The Pens looked like they hadn't skipped a beat, when the Muskegon Line Part 8 came out and cycled for about 4 minutes, but they forgot to get a shot on the net.
The next shift, some French guy had a breakaway, but he shoots it into Conk's junk.
Staal-Christensen-Talbot come out and play puck possession. Atlanta's goalie falls asleep waiting for a shot on net.
Gonch monkeyed into the slot and redirected a pass at the net, but big save. Nathan Smith gets jobbed into the net, and the net goes off its moorings. When was the last time you saw a whistle not blown when the net is that messed up?
Butterfly Effect Blog -- Holik eventually goes down and scores a goal.
1-0.
Ugh. Give it up for Bobby Holik, though. He's getting up there in age. And now he is only a minus-16 for the year.
We don't want to job our crack dealer, but FSN's graphic department put Chris Thorburn on the Pens fourth line during the PNC Bank Lines graphic. That would have been OK in October. Get it together boys.
Ruutu came out for a shift after that and totally rammed some turd in the Thrashers zone. For a brief second, it looked like he hit Mark Recchi. But then everyone realized Mark Recchi wouldn't be back that far in his own defensive zone.
Jeff Taffe flies down into the Thrashers zone, with all intents to lift Exelby's stick, but Taffe's stick jobs him in the face. 4-minute edition.
-- Matt Kom --
You didn't think much about it when it happened, but Malkin went down to block a shot and didn't even care about at least covering his face. Dude.
Staal lost his stick on the PK, but the Pens manage to get out of that mess.
It took the Thrashers a few minutes, but they finally were able to put Kovalchuk at the left point and set him up for a one-timer.
2-0.
Kovalchuk, the consummate dick, shows up the Pens bench after the goal with a quick point. Act like you've scored before.
The next time down into the Pens zone, that French guy tripped up Letang. Big power play at the end of the period.
If this is NHL '08, you look forward to the second period 'cause you'll be on offense skating up the screen.
You have something else to look forward to when Ken Klee interferes with Gonch. Another big PP on the way.
For the second time tonight, the power play does nothing at all.
Remember when Kovalchuk pointed at the Pens bench? It is Ruutu's job to go find him and give him an extra little nudge. Not to injure the guy, but just to say: don't do that again.
Kovalchuk tries to get away from the check, but Ruutu's knee hits Kovy's knee.
No one wants to see anyone hurt. But the Penguins don't want to see anyone showing them up. Don't be stupid.
Karma
Atlanta's Steve McCarthy accuses Ruutu of being a communist and goes after him, pelting him with fists. Just an atrocious call. The argument already building on the internet is "Well, what if that happened to Malkin or Crosby?"
Well, first off, it didn't. Secondly, it wasn't kneeing.
If you want to see a kneeing penalty, go to the 1991 Wales Conference Finals and find Ulf Samuelsson jobbing Cam Neely.
The worst part of it all? Ruutu gets 5 minutes for fighting while never taking his gloves off or throwing a punch.
Somehow the Pens come out of this shorthanded on a 3-minute all-you-can-get power play for Atlanta.
Whatev. The refs are quick to bring out the make-up call when Holik gives Malkin a love tap with his stick.
The damage has been done though. Ruutu is gone for the game. A short bench gets shorter.
During some 4-on-4 business, Malkin gets a stick in the face. No call. Next trip down the ice, Nazzer gets the stick up into a Thrasher. Penalty. Just how things were happening.
Did Errey call Nazzer's penalty a "2-minute johnson"? If so, that is awesome.
The Pens kill it off, and all of a sudden, the second period was disappearing, and the two-goal deficit started looking like Mount Washington.
Sykora almost got the Pens going, but Kari Lehtonen was a brick wall.
Gonch heads to the box, just in time for Ilya Kovalchuk to return to the ice on the power play. The Pens kill it off, and Kovalchuk heads back to the locker room.
Next thing you know, Bobby Orrpik flies down the wing and gets across the slot to Nathan Smith.
Smith turns his skate to slow the puck down, but it caroms off and goes into the net. Helen Keller could see he had no intent of kicking it in, but Helen Keller isn't in the war room. No goal.
Why did the review take so long? -- Jas155 --
One of the worst periods of the season mercifully comes to an end.
The Pens come out and get a quick power play. EC gets a huge chance. Kari Lehtonen says go to hell.
That French dude has been the thorn in our sacks all game. He gets a shorthanded breakaway and snipes it past Conk. 3-0.
After Lehtonen puts another brick in the wall with a stop on Laraque, A.C. Slater puts one home. 4-0.
We've posted some graphic male pictures in our day. This one is probably the most offensive.
Conk gets pulled. Sabu goes between the pipes. We have our Conk sunglasses on, so we'll say that the Pens should have had at least a couple goals on the board. to help the cause.
The third period drifted past the 10:00 mark, and wait, there's a goal. 4-1. Prideblog.
There was still time. But not tonight. If you have watched enough hockey, you can feel it.
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PSA BLOG
If anyone wants a good program that is like Photoshop, we recommend [GIMP] It is a free download, and it is gold.
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The Pens took their 22nd penalty of the night as time disappeared. "Kill it. Whatever." -- Pens Nation.
Father time enters the building, and all you can hope for is for someone to run Bobby Holik. Nothing going on.
One thing of note" Atlanta PD issued a search party for Marian Hossa.
Everyone wants him, but is he even good? Unless the Penguins are planning to do magic shows with disappearing acts, they should not trade for him.
Lame.
.............................................
STATS
Whitney: 1G
Crosby: Natural hat trick on his PS3.
MISCELLANEOUS
Kari Lehtonen can be a big deal when he wants to be.
Does Marian Hossa play for the Thrashers? Seriously. Did he play tonight?
Don Wad is a moron.
Did Kris Beech walk in from Canada?
What's with Atlanta? Their P.A. announcer has to inform the fans every time there's an offsides, when there's an icing, and even says teams when teams go to even-strength while play is in progress. Stupid. If Mellon Arena did that, there would be stunners handed out.
The Pens are in midst of 4 games in 6 days and like 32 games in 67 days or some craziness.
We were gonna bring up when is the right time to spot-start Sabu, but that question will be futile shortly when MAF returns.
There's gonna be some solid arguments from both fan camps of MAF and Conk on who should be getting the most starts. But that's for another day that is rapidly approaching.
We don't know what is going to happen the rest of the season.
But when you walk into New Jersey and beat the Devils at their own game, you did something.
Getting production from Staal, EC, and Malone is more important than anyone could have hoped for.
People will always be on Michel Therrien. But give the guy some credit, if only for this game. He had his battered team focused and ready to start the second half of the season.
To A-T-L we go.
.......................................
-- DeathbyEmu --
Kris Beetch didn't show up for the game, which sums up his career. [We stole that joke from someone in c-blog]
It was the tale of two teams for the first 6 minutes or so.
The Pens were flying around.
The Devils didn't know what was going on. They were offsides about 8 times.
Despite some textbook cycling, Marty Brodeur was turning everything aside.
He made every save with a level of smug never seen before... ...Which, if you have ever watched a Pens-Devils game, is the typical script. Brodeur keeps the Devils around until the Devils get a break.
Bam. The Penguins jump was halted when Jordan Staal went to the box for a high stick. They almost survived it, but Mike Rupp and his huge balls were no match for Daryl Sydor, as he popped it over a spread-eagle Conklin to put the Devils ahead.
1-0.
Ryan Malone=Stunned.
There's louder cheers for a priest coming out for a big mass than what the 8 people in attendance displayed after that goal.
As visions of an eventual 2-0 Devils win danced in your head, all you were left to do was watch Orpik get acclimated to his winger position.
-- Ryan O'Shea -- What a picture
Alain Nasreddine got the job done during the time he was on the ice in the first. A number-6 defenseman's credo: If you don't notice him, it's a good thing.
Speaking of d-men, Kris Letang took a puck to the grille, and considering the Penguins recent luck, you expect Letang to go down with rubber poisoning or some shit.
Towards the end of the period, Jarkko Ruutu put the Pens behind the 8 ball with a stupid interference penalty. What followed was the quickest and most uneventful power play ever. The Devils do hit the post on a desperation shot, though. If it would have went in, you could have simulated the rest of the season.
There was an empty feeling going into the first intermission that no one can explain. It was kind of like the time good friend and long-time reader Ronald McDonald got led away by the police for some inappropriate behavior in the playground.
If you've been alive more than a week, you know Jordan Staal has to step up in Crosby's absence.
Early in the second, he drives to the net, and the puck disappears. Staal raises his arms, the referee points.
Whatever.
Count it.
1-1.
As the fast-moving second period hit its stride, Devil turd Aaron Asham elbows Kris Letang in the chops. The Pens power play looked like a train wreck. No dice.
Why are faceoffs a big deal? Because in the wrong hands, faceoffs can result in Mike Rupp scoring a cheap goal. 2-1.
Mike Rupp doesn't score all year. All of sudden he scores two goals tonight? Not our year. The Penguins weren't gonna make the playoffs after that goal; that's how bad it felt.
But a couple minutes later, the hockey gods sent Erik Christensen into the Devils zone.
The Devils make a huge mistake, Max Talbot flips the puck out in front. Christensen gets the puck point-blank range in front of the net. Without thinking, he turns Brodeur into a woman.
2-2.
We're not psychiatrists, but when a player instinctively goes to that move, confidence is there. And the big knock on Christo has always been his confidence. Digusting move.
The Pens got their first lead of the night soon after when Malkin's line goes to town.
Tic-Tac-Malone. 3-2. If Peter Sykora is ever on the third line again, we are taking a building hostage in Pittsburgh.
Brian Gionta decides to cheapshot Jeff Taffe. Gionta is then surrounded by BGL and Brooks Orpik. Gionta pees himself.
Powerplayblog. They moved the puck around, but Brodeur decided to start playing hockey again. He goes into the Malkin Savings & Loan and robs him.
Huge stat is revealed. The Pens are 21-1-1 or something when leading after two periods. Sergei Brylin helps the cause. He takes a penalty? Fox sports refuses to show a replay. Did Orpik draw it?
Powerplay Blog comes out flying. Gonch makes a nice pass to Sykora. Post. Puck jobs out in front.
Ryan Malone eventually bats a puck out of mid-air past Brodeur.
4-2.
Later in the period, Zach Parise exhibits that he's a moron. If you're gonna try to job, take the penalty like a man if you're caught.
He blatantly holds Scuderi's stick and gets a penalty for it. Shut up and go to the box.
Yeah, that didn't matter anyway, 'cause SuperStar slashes someone's stick in two pieces. The Pens kill that one off eventually.
The clock moved over the 10:00 hump, and it was time for the Devils to go to their neighborhood pharmacy and pick up a prescription for their own medicine.
If you played with yourself in enjoyment as you watched the Devils flail about through the neutral zone, you are not alone.
As a last ditch effort, Brodeur heads to the bench.
Game.
STATS
Malone: 2 G
Sykora, Talbot: 2 A
Malkin: 1 A
Christensen: 1 G, 1 A
Conk: 24 saves
MISCELLANEOUS
Mike Rupp providing your team's only offense: Unless you're playing a team of ferrets, you aren't going to win.
The second line was out of its mind.
Four straight wins in New Jersey.
EC's goal was life-changing.
Orpik held his own.
Conk or Sabu tomorrow?
Good times.
............................
Special jobber of the week award goes to Ryan Whitney.
His thoughts on Kris Beetch not being able to get into America. [trib]
He could get into Canada, I bet," Pens defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "That would never be a problem. You play hockey, you can get into Canada.
"America's got no respect for the NHL."
"We got all these people from Mexico and all these guys coming in, and Beech can't get in," Whitney said. "I don't get it; he speaks English.
No one knows if these comments were made tongue-in-cheek of foot-in-mouth.
What a huge game to start off with coming out of the ASG break, which is hopefully the last time we have to use those initials.
All the hype surrounding the call-up of Alain Nasreddine came to a head today, when news of Brooks Orpik playing on the wing tonight swarmed across the internet.
When was the last time anyone anywhere in the world woke up and said,
"Yes!!! We play the Devils tonight"?
Hockey fans have a fix that couldn't be satiated by the All-Star Game. We were going to recap the All-Star Game. But then the Atlanta Boys Choir sang the national anthem, so we couldn't.
