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Sharpen Your Skates, It’s Hockey Time!

It’s hard to believe, but hockey season is just a little over 3 weeks away!  Everything is about to shift back into high gear for the Penguins’ organization as 47 players and prospects report to training camp this Saturday, September 12th, when they will undergo physicals and fitness testing.  Practice starts on Sunday at Mellon Arena and is open to the public, free of charge.  Pre-season play kicks-off shortly thereafter with the Penguins hosting the Columbus Bluejackets on September 15th.  On September 17th, the Penguins travel to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for a “Black and Gold” intra-squad game.  Then, they return back to Mellon Arena to host the Toronto Maple Leafs on September 18th before heading out on a 4-game road trip to Montreal (Sept 21) , Toronto (Sept 22), Columbus (Sept 24), and Detroit (Sept 27).  The Penguins’ open the regular season on October 2nd by raising the 2009 Stanley Cup Championship banner to the rafters of historic Mellon Arena before dropping the puck against the New York Rangers.  It will be the last NHL home opener to be played in the long history of Mellon Arena. 

With training camp, pre-season, and regular season play nearly upon us, it is time to start looking at the challenges that face the Penguins in the coming season.  First and foremost in my mind, is the question of fatigue.  The Penguins have played a total of 208-games (164 regular season and 44 playoff games) in just the last 2 seasons.   That averages out to about one game every 3.5 days over the last 2 years.  The price to pay for a successful post-season is a short summer for mental and physical recuperation.  Fortunately for the Penguins, they are a young team and they finished the post season relatively healthy.  The mental recuperation, however, could be more challenging for both the players and the coaching staff as they need to quickly shift gears from the euphoria of being the league champions to being the team that everyone will raise their game against to beat.  Often referred to as the Stanley Cup hangover, the Penguins will have to quickly come to grip with the fact that, while they have climbed to the top of the tallest mountain, they are now back at base camp with everyone else.  It will take a lot of character (and a bit of luck) to battle their way back to the finals for a third straight year.

The next big challenge will be figuring out how to best fill the defensive roles vacated by Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi.  This will take time and evaluation by the coaching staff as training camp and pre-season play unfolds, and will probably continue to play out into the regular season.  Surely the Penguins will look to off-season acquisition Jay McKee, a veteran stay-at-home defenseman with ample shot-blocking prowess.  They will also likely depend on the services of Alex Goligoski on the blueline after the successful call-up role he played during Sergei Gonchar’s time on the injured reserve last season.  But a McKee/Goligoski pairing may not be the right combination, so look for some mixing and matching in the defensive pairings in the early going until the right mix of “shutdown” and “offensive” styles are found.  This challenge will primarily be one for the coaching staff to solve, but will require the defensemen to adapt to new roles and potentially new linemates.   

The third challenge will be figuring out how best address the loss of Petr Sykora and (to a lesser extent) how to bridge the anticipated 2-month gap until Max Talbot returns from off-season surgery.  The most pressing issue to sort out in training camp and pre-season is who to put on wing with Evgeni Malkin in place of Petr Sykora.  While Tyler Kennedy certainly could be an interesting mix with Malkin, I don’t expect the coaching staff to disrupt the exceptional 3rd line chemistry of Kennedy-Staal-Cooke.  Odds are that Pascal Dupuis will be called upon to step into Sykora’s spot, but don’t be surprised to see some different looks coming from the coaching staff through training camp and the pre-season.  I wouldn’t even be surprised to see rookie prospect Eric Tangradi getting a practice or pre-season look with Malkin, but I really don’t expect it to pan out….at least not yet.  A likely candidate to fill out the lower lines would be Luca Caputi, the 6′2″ winger that made the Penguins’ roster for 5-games last season.  The good news is that the Penguins have significant depth to draw upon to fill in the few vacancies at forward, and training camp will be where those fill-ins get sorted out. 

So, as hockey season bears down on us once again, it is time to get out your jersey and get ready for another great season from one of the NHL’s best and brightest young teams.  Be sure to check back with us as the season approaches and gets underway as we will continue blogging about the team we love to watch and cheer for, the Pittsburgh Penguins!

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A Date with Destiny

Hearken back…

Stanley Cup Finals (2008)…

The Pittsburgh Penguins found themselves like Cinderella at the ball, in the Stanley Cup Finals facing the storied and formidable Detroit Red Wings. For me, it might as well have been USA versus USSR in the 1980 Olympics, it was that gut-wrenching.

