Slugger Ruslan Fedotenko out, Minard up

(image from the Pensblog)

The look on the Penguins faces on the bench is priceless. Miroslav Satan doesn’t seem too impressed though. But then again Satan hasn’t really been that much of anything inside a rink in quite a while.

Ruslan Fedotenko out 4-6 weeks on a broken hand from Colby Armstrong’s beak? Ouch. Rusty should leave the fighting to the big dogs. The shame too is Fedotenko was playing good hockey on the “European line” with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora.

To replace Fedotenko, Chris Minard has been re-called. Minard’s scoring at an Ovechkin-esque rate: 26 goals in 30 games. Unfortunately when he’s been in the bigs Head Coach Michel Therrien—in all his wisdom, has given Minard 8 minutes a night, primarily playing with guys like Eric Godard. This time it should be different, Minard has been a pure goal scorer at every level. During the NHL lockout he scored 49 goals (in 69 games) playing with a playmaking center in Scott Gomez. Sure it was the ECHL, but still, if you can play with talented players it shows, despite the level of competition. With such few Penguins winger actually acting like they know how to play hockey, why not give Minard (now seasoned with 22 career NHL games) a legit shot at a chance on a scoring line.

If Therrien is smart, he'll make it happen. If he's lucky, Minard will somehow pinball around and end up on a top line with all the combination of switches. It's bound to happen, right?

Put the Pens in the Southeast..

Is it too late to petition realignment to the Southeastern Division? Pittsburgh, geographically, is more "eastern" than Atlanta and Tampa is, and techincally is closer to the Mason-Dixon line then it is to the Atlantic Ocean. You think Bettman would buy it? Yeah probably not, but the Pens feasted on Atlanta anyways (they're 3-0 against the T-bombs this year) to snap out of so many nasty streaks. Ok, that aside

--One of the more interesting developments is how short the Penguins fuses have become. Sidney Crosby famously jumped a guy over the weekend, but Colby Armstrong takes down Ruslan Fedotenko on a relatively normal play and Rusty challenges him to fisticuffs? Fedotenko's had three fights in his career with two of them coming in the past three weeks....And maybe he should think of not fighting again, as he appeared to hurt his hand after one-punching the prominent proboscis on Army's face.

--When you're in a slump (to say nothing of a slump of epic proportions), everyone preaches just getting the puck to the net to score an ugly one. And while the Penguins did look to get traffic to the net and get some point shots through, it's still amusing that the slump buster—a hard cross-ice pass in the zone from Ryan Whitney to Petr Sykora who redirected it-- was about the furthest thing from being ugly goal as you could get.

--A lot of people wondered if Sidney Crosby fired up his teammates, we’ll leave it to you to answer that, but we think he’s certainly gotten himself fired up. El Sid averaged 3.08 shots on goal over the first 39 games of the season. In the two games following Fight-Night 2009 he’s got 6.50 shots a night. It’s admittedly a small sample size but it is reflective of how he has cranked his intensity up a notch. And the work he’s doing in his own zone (winning faceoffs, taking pucks away, intercepting passes, starting breakouts) is just as good as the crisp passes and shots he’s getting at the offensive end.

--It obviously helps to play with guys like Crosby, Whitney and Evgeni Malkin, but where would the Penguins be without Sykora? Not just tonight but generally he’s been a monster, leading the team with 10 powerplay goals and 6 game winners on top of that.

--Marc-Andre Fleury deserves a lot of credit too. We've all been a little frustrated with him when he's been giving up early goals or somewhat weak goals, but he closed the door 27 out of 28 times, especially in the 3rd period when the Penguins were sitting on the lead and allowed too many good chances, as the 14-7 shot advantage for the T-bombs would suggest.

--We bet the only person who looks forward to playing against the Penguins more than Ilya Kovalchuk is Dany Heatley. The other "Kovy" has 18 goals and 15 assists in 26 career games against the Pens...Also at age 24 (25 in a couple months), doesn't it seem like Kovalchuk is already old? He's been in the NHL since our senior year of high school. And with young Russians like Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin in the league, as hard as it is to imagine but Kovalchuk is fading off of conciousness, it seems. Of course, if he played somewhere like Montreal or Detroit this probably wouldn't be the case.

--As nice as it was to get the win, the second game scratch in a row of Hal Gill and Alex Goligoski didn't make our house happy. However perhaps it should be noted one of the TST whipping boys, Phillipe Boucher, was on the ice for both power play goals. Then again, you could probably put Paris Hilton on skates and tell her not to hump anyone and the likes of Crosby, Malkin, Whitney and Sykora could work the puck around and score a goal or two.

