Pens swap Sabs for Garon

It's not unexpected that the Penguins would make a trade, given how things have been going lately. But the first move Ray Shero has made for a Penguinomic Stimulus package was not a scoring winger, it was a bailout. Well, a backup goalie, Mathieu Garon from Edmonton. See ya later Dany Sabs!

The Edmonton Oilers traded goaltender Mathieu Garon to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday for goaltender Dany Sabourin, centre Ryan Stone, and a fourth-round pick in 2011.

The next question: what kind of season is Garon having so far?

In 15 games this year, he went 6-8-0 with a 3.17 GAA and a save percentage of .895.

Oh Jesus.

Well, we'll see. Sabourin couldn't bail the Penguins this season when Marc-Andre Fleury went down, just like it was Sabourin who couldn't carry the mail last season, yielding to Ty Conklin. Hindsight is 20/20 but clearly the Penguins should have waived/traded Sabourin before the season started and offered Conklin a contract. Conks genuinely enjoyed his time in Pittsburgh and was happy they gave him the chance to breath live into his dead NHL career, he probably would have been receptive to stay. And his contract with Detroit was reasonable, one year at $750,000. Garon's cap hit is $1.1 million.

Excuse the tangent. Sabourin lost his last six starts and the Pens really did just need to move on. Garon obviously hasn't been Patrick Roy this season himself, but he's a new face and sometimes goalies can get on a hot steak in a new setting. Last season Garon did win 26 games and posted a save percentage of .913 on a fairly weak Oiler team, so he's got the potential.

Speaking of a new setting, Ryan Stone needed that. By going to Edmonton at least he is joining a team with a lot of familiar faces--as Edmonton and Pittsburgh stocked the Wilkes-Barre AHL team with both their prospects a couple seasons ago. Stone played with Kyle Brodziak, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Tom Gilbert and Robert Nilsson.

Stone just never chipped his way into the Penguins lineup. While he had good playmaking abilities and could throw big hits, it never seemed decided if he would slot to be in a scoring role or a checking role in the NHL. Also his skating ability just seemed a notch below adequate and seemed to limit him too. Perhaps he'll be able to make it in a new organization. We certainly wish him well but feel that he is another victim of the Greg Malone curse.

...Then Again Maybe it's a Sidney Crosby world..

So we may have jumped the gun...





--Sidney Crosby was awesome. He had a jump in his step all night long. When he got the puck, he was deking and juking around any defenseman in the way. 3 goals, 1 magnificent assist, +4 and six shots on net. One of Crosby's best games so far. In late October he had that unusual rib/torso injury that seemed to limit him. Clearly that is gone now.

--Mike Zigomanis 11 for 14 in the faceoff circle. Best pickup for future considerations ever? The case could be made. And we get the feeling it will be continued to be made in the games to come.

--Total team effort continued with 22 blocked shots for the Pens, including at least one for every defenseman, and fourteen of the eighteen skaters were credited with at least one hit. As Borat would say, very nice!

--The scoresheet only says two assists for Evgeni Malkin, but that hardly captures how Geno was galloping around, doing basically whatever he pleased making things happen. Malkin's now on pace for 139 points this season.

--Only two players (Thomas Vanek, Jeff Carter) have scored more goals this season than El Sid...Any comments Darren Dreger?....No? Didn't think so.

--Dany Sabs is 4th in the NHL in save percentage and the league leader in goals against average....File that under "things you wouldn't have thought at the end of two months of play"

--Still not a goal scored (yet) for Kris Letang this season, but he played more minutes than any Penguin not named "Malkin" and has blossomed into an established top unit defenseman in the NHL....Which is probably more than you've done at the age of 21.

--1 : the number of teams in the Eastern Conference with a better Goals For minus Goals Against differential than the Penguins (Boston)

--The Penguins are now 7-3-2 at home and 7-3-1 on the road. That's what we call balance.

Fleury injured

Uh oh, MAF-3000 is injured:

"[Marc-Andre Fleury]'s not going to play (Tuesday)," head coach Michel Therrien said. "It's not a major injury but we don't want to take any risks. That's why we want to be really cautious with his injury."

Therrien confirmed that Fleury suffered the injury late in Saturday's game against the Buffalo Sabres. Fleury still played the entire game. If he isn't healthy enough to backup Dany Sabourin on Tuesday night then the Penguins will re-call a goalie from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Dispite the assurances of Therrien, we wonder if this is something that Fleury has been fighting through for a while; although he played well in the Buffalo game Saturday night, his GAA was over 3.00 the previous five starts, whereas he only had one 3.00+ night in his first 8 outings of the season. Yes, crazy to believe that a coach with absolutely no reason to tell the truth might be bending the situation for his own good, but hey.

