Game Update: Pens vs. Devils and Pens vs. Thrashers

It was a tale of two very different games earlier this week. The Pens looked like Stanley Cup Champs in beating the Devils on Tuesday night 4-2 and then proceeded to drop one to Atlanta the next night 4-1.

The game against the New Jersey was a teriffic display of teamwork, chemistry and work ethic. The Pens overcame two goal deficits on two occasions and were able to play effectively with a two goal lead through most of the third period. Pens goals by Malone(2), Christensen and Staal.

The following night in Atlanta, a completely different team took to the ice. They made critical mistakes that lead to Atlanta goals while playing an unmotivated, flat game. The Pens lone goal was scored by Whitney in the third to make it a 4-1 game.

The victory over Jersey was very important as far as division standings go. The win propelled Pittsburgh to a one point advantage over the Devils, where they remain as of this morning. So, if they were going to lose one of the back-to-back games in the first place, they did pick the right one to lose. But with that being said, there is no reason so be so motivated one night and not the next, especially with the Atlantic being such a tight race at this point in the season.

What has most impressed me, since Crosby was injured in the 1/26 game, is how Pittsburgh is able to pull together and take a couple of points out of a contest when it is most needed. Not only have they been playing without Sid, they have also had very bad luck with other key team members not being able to get in the lineup. Eight of the players on the current roster started the season in the AHL with the Baby Penguins. Brooks Orpick, a defenseman his entire life, has been pressed into service on the Left Wing the past two games following the acquisition of Kris Beech, who has not been able to get the proper work papers to enter the United States.

Injury Report: Armstrong (Flu, day-to-day), Hall (Groin,IR), Kennedy (Mono, IR), Crosby (ankle, IR), Roberts (leg, IR), Eaton (ACL, IR), Fleury (Ankle, IR).

Pens to Open '08 - '09 Season in Sweden

Sources say that the NHL is getting ready to announce that the Penguins will open next season in Stockholm, Sweden with a 2 game set against the Ottawa Senators. More to come at when additional information is available.

UPDATE: This has been confirmed by the NHL.

Preview: Pens at Flyers

The Penguins and Flyers will face off tonight in the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Now let's get this straight from the start. I have no love for the eastern side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philly fans are among the worst in professional sports.

The last time these two teams met (12/11/07) there were a combined 156 penalty minutes, 8 fighting majors, 6 ten minute misconducts and 2 game misconducts. So, needless to say, tonight's game will most likely pick up where the last one left off. The Flyers are still sore about being swept in the season series last year by the Pens and were looking for revenge. So far they've got it this season by winning all 4 games against Pittsburgh.

Look for a hard checking, aggressive game this evening. I would not be at all surprised to see Mr. Laraque on the wing for the opening faceoff. Therrien should consider making this move because it would certainly send a message to the Flyers that the Pens are not going to be bullied into submission. Pittsburgh can play the same game the Philadelphia excels at and they are also able to put the puck in the net.

My prediction - Pens 4, Flyers 2.

Injury Update - Tyler Kennedy is out of the line-up with Mono.

VERSUS 2008 NHL ALL-STAR SPOT WITH ALL-STAR PLAYERS

Don't miss the 2008 All Star game and Skills Competition this weekend!!

Upcoming Game Analysis

The Penguins are entering a stretch of extremely important games beginning tomorrow night at Philadelphia and continuing after the All Star break that begins Friday. Four of the next five games are on the road (Philly, New Jersey twice and Atlanta) and three of those are against division opponents in which Pittsburgh is in a standings battle with. If the Pens can manage to take points away from the Flyers and Devils they will be setting themselves up nicely for a busy month of February.

The Pens have 14 games in February, 8 of which are at home but only 4 of the 14 are against division opponents. This should give the team some breathing room with Sid being out. Not that I am suggesting they tank a few games, but with a game every other day and a busy month of March coming up, they are going to need all of the rest they can get and there should be some opportunity to get that facing a couple of Western Conference Teams (LA, San Jose).

Given these facts and looking ahead at the schedule for next month, Pittsburgh is in very good shape to continue with the playoff run they are on and should have the opportunity to grab a few extra points if they are able to continue with they aggressive type of play that they have had and can count of some outstanding goal tending from Conklin and Sabourin.