There are some things that have gone down over the weekend:
The most interesting move was the call-up of D-man Alain Nasreddine. [ Penguins.com ]
The Pens have also picked up Kris Beech off waivers and called up forward Nathan Smith.
Picture: The Pens locker room
Why has Shero waited this long since Eaton's injury to call up a 7th defenseman? People study the stock market and know what to look for before shit goes down.
There's been solid discussion in C-blog about the pros and cons of Orpik and Nazzer.
But if you're trying to find a reason for this call-up, it may be the unforeseen possibility of Shero dealing Brooks Orpik, who will be a highly sought-after free agent this offseason.
This may be Nazzer's test-drive.
No one knows what the return for Orpik could be, but a semi-established winger with potential would make sense. Or maybe another d-man. We may be talking out of our butthole on this whole thing. But it's the kind of trade that blindsides you.
All we have to say is Brooks Orpik is an underrated passer.
There are several others rumors surfacing. It is basically going to be a month-long process of doing this. One possible trade partner might be the Blues?
Andy Strickland from [ hockeybuzz ] had some interesting insight on the Blue situation.
===========
And why was Nathan Smith called up?
We can't find a link anywhere, but there were reports that Kris Beech had immigration issues and can't get out of Canada in time for the Devils game. We're serious.
Nathan Smith may just be the filler until Beech can assuredly join the team.
[PSI] is reporting that Colby Armstrong is out tonight with an illness.
Speaking of Kris Beech, easily the most reviled player in a Penguins uniform, commentorblog found this gem where he rips on the Penguin logo at the end of the video.
-- NHL Out Three To Five Weeks With Sprained Right Poster Boy [ The Onion ]
What a pic.
[ESPN] goes balls-out on a huge Crosby article. You may think it is too long.
But Scott Burnside does a good job, especially in talking about how Colby Armstrong and Crosby watch TV together.
Crosby then says his roommate has a television secret of his own ... "Ellen."
"I'm going to throw him under the bus on that one. He loves Ellen DeGeneres," Crosby says.
Right before a pregame nap?
"No, it's right after. It's hilarious. To a T, we wake up from our nap and that show's coming on and she's dancing."
When Armstrong finds out Crosby has spilled the beans, Armstrong drags a reporter over to Crosby and announces loudly that he wants to do the interview over, that he's going to reveal Sid's affection for Chandler on "Friends."
Crosby interrupts, revealing that not only does Armstrong love "Ellen" but he also likes to dance along to her show opening.
Good stuff.
There are some other great stories in there as well. If you plan on taking a 45-minute dump at some point today, look it up.
Teemu Selanne is back, jack. [ TSN ] The NHL may actually play another ASG just so another undeserving Duck can make the team.
No dig on Selanne, though. The NHL will lose a beast when he retires.
Unless the NHL decides to use soccer nets, Selanne's record of 76 goals by a rookie will never be touched, unless the record morphs into a 12-year-old boy and moves to an Ottawa suburb.
He will forever be remembered for the goal celebration where he threw his glove up and "shot" it with his stick like it was a clay pigeon.
Since there are about 400 embedded vids on this main page, here's the link to that goal celebration. [ YouTube ]
Goalie Ray Emery was late for practice again. [ TSN ]
All we can say is this. We know a guy who knows a guy. And he took a picture of Emery as he arrived for practice.
Coach Denis Savard wants his team to "commit to the Indian." [ Chicago Tribune ]
Judging by the description in that article, here are the shirts fans are making. [ Cafe Press ] We already have one on the way.
[ Kukla's Korner ] found this vid of Savard's now-infamous quote.
John C. asked us for it, which triggered our memory.
Hurry up, before that site's bandwidth gets jobbed. If you don't download all those to your computer, shame on you for six weeks.
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We will most likely find a way to use "One From The Heart" as much as possible. Someone in c-blog asked if Ron Newcomer can be seen at the 1:38 mark of the first video.
It is close. You can just feel that he is in that video somewhere.
Sometime during your adventures on Sunday, your cellphone beeped. You take your phone out, thinking it's some friend asking you "what's going on 2nite?"
Instead, you get hit with this:
"pens picked up beech"
There is not a word in the English language that describes the concept of Kris Beech returning to the Penguins. [ TSN ]
Picture: Kris Beetch being a bust.
For some reason we can't explain, we have nothing but contempt for the man. But that has to change.
It's not his fault that Pens GM Craig Patrick pinned him as the next Ron Francis.
Looking back is always painful. Check out this article from the [PG].
It is from April 2004
Asked if the Penguins plan to extend qualifying offers, which require at least a 10 percent raise, to Beech, Lupaschuk and Sivek in order to retain their rights, General Manager Craig Patrick responded simply, "Right. Yeah."
Patrick added a predictable asterisk -- "All this contract stuff is a little premature, because we really haven't had meetings to discuss everybody" -- but was firm that all three could figure in the Penguins' long-term plans.
His thumbnail assessment of each:
Beech -- "He'll have a good career ahead of him. ... He understands the game defensively a lot better than he did when he first turned pro."
On a 2008 Pens team laden with centers...and after a career of being passed around the NHL more than Mike Richards' sister at a fraternity, it's time for Kris Beech to do something.
He's a Penguin, again.
In a perfect world he will score three goals against the Devils, then go on to win the Art Ross Trophy. But this ain't no fairy tale.
The fact that this is happening is a little hard to take.
We've elaborated numerous times the danger that the Post-Gazette's archives entails. We found out there was an opera in Prague about the 1998 gold-medal Czech Republic hockey team.
The Penguins will always be in the backseat in the Pittsburgh sports scene.
But think how tough it is for the Thrashers in Atlanta, one of 13 U.S. cities to house teams from all four major sports. [ AJC ]
==============
Speaking of Atlanta, we wanted to entertain an interesting thought:
Ilya Kovalchuk was suspended one game for that hit on Michal Rozsival on Tuesday night. He then served that one-game suspension on Thursday night when they played the Rangers again. [ ESPN ]
This leads to the question, should (does) a player get to participate in the ASG while in the midst of serving a suspension?
-- The NHLPA still has to give the okay for those games in Europe next season. [ TSN ]
-- Scott Burnside handed out his half-season awards. [ ESPN ]
Ty Conklin gets his comeback player of the half-year.
But then he also gives Todd Bertuzzi the "biggest disappointment" award. To be a disappointment, doesn't the player initially have to generate expectations? Bertuzzi has been mud since the Moore incident.
You then have to scroll through all the other jobbers to get to Brian's section. It will look like this.
Just click the hand. It will turn green:
And thats it.
You can vote as many times as you want.
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Never come to us for breaking news.
The Pens will be playing in Stockholm, Sweden, to kick off next season. [ PG ] There's gonna be some big-deal announcement about it this weekend in Atlanta.
The Swedes love him.
The Rangers and Tampa will be playing in Prague, Czech Republic. The Rangers have like 30 Czechs on their roster.
It's ridiculous how much we will have gone through by the time those Sweden games come around.
If you relied simply on the [ AP's recap ] to find out what happened during the game, you would have come away with the idea that BGL hit Louden Downey and then everyone went home.
"He knew what he was doing. That's an extremely dangerous play and the league has obviously dealt with this enough this year that they know what they are doing." -- Coach John Stevens
He's the coach of the Flyers, so there is immediate hatred for the man. But we knew there was another underlying reason why we detest him.
==================
The commentors over at the gameday post of [ The700Level ] were on fire.
Just went over to pensblog and I dunno besides the comments which ehh I could discuss but whats the point scoreboard speaks for that, the thing that annoys me most is how it is just pictures with a sentence or two thrown in there. Now I am not saying its needs to be like a newspaper and being just straight text but a four year old could google their favorite sports team and put a blog of just pictures together. they need to add some kind of substance. - the major
I was about to say the same thing... that site is a joke... no structure at all with nothing of substance on the page besides the schedule and standings at the top... just random photoshopped images... i guess with us whooping their ass every game this year they don't have much to talk about but c'mon its called frames people - some terd
They don't want substance - they want 30 photoshops depicting Ben Eager in a dress along with repulsive homosexual pornography. The fans of the blog giggle along with that nonsense, which says a lot. The Pensblog is the Air America of the hockey blogosphere. - Johnny G.
- Anonymous
If you aren't a troll here, then you know we can turn up the traditional-writing crap when we have to.
Reading paragraphs on a computer screen is torture to us.
And not to put running a blog on a pedestal, but anyone who criticizes a blog better have their own, or just shut up.
Our blog is a reader-run blog. We post links people find. We talk about stupid shit. We aren't touching ourselves over our grasp on the English language.
======================
Pensblog Charlie has been very upset about this. His great-great-great-great-great-great Uncle Charles was from Philadelphia.
Thanks to everyone for defending the fort here in C-Blog when we were invaded by Flyers fans.
In another website's comments, Flyers fans were commending themselves on formulating a plan that involved coming here and getting a rise out of us.
Have they ever been on the internet before?
Of course you're going to get pissed-off responses. Don't think you did anything special.
Since the Flyers did eat our lunch for us on Thursday, there's no need to look forward to the next tilt on February 10th until February 9th.
So the Pensblog and The 700 Level made a little mayor's wager on the outcome of the Flyers-Pens game last night, wherein the winning city's representative gets to post whatever suits their fancy on the other's site. Naturally, Philly won, and we are here to enjoy our spoils.
While trying to decide how to shape this post, several ideas came to mind. I could do a game thread, complete with hard returns after single sentences, cartoon characters doing adult things, and PhotoShops of Michel Therrian wearing a Borat singlet. Or perhaps I could be inflammatory, titling the post, "Another Chapter in the Annals of Pittsburgh's Inferiority Complex," and discussing the big brother city/little brother city relationship that defines our political and sporting rivalries (ie, you think there's a big rivalry; we don't pay attention to you). However, although they'd be fun and surely provide some oxygen for the comment flame, neither of those things would accurately convey how I feel about the Penguins. To be honest, I've always kind of liked PA's other hockey franchise.
I'd be lying if I said this weren't my favorite collectible.
How could anyone, at any time, find fault with Mario Lemieux? I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a black Jagr away jersey, with "Pittsburgh" diagonally down the front and an "A" on the chest (they need to go back to that design, by the way). When I was a wee hockey fan, I collected jerseys as soon as I could afford them, and this was my second favorite (Roy white Canadiens was first). I didn't love the Pens or anything, but it was hard not to be amazed by the play of a young Euro star like Jaromir Jagr. Years later, I wouldn't be caught dead in anything but Phila gear, but times were different when I was 11 years old and skating on a hose-frozen backyard snowfall.
When I heard the Penguins might lose their franchise, I thought it would be a devastating crime against hockey, and definitely the city of Pittsburgh. I nervously tracked the news, which was increasingly ominous for a while. And as much as it may surprise you, when I watched as Super Mario & Co. rebuilt that franchise with unprecedented good draft positions and perfect selections, I was happy. I can't lie; there are quite a few teams for which I have bus-accident hatred… The Penguins just aren't one of them. Not being from New York, New Jersey, or DC helps. We think of you kinda like we think of Baltimore, which is to say, we don't think about you very much at all.
But I am glad to see this rivalry heat up. Since both franchises entered the league in 1967, the Flyers have owned the Pens, winning 50 more games over that time frame. This year, Philly has won the first 4 games. How could I not welcome some new venom, and hopefully, bragging rights? Perhaps with time, rather than Lemieux's iconicism, the Darius Kasparitises of the world will become my new old Pens memories (both his being an absolute scumbag, and also the fact that he's in the frame when Keith Primeau hits "The Shot.")
I can feel my dislike for the boys in Black and Vegas Gold growing daily though, and it does so not because of the Georges Laraque's of the world… my vitriol is aimed almost entirely at Sidney Crosby.
Crosby is undoubtedly a player of amazing talent and scary potential. He will be a thorn in the side of the Flyers and their fans for the next 10 years (at least). However, the same can be said for Evgeni Malkin, and to a lesser extent, Jordan Staal and perhaps Colby Armstrong. I'd love to see any of those latter guys skate in Orange and Black (as well as Laraque). Who wouldn't? I love to watch them play right now, even against my Flyers. But I don't want Crosby. He'd have no place in Philly with his dives, complaints, and expectations of kid-glove treatments. I understand it's crazy not to want an MVP-caliber player on your team, and Paul Holmgren likely wouldn't appreciate me saying so, but I hope to Kate Smith I never see Sid Crosby on the Flyers. He embodies the only kind of player I truly dislike. I like the agitators, the Euro burners, the fourth-line plodding Canadians, the brawlers who have so little talent they might as well where a cape and wrestling tights, even when they're on the other team; but I can't stand an immensely talented player who constantly takes dives, talks trash, but won't fight.
