Reports chiming in that John LeClair has been put on waivers...
It's is now OFFICIAL.
The main aspect of this is the fact that LeClair clearing waivers would mean his salary would drop to $900,000...as opposed to his current $1.5 million.
He might have been given the option by Ray Shero to either be traded or accept any suitors that came his way.
In some other GM news, hockeybuzz.com reported that the Penguins are one of a few teams interested in Markus Naslund.
A wealth of young stars here in Pittsburgh, coupled with Jim Balsillie assuming ownership soon...you just never know...
Post coming later Thursday night.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
LeClair Placed On Waivers
John LeCANT
I know we promised a post tonight, but we are working on a few huge projects that you guys should enjoy. Lets just say if you a fan of Law and Order you'll love tomorrows post.
Some quick links...
John Leclair is pissed... With Ryan Malone on his way back... someone is going...
Is Mark Eaton's absence hurting the Pens?... No question.. Good read here.
Here is some of the Bettman stuff from yesterday for the out of town crowd.. Dec 20th is so close it sickens me.
Three jobber games tonight..Pilly lost...haha...again..San Jose won, and Denis Savard got his first win as coach of the Blackhawks.....
I haven't slept since the eight grade picnic..
Goodnight all
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Housekeeping
First of all, Wednesday nights are usually garbage.
Although, I just found San Jose - Minnesota on Versus.
7:45 PM through 11:30 PM tonight is devoted entirely towards tending to Pensblog business...with a bowl of Corn Pops and a game or two of NHL '07 in there somewhere.
...If you feel so inclined, take a peek at the No Pun Intended hockey blog. Two girls covering a few teams in the NHL, including the Pens...
...Kukla's Korner, a general NHL blog, mentioned our list of top 10 goals. Why is that news? The author of the site also writes for NHL.com, and to garner his attention was a big deal for us...
...Our favorite Pensblogal, Stephanie S., was recently hired by the Penguins in their Media Relations Department. Congratulations Steph!!!!!!!
...Our rumored Q&A session will be coming into fruition in the next couple days: Joe Starkey of the Tribune-Review.
We also have one in the works with another writer.
...Speaking of Pensblog business, we are very close to getting the 1991 and 1992 Penguins playoff goals onto Google Video...
...Crosby's 32 points are (is?) 4th in the NHL...
...Malkin-Kopitar Article
Malkin will run away with the Calder Trophy this year, so at least we don't have to give LA's Anze Kopitar the Ovechkin-treatment and hate him for the entire season...
...Calgary Flames are retiring Mike Vernon's # 30...
...Finally, Pitt basketball season is getting into full swing. Check out the Pitt Hoops Blog, run by none other than frequent Pensblog commenter Dennis...
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
FLURR-EE...FLURR-EE...FLURR-EE. PENS WIN.
Pensblog's Chris was lucky enough to get tickets to the game tonight, and Marc-Andre Fleury's bobblehead doll is staring at me as I type this.
Huge win for our Pens. Huge. Huge. Screw looking in a thesaurus. That's the only word for it.
Divisional rival. We were losing ground on some Eastern Conference teams.
Huge.
A couple headlines from tonight's game, but probably the biggest is Colby Armstrong finally getting a goal in the 2006-07 season. It happened less than two minutes into the game when Sid (he was back tonight; another headline) fed a pass cross-ice that Colbs managed to nick the post with and get it into the net. I can only imagine how nuts the Arena was he scored that goal.
The only downside from a good first period of hockey was leaving Viktor Kozlov alone in the slot. He got one past Fleury at the end of the first to tie the game up.
WWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!The second period was controlled by the Pens for the most part. The Islanders scored on a play where Fleury couldn't find the puck, and he was one second late in reacting to Arron Asham's shot. That was the last goal the Islanders would score this evening.
Six minutes after that goal, Crosby knocked a puck out of mid-air, just trying to get it into the slot. Colby was there to put it into an empty net. Tied game. Big goal at the time.
The only penalty in the second period was Gonchar's hooking penalty, which is what we had to do.
36 seconds into the third period: shades of Mario.
It wasn't Malkin.
It wasn't Sid.
It was Chris Thorburn who banked a shot of DiPietro's leg and into the net for what turned out to be the game-winning goal. You read that correctly.
After that goal, the rest of the night belonged to Marc-Andre Fleury (headline).
He was making save after save on odd-man breaks, and managed to flop around in the crease while making some saves, as well. Our defensemen tonight were clearing lanes for him to at least see the puck, which is always good.
Ryan Whitney had a hell of a shift towards the end of the third period.
The final seconds ticked down while we prayed for Armstrong to get an empty-net goal for the HT, but it just wasn't gonna happen.
When was the last time the Pens scored an empty-net goal? I don't even remember.
Stats
- Crosby: 2 A
- Armstrong: 2 G
- Malkin: 4 shots
- Fleury: 33 saves
- Shots: NYI (35) PENS (28)
- Powerplay: NYI (0 for 2) PENS (0 for 3)
- It was excellent to see Crosby with a couple bursts of speed. It shows that groin isn't bothering him enough to affect his playing style.
- I am praying to the hockey gods that Erik Christensen prospers on a line with Malkin.
- That puck squeaking across that goal-line in the third period. That's a goal if this was last year. I truly believe that.
- LeClair didn't play tonight; didn't realize it until just now.
- Dan Potash's piece about the Fleury doll was solid.
- Standing-room only, sellout crowd tonight. A bobblehead game in the middle of the week. You are courageous, Pittsburgh Penguins.
- Penguins HD available in blahity-blah-blah. You want High Definition television? Clean the dust off your TV screen...you'll be amazed at the picture clarity.
GO PENS BABY
Pensblog Gameday
Pens-Isles Tonight
7:00 - FSN
Some good news...Islander center Alexei Yashin is out 2-4 weeks with a sprained right knee...
...Anyone stay up to watch the Kings beat the Devils in a shootout last night?
...In that Versus broadcast, they showed the status of the all-star voting. Crosby and Malkin are starters, and Fleury is leading all Eastern Conference goalies in votes...
...Anaheim's Chris Pronger returns to Edmonton. This is as big a T.O. situation that the NHL will get...
...Pensblog buddy Heather e-mailed this to us: a New York Times article covering the Pens. Good read...
...We have another media figure waiting in the wings to do a Q&A session.
Let the speculation run wild...
One hint: It's not the reporter from Judge Wapner's People's Court
Bohm bohm-bohmGo Pens
Monday, November 27, 2006
Top 10 Goals in Penguins History
After a couple weeks of brainstorming and extensive research, we are proud to bring you our top 10 goals in Penguins history.
Please debate.
And let's hope Dan Kesa's goal against the Maple Leafs in 99 gets a vote in the comments section.
We tried to go into insane detail for these. Don't ask me how I've retained all of the details over the years; I just have.
We've hooked you up with links to videos and audio clips.
So here we go...
Our numbers 1, 2, and 3 are set in stone, but it's impossible to sit here and try to rank the rest.
BONUS!
11. 1995 Stanley Cup Finals: Chicago Blackhawks - Game 7
Luc Robitaille Sends The Game Into Sudden Death Overtime
10. 1991 Stanley Cup Finals: Minnesota North Stars - Game 2
Mario Lemieux Goes Coast-to-Coast
A fairy-tale ride to the Stanley Cup Finals saw the Penguins meet the North Stars, who annihilated the defending Cup champion Oilers in the Campbell Conference Final. The Penguins lost Game 1 of this series, which was in flow with the rest of their 1991 playoff run.
11. 1995 Stanley Cup Finals: Chicago Blackhawks - Game 7
Luc Robitaille Sends The Game Into Sudden Death Overtime
While the Vice President was being held hostage in a private box, the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins played an enthralling Game 7 to decide the Stanley Cup championship.
The biggest highlight of this game, besides a helicopter crashing onto the ice, was the story of Penguin goaltender Brad Tolliver. He was questionable coming into the game because he had the flu. He had to leave the game in the third period but came back a little while later to an immense roar from the crowd. He later made a save on a breakaway and proceeded to punch a Blackhawks player. He was given a game misconduct, and the Pens seemingly had no chance.
With ten seconds remaining and the Pens down by one, Luc Robitaille is sprung on a breakaway. He releases the puck with 0.3 seconds left, and it goes in just before the buzzer.
After a few minutes of overtime play, the game was suspended due to a terrorist threat. A victory in this game would have assured the Pens place as the dominant team in the 90's.
The biggest highlight of this game, besides a helicopter crashing onto the ice, was the story of Penguin goaltender Brad Tolliver. He was questionable coming into the game because he had the flu. He had to leave the game in the third period but came back a little while later to an immense roar from the crowd. He later made a save on a breakaway and proceeded to punch a Blackhawks player. He was given a game misconduct, and the Pens seemingly had no chance.
With ten seconds remaining and the Pens down by one, Luc Robitaille is sprung on a breakaway. He releases the puck with 0.3 seconds left, and it goes in just before the buzzer.
After a few minutes of overtime play, the game was suspended due to a terrorist threat. A victory in this game would have assured the Pens place as the dominant team in the 90's.
10. 1991 Stanley Cup Finals: Minnesota North Stars - Game 2
Mario Lemieux Goes Coast-to-Coast
A fairy-tale ride to the Stanley Cup Finals saw the Penguins meet the North Stars, who annihilated the defending Cup champion Oilers in the Campbell Conference Final. The Penguins lost Game 1 of this series, which was in flow with the rest of their 1991 playoff run.This Lemieux goal came in the second period of Game 2. I believe the score was tied at 1, with the teams at even strength. The momentum of the entire game shifted on this play, and the Pens used it to sail to a 4-1 win.
Video: (1:45 mark) Look at Lemieux turn on the jets at his own blue line. Sickening speed.
Video: (1:45 mark) Look at Lemieux turn on the jets at his own blue line. Sickening speed.
9. 1992 Patrick Division Finals: New York Rangers - Game 4
Ron Francis Saves The Penguins
After beating the Capitals in the first round of the playoffs, the Penguins now had to play the best team in the 1992 season - the New York Rangers.
8. 1992 Patrick Division Semifinals: Washington Capitals - Game 7
Jaromir Jagr Begins His 1992 Playoff Romp
So, there were the Pens. Down three games to one against the Caps...going into Washington for Game 5. According to Against The Odds, the Pens devised their own version of the neutral zone trap before that game (called the 1-4 delay). The objective was to shut down the offensive defensemen of the Caps while making them dump and chase. It resulted in a 3-1 victory, sending the series to Pittsburgh. The Penguins had to come from behind in Game 6, with Lemieux tallying 2 goals and 3 assists in a 6-4 win.
7. 1996 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Washington Capitals - Game 4
Petr Nedved Scores at 2:22 in the Morning
1995-96 saw the Penguins have 3 of the top 4 point-getters in the regular season. They ran away with the division title and had a juggernaut offense...bitch.
Ron Francis Saves The Penguins
After beating the Capitals in the first round of the playoffs, the Penguins now had to play the best team in the 1992 season - the New York Rangers.The Penguins shocked everyone in Game 1, winning in New York. Game 2 saw Adam Graves deliver the slash heard 'round the world on Mario Lemieux. In that same game, Joey Mullen suffered a knee injury and would be out for the rest of the playoffs while Lemieux would be out until Game 2 against Boston.
The Rangers came to Pittsburgh and won Game 3 (which was also the last game the Pens would lose in the playoffs that year).
I remember watching Game 4 and thinking that the 1992 Penguins just didn't have enough to beat the Rangers. The Penguins were down 4-2 with 15 minutes left in regulation when they took a 5-minute major penalty. The vaunted Rangers powerplay took the ice, and everyone knew they were going to score and almost assuredly take a three games to one series lead.
I remember the crowd cheering on the Penguin penalty killers for the entire five minutes and the wave of emotion that swept through the Arena every time we cleared the puck out of the zone. And right after the finals seconds ticked off the penalty, Ron Francis showed up. He blasted a slapshot from the blue line that got past Mike Richter and later scored in overtime to tie the series up at 2.
[ Video ]
The Rangers came to Pittsburgh and won Game 3 (which was also the last game the Pens would lose in the playoffs that year).
I remember watching Game 4 and thinking that the 1992 Penguins just didn't have enough to beat the Rangers. The Penguins were down 4-2 with 15 minutes left in regulation when they took a 5-minute major penalty. The vaunted Rangers powerplay took the ice, and everyone knew they were going to score and almost assuredly take a three games to one series lead.
I remember the crowd cheering on the Penguin penalty killers for the entire five minutes and the wave of emotion that swept through the Arena every time we cleared the puck out of the zone. And right after the finals seconds ticked off the penalty, Ron Francis showed up. He blasted a slapshot from the blue line that got past Mike Richter and later scored in overtime to tie the series up at 2.
[ Video ]
8. 1992 Patrick Division Semifinals: Washington Capitals - Game 7
Jaromir Jagr Begins His 1992 Playoff Romp
So, there were the Pens. Down three games to one against the Caps...going into Washington for Game 5. According to Against The Odds, the Pens devised their own version of the neutral zone trap before that game (called the 1-4 delay). The objective was to shut down the offensive defensemen of the Caps while making them dump and chase. It resulted in a 3-1 victory, sending the series to Pittsburgh. The Penguins had to come from behind in Game 6, with Lemieux tallying 2 goals and 3 assists in a 6-4 win.Game 7: A tightly contested affair. Lemieux got the first goal, shorthanded. The Capitals later tied it. It stayed that way until the third period. On a powerplay late in the third, Francis squeaked it behind the net to Lemieux, who found Jagr in front of the net. Jagr backhands it past goalie Don Beaupre.
Audio: Our recap of the moment does not do it justice. Listen to the Pens fans in attendance.
Audio: Our recap of the moment does not do it justice. Listen to the Pens fans in attendance.
7. 1996 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Washington Capitals - Game 4
Petr Nedved Scores at 2:22 in the Morning
1995-96 saw the Penguins have 3 of the top 4 point-getters in the regular season. They ran away with the division title and had a juggernaut offense...bitch.The 1995-96 season will always be on our list of what-ifs. Like, what if the Florida Panthers were called for penalties when they tackled Lemieux and Jagr right off the faceoffs.
Anyway, the Capitals came into Pittsburgh and won the first two games of the series. Very interesting. The Penguins managed to win Game 3, which brings us to an emotional Game 4.
The highlight of this game could have been a bunch of things. It could've been Lemeiux receiving a game misconduct for slashing Todd Krygier. It could've been Chris Tamer solidifying his spot in Penguins history as a goat for intentionally dislodging the net in the second overtime which led to a Joe Juneau penalty shot.
The real goat turned out to be some guy who threw a beer onto the ice earlier in the game...on the exact spot where the puck bounced off Joe Juneau's stick on said penalty shot.
Ken Wregget's performance in this game is the thing of legends.
The Pens went on to beat the Caps in six, the Rangers in five, losing to Florida in 7.
Video: One of the first videos I looked for when I discovered YouTube.
Anyway, the Capitals came into Pittsburgh and won the first two games of the series. Very interesting. The Penguins managed to win Game 3, which brings us to an emotional Game 4.
The highlight of this game could have been a bunch of things. It could've been Lemeiux receiving a game misconduct for slashing Todd Krygier. It could've been Chris Tamer solidifying his spot in Penguins history as a goat for intentionally dislodging the net in the second overtime which led to a Joe Juneau penalty shot.
The real goat turned out to be some guy who threw a beer onto the ice earlier in the game...on the exact spot where the puck bounced off Joe Juneau's stick on said penalty shot.
Ken Wregget's performance in this game is the thing of legends.
The Pens went on to beat the Caps in six, the Rangers in five, losing to Florida in 7.
Video: One of the first videos I looked for when I discovered YouTube.
6. 1997 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Philadelphia Flyers - Game 4
Mario Lemieux Goes Out In Style
It just wasn't meant to be in what we thought was Lemieux's final season. We played the Flyers in the first round of the playoffs, and they had jumped out to a three games to none lead.
Mario Lemieux Goes Out In Style
It just wasn't meant to be in what we thought was Lemieux's final season. We played the Flyers in the first round of the playoffs, and they had jumped out to a three games to none lead.My birthday is in late April, and my jaw dropped when my dad presented me tickets to this game right before the playoffs started. I ALMOST rooted against the Pens in game 3, selfishly wanting to be at Lemieux's last game.
I remember a few things about this game. Dan Marino was in attendance, Petr Nedved scored, and oh yeah, by the way, it was Joe Mullen's last game, too.
We were all standing on our feet during the last three minutes of the game, chanting MARIO MARIO. You can feel it when you check out the video link below.
What I remember most about this game was watching Lemieux on that final shift and suddenly, Ian Moran springs him on a breakaway. Being only 12 years old, and still tiny, I was getting ready to time my jump to see Lemieux's goal. But before I could, my dad sacrifices himself by lifting me up in front of him so I could see the entire breakaway while he maybe saw the footage on the JumboTron. It still gives me chills.
Video: Mario Lemieux Delivers
I remember a few things about this game. Dan Marino was in attendance, Petr Nedved scored, and oh yeah, by the way, it was Joe Mullen's last game, too.
We were all standing on our feet during the last three minutes of the game, chanting MARIO MARIO. You can feel it when you check out the video link below.
What I remember most about this game was watching Lemieux on that final shift and suddenly, Ian Moran springs him on a breakaway. Being only 12 years old, and still tiny, I was getting ready to time my jump to see Lemieux's goal. But before I could, my dad sacrifices himself by lifting me up in front of him so I could see the entire breakaway while he maybe saw the footage on the JumboTron. It still gives me chills.
Video: Mario Lemieux Delivers
5. 1999 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: New Jersey Devils - Game 6
Jaromir Jagr Forces Game 7 On One Leg
The Penguins entered the playoffs this year as the eighth seed, forced to play the number-one seed New Jersey Devils in the first round. The Pens had no chance.
4. 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals: Buffalo Sabres - Game 7
Darius Kasparaitis Owns Hasek
After a stirring 6-game Capitals series that ended on Marty Straka stealing the puck from Capital defenseman Sergei Gonchar, closing in on Olaf Kolzig, roofing it, and diving onto the ice, the Pens faced the Buffalo Sabres. We deprived you of the Jagr 1999 video, so here is that Straka OT goal.
Jaromir Jagr Forces Game 7 On One Leg
The Penguins entered the playoffs this year as the eighth seed, forced to play the number-one seed New Jersey Devils in the first round. The Pens had no chance.It looked to be true as the Pens were down three games to two, and down 2-1 with 3:00 left in Game 6. German Titov feeds Jagr a pass from behind the goal line and Jagr somehow gets it past Brodeur. The goal tied the game with 2:12 left. It sent the game into overtime.
In overtime, Straka works his way into the Devils' zone and dishes a cross-ice pass to Jagr, who one-times it over Brodeur's extended left pad. Unbelievable. The goal catapulted the Pens to New Jersey for Game 7.
The Pens managed only 13 shots in Game 7, but 4 went in. The biggest goal came with about 5 minutes left, and the Pens leading 3-2. Straka put in a Jagr rebound and proceeded to slide all the way to the Penguins bench. Straka always had the best OT-goal celebrations.
NO AUDIO OR VIDEO
In overtime, Straka works his way into the Devils' zone and dishes a cross-ice pass to Jagr, who one-times it over Brodeur's extended left pad. Unbelievable. The goal catapulted the Pens to New Jersey for Game 7.
The Pens managed only 13 shots in Game 7, but 4 went in. The biggest goal came with about 5 minutes left, and the Pens leading 3-2. Straka put in a Jagr rebound and proceeded to slide all the way to the Penguins bench. Straka always had the best OT-goal celebrations.