Malkin Added to the All Star Roster

The NHL announced today that Pens forward Evgeni Malkin has been added to the line up for this weekends All Star Game in Atlanta. Malkin was added to the roster after teammate Sidney Crosby went down with a high ankle sprain.

See the press release here

Catch all of the action on Versus Sunday at 6pm

Congrats to Evgeni for a well deserved honor!!

Crosby Out 6 to 8 Weeks

The Penguins web site is reporting that Sidney Crosby will be out 6 to 8 weeks to recover from the high ankle sprain that occurred during the Tampa Bay game on Friday 1/18.

Click here for the whole story

Pens 5, Caps 6

The Capitals were able to take the Pens down last night in a shootout at Mellon Arena by the score of 6-5. It was an exciting, intense game which was a pleasure to watch. Pittsburgh goals by Malkin(2), Talbot, Sykora and Malone.

Sabourin started the game in goal but was replaced with Conklin after giving up a fourth goal to the Caps.

The Caps won the shootout 2-1 with only Ruutu scoring for the Pens. Letang and Christensen both were unable to get a puck past Washington goalie Kolzig.

The next 3 games for Pittsburgh are all on the road and two of the three are against division opponents. If they want to stay in the reach of the divison lead, wins against the Flyers and Devils are essential.

Injury Update - the Pens placed center Sidney Crosby on IR yesterday. He is scheduled for an evalution today so we should have a better idea of how much time he will miss.

Next Up - Pens at Philadelphia this Thursday at 7pm.

Streaks - Pittsburgh's streak of consecutive wins against the Capitals ended at 14 games. Prior to last nights game, the alst time the Caps beat the Pens was March 2006.

Roster Changes - The Pens called up from Wilkes-Barre: Chris Minard, Tim Brent and Johnathan Filewich and sent down Ryan Lannon.

Pens 2, Canadiens 0

The Penguins answered the question of whether or not they could win without # 87 in the lineup by putting a good old thumping on the Montreal Canadiens. Pens goals scored by Taffe and Malkin tossed in an empty netter at the end of regulation for the proverbial nail in the coffin. Pittsburgh won the game by playing sound defense, taking care of their end of the rink by clearing rebounds and blocking shots, by finishing their checks and playing aggressive, hard-nosed hockey. It was an awesome game from start to finish!

If the Pens are able to continue playing the way they did Saturday night they will win a bunch of games before the Return of Sid. But it will put quite a drain on the entire team to have to perform at this level for an extended period of time.

Injury Update - nothing to report.

News of Note - check out Japers Rink Blog. They are doing a story on "Why the Pens will win tonight" and have so pretty good analysis as well as some humorous content regarding Sid's injury.

Pens 0, Lightning 3

The Pens lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning by the score of 3-0 Friday night at the Igloo. The uninspired play was most likely the result of a first period injury to Pens captain and leader, Sidney Crosby. Sid slid into the boards behind the goal mount while attempting to get control of a loose puck. His right foot was bent inward producing what is being called a high ankle sprain.

Pittsburgh has has some extremely bad luck with this particular injury this season. Both Max Talbot and Marc Andre Fleury have suffered with this condition recently and have been out of the lineup for extended periods of time. Talbot was injured in November and sat out a few weeks before attempting an ill fated comeback too early which shelved him for an additional four weeks. Fleury has been out since mid December and, taking a lesson learned from Talbot, has been careful not to put too much strain on his ankle too quickly. Talbot his since returned to the lineup and Fleury is ready to start practicing with the team.

The severity of Sid's injury is not known at this time. The team is most likely keeping a very tight lid on this information. He will, however, be replaced for the All Star game next weekend.

Losing the team captain and natural leader can have a devastating impact on the remaining players. The team will have to come together and play as a unit for the entire sixty minutes of each and every game to pull out victories. Players that have not been producing, such as Jordan Stall, Ryan Malone and Erik Christensen, will have to step up their scoring as well as their locker room leadership. Evgeni Malkin has a larger load on his shoulders but with his recent performance can hardly be asked to increase his production. His leadership on the ice will be sufficient to give the rest of the team an indication of how hard they will have to work to get some points in the W column.

