Mr. Kennedy to sit one out, Caputi called up

Quick hits:

--For the second time in under a week, NHL disicplinarian Colin Campbell rung up a Penguin; this time it's Tyler Kennedy one game for leaving the bench to engage Toronto's Luke Schenn in a fight. It's unknown if Mr. Kennedy would have gotten a longer timeout if he hadn't gotten wiped on the ice by Scheen.

--In personnel moves, the Penguins have called up their brightest prospect from the minors; Luca Caputi. Paul Bissonnette has been re-assigned. Caputi has 13 goals (and 35 points) in 46 games down in the minors, not bad stats for a 20 year old. It will be interesting to see how he fares, here's to hoping that Michel Therrien doesn't give him the usual 6-7 minutes for most young callups.

--Two interesting tidbits from Pensburgh: Sergei Gonchar takes another step on the road to recovery by being cleared for contact in practice. And Ray Shero indicates the "expectation" management has for the players to "make a push". It sounds like a trade could be coming soon, possibly when Sarge can return. As we've mentioned before, signs are pointing that Alex Goligoski could be the bait.

--Sad story from Montreal, as former Penguin Robert Lang suffered a pretty gruesome career threatening achilles injury. The surgery was said to be successful, so that is a good thing. Here's hoping that Lang, an avid golfer, is back to the links at some point when the weather gets warm. And back to the NHL too.

--It would be a shame if Lang's career ended in this eye-popping jersey, eh?


--Congrats to Sidney Crosby, who was named the NHL's second star of the week...Penguin killer Jamie Langenbrunner was named the league's top star.

--A quick check of the standings don't show much progress, as a 1-1-1 record out of the break woud indicate. The Pens are in 10th in the conference; Florida is in 9th--one point up on the Pens (with two games in hand). Carolina is clinging to 8th place with two more points than Pittsburgh.

--James Mirtle's update shows the Penguins need to go 19-12-0 to ensure a playoff berth.

The Walking Wounded

Blog buddy Ben Lovejoy has been recalled (maybe the Pens saw our prospect update)....Which means that maybe Hal Gill can't go tonight.

Got us to thinking, the injury bug hasn't been kind to the team closest to us and our favorite team. So, in a pickup game (at 100%), who ya got if these two lineups met each other? It's sad that you can almost make lineups...

Washington Capitals *
Poti-Green
Erskine-Schultz
Sloan


Pittsburgh Penguins
Gonchar-Gill
Whitney-Boucher
*Pseudo-retired Brian Pothier not included because face it, he's finished.

"All right, let's not panic. I'll make the money by selling one of my livers. I can get by with one."

The noted philospher Homer J Simpson provides us with the calming title, so hey, let's look at the positives:

--The Penguins could be getting a great pickup near the trading deadline when Gonchar returns! --Even more ice time for Kris Letang!
--Alex Goligoski's going to make the team for sure!

Now, the panic:

WHO'S GOING TO PLAY 26 MINUTES A NIGHT IN ALL SITUATIONS AND TRY TO MATCHUP AGAINST THE OTHER TEAM'S NUMBER ONE THREAT!!!


It's okay boys and girls, hands off the panic buttons (until the games begin, at least).

Orpik-Eaton
Gill-Letang
Goligoski-Sydor


Do it.

Gonchar out "indefinitely"

From the main page:

"Sergei will continue to be evaluated as our team medical personnel consider several treatment options," Shero said. “In the meantime, we will look for our other defensemen to step up and fill the void created by his absence.”

Gonch went down on September 20th, so even if he would be out for eight weeks that would mean missing 13 regular season games, only three of them against divisional opponents. But that eight week period is totally arbitrary, indefinite could mean shorter, could mean longer.

Now the Pens are looking at starting the season without their top two point scorers on the blueline, and perhaps more importantly guy in Gonchar who's served admirably all-around. Don't sleep on the fact he was 4th in the Norris Trophy voting last season, and if it weren't for biases in preconceived notions on how he's a more "offensive" defenseman it could have been higher.

This opens up not just a huge opportunity for Kris Letang (6 goals and 11 assists in 63 NHL games last season) and Alex Goligoski (28 points in 23 AHL playoff games) but a responsibility to step in and produce. Goligoski has just three NHL games under his belt but is now 23 years old and has the seasoning to be able to play at this level. You can never be sure if a young defenseman will sink or swim at the NHL level (hello Noah Welch) but Goose has the track record to do well.

Surely it's better to be without key players at the beginning of the season rather than at the end of it--provided the choice is given, but all the same it's best not to be in that situation in the first place. Perhaps this early season adversity will help the Penguins get over whatever sense of entitlement they may have carried in attitude for thinking this year's journey deep into the playoffs will be as deep or as inevitable as the talent they have. It will make them work, and at the end that could pay off.