NO AUDIO OR VIDEO
4. 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals: Buffalo Sabres - Game 7
Darius Kasparaitis Owns Hasek
After a stirring 6-game Capitals series that ended on Marty Straka stealing the puck from Capital defenseman Sergei Gonchar, closing in on Olaf Kolzig, roofing it, and diving onto the ice, the Pens faced the Buffalo Sabres. We deprived you of the Jagr 1999 video, so here is that Straka OT goal.The 2000-2001 season had Lemieux return to the NHL and help this talent-laden team go further than anyone thought was possible. This Buffalo series was crazy as hell, with the Pens winning the first two games in Buffalo...then proceeding to lose the next three. Facing elimination in Game 6, the Penguins were down 2-1 late in the third. Mario Lemieux scored on The Immaculate Deflection play to tie it, and Marty Straka (who else?) scored in overtime to force Game 7.
Game 7 was a very timid affair. I remember Johan Hedberg standing on his head to keep the Pens in the game. I can't recall the Pens' first goal, but their second goal was scored by Robert Lang with about 8 minutes left, tying the game at 2. Overtime was next...where the great players step up.
13:01 into the only overtime period, Darius Kasparaitis jumps into the rush, Lang hits him with a pass, and the lights go out on the Sabres' season.
Video: There is nothing better than an away team scoring a playoff OT goal, as is proven with the exclamatory "Mmmeeeyyyaaahhh!!!!" (Pensblog friend Bryan Bell confirmed the spelling.)
Game 7 was a very timid affair. I remember Johan Hedberg standing on his head to keep the Pens in the game. I can't recall the Pens' first goal, but their second goal was scored by Robert Lang with about 8 minutes left, tying the game at 2. Overtime was next...where the great players step up.
13:01 into the only overtime period, Darius Kasparaitis jumps into the rush, Lang hits him with a pass, and the lights go out on the Sabres' season.
Video: There is nothing better than an away team scoring a playoff OT goal, as is proven with the exclamatory "Mmmeeeyyyaaahhh!!!!" (Pensblog friend Bryan Bell confirmed the spelling.)
3. 1993 Patrick Division Finals: New York Islanders - Game 7
Rick Tocchet Delivers
Rick Tocchet Delivers
If I started typing about the 1993 season and what should have been, my hands would fall off. I can't go into excessive detail, but this Penguins team was insane. Even the New York Islanders' coach said his team had no business beating the Penguins.
This Game 7 was gut-wrenching. It started out with Kevin Stevens breaking bones in his face as a result of delivering a huge hit on Islanders defenseman Richard Pilon. I'm not saying that was the reason the Penguins lost this game, but what happens if Stevens plays the rest of the game...
After an Ulf Samuelsson goal, the Islanders scored 3 times (once on a Benoit Hogue slapper from the parking lot). Trailing 3-1 with about 7 minutes left, Ron Francis shows that he has a penchant for sparking comebacks against teams from the Empire State. He scores a goal on a quick tip-in on a nice feed from Larry Murphy.
Later, with about 1:20 left, the Penguins pull Barrasso. Murphy deftly keeps the puck in the zone and sends a floating wrister to the net...a wrister just waiting to be deflected. Ron Francis gets his stick on it, and as it flutters toward goaltender Glenn Healy, Rick Tocchet makes a miraculous play by bring his stick down to redirect Francis' deflection into the net with exactly 1:00 remaining.
Few goals have made the Mellon Arena erupt like that.
The Penguins on the ice for this goal: Lemieux, Francis, Jagr, Mullen, Tocchet, Murphy.
Video: Hate to kill you, but the only footage we have is the entire game highlights.
After an Ulf Samuelsson goal, the Islanders scored 3 times (once on a Benoit Hogue slapper from the parking lot). Trailing 3-1 with about 7 minutes left, Ron Francis shows that he has a penchant for sparking comebacks against teams from the Empire State. He scores a goal on a quick tip-in on a nice feed from Larry Murphy.
Later, with about 1:20 left, the Penguins pull Barrasso. Murphy deftly keeps the puck in the zone and sends a floating wrister to the net...a wrister just waiting to be deflected. Ron Francis gets his stick on it, and as it flutters toward goaltender Glenn Healy, Rick Tocchet makes a miraculous play by bring his stick down to redirect Francis' deflection into the net with exactly 1:00 remaining.
Few goals have made the Mellon Arena erupt like that.
The Penguins on the ice for this goal: Lemieux, Francis, Jagr, Mullen, Tocchet, Murphy.
Video: Hate to kill you, but the only footage we have is the entire game highlights.
2. 1991 Wales Conference Finals: Boston Bruins - Game 6
Mark Recchi Puts The Pens One Step Closer To Lord Stanley
Why is this goal in this list? Does anyone even know what this goal looks like?
Mark Recchi Puts The Pens One Step Closer To Lord Stanley
Why is this goal in this list? Does anyone even know what this goal looks like?I sure as hell do.
After Uwe Krupp broke my life the year before, the 1990-91 Penguins were the reason I existed. I watched and/or listened to every game as intently as a 6 year-old could. I didn't realize what was happening back then, but now I know that Stanley Cup runs are to be cherished. Looking back, this Recchi goal was huge.
After losing the first two games in Boston, Kevin Stevens came out in the Boston papers and said the Pens would win 4 straight. No one gave the Penguins a chance going into the series, let alone being down two-nil. After the Pens dominated games three and four, the emotional game 5 took place in Bean Town. Barrasso was stellar, and the Pens cruised to a 7-2 win.
Game 6: I don't even think I went to school on the day of this game because I kept throwing up on myself with excitement.
The Bruins jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but the Pens fought back and tied the game at 2 before the third period.
The third period was insane. I might catch some hell for putting Recchi's goal on this list, so I know for a fact that I would be tarred and feathered if I put Gordie Roberts' goal on here. It was early in the third period, and gave the Pens a 3-2 lead. The Arena erupted.
Boston tied it up shortly thereafter...setting the stage.
With not much time left in the game, the aforementioned Gordie Roberts gets the puck just past his own blue line to negate a two-line pass and hits Recchi with a pass off the boards. Recchi flies into the Bruins zone and executes his patented one-legged wrist shot. It gets past goalie Andy Moog.
If you've ever heard Lange's call of this goal, you can tell by his voice how big it was.
After Uwe Krupp broke my life the year before, the 1990-91 Penguins were the reason I existed. I watched and/or listened to every game as intently as a 6 year-old could. I didn't realize what was happening back then, but now I know that Stanley Cup runs are to be cherished. Looking back, this Recchi goal was huge.
After losing the first two games in Boston, Kevin Stevens came out in the Boston papers and said the Pens would win 4 straight. No one gave the Penguins a chance going into the series, let alone being down two-nil. After the Pens dominated games three and four, the emotional game 5 took place in Bean Town. Barrasso was stellar, and the Pens cruised to a 7-2 win.
Game 6: I don't even think I went to school on the day of this game because I kept throwing up on myself with excitement.
The Bruins jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but the Pens fought back and tied the game at 2 before the third period.
The third period was insane. I might catch some hell for putting Recchi's goal on this list, so I know for a fact that I would be tarred and feathered if I put Gordie Roberts' goal on here. It was early in the third period, and gave the Pens a 3-2 lead. The Arena erupted.
Boston tied it up shortly thereafter...setting the stage.
With not much time left in the game, the aforementioned Gordie Roberts gets the puck just past his own blue line to negate a two-line pass and hits Recchi with a pass off the boards. Recchi flies into the Bruins zone and executes his patented one-legged wrist shot. It gets past goalie Andy Moog.
If you've ever heard Lange's call of this goal, you can tell by his voice how big it was.
1. 1992 Stanley Cup Finals: Chicago Blackhawks - Game 1
Mario Lemieux Does It Again
The Blackhawks came into this series on an 11-game winning streak. Everyone was picking them to sweep the Penguins by using their hard-nosed checking style.
1991 Patrick Division Semifinals: New Jersey Devils - Game 2Mario Lemieux Does It Again
The Blackhawks came into this series on an 11-game winning streak. Everyone was picking them to sweep the Penguins by using their hard-nosed checking style.For most of the first period, it was looking that way. They were throwing their checks around and jumped out to an unbelievable 3-0 lead. Penguins fan were in shock while the rest of the NHL world expected this to happen.
Towards the end of the first period, Phil Bourque came up with a huge powerplay goal.
Early in the second, Chicago scored another goal to make it 4-1. It wasn't looking good.
Watching the ebb and flow of this game, I doubt anyone expected what happened next...
Paul Stanton directed a shot towards the net that Rick Tocchet deflected past the seemingly invincible Ed Belfour. Less than a minute later, Mario Lemieux performs the behind-the-goal-line, bank-it-off-the-goaltender's-leg goal to make it 4-3. Every person in Pittsburgh believed.
The one thing sometimes lost in talking about this game is Tom Barrasso's performance in the third period, keeping this a one-goal game. He was making saves that he had no right making.
With about 5 minutes left, Jagr scored the biggest goal of his young career. He maneuvered around 4 Blackhawks players before getting a backhand past Ed Belfour. The Arena was going nuts, and no one anywhere expected what we were soon about to witness.
The Penguins had to kill a late penalty, which they did. After the penalty expired, a loose puck at center ice sparked Lemieux racing for the puck against Blackhawks defenseman Steve Smith. Smith, who was out for most of the powerplay, was dead tired and had to take down Lemieux to avoid a breakaway chance, giving the Penguins a powerplay.
Everyone was already thinking about overtime when the Pens and Blackhawks lined up for a faceoff in the Chicago zone. And, of course, everyone in the place was standing...almost knowing something was about to happen.
Ron Francis won the face-off and got it back to Larry Murphy. Murphy gets a quick shot off, Belfour uses his stick and right pad to kick the puck away...right onto Mario Lemieux's tape. Belfour lunges to the make the save, but Lemieux would not be denied.
This goal essentially won the series for the Pens, who went on to sweep the Blackhawks.
Towards the end of the first period, Phil Bourque came up with a huge powerplay goal.
Early in the second, Chicago scored another goal to make it 4-1. It wasn't looking good.
Watching the ebb and flow of this game, I doubt anyone expected what happened next...
Paul Stanton directed a shot towards the net that Rick Tocchet deflected past the seemingly invincible Ed Belfour. Less than a minute later, Mario Lemieux performs the behind-the-goal-line, bank-it-off-the-goaltender's-leg goal to make it 4-3. Every person in Pittsburgh believed.
The one thing sometimes lost in talking about this game is Tom Barrasso's performance in the third period, keeping this a one-goal game. He was making saves that he had no right making.
With about 5 minutes left, Jagr scored the biggest goal of his young career. He maneuvered around 4 Blackhawks players before getting a backhand past Ed Belfour. The Arena was going nuts, and no one anywhere expected what we were soon about to witness.
The Penguins had to kill a late penalty, which they did. After the penalty expired, a loose puck at center ice sparked Lemieux racing for the puck against Blackhawks defenseman Steve Smith. Smith, who was out for most of the powerplay, was dead tired and had to take down Lemieux to avoid a breakaway chance, giving the Penguins a powerplay.
Everyone was already thinking about overtime when the Pens and Blackhawks lined up for a faceoff in the Chicago zone. And, of course, everyone in the place was standing...almost knowing something was about to happen.
Ron Francis won the face-off and got it back to Larry Murphy. Murphy gets a quick shot off, Belfour uses his stick and right pad to kick the puck away...right onto Mario Lemieux's tape. Belfour lunges to the make the save, but Lemieux would not be denied.
This goal essentially won the series for the Pens, who went on to sweep the Blackhawks.
Jaromir Jagr Scores Electrifying OT Goal (Video)
1992 Wales Conference Final: Boston Bruins - Game 3
Mario Lemieux Beats Ray Bourque, Adam Oates, and Andy Moog (Video)
1992 Patrick Division Semifinals: Washington Capitals - Game 6
Mario Lemieux Stickhandles In A Port-o-John To Beat Don Beaupre
1992 Stanley Cup Final: Chicago Blackhawks - Game 1
Jaromir Jagr Ties It
2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals: Buffalo Sabres - Game 6
Marty Straka Forces Game 7
2000 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: Washington Capitals - Game 2
Jagr Wins It in Overtime On Sick Wrister
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Casino Atlantic
Hope everyone isn't getting annoyed with the Atlantic division teams because, like those pesky Thanksgiving leftovers, they aren't going away for at least a week. The Pens play 4 of their 5 games against division enemies from the Hot-Lantic. That includes trips to New Jersey and The World's Most Famous Arena.
Moving on to some Pens stories..
Karen Price writes one of the best Pens articles of the year...talking about how Malkin is getting used to speaking English
Few thoughts on this article:
- Karen Price has been openly loathed in the Pens Message Board Nation, and I think it is unfair. Articles like this show me that the players are comfortable with her, and she knows what questions to ask. Great job Karen!
- The article had some great quotes.....
- Sergei Gonchar may be the most important player on the Penguins. And before you flip out....think about it. He looks out for Malkin. You cannot put a price on this. Reading this article only proves that he is almost like Malkin's guardian. Think back to Craig Patrick signing Gonch. One of the reasons had to be Malkin's pending arrival. Also, how many times did Gonch cry last year. People openly booed him every time he touched the puck. Did he complain in the media? Did he whine? What would Joey Porter do if he got booed? It is time to forgive this guy for good. If you think he is horrible, ask yourself this: How many GMs would take a healthy, good-natured veteran presence in the locker room defenseman with a canon slap shot?...Yea that's right, keep your mouth shut. I swear the next game I am at and someone boos him, I am attacking them. I am not even joking about this. Look at this crap from lets go pens.com...I am sorry but you people are wrong if you think Gonch is a problem on this team.
The Penguins PR need to have a "Say You're Sorry to Sergei Night"
We will be first in line.
Other jobber news:- NHL.com surprises the world with a very good article about old lady Mellon Arena.
- Spector's Hockey says Shero is looking at Pascal Dupuis .... umm no thanks, we have enough players not scoring right now.
- Thanks to commenter Seth for this "since starting 7-3-0 the pens are 3-5-4."
Other crap around the division..
Rangers lose in OT.....Flyers win in Montreal last night.....The Isles are playing good hockey... and of course the Devils remain on top with 28 points.
Ghosts of Penguins Past. PENS LOSE.
To start off this recap of an excellent Saturday night game, we have to send a sincere thanks to Stephanie S., who is an intern in the Penguins Media Relations Department.
She called us at 6:05 and said she had two tickets. I wiped the potato chip crumbs off my shirt and jumped into the shower. I called Chris and we headed out to the game.
It turns out that the seats were actually for the Staal family, but for whatever reason, they couldn't get to the game. The best part was that the seats were in the girlfriends and wives section. We spent our spare time looking at the kids, trying to see players in their faces. Chris ended up becoming best friends with Mark Eaton's cute 2-year-old daughter, while Ronald Petrovicky's 5-year-old son and I were starting Let's Go Pens chants.
We also had a really cool conversation with Erin from Boston, Brooks Orpik's girlfriend. She is a very nice girl. She told us about his situation with Erik Cole, she said both her and Brooks love Pittsburgh, and that Brooks is a great guy.
We passed the website along to her and hopefully Brooks will able to check it out and give us our first player feedback.
She called us at 6:05 and said she had two tickets. I wiped the potato chip crumbs off my shirt and jumped into the shower. I called Chris and we headed out to the game.
It turns out that the seats were actually for the Staal family, but for whatever reason, they couldn't get to the game. The best part was that the seats were in the girlfriends and wives section. We spent our spare time looking at the kids, trying to see players in their faces. Chris ended up becoming best friends with Mark Eaton's cute 2-year-old daughter, while Ronald Petrovicky's 5-year-old son and I were starting Let's Go Pens chants.
We also had a really cool conversation with Erin from Boston, Brooks Orpik's girlfriend. She is a very nice girl. She told us about his situation with Erik Cole, she said both her and Brooks love Pittsburgh, and that Brooks is a great guy.
We passed the website along to her and hopefully Brooks will able to check it out and give us our first player feedback.
Oh, by the way, there was a game tonight.
The first period was a seemingly endless train to the penalty box. Early on, the Pens had to kill a 5-on-3. Our penalty killing tonight was superb, keeping the Rangers on the perimeter while limiting Jagr's scoring chances. The Arena was full of pumped-uppedness after we killed those penalties, which resulted in a standing ovation during the first commercial break. The Pens had their shot on basically the same stretch of powerplay time at the end of the first, but nothing formulated.
Exclusive photo of Malkin watching his girlfriend making out with some dude.
Gonch: "She's no good for you Geno."
Gonch: "She's no good for you Geno."
The Penguins would've had a penalty-free second period if it wasn't for another too many men on the ice penalty. Malkin drew two penalties midway through the second, giving the Pens a 5-on-3. Five seconds after the first penalty expired, Malkin got one into the net. The rest of the second was nice. Besides it being low-scoring, it was an awesome game to be at.
The third period had the Penguins lock down their system like they were the father of a 17 year old girl. It was going good until there was about 8 minutes left. A lucky rebound found Jagr's stick, and he buried it. It still amazes me how big Jagr is when you see him in on the ice. The rest of third period was scoreless with the Pens killing a huge penalty late. We go to OT again.
Quite an eventful 4 minutes and 57 seconds. The Rangers had some good opportunities while Malkin, I believe, hit the post when he knocked the puck over Lundqvist. And before we could recover from that, Jordan Staal, out of nowhere, gets a breakaway. He gets hooked on the breakaway, but there's no way the ref cou----PENALTY SHOT. The most emphatic point to the center ice dot that I have ever seen.
After explaining to Petrovicky's son what happened, I turned in time to see Staal grab the puck at center ice. The arena was about to erupt. Staal had the goalie beat, but the puck rolled off his stick.
A shootout was a mere 2.2 seconds away when Rozsival executed a perfect shot-pass to Straka who re-directs into the net. GAME.
Stats
- Malkin: 1 G
- Gonchar: 1 A, 500th NHL point
- Fleury: 28 saves
- Shots: NYR (30) PENS (29)
- Powerplay: NYR (0 for 6) PENS (1 for 6)
- I don't know how many people know the backdrop story of Ruutu-Jagr, but them scrapping it up in tonight's game was awesome. Here's the backdrop story.
- A nice standing ovation for Gonchar's 500th point
- The Penguins honored Jagr's 600th career goal on the JumboTron, which was met with mixed emotions with more than a few people standing up for him.
- It gets boring when you boo Jagr the entire game. It takes up too much of my energy, but that's just me.
- Announcement of Crosby being scratched was met with a loud boo from the crowd.
- The winning goal was Straka, from Rozsival and Jagr. I wonder if that exact line-score occurred when they all played in Pittsburgh.
- I scored a shirt in the t-shirt toss and gave it to my new partner in crime, Petrovicky's son.
- Remember when Crosby scored with 1.8 seconds left in regulation to beat the Rangers earlier this season? Look up karma in the dictionary.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Silver George Washington
First off, The Pensblog can now be accessed using www.thepensblog.com. Go ahead...try it.
Easier to remember than the blogspot garbage.
...................
Now that the NHL has reached the quarter-mark of the season (roughly), we've decided to look back at our pre-season predictions and see how badly we did.
As far as the Atlantic Division goes, Philadelphia has basically thrown an under-achieving wrench into the whole mix. We had the Islanders in the cellar, which they aren't. We had the Flyers third and the Pens 4th. Our player to watch was the Malkinator (11 G, 10 A, 21 P in 17 games)
The Northeast Division is a huge mess for us. We said we were going to take the bait in regards to Buffalo being a sexy pick, bonus.
We had Toronto 4th: they are in 2nd and closing ground on the Sabres.
We had Ottawa first because they are the perennial giants...but they're playing with themselves in 4th spot.
Montreal and Boston are exactly where we thought they would be, although Boston is going to leap-frog Ottawa soon.
We went out on a limb and said Daniel Briere for Buffalo would hit the 100-point mark this season. Currently, he has 30 points, on pace for about 115 points. Cha-ching.
We didn't really put the Southeast Division in rankings, but looking at the post, I think we had Atlanta, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Florida, Washington.
We have been pretty accurate with this division, which we are pumped about because we caught a lot of flack for picking Atlanta as number one.
The big "surprise" is Washington, who is still hanging out with the .500 Club.
Our player to watch was Atlanta goalie Kari Lehtonen who, along with Marian Hossa (16 G, 15 A, 31 P) helping Kovalchuk produce, was our key to Atlanta's success.