GEORGES LARAQUE VS COLTON ORR 1/14/08

A nice little way to start the game...

Pens 4, Rangers 1

Evgeni Malkin powered the Pens to a 4-1 victory last night over the Rangers by with his second hat trick of the month. Malkin scored the first two goals of the game early in the first within three minutes of each other. Gonchar added the third goal of the opening period about 10 minutes later. Malkin's third goal of the game came on an empty net shot with 24 seconds remaining in the game. The Rangers only managed one goal, a power play goal from Jagr in the third period.

It was a chippy, hard hitting game, which we are getting used to from the Rangers. The opening faceoff featured a fight between Laraque and Colton Orr (video will be posted later), and there were many instances of the Rangers taking shots at the Penguins players throughout the game.

The win put the pens in first place in the Atlantic! What a difference since November when they were hovering around last place. Too bad the Devils have been winning nearly as many games as the Pens or they could have a substantial lead.

The Rangers were not at the top of their game. The looked flat throughout the game until finally finding some life midway through the third. This act of deperation came was too little, too late. The Penguins played solid defense and were hitting at both ends of the rink.

Here is a Yahoo sports video recap of the game:

Click here

Next Up - The Pens have half a week off and won't hit the ice again until Friday night against the Lightning.

Current Streaks - Penguins, 10 games unbeaten in regulation; Conklin 11 game unbeaten in regulation; consecutive games against the Rangers that Laraque and Orr have squared off, 2.

Injury Update - no news of note on Fleury or Roberts.

Home of the Penguins weekly rant - why isn't Malkin on the All Star roster??

RUUUUUUUUTTUUUUUU!

Click the following link for a great article about Jarkko:

RUUUUUUUTTUUUUUU

Here is a picture from the article:



picture by (Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press)

Pens 4, Lightning 1

The Pens continued with their winning ways on Thursday night by shocking the Lightning, 4-1. Pittsburgh goals were scored by Staal (2), Malkin and Malone. Ty Conklin got his ninth consecutive win in net for the Pens stopping 35 of 36 Tampa shots and making some acrobatic saves like this:




Photo from AP (Photo/Steve Nesius)

This was Pittsburgh's first win in Tampa since 2003! Their winning streak now stands at 8 games in a row which is their longest since winning 10 in a row in 1999.

Next Up - Saturday night at Atlanta.

Current Streaks - Penguins 8 wins; Ty Conklin 9 wins (are these first 2 some sort of coincidence? Could be; Sid Crosby did not score so his streak of 14 games with a point has come to an end; Jordan Staal consecutive games with 2 goals, 1 (keep up the scoring Jordan); most guys named Ryan on one NHL team, 3; consecutive games blogged by Home of the Penguins author, 2.

News of Note - Ryan Stone played his first NHL games against Tampa last night. Welcome to the Big Boys League Ryan! Oh, and to the referees from last nights game: Max Talbot was not the one guilty of a high stick in the third period. Replays clearly showed what your trained NHL referee eyes should have seen - O'Brien was clipped by his own teammate. Bad call on that one gentlemen...

Pens 3, Florida 1

The Penguins extended their winning streak to seven games by trouncing the Panthers last night, 3-1. Ty Conklin remains unbeaten in a Penguins uniform winning his 8th consecutive start in stellar fashion. Conklin stopped 27 of 28 shots and raised his stats in the process. He now sports a 1.88 GAA and a SV% of .941 Outstanding numbers!

Goals for the Pens were scored by Sykora, Crosby and Laraque. All Pens goals were in the 2nd period when Pittsburgh turned the intensity way up and went on a rampage.

The Penguins are really starting to look like a playoff caliber team right now. Since the Thanksgiving Day come-from-behind victory at Ottawa, the Penguins have won 16 of the last 21 games and have only lost more than one in a row one time. The team has come together, much like at this time last year, and has managed to go from last in the Atlantic (around 11/22/07) to within one point of first place. And if the playoffs started today they would, like last season, be a four seeding in the Eastern Conference rankings.