Uh oh, The Sarge is hurt

The last thing you want to see in exhibition games are injuries, and the Penguins appear to have a problem here with number 1 defenseman Sergei Gonchar going down with what's believed to be a separated shoulder.

Since Gonchar plays 26+ minutes a night matched against the other teams' top forwards, and also eats significant time on the penalty kill and basically runs the Penguins successful powerplay.

Luckily, GM Ray Shero wanted to collect, and pretty much has succeeded in stockpiling 10 NHL capable defensemen, so even with Ryan Whitney's surgery recovery as well as losing Gonchar the Penguins still have some decent options.

Notably, prospect Alex Goligoski. After leading the AHL in scoring this past post-season (28 points in 24 games). If Gonchar is to miss any regular season time-- and it's still a little early to say the sky is falling-- the "Goose" is going to have to figure into the Penguins plans, or at least get the chance to prove that he is ready for the show.

And of course the young Kris Letang, already under increased responsibility with Whitney's absence, is going to be counted on as the team's premier offensive defensemen.

The sky isn't falling but potentially opening up the year without your top two offensive defensemen isn't anyone's idea of ideal. It's better to have these sorts of worries in September and October than in April and May but the health factor is there. Hopefully the Pens have weathered the worst part of the storm and can slip through the rest of the exhibition games unscathed.

Malkin and Gonchar staying busy

Last summer Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin trained in St. Petersburg Russia and both had great seasons. Gonchar, a notoriously slow starter from his early years in Washington, particularly played well. Need proof? The first two months of the 2007-08 season the Sarge put up 24 points in 23 games, better than the 17 point in 23 games in 06-07 and 12 points in 22 games for the 05-06 season.

This summer the pair of Russian Penguins are seemingly participating in similiar activities, as they're playing in a tournament August 1-6 in St. Pete, along with a fellow by the name of Alex Ovechkin.

It's interesting that Malkin and Ovechkin are taking another similiar path. Ovechkin has been friendly and open about Malkin's talent and ability, all the while saying it doesn't matter if his opponent is Russian or Canadian. Malkin has been a little frostier towards his countryman; once saying the relationship between the two were "teammates" (as in the Russian National team), not "friends" as the reporter suggested in a question.

Hockey is a tight knit circle and we assume there's not too much world class training going on in summer in Russia so the two will likely be in close quarters again. It'll be interesting to see what if any reports come to this side of the world about the participation of some of the biggest NHL stars in the world right now.

Forward looking roster projections: Defensemen edition

We're going to highlight this breakdown of next season's likely defensemen personnel with a spotlight on a player. And it's probably not who you first thought it was...

He's a player who tied for 18th among defensemen in scoring last season (beating out names like Redden, Bouwmeester and Rozsival). He scored as many goals (12) as Sergei Gonchar.

And Penguins fans generally do not like him for his unwillingness to use his 6’4 frame to make any kind of physical contact.

He's Ryan Whitney, of course, and how he bounces back from an up-and-mainly-down year last season will be one of many critical factors for the 2008-09 Penguins. We all know about the tough love Michel Therrien gave Whitney by taking his defensive position away and shifting him temporarily to become a winger.

Whitney responded from that point, playing generally a little better. His real shining moment came at the crest of the Penguins season: the triple OT Game 5 thriller. Gonchar went down with a back injury (and supposedly a head full of concussion) and the Pens had to lean on all their defensemen but none more so than Whitney. He played 50:46 of ice-time, over 7 minutes more than the next closest Pen. Playing that much is one thing, but Whitney played it well, doing everything expected of him to keep the Pens into the game.

Obviously the regular season games don’t quite match the intensity or meaning of a do or die Stanley Cup final game, but Whitney’s shown he can be very, very effective.

With the re-signing of Mark Eaton—who was used as Gonchar’s first partner before Eaton got slew footed by Marco Sturm and tore his knee up—we thought of how the defensive units would look. No doubt Brooks Orpik played the finest hockey of his career when paired with the Sarge, but Free Candy needs to be effective away from #55. Whitney and Orpik have been partners before and have been teammates, more or less, since the spring of 2004. Both figure to be around for the next 5 years at least so creating a long-term duo that could be the modern day equivalent of Stevens/Niedermayer seems very appealing.

That leaves the logjam of veteran Darryl Sydor, the USS Hal Gill, shot-blocking (but vanilla) Rob Scuderi and the promising Kris Letang to fill two spots in the lineup. As long as Letang is a regular, we wouldn’t mind any combination of partners for him. Gill seemed to play the best and adds more size, toughness and is a better passer than the other candidates, so we’ll plug him in.

Eaton/Gonchar
Orpik/Whitney
Gill/Letang

Spares: Scuderi, Sydor

Not so fast my friend

Hope has been a big factor of the Penguins run.....Fans of a team can only hope a team can do so much. What the Penguins showed tonight, from top to bottom was an unbridled effort of soul and refusing to say die. And they made the play to win in triple over time.