I'll take Mike Richards as my team's captain over Sid Crosby any day of the week. It takes more than scoring. It takes a man to be a leader on the ice, and so far, I don't see Crosby as that kind of guy. Go ahead and throw his stats at me. I know 'em. I don't care. I just don't like him.
That said, when I was having a beer in a hotel bar earlier this week and saw Crosby go down in a heap, with the words "high ankle sprain" at the bottom of the replay, I was pretty disappointed. I knew this great game was right around the corner, and the rivalry is more fun when Sid's on the ice, particularly in Philly. I also freely admit that Sid is great for hockey, a struggling sport that I love. His shootout goal in the Winter Classic helped get hockey some of the attention it deserves, and his absence at the All-Star festivities is unfortunate for the game.
Thanks to the Pensblog for the opportunity to guest post. I wish you success in your endeavor, and hope that someday you will have literate commenters with opposable thumbs.
The horn sounds. You see Randy Jones of the Flyers high-fiving people.
The smug Philadelphia crowd cheering.
If that feeling isn't hate, what is?
We got four more. Dicks.
...............................
National Anthem
--Cragger--
--Alex A--
--Lis-- .............................
FIRST PERIOD
The puck drops. And you remember the feeling. Good old-fashion hate.
But that feeling isn't completely realized until about two minutes into the game.
BGL and Riley Cote throw down. BGL dominates.
You could feel the little extra ferocity behind the punches.
After the fight, it was all Flyers all the time.
Randy Jones with a wide open net. Nope.
Some joke gets a chance. Nope.
At one point, shots were 9-1 in favor of the Flyers. But Conkblock kept the Penguins afloat.
However, that would not last. A meaningless faceoff turns into trouble.
Mrs. Danielle Briere wins it. Jason Smith drives it to the net. R.J. Joke cleans up the trash. 1-0
The Pens didn't have much going for them. They were stunned.
But then Jarkko Ruutu stepped onto the ice. He brought some much-needed energy to the table.
The Pens fed off it, and late in the first, they got some good chances.
They went nuts in the Flyers zone. Ryan Whitney with a nice pass to Sydor. Sydor finds Malkin. Ruutu has it somewhere in there and gets jobbed by Hatcher.
Malkin kicks it around. Shot.
1-1
The Pens keep up the hard work and draw a penalty a minute later.
But with time running down in the first, Ryan Malone gets called for goaltender interference, which is odd, because we didn't know they called that penalty in Philadelphia
.........................
SECOND PERIOD
FSN = Mistake
Everything was going fine until FSN drops the bomb of a lifetime. They bring Keith Primeau into the broadcast booth.
We immediately switch to Mike Lange on the radio. Was David Volek not available? Why not bring out Gary Valk? Unreal.
Not sure who was responsible for this. Maybe it was for a good cause. Who knows. But hockey isn't the type of game where you need people in the booth anyway.
Of course, this leads to FSN showing the five-overtime goal Primeau scored. Why even do that?
FSN should be fined by the FCC for being insensitive. Someone needs to wake up down there.
Back to the action, the Primeau Effect is in full force as the Flyers nearly score. Conkblock says no again.
But the Flyers get a powerplay, thanks to a Brooks Orpik slash.
The PK steps up big time and kill it. But Gonch has a hiccup and gives the puck up.
Some dude gets it over to Mike Richards. Richards finds Tom Jones.
2-1
After the goal, Max Talbot flips out and breaks his stick on the post. Good times.
Things looked bleak ad the Flyers kept coming. After the teams skate 4-0n-4, Derian Hatcher runs Conk. Guess you are allowed to do that now.
The refs make-up the call a minute later by calling Mrs. Danielle Briere on a goalie-interference call. Briere goes to the penalty box and opens the door, which was the most hard work he did all night.
The Pens powerplay wastes no time. Malkin to Whitney. Whitney drops it to Gonch. One-timer, Sykora deflects it past Biron. 2-2
As the period is coming to an end, all hell breaks loose.
It all starts when Steve Downie is going to the boards. BGL "hits" Downie from behind. Downie goes down like he has been shot.
Great acting.
Downie gets up and goes to the locker room. BGL is given a 5-minute major and a game-misconduct.
With 2.6 second left, world-class dick John Stevens puts Riley Cote out there to try and pick a fight. He does his best, but no one dances with him.
.............
THIRD PERIOD
The third period had all the makings of a classic.
The Flyers, on their gift powerplay, struggle. They turn the puck over and over.
Something Philly teams are good at doing at home
But the Pens can't hold the fort. With just over a minute or so left on the major, fittingly, JV sends one into the net. 3-2
The Pens were stunned, but not for long. Staal springs Ryan Malone on some sort of awkward semi-breakaway.
Malone can't beat Biron. Staal goes flying into the net. Ryan Whitney swoops in and buries the puck.
Chaos sets in.
The net was jarred loose when Staal flew into it. We go to the War Room. Goal. 3-3
What a huge goal. But, again, it would not last for long.
What would a game without Mike Knuble scoring be like?
4-3.
Shortly after that, the wheels almost come off when Mike Richards has a wide-open net to shoot at. Luckily for us, people with egregious contracts stop caring after getting their money.
Father Time enters the building as the Pens have a few good shifts. Filewhich played a solid hockey game. He nearly scores his first NHL goal, but Biron says no.
Before you know it, there is under five minutes to play. The Pens can't get anything going.
Ryan Malone gets called for something. Awful call.
End it.
Game.
STATS
Malkin 1G, 1A
Sykora 1G
Whitney 1G, 1A
Gonch 1A
Staal 1A
......................................
We lost our bet with the [700 Club]. They will be posting something later today or whenever.
There's something in the water down at the Mellon.
You can add Tyler Kennedy to the list of ailing Pens, as he goes down with mono. [ Yahoo ]
Who's more cursed than the Penguins this season? [ James Mirtle ] says only Chicago, Florida, and Boston have more guys on injured reserve.
...............................................
Even with 1/3 of the team on the shelf, this game has not lost its luster. The good news is that Colby will be back for tonight against Philadelphia.
And just so bandwidth doesn't become an issue every time you come here, after Thursday night, we'll be moving the PhotoShop Expo back into the archives in 1984.
.........................................
Lord Therrien pulled Malkin aside before the Montreal game. [ PG ]
"I had a good meeting with him," Therrien said. "I had Sergei Gonchar there because I wanted to make sure [Malkin] really understood what I was trying to say to him because a lot of times he just says, 'Yeah, yeah,' and I'm not quite sure he understands."
"I want him to take responsibility because he's our best forward, but I don't want him to think that he's got to do it by himself."
Apparently, Irish Ty Conklin somehow doesn't believe in superstitions. Or, since he lost against Tampa, he changed it up, thus believing superstitions.
==============
STATS UPDATE
Conklin needs to reach the 27-game pace to start getting recognized on the NHL goalie leaderboards.
If he plays the next 3 games, he will be on pace for 27.3333 games.
The Muskegon line came out for the third shift of the game. You then realized that this fourth line full of guys who want to stay up here will be bringing 110% every night, which will make it a somewhat dangerous line.
Some of the in-the-know Pens fans in attendance gave the three boys a nice little cheer at the end of their shift.
After that line went to the bench, Malkin came out for a while.
And then Staal-Talbot-Christensen put on the yellow jersey. Talbot pushes to the front of the net and gets it past Olie the Jokie.
1-0.
Crosby got an assist on the goal.
Alexander Semin went to the box after that for the hook. ( Not yet...)
The first unit moved around, looked around, nothing. The second unit didn't get anything going either.
Going into the second half of the period, the Capitals got the equalizer. The Caps hit Sabu with a steel chair. No clue whats going on.
1-1.
We've dealt with this goalie delay-of-game penalty a couple times this season. Kolzig flopped out to the top of the circles to freeze the puck. Wasn't that called earlier this season?
The refs realize they are mud for not calling that and give the Pens a power play 10 seconds later when a Capital does something stupid.
The Pens flaccid power play did nothing.
Somewhere in the middle of the period, Ray Shero gets interviewed. Cable ratings go through the roof.
Someone almost scores when Shero is talking. How come no one ever scores when the sideline reporter is interviewing someone?
As the period winded down, the Craps struck again. They mucked around, and Ovechkin let fire a one-timer. You didn't think a puck could rebound off of mud with that kind of force, but it did...right to Kozlov. He puts it home.
Picture: The webmaster of WashingtonCapitals.com celebrates the big goal.
2-1.
The Pens were down one goal to the Caps, Crosby was nowhere to be found, and Sabutage was Jokotage.
But Malkin jumped onto the ice and changed life.
He dominates, takes on everybody but Rod Langway, and puts a wicked backhand past Kolzig. 2-2.
You always hear people say that something "is a game of inches." Usually, that merits a kick to that person's mouth.
At the end of the first period, though, if Ovechkin lands that hit on Malkin just 2 inches to the right, you could've packed up the season right there.
[Eric P.]
Instead of landing the hit, Ovechkin goes sailing. Capitals fans everywhere whine that the Penguins training staff moved the boards closer so Ovechkin would hit the dasher.
Did Malkin get the worst of that hit? If Ovechkin didn't go careening uncontrollably into the boards, we would say yeah.
At the horn, Ruutu did something stupid, so the Pens were gonna be on the PK to start the second.
...............................................
Before and after the game, Versus was showing Karate Kid movies.
What a villain
You could run a blog about the scene where Miyagi jumps over that fence and takes care of business.
As the Caps started their second-period power play, some boos started raining down on Ovechkin.
He uses the boos as fuel to put one past a stunned Dany Sabourin.
3-2.
An eerie silence drops over the Mellon.
Erik Christensen drew a penalty later, so the Pens had a chance to get it right back. They didn't even have to set up the PP.
Evgeni Malkin, who is in another world, jobs down the slot and snipes one past Kolzig. It may have the D-man's stick, but nobody cares. You know where he put it. Top shelf.
3-3. The battle of over-the-top goal celebrations was well underway.
So, there we were -- 3-3, not even halfway through the game. This is what the new NHL should be.
Before you could catch your breath, Alexander Semin puts his stick into Kris Letang's face. ( ...wait for it... )
It took the Pens about 20 seconds to take the lead with that PP. Ryan Whitney dumps a shot-pass to Sykora. Kolzig was still wiping up his tears from the '90s, leaving Sykora with a wide-open net.
4-3. If this was football, someone would have drawn this:
The Mellon faithful start the KOLZIG chant soon after. What a humiliating thing to face.
Finally, two stars were having a showdown in a Caps/Pens game. All it took was for Sid not to be in the lineup.
He even drinks water better than Ovechkin. m-u-l-l-e-t
To answer right back, Ovechkin jobbed around and slammed a solid one-timer past Sabu to tie the game up .
4-4. Backstrom made a big-time pass.
Capitals sentiments aside, it was a joy to watch the first half of this game with Malkin and Ovechkin dominating the ice.
After that fourth Caps goal, Therrien realized that Sabourin was actually Sabutaging the Pens chances of winning an NHL game.
He makes a call to the Pens runway.
Conky Kong [Matt W]
The Pens found themselves on the PK soon after. Big kill.
Then A break in the action to repair glass resulted in the game losing its unreal flow.
Whits went to the box later, but the Caps went in soon after for interference.
After that 4-on-4 ended, the Capitals finally tested ConkBlock.
He was up to the task.
Jordan Staal puts an exclamation mark on the period with a douching of Donald Brashear at the horn.
After some jobbing early in the third, Malkin came out of nowhere for his first chance at the HT, but Kolzig decided to make a save.
And then it got interesting...
The Capitals looked like they scored right off a faceoff, but the referee saw a penalty and threw his hand up before his optical nerves could send signals to his brain that a goal was scored, negating any claims that the referees were favoring the Pens.
Picture: Caps owner Ted Leonsis beaches himself in protest of the call.
