---

Penguins Ready for Hungry Coyotes

The Pittsburgh Penguins (2-0-0)  return to Mellon Arena tonight as they face off against the Western Conference’s Phoenix Coyotes (1-0-0) at 7:30 PM.  This is the only matchup between these two teams this season.  Last season, they met only once (in Phoenix) with the Coyotes winning 4-1.  The Penguins are looking for their 3rd consecutive win after beating the Rangers 3-2 at home and the Islanders 4-3 in a shootout on the road.  The Coyotes will be playing their 2nd game of the season after beating the Los Angeles Kings 6-3. 

The financially bankrupt Coyotes come into Mellon Arena under new head coach (and former Penguin) Dave Tippett, who replaced Wayne Gretzky during training camp.  The Coyotes, who haven’t made it into the playoffs in 6 years, are a team whose future is unknown; ownership of the franchise is being contested through bankruptcy court and it remains to be seen if the team will stay in Phoenix beyond the end of this season.  While the off-ice distractions and fan apathy in Phoenix could be an excuse for continued mediocrity, the Coyotes found a way to use it as a motivator in their season opening win over the Kings.  “It was the first time they could say, ‘We’re on the ice. Just go,’ ” said Coyotes’ Coach Tippett.  “We can only control what happens on the ice and the other stuff will take care of itself.  I think the players were really focused on getting playing.  The players did a good job of blocking that stuff out probably the last couple of weeks and getting themselves ready to play.”  Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan added, “We have that ‘us against everybody’ thing going….and we’re trying to use it as much as we can.”  Doan, who led the Coyotes scoring in 2008-09 with 73-points (31G, 42A), will benefit from quality additions on his line with Radim Vrbata and (former Penguin) Robert Lang joining the team this season.  Vrbata had 2-goals and Lang added 1 in the team’s 6-3 drubbing of Los Angeles on Saturday.  In fact, 11 different Coyotes found their way onto the scoresheet in that game.  With quality netminding from Ilya Byzgalov, upgraded offense, a new coach and adversity that the team can rally around, the Coyotes might just bear watching this season. 

The Penguins will be looking to continue to perfect Coach Bylsma’s up-tempo style and system of aggressive puck pursuit.  Through two games, the Penguins have done a great job of putting traffic in front of the net and pressuring the defense, something that was missing from their game at this time last season under Coach Michel Therrien.  The Penguins also seen to be putting more shots on net, which will help them keep the pressure on opposing team’s defense and goaltending and help create the type of havoc that often times leads to goals.  The Penguins have also fared well in the face-off circle so far this season (54.6%), but they will need to keep the pressure on as Phoenix won 60.6% of their faceoffs against the Kings.  Marc-Andre Fleury’s timing and positioning appear to be better at this point of the season than it has at early on in season’s past.  His play was one of the keys to the Penguins’ win against the Islanders on Saturday night.  Look for another up-tempo game that may lack some of the aggressive physicality that you will see in Thursday’s game against the Flyers.  The Pens line-up for tonight’s game is expected to be as follows:

Penguins' Forward Lines

	Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
1st Line	#14 Chris Kunitz	#87 Sidney Crosby	#13 Bill Guerin
2nd Line	#9 Pascal Dupuis	#71 Evgeni Malkin	#26 Ruslan Fedotenko
3rd Line	#24 Matt Cooke	#11 Jordan Staal	#48 Tyler Kennedy
4th Line	#17 Mike Rupp	#27 Craig Adams	#28 Eric Godard

Penguins' Defensive Pairings

	Defense	Defense
1st Pairing	#55 Sergei Gonchar	#44 Brooks Orpik
2nd Pairing	#7 Mark Eaton	#58 Kris Letang
3rd Pairing	#3 Alex Goligoski	#74 Jay McKee

Goaltending

#1 Goaltender	#29 Marc-Andre Fleury
Backup Netminder	#1 Brent Johnson

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.

Next Page »