What a ride, where do we start...

• Ryan Whitney. Often a goat for most Penguins fans. But after Sergei Gonchar was injured (while hustling back to successfully break up an odd man rush) the Penguins leaned on Whitney heavily for all three overtime periods. And he did his part. Whitney lead skaters on all teams with an amazing 50:46 of ice-time (out of a total of a total of the game-clock of 94:41) and was a +2 with 3 shots, 2 hits and 2 blocked shots.
• Three other Penguin defensemen (Rob Scuderi, Brooks Orpik, Hal Gill) played over 40 minutes picking up the slack from Gonchar's absence. Will that take it's toll on Wednesday? For now, that's a Wednesday problem...
• Marc-Andre Fleury. His detractors are pretty much silenced now. Fleury made 55 saves on 58 shots and did about everything possible to keep the Penguins in it. A team doesn't make it through 5+ periods without their goalie answering the bell. Should the Penguins lose (if it were tonight, or Wednesday or Saturday) it's nothing against MAF. He stood on his head and kept the puck out of the net on several sequences when Detroit was pressing.
• "How does that Marian Hossa deal look now in Pittsburgh?" was last week's thoughts of Capitals blog onfrozenblog.com. Well Hossa has 11 goals and 13 assists in 19 playoff games. No doubt the Pens swung for the fences, but it's paid off. We'd pull the trigger on that deal in a heartbeat. And something tells us the Hoss aint done just yet either.
• You can't tell us that Evgeni Malkin and over-time hero Petr Sykora aren't hurt. Malkin got taken down innocently and stayed down after the whistle. We're buying into Dave Molinari's theory that it might have happened when Philly's Mike Richards plastered Geno into the boards, possibly causing a rib injury. But the big boy aint doggin' it, he's tryin' his heart out. There's just not much left to dig deep into. Luckily, there's only a maximum of two more games left.
• We agreed with Coach Michel Therrien's call of a timeout halfway through the third period. We said to a buddy if we were coach we would call a TO the next whistle and sure enough Therrien did. Detroit had Pens on the ropes and even though they went on to score the tying goal soon after, the coach did his part to break the momentum and give his boys a breather. Just another example how Therrien will get no credit for the victory but discreetly played a part in keeping his finger on the pulse of the team and doing all he could to keep them in it.
• Another decision that we agreed with that Therrien made (before the goal happened, btw) was putting Maxime Talbot on the ice for the final minute of the game. He could have gone with Sykora or Gary Roberts but he put out there a guy he knew had the heart and the hands to make it happen. Talbot rewarded that trust by firing in a shot from in front of the net with :35 seconds to go to keep the dream alive. Few players out there play balls to the wall like Talbot, he just makes things happen when they have to. Good things happen to good people that try hard, and Max Talbot is proof of that.
• 2 assists and a boatload of chances for Sidney Crosby. He had a lot of jump in his step and was able to create a lot of offense. Plus he got back to break up several great chances for Detroit. As the old adage goes "your best players have to be your best players" and Crosby was definitely very dangerous all night long. He refused to lose and you have to believe a lot of that attitude bled over on the other guys, which is what captains do.
• Speaking of trying hard, Pascal Dupuis busted his ass all night long. He was great at digging up loose pucks. The first goal by Hossa was primarily assisted by Crosby but Dupuis made it possible by doing the dirty work. "Dupper" was the guy who looked the most desperate of any player out there and gave a very, very respectable effort.
• Few players have more heart than Ryan Malone. After taking a slapshot to the face opening up a nasty cut we feared for the worst. You know it's bad when the referees immediately whistle the play dead while the puck is in the open. Malone was cut bad and was in trouble. Luckily it was well under his eye (which no visor would have protected) and he was able to shake it off and nary miss a shift. Heart like that is what win championships. Malone earned a lot of respect here.
• Jordan Staal played over 34 minutes and was the only regular center (other than Adam Hall) to break 50% in faceoffs. Staal had 3 takeaways to 0 giveaways and played 3:40 of short-handed icetime. Did we mention he's 19 years old? What a solid, solid player.

As you've noticed, we've mentioned nearly every player in the lineup. Because it's a team effort when you win a Stanley Cup Final game in triple overtime. The boys get a well deserved day off and we'll see if there's anything left in the tank for Game 6. Sergei Gonchar told NBC that he'd "absolutely" be in there but we wonder how banged up he might be. He took a nasty spill into the wall and if we put a speculating cap on that could very well be a separated/dislocated shoulder. And the rest of the D is no doubt tired from picking up the Sarge's slack. But it's a team and when one falls the rest step up. That's what happened tonight. That's all we need. One game at a time, boys, let's go back home and win there.

14 down, 2 more to go.....