Regardless, it’s nice to have a backup who is really clicking right now. Dany Sabs personal stats are 3-1, 1.68 GAA and a .942 save % and even more importantly he has to have confidence and the trust of his teammates for his incredible mop-up duty in the Philadelphia game, topped off of course by the five shootout saves in a row.

But despite how well Sabourin has been, it wouldn't serve the Penguins well if their #1 franchise goalie was out another 6-8 weeks like last season....Hopefully Therrien was telling the truth when he said that this injury doesn't look too serious.

Ugly game, bizarre ending...At least Pens Win

Just remember, these two points will look the same in the standings as a 5-0 win in April. Surely by that time the details of this game will thankfully most likely be buried. And for good reason..

• Down 3-1 with about 25 minutes left the Penguins were able to pull a comeback that they've watched so many other teams try to do to them. Though Dany Sabourin wasn't really bad, he wasn't really stellar either in the game kicking out rebounds, pucks zooming by his glove (most just missing).
• Shots were 18-1 in the third period. It was almost if the Pens woke up with Jordan Staal's great effort to make the game 3-2 before heading to the lockeroom for intermission. Obviously you could see the Pens felt like they could control the play, work hard and eventually pop in a goal.
• How about that Matt Cooke/Mike Zigomanis/Tyler Kennedy line? Joey MacDonald might have had dreams last night of those three buzzing around, controlling the puck, cycling, cycling and then scoring.
• Kennedy imparticular had a solid night, 6 shots on net, 2 goals. He's a big time player.
• Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin each grimaced through 24:14 of play. Though the big boys seemed to be skating well, shooting well and passing the puck with some zip, it's clear that neither is 100% right now and something is just a little off. Despite saying that, each are still creating several scoring chances a game for themselves and their linemates but it is a little unsettling to see them out there and clearly not at full strength.
• Blocking shots was a huge storyline of the night too; Pittsburgh got 32 shots through but the Isles were able to block an astonishing 29 more. Pens defensemen combined to have 18 total shots blocked, compared to just 6 they got through to the goalie. Still, have to give NYI and specifically Andy Sutton (8) a lot of credit for being human shields out there. Sutton's a player we haven't always had the highest opinion on as a player, but he played big minutes and was as good as we've ever seen him last night.
• After being on the ice for the Isles 2nd and 3rd goals, Mark Eaton only got three more shifts in the last 2 minutes of regulation and none in OT. Rough night for the usually steady Eaton.



SHOOTOUT-GATE

The NHL's shootout is a gimmick and the bizarre ending of it de-credited any good will it may have built. For those that didn't see it, the Pens were winning 1-0 in the shootout, final round for NYI to score or go home. Trent Hunter comes in, shoots the puck and it disappears somewhere in the myriad of pads that goaltenders wear these days. Sabourin's momentum carries 95% of his body completely into the net, the refs close in to see where the puck got caught up.
It's somewhere in Sabs' leg pad. No one can be quite sure, but given that Sabourin's legs were at one point almost entirely in the net up to his skate, it's reasonable to say goal. Nothing can be said definitively or conclusively, of course, since the puck is not visible. But surely the rubber was behind the line for a second or too.
But since the initial call was "no goal", or perhaps more accurately "we have no idea if it was a goal" video review can't conclusively over-rule and award a goal so game is over. The shootout gimmick looked even more cheapened tonight.
Somehow it would have been more satisfying if they just credited that goal and then let the Pens use Crosby, Malkin or shootout whiz Kris Letang to score an undisputed game winner.

But what's done is done and the Pens will take these two points and move on to an away game in Michigan against some random Western Conference team. That game won't mean very much, will it?

Game 10: Pens get Sharked

There are no sure goals with Sabu

Sorry for the late recap, we've been battling illness. Anyways onto the thoughts...