Next up - Thursday at Tampa Bay. The Pens have lost the last seven against the Lightening. Anyone want to bet that streak will some to an end??

Streaks - along with Conklin's 8 game winning streak, Sid Crosby has a 14 game scoring streak.

News of note - Sid has been named a starter in this months NHL All Star game. Congrats to Crosby!

Pens 6, Maple Leafs 2

The Penguins made it five in a row with a 6-2 crushing of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Pittsburgh goals were scored by Christensen, Kennedy, Sykora and Evgeni Malkin tallied his first NHL hat trick. Ty Conklin was spectacular in net once again, winning his sixth consecutive game.

The contest was kept very close through the first two periods but in the third, Toronto came out flat and the Pens took advantage of that by putting 4 pucks behind Maple Leafs goalie Scott Clemmensen. Three of those 4 goals were scored in a 48 second span between 3:00 and 3:48. Malkin added the fourth goal of the period, and his third of the game at 15:28 to wrap up the scoring.

One of the early highlights of the game was this battle between Jarkko Rutuu and Darcy Tucker midway through the first period:





Next up: Florida at the Igloo. 3pm Saturday

Injury Update: Fleury and Talbot continue to make progress and are both looking to return to the lineup soon.

Streaks: Sid Crosby has scored a point in 12 consecutive games.

Ice Bowl and Catch-up recap

Hello All and welcome back from the holidays! I've been merry-making with friends and family the past two weeks and have been unable to blog while doing so. Hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas and best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Well, let me begin by saying..."WOW!". What a tremendous job the NHL and Buffalo did with the "2008 winter Classic" yesterday! The weather was, as expected in January in Buffalo, the stadium was electric, and the game was one that will be remembered for ages.

The Pens got on the board at 0:21 of the first period with a goal by Colby Armstrong and a sweet assist from Crosby. Buffalo tied up the game early in the second and the score remained 1-1 through overtime. The Pens won the shootout and game 2-1. Shootout goals were scored by Letang with Crosby chipping in the winner by beating Miller 5 hole.

Nearly from the start of the contest snow began to fall. And it hardly let up throughout the game. The game was stopped in all 3 periods and before OT to repair the ice with the Zamboni's. The NHL's ice crew was also called out several times to repair large divots in the ice in front of the player benches. While the stoppages in play were unusual they were warranted by the weather and conditions. In an attempt to make the playing field more even in overtime, the NHL decided to stop the game halfway through the extra period so the teams could change sides. This reasoning would have been more meaningful if the ice conditions were better since one team would have had a large advantage with the wind at their backs.

Ty Conklin got his 5th win in six appearances. He has proven himself to be a more than capable replacement for the injured Marc Andre' Fleury the past 3 weeks and is challenging Sabourin for the backup job when Fleury returns. He has posted a 2.35 GAA and a .925 SV% (admittedly in a much lower number of games) which is best on the squad. Conklin posted his first shutout of the season, and third of his career three days earlier in a 2-0 win also against the Sabres.

Since my prediction on 11/25/07 that the team had turned a corner (see: click here)
the Pens have won 13 of 18 games and have managed to pull within one point of the Atlantic Division leader New Jersey Devils. I am extremely happy to have been proven correct on that prognostication!

Remembering back to last season (if my brain allows accurate thought at this time) the Pens had a bit of a slump before going into a 14 or 15 game unbeaten streak. Here's to hoping that the current winning streak of four games continues through the month and through the upcoming All Star break.

Injury Update: Ryan Malone returned after missing 2 weeks on Tuesday. Fleury and Talbot, both recovering from high ankle sprains, have been skating daily and look to return soon. Mark Eaton has been sidelined indefinately with an ACL tear after a horrible slew foot by Marco Sturm during the Bruins last week. By the way NHL, where is the suspension and/or fine on that one?? Gary Roberts is also out indefinately with a broken fibula. Ouch! The iron man even walked off the ice after that one, albeit supported by 2 teammates but on his feet nonetheless.

Next up: Thursday 1/3 vs Toronto.

News of note: The Pens/Panthers game on Saturday 1/5 has been moved to 3pm due to the Steelers game being scheduled at 8pm at Heinz Field. Here we go Steelers, here we go!