Game 3: Nothin's over til we say it is...Pens win

Sidney strikes again

Now that's more like it. The Penguins show a lot more heart, desire, effort, devotion and find some open ice to make it all work. Some thoughts:

• We still can't get over kuklakorner author IwoCPO's thoughts on Sergei Gonchar..."Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Homer will have them fetal by period 2, Game 1. Gonchar: exposed." The only thing exposed is that guy to a class defenseman.
• So, how about that Sidney Crosby. Two huge goals and a cross-bar that was that close to making it three. El Sid found more room to work and Detroit's not doubting who the best player in this series is anymore.
• For long stretches, whether it was the atmosphere of being at home, the favorable matchups or what but the Pens flat out dominated the play. From about five minutes left in the first through the first half of the 2nd period a new observer would have sworn the Penguins were the team up in the series and on the verge of a sweep. Only some poorly timed penalties de-railed the train to a sure huge victory.
• Speaking of those penalties, Hal Gill got rang up for two. And we can't disagree, if the refs are going to be strict on Tomas Holmstrom for interfering on the crease like he does, they ought to be just as stern about the cross-checks and jostling that guys like Gill and Brooks Orpik do to impede Holmstrom.
• Rob Scuderi, quickly become a TST whipping boy, got walked right around by Johan Franzen for the first Detroit goal. A nice goal by Franzen, we would have liked to see Scuds be a little more authoritative in his play.
• Veteran Darryl Sydor showed a little rust, but that was only natural for a 36 year old player who hasn't played in a game situation since March 31st. We thought he acquited himself as well as could be expected given his skillset and role in the 13:31 he played. And kudos to the coaches for shielding and limiting him to that amount.
• At least every defenseman had two blocked shots (Ryan Whitney abnormally led the way with 5). Orpik led the hit parade with 7. And as you'd know from reading this blog, a Brooks Orpik hit means more than any old regular hit. Orpik played wonderful.
• As the intrepid reader might notice, we've highlighted every defenseman on the squad. That's because it's a team game and to beat a team as solid as the Red Wings it's going to have to be a toatl effort with contributions from all.
  

At the end of the day the Pens win. And they're right back in this series. Losing 2 games to 1, but they've broken through the invincibility shields of the Red Wings and now everybody knows it. But the same effort has to be there Saturday night. Tonight's a great win, but Detroit still holds the advantage. If they take Game 4, they get the desired split and go home needing just one win of three games to get the Holy Grail.

There will be plenty of time for the MSM to tell you that but for now let's just relish in the joy of a Stanley Cup Finals win....

13 down, just 3 more to go until Lord Stanley....

Don't Hassle the Hoss....Pens win

• The last team to win 11 of their first 12 playoff games was the 1983 Edmonton Oilers. That team had a couple of names you might have heard of...Gretzky, Messier, Anderson, Kurri, Coffey, Fuhr. Those guys went on to form the nucleus of something of a dynasty, yes?
• Back to this years Pens, it's hard not to be proud of them. Tonight's game wasn't an aesthetically pleasing one, but by design. Pittsburgh scored two goals in the first 7:41 of the game and then limited the Flyers to 8 shots after two periods of play.
• One thing we didn't like was Steve Downie charging Petr Sykora....Downie made an ill-advised play in his own zone in the 3rd period, throwing a cross-ice pass that was intercepted and quickly turned into a Penguin odd man rush. Sykora eventually got the puck and threw a great pass to Ryan Malone who back-handed a goal past Martin "French Toast" Biron. Downie, no doubt irritated at himself for the turnover, charged in with a full head of steam and plastered Sykora well after he had dished the puck and it left Sykora down. Even though Sykora did return to the game, a hit like that isn't cool. In Game 2 Tyler Kennedy didn't forget Scottie Upshall needlessly cross-checking Kris Letang in the back in the dying moments of Game 1. Surely the Pens won't forget about Downie.
• But then again, this is the second game in a row a misplay by Downie ended up in the back of his net. We wouldn't be surprised if he's a scratch for Game 4.
• Like we mentioned earlier: ironically the Penguins are proving Washington Capitals fan JP right: Marty Biron isn't that good. Sure Marian Hossa has a great wrist shot and there was traffic in the form of a Philly defenseman....But a shot from 15 or so feet is one a goalie can't be letting by this time of year.
• The beginning of the game saw a bunch of relatively ticky-tack hooking penalties, as if the referees were trying to show they were in control of the game. But when Jordan Staal made a great effort while short-handed and a defenseman was draped all over him preventing a shot, no call was to be found. Even Flyer RJ Umberger commented between periods that it was not a very consistently officiated game.
• Total shots for Daniel Briere and Vaclav Prospal combined: the big goose egg. Another testament to how well the Penguins defensive unit has played, notably Sergei Gonchar and Brooks Orpik who the Pens have been trying to match up with them as much as possible.
• Speaking of the Penguins defensemen, every one of them had at least one blocked shot and they combined for 12 as a unit, almost matching the 18 shots that Philly got on Marc-Andre Fleury. That's how you play a road playoff game right there.
• We loved the shots of the fans after every Pens goal. Total dejection. They know what we all know: the Flyers are totally outclassed in this game, and well, in the series too.