With the Western Conference, who we only play 10 times a year, we didn't find it fitting to do divisional breakdowns, because we know nothing.
We seeded them 1 through 8, then also did the jobbers who wouldn't make the playoffs. Our biggest mistake was Calgary, who we put at number one. Instead, they are in 9th spot. Ouch.
And, wow, looking back at our predictions, we didn't even bother putting St. Louis in it. That's sad on our part because the Blues are better than Chicago, Phoenix, and Columbus right now.
Our player to watch was Nashville goalie Tomas Vokoun. He's 11-4, 2.49 GAA, with a .920 Save %. He has been the catalyst in Nashville's climb to the number one spot in the Central Division.
When you get to beat up on the Blues, Blue Jackets, and Blackhawks 24 times per year, what do you expect?
You expect to pad your stats, get a number 3 seed...and get bounced in the first round of the playoffs by a team in the Pacific Division who has to play two of these teams (Dallas, San Jose, Anaheim) 16 times per year.
Our players to watch have not disappointed us so far.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Pens Ate Too Much on Thanksgiving. Pens LOSE
We didn't catch the game, and homo CW isn't doing a replay tonight.
FSN would do it, but high school football kicks you in the pancreas if you turn it on Friday night.
Malkin's wrist shot was sick, and I haven't been able to see any of the Islanders goals.
Also read in the recap that Malkin left the ice after a shoulder-to-shoulder hit with an Islander player.
Early reports were that he simply got his bell rung, although he may have jumped on a plane back to mother Russia.
Saw some nice Thibault saves. He's really raising his trade value.
Him and Malone to Washington for Ovechkin. It's coming.
I'll be heading out to the Pens game tomorrow night against the Rangers. I'm saving my voice all day tomorrow so I can be in top Booing form.
NEXT GAME: Saturday 11.25
vs. NY Rangers - 7:30
The CW
vs. NY Rangers - 7:30
The CW
"The NHL fell in a burning ring of fire"
Yea we said we were taking a break, but I also said I wasn't going to eat all of my grandma's jello salad.
And well let's just say I made Bill Cosby happy today.
And well let's just say I made Bill Cosby happy today.
"Jello salad? Jello salad? I am talking bout Jello Pops..."
Ghost Dad was a great movie.
Moving on, not a whole lot going on around the NHL..
Something I forgot to do was get a comparison picture of last night.
Head Coach of the Bruins Dave Lewis and Hitler
one thing, though:
Shouldn't someone nudge Dave Lewis and say, "Hey man you look like Hitler, shave the stash." I mean come on.
........
Ken Hitchcock is back in the NHL, he was named the Blue Jackets coach last week, he had his first practice today.
Hitchcock then went on to eat his weight in stuffing balls, even John Goodman was horrified
John Goodman and Ken Hitchcock, the race to see which ones hearts explodes first, continues, next on.. CBS
.............
One game in the NHL tonight.. and by the way did you know Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving over a three day span..
Anyways the Predators smoked the Canucks 6-0...Thomas Vokoun got hurt, if you care to know.
Huge suspensions for Atlanta and Washington.......after this brawl.. got to love Hedberg and Olie the goalie getting into it
That's it folks...2:00 game tomorrow afternoon, which is horrible. I am going to be sweating it out at work.
Go Pens.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Thanksgiving at Pensblog
What many people don't know about Thanksgiving is that after the Pilgrims and Indians had a delicious meal, they played a grueling 2-overtime thriller with the Indians winning 4-3, on Chief Triple Deke's second goal of the game.
Mario Lemieux was the referee.
Chief Triple Deke and little known Pilgrim at the time Gordie Howe were named MVP's of the first Thanksgiving game.
The wager on the game was that whoever won would assume the rights to the land.
Wow, the white man going back on his word...
Michael Richards will have fun with that.
But in the true spirit of Thanksgiving, here is what we are truly thankful for:
- Mario Lemieux
- Sidney Crosby
- Evgeni Malkin
- Student rush
- Hot girls
- Heroes
- Arby's
- AOL Instant Messenger
- Steelers 2005 Super Bowl season
- Blogspot.com
- Wendy's 99-cent menu
- Dan Potash
- 2 for $3 Gatorades
- Our parents
- Sunoco
- Hot water
- Annabelle, the God-daughter of the Pensblog
- Alcohol
- The 2006-07 Flyers being a joke.
- Little League tournament games at Peterswood Park in Peters Township
- Jobbers
- Our respective dogs, Joey and Rocky
- Mighty Ducks 1,2,3
- Hoss's salad bar
- Jay Caufield
- "The Hey Song"
- The Mellon Arena
- Sudden Death
- Jagr (before his "dying alive" quote)
- Kevin Stevens before and after his drug problems
- Ulf
- Ron Francis
- Frank Pietrangelo's save on Petr Stastny
- Tom Barasso's performance in Game 3 against the Blackhawks in 1992
- The Stanley Cup in 1991
- The Stanley Cup in 1992
- Jim Paek
- The Internet (thanks to Al Gore for inventing it)
- HTML
- Mike Lange
- Sheetz
- Isle of Capri
- Cellphone chargers
- Our vehicles starting every morning
- Adobe Flash
- Chris Antypas
- Gabe Antypas
- Hot Pockets
And lastly, we are thankful for our readers.
We cannot thank you enough.
Coming up with this stuff for the blog is fun, but it's nice to laugh with other people rather than by ourselves at 2:00 in the morning.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there, unless you're not a Penguins fan. In that case, we hope you choke on dry stuffing and your brother bangs your wife.
Finally, a little known fact is that turkey was not even eaten at the first Thanksgiving.
They ate venison and duck.
Don't ask how we know; we just do.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
The Black and Gold Win. PENS LOSE.
We finally get to see a shoot-out, and Sid's too busy drinking bottled water to play.
Sidney's out, so the Pens had no chance tonight...right?
It was certainly looking that way.
Excellent game to watch tonight. The first period had some pretty good hockey. The play went back and forth while the Penguins refused to capitalize on some powerplays, a disturbing and recurring theme tonight. We all thought the game would go into the first intermission tied, but Mark Recchi came down the wing and fired a one-legged wrist shot past Finley/Thomas ala the game-winning goal in Game 6 of the 1991 Eastern Conference against these very same Bruins that catapulted the Pens into the Stanley Cup Finals. I will, to this day, argue with anyone alive that that goal in game 6 is one of the top three goals in Pittsburgh Penguins history.
First period ended, the Pens up 1-0.
The second period was a bigger disaster than Michael Richards at a NAACP meeting.
Hey Cosmo!!! You're a racist!
The first ten minutes of the second were fine. It was the next five minutes that made me wish Kelly Ripa was here just so I could punch her in the face. First, Stanislav Chistov ouelleted the puck into the net on a powerplay. About a minute later, Marco Sturm scored one a two-on-one that deflated the Mellon Arena. Not to be outdone, The Giant Gonzalez retires from the WWF and somehow scores on a slapper from the point...on a four-minute powerplay that resulted from Ruutu running around like a maniac. It was really depressing going into that second intermission down 3-1.
Zdeno Chara chloroformed The Undertaker at the 1994 WWF Wrestlemania at Caesar's Palace.
About five minutes into the third period, we finally really missed Sidney Crosby. Marc-Andre Fleury was making great save after great save, keeping the Pens in the game. The Pens started to get some pressure, but Malkin takes one of the most obvious penalties I've ever seen. The Pens kill that penalty, and a heads-up play by Maxime Talbot makes our omnipresent dream come true: Malkin on a lead pass coming out of the box. Malkin has to maneuver around the linesman and a Bruins defenseman, but gets his way into the zone and wrists it past Byron Dafoe. 3-2. Money.
A tense third period ensued, with Fleury continuing to keep us in it. A questionable penalty late in the game sets the Pens on the powerplay. It takes Therrien a while to do it, but pulls the goalie to get a 6-on-4. The Pens try to set up Malkin with his Flyers-game one-timer, but the play breaks down. Before you can finish cussing out whoever didn't put the pass on Malkin's tape, Recchi backhands the puck into a gaping net. Tied. Going to overtime.
Erik Christensen played so well tonight that if you looked right at him, you would go blind.
Nothing much in the overtime, except for Malkin getting a nice chance in front of the net. He gets a "shot" off, but at least Crosby didn't have it, or else he would have passed it back to the point.
The shootout lineup for the Pens was Ouellet (who got three shots on goal...err, I mean the glass), Malkin, and Recc----nope, Gonchar.
The Bruins brought out Sturm and Patrice "my first name is Patrice" Bergeron. Sturm scores on the Bruins first shot, and that's all that was needed. Game.
Stats
Next Game: Friday, 11.24
It was certainly looking that way.
Excellent game to watch tonight. The first period had some pretty good hockey. The play went back and forth while the Penguins refused to capitalize on some powerplays, a disturbing and recurring theme tonight. We all thought the game would go into the first intermission tied, but Mark Recchi came down the wing and fired a one-legged wrist shot past Finley/Thomas ala the game-winning goal in Game 6 of the 1991 Eastern Conference against these very same Bruins that catapulted the Pens into the Stanley Cup Finals. I will, to this day, argue with anyone alive that that goal in game 6 is one of the top three goals in Pittsburgh Penguins history.
First period ended, the Pens up 1-0.
The second period was a bigger disaster than Michael Richards at a NAACP meeting.
Hey Cosmo!!! You're a racist!
The first ten minutes of the second were fine. It was the next five minutes that made me wish Kelly Ripa was here just so I could punch her in the face. First, Stanislav Chistov ouelleted the puck into the net on a powerplay. About a minute later, Marco Sturm scored one a two-on-one that deflated the Mellon Arena. Not to be outdone, The Giant Gonzalez retires from the WWF and somehow scores on a slapper from the point...on a four-minute powerplay that resulted from Ruutu running around like a maniac. It was really depressing going into that second intermission down 3-1.
Zdeno Chara chloroformed The Undertaker at the 1994 WWF Wrestlemania at Caesar's Palace.
About five minutes into the third period, we finally really missed Sidney Crosby. Marc-Andre Fleury was making great save after great save, keeping the Pens in the game. The Pens started to get some pressure, but Malkin takes one of the most obvious penalties I've ever seen. The Pens kill that penalty, and a heads-up play by Maxime Talbot makes our omnipresent dream come true: Malkin on a lead pass coming out of the box. Malkin has to maneuver around the linesman and a Bruins defenseman, but gets his way into the zone and wrists it past Byron Dafoe. 3-2. Money.
A tense third period ensued, with Fleury continuing to keep us in it. A questionable penalty late in the game sets the Pens on the powerplay. It takes Therrien a while to do it, but pulls the goalie to get a 6-on-4. The Pens try to set up Malkin with his Flyers-game one-timer, but the play breaks down. Before you can finish cussing out whoever didn't put the pass on Malkin's tape, Recchi backhands the puck into a gaping net. Tied. Going to overtime.
Erik Christensen played so well tonight that if you looked right at him, you would go blind.
Nothing much in the overtime, except for Malkin getting a nice chance in front of the net. He gets a "shot" off, but at least Crosby didn't have it, or else he would have passed it back to the point.
The shootout lineup for the Pens was Ouellet (who got three shots on goal...err, I mean the glass), Malkin, and Recc----nope, Gonchar.
The Bruins brought out Sturm and Patrice "my first name is Patrice" Bergeron. Sturm scores on the Bruins first shot, and that's all that was needed. Game.
Stats
- Malkin: 1 G, 1 A
- Recchi: 2 G
- Fleury: 28 saves
- Shots: BOS (31) PENS (25)
- Powerplay: BOS (2 for 6) PENS ( 1 for 26 )
- A year of playing has paid off for Christensen; he played a great game. The diving call on him in the first was garbage. His one-time pass to Ouellet on the powerplay stands out in my mind. Add Christensen's faceoff abilities, and the already overcrowded Pens roster sees another player added into the mix.
- Nils Ekman was flying the first period.
- Bruins coach Dave Lewis looks like Hitler.
- Get your hands out of your pants, Heath Miller.
- Can we get a penalty for Too Many Too Many Men On The Ice? I love the genius who came up with the name for that penalty.
- Andy Moog played the puck in the non-trapezoid area for a penalty. First one I've seen in a Pens game.
- Chara elbows Armstrong in the face. That's gotta hurt. Wow, it just hit me that I have no disdain for Armstrong. You know he's trying, I think that's what consoles me.
- Malkin took over the game in third period. Simple as that.
Next Game: Friday, 11.24
@ NY Islanders - 2:00
The CW
The CW
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Stairway To Mellon
Sid the Kid makes his first appearance on the NHL.com Leading Scorers
Ryan Whitney gets the NHL.com Second Star for his 3-point night in Philly.See? We told you Ryan Whitney was the best...
...Sidney is the top vote-getter in Eastern Conference All-Star voting...
...That rail-cam that debuted in the Dallas-Colorado game on Versus Monday night sucked. It was way too obtrusive, and the camera didn't have good quality...
...One Atlantic game tonight. Rangers beat Carolina 4-0. Carolina has played 72 games already this season...
...The Pens are 16th in TSN Power Rankings. And the Isles are 14th....
...Oh, Crosby has a groin twinge. He left the game Monday as a precautionary measure...
...The author of Mondesi's House will be appearing on the DVE Morning Show. Wednesday, November 22. 9:00 hour. Good luck, sir...
And, finally...check out this garbage article Bob Smizik writes about Mark Madden.
You know our sentiments about Steelers fellatio in this town.
I gotta go, though. I'm house-breaking my new puppy, and I've been saving up Bob Smizik articles for the past year.
MAYBE A RECAP WEDNESDAY NIGHT.
BUT, DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH UNTIL SUNDAY NIGHT.
WE PUT IN MORE WORK THAN YOU THINK FOR THE BLOG, AND WE LOVE DOING IT.
TIME FOR A VACATION, THOUGH.
THANK YOU, LOYAL READERS.
AND APOLOGIES ABOUT THE PHILADELPHIA ROAD TRIP.
BUT, DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH UNTIL SUNDAY NIGHT.
WE PUT IN MORE WORK THAN YOU THINK FOR THE BLOG, AND WE LOVE DOING IT.
TIME FOR A VACATION, THOUGH.
THANK YOU, LOYAL READERS.
AND APOLOGIES ABOUT THE PHILADELPHIA ROAD TRIP.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Role Players. PENS WIN.
First and foremost, Sid the Kid is injured. At the time of this recap, we have no word on his injury. Please discuss in the comments section when the news comes out.
As we hoped, the Pens caught the Flyers in their first game after the West Coast trip. Not surprisingly, the Pens jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a John LeClair powerplay goal. Three minutes later, Crosby makes an unbelievable move to set up Dominic Moore on what was basically a shorthanded goal. Then, with 9 second left in the first, Ryan Whitney threw it into the net after a scramble. 3-0, end of the first. Doing this to the Flyers is really starting to feel good.
The second period was a pretty exciting period. Simon Gagne scored for the Flyers on a deflection in front of Fleury. Less than a minute later, the Pens executed the tic-tac-toe, on-the-fly goal with perfection...with Crosby finishing it off. That's basically the last we saw of Crosby, too.
The Flyers scored another goal in the second on a pretty sweet play, with Geoff Sanderson ending it by going top-shelf on Fleury. 4-2 was making me nervous for a while...like two minutes. Gonchar wristed a shot past Nittymaki to bump the score back up to a three-goal lead. That ended the second.
The third period was okay. I got to be honest. It was only given attention during Heroes commercial breaks. I ended up seeing the Flyers score the textbook definition of a jobber goal with three seconds left. Pens improve to 4-0 against the Jagoffs...and 8-1 vs. the Atlantic.
6 of our next 9 are against the Atlantic.
Stats
As we hoped, the Pens caught the Flyers in their first game after the West Coast trip. Not surprisingly, the Pens jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a John LeClair powerplay goal. Three minutes later, Crosby makes an unbelievable move to set up Dominic Moore on what was basically a shorthanded goal. Then, with 9 second left in the first, Ryan Whitney threw it into the net after a scramble. 3-0, end of the first. Doing this to the Flyers is really starting to feel good.
If Armstrong was on Heroes, his power would be the ability to not score a goal.
The second period was a pretty exciting period. Simon Gagne scored for the Flyers on a deflection in front of Fleury. Less than a minute later, the Pens executed the tic-tac-toe, on-the-fly goal with perfection...with Crosby finishing it off. That's basically the last we saw of Crosby, too.
The Flyers scored another goal in the second on a pretty sweet play, with Geoff Sanderson ending it by going top-shelf on Fleury. 4-2 was making me nervous for a while...like two minutes. Gonchar wristed a shot past Nittymaki to bump the score back up to a three-goal lead. That ended the second.
The third period was okay. I got to be honest. It was only given attention during Heroes commercial breaks. I ended up seeing the Flyers score the textbook definition of a jobber goal with three seconds left. Pens improve to 4-0 against the Jagoffs...and 8-1 vs. the Atlantic.
6 of our next 9 are against the Atlantic.
Stats
- Crosby: 1 G, 1 A
- Malkin: 2 A
- Whitney: 1 G, 2 A
- Shots: PHI (24) PENS (35)
- Powerplay: PHI (3 for 8) PENS (2 for 8)
- Steigerwald mentioned the term "role player" a record 94 times during this game.
- How dare FSN let Keith Primeau into the booth to converse during a Penguins game. Doesn't anyone remember 2000?
- WHERE WAS DANNY P-TASH? You don't respect how well of a job he does until third-line center Marshall Harris jumps in.
- That Malkin goal: If he loses the rookie points race by one point, it will be another reason to hate Derian Hatcher.
- First time I've seen Petrovicky (Petrohicky?) and I love him. We've been missing that kind of player.
- Malone, LeClair, Petrovicky...something's got to give in the next few weeks. That sound you hear is the rumor mill starting to churn. Or maybe it's your girlfriend farting in the other room.
Next Game: Wednesday, 11.22
vs. Boston Bruins - 7:30
FSN
Pensblog Will Be Off For Thanksgiving.
Have A Nice Holiday Everyone
And Tell Your Alcoholic Uncle About The Pensblog
vs. Boston Bruins - 7:30
FSN
Pensblog Will Be Off For Thanksgiving.
Have A Nice Holiday Everyone
And Tell Your Alcoholic Uncle About The Pensblog
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Nothing lasts forever, in the cold November NHL game
Tons of off time for the Pensblog staff this weekend.
With Adam, Chris, and Gabe in line trying to get the Wii...and me being a lazy sack of mud, we were about as productive as Rico Fata.
He can skate fast..................
Let's start with the Pulse of the Penguins Message Board Nation:
Funny link here.... if anyone accuses Penguins fans of being paranoid, they are out of line.
We have to deal with way too much.
+++Seems to be a lot of people upset about Ryan Whitney. Some stick by him. Some hate him.
Here at Pensblog, we get upset about things like Gumby disappearing.
Ryan Whitney is a professional. He'll figure it out, or Ray Shero will kill/trade him.
Some guy made millions of dollars for smoking weed and saying, "Hey, I'm gonna make a show about clay toys."
Some other observations this week about the Pens:
- Crosby is around 4th in scoring, with 28 points. The best part is that all of the other leaders have played in 20, 21, 22 games. Crosby has played 18.
- The Powerplay. Scratch the two goals Saturday night, and the Pens were 5 of 50 coming in. It seems out of sorts.
- Goals for (57). The Pens rank 16th, which isn't that bad, but in contrast the Sabres have 83. Minus the Flyers, Rangers, and Blue Jackets games, the Pens haven't scored over 5 goals all season.
- Goals against. This is a huge positive for our Pens. 5 on 5 this season the Pens rank 10th in the NHL, only giving up 32. That may be the most telling stat of this season. Overall, the Pens rank 15th.
- Get ready for the Rumor Mill. Leclair was scratched against the Rangers. And with Ryan Malone a few weeks away from coming back, one would think something's got to give.
- 7-1 against the Atlantic division. In "4 point swing games", the Pens have been at their best.