We all felt the overwhelming crush of the first game and then the second when our boys found themselves slapped around the ice much like they were in the first round against the Senators the previous season. We stood behind them, willing them to fight to stay alive, and out of sheer will they scratched and clawed to make it a brave game.

We stayed up through the multiple overtime sets when Petr Sykora joked during an intermission that he’d score the sudden-death game-winner–and did.

Maybe, like me, you were one of the ones who got an interesting e-mail the next day from a friend with a doctored photo of Babe Ruth calling his shot superimposed by Petr Sykora at the plate, signaling with  his hockey stick. It was inspiring.

Our boys had a chance.

Back in the ‘burgh, home ice, for Game 6 and a chance to even the series at 3 apiece. I never felt sicker than when that final horn blared the death knell of one hell of a season. It was hard to watch them, stunned, drained, shredded, slumped on the ice, backs against the boards. An epic denouement. Lord Stanley’s Cup was in our house but not in our hands. The photo of Evgeni Malkin standing alone near the Stanley Cup Finals ice stamp was a haunting and compelling image. The scene as all those whited-out Penguins faithful, with class, stayed and stood for the victor as the Red Wings relished in holding the Cup. We felt the sting as if we had been in those skates and sweaters, too.

And we vowed we’d be back.

Stanley Cup Finals (2009)

The path this year began in a high-powered, promising way with one of the best starts in franchise history, and then like that, the bottom fell out. Through 82 games of soul-searching, fumbling, struggling, but never saying die, they pulled themselves up by their skate laces. If nothing else can be said about this team (from the first to last guy), it is one seriously cohesive unit.

In the face of critics and nay-sayers and hand-wringers, they have managed to let it all roll off of broad, matured shoulders. Old souls in young bodies.

They had to earn their way into a playoff spot–unlike last season where they shot to second seed in the conference and home ice.

They had to fight and rally through two physically demanding rounds–unlike last season where they sailed through the first three rounds.

They have progressed steadily but quickly under Dan Bylsma who has shown his ability to read his players individually and collectively, leaving them confident and well-prepared–unlike last season when they didn’t really know any better and really hadn’t an idea just what THAT level of hockey was all about. Detroit was only too happy to initiate them and maybe to their own present and future peril.

At last season’s end, fans and pundits worried out loud about the loss of Hossa, Roberts, and Malone, but as Mark Madden pointed out in his radio talk show on Friday, if Hossa stayed, we might be looking at key players with much shorter contracts and the possibility of Malkin going to another team.

Instead, the loss has paid dividends thanks to Ray Shero’s shrewd dealing:

• To join Sidney Crosby (who when his contract was due took less to make room to keep others in the future), contracts of 4 or more years for Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Marc-Andre Fleury completed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, giving the Pens a solid corps, and defensive insurance in Brooks Orpik.
• Add to that the late season acquisitions of Bill Guerin, Chris Kunitz, and Craig Adams.
• What you find is depth from 1st line to last, especially as the prodigal son Miroslav Satan arose from AHL purgatory to show some of his best work all season in the playoffs.

Let’s not forget that every guy who played this year contributed mightily whether for every game or for a short stint.

• When Gonchar was down, Goligosky answered the bell. Philippe Boucher continues to sniper with a Howitzer.
• Cooke and Kennedy meshed with Jordan Staal to become one of the best shut-down third lines that could generate a spark with their grinding cycle work.
• Max Talbot and Pascal Depuis played anywhere they could be of service, getting time on every one of the four lines and contributing mightily in penalty-kill situations. An unfortunate injury sidelined Mike Zogomanis, but when healthy, he is one of the deadliest in the face-off circle.
• Eric Goddard and Paul Bissonnette enforced when it was needed, but they made skilled contributions as well.
• Ruslan Fedotenko has come on to be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs and worked throughout the season to try to keep the team sparked and competitive.
• Kris Letang has grown in confidence and skill. He is fearless, and not to be outdone is Mark Eaton whose defensive skill has also morphed into an offensive threat.
• Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill have developed into a strong defensive pairing, facing the likes of Ovechkin and Eric Staal with little difficulty.

It’s scary just how calm and loose this year’s Pittsburgh Penguins team really is. And maybe it’s a little maddening for the reporters who try to get some juicy tidbit out of them in interviews. In the hopes of a spark, they ask about the re-match, feelings about Hossa, the adversity, back-to-back games or too much time between games, and always, they are left a little diappointed. 

