Pens interested in bringing Colby back?

TSN's Darren Dreger speculates...

With a clear disclaimer there are no guarantees any of these men will get moved, we present ten prominent players believed by NHL sources to be in the mix.

Atlanta's Colby Armstrong has attracted interest this season, including from Pittsburgh who would like to see him reunited with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.

Armstrong has been one of few bright spots in Atlanta, scoring 13 goals (and 21 points) in 49 games so far this season...Last year in his time in Pittsburgh Colby scored just 9 goals (but had 24 total points) in 54 games before the trade. Army is also in Atlanta's alternate captain rotation and has been highlighted as an important piece of the Thrashers puzzle. Army's set to be a restricted free agent at the end of the season.

It would be interesting to see what ATL would want in return. Could Ray Shero sell them Mark Eaton as a valuable defensemen (and have the T-bombs take Eaton's $2 million cap hit through next season)? That would be pretty big for the Penguins. Does Atlanta want a draft pick? Prospect(s)? That's the key, as well as any other contenders that might have more value for Atlanta.

It would be great to see Armstrong reunited; but then again he's been gone for 10 months and the world did not end. He's a popular teammate and among the fans but let's all remember he wasn't quite the answer as Sidney Crosby's winger last time, what would make this time any different?

Then Dreger noted:

Pittsburgh defenseman Ryan Whitney's name is making the rounds. Pens GM Ray Shero may use Whitney to lure a top line forward for a late-season charge.

Which wouldn't be surprising, either. Shero's got to make a move to snag a winger. With Whitney, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski the Penguins have a glut of puck moving defensemen, even before the anticipated return of Sergei Gonchar. Obviously the writing is on the wall that one of the aforementioned three young defenders is going to be moved. We don't think it's Letang; he's the youngest of the bunch and is a prized right handed shot. Whitney has the most value, but would also be the best player for Pittsburgh to retain. Goose has been stuck in healthy scratch hell, largely through no fault of his own.

As always, stay tuned...

Pens choke out the Ducks

Last night was sort of a look if the Penguins hadn't had won the 2005 draft lottery...And while it wasn't pretty, they got just enough to win...And hey, they got through the game with only one player getting knocked out with injury, so that's a plus.

• Obviously with Sidney Crosby's injury it all starts with Evgeni Malkin. Geno stepped it up, he did uncharacteristically well in the faceoff circle (8 of 14), was credited with the Pens only two takeaways, three shots on net and two assists. He also played 24:25 and only one other forward played more than 20 minutes.
• Matt Cooke really ate his Wheaties. The Penguins were playing a gritty, nasty, "not pretty" type of game, fitting right into Cooke's philosphy as well. And his goals (whipping shots on net, spinning bodies around) were a good reflection of a job well done.
• In our recap we predicted a lot of minutes for Ryan Whitney and Brooks Orpik. After Orpik left the game early with an injury, Whitney must have taken a deep breath and said "here we go". Whits got a game high 29:39 as he picked up most of the slack and did well.
• From the things you don't see everyday file: Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer combined for a -4.
• Chris Minard registered a team high five shots on goal and looked the most comfortable he ever has in the NHL. One gets the feeling if he keeps chipping at it he's going to breakthrough. The question is, can he make the most of the opportunity before forwards return from injury and time runs out.
• And how about Hal Gill with his first goal since March 16, 2008? That's a 60 drought (including the playoff run). It was a perfect example of the Penguins mentality: just get the puck to the net whenever you can. Credit Jordan Staal for the faceoff win and Gill for unleashing the rocket.

So an important two points in the Penguins pocket but also the confidence to know that when they play well and buckle down defensively they are good enough to compete and beat any team in the league.

We noted that the five game stretch before the All-Star game could be pivotal in the season. The Penguins are now 2-1 in the highlighted segment. Now if they could just show up for an afternon game...

Whitney to take injured Letang's place

Think Ryan Whitney's return from injury tonight would mean less injured defensemen? Not yet:

The decision on which defenseman to sit to make room for Whitney in the lineup was taken out of Therrien's hands. Kris Letang will not play after leaving last night's win at Buffalo with an unspecified injury, apparently the result of being hit by a shot. Therrien described's Letang's status as day to day.