- Fox Sports Net and the CW network: We are not here to tell you how do to your jobs, but as fans, we can tell you that you have got to do something about camera switches, zooms, and graphics. Just stick with the regular views when a play is going on. You can have the zooms and all that other crazy stuff on replays. But hey like we said, not hard feelings, just a little advice. No one is calling for KBL just yet. And stop putting huge graphics on the screen about high school and college football while a play is going on.
.................
Quick trip around the Atlantic..
Jagr scores his 600th...watching him Saturday night was weird. It's a shame he left on such sour terms...Rangers play the Hurricanes on Versus Tuesday night. And oh... please forgive us Brendan Shanahan. You're not washed up. Linda Cohn was right; that's a first.
The Devils have scored 48 goals, almost a league-worst. I don't even like talking about the Devils anymore.The Islanders have silently won 6 of their last 9. They play Toronto and Carolina this week before they host the Pens on Friday, the weird 2:00 game. We play the Islanders 3 times in the next 12 days.
The Flyers suck.
Pens-Flyers
Monday 11.20
7:00 PM - FSN
Wii Will, Wii Will Rock You. PENS WIN.
ESPN Game RecapThis first game that I didn't watch may have been the best overall game for the Pens this season. I have absolutely nothing to base that on, but reading recaps and game stories, the Pens seemed to be pretty solid.
First of all, why didn't I watch the game? The entire casa de Pensblog, sans Derek, were at Wal-Mart at 6:00 AM to embark in an incredible 18-hour odyssey to get our hands on a Nintendo Wii. Anybody who is going to argue and say Wii is better than PS3, or PS3 is better than Wii, just shut up. Everyone does their own thing, the end.
We weren't first in line because Harry, a huge Pens fan whose family had had season tickets since he can remember, showed up to claim the first spot in line at 4 AM. Dedication.
We'll have another post about our Wal-Mart Wii Experience. But, it must be said that when you go to the electronics department in Wal-Mart to buy a radio in order to listen to the Pens game, that's honorable.
I would love it if someone wished to either e-mail, or leave in the comments, a semi-detailed recap of last night's game. It was fun listening to Mike Lange call the game, but we have no clue how the Pens looked.
Stats
First of all, why didn't I watch the game? The entire casa de Pensblog, sans Derek, were at Wal-Mart at 6:00 AM to embark in an incredible 18-hour odyssey to get our hands on a Nintendo Wii. Anybody who is going to argue and say Wii is better than PS3, or PS3 is better than Wii, just shut up. Everyone does their own thing, the end.
We weren't first in line because Harry, a huge Pens fan whose family had had season tickets since he can remember, showed up to claim the first spot in line at 4 AM. Dedication.
We'll have another post about our Wal-Mart Wii Experience. But, it must be said that when you go to the electronics department in Wal-Mart to buy a radio in order to listen to the Pens game, that's honorable.
I would love it if someone wished to either e-mail, or leave in the comments, a semi-detailed recap of last night's game. It was fun listening to Mike Lange call the game, but we have no clue how the Pens looked.
Stats
- Crosby: 2 A
- Recchi: 2 G
- Gonchar: 2 A
- Jagr: 3 shots
- Shots: NYR (24) PENS (25)
- Powerplay: NYR (0 for 6) PENS (2 for 11)
- John LeClair was a healthy scratch so that Ronny Petrovicky could get himself into the lineup last night. How did he look???? Right-handed shot, that is good.
- My dad called me Sunday morning to tell me about a Sidney Crosby play where he literally spun 360 degrees in the air to avoid a poke-check or trip attempt, then proceeded to hit the ice and not skip a beat.
- From how he described it, it sound like Crosby may have resembled Scott Hamilton performing a triple salchow in the '84 Sarajevo Olympics in Yugoslavia...minus the gayness.
Next Game: Monday 11.20
@ Philadelphia - 7:00 PM
@ Philadelphia - 7:00 PM
Friday, November 17, 2006
Could've Been Worse. PENS LOSE.
Yeah, it could have been a lot of worse. After the Sabres scored that third goal, a tiny piece of me said, "Just pour it on. Take us behind the shed and whip us like a red-headed step-child named Petey."
Jocelyn Thibault has proven yet again to be a solid backup. We made some mistakes tonight, and am I the only one who thinks the Pens outplayed the Sabres?
First of all, glad to see the Sabres wearing the throwback jerseys tonight. It made me hate them a little less. But, the hatred escalated when Maxim Afinogenov (who I've never actually sat down and watched. He's insane.) scored on a 5-on-3 power play. Josef Melichar owned some guy from behind the bring that power play into fruition. That was it for the first period. Maxime Talbot had a glorious breakaway and he missed the five hole/Biron made a nice save. If you are a Penguin fan and don't like Maxime Talbot, he must be sleeping with your girlfriend cause that's the only reason you could not like him.
If I had a girlfriend, and she was cheating on me with Maxime Talbot, I'd be pumped.
Allright, 1-0 after one. The second period saw the Sabres jump out to a 3-0 lead. That's when I just wanted the Sabres to pile it on. We waited all week for this?
The best part of the second period was seeing Crosby cross-check Sabres D-man Campbell. What was better was seeing that "Lemieux look" in Crosby's eyes tonight. Sitting on the bench, just glaring off into space.
Later in the period, Recchi heads through center ice with a burst of speed. He dishes it to Crosby, and Crosby gets it past Sabres goalie Biron. That was it for the second, Pens down 3-1.
The third period came and we were half-expecting the Sabres to score another goal and put the final nail in the coffin. But, it just didn't happen. Thibault made some big saves all night, and it almost paid off.
Biron with a nice glove save on Malkin's slapper in the third. You're gay.The Pens pull the goalie late in the third...and score. Wow. 3-2. Crosby again.
You could feel it...the Pens were gonna score again...OK, here they come into the zone...oh no, a giveaway...Whitney, what are you doi-----game. Clean the vomit off your living room floor and go to bed.
Stats
- Crosby: 2 G
- Recchi: 2 A
- Thibault: 32 saves
- Shots: PENS and BUF with (36)
- Powerplay: BUF (2 for 4) PENS (0 for 6)
- Shouldn't feel too bad about losing tonight. Buffalo improved their record to 16-2-1. Yeah, I know.
- How bout LeClair blowing a tire that eventually lead to that Buffalo goal in the second period.
- The jobber that hit Moore left his skates, and Moore knew it. The ref knew it, too. It's a dangerous, blind-side hit that is legal, and Moore's retaliation was justified. Next.
- T-Bo. T-Bo. T-Bo.
- Why is Ryan Whitney on the power play? I am definitely intrigued to research some crap and see what his powerplay production has been since he's been with the Pens.
- Speaking of defenseman, I talk to so many people that underestimate and don't even care about the importance of a right-handed defenseman. Why? When our lefties have to backhand a puck on a clearing attempt and can't get it out. That's why. When we can't set up two one-time point shots on the powerplay. That's why. When we win a big face-off back to a defenseman, but he can't handle it because he's on his forehand. That's why. It is such a huge thing to worry about, and nobody cares. Whoa, rant. We never rant. Peace.
Next Game: Saturday 11.18
vs. New York Rangers - 7:30
The CW Channel
vs. New York Rangers - 7:30
The CW Channel
Thursday, November 16, 2006
The Lunatic Is On The Ice
Hittin the Links....
Real quick, if you want to remain pumped about Ohio State-Michigan, don't watch Sportscenter or any ESPN show until 3:30 on Saturday. They will suck the life out of you with endless comparisons and predictions that won't even matter in two days.
...NHL and Reebok have joined forces to start bringing licensed retail stores to the public. Reebok already has a monopoly on goaltending equipment, jerseys, jockstraps, etc.
...Coming up on Monday, Versus is debuting the "Rail Cam" during the Colorado-Dallas game. I thought it was referring to the camera I set up in my room when I make out with girls, but it's actually a camera that is on the top of the boards and can slide to both ends of the ice. Versus, 8PM, Monday...
...Alex Ovechkin fired his agent. His mom will take over the role. No comment.
...Chris Thorburn getting some play in the Post Gazette.
..................
We're gonna say this right now, and we may be wrong...but watch out for Boston. They stopped Toronto's five-game winning streak tonight with a 2-1 overtime win.
Olli Jokinen pulls a rabbit out of his hat in Florida's 5-1 win over Montreal tonight.
We're gonna say this right now, and we may be wrong...but watch out for Boston. They stopped Toronto's five-game winning streak tonight with a 2-1 overtime win.
This Nashville-Minnesota game went to a shootout, and the wild win, but I was too busy playing Michael Jackson's Moonwalker for Sega Genesis.
The object of each level is to "rescue" little girls who have been kidnapped.
We wouldn't lie to you.
The object of each level is to "rescue" little girls who have been kidnapped.We wouldn't lie to you.
Some other jobber scores that don't deserve links.. Oilers over the Blues....St. Louis sucks.
And big Wayne's team beats the hapless Blackhawks. Normally we'd have a picture depicting something hapless, like an old person. But just imagine if you walked in on your girlfriend and the starting 5 of the Miami Heat ... thats how the blackhawks feel.
Philadelphia is in Los Angeles tonight. Best thing about Philly's exhausting road trip is that they come back just in time to play the Pens on Monday. Life is sweet
Big game in Buffalo tomorrow night
Go Pens
And big Wayne's team beats the hapless Blackhawks. Normally we'd have a picture depicting something hapless, like an old person. But just imagine if you walked in on your girlfriend and the starting 5 of the Miami Heat ... thats how the blackhawks feel.
I banged your girlfriend cracker..
Philadelphia is in Los Angeles tonight. Best thing about Philly's exhausting road trip is that they come back just in time to play the Pens on Monday. Life is sweet
Big game in Buffalo tomorrow night
Go Pens
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Like a Rolling Puck
Tons of games tonight and hello to Big C and Rocky out in Claysville...
But, first, put those "Free Malkin" signs away...The courts have denied Russia from taking Malkin away.
This news is excellent.
Next up: December 20.
Slots License.
Slots License.
Mark your calendars.
Malkin celebrates after hearing the verdict.
"I know you are, but what am I?"
A pervert?
Other links before we knock out a recap:
YouTube and NHL teaming up to provide highlights of games...
...Vote or Die. 2007 NHL All-Star Game. Malkin. Crosby. Cairns.
...Finally, a newspaper talks about the enormous effect that losing Eaton has caused...
...Look for Pensblog 'Heroes'. Coming Friday...
..................
GAMES
Vanilla Ice, stunned that no one cares about Blue Jackets Hockey anymore
Carolina is back to playing every night again. They helped out the Atlantic with a 2-1 victory of the Rangers tonight. Pens have the Rangers on Saturday.
The Islanders go into Dallas...and shut them out. We kid you not. A 3-0 final score down in a state where people break into each other's house and just sit around, without stealing anything.
Ottawa pisses off Buffalo just in time for our Friday Night Showdown with them up on Lake Erie.
Latendresse continues his run for Mayor of Canada by scoring for Montreal tonight in their 3-1 victory of the Lightning.
Anyone care that Nashville and Columbus played a professional hockey game tonight?
The Islanders go into Dallas...and shut them out. We kid you not. A 3-0 final score down in a state where people break into each other's house and just sit around, without stealing anything.
Ottawa pisses off Buffalo just in time for our Friday Night Showdown with them up on Lake Erie.
Latendresse continues his run for Mayor of Canada by scoring for Montreal tonight in their 3-1 victory of the Lightning.
Anyone care that Nashville and Columbus played a professional hockey game tonight?
Vanilla Ice, stunned that no one cares about Blue Jackets Hockey anymore( This caption sucks, but the picture is gold)
Boston beats the Caps in a shootout....AO, remember him? Isn't he Russian?
The Sharks over the reeling Av's...Joe Thorton is sick
One other late game
The Flyers and the Ducks in a West Coast shootout....Flyers lead 5-3...
Goodnight and good luck
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
I Shot the Official, But I Did Not Shoot The Linesman
Slow night in the NHL game-wise, lots of news to catch up on though.
When Malkin scored last night to make it 3-2, with two minutes left..
In the midst of the jubilation, Chris said, "Hey, is that..."
Anyone who has played in HockeyTown at Cecil Park knows that is Godfrey Version 3.0 on the right.Speaking of Malkin, tomorrow November 15th is his court date
Pensblog has already acquired the rights to it:
You want the Pass? You want the Pass? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE PASS
But honestly. the court date is tomorrow:
Russia vs. The NHL, United States, Pittsburgh Penguins and Bull from Night Court.
Bull: The Steve McKenna of bailiffs...Click here if you want to read Malkin's court documents, courtesy of LetsGoPens.com
...Click here to read a Russian news article that obviously says that LetsGoPens.com is the source for all of your Malkin trial questions.
...Click here to read a stirring NHL.com article of Evgeni Malkin's escape from Magnitogorsk.
...Click here to read a Russian news article that obviously says that LetsGoPens.com is the source for all of your Malkin trial questions.
...Click here to read a stirring NHL.com article of Evgeni Malkin's escape from Magnitogorsk.
It's no Magnitogorsk Redemption, but good nonetheless.
.............
.............
Patrick Roy and Herb Brooks headlined the Hall of Fame Inductions this past weekend.
Patrick Roy is fair game, though.
Didn't he leave Montreal because the coach didn't take him out of a game after he had given up 8 goals? I think he gave up goals on 3 straight shots, and then he made a save, and the crowd in Montreal cheered like the Canadiens had just scored a goal. Roy even played to the crowd, giving them a little wave. Later, he skates to the bench and tells the owner sitting behind the bench that he wanted to be traded.
Get him some Maxi-Pads, too.
Hey I am a jerk, but I also came up with the best slam ever.
Greatest quote ever.
...........
One game for us to cover tonight.
The Rangers help out the world by beating the Devils in regulation.
The Devils were looking good going into the third, but the Rangers scored 3 goals in 90 seconds in the final period and ended up winning 3-2.
Oh, and Minnesota was up 1-0 on Phoenix before the game even started.
Pens are 11th in TSN.ca Power Rankings.
We can't say anything that hasn't already been said about former Penguins coach and team USA miracle worker Herb Brooks.
Patrick Roy is fair game, though.
Didn't he leave Montreal because the coach didn't take him out of a game after he had given up 8 goals? I think he gave up goals on 3 straight shots, and then he made a save, and the crowd in Montreal cheered like the Canadiens had just scored a goal. Roy even played to the crowd, giving them a little wave. Later, he skates to the bench and tells the owner sitting behind the bench that he wanted to be traded.
Get him some Maxi-Pads, too.
Hey I am a jerk, but I also came up with the best slam ever.Greatest quote ever.
...........
GAMES
One game for us to cover tonight.
The Rangers help out the world by beating the Devils in regulation.
The Devils were looking good going into the third, but the Rangers scored 3 goals in 90 seconds in the final period and ended up winning 3-2.
Oh, and Minnesota was up 1-0 on Phoenix before the game even started.
Pens are 11th in TSN.ca Power Rankings.
...........
Thanks to Canaan for going beyond the call of Pensblog Duty today with links and the like.
Hello to everyone coming from LetsGoPens.com...
We knew we'd get some of you guys sooner or later.
Hello to everyone coming from LetsGoPens.com...
We knew we'd get some of you guys sooner or later.
Dan Potash: In His Own Words
Through the magic of e-mail, Dan Potash and the Pensblog have been in contact for the past week or so. We asked him if he would be willing to partake in an exclusive Q & A session with us.
He went through the trouble of getting permission from his producer...all for The Pensblog.
Next time you see him on TV, remind yourself that he is the man.
..............
PBlog: When did you become a hockey fan? What was your favorite team and did you like #99 (we try not to mention his name on the Pensblog)?
I became a hockey fan in the early 80’s when the LA Kings “Triple Crown Line” of Charlie Simmer, Dave Taylor and Marcel Dionne made a big splash (each player scored over 100 points in one season.) The Kings were tough to follow back then….the Lakers and Dodgers got all the attention and the Kings closest US rival were the St. Louis Blues.
Yes, I did like Wayne Gretzky…aka….# 99. He did put the Kings on the map, and brought them instant respect both locally and nationally (His 3rd game as a King was sold out, even though the Dodgers and A’s were playing game one of the 1988 World Series the same night, which means about 20,000 of us missed Kirk Gibson’s homer!)
Think of the Pens before Mario and how much hockey changed in Pittsburgh after his arrival. Gretzky had that kind of impact.
PBlog: As a reporter, I am sure you have seen some amazing stuff in person. What is your favorite all-time sporting moment you have seen in person?
It’s hard to say I have just one all-time moment. Over the last 11 years I have been very fortunate to cover many unbelievable events. Covering Mario’s return in December of 2000 and watching him score in the same game was awesome. Though covering the Daytona 500 in 1998 for Dale Earnhardt’s victory was pretty cool as well.
PBlog: In your travels, what city has the best-looking women?
Montreal, LA, NYC and of course Pittsburgh.
PBLog: How did you end up in Pittsburgh?
I came here in 2000, after spending almost three years at the ABC affiliate in Charleston, SC. I knew a few people here in Pittsburgh who put in a good word for me when FSN announced they would be starting a regional sports network here. Yes…it’s all about who you know. Before Charleston , I spent two years at the CBS affiliate in Bridgeport , WV ….so I did have prior knowledge of the Pirates, Steelers, Penguins, Pitt, WVU etc.
PBlog: In percentage points, what are the chances of you calling someone a 'jobber' on the air?
I’ve interviewed players who have done that several times, and usually make light of the subject in another way. Though if I use it during a game….I promise to give you credit.
YESSSSSSS.
PBlog: Without the necessity of mentioning any names, can you tell us about a time when you were physically or verbally attacked by a professional athlete or coach?
Never physically. Verbally….Bill Cowher has given me “The Jaw.” Don Nehlen and Lou Holtz chewed me out as well….but that’s about it (So far…)
PBlog: Are you a Steeler fan, Charger fan, or what?
Both. I was eight years old when Dan Fouts and “Air Coryel” were lighting things up….and had season tickets for a few years before I left for my first TV job in West Virginia in 1995. Though I have never seen a city love a team like Pittsburgh loves the Steelers. You can also talk football EVERYDAY OF THE YEAR here, and I have the greatest respect to for the Rooney Family.
PBlog: What's your favorite movie?
Can’t name just one.
PBlog: What was the last TV show that you watched?
Bears vs. Giants on Sunday Night Football. (Though I also took a peek at CSI Miami.)
PBlog: What can you tell us about the traveling arrangements for road games?
It’s pretty cool….I really feel like a member of the team. I fly on the team charter, and stay at the team hotel. However it’s a job, and losing focus of that is NOT an option. The travel schedule and long days can be tough….but I do realize how lucky I am to do what I do for a living.
PBlog: If the Penguins are forced to leave town, what are your plans?
I’m staying…and so are the Pens.
PBlog: Over/under... Penguins win 30 games?
Over.
PBlog: When you sit down with Coach Therrien before the game, are you scared of him?
No. He’s a very good guy, and plays to the camera very well.
Q-Do you like The Pensblog?
Yes. The fans have a voice...and I enjoy what you and your fellow "bloggers" think about the Penguins.
THE PENSBLOG THANKS YOU, DAN POTASH
Monday, November 13, 2006
Malkin Bangs Nittymaki's Girlfriend. PENS WIN.
Nice. The Penguins end the 5-game skid mark on their proverbial season underwear and improve their record to 3-0 against the Philadelphia Flyers this season. Goalie Antero Nittymaki was the Penguin's personal toilet tonight, with the Penguins trying to squeeze out a terd onto his face all night. And finally in the third period, after some wiggling around, splat.
I raced home from work, almost hitting some old guy in a crosswalk, to catch the first period of the game. I would have been better off hitting the old guy. Nothing happened in first period, except for Nedved skating like Jagr, Talbot being too lazy to make a move on a breakaway, and Ryan Whitney missing a wide open net like he's Fergie of the Black-Eyed Peas missing a high note.
Hey, it's me, Fergie. There's been more rappers inside of me than in Jay-Z's iPod.