--Hit machine Brooks Orpik was credited with 10 more deserving crunches last night. And the stick he caught in the face Monday night makes his face look even more creepy/intense.

--From the "Everything Can't Go Right Department" two "top-six" wingers didn't finish the game due to injury as Pascal Dupuis joined Fedotenko in the sick bay. Could this be a chance for the Penguins to give Chris Minard (26 goals in 30 AHL games) a chance to play on a top line in the NHL? True Minard only has 1 goal in 22 career NHL games, but when you're playing 7-8 minutes a night with the likes of Eric Godard, well that's what you get.

Now is as good a time as any to hit the road on what will be (according to the mileage) the second most taxing roadie left on the schedule this year. Nashville on Thursday, a matinee with Colorado Saturday and then back east to take on those dastardly Flyers on Tuesday.

The end of the world as we know it?

Don Cherry agreed with us about Saturday night's fights (hat-tip to Empty Netters)




Ukranian, Russian, ahh what's the difference. Could you imagine the orgasm Cherry would have had if it was his boy Jordan Staal fighting instead of the Russian?

1 for 9 doesn't spell success

Tough loss tonight, playing without four of the top six defensemen on the team is tough, but not converting on the powerplay (1 for 9) was too much to overcome. Penguins fans love to try and call for Mike Yeo's head, but it's hard to argue the chances the Pens got. 12 shots on the powerplay, several of them great chances. Many more went just wide or were blocked. Tonight, Ryan Miller was awesome and he was the difference.

• It looked like "trick night" at the rink for Evgeni Malkin. A lot of crazy dekes and moves all around the ice, perhaps the best being pulling the puck between his legs, leaving a defenseman in the dust and throwing a perfect cross-ice pass to Ruslan Fedotenko for the game's first goal.
• Speaking of Rusty, the guy is nothing if not a very streaky goal scorer. When he's hot he's hot (remember the 12 goals he scored in 22 games to lead the Lightning to a Cup?)
• Janne Pesonen has his share of apologists...Err, supporters. But he's not an impact player at this level. Is he getting a ton of minutes or opportunities? No, he's not. However, what has he done? Absolutely nothing. He's generated nothing and looked lost. The cream rises to the top, even at getting 6-7 minutes a night if he was the real deal he'd be showing flashes of brilliance. He's shown nothing. He got six shifts and 2:55 tonight. But give Malkin 2:55 of time and he'll show something. Give Sidney Crosby 2:55 and he'll show something. That's tough competition to measure yourself against, but the bottom line is you have to show something. Pesonen, right now, has nothing to offer, whether he got 2:55, 12:55 or 22:55 it'd be hard to argue for him.
• Thought: if you didn't know this was Ben Lovejoy's first NHL game, could you have guessed it? Probably not, but you'd still think he was a rookie though. A couple times we noticed Jordan Staal making a conciseness effort to get back and help out. Lovejoy did get a "welcome to the NHL" moment when Paul Gaustad lined him up around the endboards with a thunderous (but clean) hit. Malkin, stepping up, checked Gaustad and then cross-checked another player.
• Nice to see the Penguins help Kris Letang get the monkey off his back by giving him a lot of powerplay goal....Still not a good night for the improvised Letang/Brooks Orpik top pair, as they were on the ice for four Buffalo goals, two off of Orpik turnovers, the other off a careless Miroslav Satan entry to the zone.
• When Max Talbot looks like a giant in a post whistle scrum, you know the opponent is tiny. Nathan Gerbe, listed at 5'6" (possibly with skates on) might be even smaller than Martin St. Louis. He's still a good player though.
• After going 1 for 7 on the powerplay through two periods you just couldn't feel good about the Pens chances, huh?
• As we alluded to at the top, Pittsburgh threw a lot at the net..The Pens got 54 shots on net, 32 on the target. Miller was huge in keep out what he could and it was enough.

The Pens looked a little sluggish last game, but that could be reasonably excused by playing three games in four nights in three different cities. But tonight began another stretch of four games in six nights (in three different barns). The road is going to be tougher before it becomes easier.

At the end of the day the finger pointing can go around. The Pens were sunk tonight not just by the inability to convert powerplay chances, but by sloppy turnovers. Orpik, Orpik and Satan made three plays that resulted in the puck being in the net. Letang and Dany Sabourin had chances to make great plays to cover the mistake but couldn't. At the end of the day the Pens just need to buckle down, make smarter decisions and better plays and execute. They didn't do it tonight, and the power-play couldn't cover that up this time.

Offensive eruption

Ohhh so THAT's what Ruslan Fedotenko looks like in a Pens jersey...