These players are even keeled, unflappable, and take it all in stride. It’s good to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals. They don’t think too much about the rivalry or how Hossa left. The adversity has made them stronger, and they know what they can do and the kind of character that’s in the locker room. Each knows he has a specific role to play and plays it with 110% intensity, stressing time and again the need to “play the right way.” Back-to-backs are the nature of the beast. They faced many during the regular season, faced them in the playoffs already. Not a big deal. And too much time? They’re glad it’s not a 10-day lay-off because, well, they’d rather be playing hockey.

They are a better, healthier, and more psychologically ready team than the Penguins of 2008, but they needed the early play-off spanking in 2007 to prepare them for the 2008 run, and they needed the 2008 finals defeat to prepare them for this run.

Yeah, that’s still hard to say (as a fan), but if we are going to be honest with ourselves as the Penguins have been with themselves, then we have to agree. This is going to be one hell of a series.

The Devil is in the Details: Pens 2–Caps 3

In Saturday afternoon’s opening salvo between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the thing that seemed to worry the NBC commentators most in the first period was the fact that the sponsors wouldn’t get to plug their products. Meanwhile, the rest of Hockey Nation was transfixed by the rattling pace that ebbed and flowed end to end on the ice. It was a battle that might not have matched the sports prognosticators’ prophecies the way they had foreseen.

Literally, it was a game that hung in the balance from beginning to end, and it was so tight that there was absolutely no room for error. Interesting notables:

Shots

• 15 of 18 Penguins registered shots on net versus 11 of 18 for Capitals.
• Of the total 36 shots on net by the Penguins, 5 players registered 3 or more shots: Sidney Crosby (6), Sergei Gonchar (5), Jordan Staal (4), Tyler Kennedy (3), and Kris Letang (3). Production, then, came from the 1st line center, the 3rd line center and wing, and two defensemen, a nice smattering.
• Of the 26 shots registered by the Capitals, only three players registered 3 or more shots: wing Alex Ovechkin (9), wing Matt Bradley (3), and center David Steckel (3). Only defenseman Milan Jurcina registered more than one shot on goal among Caps defensemen with 2. For the Caps, they relied heavily on Ovi’s profusion of volleys at the net with production falling off dramatically to two other forwards and not much offense from the defense.
• Penguins defensemen registered 11 of 36 shots (31%) more than doubling Capitals defensemen who registered 4 of 26 (15%).

Spreading out the shots through the offensive lines and getting production from the defense as well plays in Pittsburgh’s favor. It’s easier to plan for and key in on a few guys known to be the primary shot takers. While Evgeni Malkin was harrassed and kept to two shots, there were others that were getting good opportunities, making it harder to defend. The Caps had to be cognizant not just of Penguins forwards but the blueliners as well. Eventually, the Caps will have to consider just about every player in a Penguins jersey an offensive threat, and not just from the location of the blue line on the ice. Gonchar, Hal Gill, Mark Eaton, Letang, and Brooks Orpik were all seen strong and deep in the offensive zone. Greenhorn goalie Simeon Varlamov can be shaken and looked shaken in a couple of instances; however, he recovered and stayed solid. To keep him rattled, the Penguins must continue to increase shot-production and get in Varlamov’s face in front of the net. He needs to feel the constant claustrophobia of rush-hour traffic.

Hits

• 13 of 20 hits for the Penguins came from the usual suspects: Kris Letang (5), Brooks Orpik (3), Maxime Talbot (2), Chris Kunitz (2), and Matt Cooke (1).
• 8 of 24 hits for the Caps came from defenseman John Erskine alone, then D-man Mike Green (3), followed by four forwards and one defensemen each with 2 hits, including Ovechkin.

While the Penguins are also spreading out the hitting, Orpik as the main man needs to keep the heat on. He does not necessarily need to bring 14 hits a night, but 14 would be a nice number in game 2 just to give the Caps something to think about on their ice. Matt Cooke also needs to step it up and do so smartly, particularly if Bylsma continues to match the Staal line against the Ovechkin line, which means that Cooke and Ovi will be seeing a lot of each other. If Ovi can’t have Sid to torment, he’s shown he’ll settle for Cooke. Now that he knows this, Cooke needs to be the brighter lightbulb.