Gonchar scored two minutes into the second period...except it was for Philadelphia. The puck crawled over the goal line like a snail, but it counted anyway. Four minutes later, though, Crosby grabbed the puck and raced away with Thorburn on a 2-on-1. If Crosby would have passed it, I may have turned the game off and went to bed. Instead, he buries a wrister top shelf and ties the game at 1. To close out the second period scoring, Jordan Staal reminds us why he's not in Wilkes Barre. He one-times a Michel Ouellet pass into the net and the Pens go into the locker room, up 2-1.
The Penguins looked to leave the Mellon tonight with two points. They still had to survive the third period. Give the Flyers credit for working hard all night, and it payed off when they scored a "hey, our hard work payed off" goal to tie it up. The rest of the period consisted of me saying "no" every time the Flyers took a shot on Fleury. The Penguins had yet to flush the toilet on Nittymaki, though. Finally, with about two minutes left, Malkin unleashes the slapshot equivalent of an anal probe and Nittymaki doesn't even see it go past him.
"Flyers Suck" chants enveloped the rest of the game. Go Pens.
Stats
I raced home from work, almost hitting some old guy in a crosswalk, to catch the first period of the game. I would have been better off hitting the old guy. Nothing happened in first period, except for Nedved skating like Jagr, Talbot being too lazy to make a move on a breakaway, and Ryan Whitney missing a wide open net like he's Fergie of the Black-Eyed Peas missing a high note.
Hey, it's me, Fergie. There's been more rappers inside of me than in Jay-Z's iPod.Gonchar scored two minutes into the second period...except it was for Philadelphia. The puck crawled over the goal line like a snail, but it counted anyway. Four minutes later, though, Crosby grabbed the puck and raced away with Thorburn on a 2-on-1. If Crosby would have passed it, I may have turned the game off and went to bed. Instead, he buries a wrister top shelf and ties the game at 1. To close out the second period scoring, Jordan Staal reminds us why he's not in Wilkes Barre. He one-times a Michel Ouellet pass into the net and the Pens go into the locker room, up 2-1.
The Penguins looked to leave the Mellon tonight with two points. They still had to survive the third period. Give the Flyers credit for working hard all night, and it payed off when they scored a "hey, our hard work payed off" goal to tie it up. The rest of the period consisted of me saying "no" every time the Flyers took a shot on Fleury. The Penguins had yet to flush the toilet on Nittymaki, though. Finally, with about two minutes left, Malkin unleashes the slapshot equivalent of an anal probe and Nittymaki doesn't even see it go past him.
"Flyers Suck" chants enveloped the rest of the game. Go Pens.
Stats
- Crosby: 1 G, 1 A
- Malkin: 1 G
- Antero Nittymaki: 36 saves
- Shots: PHI (25) PENS (39)
- Powerplay: PHI (0 FOR 5) PENS (0 FOR 7)
- Penguins unload with 39 shots tonight.
- Fleury makes the saves he has to make.
- John LeClair scored the goal of the year tonight with his patented, apathetic verteran throw-in.
- How bout Malkin's spin-o-rama on his game winning goal?
- Anyone know why Talbot didn't bother making a move on his breakaway?
- See what happens when Crosby shoots the puck on a 2-on-1?
- Clean hit on Colby at the end of the game that just looked bad.
- We're not giving Versus the satisfaction of our carpal tunnel by commenting on their performance this evening.
- Don't Look Now: Penguins Record Against Atlantic Division ( 6 - 1 )
NEXT GAME: Friday 11.17
@ Buffalo - 8:00
Exclusive Dan Potash Q & A
Coming soon to a Pensblog near you.
@ Buffalo - 8:00
Exclusive Dan Potash Q & A
Coming soon to a Pensblog near you.
Its always funny in Philadelphia
Here at Pensblog we like to look at things from every angle, and because of that I have asked one of my closest friends, Todd " t-train" Lewis, a lifelong flyers fan to become a corrspondent, and let us know about the plight of the flyers.
A little background on T-train. I met him as a wide eyed freshman in 2002. He dropped out of school in 2003, but he will say he just retired. He once came back to stay in my dorm room and sleep on my couch for 3 weeks.
For fans of the blog in the lanacaster area, he is the voice of Party Bear on FM97 WLAN.
Party bear was born in the streets of Pittburgh. Its basically some bear costume, that doesn't fit.
Anyway without further intro...T-train
Remember When
April 28, 2006.
Sure it was only 6 months ago, but it seems so far away. Life was so simple then.
Things in the world made sense and the living was easy.
The Pittsburgh Penguins had just capped of yet another dismal season
Steve Nash had a full head of hair.
Ed Bradley was doing a story on the Da Vinci code for 60 minutes.
The Pittsburgh Penguins had just capped of yet another dismal season
Steve Nash had a full head of hair.
Ed Bradley was doing a story on the Da Vinci code for 60 minutes.
The giant ticking clock ran out of batteries for Ed
Meanwhile I was returning from a Philadelphia Flyers playoff game.
A spring tradition for my father and I was that i took him to a Flyers playoff game for his birthday present. It's just a given that they'll be that good every year.
Unfortunately for my beloved Flyers they were greatly over matched by an up and coming Buffalo Sabres team. So outmatched that they had fallen behind 2-1 in the series and were facing a do or die game 4 before heading back to the hole in the wall known as the city of Buffalo. That's where I came in.
When I say I was Flyered up for this game, I mean i was really Flyered up for this game. Philadelphia is an hour drive from my beautiful house in the rolling hills of Amish country. Unfortunately for my father (who was driving) I had to decided to start drinking for the game which had a 7:30 face off at 1 in the afternoon.
Needless to say, when we left at 3 I was bleeding black, orange, and Coors Light.
2 pit stops and 3 beers drank in the car later we arrived in the Wachovia Center parking lot. (Side Note: It really breaks my heart that the Wachovia Center has had 3 names in ten years. Corestates Center, First Union Center, and now Wachovia. The Boston Garden was always the Boston Garden. Same with Arrowhead Stadium, and Solider Field. Sports today suck like that)
After a few more beers in the parking lot, we decided to make our way into the arena. Since we had a long walk I decided to stick two more bottles in my pockets and drink them on the way. Funny thing happened on the way into the arena though.
I tried jumping a fence to save time with two bottles in my pocket...not a good idea. I tore a hole down the entire front of my shorts exposing most of my leg...(I wasn't wearing boxers anymore because I pissed in a bottle in the car on the way to the game and missed. Don't act like it's never happened to you)
I can't really tell you exactly what happened at what time during the game other than Peter Forsburg scored on this friggin' amazing wrap around. ....Oh yeah, and I called a woman wearing a Sabres jersey a stupid C-word that rhymes with hunt and Flyers fans were even offended. Fast forward to the end of the game, the Flyers are up 5-4 with 36 seconds left. People on either side of me have left and there's no one in front of me. My Dad was in the next section over cause we couldn't get seats together.)
The roof is coming off the arena at this point. We were overmatched by the Sabres and yet, we're about to tie the series at 2-2...not to mention I have to piss like a racehorse.
Option A) I could get up and go to the bathroom, miss the end of the game, roof coming off the building, and probably stand in a long line where I'd end up pissing my pants.
Option B) I could take advantage of everyone around me leaving early to beat traffic and put one of the $6 cups of beer that I bought to some good use. (Remember that hole in the front of my shorts?)You know where this is going...I calmly looked around, and made sure no one was looking and stuck one of my beer cups inside my shorts and drained the dragon.
No harm no foul. No one noticed, no one said a word, and I got to see the Flyers celebrate. Walking out of the section into the concourse everyone was feeling great and was in a celebratory mood...except for the two Wachovia Center security guards who grabbed me and told me they were taking me downstairs to the jail.
Yeah Pittsburgh fans, we have jails in our sports venues here. I belligerently was saying to the guards, "What am I going in for?" Their response was, "you know what you did, the evidence was on your pants, we have witnesses."I began looking around for witnesses, and said "where's your witnesses? You have none.
Might look like a small jail, but you will still get teabaged, by a guy name jerome.
I contuined "You didn't bust enough people tonight, and all you're doing is trying to make your quota." Whoops...hindsight I'd probably take that one back.
The walk from the nosebleeds where I was sitting, to the jail in the basement was a long one and I had plenty of times to tell them "I'm not guilty y'all got to feel me." (Thanks Jay-Z) As well as threatening to call my attorney.
Finally when I got to the jail they asked for my ID, and I handed it over to them. No sooner than 10 seconds later another rowdy Flyers fan comes into the jail for booking.
Only instead of asking for his ID the guard who I was dealing with said, "Oh, you again. Ha ha. Just get out of here." Everyone had a big chuckle except for me. I demanded my ID back and said they couldn't detain me because I'm some bum who comes to one game a year and let the big money season ticket holder go. Surprisingly enough a few seconds later they handed my ID back to me and told me to get out. For those of you keeping score at home:
Todd Lewis - 1
Philadelphia Flyers Security - 0
The point of all this besides the humor is that since that night, NOTHING has been the same in Flyer land. The Flyers dropped the next two games in Buffalo. The Flyers started this season 1-6-1. The team's worst since 1989-90 season.
Bobby Clarke resigned and Hitchcock got fired.
Worst of all for this Flyers fan, the Pittsburgh Penguins are riding high. For a week or two after Hitchcock got fired everyone had hoped that the Flyers bad start was to blame on the players tuning Hitch out.
Then Sydney Crosby lit us up for a Hat Trick on October 28th, and we've lost 5 out of 6 since then. I am resigned to the fact that my Dad and I are not going to make our yearly voyage to a Flyers playoff game in April. I'm waving the white flag.
As long as the Phillies sign Alfonso Soriano this will not be the winter of my discontent.
But I cannot say that I'm not happy for all of you Pens fans. It's been a long drought. You really do deserve this magical ride that the Pens are going to take you on. You've got Fluery, Staal, Malkin, and Sid the kid. Your future is bright for the next three-four years......
Sidney Crosby your next flyers captain.
Until my Flyers and probably the Rangers or Red Wings swoop in and sign one of your young stars when they become free agents, and you're left with a team consisting of the likes of Rico Fata, Ric Jackman, and Johan Hedberg.Enjoy the ride while it lasts. Ben Rothlisberger did.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Links, Hotlantic Division and Weekly YouTube
...We finally see someone in the media (The Trib) give Ekman's disallowed goal some due notice...
...We went to visit our Black and Gold Insider friend, but we're getting the dreaded "Page Not Found" message...
...Totally forgot to mention that the Flames ended Anaheim's little streak on Friday night...
...Former Pens coach Herb Brooks is being inducted into the Hall of Fame on Monday...
...Thanks to WHYGAVS, Mondesi's House, and The Confluence for links this week...
...Speaking of which, Tony from The Confluence road-tripped to Carolina for the game Saturday. Here's his recap...
..........
Atlantic Division Standings
3. PENS ( 7 - 6 - 2 ) 16 points
4. NYI ( 7 - 6 - 2 ) 16 points
5. PHI ( 3 - 11 - 2 ) 8 points
Look at those standings. Can you ask for anything better 15 games into the season?
-Versus helps us out this week. We get the Pens game-Flyers on Monday, and then the Devils-Rangers game on Tuesday.
-The home-warrior Islanders play their next four games on the road.
-It doesn't get any easier for Philadelphia. After Monday, they have to embark on the dreaded West Coast swing. They may possibly be an AHL team by next Sunday.
-The Pens go to Buffalo for Friday night, then home for a Saturday night student rush extravaganza against the Rangers.
- Don't be concerned about the Pens record. We still have an anus load of divisional games left.
1. NJD ( 10 - 5 - 1 ) 21 points
2. NYR ( 9 - 7 - 1 ) 19 points3. PENS ( 7 - 6 - 2 ) 16 points
4. NYI ( 7 - 6 - 2 ) 16 points
5. PHI ( 3 - 11 - 2 ) 8 points
Look at those standings. Can you ask for anything better 15 games into the season?
-Versus helps us out this week. We get the Pens game-Flyers on Monday, and then the Devils-Rangers game on Tuesday.
-The home-warrior Islanders play their next four games on the road.
-It doesn't get any easier for Philadelphia. After Monday, they have to embark on the dreaded West Coast swing. They may possibly be an AHL team by next Sunday.
-The Pens go to Buffalo for Friday night, then home for a Saturday night student rush extravaganza against the Rangers.
- Don't be concerned about the Pens record. We still have an anus load of divisional games left.
..........
Finally, here's something to lighten the mood for Monday morning:
No clue what show this is from. I watch it and I am still stunned.
Pens-Flyers (11.13)
7:30
Versus
Finally, here's something to lighten the mood for Monday morning:
No clue what show this is from. I watch it and I am still stunned.
Pens-Flyers (11.13)
7:30
Versus
Loralei's Analysis
Frequent commenter Loralei spent some time to give us a detailed analysis in the comment section of the Saturday night game in Carolina. We liked it a lot.
.....
That was like the worst called game EVER. Honestly. How is every penalty against the Penguins? 2 guys pull Malkin down along the boards-nothing. What about that call on Colby that gave them a 5-3. They call Colby for whatever but then dont call the guy for retalliating? Are you kidding me? Bob Errey couldnt believe it either. His eyes lied to him.
Thibault played awesome until he let in that bad goal. Then he looked a little iffy, but still a thousand times better than the Thibault we saw last year.
Colby's getting his job done. He's not putting up points, but him and Talbot are aces on the Penalty kill and 5 on 5 he's one of our best forecheckers and he was backchecking like a mother. He was getting in lanes and breaking up passes. He's doing the little things right now that most people dont notice. He's still working hard. Ryan Malone has never done any of these things. He'll find his scoring touch.
Why didnt Talbot or Welch make the team? I'm puzzled. I think Welch is playing awesome right now. He's had a few hickups but he's aggressive and not afriad to jump in the play. I like that.
Seriously Talbot is awesome. I dont think anyone else on that team has as much energy as he does. You can see him give 100% on every shift. Love this guy.
I dont understand why everyone's all over Ryan Whitney? Granted he's had a few give aways but the guy is like ALWAYS on the ice. He's a +3. Michel Therrien isnt the shy type. If he thought Whitney sucked I dont think he would be logging so much ice time.
Just wanted to get people all riled up on a Sunday morning. Have a great one guys. GO STEELERS!
Tidbits from the 2006-07 Media Guide
Thanks to Pensblog friend Stephanie S., we got our hands on a 2006-07 Penguins Media Guide.
This thing is the height and width of an Ice-Time magazine, but it contains over 350 pages of awesomeness. It is very well organized. Make sure you pick one up to check out the Mario Lemieux retrospective.
A quick look-through the Media Guide the other day and I found some interesting facts...
- The Penguins' Mail Room Supervisor's name is Brett Hart.
- On page 26, there's a picture of Larry Murphy and Phil Bourque at the Penguins Adult Fantasy Camp. It looks like they're about to make out.
- Players who list Gretzky as their idol: Colby, Eric Cairns, Erik Christensen, Andre Roy, Jarrko Ruutu
- Players who list Lemieux as their idol: Dominic Moore, Andre Roy
- Marc-Andre Fleury would have liked to meet Alexander Graham Bell to learn how he developed the telephone.
- John LeClair has a son named Jagger.
- Ryan Malone's hockey idols are Ron Francis and Kelly Buchberger
- Kamloops, B.C. (Mark Recchi's hometown) named the street surrounding their town arena "Mark Recchi Way".
- Jarkko Ruutu wants to meet the Crocodile Hunter.
- Maxime Talbot's favorite restaurant is Hooters and lists Andre Roy as his hockey idol.
- Milan Kraft is still alive.
Tropical Depression Warning....PENS LOSE.
Don't get too high. Don't get to low. Just try to say the course.
Well, I am low tonight.
For those of you that didn't catch the game, consider yourself lucky as balls.
The 6-2 score is no indication of what went down.
Knowing that I had to do to the recap with Adam off tonight, I even waited a while to calm down. But I am still angry.
Things started as usual for our Pens...as for the sixth straight game they gave up the first goal. Justin Williams scored an easy rebound goal when Penguins killer Rob Brind'Amour went to the net and the puck deflected right to Williams. Ryan Whitney was there but he decided it wasn't important to play defense tonight.
Credit Ryan Whitney with an assist.It would get worse for the Pens as Ray Whitney from the Hurricanes worked hard and was repayed when he was left wide open in front of the net and buried a shot past goalie Jocelyn Thibault. I thought the Pens actually came out and played a good first period, but for anyone who watched the game tonight, they were in the box so much that it didn't matter.
In the second, more bad news, as another Penguins penalty let Eric Staal (Jordan's brother in case anyone forgot) find a wide open Rod "The Bod" Brind'Amour open in the slot. He redirected the puck behind Thibault.
Thilbault was unreal the rest of the night, keeping the Pens in the game until...
JOHN LECLAIR (not a typ0) scored quite possibily the cheapest goal in the NHL this year, barely touching a Jarkko Ruutu pass and squeezing it past Cam Ward. But at that point no one cared, we just needed a goal.
Oh wow, I guess John LeClair DID score.As Thibault contuined to be solid, the Pens chipped away. Mark Recchi culminated the work with a roof job on Cam Ward. Then smiled at Ward on his way back to the bench. (weird)
The third period was a meltdown. It looked like it was going to be good when Sergei Gonchar went coast to coast on a powerplay, and as the puck slid under Ward, Nils Ekman looked to have swiped it past ward and into the net for the HUGE game tying goal. Or...not.
I am still stunned. Listening to Mike Lange, he even said it was in. How many calls does Mike Lange miss?
The play continued until the game stopped on yet another penalty. The refs then went upstairs to review the Gonchar/Ekman goal and decided the replays weren't conclusive. But the puck went it....simple as that. You can tell by how irate Ekman was on the bench. He never gets worked up like that.
The Pens, clearly let down, just fell apart. It didn't help that the refs called everything...
Number 11, White. Two minutes for breathing.Now there were some legit calls, but they were outweighed by the horrible calls.
Mike Lange restrained himself from crapping on the referees on the air.
Carolina poured it on and the Pens are now winless in 5 straight.
Stats
- Crosby: Coughed twice
- Rod Brind'Amour: 1 G, 1 A
- Shots: CAR (30) PIT (20)
- Powerplay: CAR (2 for 14) PIT (0 for 7)
- The Carolina fans booed Brooks Orpik everytime he touched the puck, and loudly. They trailed off late in the third, no word if they are saving their voices for the big NASCAR race tomorrow...hicks.
- Chris Thorburn had a nice fight with Mike Commodore.
- The defense is melting down before our very eyes. No coincidence that it's been happening since Eaton went down.
- Ryan Whitney needs to be removed from the evolution commerical.
- Jordan Staals stick broke in half on a late breakaway... summing up the game nicely
- Colby Armstrong is filling in for Ryan Malone as magician this month. Catch his dissappearing act weeknights and on saturday nights.
- Thibault looks like a solid backup
Next Game: Monday, 11.13
vs. Philadelphia - 7:30
VERSUS
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Carolina on my Mind
The immortal Mick Jagger said it best:
"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need."
...And folks, the Pens "NEED" a point tonight.
To put Mick Jagger's career into perspective, he started the Rolling Stones before the Penguins franchise even existed.
There seems to be some sentiment on the Pens Message Board Nation that this is a must-win game tonight.
And I am about 50/50 on the subject.
Here's a few points why:
Why this is a must win game
- No wins in 4 straight for the Pens
- Last night's loss against the Sens was a major letdown; have to respond with a great effort
- You don't want to give away 2 points to another Eastern Conference team
- The Penguins are going to be tested physically tonight (more on this later), and they must respond to this challenge
Why this isn't a must win game
- There is some serious back story to this game. Therefore, Carolina is going to be jacked up, so you might, in a sense, be losing this one before you even step on the ice.
- It's November
- We cannot forget that the Penguin team is the second youngest in the league. Going into this season, we would have gladly taken .500 hockey at this point in the season.
Either way, I think we all just want to see a better effort than last night...