As we noted in the preview, Michael Leighton's been on his game as of late and it certainly showed for the

• Evgeni Malkin looked like a man against boys out there, circling the entire defense with the puck at points, firing five shots on goal. He was rewarded by the hockey gods at the end of the game to get his goal back to that was "stolen".
• Speaking of that, Sidney Crosby wasn't sure where his stick was in relation to the cross-bar, so he played it coy to the refs, not taking credit for the puck he clearly deflected. Savvy move there.
• Crosby is on a four game point streak in which he's scored 9 points...Not to be outdone, Malkin is also on a four game point streak which has seen him score 10 points...Anything you can do..
• Another typical Brooks Orpik statline: 22:40 icetime, +1, 5 hits, 5 blocked shots, 1 takeaway and 1 giveaway...Not too bad, eh?
• Too bad that lone innocent looking giveaway was a hideous misfire by Orpik on a pass that 18 year old Brandon Sutter took in for Carolina's lone goal.
• By the way, some intrepid person (won't be us) should compile a list of players who have scored their first career goal against the Pens over the past 2-3 years. It would be staggering. This sounds like something Seth would be good at..
• It was nice to see the much maligned second line of Ruslan Fedotenko-Jordan Staal-Petr Sykora all combine for some tic-tac-toe passing to slam the GWG home. Everytime you write Staal off as not a playmaker he'll pull a pass like that out of his hat.
• Michel Therrien better be careful....People could fall in love with the "3rd" line of Tyler Kennedy-Max Talbot-Miroslav Satan. They had a shift for the ages in the dying moments of the second, taking ownership of the puck down low. Could any 3rd line in the league boast the sheer speed, skill and determination of this trio? We doubt it.
• Marc-Andre Fleury was stellar again in net and was thisclose to scoring an empty net goal for himself. We have no problem with him shooting for the moon, so long as it's a 2 goal game.

So who thought the Pens would be 5-2-1 after eight games while missing Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney? Not many.

This neatly wraps up one segment of the season, the "Post-Stockholm Recovery" of having five of six at home...Now a new segment, a trip to New York to face the 6-2-1 Rangers and then three games out west. Tall challenges on the horizon for sure, but for now it's ok to sit back and enjoy the satisfaction of a two point night.

SABUUU....Pens win

Image courtesy of the Pensblog

Another night at the office huh?

New feature here for re-caps, three up/three down..


3 UP

1- Dany Sabourin: 35 saves on 36 shots and after giving up the opening goal in the gimmick he shuts the door for four straight attempts. The surprise starter--most had thought Marc-Andre Fleury would get the go-- but Dany Sabs did the trick and more.

2- Evgeni Malkin: Got the assist on the Penguins lone goal, led all Penguins forwards with 24:58 in icetime, had four shots on net and one hit....OK so he went 0-for on faceoff (on five draws) but a small decline. Plus the shootout deciding goal too.

3- Brooks Orpik: Tons of other candidates but we're going to give the nod to Orpik, who like most the defensive players did his job there-- with a game high five hits and four blocked shots and led everyone not named Zdeno Chara in ice-time with 26:32.

***Honorable mention***
--Max Talbot went 12 for 14 in the face off dot. That's worth at least a mention. As this Penguins team that's relied on almost exclusively young centers (Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Talbot, Jordan Staal) have aged in the past few years, it's been nice to see in action their numbers all gradually improve.


3 DOWN

3- Ruslan Fedotenko: OK maybe this is a little picky, Rusty only got 14:37 in even strength ice-time, 11 seconds of mop up power play. But what did he do with it? 1 shot on goal, 1 hit and 1 giveaway. This adds nicely with his 0 goals and 0 assists on the year in now seven games.

2- Eric Godard: Minor nit, but Godard is taking too many minor penalties. As it stands he's only going to be playing 6-7 minutes a night, so there's no reason he should be backing his team against the wall if possible.

1- Jordan Staal: Took the penalty that led to the Bruins only goal and took another one in over-time to negate a power play the Pens were on. Got 18:47 and only put two shots on the net, didn't produce any offense and was under 50% in the faceoff circle.

To be sure all of today's 'downers' didn't perform that poorly, but in most cases they didn't perform. It's hard to be find too much negative to work with when there's no goals against at even strength, a superb goaltending performance by the #2 and an exciting finish.

Impressions on the Toronto Preseason game

Well until our video-stream slowed down and died somewhere in the second period.