Important Miscellany

• Interesting Match-up–Putting Jordan Staal’s line against Alex Ovechkin is an interesting and compelling match-up. First, it keeps Ovi out of Sid’s hair, and if Cooke can manage to stay disciplined, both he and linemate Tyler Kennedy can work him over to tire and frustrate him.
• Penalties–The Penguins managed to stay out of the box EXCEPT twice, and the fact that the two penalties happened in overlapping fashion set up the first error that cost in a tight game. Both penalties were mental mistakes. Gonchar’s delay of game penalty is avoidable if he takes the extra step across his blue line. Cooke’s hooking retaliation for Ovechkin’s hit on him moments earlier is avoidable if he refrains from using the can-opener, waiting for a more opportune time to separate Ovi from the puck. Cooke has to know that Ovechkin draws the ire of opposing players, and his own reputation as well adds to the magnetic pull of a ref’s vision when these two come together. As a result of heightened scrutiny, sneaky, dirty infractions will not exist for Matt Cooke in this series, so he needs to cut that tactic out of his repertoire.
• Power Play–While analysis of the Penguins power play has been done ad nauseum, it bears mentioning a couple of promising things. The second power play centered by Staal is getting out there for between :57 and 1:00 left in a 2:00 opportunity. This is up from the usual :35 to :42 range. Interim Coach Dan Bylsma also tried this unit with Malkin and Bill Guerin flanking him, which makes for a big, strong line, and they seemed to move the puck better than the first unit. There is still too much playing with the puck, in general, and too many attempts from above the circles resulting in 0-6, ouch. More shots need to be fired across Varlamov’s crease from the goal line. On occasion when reinstated Petr Sykora found himself on the power play with Staal, they were trying to work it that way. The off wing needs to troll down toward the net when he sees these two trying to set it up. Either that or bring defenseman Letang who has shown he can score by creeping in that way.
• Face-offs–Among all players who entered into a draw situation, Pittsburgh came away with 53% to Washington’s 47%, a 6% advantage. However, when looking at the center position, which is the one that takes the majority of the face-offs by design, the analysis reveals a different picture. Penguins centers took 58 of the 60 face-offs in the game (97%); Caps centers took 56 of the 60 (93%). Of Pittsburgh’s four centers: Crosby (50%), Malkin (63%), Staal (59%), and Talbot (56%), they won 32 of the 58 (55%) face-offs they took versus Washington’s five listed centers: Boyd Gordon, Niklas Backstrom, Brooks Laich, David Steckel, and Sergei Federov who won 25 of the 56 (45%) face-offs they took. The advantage widens to 10% in the Penguins’ favor.
• Goaltending–In any game, but especially in the playoffs, the goal tender has to the best defender, the best penalty-killer. Both Marc-Andre Fleury for the Penguins and Simeon Varlamov for the Capitals kept their respective teams in the game, preventing a score-fest that would have looked like the Fourth of July. Of particular note is young Varlamov’s incredible robbery of Sidney Crosby in which the heel of his paddle somehow managed to keep the puck from crossing the goal-line, preventing a goal that would have brought the Pens even at 3, likely forcing overtime.

All in all, it was an electrifying game. Players, fans, and pundits alike have come away from it with a lot to think about. If this first game is any indicator, then every game in this series will be a chess match of cosmic proportions. Neglecting one small detail could blow a game wide open. The powder keg has been lit. The only remaining question is: How long is the fuse?

Team Effort = Pens 4 — Kings 1

Friday night’s matchup against the L.A. Kings was a nearly textbook team performance by the Pittsburgh Penguins under Dan Bylsma’s system. While specific players, and many, could be mentioned for their stellar play, the main focus here is in the overall cohesion and fluidity of a group of 19 guys who played in that game.

The one blemish on this performance was their propensity for drawing the attention of the refs and ending up in the penalty box a little more than one would like, including Dan Bylsma, who commented midway through the game that they really had not had the chance to get their five-man flow going.

That being said, it was a thing of beauty to watch how the defensemen worked in concert with at least one back-checking forward at all times to keep Marc-Andre Fleury feeling safe, secure, and confident as he absorbed more shots than he deflected. That is, when the puck managed to even get that close. It is clear that whoever is on the ice, from a first line player to a fourth line man, all heads are always up, lanes are covered, and they are in constant motion, making the Pens look downright indefatigable. As a result, the Kings were involuntarily generous on the giveaways in both the neutral zone and just inside the blue line if they were lucky enough to get that far.

What else was noticeable defensively is that no matter how close the puck got to the net, three guys were on it, eyes sharp and sticks persistent. The reward was puck possession and a smooth transition up ice.