All in all, a workman like effort that got the job done. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective. If Malone or Evgeni Malkin could have tied up Umberger's stick as a Flyers' powerplay ended, it would have been a shutout. As it was, a fairly convincing performance.

And look at that, a whole recap without talking about the #1 star of the game (for the second game in a row) Sidney Crosby. He made some relatively quiet plays but when you look back at the game, still ended up with two important assist....Piling up the points almost quietly like that Gretzky guy used to do.

11 wins down, 5 more for Lord Stanley....

No goal....No Problem

Best playoff beard in the world > Broken foot

Pens win and mostly control the puck in Game 2. Our thoughts:

• The Flyers are going to have to win four out of the next five games to win this series....Do you think that's possible?
• Keeping up with our theme of guys who played well but don't get recognized, how about Sergei Gonchar tonight? A team leading 27:11 in ice time, 3 assists, 3 shots on goal (with 5 more either blocked or off target) and 2 hits. The Sarge had his impact all over this game.
• Our boy Tyler Kennedy had quite a night. In 9:15 of icetime he got 4 shots on goal, 2 hits and a takeaway. Not to mention a great showing in a rare playoff fight sticking up for a teammate against Scottie Upshall.
• Sidney Crosby scored the first goal in the game short-side when Martin "French Toast" Biron over-played what could have been a pass attempt. Just another example how Sid's playmaking abilities open up so much room for others (and himself).
• Crosby apparently had a second goal when he whacked in a puck, but it wasn't as obvious to the officials after taking an extra long look. We don't pretend to be unbiased here, but we know when the whole puck crosses the line and clearly our HD view left no doubt that should have been a goal. The officials needed irrefutable evidence to call it a goal (as no signal was called on the ice) but, to us, upon replay it looked like a pretty conclusive goal.
• Marian Hossa keeps chugging along, 1 goal to go along with 3 shots on net (and 4 more either blocked or missed) as well as some great backchecking efforts. The chatter about Hossa not being a prime-time playoff player is done. He's sensational and whatever team pays him $7-8 million a year this summer will get the great player they're looking for.
• To make matters even worse, the Flyers bad injury luck continued as Braydon Coburn caught a deflected puck straight to the face early in the first period. As a former collegiate hockey player we can tell you, for the most part, that a puck to the face (as long as it doesn't hit the eyeball) isn't that bad. Sure it stings and tends to bleed a lot, but the trainers can stitch you up and you're not much worse for wear. But that Coburn--in the Stanley Cup playoffs no less, couldn't come back is a testament to how badly that hurt him....Hopefully he'll be okay, that's a scary part of the game.
• In the end though, it's fitting that the Pens 4th line scores the game-winner. Georges Laraque and Gary Roberts muck around...Eventually Roberts gets the puck behind the net and he instantly throws a terrific pass out front for Maxime Talbot. Credit Roberts on that pass but just as much for Mad Max charging to the net. We like Adam Hall, but he probably doesn't make that play. Talbot chips it in and you've got your leading picture for this blog.
• Finally no one will make much about Marc-Andre Fleury's effort, but he was still very solid in stopping 30 of 32 shots and managing his rebounds pretty well. Fleury's been awesome since returning from his high ankle sprain in early March and it's showed. A team doesn't go 10-1 in the playoffs without a netminder stopping most everything he should. So far, so good for MAF. The fact that he's playing well and the story isn't about him just goes to show how the team is firing on all cylinders right now. Sure they need their goalie to be big (any playoff team does) but they haven't really had to have him stand on his head for 60 minutes.

See you in Philly on Tuesday for Game 3. As we mentioned, the Flyers are going to have to take four out of five from the Penguins to win this series. And, well, we just can't see that happening. Too much skill, too much speed and too much determination on the part of Pittsburgh. Not only guys like Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are playing hard but also the Talbot's and Pascal Dupuis' of the team are laying it all out there. Philly can't answer, because frankly, they have no answer to this display of speed and talent.

10 wins down, six more to go.....

Gonchar subbed from Norris finalists

Sergei Gonchar was not among the three finalists announced for the Nicklas Lidstrom--err, James Norris Trophy.

We would have liked to see Gonchar get a nod, he's deserving of consideration and anyone who's watched more than a handful of Penguins games could tell you that. But, as we mentioned this award starts and ends with Lidstrom, so there's no use crying over it.

Just let Gonchar quietly continue to play + hockey 27+ minutes a night and lead everyone in powerplay scoring.

Rest, not rust

Welcome to day 2 of the layoff as the Pens rest and wait to see who the next opponent will be.