• Toronto didn't ice that competitive of a team, and even if they did it's still the Maple Leafs. The Jordan Staal / Evgeni Malkin / Petr Sykora line looked as good as you'd expect them to considering Toronto' fielded an exhibition lineup for an exhibition game.
• That said, the work Staal and mainly Malkin did short-handed in the early 2nd period was a thing of beauty. Malkin beared in on the forecheck and caused a Toronto defenseman (that we couldn't identify, no announcers were on our feed) to spin and wipe out. A little hustle went a long way, Malkin feeds Staal who's all alone in front of the net, Staal in turn dishes back to Malkin who slams the puck in from point blank. Tic-tac-toe. The Penguins have shown a willingness to let Malkin and Sidney Crosby play shorthanded and this could payoff.
• Tyler Kennedy does look notably faster. Perhaps his first NHL season wore on him, especially the mononucleosus from Jan/Feb. Tonight he looked great, flying around out there.
• Kris Letang also looked like he knew what he was doing, his pairing with Brooks Orpik was equal parts strength and skill, the perfect mix of size, speed, positioning and stick-handling. On the Penguins 2nd goal (a powerplay goal credited to Rusty Fedotenko) Letang shot in to the play and on first glance appear to score. The goal was unassisted, and with no announcers (and the view of a laptop hooked up to a television) we couldn't make out if a Maple Leaf was last to touch it or what. Either way, if Letang got there, he would have finished.
• To the point we saw Dany Sabourin looked good in limited work. He never made any huge saves or anything spectacular but he never had to.
• Darryl Sydor actually looked good to. Sure he played within himself, but he did what he had to. His partner, Hal Gill, on the other hand looked a little more slowed footed than we remembered. Maybe he's a slow starter or maybe our memory is off. We'll see.

That's about it. If a player wasn't mentioned, he didn't catch our eye. But we only saw about the first half of the game so there's always that. Regardless the Pens were up 3-0, a good place to stop.

28 profiles in 28 days...The Battletank

Welcome back to TST's 28 profiles in 28 days (sorry for the weekend pause). Here's the backstories of players previously profiled:
Kris Beech....The Unwanted One
Matt Cooke...The New Ruu
Sidney Crosby....The Chosen One
Pascal Dupuis.The Iceman



Basics
Player Name: Ruslan Fedotenko
How Acquired: Signed as a free agent on July 2nd 2008
Draft Position: Left Wing
Age: 29
Contact Situation: Signed thru 2008-09 season, $2,250,000 million cap hit per season

History

Last Season Stats: (New York Islanders) 67 games played, 16 goals, 17 assists for 33 points,
Last Season Write-up: In Fedotenko's only season with the Isles (though it seemed like he was there longer than that) he put up those modest numbers on the weak team.
Career Year Stats: (2005-06 with Tampa Bay) 80 gp, 26g, 15a = 41p

Outlook
Player progressing, in prime or regressing: At 29 years old, Fedotenko has likely developed into his prime.
Expected 2008-09 role: 1st/2nd/3rd line winger. Rusty is something of a diverse player. Like Ryan Malone he's got the big body and nose for the net. Also like Bugsy, he's best when working with players that can lug the puck up the ice for him and then finish up in front of the net. In Feds' seven year NHL career he's averaged 17.5 goals a season and has been pretty consistent in scoring about 16-17 a year.
Potential line-mates: Pretty much every forward...Could be with Crosby or Malkin but could be with guys like Staal, Dupuis, Cooke and Kennedy on a more defensive minded line.
"Best case scenario" stats: 82 games played 20 goals, 25 assists, 45 points
Notes: Signed a one year deal with the Pens...Like Malone, has more career NHL goals than assists....When on a scoring streak he's on it; as evidenced by the 12 playoff goals he scored for Tampa in 2004 (tied for the lead).
Interesting fact: There are only three active forwards in the NHL from the Ukraine: Fedotenko, Toronto's Alexei Ponikarovsky and New York's (disputed) Nikolai Zherdev.

Pens sign Satan, Fedotenko

The Pens have reportedly signed Miroslav Satan (1 year $3.5 million) and Ruslan Fedotenko (1 year $2.25 million) to contracts.


Satan is a skilled winger who's 33 years old but seen his points drop each of the past three seasons since the lockout. To his defense, he was with the mostly hapless New York Islanders the whole time. Satan's scored 29 goals in seven seasons, he knows how to put it in the net. He's likely your Sidney Crosby winger.


Fedotenko is more in the mold of a Ryan Malone. He had that great playoff run with Tampa Bay (scoring 12 goals in 22 games on the way to a Cup) and is pretty consistent as a 15-20 goals and 15-20 assists guy.


This likely means no Jaromir Jagr or Markus Naslund signing, but you never know.


By our calculations Pittsburgh has now spent $50.6 million on 20 players (10 forwards, 8 defensemen, 2 goalies). There is some room for another forward, but now we start to wonder if a defenseman coughSydorcough might be traded, if possible.


See you tomorrow for "Worst Satan newspaper headline puns"...If you want to submit any, drop a line at hooksorpik at gmail