It's seemed like Letang has taken a lot of little bumps and bruises lately, from watching games he's been hobbled or have to double over on the bench quite a few times lately. Hopefully he'll be feeling better after the two day Christmas holiday to come back soon.

This and that

Random thoughts from here and there...

--Jeff Taffe and Ryan Stone got the call from Pittsburgh. Taffe is not surprising, he’s shown he can be a decent and serviceable player in a NHL capacity, but Stone is. He’s a prospect that’s never panned out and has seemed to spin his wheels. He’s not the best skater but has decent all-around skill and the willingness to throw his body around. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s given the opportunity to catch on. A couple years ago though, hell maybe even before this year, it would be hard to imagine that Stone would be the sixth AHL level forward to get the call to the NHL (or to have stuck originally like Bill Thomas and Paul Bissonnette did).

--Dany Sabourin has almost the same number of minutes played as Marc-Andre Fleury this season…Sabourin’s GAA is notably better (2.47 to 2.86) and his save percentage is slightly higher than the Flower (.911 to .907). Will there be controversy? No, of course not, but the interesting thing is to watch if Fleury can come back and play as lights out as he did last season under a similarly long layoff.

--Speaking of injuries and layoffs, it’s been 196 days since June 4th; the day the Penguins watched the Red Wings skate the Cup and the last time Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar played meaningful games. Isn’t it weird how such an occasion can seem so distant yet so near at the exact same time? Whitney ought to be back in a week’s time, which will be interesting to see how quickly he gets up to speed himself. And what does it mean for the Penguins blueline? Mark Eaton figures to sit 8th on the depth chart at that point, and what of Phillipe Boucher and Hal Gill, are they still in the lineup every night? Whitney’s return, though a blessing, also brings with it several tough questions.

--Don’t pay too much mind of Alex Kovalev’s 20+ game goal-less streak. What we can’t get over is how good he and old pal Robert Lang look out there. As 2/3 (with Martin Straka) of what the best 2nd line of this decade, Kovy and Bobby Lang have gotten the band back together and are playing some nice music. Lang, has 22 points in 30 games, not bad for a guy who’s gonna turn 38 years old in two days.

--In fact, if you think about it, few players who seem so inconsistent have actually been quietly steadier than Lang over the past decade. Since he established himself in Pittsburgh in 1998-99 with a 21 goal 44 point season, Lang has hit averaged 68.88 points a season, hitting the 50+ mark every time. Sure he’s bounced around to five teams and owes a lot of his stats to playing with supremely skilled wingers like Kovalev and Jaromir Jagr, but Lang’s staying power has been impressive.

--Something interesting caught our eye from the Post-Gazette yesterday and has stuck with us, so we’ll share…What names stick out to you (hint: the first two)

Still, 10 players -- forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Pascal Dupuis, Eric Godard and Tim Wallace, defensemen Ryan Whitney, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski and goalies Marc-Andre Fleury and Dany Sabourin -- went on the ice with assistant coaches Andre Savard and Mike Yeo and goalie coach Gilles Meloche for the better part of an hour [on Monday].

When the two leading scorers in the league are showing up for an optional practice that a lot of the team didn’t strap ‘em up for, that says something. The team understandably needed and deserved a maintenance day after a grueling schedule. But when the best players are out there constantly working, constantly showing up, that’s leadership and that’s a good sign.

Well the four day break is over tomorrow and the Pens are back in Atlanta for the second time in a month. In a bit of a programming note, it’s going to be a little slow over here during the weekend, we’re making a pilgrimage back to Pittsburgh to visit family and watch the Penguins break out the third jerseys in person against the Make Beliefs.

Whitney to miss 3-5 months

Well, this sucks.

Ryan Whitney had surgery yesterday (Friday) to correct a nagging foot problem. Whitney is expected to be out 3-5 months, which puts the window of his return somewhere between mid November and January.

Bad news but not the worst. GM Ray Shero likes to keep 10 defensemen that can play in the NHL, and by the looks of it he has that by keeping Brooks Orpik and trading for Danny Richmond.