The offensive play was no different. Gone are the days of trying to force passes more east-west than north-south up a narrow strip of neutral zone as if the boards were electric fences to be avoided. The transition game had men situated strategically along the boards or approaching the boards and available for the defenseman to move the puck north-south using the boards as an extra guy. This stretched out the opponents who had to travel farther to make plays, and it gave the Pens a lot of ice to work with. The result is a speedy puck and a lot of long possessions in the Kings’ defensive zone–often deep in that zone–for maddeningly long periods of time. If ever a torture device for wearing down an opponent was ever devised, this is it.

Special teams got a workout with the Pens having to battle against seven penalty kills, six with the Kings having a man advantage and one 5-on-3 situation, which resulted in the Kings’ only goal. The penalty kill has also transformed into a more offensive and aggressive machine.

Players are more active in the defensive zone, and lately, they seem to be always looking for the chance to make a two-man short-handed breakaway. They are also not looking to just dump the puck and retreat as their first option. It’s nice to see that whoever breaks goes in hard and, often with a second man, tries to at least tie the puck up  behind the net to chew up time. This effort is not without an eye to the opposing net, and when they lose that battle, they recover with lightning speed. Before tonight’s game, the Penguins’ penalty kill has improved by 5% from 80% to 85%, a substantial jump.

The power play seems to be coming on as well though the improvement is not as significant as on the PK. On the primary line, Malkin is where he needs to be: off the right circle, and Crosby seems to really relish speeding around between the corners and the back of the net, sometimes venturing to the half-wall. He’s got the goalie’s head snapping back and forth in an attempt to keep track of him. Gonchar is truly the quarterback dictating dizzying puck movement, and Letang is proving to be an apt pupil under his tutelage. The final piece of the puzzle is the nice problem of having any one of three guys in front of the net creating havoc: Guerin, Kunitz, or Sykora. It’s coming together.

Nothing should be taken away from the Kings though. They are a big, tough team that refused to give up. The hits kept coming, and the onslaught persisted as they would pick themselves up time and again, wave after wave, to battle into the Pens’ defensive zone. The team has a lot of heart and the potential to do better next season if they do not break into the playoff picture this year, which is all but impossible now.

The Penguins are peaking at the right time, and fans are starting to see a glimpse of what Pittsburgh really has for a team.

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Penguins Drop to Devils in Overtime

The Pittsburgh Penguins gave up a late 2-goal lead on Friday night against the New Jersey Devils to send it into overtime, before losing with 1-minute left in the extra frame.  The Penguins’ 2-goal lead was broken midway through the 3rd period after Petr Sykora took a double minor (hooking/unsportsmanlike), and the Devils converted just 4-seconds into the powerplay on a blast by Brendan Shanahan.  The Penguins hung on to cancel out the 2nd minor, but gave up the game tying goal with just 31-seconds to go in regulation as Jamie Langenbrunner beat Fleury to send it into overtime.   Marc-Andre Fleury was strong in net for the Penguins stopping 39-shots on goal, but had no chance on the OT game winner by Jamie Langenbrunner.  The Pittsburgh Penguins managed to grab a point out of the game, but really needed both as they continue their quest to claim a playoff seeding.

The Penguins got the early advantage in the game, despite being outshot 19-7 in the first period.  At 9:33 of the period, Max Talbot recorded his 6th goal of the season as he deflected a Ryan Whitney slapshot past Scott Clemmensen to make it 1-0.  Rob Scuderi picked up the other assist.  The goal came just after the killing off the second penalty of the period.  The Penguins pounced on that momentum and immediately cashed in by scoring 20-seconds later on the next shift.  This time it was Sidney Crosby taking an excellent pass from Evgeni Malkin and sending a stifling backhand shot past Clemmensen to make it 2-0.  Petr Sykora also assisted on the play.  At 11:21, the Devils fought back with a sneaky goal by Bobby Holik that quickly found its way between the pads of Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 2-1.  The Penguins went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-1 on the powerplay in the first.

The second period was marked by a much tighter defensive style with the Devils outshooting the Penguins 7-6, but neither team managed to get on the scoresheet.  The Penguins went 0-for-2 on the powerplay and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill in the period, and managed to take a 2-1 lead into the 3rd. 