Moving on, here is why I know this game tonight, is going to be one of those "scream at your TV like an idiot" games.
Erik Cole vs. Brooks Orpik... This game reminds me of the game when Cam Neely came back for the Bruins and tried to fight Ulf Samuelsson. Everyone in Boston was all worked up.... in fact I think it sets the standard to call a game like this an "Ulf" game. A game where another player is trying to act some sort of revenge out, and jacks everyone up. Look at what Peter Laviolette said:
"No, I'm not sending my team out to fight Brooks Orpik. I hope we go out and play a real physical game, and I hope that we're tough on him and tough on the rest of the Penguins physically.I hope we win the hockey game and continue to climb out of the hole that we were in at the beginning of the season. And ... I hope Erik Cole is the best player on the ice... "
Seems like Peter was watching the Magnitogorsk Redemption last night...
Remember Peter. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane..
It's on the tip of my tongue.
Who Does Peter Laviolette look like?
Pens-Canes
7:00 - The CW
Ouch. PENS LOSE
I watched the game Friday night with my niece, Annabelle.She can't even read yet and loves the Pensblog.
Uh-oh.
If you watched the Pens in 2005-06, you might have felt right at home watching the game last night. Despite the fact that the Pens actually made the Senators semi-earn it, the game on Friday night had the 05-06 feel to it.
It's no big deal. It's one loss; the Pens are slumping. If the Pens still have not won when we play the Senators again on March 6...then it's time to worry.
I got home just in time to for the opening face-off. The Pens had some really good pressure early.
And just as Steigerwald starts talking about how terrible it is to give up first goals, Dany Heatley decided he was not going to murder anyone today...and rather scored a goal on a pass from behind the goal line. About four minutes later, though, the Pens had a powerplay. Malkin dished a sweet saucer pass out in front to Ouellet who buried it. It was tied...for about three minutes. Jason Spezza scored for Ottawa on a weird-angled shot that snuck past Fleury. I saw that goal and proceeded to start knocking back some Rolling Rocks.
Never fear, however. Six minutes in the second period, Crosby....to Ouellet...to Malkin. Score. That's the kind of shot that we've been expecting from Geno; the kind of shot we kept seeing on his YouTube highlight reels. Five minutes later, I was stunned. The Penguins spent the entire night in their own zone, and a nice little two-minte segment ended with Ryan Whitney blindly clearing the puck to the blue line where Andrej Meszaros grabbed it and shot it through seven people and it was 3-2 Ottawa. More on that play later.
Two minutes after that crap, Gonchar gets a two-minute penalty on a weak boarding call. Granted, he did push Peter Schaefer from behind, but Schaefer did a pretty good job buying the call. On that ensuing powerplay, Wade Redden scores and it's 4-2.
No relation to Paul Schaefer of David Letterman fame.
Five minutes into the third, Peter Schaefer strikes again, this time with a goal to make it 5-2. About three minutes after that, Maxime Talbot scores a shorthanded goal and it's now 5-3. I'm not gonna lie; that goal perked me up a little bit. We needed another goal before the 15-minute mark to make it interesting, but it just wasn't meant to be. Dany Heatley, his hands still covered in blood, scores again for Ottawa with five minutes left and that was it.
I better get the first star or I might have to take the media out for a drive.
Stats
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Ottawa Senators probably guessed their longest losing streak in 10 years couldn't last. Not with the Pittsburgh Penguins next up on their schedule.
Wow, whoever wrote this is a dick. The Pens get praise throughout the league for starting off strong, and playing the Western Conference power-houses close. But, now all of a sudden, we're expected to be jobbers again?
It's no big deal. It's one loss; the Pens are slumping. If the Pens still have not won when we play the Senators again on March 6...then it's time to worry.
I got home just in time to for the opening face-off. The Pens had some really good pressure early.
And just as Steigerwald starts talking about how terrible it is to give up first goals, Dany Heatley decided he was not going to murder anyone today...and rather scored a goal on a pass from behind the goal line. About four minutes later, though, the Pens had a powerplay. Malkin dished a sweet saucer pass out in front to Ouellet who buried it. It was tied...for about three minutes. Jason Spezza scored for Ottawa on a weird-angled shot that snuck past Fleury. I saw that goal and proceeded to start knocking back some Rolling Rocks.
Never fear, however. Six minutes in the second period, Crosby....to Ouellet...to Malkin. Score. That's the kind of shot that we've been expecting from Geno; the kind of shot we kept seeing on his YouTube highlight reels. Five minutes later, I was stunned. The Penguins spent the entire night in their own zone, and a nice little two-minte segment ended with Ryan Whitney blindly clearing the puck to the blue line where Andrej Meszaros grabbed it and shot it through seven people and it was 3-2 Ottawa. More on that play later.
Two minutes after that crap, Gonchar gets a two-minute penalty on a weak boarding call. Granted, he did push Peter Schaefer from behind, but Schaefer did a pretty good job buying the call. On that ensuing powerplay, Wade Redden scores and it's 4-2.
No relation to Paul Schaefer of David Letterman fame.I better get the first star or I might have to take the media out for a drive.Stats
- Crosby: 1 A
- Malkin: 1 G, 1 A
- Ouellet: 1 G, 1 A
- Dany Heatley: 2 G
- Jason Spezza: 1 G, 2 A
- Shots: OTT (82) PIT (17)
- Fleury: 38 saves
- Malkin had a jump in his step immediately from the opening face-off.
- What is wrong with Colby Armstrong this year? Crosby hit him with a perfect pass in the slot, and Army didn't even have his stick down.
- How awful was the officiating? We'll complain about officiating even if we win, so we're not just finding excuses here. What happened to interference penalties? And that terd hooking Crosby when he was on his way to the net? What a joke.
- On the play where Whitney blindly cleared it to the point, Steigerwald said that it wasn't like Whitney; that it was a panic play and Whitney never panics. Has he been watching the same games that we've been watching? He consistently makes plays like that, but they don't always end up in a goal being scored.
- Steigerwald also said in the broadcast that Whitney is our break-out pass defenseman. ok.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Ottawa Senators probably guessed their longest losing streak in 10 years couldn't last. Not with the Pittsburgh Penguins next up on their schedule.
Wow, whoever wrote this is a dick. The Pens get praise throughout the league for starting off strong, and playing the Western Conference power-houses close. But, now all of a sudden, we're expected to be jobbers again?
"Nobody showed up. It was a big game for us, the crowd was unreal, sold out. How could you not show up? I hope it's not their character. ... We gave away too many shots, too many scoring chances."
- Coach Michel Therrien
He repeats the same mantra after every weekend night home loss.
Next Game: Friggin Tonight Baby (11.11)
@ Carolina - 7:00
On The CW (UPN)
@ Carolina - 7:00
On The CW (UPN)
Friday, November 10, 2006
66 Mario Lemieux Place is in my ears and in my eyes.
Repeating the message up top:
We need e-mail confirmations for the January 13th Philadelphia road trip game by November 20th. After that, we need cash or checks ( $45 ) by December 1st. People that e-mail us will receive a mailing address on November 21st. No exceptions, guys. We don't want to get jobbed.
Don't feel bad if you're scratchin' for the money, because we are too. I've been spending some lonely nights on Forbes Avenue trying to raise funds.
As of November 9, we have eleven people. A few more wouldn't hurt. Thank you.
...The battle of the Ens tonight is the first of four meetings this season. They won't play again until March 6. Wow, where will the Pens season be on March 6...
...Given the expectations, Ottawa is probably the biggest disappointment in the NHL this year. 5-8-1 is good enough for 4th place in the Northeast division, and even the Steelers offense has a better chance of scoring than Ottawa's 8.9% powerplay unit...
...Pens are no. 7 in the TSN.ca Power Rankings...
...They are no. 11 in the SI.com Power Rankings...but who cares? TSN is the only one that counts...
...Scroll down and check out last night's NHL recap...
...Take some time and check out some other Penguin blogs...
Don't feel bad if you're scratchin' for the money, because we are too. I've been spending some lonely nights on Forbes Avenue trying to raise funds.
As of November 9, we have eleven people. A few more wouldn't hurt. Thank you.
...The battle of the Ens tonight is the first of four meetings this season. They won't play again until March 6. Wow, where will the Pens season be on March 6...
...Given the expectations, Ottawa is probably the biggest disappointment in the NHL this year. 5-8-1 is good enough for 4th place in the Northeast division, and even the Steelers offense has a better chance of scoring than Ottawa's 8.9% powerplay unit...
...Pens are no. 7 in the TSN.ca Power Rankings...
...They are no. 11 in the SI.com Power Rankings...but who cares? TSN is the only one that counts...
...Scroll down and check out last night's NHL recap...
...Take some time and check out some other Penguin blogs...
Igloo Dreams: The first Penguin blog I found when I was researching for Pensblog.
The Confluence Blog: Covers all Pittsburgh sports, but great Pens coverage.
The IceBurgh: Sporadic Pens coverage. Always a good read.
Pens-Sens
7:30
FSN
The Confluence Blog: Covers all Pittsburgh sports, but great Pens coverage.
The IceBurgh: Sporadic Pens coverage. Always a good read.
"The division is there for us to win."
- Mark Recchi
- Mark Recchi
Pens-Sens
7:30
FSN
Thursday, November 9, 2006
MTV True life: I watch the NHL
Nice amount of games tonight..
But some news from the Pens nation we missed yesterday
John Tortorella sings "Where'd you go" by Fort Minor to Andre Roy.... Hey John, you can have him.
Brooks Orpik is feeling better...now if he could play as well as he feels.
Some Penguins Columns:
Mike Prisuta writes a pretty decent column about the Pens new attitude....
Ron Cook writes the most generic column ever.. I guess we should just be happy the Pens are getting some play. But really is Ron Cook telling us anything? Is he really speaking to us?
He actually went a whole column without mentioning the Stee......oh wait.
"This time of year, we're usually looking forward to the next Steelers' game.
Now, we have the Penguins' home game against Ottawa tomorrow night.
Progress, indeed. "
PLEASE SPEAK FOR YOURSELF! Is it not possible for people to look forward to both?
Ron Cook used the generic hockey template on windows XP to write his latest column.... tool
Anyway lets go around the NHL:
The Flyers in a game that they had to win.. lost...They actually failed to come out for a face-off at one point.
Lets face it. There is a better chance of me performing oral sex on Rosie O'Donnell on Thanksgiving than the Flyers making the playoffs.
I'm afraid I am fresh out of funny comments about hefty lesbian's vaginas, I'll have to work on that for ya
The Devils beat the lifeless Blackhawks in a shootout..2-1 thriller.......or not.
The Hurricanes trashed the Caps 5-0.... My dog Joey even scored in this one.
Joey the dog scored at the 17:54 mark of the second period. He celebrated in my Mom's dining room, by licking himself.
The Blue Jackets beat the Blues 4-2.. you only watched this game if you were fan of either team.. or a degenerate gambler.
Dallas shuts out the Coyotes..... what happen Wayne? 13 shots...ouch
The Ducks=money in the bank... NHL record 16th game without a loss in regulation... maybe if the Canucks GM would be more concerned about his team, than always complaining, they would show up in their own building.
Les Bleu with the win over Bruins... Travis Roy was sitting on his hands for this one.
"Why don't you use this joke a little more...ha-ha-ha laugh at the kid in the wheelchair...faggots"
In the final game of the night... the Sharks get a hat trick from Patrick Marleau and win 7-3 over the Kings
We'll see ya tomorrow night...Go Pens.
And on a completely random note... the new trailer for Spiderman 3 is out...and yes I am still single
Short and Sweet
In the spirit of Malkin's post-game interview tonight, (officially the funniest thing going on with the Penguins. I was waiting for Malkin to go Ryan Leaf on someone, but in crazy Russian), there's only a short recap of other games in the NHL.
Atlanta stuns Ottawa.... great. Ottawa is going to be even more pissed off when we play them on Friday.
Slava Kozlov: "Hey Gerber. Go eat some baby food. Yea, that's right."
Coach Tom Renny your thoughts:
"We really don't mind going into a shootout," said Rangers coach Tom Renney. "We feel like we have an advantage with our shooters."Dude get over your team. Please.
In the only Western Conference game tonight:
The Red Wings shutout the Oilers 3-0...16 shots for the Oilers tonight... way to mail it in.
That's it for me. Tough loss to Tampa... but least we got a point.
And if you're a little down about the loss... it could be worse...
You could be this guy:
.
Britney Spears put K-Fed on the ol' social waiver wire today. .. no joke needed.
Goodnight and Good Luck.
Goodnight and Good Luck.
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Discontinued Chevrolet Car Scores In OT. PENS LOSE.
ESPN Game Recap
Uh-oh. The Pens are starting to lose one-goal games again. This one wasn't AWFUL awful. We came back from a 2-0 deficit and held the lead for a while. Lecavalier and St. Louis are a great duo, and it would've been a fun game to go to.
The first period began with the Lightning in our zone for pretty much the first eight minutes of the period. We starting to blindly clear the puck again...right to the opposing players' stick. Such was the case on the Lightning's first goal. Joltin' Joe Melichar cleared the puck around the boards to no one, and Lightning player Nikita Alexeev grabbed it and got it towards the net. Dmitry Afanasenkov was right in front of Fleury and deflected it in. Other than that, nothing really happening in the first period.
The second period was pretty stagnant until Tampa Bay scored on a powerplay...with PK-specialist Dominic Moore in the box. It was 2-0 and it wasn't lookin' good.
But with five minutes remaining in the second period, The Nils Ekman Show stole the stage.
The Pens pulled Fleury on a delayed penalty call and scored on a goal where they GOT IT TO THE NET. Mark Recchi was smacked with a high-stick at the end of the play, so the Pens still had a powerplay coming. Ekman reloaded his six-shooter and scored again on the ensuing powerplay. All of a sudden...it was tied.
Hey Sid, I hope all these bitches brought their hats.
And to close out the third period scoring, The Ekman went to the net where Crosby, after making a sweet play to give himself more room, found him for a quick redirection...and a 3-2 lead going into the third. At the end of the second, it felt like we had just won the game. I almost started the recap.
It took the Lightning all of five minutes to tie it in the third, though. The Pens let Eric Perrin come pretty much right down the slot, where some Lightning jobber fed him the puck that he one-timed past Fleury. The rest of the third period saw both teams have a couple chances, and the Pens exhibit their weakest powerplay of the season. The Pens get a point as we go to overtime again.
I, and hopefully all of Pensblog Nation, felt pretty good going into overtime. The Lightning hadn't really controlled the game since the first period, and we were getting some rushes.
But then Ryan Whitney reminded us why we have a love/hate relationship with him. In the middle of an excellent shift, he tries to get a shot through three Lightning players. It hits a player's leg and bounces to the boards. I saw what was coming in slow motion. I saw Lecavalier breaking; St. Louis getting the puck on the boards; St. Louis springing him on a breakaway with an unbelievable pass and Vinny undressing Fleury like he was an altar boy at a Catholic priest weekend retreat. Game.
The first period began with the Lightning in our zone for pretty much the first eight minutes of the period. We starting to blindly clear the puck again...right to the opposing players' stick. Such was the case on the Lightning's first goal. Joltin' Joe Melichar cleared the puck around the boards to no one, and Lightning player Nikita Alexeev grabbed it and got it towards the net. Dmitry Afanasenkov was right in front of Fleury and deflected it in. Other than that, nothing really happening in the first period.
The second period was pretty stagnant until Tampa Bay scored on a powerplay...with PK-specialist Dominic Moore in the box. It was 2-0 and it wasn't lookin' good.
But with five minutes remaining in the second period, The Nils Ekman Show stole the stage.
The Pens pulled Fleury on a delayed penalty call and scored on a goal where they GOT IT TO THE NET. Mark Recchi was smacked with a high-stick at the end of the play, so the Pens still had a powerplay coming. Ekman reloaded his six-shooter and scored again on the ensuing powerplay. All of a sudden...it was tied.
Hey Sid, I hope all these bitches brought their hats.
And to close out the third period scoring, The Ekman went to the net where Crosby, after making a sweet play to give himself more room, found him for a quick redirection...and a 3-2 lead going into the third. At the end of the second, it felt like we had just won the game. I almost started the recap.
It took the Lightning all of five minutes to tie it in the third, though. The Pens let Eric Perrin come pretty much right down the slot, where some Lightning jobber fed him the puck that he one-timed past Fleury. The rest of the third period saw both teams have a couple chances, and the Pens exhibit their weakest powerplay of the season. The Pens get a point as we go to overtime again.
I, and hopefully all of Pensblog Nation, felt pretty good going into overtime. The Lightning hadn't really controlled the game since the first period, and we were getting some rushes.
But then Ryan Whitney reminded us why we have a love/hate relationship with him. In the middle of an excellent shift, he tries to get a shot through three Lightning players. It hits a player's leg and bounces to the boards. I saw what was coming in slow motion. I saw Lecavalier breaking; St. Louis getting the puck on the boards; St. Louis springing him on a breakaway with an unbelievable pass and Vinny undressing Fleury like he was an altar boy at a Catholic priest weekend retreat. Game.
Stats
- Ekman: Hat trick. Fastest three goals by one player in Pens history. Mario Lemyoo?
- Crosby: 2 A
- Gonchar: 2 A
- St. Louis: 2 A
- Shots: TB (31) PENS (20)
- Powerplay: TB (1 for 5) TB (1 for 4)
- Crosby-Ekman-Armstrong looks solid
- Malkin-Recchi-Staal will be dominating within the next two games
- Pens did an OK job staying out of the box tonight
- You gotta love Ekman smiling on the bench after scoring his third goal
- If you didn't stand up in your living room as soon as Lecavalier got that puck in OT, you're not a hockey fan.
- If you watched the post-game show, how bout the media whoring Nils Ekman. He just wants to go home and have sex with his wife, but he has to stand there and answer questions that my 5-year-old cousin knows the answer to.
- In that post-game show, Malkin looked pissed when he was sitting there with his translator.
- Apparently, when a hat trick is scored...you can throw a hat or even a Mario Lemieux Collector's Coin. Hell, I'd throw my Ice Time magazine.
NHL.com doesn't bother spelling Ekman's name right
...or even coming close.
...or even coming close.
Next Game: Friday 11.10
vs. Ottawa Senators - 7:30
vs. Ottawa Senators - 7:30
The Lightning(s) Suck(s)
I spent ten seconds of my time trying to figure out whether to use the plural or singular form of Lightning. I want those ten seconds back.
...Post-Gazette story regarding how the Pens felt about the recent West Coast trip...
...Toronto's Mats Sundin out for a month with something about his elbow...
...The Tribune-Review praises Dominic Moore...
...Pens-Lightning tonight is one of only four games going on in the NHL tonight...
Starting goalies look to be Marc-Andre Fleury and mid-90s flash-in-the-souvenir-cup Manon Rheaume.
In relation to other NHL goaltenders, she's pretty hot.
In all seriousness, Rheaume was never depicted on an NHL video game roster...meaning she never even existed.
...And, finally, a major Pittsburgh sports media personality has agreed to let us grill him with a Q & A session. You'll never guess who it is.
...And, finally, a major Pittsburgh sports media personality has agreed to let us grill him with a Q & A session. You'll never guess who it is.
Let's Go Pens
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
...On the Boulevard of Broken Sticks...
Who am I? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said watching the NHL is a happy little tale...if somebody told you I was just your average ordinary fan, not a care in the world...somebody lied.
- Spiderman
While most of America was out voting...I was watching hockey.
Every Nickelback song includes...(Deep voice)..."Why the hell are we so blah blah blah blah"
And on a completely different note, in the spirit of election night.. if I ever run for office, my main sticking point would be settling things with Casket/Steel cage/Hell in the Cell matches.
I wish there were a candidate like that.
If the world would just settle its problems by using a 1990s WWF mentality, we would all be better off.
The Habs win 3-2 in a shootout... Kovy ends it with a sweet goal...Guillaume Latendresse, the 19 year old star, scored for Montreal. He then had sex with 10 Canadien puck bunnies. This guy is gold in Canada...and he knows it.