That Capital penalty led to the Penguins going down to the other end and scoring a goal. Olaf Kolzig immediately gives the wash-out signal...which the NHL actually stole from Razor Ramon when he would signal a Razor's Edge was coming.
They go to the war room.
For the first time in the game, the Versus announcers stopped being Capital homers and said the goal under review looked like it was gonna stand.
After the review, the referee knew he was gonna be the shit.
He almost dislocates his shoulder as he plays to the crowd with an emphatic point to center ice. 5-4.
-- Seth from [ Empty Netters ] --
Great shot of 66 giving a smirk after the signal. Was the phone line to Toronto actually a direct line to that box? He's a beast.
Joe Benawhatever said that Malkin and Ovechkin were going at it like rams. What a weird sentence.
During a delayed penalty against the Pens, it looked like the Conklin legend grew as he dove over to make a save, but it was Ryan Whitney's skate with the big save.
On the ensuing penalty kill, the Pens were in trouble. But you know what happened.
Conkblock
He followed up that PK performance by committing trapezoidal desertion. He was gonna have to sleep in the bed he made.
There were no real threats on that PK. It was killed again.
The Pens went to the penalty box yet again when Staal held someone's stick. Finally, it came time to pay.
Kozlov just sat there in the faceoff circle and roped a one-timer top shelf.
5-5.
What a hockey game.
The rest of regulation time was snoozeblog. It was headed to OT.
"OVERTIME brought to you by Las Vegas"? WTF Versus.
One minute into overtime, Washington shoots themselves in the balls. Twice. There was a slash, and then a blatant hook on Malkin.
The delayed penalty brought Conk to the bench and an extra attacker onto the ice.
But do you immediately give it to the other team there? If our memory isn't a joke, Lemieux would do hand it right over every time. It's a big issue in c-blog and message boards everywhere.
If the Pens actually could score on the 5-on-3, it wouldn't have mattered. Some dude from Washington blocked some huge shots.
Give it up to the Capitals PK unit for shutting down passing and shooting lanes. What a performance.
That 5-0n-3 will be a huge talking point for the rest of the week. As soon as the Caps killed it, it seemed like it was just their night.
Malkin and A.O. both get rushes, but respectively each are drained.
Erik Christensen starts things off and misses the net egregiously.
The thorn in our sac all game was Kozlov. But he was ConkBlocked.
Kris LeGame jumped onto the ice. He does a dipsy-doodle and hits the crossbar.
Alex Ovechkin comes out and puts it home.
Sick
Therrien sends out Jarkko Ruutu. While you're already ripping Therrien on a message board for not sending out Malkin, Ruutu scores to tie it up. How do goalies not know what he is going to do?
It was up to Conklin to keep the world alive.
( ...Now ) Semin leaves a bad taste in our mouths as he gets it past Conk.
Game.
STATS
Malkin: 2 G, 1 A
Ovechkin: 2 G, 1 A
Backstrom: 4 A ( all were given to him by Gary Bettman )
Sabu: Shakier than Ali. 9 saves on 13 shots.
Conk: 16 saves on 17 shots. More solid than Mr. Miyagi.
MISCELLANEOUS
GAME OF THE YEAR
Mike Emrick is easy to pick on, but we would take him every day of the week over the Versus crew from tonight's game.
Pains us to say it. The Caps are good. It's about time.
Kolzig will still have nightmares.
As commentor Flyer Hater said, a gut feeling move by Therrien in starting Sabu may have lost this game.
Using last season's standings, the Pens need to average a little over a point per game the rest of the season to contend for the playoffs. Do it.
If, when you left work Friday, a co-worker told you in the parking lot that by Monday, the Pens playoff hopes would be up in the air, you would have given them a stunner.
It could be worse. You could be a Packers fan.
If you think it's cold in Pittsburgh, imagine waking up in Green Bay this morning.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
What a week ahead of hatred ahead.
First, the Pens host the Craps tonight.
Capitals blog [Japers' Rink] has some quality jobbing going on.
Ouch.
And then we have Thursday:
Flyers in Philly. [Lady Jaye]
Bring the noise.
......................
[ TSN ] broke out an article at 6:13 Sunday night.
Sidney Crosby underwent treatment Saturday in Pittsburgh on what was initially diagnosed as a high ankle sprain.
Sources say the treatment was very painful for the reigning MVP and Crosby will have an MRI on Monday to officially diagnose the injury to his right leg.
"Initially diagnosed?" We're looking for any light at the end of the tunnel that we can find.
We were doubting humanity following the Montreal game Saturday night. But then we checked our e-mail on Sunday.
-- JM Williams -- -- Anonymous phone number -- It may have been Abraham Zapruder.
Huge contributions there.
We made the mistake of Googling "Zapruder". Sometimes conspiracy theories can go too far.
This site says some lady was holding Zapruder steady because he knew he was gonna be startled by the gunshots. [ Some lunatic with pics ]
But then you wonder if you would have instinctively directed the camera to the grassy knoll instead of keeping it on the President if in fact shots came from there. And then you go insane.
Yes, Mario Lemieux is probably in the best shape of his life. But no, he's not coming back.
-- An anonymous commentor delved into the archives of his soul to find this gem. [ PG ]
In a Q&A session with Dave Molinari, Jeff Kraus from Richmond, Virginia, asked this:
"Considering that this is hockey preseason, there's only two questions to ask: Have you seen Mario Lemieux, and is he in the best shape of his life?" -- For those not familiar with the context, in Pittsburgh every year, someone else or Mario himself would say he is in the best shape of his life.
For example: Look at this article from October 2003. [ PG]
"That's the only way I can play this game, at the highest level," Lemieux said. "And right now, with the condition that everyone in the league is in, you have to be in the best shape of your life if you want to play at a high level. I have to be able to compete with these young, fast players, and I realized that early this summer and prepared myself accordingly to give myself the best chance to be successful."
One of the dangers of looking for this is you can get lost in the rabbit hole that is the Post-Gazette Penguins archive.
Check out this lead sentence in Dave Molinari's opening for the [ 2003 preview ]
"When the Penguins hired Olczyk as head coach, it was a move that seemed to defy logic."
-- The value of Canadian NHL teams is on the rise. [ Edmonton Journal ] -- In an article to drive that home, the NHLPA pushes for Canadian expansion. [ TSN ]
While we're north of the border, there's a kick in the groin going on up there.
Quebec's small market couldn't survive in the NHL. Come 1996, the Nordiques left their arena, Le Colisee Quebec, and were transplanted to Colorado.
The Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche, and found a new home in PEPSI Center.
Le Colisee Quebec -- circa 1996.
Le Colisee PEPSI -- circa 2008
ouch.
That's like the Pens leaving for Kansas City, and the Mellon Arena being re-named Sprint Arena.
Sprint Center Update
The DoodleBops have 3:00 and 6:00PM shows on January 25th. ............................................
Sabutage
Now we have a solid nickname for Dany Sabourin. Credit Mr. Jeff Harr, as well as some others who couldn't beat Jeff to the punch.
[J Fronz]
[Will Smith]
............................................
The first photoshop expo of 2008 is nearly done. The deadline has passed. As always, we welcome photoshops any day. We try to use as many as we can without diluting posts.
If they don't get used, they are filed away until the next expo. If they don't get used again, we either have forgotten them, or we hate you.
The expo we have coming is about 100-some photos deep.
We hope the Habs fans saw the game tonight. We know it can be hard to see a game with tears in your eyes from all the crying that goes on up there. They must have saved all the boos they give Crosby for their own team.
One of the bigger wins of the season. Evgeni Malkin played a game people could be talking about for a long time.
At this point, you can only live game-by-game. To the man, the Pens showed up.
Bring on the Craps.
...........................................
National Anthem
No picture sent in.
Stunned.
...............................
FIRST PERIOD
You couldn't believe it. 14 seconds into the game, Armstrong goes into the boards ass first and stays down for a while. You couldn't help but chuckle at the misfortune.
We couldn't figure out why Steiggy and Errey wanted a penalty there. Colby actually went after the defender and essentially lost his balance.
A little later, Roman Hamrlik jobs Talbot into the boards. Laraque retaliates and hits Francois Bouillon with an elbow.
That could have been bad news when the Pens went on the PK. But they killed it, helped by some big saves by who else but Dany Sabourin.
He's Back
The Canadiens started getting some business going, but Sabu was holding tough.
And then, the Habs made a fatal mistake. They let Laraque set up in his office.
-- J. Schiff Esquire --
He gets it out to Jeff Taffe. He buries it.
1-0.
Consider Montreal stunned.
About halfway through the first period, you see a little black blob on Ryan Malone's jersey. Under closer inspection, that is the "A." He's been around for a while. He deserves that.
As the first period headed into the homestretch, a defensive meltdown led to Kovalev being all alone in the slot. But he was SabuBlocked.
A little later, Montreal steals the puck as the Pens were trying to get out of their zone. Ryder gets the puck, but he craps himself. Consider Sabu the laxative since he beautifully poke-checked it before a shot could be taken.
For the rest of the first period, every time Montreal had the puck, you vomited. But Sabu and the D somehow kept the puck out of the net.
Ruutu gets things going in the second, drawing an interference penalty.
We get to see the Crosby-less powerplay for the first time.
Too bad the second unit was the one that got the better chances. Montreal kills it, though.
Right after the PK, Malkin changes the world. He books a flight from New York to L.A. Malkin could have shot it or pass it to Gonchar. Both were high-percentage plays. But Cristobal Huet came up big.
Malkin showed up again later when he sprung Sykora on a breakaway with an 11-line pass. No dice again.
With that save, you could feel the Penguins chances of jumping to a 2-goal lead diminishing.
Malkin was a force in the first half of the second period. No two ways about it.
When the game jumped into the second half of the period, Christensen goes off for a slash. The Pens kill it beautifully.
Towards the end of the period, some jobber pulls down Ruutu. Powerplay. But Ruutu somehow gets called for diving.
Imagine that. It takes Crosby NOT being in the lineup for the Pens to get a diving penalty.
Ruutu was called for diving twice back in that game against Ottawa on Thanksgiving.
This is his third diving penalty.
Lemieux better suit up.
At the end of the second, the Canadiens go to the box for something, no one even knows what.
On the power play, Malkin got it over to Whitney. The Whitney Play™ is nothing without Bing. No dice.
The period ended, so at least the Pens would have their top PP unit on the ice for the entire penalty.
...................................
THIRD PERIOD
They couldn't do the job on the PP to start up the third.
The first five minutes of the third period disappeared before you knew what was going on.
And then Malkin was on for about two minutes. He was dead tired. But Dandenault still found it necessary to interfere with him.
If there's anything referees have, it is a jobber detector. Dandenault could say Malkin simply ran into him, but come on. Don't be stupid.
You did it on purpose, joke.
The Penguin survived a scare, as Plekanec had a solid shorthanded chance after stealing the puck. Sydor laid off of him a little, knowing that putting his stick in front of a potential shot by Plekanec would do more bad than good. The Plekanec rush goes for naught.
The Canadiens fans came alive after the Habs killed that penalty. Time to dig in.
As the 10:00 mark came, the Pens iced it, but thankfully, the game went to commercial. For people who don't know, NHL games go to commercial at first whistle after the 6:00, 10:00, and 14:00 marks of periods, unless a goal is scored or someone is on the power play.
If teams don't utilize these times to know when it's okay to the ice the puck, they should. Or are we naive enough to think that's something they're even thinking about?
Jeff Taffe has a brief chance storming down the left side. Honestly, how good has Jeff Taffe been? Solid NHL human.
The second half of the third period turned into a playoff game. Komisarek was hitting everything.
With 4:00 left, Georges Laraque and friends start running out the clock.
[Will Smith]
Malkin's line kills some more time.
With 1:30 left, Kovy gets the puck all alone in the circle and does himself. Sabu is there. Big save.
Timeout Montreal.
It was time to pull Cristobal Huet. Gut-check time. The Habs fly into the zone, but the puck gets pooped to Malkin.
He tries to put it home from downtown, but it hits the pipe. Usually that means bad news. But on the bright side, if it doesn't it the post, it is icing.
The Canadiens brought it back into the Pens zone as your balls/ovaries start to fall off.
If you want to know why other teams hate Ruutu, it's for what he did during that last Montreal possession. When the puck came around the boards near the benches and a Hab was trying to keep it in, Ruutu stands up on the bench and starts screaming gibberish right into the dude's ear.