Losing Whitney is a blow, since many (including us) thought he would have a big-time bounce back season. Whitney played 5:14 a game on the power play (second on the team only to Sergei Gonchar) and 22:56 overall (again second on the team only to Gonchar). And despite being lamabasted by most Pens fans, Whitney still scored 12 goals (tied for 13th in the league) and tacked on 28 assists. Someone's got to pick up those minutes and that production.

Look no further than Kris Letang. The now 21 year old defenseman has more games under his belt and was gradually given more and more responsibility and ice over the course of last season. Letang averaged 18:09 a game and 2:35 on the PP. Expect those numbers to go up.

With the Penguins still boasting some fairly steady defensive defensemen on the roster (Rob Scuderi, Hal Gill even Daryl Sydor) the Penguins still have some breathing room. Talented prospect Alex Goligoski might now get a longer look in camp, as he is a smooth skating, puck moving offensively skilled defenseman.

So this isn't the worst news possible and at least happens with some time to let Whitney get his foot right and heal up.

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

What the Penguins really lost....And gained

The Penguins, despite losing two of the biggest prize forwards of the free agency season in Marian Hossa and Ryan Malone, are still a better team on paper right now than they were 12 months ago at this time. It's hard to believe, but think about it, it's true.

Think in terms of personnel and regular season standings...What was last year's 2nd place Eastern Conference team ended up scoring 240 goals and yielded a total of 212.

That team had some incredible contributions-- like Evgeni Malkin's 47 goal, 56 assist (106 point) season and remarkable work by Ty Conklin (18-8-5, 2.51 GAA, .923 save %)-- but both those players were thrust into bigger roles by injuries to Sidney Crosby (who missed 29 games) and Marc-Andre Fleury (who only appeared in 35 contests).

--Just from taking a look at the regular season contributions from all the player the Pens lost and it amounts to 70 goals (lead by Malone's 27 and 9 a piece from Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen).
--They've replaced that with a combined 42 goals scored last season from their three biggest free agent signings (Miroslav Satan and Rusty Fedotenko with 16 a piece and Matt Cooke with 10). We'll say right here that this blog shuts down if Satan plays a mostly full season and can't improve on 16 goals.

So where will the rest come from? Jordan Staal only scored 12 in the regular season (but got 6 in 20 post-season games), Crosby could create more offense in up to 29 more games than last season. Other young players like Tyler Kennedy (10 goals in 55 games in his rookie campaign) and Kris Letang (6 goals in 63 games) figure to naturally progress and continue to increase their production. Throw in a potential sleeper in the mix like newcomer Janne Pesonen or Pascal Dupuis (who contributed 2 goals in 16 reg. season games with the Pens) and the 240 goals scored number could easily be matched, if not exceeded.

Of course the natural disclaimer is that this is all on paper and it is July 9th, not January or even October. Plans change and the game of hockey is too fluid to write anything in ink at this point.

The popular vibe right now is the Penguins took a big hit in early July, and to be fair losing the likes of Hossa, Malone, Conklin and the other does hurt. But it doesn't necessarily lessen a team that returns 7 of its 8 top regular season scorers from last season.

And, how's this for perspective.....Of those seven players, five of them--Malkin, Crosby, Ryan Whitney, Staal and Max Talbot-- will be 24 years old or younger when the puck drops on opening night.

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.....

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....

Playoff Beard Power Ranking

Now for some analysis that really matters.... Pittsburgh Penguin Playoff Beard Power Rankings







1. Max Talbot
--It's not just the self-proclaimed best playoff beard in the world, it IS the best playoff beard in the world.

2. Pascal Dupuis
--Not only is he able to keep up with Sidney Crosby and Marian Hossa on the top line, but he's got a beard growing capabilities as well.

3. Ryan Malone
--A power forward with a power beard.

4. Ryan Whitney
--Doesn't play like a man a times, but grows a nice beard.



5. Jordan Staal
--Ok so we did take into account that he's 19 and has the Abe Lincoln going. But we couldn't find a recent picture of Brooks Orpik, so we give the young Staal the nod over Jarkko Ruutu and Marian Hossa in an effort to show not all young Pens suffer at facial hair.

Not receving votes

Sure you're the best hockey player in the world, but the monstrosity will haunt you for the rest of your days, Sid. Sometimes the way Crosby plays, you forget he's 20 years old. A look at his face is a quick reminder. Hopefully he'll get the chance to grow better and better beards in the years to come.