Blues introduce Al MacInnis as their new VP of Hockey Operations
Ray Emery got hurt in practice today...which is huge because the Pens play the Sens on Friday.
And for those of you that like some good drama...
While most of America was out voting...I was watching hockey.
And man, there were some good games tonight..
The Devils beat the Hurricanes in a shootout..
And I finally figured out what the Devils remind me of:
Before you exit the screen and ne'er return to the Pensblog, Listen.......
The Devils beat the Hurricanes in a shootout..
And I finally figured out what the Devils remind me of:
The band Nickelback
Before you exit the screen and ne'er return to the Pensblog, Listen.......
Frequent commenter and sporadic Pensblog contributor Andrew mentioned Nickelback in a comment and it's reminded me of the comparsion.
The Devils are the same team every year. And Nickelback has been singing the same song since 1995. It's not an in-depth comparison...but does it not make sense?
Every Nickelback song includes...(Deep voice)..."Why the hell are we so blah blah blah blah"
And on a completely different note, in the spirit of election night.. if I ever run for office, my main sticking point would be settling things with Casket/Steel cage/Hell in the Cell matches.
I wish there were a candidate like that.
If the world would just settle its problems by using a 1990s WWF mentality, we would all be better off.
It all comes full circle for us Pens fans when we recall that the most infamous Hell in the Cell match, with the Undertaker throwing Mankind off the top of the cell, took place in Mellon Arena.
Go down memory lane with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler...and check out the Mellon Arena "East Igloo" sign in the back.
Go down memory lane with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler...and check out the Mellon Arena "East Igloo" sign in the back.
Almost forgot...there were more games..
The Habs win 3-2 in a shootout... Kovy ends it with a sweet goal...Guillaume Latendresse, the 19 year old star, scored for Montreal. He then had sex with 10 Canadien puck bunnies. This guy is gold in Canada...and he knows it.
The Kings basically ran the train on Jose Theodore and his entire family in the third period
And the Sharks beat the Wild in a potential Western Conference Finals preview 3-1.. no recap
Some other news around the NHL:
Blues introduce Al MacInnis as their new VP of Hockey Operations
MacInnis winding up for a slapshot could make a goaltender crap himself...
...even in NHL94 for Sega Genesis.
(The best part was naming this picture file 'macinnispoop.gif')
...even in NHL94 for Sega Genesis.
(The best part was naming this picture file 'macinnispoop.gif')
Ray Emery got hurt in practice today...which is huge because the Pens play the Sens on Friday.
And for those of you that like some good drama...
Dwayne Roloson, you should spend a little less time worrying about the NHLPA, and a little more time thinking about how you cost your team the Stanely Cup last year by getting hurt in the Finals...clown.
Big game tomorrow. We owe the Lightning for that 9-0 beat down in 2003-2004.
See you at center ice.
Some Quick Crap
...Carolina and New Jersey on Versus tonight...
...NHL general managers are convening in Toronto to discuss some things...
- Possible scheduling changes
- Malkin's court date on November 15
- GMs working closer to get any deals done
- Telling the Flyers to phone in the rest of their season
...Ilya Kovalchuk had a hat trick last night for the Thrashers. I was watching the game on Versus. Does anyone remember last year when Paul Steigerwald was furious at the goal horn operator in Atlanta's Philips Arena?? I remember hearing the Steigerwald clip on WDVE the next morning and being in tears...
...Baby Pens update: They are 9-2-0 and have the second-best record in the AHL. Here is an excellent WBS Pens blog: Penguins Insider
...And finally...our friends at the Dear Trendy Hockey Fan Girls -- Die Facebook Group will love these pictures that commenters Dennis and Julie provided us:
Oh wow. That's pretty gay.
If I ever see a girl wearing this, she can expect a punch in the ovaries.
If I ever see a guy wearing this, well, I don't even know.
Tough, But We'll Take The Point. PENS LOSE.
Never have I thought about sympathizing with the Seattle Seahawks fans, but now I know how it feels like to think a game that you could've easily won was tainted by questionable officiating. We're not complaining because the Ducks didn't really do anything to merit trips to the penalty box, but a couple of the Penguin penalties were questionable calls.
Either way, you don't have to be making excuses when the best team in the NHL squeaks by you in overtime.
It felt like 2005-2006 all over again when Chris Kunitz scored three and a half minutes into the game. The Pens continue their disturbing trend of giving up goals relatively early in a period. Never fear, though, because Dominic Moore threw on his Superman cape and tied the game 21 seconds later. Possibly the best thing to happen to Chris Thorburn was him being called for hooking a little bit later in the period. When he came out of the box, he was fresh and found himself on a line with Malkin and Crosby...and he looked good. Therrien kept Thorburn with Malsby on the next line change and even my dog was perplexed when he saw Thorburn backhand a rebound into the net. The Pens led 2-1 after the first period.
Evgeni Who?The Pens had to kill off three penalties in the second period, while the Ducks started racking up their shot total. Dominic Moore got called for hooking on what was easily a case of terrible officiating. And, of course, to throw some salt in the wound, the Ducks scored on that powerplay. Why Thibault stopped that puck and just sat there is beyond me. He stops the puck, but Corey Perry scores the easiest goal of his career to tie the game at 2.
The third period was gut-wrenching. The Ducks had some decent chances, but so did the Pens. Regardless, the game stayed 2-2 and went into overtime.
Noah Welch tripped Teemu Selanne in overtime, which brought Welch's penalty minute total for this game to 16. Even Stevie Wonder could see what was coming next. Selanne scores twenty seconds later, game over.
Stats
- Malsby: 1 A each, 2 shots combined
- Scott Neidermayer: 2 A
- Chris Thorburn: 1 G, 1 A
- Shots: ANA (40) PENS (17)
- Powerplay: ANA (2 for 9) PENS (0 for 2)
- Strong performance by Thibault tonight. You can't go on and on about it because there were no highlight-reel saves, but he kept the Pens in the game. He looks weird in net, and that's probably because we're used to Fleury this year.
- Orpik had a huge hit and a solid game. Anyone remember who Welch laid out in the first period? Wow. Welch had a nice game but has to cut down on the penalties.
- Derek mentioned it before the Sharks game, but how bout Joe Melichar tonight? Nice performance.
- How bullshit was the too many men call in the third period. What a joke.
- Maxime Talbot is a maniac.
- Apparently, doing a Super Fly Jimmy Snooka into a player from behind and choking him with your stick only merits a two-minute minor for roughing. We are talking, of course, about Pronger flying into the zone to lay out Ekman. Ekman had it coming, though.
- Dan Potash doesn't shop at K-Mart.
- Chris Thorburn seems like a decent guy from what we saw in the first intermission interview.
- Good old Mellon Arena on Wednesday.
- If I missed anything, please discuss in the comments.
- Oh, and we're experimenting with the site layout a little bit. Apologies if it was down 7 to 9 am Tuesday morning.
Next Game: Wednesday 11.08
vs. Tampa Bay - 7:30
vs. Tampa Bay - 7:30
Monday, November 6, 2006
The Mighty Sucks
Needless to say, it's a big game tonight for the Pens. 10:00 start.
I agree Mark."It's a huge gauge."- Mark Recchi
Some more things:
Hey Colby, it's me. Listen. You've been given the exclusive rights to play with Malkin and Crosby and to reap those benefits. But, you're suckin. You're on the fourth line now.
Oh snap.
Colby, come back to bed.
....
Rumors circulating that Jocelyn Thibault is starting tonight against the best team in the NHL. I'm speechless.
Mark Eaton is getting surgery on his wrist and is out indefinitely.
Brooks Orpik should be in the lineup tonight.
It's fun watching Ducks defenseman Scott Neidermayer. For people who remember watching Paul Coffey play, the way Neidermayer skates and plays will remind you of Coffey. Pensblog guarantee.
Mark Eaton is getting surgery on his wrist and is out indefinitely.
Brooks Orpik should be in the lineup tonight.
It's fun watching Ducks defenseman Scott Neidermayer. For people who remember watching Paul Coffey play, the way Neidermayer skates and plays will remind you of Coffey. Pensblog guarantee.
A for ATLANTIC
Before we visit our jerk-off neighbors in the Atlantic division, let's look back at a horrible weekend.
- Steelers go down in a blaze of mistakes
- Terrible loss to South Florida for the Pitt fans
- For Penn state fans: Joe Pa gets crushed and is called an old fart on national television.
- Pens lose to the Sharks
Now let's visit some enemies:
New Jersey Devils (7-5-1) 15 pts
Power Play: 13.9% (22nd) Penalty Kill: 82.9% (20th)
Misc stat: No wins when giving up first goal.
The Devils only had two games this week. They got rocked by the Islanders 5-2, and beat the Habs in Montreal 2-1. Marty Brodeur took a skate to the head, but ended up being alright. Gionta still leads the team in goals. A look ahead to their schedule this week: three home games. One against the Hurricanes who beat them in a great playoff series last year. I believe the game is on Versus Tuesday night. They also play the Blackhawks and Panthers, so that may be 4 points right there. I hate the devils.
...
The New York Hockey Islanders (6-5-2) 14pts
Powerplay:19.7 (7th) Penalty Kill: 80.5% (23rd)
Misc Stat: 6th in the NHL in face-off percentage.
Nice carving job there, chief. Too bad the Islanders suck.
Can't say I gave the Isles much of a chance after a slow start, but Ted Nolan is working Jack Adams magic and has the Isles playing lights out. They beat the hapless Blackhawks and the aforementioned Devils, before losing to the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday night. Captain Alexei Yashin is still leading the team in points. With the ever so annoying Jason Blake not too far behind.
But the real story here: Rick DiPietro is a mess. After he gave up 3 goals on 9 shots against the the Thrashers, the New york faithful chanted "We want Dunham! We want Dunham!"... referring to backup goaltender Mike Dunham. Its could be a long 15 years for the Rick DiPietro. The Isles play the Lightning at home Monday night, before a big 5-game road trip starts. Two of those five games are this week, one in Philly, the other against the nearly unbeatable Dallas Stars.
...
New York Rangers (7-6-0) 14 pts
Powerplay: 16.9% (13th) Penalty Kill: 83.8% (16th)
Misc. Stat: They're gay.
The Rangers embarked on pretty much the same west coast swing as the Pens this week. The Rangers lost to the Kings, but then beat both the Ducks and the Sharks. Woah. They lost to Buffalo in a shootout last night. This week, the Rangers go on the always interesting Southeast Division tour. Road games against Florida, Atlanta and Washington.Jaromir Jagr and Shanahan are chillin at the top of the NHL leader board in points, but it seems like it's only a matter of time until the Rangers start sinking. Just a feeling. Speaking of which, I just saw that Jagr may have re-aggravated his shoulder injury.
Henrik Lundqvist was stinking up mid-Manhattan, so Kevin Weekes has assumed the starting position for now. Wins against San Jose and Anaheim for the Weekes.
...
Philadelphia Flyers (3-9-1) 7 pts.
Powerplay: 8.8% (29th) Penalty Kill: 87.9% (7th)
Misc. Stat: R.J. Umberger is an NHL-worst (-10) in plus/minus.
Philadelphia Flyers (3-9-1) 7 pts.
Powerplay: 8.8% (29th) Penalty Kill: 87.9% (7th)
Misc. Stat: R.J. Umberger is an NHL-worst (-10) in plus/minus.
The Flyers beat Chicago on Monday night, but then lost to Tampa Bay and Washington to close out the week. This week, they play in Toronto, then come home to play the Islanders and the Sabres. Good luck Philly. Not.
It's almost a waste of pixels and my hand muscles to even type about this hockey team. Peter Forsberg complained about officiating this week, and probably some other things happened, but let's just consider the Flyers as the weird uncle that lives in the basement. And ignore them until we're forced to pay attention to them.
It's almost a waste of pixels and my hand muscles to even type about this hockey team. Peter Forsberg complained about officiating this week, and probably some other things happened, but let's just consider the Flyers as the weird uncle that lives in the basement. And ignore them until we're forced to pay attention to them.
...
Pens schedule this week:
- Monday at Anaheim
- Wednesday vs. Tampa Bay
- Friday vs. Ottawa
- Saturday at Carolina
Tough slate of games.
Finally, commenter Rebecca mentioned the South Park episode that featured Phil Collins Hill as the site of a huge boys vs. girls sled race.
Finally, commenter Rebecca mentioned the South Park episode that featured Phil Collins Hill as the site of a huge boys vs. girls sled race.
Sunday, November 5, 2006
Sharks Are A Solid Team. PENS LOSE.
If you thought the Pens would go 79-3 this year, you were sorely mistaken. Don't be jumping off the Hot Metal Bridge just yet, though. We lost to a good team in a close game. It only makes the Pens better. But, damn it, it feels like we should have gotten something out of this game. The only way I was able to fall asleep after a loss like this was listening to Phil Collins' smash hit "Take Me Home" on repeat.
Thank God that Phil Collins is always there to lick our wounds.
He looks like he just molested someone.
The highly anticipated battle of the inverted triangle logos was pretty scrappy from the outset. A minute into the game, Jonathan Cheechoo conducted his train into the back of Pens defenseman Mark Eaton, shoving him from behind in an awkward play. In all fairness to Cheech, if Mark Eaton doesn't fall, it just would have been a play where the two would have ridden into the boards together. Eaton falls, though, and the play looks vicious. Crosby jumps on Cheech like he just stole his lunch money, and the game-long melee officially began.
(No word on an Eaton injury yet. Rest assured that unless I'm sleeping or taking out the garbage, you will find injury news here ASAP).
The play resulted in Cheech getting a game misconduct and Crosby getting a two-minute minor. The Pens couldn't capitalize on the three-minute powerplay, and the main highlight of the first period was the physical play coming from both teams. Both teams had goals disallowed and the first period ended with the score 0-0.
Those fans look pumped.
One minute into the second, Kyle McLaren scored for San Jose on a weak rebound goal. The obnoxious goal horn echoed throughout my soul. Six minutes later, though, the Pens showed some fight by tying the game on a nice Michel Ouellet wrister. Two minutes later, the dreaded Sharks powerplay got on the board with what probably is a typical Sharks powerplay goal. The second period ended 2-1, and things really weren't bad at all.
The first goal in the third period was HUGE. Looking back on the game, Mike Grier's goal 45 seconds into the third hurt. A lot. Fleury looked like he was shot by a sniper in the press box. It was just a weird goal. What hurt the most (and what also raised spirits in Pensblog Nation) was the fact that, less than two minutes later, Dominic Moore connected for a score. It was 3-2 for the rest of the game, although the Pens did have a few good chances to tie it. Memory tells me that Malkin's one-timer opportunity was our best chance in the third. Toskala didn't have time to react to it, and if the puck is two inches to the right, the game is tied. Instead, it simply hits Toskala and he swallows it up like a lizard. Game.
Stats
Thank God that Phil Collins is always there to lick our wounds.He looks like he just molested someone.
The highly anticipated battle of the inverted triangle logos was pretty scrappy from the outset. A minute into the game, Jonathan Cheechoo conducted his train into the back of Pens defenseman Mark Eaton, shoving him from behind in an awkward play. In all fairness to Cheech, if Mark Eaton doesn't fall, it just would have been a play where the two would have ridden into the boards together. Eaton falls, though, and the play looks vicious. Crosby jumps on Cheech like he just stole his lunch money, and the game-long melee officially began.
(No word on an Eaton injury yet. Rest assured that unless I'm sleeping or taking out the garbage, you will find injury news here ASAP).
The play resulted in Cheech getting a game misconduct and Crosby getting a two-minute minor. The Pens couldn't capitalize on the three-minute powerplay, and the main highlight of the first period was the physical play coming from both teams. Both teams had goals disallowed and the first period ended with the score 0-0.
Those fans look pumped.One minute into the second, Kyle McLaren scored for San Jose on a weak rebound goal. The obnoxious goal horn echoed throughout my soul. Six minutes later, though, the Pens showed some fight by tying the game on a nice Michel Ouellet wrister. Two minutes later, the dreaded Sharks powerplay got on the board with what probably is a typical Sharks powerplay goal. The second period ended 2-1, and things really weren't bad at all.
The first goal in the third period was HUGE. Looking back on the game, Mike Grier's goal 45 seconds into the third hurt. A lot. Fleury looked like he was shot by a sniper in the press box. It was just a weird goal. What hurt the most (and what also raised spirits in Pensblog Nation) was the fact that, less than two minutes later, Dominic Moore connected for a score. It was 3-2 for the rest of the game, although the Pens did have a few good chances to tie it. Memory tells me that Malkin's one-timer opportunity was our best chance in the third. Toskala didn't have time to react to it, and if the puck is two inches to the right, the game is tied. Instead, it simply hits Toskala and he swallows it up like a lizard. Game.
Stats
- Michel Ouellet: 1 G, 1 A
- Joe Thornton: 3 A
- Marc-Andre Fleury: Yet another strong performance with 31 saves.
- Shots: SJ (34) PENS (27)
- Powerplay: SJ (1 for 3) PENS (0 for 7)
- If you've ever wondered what a jobber is, take a look at Marc-Andre Fleury buying that goaltender interference call in the first period.
- Did anyone else see Mario Lemieux Jesus in the stands? He had the white pigeon logo jersey on, full beard, flowing hair and his arms were extended like the statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They showed him after Moore's goal was disallowed in the first. I thought it was a sign.
- Looking at the game objectively, I think it might have been the best officiating performance in a Pens game this season. The calls were consistent.
- Anyone else suspicious that Brooks Orpik may have paid off Cheechoo to take Eaton out?
- If I coached a team, and my fourth line was Talbot, Thorburn and Ruutu, I would be a happy coach. They generate scoring chances and work hard every shift. I'm beginning to get pumped when I see them on the ice.
- Probably Colby Armstrong's first visit to Rodeo Drive, and he has to spend his time with Dan Potash.
- I'm thinking the Sharks fans booed Crosby the entire game because of him jumping on Cheech in that early fight. But if opposing fans are booing Crosby this early in his career, just for the sake of booing him, then wow. What a compliment.
- Paul Steigerwald and Bob Errey are two brash fellows. They use Mike Lange-isms throughout games (i.e. Here comes Gonchar carrying the mail, he tosses the biscuit back to center). However, if either ever say "they take the heat out of a hot kitchen" when the Pens are on the penalty kill, I will personally go V for Vendetta on their ass. Pensblog out.
Next Game: Monday 11.06
@ Anaheim - 10:00
@ Anaheim - 10:00
Saturday, November 4, 2006
I Left My Heart In San Jose
In case you didn't know, huge game tonight in the Shark Tank for our Pens.
Early reports from San Jose have said that Finnish goalie Vesa Toskala will start.
Toskala in Finnish means "solid backup"
Toskala has a very good GAA (2.12).... and he has a save % of .921.. he has 6 wins on the season.
The Pens come in red hot, but this is no question a huge test against an extremely talented team.
What to look for:
- I have never been a huge Josef Melichar fan, but I haven't noticed him, and that's in a good way. The guy has been solid.. hopefully the praise from Pensblog doesn't jinx him.
- The Penguins own Ron Wilson. It will be good to yell at him again.
" Douuuuuuuuuuuchhhhheebaggggggg"
- Niles Ekman returns to San Jose... everyone that leaves the Penguins.. (cough,cough) Gary Valk!... comes back to haunt us... so it would be nice one of our guys do it to their former team.
- The Refs.... all around the NHL players have been disgusted by the officiating. I can't say I blame them... penalties will have a big role in this game. The Sharks have the number 1 power play and the Pens have the number 2.
- Geno and Sid (which sounds like the name of a good cheesesteak house): Can they keep up the magic?
- Lineup changes.. Therrien has said he doesn't want to break up a winning lineup, but if Brooks Orpik and Eric Cairns are healthy you might have to play them...
- And last but always least. John Leclair...Get a goal!
Go Pens!
Pensblog Road Trip To Philadelphia. (Sat. Jan 13)
We are trying to get a group of 20 or so people to travel to Philadelphia when the Pens play them on Saturday, January 13. It's a 2 o'clock game, televised nationally on NBC.