The puck went around the boards, the Pens got it out. Okay, Montreal is gonna regroup and come back and --
Then a blur flies into the picture. It's Malkin. Backhand.
2-0.
Game.
Not to run Malkinblog here, and it doesn't really even matter, but...
The Bell Centre media decided to give two stars to the goalies. The third star fell to Mike Komisarek, the beneficiary of home-ice advantage.
Mike Komisarek wasn't the third star at his own house tonight. Huet was all right.
How Malkin wasn't a star of the game is bizarre.
Whatev.
.......................................
Orpik: only 10:52?
STATS
Taffe: 1 G
Malkin: 1 G. The weight of a season on his shoulders didn't affect his speed.
MISCELLANEOUS
Could the Penguins actually benefit from not having Crosby? Will teams take the Penguins just that little bit less seriously and then get stunned?
What a game by Daryl Sydor.
SABBUUUUUUUUUUU
Kovy forgot how to finish.
Montreal had close to 40 hits. 25 of those on players without the puck.
Nice new line graphic from FSN.
Staal might not score. But he is as sound as it gets in the defensive zone.
Fingers crossed for Army.
Only the second time ever the Penguins have shutout the Habs at home. [Bob Grove with the stat. Sick.]
"You just get him the puck and he thinks he's Wayne Gretzky behind the net most of the time, but he does a great job."
Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau, who has the penchant to never give opposing teams credit for a win:
"We definitely didn't have 20 guys who were ready to play. You could see that our passing and our strength on the puck wasn't there, our skating was a little off -- the whole thing around our game was a little off, which wasn't the case on the road."
Your team had 31 shots, dude. You got beat. End it.
You always hear people use the cliche "Let me sleep on it."
Now you know what they mean. You woke up this morning, rolled to the bathroom to do morning rituals.
And then it hit you when you looked at your disheveled hair in the mirror when you began brushing your teeth.
CROSBY IS OUT.
You stood there, contemplating life, and realized that it wasn't so bad.
Optimism aside, all the Pens have to do is job around the .500 mark till Bing returns. Worse-case scenario, barring a total meltdown, they will be there in the playoff race.
But hey, guess who will be training together in rehab sessions for their returns in late February/early March?
We always visit our good friends over at [ boards.WashingtonCaps.com ] Most of them have been surprisingly gentle.
AOforPrez -- The ONLY negative thing about Cindy hurting his little baby ankle is that now when the caps run over them like roadkill, all that will be said is that ,"CROSBY WASN'T PLAYING!!!" Yet again, the caps will get no credit for their talents.
Wow. No comment.
And Dave Molinari is probably penning a new column somewhere:
"Crosby's good, but he hasn't had any big games on home ice this season. And then he went and got hurt. That's not the trait of a leader."
[ Click to enlarge ] Fleury29 sent us the NHL.com Frozen Moment. Lots of good stuff in there. "Possibly Pensblog Charlie's dad above Staal's right shoulder." -- Fleury29
Now here we are. The long, long road ahead. It is a road that Google Maps does not have in its database.
The MVP sidelined. A brutal schedule ahead. In a closer-than-balls Eastern Conference playoff race.
Be thankful the Pens went on their recent tear, although it would be dick of us to imply the Pens won't stay hot.
When the Penguin DVD comes out in late June, it may say that Crosby went down, and that the expected collapse of the Pens never happened.
It could say that with the trading deadline looming, with the Penguins toiling in mediocrity, Ray Shero showed the hockey world who he was.
Or the NHL just won't waste their time producing a video for a team that finished 1 point out of a playoff spot.
Pens fans know this road. We are used to a star player missing significant amounts of playing time due to injury.
But there's no going back.
It starts Saturday night in Montreal. Us against the world.
God help us all.
.............................................
National Anthem [Crush]
[Tyler]
................................
Blackoutblog [Matt C]
For some reason, this game was blacked out in areas outside of Pittsburgh for Comcast customers. No clue why that is happening.
Does anyone know the exact rules of "blackouts"?
.......................................
FIRST PERIOD
Things opened up, and it was clear Tampa Bay was actually prepared to play. Marty St. Louis threw a minor scare into everyone by almost sneaking one past Conk. No dice.
The Pens get the puck and go flying. Someone jobs Malkin.
Powerplay blog.
The second unit comes out and jobs around. Nothing really going on. Tampa's goalie, Johan Holmqvist, says no go.
Not a whole lot going on. Bing and Malkin look like they are about to take over the world again, but Holmqvist is stellar.
For some reason, the Lightning were speeding past the Pens D.
[Guiseppie C]
But then it happened.
Andre Roy got the puck to the left of Conk. Made an unrealistic pass. Some guy who means nothing, even to his family, scores a huge road goal. 1-0
For some reason, it feels like that was the first first-period goal Conk has allowed all season. Whatev.
A little later, though, nothing mattered.
......................................
At 7:37 of the first period, Crosby tries to get around Paul Ranger.
He slides into the boards. Not really sure what happens. But it just looks bad.
Say one thing about Crosby. He is tough. As the camera harmlessly pans away, Crosby can be seen trying to skate back to the bench.
He hobbles. Oh man.
He heads to the locker room. Big ups to the usher who helped him off the ice. Sabu looks stunned.
............................................
The next two minutes, and pretty much the rest of the game, are(is?) foggy. No one knows what's going on. Marty St. Louis gets two breakaways. Conkblock tells him to F-off. The Pens almost score, but the ref loses sight of the puck.
But then Andre Roy shows up again. He passes to Chris Gratton.
2-0. Lady = Stunned.
Conk keeps the Penguins afloat.
But Gonchar boards St. Lajoke.
Pens kill the penalty. Not a real fun time.
..............................
INTERMISSON
The news finally breaks that Bing has a High-Ankle sprain. Not good.
Uh...hope Evgeni Malkin has fun at the All-Star Game.
.........................................
SECOND PERIOD
The second starts with the Pens playing a little better. Therrien had to juggle the lines.
The puck floats near the Lightning bench during their line change...
Too many men. We'll be honest -- That's kind of a gross picture.
The Pens can't get anything going on the ensuing powerplay. Scuds almost scores at one point. But Homoqlvist won't allow it.
Then things got nuts. Malkin murdered some guy behind the net during a great shift. Pens are going nuts. They draw a penalty.
But wait. Ryan Malone gets a penalty as well. The Pens also get a bench minor for too many men on the ice.
Pissed
After it all gets sorted out, it becomes evident that Homoqlvist isn't letting up a goal tonight.
Dick.
Bad times.
...........................
THIRD PERIOD
Right out of the gate, a partial 2-on-1 develops. But Army can't get the pass through.
Minutes fly by. Malkin can't get anything going. Staal misses a chance to score. Conk contuines to fight the good fight. A search party is dispatched to see if they can find BGL on the Pens bench.
A goal could completely change the game. But the Lightning cruise in.
Andre Roy buries one. Nothing more than a slap in the face. What a scumbag. 3-0.
The rest of the third was a nightmare. Nothing going on at all.
An anonymous commentor left the skinny on high-ankle sprains.
We were gonna research it, but since the person used the word "syndomosis," we're gonna guess they know what they're talking about.
"In high ankle sprains, the membrane which connects the two leg bones (the syndomosis) is either stretched or torn. High ankle sprains can be especially problematic for athletes because there is a very poor blood supply to this area of the ankle and it takes a long time to heal. Any type of twisting or turning maneuver results in stretching of this area, which makes it especially difficult to play basketball, soccer, or to skate. Over time, athletes who have a high ankle sprain can often walk and even jog on level ground normally, but cannot push off on their skate edges and are limited in terms of their ability to return to activities. High ankle injuries can take six weeks or longer to heal."
............................................................... The thoughts of well-informed and optimistic Pens fans were summed up by Stoosh.
"I know everyone is down about the injury Sid suffered tonight. If the injuries to Fleury, Talbot, Eaton and Roberts were kicks to the collective groin, this injury to Sid is a blast with a steel-toed boot that just kind of sticks there for a while.
I'm as upset about this as everyone else is and maybe it's too early for this. But I'm reading some of the other boards as well and I can't believe how many people are already saying that we might as well just close up shop right now.
Whatthef*ckblog, indeed. If a white flag or a trip to the nearest roof is your cup of tea, cool.
But like Jack Nicholson once said, "Go sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here."
Look, this isn't to minimize the loss of Sid at all. Four weeks without him in the lineup is four weeks too many.
Newsflashblog: This isn't Sid and the 2003-04 Pens, either.
Malkin was the franchise before we got lucky and landed Sid. Malkin's played like a franchise-caliber player most of this year so far, and he played like he was possessed tonight again after Sid went out. Dude knows what's up.
Staal's been snakebitten all season. He'll get even more opportunities to turn the corner. What if he snaps out of his little sophomore slump?
Sykora's a solid talent capable of hitting a hot streak at any given time. You bet your ass that he's getting top-line time now.
Malone's been playing like the leader he was in 2003-04, when some people were calling him the best power forward prospect we've had since Artie.
Letang's been good. Conklin's still there. Gonch is playing at an All-Star level. Kennedy is doing a lot of what Recchi was supposed to do.
There's still talent here. In fact, there's still still world-class talent here, so let's not pretend this is done. Even that 2003-04 team won almost one out of every 3-4 games, and that was basically Malone, Fleury and a team full of minor-leaguers.
Losing Sid is a tough pill to swallow, but what's done is done and it's time to move on. He'll be back soon enough because the kid is a machine.
In the meantime, we hand the keys to Geno, Staal, Letang, Sykora and Co.
...and ask Captain Steven Hiller for his assessment...
Vinny holds an 8-goal advantage on Bing going into tonight's game. So, with both guys tied for the league lead with 63 points, Lacavlajoke has the points lead.
Which means nothing in mid-January. Tampa should focus on winning some games.
...............................................
Speaking of Tampa winning games, guess who will be ironically rooting for the Pens tonight to beat one of her team's division rivals?
Picture: [ Acid Queen ] getting pumped up for the big game.
..........................................
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, RJR sent us a picture of grown-up Al from Step By Step.
Looks like she's been on a hunger strike since the show got cancelled.
Family Matters -- 8:00 Top-ten show of all time, easy.
Boy Meets World -- 8:30 Topanga was what life was all about.
Step By Step -- 9:00 The girl that liked sports was hot during the later seasons. One of the more underrated shows in the 90's.
Patrick Duffy became a spokesperson for Advil, after using it to aleviate the pain suffered when he carried this show on his back for the entire run.
Hangin' With Mr. Cooper -- 9:30
The fact that no one has ever started a blog about this show is a joke. This show has to be considered one of the great underrated shows in our lifetime. Omar Gooding had more charisma than Sinatra.
Are there any exclusively black sitcoms on television these days? Nope.
We have been around TV for a long time. It is hard to imagine four more dominant shows in sequence.
Other than a possible trip to the roller-skating rink, Friday was booked.
===============
Dateline: 2008
During that same time period tonight...
We are going to be preparing photoshops of two men kissing [St. Louis and Vinny], rooting for Andre Roy to get cut open by BGL, and overall undo the lessons that a middle-aged Carl Winslow once instilled in us.
This picture from yesterday. Everything seems right at first glance.
Until you look on that bulletin board on the right-hand side and see the NHL logo is backward.
Being able to read "DALLAS" on Modano's jersey (not to mention those big letters on the wall behind the screens) means the entire picture wasn't mirrored, which occasionally happens for whatever reason.
Update: Ah, anomaly is bunked.
The backwards version of the logo is the French version.
"To qualify for a stats category, an NHL goalie must be on pace to play at least 27 games." [ ESPN ]
With his 10-0-1 record, coupled with his appearance against Philly, he has played in 12 games through 45 team games this season.
45/12 = 3.75. Conk averages one start every 3.75 games.
82/3.75 = He is currently on pace to play 21.866666666666666666 games, roughly.
Stay with us...
Through 49 team games, if he plays 16 of those, he will be on pace for 27.3333333333 games played, reaching the 27-game pace.
So, if he plays the next 4 games, he will show up on goalie leaderboards across the nation.
We ran these numbers past the Apollo 13 flight controllers, just as the astronauts did when they had to double-check gimble conversion and shit when they transferred the navigation computer from command module Odyssey to lunar excursion module Aquarius.