Right now we are moderately cheering for longer series. The longer the series, the less in tact and energy whoever emerges should have. #8 seed Boston didn’t say die last night when they could have, but Washington was dealt a double-OT heartbreaker that might have emptied their tank completely.

For the Pens, this rest will be a good one. The obvious beneficiary of this has to be Gary Roberts, who injured his groin during his comeback from a broken leg and high-ankle sprain. A groin injury is pretty common in that situation, since the player over-uses that muscle to compensate for the leg not being in full shape. Getting what could be about 2 more weeks of rest could have Roberts at pain-free capacity for the second round.

Then you’ve got a guy like Ryan Malone who plays a physical style and didn’t practice much during the Ottawa series. About a week off for him ought to do the trick perfectly to get the aches and pains out, a luxury not to many teams have at this time of the year. Sidney Crosby, who’s ankle does seem to be allowing him to reach full speed, gets even more time to rest up.

Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal were the only Pens to play all 82 games, but seven players played at least 77 regular season games. Some, like Sergei Gonchar, chew up a ton of minutes. Others, like Brooks Orpik and Hal Gill play the body and put themselves in front of a lot of rubber. A break would do well for them.

There’s always the worry about rust, but I don’t think that will be too much of a factor. The latest the 2nd round could begin is, what the 24th? That would be an eight day layoff but the players are professional and will be practicing in the interim. Obviously nothing compares to the intensity of NHL playoff games but the benefit of rest should far outweigh any edge the team might lose.

New look powerplay

With all the skill the Penguins have (plus Ryan Whitney in the doghouse), the Penguins employed an interesting powerplay last night.

Sidney Crosby on the point with Sergei Gonchar for almost the entire two minutes. For forwards, they had Evgeni Malkin center Ryan Malone and Marian Hossa for a first unit and the second was Jordan Staal centering Petr Sykora and Pascal Dupuis.

Perhaps worse than going 0-5 with this new look powerplay was the fact that in 10 minutes of time, they only put four measly shots on goal. Don't get us started about fans who yell "shoot!" but it stands to reason that a successful powerplay has to get at least one shot on net per man advantage, yes?

Further, we're not sold by having Crosby on the point. Sure he has supreme passing skills and vision but a high percentage of the goals Sid scores are within stick's length of the crease. He's good at finding open area and pouncing on a free puck. On top of that, Ryan Whitney isn't playing well but he is a good powerplay defenseman. Note that he actually did make the play on the last PP goal scored.

There is a lot of talent to juggle though. Here's our idea with how to work the PP units:

Malkin-Crosby-Hossa

Gonchar/Whitney

Malone-Staal-Sykora

Gonchar/Letang

It's hard bumping a guy like Malone off the top unit, but the fact is the Penguins 1st unit is the most skill on a line since the "Score Lords" of now over a decade ago (Mario, Ronnie, Jagr).

Penguins Approaching Personal Milestones

As we mentioned a couple posts down; hockey is a team sport but several players are having career years already. More are seemingly on their way to set new personal highs in an NHL season. Here's a look at what some of these guys have accomplished and how close they are to setting these records.

*For obvious reasons, rookies weren't incldued.

Also, with eleven games left in the season, we'll occasionally update this list if/when players get to some of these achievements.




Evgeni Malkin
NEW single-season goal mark: 39 (previous high was 33 in 2006-07)
NEW single-season assists: 54 (52 in 06-07)
NEW single-season points: 93 (85 in 06-07)



Jordan Staal
NEW single season assists mark: 15 (previous high was 13 in 2006-07)



Sergei Gonchar
57 points this year; career high is 67 (set in 2002-03, 2006-07)
46 assists; career high is 54 (2006-07)



Ryan Whitney
12 goals this year; career high is 14 (set in 2006-07)



Ryan Malone
NEW single season goal mark: 24 (previous best was 22 in 2003-04, 2005-06)
19 assists this season; career high is 22 (2005-06)
43 points this season; career high is 44 (2005-06)



Maxime Talbot
10 goals this season; career high is 12 (set in 2006-07)
22 points this season; career high is 24 (2006-07)



...and just for fun


Brooks Orpik
1 goal this season; personal best is 2 (set in 2003-04)
8 points this season; personal best 10 (2003-04)

Geno's Press Conference

The NHL occasionally does phone press conferences and usually they're transcribed up to the internets and linked up by Kukla's Korner. Today's subject was Evgeni Malkin. If you put up 26 points in a month of 14 games, folks want to talk to you.

Malkin is learning the language and starting to feel more comfortable, but often times he defers to a translator the Pens have assigned to him or his friend/teammate/landlord Sergei Gonchar to talk so he can convey exactly what he wants to say. Hey, how well do you could speak in Russian after being their for about a year (since you summer in North America).