• First of all, gotta give props to Dany Sabourin who again played excellently and held the Penguins in the game for much longer than they deserved to be in it.
• The Sharks are now coached by Todd McLellan, who was a Detroit assistant. And it showed because the Sharks sure did show some shades of Red tonight, controlling the puck for most of the night, limiting the opponents shots to a measely figure (and the shots allowed mostly came from outside non-prime scoring areas). The Sharks are an elite regular season team, especially at home and it was on display tonight.
• Describe Sidney Crosby's night in a word? Frustrating. Mr. Sid went 4-20 in the faceoff circle as "Jumbo" Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau pretty much had their way winning clean draw after clean draw all night long. Crosby, like so many of his teammates, also failed to get a shot on goal (though he did ring one off iron) and slammed the puck into the boards showing his frustration after a borderline penalty.
• From the "how the heck does this happen department", the official scorer credited the Penguins with 10 giveaways but then awarded Shark players 13 takeaways. Does that make sense to anyone?
• Further, the Sharks were hit for 21 giveaways but Penguin players were only credited 7 takeaways. Were San Jose players going Ilya Kovalchuk and stealing pucks from their own teammates?
• When the number of minor penalties taken (6) is approaching the number of shots you get on goal (11) you just know it wasn't a fun night....But at least the penalty kill went 6 for 6, right?
• The last five minutes of the game the Penguins showed some real effort, got some good cycling shifts and Ruslan Fedotenko took advantage of playing with Crosby and Evgeni Malkin by popping Crosby's rebound in. So also at least Crosby and Malkin could push their duel scoring streaks to now six games and counting.
• This team needs a skilled winger. Janne Pesonen has points in every AHL game he's played so far. Of course they're probably not going to fly him out for the West Coast trip, but just sayin'...
• In the end, definitely a game the Penguins didn't deserve to win and now go to 0-1-1 on this road trip. But the toughest two games of the trip (at NYR, at SJ) are in the rear view mirror with two relatively easy opponents the Coyotes (3-4-0) and then St. Louis (a surprising start of 5-3-0).
  

Finally, thank you to the Arlington County street construction guys out there for starting jackhammer and other heavy machinery work at 6 AM sharp this morning on the street in our neighborhood directly behind our house. That is really lovely after a West Coast game that keeps us up until 1 AM.

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.

Dany Sabourin, Litterbox

Dany Sabs making a save...Not pictured, all the haters who don't think he is capable of such a thing

Dany Sabourin he's the #2 goalie, a lot of people have decided to go #2 on him. Penguins backup goalie might be confused for a litterbox, considering how much he gets dumped on. Among the slights was when 2K sports rated Dany Sabs as tied for the lowest rated player in their video game. Puck Daddy found that out of 100, they gave him a 6 for puck-handling.

SI's Allan Muir is the latest throwing a subtle dig at Sabs:

"no one believes that Dany Sabourin can fill in for Fleury as admirably as Conklin did last season."

We do not mean to undermine Conkblock or take away from anything he contributed when Fleury got hurt. But let's face facts:

#1: Conklin went 18-8-5 with a 2.51 GAA and a save percentage of .923%. And he was actually even better than those numbers really indicate Who in their right mind would have expected that 12 months ago? No one.

#2: Sabourin himself was 10-9-1 with a 2.75 GAA and a .903%. Not world beating numbers, but not half bad for a backup. Those that label the Pens backup goalie depth as a concern probably have MAF and Conkblock’s outstanding performances in their head and don’t realize that Sabourin appeared in 20 games and the sky didn’t fall. He didn’t perform as well as a starter, but that’s ok because he’s not the starter.

#3: In the salary capped world, teams more or less put all their eggs in one basket with the starting goalie receiving the lion share of the playing time (and salary) and the backup either being a journeyman or a young, inexpensive player. IF Fleury-- or pretty much any contending team's starting netminder-- were to go down for an extended period they'd be in trouble. That Conklin pretty much saved the Pens season (with help from Evgeni Malkin), his super performance shouldn't be used as a negative for Sabourin.

Dany Sabourin makes The Onion

In honor of what could be his last start in Pittsburgh this season (or perhaps ever) tonight, here's a pretty funny link to the Onion that you'll probably enjoy. We suppose that is calling the Onion funny is a little redundant, though

A good problem to have is still a problem

You'll have to forgive us for being very excited about the imminent return of Marc-Andre Fleury. The kid groomed to be the franchise goalie has certainly had a bumpy development, but hey he's a goalie. What has he missed?

Ty Conklin
16-4-3
2.18 GAA (tied for 4th in the league, behind the 2 Detroit goalies and that Brodeur fellow)
.932 save % (1st in the league)

As you can tell, though he's played about half the games of a guy like Brodeur or Luongo, Conkblock's numbers rival or surpass them this year. And it seems more than just lightning in a bottle. Hotstreaks come and stay for a while but Conklin's appeared in 24 games now and has not been totally solid perhaps 2 or 3 times. This wave he's riding doesn't appear to be dying down anytime soon.