In the 3rd, the Penguins looked as if they got the insurance goal at 8:35.  In a tremendous defensive play along the boards, Sidney Crosby stopped the puck and moved it up to Evgeni Malkin who powered into the Devils zone and launched the puck past Clemmensen to trickle across the goal line.  The goal was Malkin’s 20th of the season, and 100th of his young career.  With the score 3-1, the Penguins tried to tighten up the defense to protect the lead.  At 11:55, however, Petr Sykora took a hooking penalty near the Penguins’ blue line, and then must have said something that angered the referee who slapped Sykie with the extra 2-minutes for unsportsmanlike.  The Devils immediately pounced on the opportunity as Brendan Shanahan collected the puck off from the ensuing face-off and launched it past Fleury just 4-seconds into the powerplay to make it a 1-goal game.  The Penguins defense redoubled their efforts after the goal and managed to kill-off the back half of Sykora’s double-minor, but it now became a much different game.  With just 31-seconds left in regulation and Clemmensen pulled from the net in favor of the extra attacker, Jamie Langenbrunner threw a backhander from the side of the net that deflected off from the skate of Ryan Whitney and past Fleury to tie the game.  The Penguins then missed on a 2-on-1 scoring opportunity in the final seconds of the game to send it into overtime tied at 3-3.  The Devils again peppered the Penguins goaltender in the 3rd period as they outshot them 13-3. 

In the overtime frame, it appeared as if the Penguins might be able to hold on for the shootout, but a late barrage and offensive zone pressure by the Devils paid off with the game winner.  Skating out from the right boards, Travis Zajac fed a cross-ice pass to Jamie Langenbrunner who unleashed a quick shot that caught goalie Marc Andre Fleury out of position. It was Langenbrunner’s 14th goal of the season and second overtime winner in two games, as he had the OT winner against Boston on Thursday night. 

 

• PHOTOS:  Game Photos
• Game Rosters
• Game Summary
• Boxscore
• Shots Summary
• Faceoff Summary
• Pittsburgh TOI Report

The Penguins head to Toronto on Saturday where they will face off against the Maple Leafs and look to get one back in the winning column.

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Penguins Find the Right Trajectory

The Pittsburgh Penguins appear to have finally found the right trajectory after beating the Atlantic Division leading New York Rangers 3-0 on Sunday afternoon.  Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33-shots to post his 2nd shutout of the season, and 13th of his career.  With the win, the Penguins have managed to take 3 of their last 4 games after going an abysmal 6-13-1 between December 1st and January 10th.  During that span, the team suffered from inconsistent goaltending, a leaky defense, an unproductive offense, and (at times) ineffective coaching.  Contributing to their maladies, the Penguins have been burdened by more than their fair share of injuries, forcing the team to play as many as 5 AHL call-ups per game.  However, the Penguins have found success since facing off against the Flyers on the 13th by effectively employing a neutral zone trap, injecting the energetic Matt Cooke on the top line aside Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, and utilizing the chemistry of their AHL call-ups on the lower lines.   They have also benefitted on the 2nd line by the return of Tyler Kennedy and the improved play of a freshly signed Jordan Staal.  While only time will tell if the team has literally turned the page from December, they are certainly on the right trajectory for a change. 

Sunday’s win was marked by a number of encouraging signs.  First, the goaltending of Marc-Andre Fleury was rock solid.  In fact, it was the second game in a row in which he lived up to his potential and skill level, after a month in which he has looked tentative and positionally out of synch.  Perhaps we expected too much from him when he returned from injury this season when compared to how he responded at the end of last season after recovering from a lengthy high ankle sprain.  While he hasn’t had to be brilliant in net, he has only given up 1-goal through 6-periods of play.  Hopefully this will help him regain the confidence that he has been missing.  Secondly, the team was committed to and soundly executed their defensive trap system with few breakdowns.  The excellent positional play of the Penguins enabled them to conserve their energy and increase their puck possession, rather than chasing the puck in their own zone.  By effectively clogging up the neutral zone, they denied their opponents easy entrance into the Penguins defensive zone.  Finally, the team played with a full 60-minutes of passion, focus, and attention to detail.  Passing was crisp, decisions were sound, and everyone seemed to be on the same page.  The Penguins were also disciplined as they gave up a man advantage opportunity to the Rangers just twice.  All of these factors contributed to their success, and will hopefully reinforce in their minds what they need to bring to every game. 

The Penguins have 2 more games in their current home stand before heading out on a 3-game road trip.  The Penguins will host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night before facing off for a rematch against the New York Rangers again on Wednesday the 28th (after the All Star Game).  The Penguins will then have back-to-back  road games against the Devils and the Maple Leafs on the following Friday and Saturday nights to close out the month of January.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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