Mostly the press conferences are fairly boring and routine; most players give the bland, cliched answers to questions that a close observer to hockey already knows what they're gonna say. But after responding to 7 questions through Gonchar, the following happened:

Q. Sergei, do you notice his English improving? A lot of people are saying he understands more than he can speak. Is that fair to say?

EVGENI MALKIN: (In English.) Yes (laughter).

Made us smile, at least.

Please Malkin Don't Hurt 'em

In a raucous Montreal environment a team could be excused for pulling the Islanders method: just trying to play simple, road team hockey, muck and grind your way to a 2-1 win or maybe a 2-1 loss if the bounces don't go your way. Well the Penguins aint your grandma's Islanders. And now for your "All Malkin All the Time" gamenotes:

• Chalk Alexei Kovalev up as the latest player to visibly try to ratchet his game up to the level of Evgeni Malkin. The competitive countrymen were all over the place tonight, both were the best player on their respective teams.
• In perhaps the peak of the game, with the Habs up 4-3, Malkin high-sticked Kovalev and went to the box. The vaunted Montreal powerplay failed to score for the first time tonight (they were 2-2 before) and Ryan Malone sprung Malkin on a breakaway shortly after he got out of the box. Goal.
• Speaking of Malone, he had a wonderful game. He's extraordinarily good at tossing out those 2 line passes to trigger breakaways and he also added his 20th goal of the season. The big guy was amazing and is definitely playing the best hockey of his professional career in the past 4 or 5 weeks.
• Congrats to Sergei Gonchar on his 600th career NHL point. It was fitting for him that it came on a goal, and on the powerplay.
• Ryan Whitney had another up and down game. In perhaps the micro-cosm of his career, he scored his 12th goal of the season (ties him for 4th in the NHL among defensemen) and dished out 2 primary powerplay assists. But he was weak in his own end and was on the ice for three of the goals Montreal scored.
• Just as Malkin took that high-sticking penalty the Montreal crowd took to sing-songing his name in a fimiliar chant. After he delievered the dagger, they had nothing to say. Perhaps the lesson was learned: taunt Zhenya at your own risk.
• Malkin was flying all over the place, credited officially with a game high 3 takeaways. He was literally backchecking like a man possessed and just effortlessly stealing pucks away from sticks. Not only has he been the best offensive player in the league since Christmas, he's been one of the most well-rounded forwards out there as well.
• Dany Sabourin had an up and down night too. He wasn't particularly sharp and was caught cheating a little too far by Montreal's sharp-shooting powerplay. But he did his part to hold the team in the game when he had to; no spectacular or inspiring saves but a nice performance.
• It seemed like a pretty quiet performance for Petr Sykora, but it's anything but a quiet stat-line at the end of the night: 2 assists and a +2
• Jordan Staal fired 6 shots on net and Colby Armstrong had a game high 5 hits. Keep it up boys, the work will eventually pay off. Just ask Jarkko "Maurice Richard" Ruutu..

One gets the feeling that the atmosphere in both barns, should it happen, for a Canadiens/Penguins playoff series would be absolutely electric. Both teams don't just play aggressive, they play to win. They have deadly powerplays and don't know how to take the foot off the gas.

Can't Win 'em All....Pens lose

In our pregame post we said that based on the results of tonights Pens/Bruins and Devils/Senators game that Pittsburgh could potentially be either 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 point up on the Devs, the closest chaser (for now) in the ever shuffling mix of the Atlantic Division...Well, it ended up in the worst case scenario as the Pens lost in regulation and NJ won. But, it's better to have a "worst case scenario" night in February rather than in April.

• The Bruins really set the tone in the first period, outshooting the Pens 13-4, out-working, out-skating, out-hustling and generally out-everything-ing the hometeam.
• Rough first period for the Sarge...First he misplayed the puck and PJ Axelsson sped away from him on a breakaway forcing a penalty. Then Gonchar turned the puck over behind his own net which led to the first goal against.
• Credit Jeremy Reich for the second goal, he got great position and knocked BGL over and then chipped a centering pass between Kris Letang's skates. Conkblock was caught trying to pokecheck and it was in the net by Vlad Sobotka. The Bruins lower liners made that play look fairly simple.
• Usually we'd feel pretty good going into a game knowing the Pens would spend 12:07 with the man advantage. But they only produced 1 goal on 7 shots. Which isn't going to get it done tonight or most any night.
• Other than Evgeni Malkin (the goal scorer) and Petr Sykora, no other forward really even looked like their head was in the game. Those two combined for 10 shots on net, the rest of the team only put 11 pucks on target.
• In particular, it seemed like Erik Christensen (who's been great of late) had a pretty brutal game. Penalties, bad puck decisions, missing nets--you name it and if it's frustrating he probably did it. Hopefully he puts this one behind him and can come out with a better outing tomorrow.
• Alex Goligoski had his NHL debut, and even though he only played just over 8 minutes (the Pens dressed 7 defensemen) he showed the wheels and potential that has the brass salivating. A couple of minor mistakes--as to be expected from a 21 year old professional rookie in his first game in the show--but overall he was as advertised. Dude is going to be a player in the NHL sooner than later.
• Conklin settled down. One really couldn't blame him for either goal, but it's worth noting:
• Marc-Andre Fleury made his first rehab start for Wilkes-Barre tonight and stopped 30 of 31 shots in a 3-1 win. That and a report that his ankle is feeling pretty good tomorrow morning is probably the best news the Penguins could hear right now.