• So what of Fleury, the "golden" boy (but thankfully not in those pads anymore), what becomes of the former #1 overall pick that's probably always been "the guy" at every level of his young career?
• Or what even of Dany Sabourin? Do the Pens risk him to waivers? Don't be so quick to scoff, Dany Sabs was already claimed once when the Pens waived him.

To the first question, we stress communication. Obviously Fleury knows the team has been winning not only with Conklin, but on many nights because of Conklin. When your getting that kind of performance out of a netminder it's impossible not to use him as the go-to guy.

Will Fleury like this arrangement? Probably not. But he must also realize Conklin is a UFA after this season and probably isn't in the Pens long-term picture. Also, as any Edmonton fan could tell you, Conklin could fall apart at any minute, perhaps his wave will finally crash. Just because Conklin should be the #1 goalie right now doesn't mean the team won't be in a position where they will need MAF.

On the second point, waiving Sabourin is no easy matter. As we pointed out, Conklin is a UFA and with the season he is having his agent must be doing backflips. Goaltending is of the utmost importance and without it you're doomed (see Kings, Los Angeles or the Coyotes pre-Bryzgalov). Sabourin has a contract next season and an affordable one. While he couldn't carry the torch through Fleury's injury, Sabourin's proven to be a decent NHL backup goalie, enough to pickup the slack for the 13-15 games MAF won't start. So Dany Sabs should be kept.

Another point is goalie depth. What seems to be an advantage right now could quickly turn. Imagine Sabs is picked up and Fleury tweaks the ankle injury that's already kept him out almost 3 months. By this point the trade deadline has passed and Dave Brown is sitting #2 on the organ-eye-zational depth chart. You could even imagine if the Conkblock magic ran out? Worst case scenario, to be sure, but hey it's out there.

No one--and we do mean no one--likes the arrangement of carrying 3 goalies on the roster. The Sweater Ted hasn't quite figured out how to handle this tricky situation, but then again it's not like we're cashing consulting checks from the Pens (but we're open to it!) so this decision is up to them.

Why 3 may not be a crowd

Jonathan Bombulie up in Wilkes-Barre weighs in on the roster decision the Penguins are going to have to make coming up here soon:

I don't think Pittsburgh can afford to get rid of any of its goaltenders. They can't send Conklin down because he might be the No. 1, depending on how Fleury plays. They can't really risk sending down Sabourin either. It's not likely, but what if he gets claimed and Fleury re-aggravates his ankle? Then you have to make a trade or a waiver claim on a goalie because you couldn't realistically go into the playoffs with a Conklin-Curry tandem.

It's not that big a deal, really. NHL rosters expand at the trade deadline Feb. 26, so you only have to worry about using a roster spot on a third goalie for about nine more days. From a WBS perspective, it's good to get Curry and/or Brown some playoff
experience.

They just have to make sure Sabourin stays active in practice because they might need him in the playoffs. I've seen Michel Therrien use three goalies in a series before. Twice, in fact.

JB makes some good points, but usually in the NHL nobody is happy with a 3 goalie rotation; the goalies don't like it because it limits the amount of work the get, obviously in games but practices too. There are only two nets on the ice, after all.

Really though most of his hypotheticals center around another team claiming Dany Sabourin off of waivers. Sabs has had his moments, both good and bad this season but looking at the other teams in the league it's difficult to see one that might claim Sabourin this late in the season.

If we had our finger on the button (an last time we checked, we don't) Sabourin would be back in Wilkes-Barre. We'd roll with the risks that Fleury won't re-injure his ankle and Sabs wouldn't be claimed.

Oh yeah, and if Therrien ever ends up using 3 goalies in one series (short of having injuries), well then we are all in a world of hurt.

You can’t make everybody happy all of the time

Not really the Staal we wanted to see celebrating..

Well, we talked about secondary scoring but we didn't even mention our boy Brooks Orpik's 180 game goal drought, because that wouldn't seem right. The hooks man put one home and, to the surprise of no one, Evgeni Malkin added a powerplay goal but the Pens ended up blowing a 2-1 lead.