============
And as far as the crowded goaltending corner of the Pens locker room goes, it's best to talk to Jesse over at [ Faceoff-Factor ]
In yesterday's comments:
The Penguins will probably just keep 3 goaltenders on the roster. There's also the chance they trade Sabourin. Providing Conklin doesn't implode and lose 10 straight games, it appears he'll be in net for the forseeable future, and that puts Sabu on the bench. He would have to pass through Waivers to be sent down, and John Curry/David Brown are playing well in WB/S, don't want them to lose development time down there. -- Jesse
Jesse and the boys [Faceoff-Factor] also own Dave Molinari after Molinari writes a strange article about Bing. [PG]
"But for all Crosby has done for his franchise -- "everything" would be a good place to start -- a surprising wrinkle has emerged on his personal stat sheet: He has not had more than two points in any of the Penguins' home games this season."
Your Eastern Conference captain -- Vincent Lecavalier. West -- Jarome Iginla. [ Kukla's Korner ]
Danny Alfredsson left a game Thursday with a hip injury. Ottawa letting him play in the ASG would be moronic. [ NHL.com ]
Officials in Ottawa are still mum on the details. But with Spezza, Heatley, and now Alfredsson contracting injuries this season, they think something is up.
Authorities are believed to have a person of interest in mind. He was last seen buying condoms at a gas station 20 minutes outside of Ottawa.
If Alfie is down, looks like there's another spot open for the All-Star Game.
Crosby's jersey from the Winter Classic sold at auction for $45,000. [ Ballhype ] -- Thanks to Loser Chris for that.
Our good friend over at [ PSAMP ] debates whether this year's streak or last year's streak is better. -- Thanks to DB for that.
A recent Q&A session with Rob Rossi talking about Gary Roberts' protein shakes. Hilarious that the Roberts phenomenon has swept that far. [ Rossi ] -- Thanks to Andrew M. for that.
........................................
Long Layoff. Crosby's hungry [KJ]
Some more random Photoshops:
[Kayla]
[Sky]
[JF] ........................................
JOBBLOG
Last night, as we were finishing up, we noticed a comment came through from AcidQueen. She runs a Carolina Hurricanes blog. [Acid Queen]
She said something along the lines of asking us to remove her from our sidebar because we are classless.
We have no idea who she is. No idea if she is just goading us into this.
Whatever the case, if she knew anything about the internet. she would have kindly e-mailed us and we would have taken the link down.
No need to publicly do it in our baby, C-blog. We would fight for C-blog to the death.
But Acid, if you are reading from your outhouse in Carolina...
We will not take your request. The link will stay up.
Who are you kidding? You don't get any traffic from our site. No one comes here and says, "Mmyeah, I need a Hurricane blog. Mmyeah."
In short, put on a bib, douse us with your sweet barbecue, and eat us.
If you want your link down, send us a two-paragraph diatribe about how great Ron Francis is and how his greatness relates to the fluctuating U.S. economy.
We did our routine sporadic Google search of "pensblog" to see what was going on out there.
-- Someone submitted the question "What would Gary Roberts Do?" to Yahoo! Answers. [ Yahoo ]
-- And in more pressing matters, someone out there doesn't like us. [ Talk Hockey To Me ] (CTRL-F "pensblog")
"In a way, I'm sort of playing the anti-Pensblog, just to prove that non-crazy Pens people exist."
"Pensblog doesn't know when to stop, and is frankly offensive with a lot of their homophobic comments."
What it boils down to is, if we were homophobic, we wouldn't voluntarily look up pictures of men kissing each other on a nearly daily basis.
"Petruzalek of the Rats to the bench for too many men on the ice. If this was the Pensblog, I'd give you two boys kissing, but I run a more classy organization than that. Barely, sometimes, but classier."
If this was Pensblog, we'd pee on your face.
Bring the noise.
..........................................
James Mirtle has his latest "Top 30 in the last 30 games." [ JM ]
[ Barry Melrose Rocks ] tells the tale of Tuukka Rask, the caveman goalie playing for the Boston Bruins.
The YoungStars will play two six-minute periods of running time. One faceoff will start each period. If the puck leaves the ice, another will get thrown on. If a team scores, the three players have to retreat to their defensive side of center ice before attacking again. For a team to be declared the victor, it will have to win each period.
In a sort of "mayor vs. mayor" battle, we have set forth a challenge to [ The700Level ]. And they have accepted. If the Penguins win in Philadelphia, The700Level will post our recap on their site.
If the Flyers win, we will post theirs on here.
================
Speaking of mayors...
Greg G. grabbed this from Against The Odds on YouTube.
It's time for the Lightning to face reality. They suck. [ St. Petersburg Times ]
With all due respect to Malkin, Boston's Marc Savard is a big deal. [ TSN ]
The friggin' Islanders are now 5-0-0 against the Devils this season. [ Yahoo ] That Devils loss puts the Penguins in a legitimate tie for the Atlantic lead.
First up, The Pensblog Internet Justice League has been busy recently.
Since we got tips from various sources that Kenny Melvin was lurking on LetsGoPens.com again, correspondent Pensblog Canaan has been working covertly to eliminate the threat.
The target has been eliminated. Again.
We don't hold a grudge.
But every time we click that bookmark to moderate comments, we are reminded...and we will never forget.
If you know hockey, then you knew Malkin was in a world of trouble after he did this:
It led to the whole Rozsival ordeal. Nothing else to say. Just a great picture.
-- Blades09 left a comment in commentorblog, asking Conklin to please change the color of tape on his stick to white.
Every time his stick goes down, the black knob of his stick looks like the puck going on. Solid observation.
Hiro Nakamura took us into the future and see how that color change would fare for the Pens.
"Since that Rangers game, the Penguins have gone 0-6-0, Malkin's out for the season, and the plans for the new arena have fell through." -- Post-Gazette, January 29, 2008
========
Also, in the recap, we said the sigh of relief caused someone to die of carbon-monoxide poisoning.
We should've known that humans expel carbon dioxide. And actually, we did know. Just a huge mistake.
Being veterans of the motion picture Apollo 13, we have no clue how we messed that up.
"I haven't tried that one," Recchi said. "I usually go low stick (side) or low 5-hole, but I watched the other guys a little bit and decided that I was going to try to go to my backhand and get it up and try to freeze him a little bit because he's a quick goalie."
So, what will it be Mark? Whatev.
This is how we feel:
[Coren]
.........................................
[adamvacancy]
Ty Conklin will not get a spot in Flashblog anytime soon. There's something special going on that just can't be messed with.
The top candidate to be removed would be Kris Letang.
And as far as Flashblog goes, when the Pens hit the 65-game mark, we're gonna switch the standings to encompass the entire Eastern Conference.
The Atlantic will still be important, but the playoff race will be a bigger deal.
The most pressing news is that Marc Savard has been given Dany Heatley's spot on the Eastern roster, leaving Malkin out in the cold, despite the fact that he's been red hot. [ NHL ]
Tyler Kennedy and Kris Letang will be in the YoungStars game. [ NHL ]
[ Going Five Hole ] has their picks of who the celebrity judges should be for the All-Star Game dunk competition.
In an article written in Pittsburgh, Scott Burnside mulls over the possibilities of Jagr being dealt. [ ESPN ] Mark Madden already touched on this back in November. [ESPN 1250]
Since his boy Nylander left, Jagr blows. He's on pace for the lowest goal output of his career.
As part of a segue that would make Mark Twain touch himself, Michal Nylander is out for the season. [ NHL.com ]
But the Caps actually stunned the world and completed a sweep of the season series with the Sens last night. [ View From The Cheap Seats ]
And for some reason, how come everyone forgot to tell us Ted Leonsis has a website? [Ted's Take] Just so there is no confusion, Pictures like this are why we get up in the morning.
Does CuJo want to go somewhere and start? What a mistake, then, that he signed with Calgary. [ Fanhouse ]
"The term is now most commonly used within a sporting context, where it has its origin in 18th Century English cricket and was connected with the custom of giving a hat or cap as a prize to a bowler who achieved the unusual feat of taking three wickets in a row. Another school of thought mentions that, as a bet, a bowler was challenged if he could take three in three, and hats were passed around to collect the wagers. If the bowler succeeded, he collected the cash."
As it pertains to hockey:
"If a member of the home team in ice hockey scores a hat-trick, fans acknowledge it by throwing their own hats from the stands onto the ice, often causing a delay in play. This custom was started in Guelph, Ontario with the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters, sponsored by Biltmore Hats. Mr. Biltmore would throw his top hat onto the ice for the player that scored 3 goals. Fans soon followed his lead and offered their hats to the player as well."
And then it gets a little crazy. Wikipedia delves into modern moderations, such as the Gordie Howe hat trick, the 1996-96 Panthers rat trick, and...
"Mario Lemieux once accomplished what was unofficially referred to as a "Mario Lemieux hat trick" in 1993, by receiving radiation treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma the day of the game, and then scoring a goal and an assist that night against the Philadelphia Flyers."
Like a lot of people, we don't particularly enjoy talking about contracts and shit. Let's just enjoy the ride.
However, if you have played an NHL video game this season and had to deal with a salary cap, you know that Malkin, Staal, and Fleury demand some hefty dollars for their new contracts.
While doing a quick glance at your payroll to see how to free some money up, you see Sergei Gonchar making $5 million a year.
And then next offseason, the Pens have to re-sign about half the team.
It makes you wonder.
After reading about Malkin's feelings on the A.O deal... [Trib]
How would Malkin react if Gonch departs? Would the Pens even risk that?
It is all just a thought.
Do you trade Gonchar to get Sid an established scoring winger? Will Malkin and Crosby be together on the same line forever?
Ray Shero is going to be a busy man.
=================
The trade talks don't stop there.
[ Puck-Rakers ] said that Columbus Blue Jackets scouts were at the Mellon for the Rangers-Pens game.
...And the Pens had scouts at a Blue Jackets/Predators game recently.
Rumor of the last week or so comes from [Eklund.] Nothing new. He just says Pens are interested in Marian Hossa.
Thankfully we were able to to pinpoint his source:
In the NHL, the saves made by goalies are considered especially huge. The dedicated player for the Penguins who makes these saves is part of an elite squad known as The Conk Unit.
These are his stories...
.......................................
[Sunoco]
[Anonymous] [Franko]
[Jonathan V]
............................................
If you weren't paying attention at the beginning of the game, you were soon stunned.
The atmosphere during the anthem and preceding the opening faceoff was insane, and it was punctuated when Laraque and Colton Orr drop the gloves. People go crazy.
Solid fight.
It was old-time Penguins hockey soon thereafter, when the Pens made the Rangers pay for going to the box.
Malkin had it deep, toed the goal line.
He goes upstairs and bangs Henrik Lundqvist's girlfriend.
1-0.
This was a game where Crosby was simply possessed. Every time he grabbed the puck, he was gone.
Three minutes after the first goal, he Top Guns into the zone, gets a shot off. The puck just sits there in the crease. Malkin was sharking around all night. He sneaks in and pops it home.
2-0. Picture: All Star Scott Gomez getting back on defense on that goal. Don't worry, we don't see him either.
Malkin was everywhere. He sprays King Henrik with some ice. Micheal Rosajoke gets all worked up about it. Stiff.
Rosajoke was out of control. The very next play, Malkin drops him with a solid shoulder check. The crowd goes nuts. That is big time.
Before you know it, Pens get a powerplay. During the powerplay, Ty Conklin's stick breaks. He ends up using the bottom half of his stick, as is allowed in the NHL rulebook.
With one Ranger already in the box, Rosajoke peoples elbows Letang. 5 on 3. Gonch wires it in from the point.
3-0.
Somehow, the Rangers came out of the first with the advantage in shots. But there's a guy in net who is hot. And we're talking about Frank Pietrangelo in Games 6 and 7 of the Patrick Division semifinals against the Devils in 1991 hot.
All you have to do is let him see the puck. The first period had nothing on the second, though.
The only other thing that happened was Rosajoke getting crushed by a high stick.
It was all Double J's fault. Talbot was there, hoping to get another phantom high-stick call.
Amidst the Verizon text-message thing during one of the intermissions, a brave human out there sent "Hungry Hungry Hippos!" to the screen. What a moment.
But that moment was topped by Vinnie from the X, who was hosting all the trivia questions and stuff during breaks in the action. He was rocking a WWGRD wristband plain as day.