We talked to James Darlington of the Wachovia Center Box Office on November 4th and we can relay some details:
The Wachovia Center considers the game to be a second-half game; meaning it's in the second-half of the season. It also means that they do not have a ticket inventory for the game, as they have to account for the visiting team requesting tickets, NHL officials getting tickets, etc. James and common sense both told me that the game WILL be sold out. He didn't guarantee anything, but he did ask if I wished to purchase the tickets today...meaning that the tickets are available as recent as November 4th.
He mentioned that our best bet would be to purchase the tickets by early December. This gives us one month to organize this.
- It takes 6 hours and 9 minutes to get to Philly.
- Traveling arrangements would have to be discussed later, but a convoy of five or six cars would seem feasible.
- Tickets will be $45 each.
- I was reassured twice that they are 'excellent' seats.
- The seats would be in the top ring of sections in the arena. Check them out here.
- It is a nationally televised game. We will have bright yellow Pens shirts for the group to wear...and NBC cameras would not be able to ignore us.
- Christmas is coming, so ask whoever you ask for 45 dollars in cash as an early present...or just don't pay your cell phone bill.
The four or five of us that run the blog will go; no matter what.
We need e-mail confirmations by November 20.
We need cash or checks in our hand by December 1.
If we can't get a big group, we're gonna buy single tickets for ourselves. Anyone else could buy single tickets, too, but we all wouldn't sit together. We would end up playing that by ear, though.
Basically, if you want to go as a group and get the discount, do what you can to find enough people to fill the group.
We wanted to give advance notice for this road trip because we would need checks or cash for the tickets by Dec. 1
E-mail: thepensblog@yahoo.com
Can't Find A Better NHL
Quick links then the recap:
...Shelly Anderson throws her laptop against a wall and comes up with a couple articles for the Post-Gazette...
...Happy 43rd Birthday, Penguin coach Michel Therrien...
...A couple nice reads in the Trib's Pens Notebook...
.....
We watched the Thrashers-Capitals game on Yahoo tonight. Atlanta ended up winning 4-3. It fueled the talk about how the top and bottom of the Southeast Division is seperated by one goal. No, not really.
By the way, Alexander Ovechkin has been disturbingly quiet so far this season. We were watching Ovechkin the entire time he was on the ice tonight. He looks miserable. Your heart really has to go out to the guy. No one can get him the puck and he was visibly angry at the end of the game when Washington pulled their goalie and still couldn't even get him the puck.
I just hope he makes the all-star team this year, so the Eastern Conference can sport the Crosby-Ovechkin-Malkin line.
Another Oscar the Grouch moment happened tonight in Edmonton.
Referee Mick McGeough thought he saw a hand-pass and blew the whistle a second before Edmonton tied the game with 4 seconds left. Replays show the hand-pass never occurred.
The Stars won 3-2, but you should definitely read the quick game re-cap.
Blue Jackets and Flames go 11 rounds in a shootout, with Columbus eventually winning.
Anaheim throws Phoenix in the toilet...and now they sit and wait for the Pens to come to town on Monday.
Anaheim has gotten at least one point ( 10 - 0 - 4 ) in every game this season. Our Pens could send some shock waves through the NHL with a regulation win.
By the way, Alexander Ovechkin has been disturbingly quiet so far this season. We were watching Ovechkin the entire time he was on the ice tonight. He looks miserable. Your heart really has to go out to the guy. No one can get him the puck and he was visibly angry at the end of the game when Washington pulled their goalie and still couldn't even get him the puck.
I just hope he makes the all-star team this year, so the Eastern Conference can sport the Crosby-Ovechkin-Malkin line.
Referee Mick McGeough thought he saw a hand-pass and blew the whistle a second before Edmonton tied the game with 4 seconds left. Replays show the hand-pass never occurred.
"It was a ridiculous call. I had no idea what he had called. Nobody saw the hand pass on the play because quite clearly there wasn't one. It's beyond reason. He should be suspended."
- Oilers Head Coach Craig Mactavish
The Stars won 3-2, but you should definitely read the quick game re-cap.
Blue Jackets and Flames go 11 rounds in a shootout, with Columbus eventually winning.
Anaheim throws Phoenix in the toilet...and now they sit and wait for the Pens to come to town on Monday.
Anaheim has gotten at least one point ( 10 - 0 - 4 ) in every game this season. Our Pens could send some shock waves through the NHL with a regulation win.
Friday, November 3, 2006
Some Housekeeping
The author of Mondesi's House sent us an e-mail, saying that Mark Madden mentioned the Pensblog on Thursday during the 4 o'clock hour of his show on ESPN Radio 1250. If anyone heard this, please leave something in the comments about it. I've talked to two people who I thought listened to him every day, and yesterday was the first day in two years that neither listened to the show.
We have two Facebook groups that need your help (last ones, we swear):
The Pensblog Facebook Group
and
Keep The Penguins In Pittsburgh
Thanks everyone.
.....
We're going to make it more well-known in the coming weeks, but we are planning to get a group of Pens fans to travel to Philadelphia for the Saturday, January 13th game on NBC. All four of us here at the blog are going, and if anyone else truly wants to go, we're going to mention it again in a couple weeks. .....
I dare you to try reading this ESPN.com Terry Frei article about shoot-outs. I managed to get to the fourth paragraph before my brain told me that it was the most boring article ever written.
Linda Cohn writes another article on the Patriots of the NHL (Anaheim). The Patriots...in terms of media performing fellatio on them.
Harold and ex-Islanders co-owner Sanjay Kumar go to White Castle. White Castle is apparently slang for 'prison'...
Linda Cohn writes another article on the Patriots of the NHL (Anaheim). The Patriots...in terms of media performing fellatio on them.
Harold and ex-Islanders co-owner Sanjay Kumar go to White Castle. White Castle is apparently slang for 'prison'...
ESPN.com has an article about Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle.
All of a sudden, the top of the Atlantic Division is crowded. The Pens, Rangers and Islanders all have 14 points, and the Devils have 13. The Pens have only played ten games (NHL low), so their winning percentage breaks the tie....I think.
Thursday, November 2, 2006
Save the NHL.... Save the World
Incredible day today. I had no idea what was going on all day while I was at work. Adam called me 6 times and I figured that:
A. The Pens made a trade for someone
B. Chris or Gabe from the Pensblog died
C. Some Russian mob member killed Malkin
I am still stunned. Thanks again to everyone.
Onto some nightly links:
Malkin is still the talk of the NHL... look at what King Mario said:
Malkin is still the talk of the NHL... look at what King Mario said:
''I wish it was 15 years earlier,'' said the 41-year-old Lemieux. ''It's quite amazing to see him play with Sid and see what they're doing now at their age.''
One last comeback Mario?
Rob Blake your thoughts:
''Sitting there on the bench last night, just watching the plays they were attempting to make, it was pretty nice."
....You're still a douchebag though.
And how about Dave Molinari writing the story about other NHL rookies? Look I know its nice to mention those things, but this is the same guy who once admitted to voting for Chris Pronger instead of Jagr back in the 1999-2000 season. Jagr lost by one vote....I don't forget these things.
Here is some more news around the NHL...
Somewhere Steve Moore is pumping his fist
From the ongoing struggle department: Daniel Alfredsson vs the Ottawa Public I love how Canadian fans completely flip out... and you think Steeler fans were hard on Kordell Stewart
Kordell and Alfredsson should go bowling.
Lots of games going on tonight:
Montreal gets a win in the midst of a goalie controversy.. Huet shits in everyone's mouth with a shutout.. I was worried about Carolina; they haven't played a game in 3 days after playing what seemed like 20 straight.
The Flyers lost again...Johan Holmqvist get his first win in the NHL...the lightning own the Flyers
The Isles beat up on the Devils... I don't know what it is about the Islanders. Its much like my struggle to decide why I am infatuated with Rachel Ray for some reason.
She isn't that hot, but I'd watch her cook anyday.
The Sabres come from behind to beat the Bruins.. even former Boston University defenseman Travis Roy stood up for the Shootout...
"Laugh it up Jerkoffs"
The Isles beat up on the Devils... I don't know what it is about the Islanders. Its much like my struggle to decide why I am infatuated with Rachel Ray for some reason.
She isn't that hot, but I'd watch her cook anyday.
The Sabres come from behind to beat the Bruins.. even former Boston University defenseman Travis Roy stood up for the Shootout...
"Laugh it up Jerkoffs"
Well at least Chicago has the Bears and... The Red Wings sneak past the Hawks
"Am I high or is that puck flying....?"
One other late game... the "Ranger".. as Michel Therrien likes to call them... leads the Sharks. Great matchup Jagr vs. Thornton.
Good night all and as always good luck.
Woah, Thank You
Today is easily....hold up, what a big win for the Pens last night. Penguins are in first place again. Crosby is tied for second in points with 18; Jagr has 20.
OK, today is easily the biggest day of traffic in the 52-day history of the Pensblog. We average about 350 unique visitors a day (about 345 more than we were expecting when we started). Today, however, Deadspin.com linked to our Mario Lemieux Facts and we've already received about 930 unique visitors. Wow.
Thanks to 'shorty' for telling us that Deadspin linked to us today.
Special thanks to 'Dennis' for sending the URL to Deadspin in the first place.
We had a good little tussle in the comments section of last night's game recap, as a semi-heated debate about girl hockey fans erupted. To make my stance, I love hockey fans of all genders. Some of the best people I can talk to about the Pens are girls. I just hate snobby, make-up dripping, short-skirt wearing girls who show up at games and don't even know what they're watching.
And to be honest, girls pay closer attention to detail, so a girl Pens fans who knows their shit is a good drinkin buddy.
...And finally, the links...
...Evgeni Malkin was NHL.com's First Star last night...
...Check out NHL.com's Frozen Moment at the top...
...Hold onto your reproductive organs as Google and the NHL are teaming up to give us this (free for the first two weeks of November)...
...Normally, I don't criticize anyone trying to make a living. Unless, of course, you are slowly making my corneas melt...just like Shelley Anderson's Post-Gazette articles do. Anderson felt the need to point out that Malkin may not be the clear-cut rookie of the year in 2006-07. OK.
...Dave Molinari did a Q & A session, and I wasn't even compelled to click the link. Whatever happened to picking up a newspaper...
...TSN.ca exhibits an article about diving in the NHL...
...Finally, we had an anonymous commenter who swears that, after Welch's tying-goal in the Kings game, Mike Lange (on 105.9 - The X) said "He shit in a bald man's cap".
Can anyone confirm or deny this? For now, I'm taking the anonymous commenter on his word.
Hasta L.A. Vista, Kings. PENS WIN.
It was like waiting all week for the AFC Championship Game, and the Patriots come out and return the opening kickoff for a touchdown. 25 seconds in, Mike Cammalleri (seafood jokes are below us) scores at the end of a sequence that made me throw up in my mouth.
Fleury was still sleeping when Cammalleri started the scoringIt was all sparked by Fleury playing the puck, which he shouldn't do unless the Pens are on the powerplay. If this were your grandma's Penguins, I would've already been turning off my Randy Gilhen Night-Lite (TM), but this Pens team is for real.
Jordan Staal comes back less than a minute after that goal to tie it up. A bit later, after both teams argue over who doesn't want to win the game, Crosby feeds a pass out in front to Malkin who buries it. The FSN camera crew decides to zoom in on Armstrong's battle on the boards, and we are deprived of seeing Malkin's goal. No, FSN. NO.
First period ends, Pens up 2-1.
Besides the Kings scoring two goals in the second, I almost fell asleep...and my throat hurt from yelling at Ryan Whitney.
In the third period, we figured that if this team is supposed to go somewhere this year, they had to pull this win out. We get a powerplay about five minutes into the third, figuring we'd get the tying goal there...but we didn't. Six seconds after the penalty expires, though, Noah Welch threw a puck to the net that hit some shit and went into the net. Tied game. Huge. The rest of the third had Pensblog Nation wishing that the Pens can at least escape with a point. The third period ends, and overtime commences. Happy with a point at least.
Any overtime game this year will excite us because we get to see Crosby and Malkin in flowing 4-on-4 action. It took the Kings about a minute to crap on themselves, as Mattias Norstrom gets sent to the box for hooking Malkin. After toying around with the Kings for a while, The Malkin ends up scoring off a rebound. Game.
Stats
- Crosby: 3 A (18 points, pushing for NHL lead)
- Malkin: 2 G
- Shots: LAK (27) PENS (23)
- Powerplay: LAK (1 for 2) PENS (1 for 5)
- In the new NHL, every game must have a winner. Neither team should have won this game tonight. The Penguins looked like they were skating in mud, and the Kings just looked like the Kings, I guess. This was the worst game the Pens have played since the Carolina game.
- Maxime Talbot was flying around the ice tonight like he was gonna be sent back down to Wilkes-Barre unless Steigerwald called his name 20 times.
- Rob Blake tried to lay out Malkin, but Blake took the worst of it.
- Anyone else see Colby Armstrong punch Rob Blake in the face in the third period?
- Marc-Andre Fleury made the saves he was supposed to make tonight.
- In all fairness, the Kings should have had another one or two powerplays tonight.
- Pens: 5-game winning streak. (4-0 on the road)
- Former Penguin Tom Kostopolous' intermission interview was not spirited at all. Thanks for rounding him up, Danny Potash. The plant on my coffee table gives me better answers when I ask it questions.
- The Staples Center challenged the Nassau Coliseum (Islanders) as the most somber place to watch a hockey game. They have flashing lights and a boisterous announcer and the fans can boo when one of their players fall on their own, thinking a penalty should be called. But...no spirited Let's Go Kings chants, no buzz when the Kings would get a powerplay. It's almost like they expect the Kings to suck. Glad I'm not a Kings fan.
- Bob Errey called out San Jose's Joe Thornton tonight, asking why he should have got the MVP trophy last year, since Thornton didn't even play for the Sharks all year. No comment.
- If the mood strikes you, take a moment and add yourself to the "Dear Trendy Hockey Fan Girls -- die." group on Facebook. It might sound cold-hearted, but it's actually a grassroots campaign to flush out girly Penguin fans who have to slosh two pounds of make-up on when they go to Pens games so they can get on camera and hold up signs about having Fleury's baby. I bet the Kings would've taken some of those fans tonight. Wait, it's L.A., nevermind.
No Kings blogs worthy of posting
Next Game: Saturday, 11.04
@ San Jose Sharks - 10:30
Next Game: Saturday, 11.04
@ San Jose Sharks - 10:30
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
NOVEMBAH TO REMEMBAH
...Penguins will play 14 games in 30 days in November. 7 home, 7 away.
2 against Philly. 2 against the Rangers. 2 against the Islanders.
There's even a bad-ass 2 0'clock game on the day after Thanksgiving on Long Island.
If you have visited ESPN.com in the last few days, you were blasted in the pancreas with this when you loaded the main NHL page. Here is the story.
Damien Cox (porn name) feels it's necessary to remind Penguin fans about the financial complications of keeping Malkin, Staal and Crosby together for the long haul.
Dude, we just want a new arena first. Let us watch our Pens in peace.
..Some fun crap:
Colorado Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj is sporting a mask with a ripped Mr. Flanders.Pensblog research has discovered the flag to be Slovakia's.
...
Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle (Saginaw Spirit mascot)This news floated past a lot of Stephen Colbert fans and hockey fans alike.
The Saginaw Spirit play in the Ontario Hockey League. Recently, they had a contest to name a second mascot that they would be introducing. Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central caught wind of this and had everyone that watches his show go to the Saginaw Spirit website and vote for the mascot to be named after Stephen Colbert. As you can tell, Colbert won.
After introducing the new mascot, Saginaw went on a seven-game winning streak.
Colbert wouldn't have pushed to have a turtle mascot named after him.
Colbert's signature on his show is the bald eagle and he exhibits reckless patriotism throughout the show. Looking at the jersey he is wearing, now you can see why he did it.
I find Colbert hilarious because you can tell he's really into the character he plays on his show. I'm in disbelief at some people who think that Colbert isn't playing a part on his show; that Colbert is just being himself. Wow.
Even if you don't find him funny, at least more people have been exposed to hockey because of him, which is good.
Tonight's Word: Go Pens.
The Saginaw Spirit play in the Ontario Hockey League. Recently, they had a contest to name a second mascot that they would be introducing. Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central caught wind of this and had everyone that watches his show go to the Saginaw Spirit website and vote for the mascot to be named after Stephen Colbert. As you can tell, Colbert won.
After introducing the new mascot, Saginaw went on a seven-game winning streak.Colbert wouldn't have pushed to have a turtle mascot named after him.
Colbert's signature on his show is the bald eagle and he exhibits reckless patriotism throughout the show. Looking at the jersey he is wearing, now you can see why he did it.
I find Colbert hilarious because you can tell he's really into the character he plays on his show. I'm in disbelief at some people who think that Colbert isn't playing a part on his show; that Colbert is just being himself. Wow.
Even if you don't find him funny, at least more people have been exposed to hockey because of him, which is good.
Speaking of Colbert, here's a rare clip of him totally losing it
Tonight's Word: Go Pens.
I got 99 problems but the NHL ain't one
Before we start the recap, we wanted to extend our thanks to everyone who visited the Pensblog this October. Keep coming because we aren't going anywhere...and neither are the Pens.
Some good games around the NHL tonight...
We will start in Florida, where about 50 people showed up to watch the San Jose Sharks beat the Panthers.. Great goal by the Sharks with about 38 ticks left.
So no one shows up for Panther games, but the Panther franchise can't be moved? ......Whatever
Having two hockey teams in Florida makes as much sense as "Sex and the City"
That show, by the way, is the worst thing to happen to men since Anne Heche said she was straight again.
GO BACK.. GO BACK!!
Why am I bringing this up?
I am flipping through the stations tonight and my remote control batteries break down. And guess what show it stops on? Unreal. This used to happen to me all the time with the station Lifetime, but I blocked it on my TV.
So I am laying on my bed, tired, and in and out of a little daze, totally not realizing that Sex and City is on. And not until my brother looks at me with complete shock do I snap out of it.
I am no stranger to this show. In college, I lived with 2 girls who watched this show everyday, and my ex-girlfriend and her friends swear by it. I think they actually think they are characters.
Its truly unreal. For those of you who don't know, the show centers around Ferris Bueller's wife complaining about men and her 3 slut friends not realizing they are ugly. (I'd bang the brown haired one with a few jack and cokes in me.)
I pose this the question to female readers. Why do women watch this show?
"Sluts Who Are Encouraging 14-year-olds To Be Sexually Active Every Day And Showing Women Everywhere that It Is Okay To Be Dramatic About Everything...and the City"
Moving on before I light myself on fire...
Montreal beat the Sens... If Ray Emery were a condom, Ottawa would have a parking space reserved at planned parent hood.
Double bag it, Ray
The good news for Blackhawk fans: the Blackhawks scored twice.
The bad news: they gave up five to the Islanders
The Isles had a good home stand. Ted Nolan...your thoughts:
The bad news: they gave up five to the Islanders
The Isles had a good home stand. Ted Nolan...your thoughts:
''We never lost our composure,'' Nolan said. ''We're slowly starting to get some feel-good on this team. There was no sense of panic on the bench.''
Thanks Ted...now go to hell.
One other late game just going final
The Preds beat the Canucks 3-2.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Disclaimer
We are in no way affiliated with the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League.
In accordance with the Fair Use Copyright Law, The Pensblog uses logos and registered trademarks of the National Hockey League to convey our criticism and inform the public.
Photos on The Pensblog are used without permission but do not interfere with said owner's profit.
If you own a specific image on this site and want it removed, please e-mail us (thepensblog@gmail.com) and we will be happy to oblige.
wooo
In accordance with the Fair Use Copyright Law, The Pensblog uses logos and registered trademarks of the National Hockey League to convey our criticism and inform the public.
Photos on The Pensblog are used without permission but do not interfere with said owner's profit.
If you own a specific image on this site and want it removed, please e-mail us (thepensblog@gmail.com) and we will be happy to oblige.
wooo