• Can't blame Dany Sabourin. In what likely was his last start of the year for Pittsburgh he made 42 saves and stopped the ones he should have, just didn't have the team in front of him.
• Kris Beech wasn't bad but wasn't good and took a hard spill into the boards right on his arm. If he doesn't have a broken or dislocated wrist it would shock us.
• Jordan Staal was listed on nhl.com as a -3 and took 3 penalties. Plus he won just 24% of his faceoffs. Not a good night for little brother.
• The Penguins only had 22 shots. They took another 22 shots that got blocked down by Carolina.
• Ray Whitney, as we identified as being -11 in the past month, feasted on the powerplay. He had an even +/- rating but had 1 goal and 2 assists on the powerplay.
• Rob Scuderi's patented "take a knee and stick your stick out" cost the Penguins a goal against. Scuds has morphed into a decent NHL defenseman but someone ought to tell him to act like a defenseman and not a goaltender at times.
• In his first game back, Tyler Kennedy did more than just bring his usual energy. He had exactly 13 minutes of icetime and provided 2 shots on goal (with 2 more blocked), was credited with 3 take-aways, 1 hit and a blocked shot of his own. If he can continue that kind of effort one gets a feeling the Pens can feed off of that in nights to come.
• Two Canes had a negative +/- and no Pens did. That tells you that Carolina's powerplay did their job and Pittsburgh's did not.

Unfortunately the Pens let one loss become two tonight. But Philadelphia, the only other Atlantic team in the mix, lost too, so the boys didn't lose that much ground.

Pittsburgh has a rare Friday and Saturday off and get to return home for a practice until Sunday on the road against a scrappy Buffalo team. Beech's apparent nasty spill must mean that Erik Christensen can get back into the lineup and the team will have enough time to regroup and hopefully get their legs under them again.

Goin to Carolina

It's a hockey night in Raleigh!

• Season series: 2-1 Penguins (including the last two). This is the last match up of the regular season between Pittsburgh and Carolina.
• The Hurricanes, uh, made waves (sorry) with their big trade of sending two impending vets that were UFAs (Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore) for two younger players not as established (the injured Patrick Eaves and Joe Corvo). Consider though, the four games before that trade the ‘Canes only scored a total of 4 goals. In their only contest since they scored 3 goals and won. Sometimes a GM needs to shake things up to get the message through.
• Dany Sabs is expected to be in net. We have no idea what that means. At times Sabourin has showed he can be an effective NHL backup and give a good performance. But at other times he shown quite clearly that he can give the goal judge's red-light finger a workout. With Fleury's return coming very soon this might be one of the last times this year Sabourin gets the chance to start an NHL game. Surely he must know this. Hopefully that pressure brings the best, and not the worst, out of him.
• The tightness of the Southleastern Division--Carolina is tied with Washington and Atlanta with 60 points at the top, Florida has 58 points and don’t sleep on Tampa who’s only 6 points out of 1st with at least a game in hand on everyone else. Point being, all of these teams are going to be fighting and clawing in what’s best described as the measured and nothing against mentality of “playoff hockey”. Which is ironic since no team in the Southleast is in the top 8 in the conference right now on their own merit.
• Ray Whitney has a +/- rating of -11 in the past month. We know this because he was on our fantasy team. As in the past tense.
• Coach Michel Therrien called out the secondary scoring and it’s easy to see why. Since Crosby’s injury the top line has been ridiculous and the 2nd line of Christensen-Staal-Talbot has created too. Look at these droughts:

--The last time Colby Armstrong scored a goal; there wasn’t a roof over his head. Since the Winter Classic he’s played 16 games and only has 2 assists in that timeframe.
--Max Talbot only has 1 goal in his last 17 games (though he is piling up assists at a decent rate)
--BGL isn’t here to score, but he’s had 0g, 1a in the past 15 games.
--Jarkko Ruutu is 0 for the season (46 games for him).
--Kris Beech, naturally, is scoreless in 3 games too
--Jeff Taffe is on a 10 game goal-less streak.
--Young players Ryan Stone, Jonathan Filewich and Nathan Smith, in limited minutes, also produced nothing offensively in 18 combined games.

On the heels of all this, the Pens are happy to welcome back a guy in Tyler Kennedy who was on pace to be a 20 goal scorer in his rookie year (8 goals in 31 NHL games this season) and plays with a lot of energy and determination. You can count on Geno and the powerplay, but expecting them to produce 3-4 goals a night is not going to cut it; it caught up with the Penguins last night.

If the Penguins want to win this game, someone else is going to have to step up and somehow get one by an opponent that's sure to be clinging for dear life. That could be the spark the Pens need to carry them to victory.