A loss is a loss is a loss, there's no way around it. Give 100% credit to Boston; they had been in a slump recently but came out very strong early and definitely earned the win. One shouldn't take too much (positive or negative) out of just 1 game in a season of 82, but the Bruins definitely look like a team that should make the playoffs based off of the effort and performance they had tonight.

For the Pens part it seems like one of their uptempo, energy guys (Gary Roberts, Tyler Kennedy who scored a goal again tonight in his rehab with the Baby Pens) could have made a difference. Adding a player like that Crosby guy, especially on all those powerplays could have tipped the scales too..

But for now there's only if's and what could have been's. The Penguins lost and the Atlantic Division, once again, tightens a little more. Tomorrow nights game in Carolina, likely with Dany Sabs in net, becomes all the more important. An immediate chance for the Pens to regain their composure and wash the disappointing taste of a loss out of their collective mouths.

Letdown City

The Pens rolled into Toronto, and unlike my prediction for coming out the gates strong, they gave up two first period goals and were on the ropes from the very beginning. Dany Sabourin got the start, and he was decent, there's not much you can expect a goaltender to do on a 2 on NONE, for instance. Tonight's game more looked like the first game back after a 5 game layoff, the Penguins just didn't look like they had a lot of life or energy for the first 45-50 minutes of this game. Crosby and company did turn it on though late, scoring two goals to make it a 1 goal game, but an empty net goal sealed the Pens fate and gave the victory to the team that deserved it that night....Toronto.

That's about all that needs to be said about that. Next up is a home game Monday against Wayne Gretzky's Phoenix Coyotes before the 3 game swing to Western Canada. Hopefully Sergei Gonchar will be able to play some portion of these games, his abscence (especially on the powerplay) is starting to be noticable.

Big Steps for Geno

A player talks to hockey reporters......No big deal, happens all the time right? Well, yes.

But not when that player is a 21 year old Russian who's clung to a translator for over a year in America.

I'm older, but not much older than Evgeni Malkin. I've thought about this, and personally I can't imagine picking up a language like Russian, completely foreign to me in this short a time. Of course, Geno has more motivation; this was the country he clearly chose to be in (as his defection from his Russian club team would indicate) and he's making and going to make a lot more money than me this year and in the years to come.

But still, it takes a lot of courage to branch out like he did yesterday, talking to American reporters....Not for the first time, but for the first time without the complete aid of an intermediary.

"My favorite food is spaghetti, chicken, beef. I like sushi," Malkin said.

And his road roommate, forward Maxime Talbot?

"Yeah. Max funny guy," he said. "We see movie."

Malkin halted when asked about his favorite movies, until he was asked about "Transformers," and his face lit up.

"I see two ... " he said, looking at [translator George] Birman for assistance before finishing, "Two times."

Asked how he is learning English, Malkin said, "I see movies. Gonch helps me translate."

It's no coincidence that the Penguins assigned Talbot to be Malkin's road trip roommate, and not his closest friend on the team, fellow Russian and guy who's house he's staying at (Gonchar, of course). Like Malkin, Talbot's second language is English. Unlike Malkin, Max is a very talkative, very chipper personality that is constantly buzzing around, on or off the ice.

"I like New York," he said. "It's shopping. It's big city, beautiful city."

And Pittsburgh?

"It is a good city," he said. "Good fans. They like hockey. They like football."

He has become a Steelers fan.

"Yeah, three-zero last game. I see it," Malkin said.

How about that, a Stillers fan to boot!

A lot of Pens fans soured on the fact that Malkin did not seek an English tutor this summer to improve his grasp on our language. My thoughts were this young man just went through the longest, most physical season of his life (and put up 85 points [33g, 52a] in 78 games too). Give the kid a break.

Obviously granting an interview is a huge step in Malkin's personal development, even if he understandably needed Birman to navigate a word or two for him. We've long heard teammates say just how much Geno understands, how he orders for himself in restaurants (at Gonchar's urging) and how he laughs and jokes around with them in the locker-room pretty freely.

It's good to see him continue his development on the ice with these steps off the ice testing the waters and starting to talk a little bit to the media in English.....Seemingly in both realms the sky is the limit for Geno and it's going to be a joy to watch him to continue to take steps to grow all around. We certainly applaud him.