1 on the season and 5-0-1 in their last 6-matchups. 

The Penguins have struggled to find consistency lately and have been riddled with injuries, particularly in their defensive lineup.  Normally feared for their unstoppable powerplay, a double threat powerplay unit that includes the NHL’s top-2 scorers in Crosby and Malkin, the Penguins are simply middle of the pack so far this season on the man advantage.  In the 4-3 loss to Buffalo on Monday night, the Penguins went just 1-for-8 on the man advantage, including three 5-on-3 scenarios.  On the injured list are 4 of the Penguins’ top defensemen.  Having started the season without their top-2 defensemen in Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney, the Penguins made a move to bring in Philippe Boucher in trade for Darryl Sydor.  However, Boucher’s services have been lost for the past several games due to an unspecified injury.  More recently, the physical presence of Hal Gill has been sidelined for 2-4 weeks with a shoulder injury.  This has increased the burden on the young Penguins’ defense as Kris Letang, Alex Goligoski, and now call-up Ben Lovejoy are being called upon to rapidly develop their defensive skills.  In addition to the defensive challenges, the Penguins have been playing without the services of #1 goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury as he has been sidelined for several games with an unspecified injury.  Fortunately for the Penguins, backup netminder Dany Sabourin has played very well and posted a 2.13 Goals Against Average and a 0.923 save percentage. 

Adding to the Penguins injury woes is a lack of offensive consistency on the wings.  After starting the season on fire, Miroslav Satan has posted just 2-goals in his last 14-games.  Peter Sykora and Pascal Dupuis have also struggled.  Sykora has just 4-goals in his last 14-games and Dupuis has just 1-goal in his last 18.  Coming off from a 2-goal performance, Ruslan Fedotenko could be starting to develop some chemistry on the Malkin line with 3-goals in his last 3-games, but he has totaled just 5 across his last 14-games.  After a brief period of productivity, Max Talbot has also dried up with no goals in his last 12-games.    Fireplug Tyler Kennedy is out of the lineup with an injury which has led to a round of call-ups.   

New Jersey suffered a huge blow in early November when franchise goaltender Martin Brodeur’s was sidelined until at least March 09 for elbow surgery.  Before Brodeur’s early exit to the injured reserve list, he led his Devils to a 6-2-2 record.  With Brodeur out of the lineup, the Devils struggled mightily as they dropped 5 of the first 6-games without him.  But the Devils have since found what it takes to win without Martin Brodeur in the lineup as they have gone on a 7-1-0 tear in their last 8-games.  The Devils have cashed in on their tight defensive play and the stonewall backstop of Scott Clemensen.  Clemensen has posted a 6-3-0 record this season with 2.32 goals-against average and 0.922 save percentage.  “He’s having an opportunity to play on a regular basis, which has obviously helped him.  He played very well in the American League last year, when he was playing.  It’s a combination of all those things.  He’s a confident person, he’s very calm.  He doesn’t get rattled very much,” noted Devils’ coach Brett Sutter. 

The Penguins will have their work cut out for them as they face off against the red hot Devils.  Unless the Penguins can get some jump out of their wingers and crisp outlet passes by their defensive corps, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin alone will be hard pressed to break through the stifling New Jersey defense.  Pittsburgh has been frustrated by teams that employ the trap, and the New Jersey Devils are masters at that tight defensive system.  Unless the Penguins can find a way to get through the neutral zone, expect that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will be hemmed in all evening.  Because of the tight defensive game that the Devils play, the Penguins will need to keep their feet moving to try and draw penalties and then find ways to convert on their powerplay chances.  With the New Jersey penalty kill falling in the bottom 5 of the NHL, it could be the deciding factor for the Penguins and an opportunity to get their special teams back on track.  When all is said and done, I think we can expect a low-scoring, defensive juggernaut between these two teams. 

What better way for Satan to dump his scoring funk than to find a way to beat the devils.

Comment on this post: - (1) Posts

NHL All-Star Balloting Gone Haywire?

I just checked the NHL All Star Balloting results and found that Sidney Crosby is now in the lead amongst Eastern Conference forwards.  In fact, he is leading by over 25,000 votes.  WTF?!  How in the hell did that happen?  Don’t get me wrong, all things being equal I would have suspected that one of the league’s most heralded players would easily be among the top vote-getters.  But given the scandalous (yet officially unacknowledged) vote-fixing bot implemented by some geeky, over-zealous Canadiens fan(s), the top-3 prize seemed certain to go to Kovalev, Koivu and Tanguay.  So how could it be that Crosby has gained so much ground in such little time? 

Could it be that a squad of Penguins’ geeks, or even a rogue acting alone, has hijacked the Canadiens bot-code and done a nifty find-and-replace action?  After all, I hear the bot (or “Code de la Botte” as they probably say north of the border) was even posted on the Canadiens message boards for awhile.  Could we be beating the Habs fans at their own game?  Wouldn’t that just be yet another sign that we American’s continue to live in the greatest country on the face of the Earth?  USA!  USA!  UPDATE: for my Frenchly friends from the far north checking in from your Habs message boards and such…..all satire and no offense intended . 

Perhaps it is something far more sinister…a conspiracy perhaps?  Maybe Gary Bettman, while disavowing any knowledge of a bot-compromised balloting system, is secretly correcting the NHL’s error behind the scenes by inflating the votes of the non-Habs.  After all, NHL.com came out with a lead article this past Tuesday about how Crosby and Malkin were closing in on the Habs.  What a perfect way to cover a conspiracy by leaking a story about a surge of Penguins voting and predicting what is about to happen.  That way, we fans could say…yeah, I read that Crosby was surging in the voting.  It fits, doesn’t it?  According to the article, Crosby had 320,373 votes on Tuesday morning, and Malkin had 264,914.  In the 5-days since then, Crosby has gained almost 210,000 votes and Malkin has gained just under 200,000 votes.  Impossible?  No.  Improbable?  Yes.  Then, as in any good conspiracy, a distracting and unrelated news fiasco.  Cue Sean Avery.  Yes, Sean Avery’s sloppy seconds comment all timed to cover Gary Bettman’s behind the scenes vote manipulation from behind the grassy knoll.  It all fits. 

Whatever is happening with the NHL All-Star Balloting, one thing is for sure.  As fans, we can have little confidence in the results next month.  Maybe next year the NHL will hire the services of someone who is capable of putting up a fan balloting system that is not subject to compromise by any team’s Geek Squad.

Comment on this post: - (1) Posts

Next Page »