Penguins announce team awards

Most Valuable Player - Evgeni Malkin

Leading Scorer - Evgeni Malkin

A.T. Caggiano Booster Club (To the player with the most 3 Star selections throughout the season) - Evgeni Malkin

Players' Player (voted by the players for demonstrating leadership on and off the ice) - Ryan Malone

Michel Briere Rookie of the Year - Kris Letang

Baz Bastien Good Guy Award (for co-operation with the media) – Ryan Whitney

Edward J. DeBartolo Community Service Award - Georges Laraque

Bill Masterton Award Nominee - Ty Conklin

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).

The Magic Number: 3

This game recap, brought to you by the number 3:

• The number of points (a career high) that Jarkko Ruutu scored
• The "magic number" to clinch the Atlantic Division for the Penguins, since they won and New Jersey lost in regulation...So any combination of three points earned by the Pens or three points lost by the Devils means the Pens lock down, at worst, the #2 seed in the East. (Ed. revision: It seems the correct magic number is really 5. We're bad at math, we apologize)

Ruutu now has six point (4 goals, 2 assists) in his last six games, if you're keeping track. Ruutu is just playing awesome right now, he's the player the opponents love to hate but he's also doing more than just chipping, he's killing penalties, bringng energy, forechecking and, yes, producing points.

After Georges Laraque scored his goal the big guy did an Alex Ovechkin-esque jump into the boards/glass. We know we're not the only ones worried that the facility wouldn't be able to keep his 260 pounds in the rink, but somehow it did.

It remains to be seen how hurt Marian Hossa may be after what at first appeared to be pretty vicious on the part of Sean Bergenheim (though replays showed it looked like he kind of "tried" to get out of the way). Now that Sidney Crosby is back, is it fitting that Hossa should go back on the shelf? No, no it shouldn't be.

Crosby had several great chances but they all went wide. One gets the feeling that once he gets back up to speed by getting back in "game rhythm" he'll be turning those chances into points.

Ryan Whitney actually didn't look half bad as a winger, but this experiment shouldn't go on for long. Should it?

If we would have offered you $100 bucks to choose a fight, who would have picked up on the Petr Sykora/Miroslav Satan matchup? Didn't think so either.

A sign of how much Marc-Andre Fleury is coming along; he makes saves on 28 of 29 shots and the one that gets by him he's visably upset. Good sign, Fleury's so in the zone that he doesn't want to give up anything. And after that somewhat weak/fluky play ended up in the net he buckled down, played the angles right, looked confident and did what it took....But Fleury still went out in the 3rd period and played a puck that would have been icing and it almost ended up in the net. As far as he's come, there's still room to grow. Which there's nothing wrong for a 23 year old goaltender.

Here's a sight that Islanders saw a lot:
Brooks Orpik had a game high seven hits (plus 2 blocked shots, and a +2 in 19:23 of work). Not to mention chasing around Islanders in an effort to stand up for his teammate when Hossa was injured. We probably highlight Orpik so much because there won't be a chance to for too much longer.

All in all, this was a game that a team aspiring to be a division (and conference) champion has to win; playing a non-playoff team that's banged up at home and with a much more talented team. The Penguins did what they had to do. Now we move on to a matinee NBC (Nothing But Crosby) matchup against those pesky New York Rangers on Sunday.

News and Notes

From a combination of different things we've heard lately:

• Expect Sidney Crosby to be back in the lineup tomorrow night. His ankle is stronger, but he wanted to give it as much time as possible for the playoffs. More immediately, Crosby didn't want to return to the lineup until he was conditioned enough to play the 20-23 minutes of high intensity play that we're accustomed to.
• It’s pretty clear that Michel Therrien let his displeasure with Ryan Whitney be known by putting the defenseman as a 4th line winger last night…They also did this to Brooks Orpik before giving him a shot to redeem himself, which he seems to have done. Surely a young, talented player like Whitney will get the chance, it’ll be up to him to make the most of it.
• Bad coach but good analyst Eddie Olczyk made a good point on Versus the other night…For the playoffs you’ve got a Crosby/Marian Hossa combo and a Evgeni Malkin/Petr Sykora duo. (Fans tend to think too much in trios when they think about forwards, when really it’s about adding a third piece to a talented duo). Anyways, suppose you’re an opposing coach; what unit do you send your best defensive unit and/or checking line to match against? Edzo then proposed Ryan Malone be the swing-man to rotate to which-ever line is given more space. A guy like Pascal Dupuis could be the other swing-man.
• That could be a complicated, but interesting theory. It remains to be seen if Therrien would employ it. He’s not too keen letting the opposing team dictate Pittsburgh strategy based on matchups. Therrien believes (and we do too) that it’s better to concentrate on just having your players focus on playing their games. Guys like Crosby, Malkin and Hossa have long been targeted by the opposition’s best defensive players their entire careers, it’s not like they can’t produce.
• The last time the Penguins had seven healthy defensemen (as they do now), Therrien decided to employ a rotation in which everyone but Sergei Gonchar and Mark Eaton would sit a game. The rotation lasted all of about two or three games. It will be interesting to see what choices the coaches make now that Rob Scuderi is healthy. Orpik has played well as Gonchar’s partner on the top unit, but do they put Scuds back there? Whitney’s been struggling but is a talented player with a lot to offer (like creating the only goal of consequence last night). Darryl Sydor hasn’t been outstanding, but unlike Kris Letang, this aint his first rodeo, so to say.
• We think, that Gonchar, Scuderi, Orpik and Hal Gill should be in the lineup every night, Whitney should be too, if he can get his act together. This leaves a choice between Letang and Sydor, we’d lean towards Letang for now, but obviously there’s going to be times when Sydor’s going to play.
• Gary Roberts was re-evaluated and while they didn't find anything else wrong, it's not that encouraging either...Sad to report that Mr. Gary's triumphant return is not in sight. So much for the couple of tune up regular season games he was hoping to get in for.

Finally, after a lot of searching we finally found something leaner than Marc-Andre Fleury's recent numbers:

Kate Bosworth used to be pretty hot before turning into a human stick figure

A chance to learn

Now that we're about to buckle down for a playoff run, a loss like tonight can go a long ways to putting things back in perspective.

• If we had written a game preview, you can bet it would be mentioned the Rangers has lost their last two games and were sure to try and come out the gates as strong as possible. They did and took a 2-0 lead after the first period.
• Terrible rebound by Ty Conklin on that 2nd goal. For all Conkblock did for the Pens season, this might have been the death knell. Marc-Andre Fleury has been extremely solid since his return from injury and this game has opened the door for him to take the reigns and not look back.
• What a mistake by Ryan Whitney on what ended up being the game-winner for NYR. But, may we point out to the sizeable contingent of Penguin fan Whitney haters; if he doesn't make that pass to Jarkko Ruutu the first goal never happens. Gotta take the good with the bad.
• Pascal Dupuis is a solid player. He does all the little things right. For being an after-thought in the Marian Hossa trade, he's going to be an important player for the Penguins. We could see him scoring a goal of huge consquence come playoff time.
• How many goals has Jordan Staal scored against the Rangers? We'll have to try to do research on this later. It seems like J-Staal has feasted on NYR his whole career, particularly in Madison Square Garden.
• Again, this was just one game out of 82. Quick game against Tampa Bay and then the Pens start the division sprint which will settle everything. Two games against New Jersey in less than a week will be so crucial. That's why Sidney Crosby is out now. But if the Penguins play as sloppy and make as many team mistakes, it won't matter much.

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)

Pens fall to Cats

!Ryan Whitney on the ice for a goal against? Why I never!

Bad loss, not much to say. At least the Penguins solved the puzzle that is Craig Anderson! Yeah, not much comfort either.

The Panthers came out strong; outshot the Pens and scored two goals within 39 seconds. Bad news. The Penguins did everything in their power to turn the momentum; Georges Laraque fought (!!!), Coach T pulled Marc-Andre Fleury in favor of the Conk-block after a bad rebound that allowed the third goal and even tried to unite Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. All for naught.

In the end, this is just one game out of 82. Surely fans will over-react and be upset, but it's a long season. If it's any consolation the Pens beat Florida 3 games to 1 in the season series, so even though a bitter loss tonight doesn't feel good, there's a sense that Pittsburgh already took the majority of the points from this opponent.