A call came into Pittsburgh precinct roughly around 8:00, saying that an unidentified male, 6'3", 230 lbs, weird hair, shirt tucked in pants, was trying to bang the puck home.
Ty Conklin arrives at the scene and hands outs Razor's Edges to everyone.
Shot. Save. Shot. Save. Shot. Save.
The Rangers completely dominated the action in the second period, outshooting the world 17-2.
But there was Ty Conklin and his defensive corps, turning everything aside. There weren't even any close calls. All in a day's work.
Picture: All Star Scott Gomez trying to set up a scoring chance. Must be the cameras at the Mellon Arena. It would seem Gomez is invisible.
Nothign really else happened in the second. Pens got called for another pentaly.
Lord Therrien had the Pens on cruise control to start the third.
The thought of another Malkin hat trick danced in everyone's head. Speaking of heads, tonight was a ski-cap giveaway night. If the writers weren't on strike, we'd say this was scripted.
Digressing, the Pens could afford to shove Malkin into the spotlight to get another hat trick. It almost signaled the end of the world.
Not even two minutes into the third, Crosby lunges for a puck that gets sent to Malkin going full speed in the slot. Malks goes down on one knee, doesn't know what's going on.
You watch him routinely fly full speed into the boards, as he usually does. And then you saw #87...
Flashback blog
The world stopped turning during the 8 seconds it took for Crosby and Malkin to get up in Lemieux, one-knee, weight of his body on his stick to get up fashion.
The sigh of relief from the Pens faithful in Mellon Arena actually caused some 5-year-old kid in section C32 to die from carbon-monoxide poisoning.
The drama wasn't over, though.
The next two penalties on the Penguins were legit. Crosby is a jobber and definitely interfered. He's smart. He knows what he's doing.
The Pens kill that off beautifully.
As Crosby gets out of the box, the Pens go right back in.
Malkin was racing with some terd for a loose puck. If you hit someone who does not have the puck, it's a penalty. When you knock a person down in a race for a puck, that's interference.
The emotion was running high, and it was culminated with Jagr spoiling the shutout party.
Double J Style
3-1.
Jagr booing had died off as of late, but this game, for whatever reason, brought the heat. Big-time.
We take the time to give it to Doc Emerick, for his jobber remark back in the first period. Something along the lines of:
"And here are the Penguins fans booing Jagr. They must have forgotten about those two Stanley Cup championships."
And then he just jumped right back into calling the action. This is one of the few times the award has been given endearingly. What a line.
Right after that Jagr goal, morale was lower than Rosie O'Donnell's metabolism rate. You could feel the Rangers being able to come back.
Crosby headed into the zone after that Jagr goal, and he was decked. HE HAD THE PUCK. HE GOT HIT. That's what hockey is about. Good no-call.
Just as Crosby is ready to take the next faceoff, Therrien shuts everything down and sends Laraque onto the ice.
It is met with a raucous roar from the Mellon Arena faithful. An unbelievable roar.
With that move alone, the Pens regained the momentum. It was a subtle yet essentially game-clinching move by Therrien.
He knows it.
Laraque came on and hit some ass-clown in the Pens zone. Huge roar.
The Pens were helped with a ticky-tacky slashing call which sent them on the powerplay and sent Malkin back on the hunt. No dice there.
The puck wasn't gonna get past Conklin. It just wasn't gonna happen.
Malkin ended up delivering on the hat trick with a Gretzky empty-netter from center ice.
4-1.
Picture: All Star Scott Gomez tries to stop Malkin from scoring
Even though they're wrapped up in the game, players do notice things in the stands. Penguins winger Ryan Malone did Saturday night. "In Atlanta, the first goal Sid scored, I looked around and saw a lot of Penguins fans, which was great to see." [ PG ]
== Daryl Sydor made some waves earlier this season, when he said something along the lines that Marc-Andre Fleury has nothing on Marty Turco in Dallas. Of course, he was talking about MAF's inability to move the puck.
The Pens defensemen have been praising Ty Conklin's stickhandling. [ PG ]
"I think I'm getting too much credit for this streak." -- Ty Conklin -- [ Canada.com ]
== Recchi won't be kicking Staal out of their house. Nobody Cares. [ PG ] What a paradox, then, that we posted the link.
== Crosby isn't jealous of AO signing that 13-year, $124 million contract. [ PG ]
Since AO isn't marketable, he has to go for crazy money. Crosby's been swimming in Reebok and Gatorade funds. Crosby makes more. Shut up, Capitals fans.
== Malkin has been given the distinction of being the King Of Suck in the shootout. [ Fanhouse ]
[ Fanhouse ] broke down AO's contract. He'll be making roughly $5,000 per shift.
As always, people are talking about the contract. A bunch of big words. [ NY Post ] It would've been better if Ovie went to a bigger market. [ The Star ]
An outdoor hockey game will be last sporting event in Yankee Stadium? [ NY Daily News ]
That's good news for the road team, seeing that home teams usually lose big games there.
woooooo
The Devils are unstoppable. What a pain.
Looks like Dany Heatley's gonna miss the All-Star Game. Out 4-6 weeks with a shoulder problem. [ TSN ] Karma's a bitch.
So, wait... Gonch got into the All-Star game via a vote by NHL GM's. As far as Malkin is concerned, will this Heatley injury open the door?
To your heart bow bow bow-bow bow
Spezza got hurt or something, too. He probably couldn't play without Heatley's testosterone fueling him.
They suck They suck so bad, they turned down Scotty Bowman last summer. [TSN ] Apparently Bowman's nine Stanley Cup rings weren't enough.
Go Blue Jays.
And oh, huge props to "K2" on [ LGP] for posting this.
3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result(2): an event or result marked by such incongruityb: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony, tragic irony
So, really, is what happened in this game ironic? It could just be called a kick in the face.
Maybe you were at the game. Maybe you were at home. Maybe you were at a bar.
Wherever you were, when you saw Wrecking joke line up for the shootout... You knew it.
We all did. There was a distinct chance this was going to happen anyway. But when it came to light, it was enough to make you sick. If it was anyone else, at least it would have been easier to take.
We'll take the point. You can have Mark Recchi.
Sometimes all you can do is laugh. And by laugh, we mean drink.
Basically it is the kind of game you want to forget ever happened. Which is a shame, because it was entertaining. But just like old times, Mark Recchi ruined it.
There is nothing worse than starting to read an [AP] article and know the first paragraph is going to say sometime about the Penguins giving up on Recchi, and now he makes them eat poop.
It will be the shortest recap ever.
Mark Recchi has shut us up tonight.
..............
Pregame
Some little kid falls. Ryan Whitney looks around to see if he is going to be called for a penalty. Learn how to skate jack.
................................
National Anthem [Jon K]
[Chase]
[Megan and Julia]
[This was sent in by cellphone, no clue of the name]
............................
FIRST PERIOD
Lots of good hockey in the first. Mark Recchi ruined a lot of it.
The following pictures will allow you to understand what happen:
1-0
Pens on PK. Puck hits screen. No call by the refs. Recchi passes.
Pens up 4-1. The St. Pete Times Forum looks like Mellon east. You see black and gold shirts all over the place.
John Tortilla looks suicidal. Tampa Bay fans are stunned. What a great time to be alive.
Go Pens.
Ty Conklin is taking over the world. King Conk
....................
National Anthem [Don W.]
[Craig]
[Firefox]
........................
FIRST PERIOD
The game opened up, and you remembered why you hate the Lightning.
Thirty seconds in and Martin St. Louis takes a penalty. What a jackass. The Pens powerplay looks okay, but Tampa goalie Karri Rambo makes a few saves.
The first unit can't get anything going. Tampa kills it.
Not a whole lot going on early. Some joke works hard for the Lightning. Ryan Whitney gets called for tripping.
The ever-dangerous Tampa Bay powerplay gets set up. There's a shot from the point.
Conkblock Powerplay's over
After the PK, Bing comes flying down. Using the skill stick, he smokes some guy. Doesn't score though.
Tampa keeps some solid pressure on. They sail a puck to the net that almost goes in. Pens can't control it. Marty St. Louis gets it. Nice pass to Vinny Lecavalier. Wide-open net. Shiii........
Conk robs him.
Huge save.
Everyone is stunned. Real goal scorers go top shelf. Vinny was not seen after this.
But the rest of the Lightning stuck around. Andre Roy started shooting from everywhere. If he had any talent, he would've scored.
The Pens would survive another surge from the Lightning as Scuds lost his stick. He was alone on an island.
[ This is so stupid ] But Bing gives him his stick.
Solid road period.
...................................
INTERMISSION
Potash interviews Matt Capps. Go Pirates. Seriously.
..............................................
SECOND PERIOD
You can tell things were about to change. The Bolts came out with some guts.
They get an odd-man break. Paul Ranger joins the rush, picks up a loose puck.
1-0.
Hearing the arena horn go off when the Pens give up a goal on the road is demoralizing.
The goal really opened things up. It seemed like maybe Tampa Bay was about to take over. But Conk would have none of it.
The Pens chipped away at Rambo. Talbot had a solid chance to score, so did Malkin and Army.
The first line stays out, and they get something going. Bing draws a penalty.
The second unit comes out to start the powerplay. No one talks about it, but Jeff Taffe is playing some solid hockey since joining the team. He wins the faceoff. The Pens spread it around.
Petr Sykora sets up for a shot. Pens rotate it around to him. You look up sick shots, you find Petr Sykora.
1-1
But hold the phone. The puck grazed Jordan Staal before going into the net.
Lord Therrien started the game with Staal-Malone-Hall. But he switches Hall with Sykora.
It pays off later when Sykora gets it to the net.
After some mucking in the corner, look who comes out. Jordan Staal again.
His first real goal since the eighth-grade picnic. 2-1
Tampa Bay fan = Stunned [ Thanks to Tim L. for the sneaky picture ]
Tampa presses on, but Conk is sharp.
Towards the end of the period, the Lightning have a 4-on-2. Jeff Taffe blocks a shot, but BGL gets racially profiled.
Sin bin. The PK holds up, though.
To the third period, we go.
..............................
Photoshop break Couldn't work this into the recap.
Courtesy of Will Smith. Hungry Hungry Conkblock
....................................
THIRD PERIOD
Before the third period begins, Crosby calls and tells us that "Conkblock" better slow down, or else it will lose its comedic effect, if it hasn't already. That's why he's the face of the NHL.
In the first 11 seconds of the third, Bing flies into the zone. Big Ben strikes one.
The one that doesn't throw huge picks.
What happens next had the chance to change the world. In a group of players, Martin St. Louis gives a high stick to one of his boyfriends and draws blood.
Maxime Talbot was the closest Penguin, so they give him a 4-minute penalty.
Interestingly, since arriving in Tampa Bay in 2000, Martin St. Louis has had no need to buy sunscreen or sunglasses.
That's what happens when you're always in Vincent Lecavalier's shadow.
O'Brien gets up like Talbot just hit on his life partner. If Errey was between the benches, he would have thrown the monitor on the ice like Bobby Knight.
20 seconds into the power play, St. Louis almost becomes the first person to draw blood on a high stick and then score during the penalty.
The Pens kept the puck out to the perimeter, and the Lightning only get a couple solid shots.
If you want to know why the Pens are on a hot streak, it's because of PKs like that on the road.
But as the game moseyed past the 10:00 mark, it became painfully clear that the refs put the whistles away.
The Lightning fell into a black hole for a while after the 10:00 mark, as Vinny and St. Louis tried to retain some oxygen on the bench.
For all the talk we heard of Vinny, he looked like a cherry-picker to us.
[Dustin R.]
Out of nowhere, there was 3:40 left. Father Time makes his presence known.
[Jame T. M.]
The Lightning put out their big boys for what turned out to be their last gasp. Crosby and Malkin block shots left and right.
The Pens work it back up the ice. Sykora lays into a shot. His stick blade flies toward the net. While you're watching the stick blade, the red light comes on.
3-1.
Insurance. You're in finally-performing-to-his-potential hands with AllState.
We'd say game right there, but Tampa pulls Rambo. Conk turns another shot aside.
Malkin gets it to center ice. From way downtown.
Game.
[Craig]
STATS
Staal: 2G, 1A -- Breakoutblog
Sykora: 3A
Letang: 1A
Malkin: 1 [ EN ]
Conk: 36 saves
Lecavalier: Auditions for the show Lost.
MISCELLANEOUS
Second line is sick.
Tampa sucks.
Bob Errey apparently called Malkin selfish for not passing to Bing at the end of the game so that Bing could keep his scoring streak alive. The goal of the season is not to win a scoring title.
Unreal Pittsburgh presence in the arena tonight. Good times.
Good ol' Recchi Saturday.
...................
Photoshops
David B. -- Conkblock Vinny and Marty -- Eric K 8th grade pinic -- Lady Jaye King Conk -- Wheeling Nailer
Sorry if there are any misspellings of names. This was a 3:30 special with one eye open.
We were notified by Robert J.R. that the footage of Ron Francis' heroic performance in Game 4 against the Rangers in 1992 is on YouTube. We've added it to [ Top 10 Penguin Goals ]
The news broke early Wednesday morning. MARK EATON -- OUT FOR THE SEASON. [ PG ]
Eaton is an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Will Eaton's last two seasons of injuries scare the Penguins? Will it scare other teams?
All we know, it was an honor and a privilege.
Will it scare the Pens into making a trade?
1991 -- Art Ross Trophy contender John Cullen and d-man Zarley Zalapski get traded at deadline to Hartford for Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson, Grant Jennings. Pens win Cup.
1992 -- Pens trade fan-favorite Mark Recchi and all-world d-man Paul Coffey to the Flyers and Kings, respectively, for Rick Tocchet, Kjell Samuelsson, Ken Wregget, Jeff Chycryn (sp). Pens win Cup.
2008 -- ...
In Shero We Trust
Speaking of Eaton, some of Pensblog readers' photoshops made it onto a segment of "Inside the NHL." [NHL]
What a human being. Who ever made the picture that pissed his wife off better sleep with one eye open.
Jess R. sent us this link... Adam Proteau at [ ESPN ] did some reality checks for NHL teams.
Here's Ottawa's:
The delusion: The Sens still need the services of Gary Roberts to put them over the top in their chase for a championship.
Reality check: Roberts will always be seen as one of the greatest dressing-room leaders in recent years, but he's got one goal so far in Pittsburgh. Words without follow-through will not win you a Stanley Cup.
Uh-oh. We'd normally give a player some slack if they score a huge goal in a Game 7 for the Penguins, but Andrew Ference hasn't been heard of since that game in Buffalo.
"Jarome [ Iginla ] in my books is a better hockey player than Crosby because he does those things [fights].
He will fight, he will lay his body on the line and take the hit and not complain if someone hits him and stuff like that. The superstars of the league should have to do that because they're hockey players, they're not ice-skating princesses." -- Andrew Ference
We do have a tip for Ference.
When you're cleaning Crosby's fireplace, watch out for those trophies, especially that Lester B. Pearson one...dick
Now, it takes a lot for us to be shocked. And we really don't want get into this.
But here is a thread title and description:
Hurt Girls Gossip of OHL Guys - For all you girls who have had one night stands with OHL guys, who have been hurt by them, and who just want to get anger out, and a little moral support. You're not the only one!
Pensblog=Stunned
............................................
This post about future outdoor games is just bizarre. [ CBS Sports ]
Breakdown of salary-cap numbers of top teams with trade deadline looming. [ Fox Sports ]
The ad-nauseam midseason report card. We're linking this one 'cause there's hardly any Penguin love. [ Sportsnet ]
Then some crazed Columbus fans go nuts in his comments section.
"Typical Canadian journalist. Columbus does not have an NHL team as far as they are concerned until they need Nash for the World Championships and Leclaire deserves at least an honorable mention as he only leads the NHL in shutouts."
Wow. No one even knew Columbus had fans.
And to be fair to Mirtle, Rick Nash and Pascal Leclaire are bums.
We don't mean that. We just want some Columbus fans to get pissed off.
You know things are going well when the only time you get disappointed is when Ty Conklin gives up a meaningless goal to snap his shutout-minutes streak.
That's where we are right now.
And it feels good. ..............................................
We can't remember if the Panthers game-action game was mud last season, but this was probably the tightest to the action this side of Reunion Arena in Dallas. Even the Winter Classic wasn't this headache-inducing.
The weak camera angle did let us see that all 200 people living in Sunrise, Florida, decided to come out to the game.
Early on, the Panthers head to the box. The Pens power play puts you to sleep.
It took another 30 seconds or so for the Panthers to head back to the box. If you've watched hockey for more than a week, you know the Pens had to capitalize.
They didn't, and the camera angle made you vomit.
On a play later in the middle, Malkin lost his stick, so the Panthers had somewhat of a chance. Shot, deflection...
Conch Block
And then, Bobby Orrpik comes out of a crowd with the puck and flies through the neutral zone. He drives to the net and redirects a Bing pass into Vokoun's boobs.
Interesting story about Vokoun: He blasted his teammates after the loss on Saturday.
We'd know these things if mainstream media covered hockey. ...Or if we did.
For whatever reason, Vokoun looked like he was popping pills before the game.
As the first period snoozed to the intermission, Conk survived a scare when a puck caromed off the boards, through his legs, and chilled in the crease. No big deal.
Solid road period.
Several Panthers fans leave after rumors of a Matlock marathon spread throughout the arena.
Picture: Matlock is all smiles after making a joke that only people older than 65 understand.
Something almost happened in the first 5 minutes of the second, but it didn't, whatever it was.
Laraque-Taffe-Hall come out with a big time shift. Laraque goes into his office.
[Lady Jaye]
Vokoun looks primed to be torched. But not yet.
And then it happens. The Panthers actually do something. The puck floats over Conk. Goal-light city. And just as you feel that punch in the pit in your stomach, you see the ref wave the goal off. What a feeling.
It turns out Stephen Weiss kicked the puck in. Replay confirms. What a stupid decision.
Soon after, Malone gets jobbed going to the net. PP again. Florida's PK dominated the other night.
Tomas Vokoun thinks he's in a video game, trying to move the puck every time he grabs it with his glove.
While on the power play, the Pens gave up a shorthanded breakaway, but the Panthers forgot who was in net for the Pens.
Conkblock -- nickname created by Stoosh
No chance.
They even had a 2-on-0. Damn it.
The Pens head back the other way. They set up a little, Crosby runs a blog behind the net, gets it to Sykora.
1-0.
The game reached the halfway mark, and that Pens goal woke some people up. The next two minutes were hell in the cell for Panther fans.
First... If you weren't awake yet...
Sid gets a breakout pass from Malone, takes over the world, goes far side on Vokoun. The Pens fans in attendance let out a bellowing roar.
2-0. [ The defense on this play was embarrassing. ]
Things were about to get ugly.
The Pens had their precarious 2-0 lead again. Nothing funny about that.
Oh, wait, it is funny.
Cause Taffe-Laraque-Hall complement their solid play from the whole game with a goal, as BGL picks up the trash.
Stanley C. Panther = Stunned [ Thanks to Eddy Spaghetti ] 3-0.
Thomas Vokoun wasn't ready to play the game. The Panthers pull Tomas Vokoun after the goal. He was ready to kill everyone. But hey, those are just the Facts of Life.
The new goalie was Craig Anderson, possibly the only backup goalie in the NHL with an NFL backup-QB name.
Early in the third, Conk opens the door for the Panthers as he sends the puck over the glass. Piece of cake for the PK.
As the PK kill ends, Father Time enters the building.
[Jim F.] [Thanks to everyone for the Father Time photoshops. We have enough to last us all season]
FSN keeps showing how long Conk's shutout streak is going. Jinx is coming.
Father Time takes the clock down. Some jerkoff for the Panthers starts cheap-shotting everyone. It was the only time Bryan Allen did anything all night.
Some more awful defense from the Panthers leads to Jarkko Ruutu jobbing the puck in front. The puck goes in. Plain as day.
The ref stares at it. No goal.
You really have to feel bad for Ruutu. He was stunned. Would have been his first goal in 43 games. [Shootouts don't count]
As time wore down, the shutout bid was the only thing in question.
But two many jinxes going on. Panthers haven't scored a shorthanded goal all season.
Pens on the Powerplay. Conkblock streak was at like 6,000 minutes.
Some dude gets the puck.
STREAK OVER
3-1.
With the score 3-1, things could have gotten scary. But if Florida would have come back, we would've stopped watching hockey forever.
Malkin and Bing run out the clock.
Game.
STATS
Bing: 1G, 1A -- All-Star starter
Malkin: 1A
Sykora: 1G
BGL: 1G
Conk: 27 Saves. 8-0-0
MISCELLANEOUS
Pray to whoever you pray to that the Pens don't put those L.E.D. ads on their boards in the new arena. They're very disorienting.
Vokoun throwing his stick in the previous game. What a maniac.
Florida is a mess.
"Three minutes killed us," defenseman Bryan Allen said. "It's the difference in the game."- We are surprised Allen had time to talk after the game. We thought he would be busy looking for his jock.
New Jersey refuses to lose. Pens in second place. Feels like last year all over again.
Lebron James says he likes Crosby. ESPN and the NHL have to be close now. [Deadspin]
Does anyone remember the last time the Pens beat the Lightning?
We want to say we don't intentionally job anyyone. In a perfect world, every PS gets on the site. If it doesn't, e-mail it to us again and tell us we're idiots.
Bing is on the cover of the new edition of Men's Fitness. This is just a setup.
............................
In news that shocks the world, or it shocks no one, apparently someone in the Hill District didn't like prepared document...
After a news conference to announce they will oppose a Jan. 14 city planning commission vote on a master plan for replacing Mellon Arena ... Someone put a lighter to the document and it went up in flames. [ PG ]
What a move. How pumped was that person when they lit that on fire?
Four people left the meeting shortly after the document was set aflame, as they came to realize that it was not crack.
Here's a strange tidbit that Philip M. found. "Erik Christensen has earned the praise of his coach, Claude Julien, for his improved commitment to defense and has worked his way out of the doghouse.After being scratched five times in the first three months of the season, Christensen has been decidedly more physical as of late and has earned the trust of his Julien. He has recorded six of his 13 points this season in his past seven games and his maturity could lead to his dynamic offensive potential finally being realized."
He said it was on USA Today, which gets its stuff from Rotoworld. We couldn't find the link.
..............................
And finally, has anyone seen Charlie? The last time we saw him, he was in the magazine aisle at Giant Eagle.
Tyler Kennedy -- Give it up for those people over at LetsGoPens and Faceoff-Factor for knowing what to expect before Tyler Kennedy was called up. He has contributed nicely and is a vital cog to the Penguin universe right now.
Ty Conklin -- With Marc-Andre Fleury succumbing to injury, the expected collapse of the Pens never happened. Without him, the goaltending burden was picked by emerging back-up goalie Ty Conklin. He definitely hasn't been flopping around, making over-exaggerated gloves saves, but he is getting the job done. This isn't jinxblog, so we say no more.
Kris Letang -- He was called up while the Pens were navigating the dark Atlantic Division seas in mid-November. After a couple of nervous games and bad mistakes, he has become a staple in the lineup and has won 3 games in the shootout, not to mention a huge shootout goal in the Winter Classic.
Jordan Staal -- Everyone at this site issued an Amber Alert for Jordan Staal as early as four games into the season, and he still hasn't shown up. He's been solid on the defensive side all season, and he is inching closer and closer to being his 2006-2007 version. He's only 19 years old.
Mark Recchi -- We were definitely on the fence when it came to Mark Recchi. But then he started becoming a hindrance rather than an annoyance. The surprise here is the way he couldn't recognize the direction the Pens were headed when he was released.
With Recchi on the roster: 12-12-2 Without Recchi on the roster: 11-4-0
If we didn't have jobs, we would do a "Recchi in the lineup, not in the lineup" comparison. That's too daunting. Anyone have those figures lying (laying?) around?
The game where the Pens got that goal called back because of the too-many-men penalty. Jordan Staal scored the no-goal, summing up his season thus far.
There were about 8 penalties in a row called on the Pens. A riot was about to break out.
November 3, 2007 through November 21, 2007 Atlantic Division craps on the Pens ------- 2-6-1 record
Totally dark times of the first half. People were calling for Therrien's head.
Coming off that Atlantic massacre in November, this game up in Ottawa entirely changed the outlook on the Pens season, as they went on a solid tear beginning with this game.
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"Get that thing outta my face"
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