Now, thankfully, it's a time to take a breath. Pittsburgh just played 11 games in 19 games, several back-to-backs, in many different cities with many different conditions and storylines. It's over and what's done is done. The next two days offer a time to catch our collective breath, regroup a little and look forward to a surely exciting and explosive game against Washington. Who will start in goal? Who knows. Will Marian Hossa be back? Hopefully. There's a million different questions and storylines but all that matters is the team comes together, gets a good practice or two in and buckles down for the next stretch.

As we said, it is after all just 1 game out of 82.

Crosby back in the lineup tonight

After 6 and a half weeks of being on the shelf, it's time to play the game.

Ryan Whitney is also expected to be back and Marc-Andre Fleury will be the starting keeper.

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.

Pens Defends Leads Through Offense

Any division win is a good win, especially for a team that's first in the league in the most intra-divisional loses. And given the same team blew a two goal third period lead against--you guessed it a division opponent, well it's a must. So even though the Islanders have lost pace with the pack, and even though they're a little dinged up (no Miroslav Satan tonight) the Pens will take the two points as they open up a 4 game home-stand.

• As you know after last game's weak performnce and a slew of bad games this season, Ryan Whitney was challenged by his coach. Some media types in Pittsburgh whined about this, said Michel Therrien's strong words would shatter Whitney's confidence and cause a divided between players and coach. Whitney, for his part, told the morning papers that the Coach was basically right and he needed to up his game. And as a response Whitney comes out and has his best offensive game. He wasn't physical or aggressive in his own zone as Therrien had wished, but dude's not going to turn into Chris Pronger over night. Whitney was forceful and did his job. That's all you need.
• Speaking of being more forceful, Kris Letang made a public statement about getting the puck on net more. He did and got the unassisted G-Dub with under 4 minutes left in the game.
• It wasn't a good start though. Ty Conklin got stranded from his net and was hesitant to play the puck, as it was sliding into the penalty zone behind the goal-line. He who hesitates gets left out of position as the Islanders quickly took advantage and made him look like the Oilers' Conklin circa 2005 and not the Pens "Conkblock" of 2008. Credit Conklin though, after a horrible gaffe he settled in and turned out a good performance for the win. Again, that's all you can ask.
• Evgeni Malkin had 3 assists on the night, figuring in the first three Pens goal. The first one was just pure puck movement, the powerplay unit featuring Gonchar/Sykora/Malkin/Malone is clicking very well and making some dandy plays out there.
• Geno's second assist of the nigt, believe it or not was a result of a faceoff win; Malkin continues to struggle in the faceoff circle wining only 35% (8 of 15). But that one win was crucial. Malkin now has 66 points on the season, which should shake out to about 6th in the league. Most excellent. His point per game ratio is slightly up from last season's excellent rookie campaign too (1.22 to 1.08).
• The Isles outshot the Pens 11-5 in the 3rd period and it was sort of shades of the last game when Pittsburgh blew a lead to Jersey and went on to lose in OT. But most of those Islander shots were of the desperation "just throw the puck on net and see what happens" variety.
• Unusual scrap between bantomweights Mike Comrie and Maxime Talbot. Wonder what that could have been over?



• The Kris Beech experiment round 2, had it's opening act tonight. Not surprisingly it was mixed results. Beech made a good effort to get a difficult backhand shot on the net while on the powerplay (!!!) but he also took a lazy penalty and didn't deserve to get much more than the 8 minutes and change of icetime that he got.
• All in all it wasn't pretty, but going up against an always gritty foe in NYI, it doesn't have to look purdy; it's about results. The Pens overcame a little bit of what ailed them Monday night by hanging on.

Up next for the Pens is a day off, followed by a 1PM Saturday matinee against the LA Kings. Before you get your hopes up about tallying an easy victory against the league's worst team, consider that tonight the Kings defeated what has been the league's best team in their own barn tonight. There's no such thing in today's NHL as a forgone win, especially at this time of the year.

But for now, it's victory time; and we're another game closer to the return of Marc-Andre Fleury, Gary Roberts, Tyler Kennedy, and some guy named Sidney.