Unsung heroes

After watching the 3rd string goalie go 10-1-1 in consecutive games, perhaps there was no better time to go back to Dany Sabourin. Especially with the game in Montreal. A move that won't be recognized by many fans, but surely Michel Therrien knew what was up.

As we expected, Geno tried to put the whole team on his back. And he iced the game with a sharp angle empty netter. If the NHL fills in anyone else for Crosby other than Malkin, we're gonna be pissed.

The 4th line played hard and it paid off with the first (and game winning goal). Georges Laraque put on his Sidney Crosby hat and had a great pass to Jeff Taffe for the goal.

Dany Sabs and the defense did the rest, shutting out the Habs and securing the victory. Colby Armstrong got hurt his first shift and it's unknown at this moment how bad he'll be.

A Long (Successful) December

The only Eastern Conference team to gain more points than the Penguins (18) in December was the conference breakaway team Ottawa Senators (20).

Not bad considering Dany Sabourin and Ty Conklin have been the netminders since December 6th and key players like Max Talbot, Sergei Gonchar, Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts have been injured or missed games during this stretch.

Now it's time for the highest profile regular season game. If you don't know what this is, you're living in a cave.


Bring it. I'm stoked. I'm sure all the players on both teams are going to be laying it all on the line, and even though the conditions are going to be unpredictable, I have a feeling something special is going to take place in this most special of games. Think 87 or 71. I am.

Happy New Years folks. See you tomorrow afternoon with a comprehensive recap.

Pens young players coming up big

Sorry for the infrequent posts of late....Things have picked up considerably for me (new job) and my time has been stretched. For game recaps and more regular updates to my dozen readers, you know to check out the Pensblog. Heck, you come from there anyways.

Regardless, good win tonight for the Marc-Andre Fleury-less Penguins in Long Island. Some of my thoughts:
``Kris Letang led all Penguins with 25:50 ice time. It's hard to develop as a young defenseman in the NHL. Letang, relatively unhearlded as a 3rd round draft pick, is doing it in front of our eyes. Surprisingly for someone so adept at moving the puck, tonight's assist was just his 2nd of the season. Best stat for this offensive minded dman? 4 hits and 1 blocked shot. If Letang can be competant in his own end against NHL caliber players, I really think he could develop into a Dan Boyle-esque player. Which would be a very good thing.
``Enough of Letang, how about Tyler Kennedy? Mr. Kennedy is rocking faces the NHL and his speed, hustle and energy is making differences. Coming into this year, personally I was more sold on Ryan Stone or Jonathan Filewich. I overlooked the new TK's overall skill that goes along with his effort. And with 6 goals and 4 assists in 19 games (while playing just over 11 minutes a night) Kennedy is making a HUGE difference. Kennedy's goal and 2 assists tonight meant he had a hand in every score. Tremendous.
``The Islanders have been on a streak of something like 20 games not scoring more than 3 goals in a game, so jumping out to an early 2-0 lead (even though it was neutralized) was huge for not only the Penguins but to damage the pysche of the Isles.
``Seriously, is every goal Richard Park scores against the Penguins? I'll try to look it up when I have the time, but it really seems like Park scores almost every time he plays his old team. Yet he only has 5 on the year.
``Sidney Crosby had his 15th goal of the season, but he and Evgeni Malkin had a hideous go at it in the faceoff circle (thanks mostly to faceoff wizard Mike Sillinger). The two Big Boys went a combined 11 for 36 (30.5%) on faceoffs.
``One area the Penguins did not have problems was the shot department. 40 shots on net tonight (led by Petr Sykora's 6) and missed the net 11 more times. Tell me this going into a game and I like their chances....Also Crosby had 5 shots on goal, I believe he's had about 13 shots in the past two games; it seems like he's making a conscious effort to shoot more. That is a very bad thing to hear for the opposition.
``Are people going to start hitting Georges Laraque so they don't have to feel Gary Roberts' wrath? Roberts took exception to Andy Sutton's treatment of Jordan Staal and had no qualms in dropping the gloves with a significantly younger (and bigger) kid. Arguably no one in the NHL is as tough, strong or forceful as Gary Roberts is at 41 years old....And if you don't believe it, he'll probably kick your ass too for good measure.
``Crosby is #1 in the league at drawing penalties: 37 so far this year. The outside observers will wrongly decry that they are mostly sympathetic or trumped up calls by biased referees "Michael Jordan calls" if you will. Watch 5 consecutive Pens games as just a neutral observer and you'd have a different perspective. I belive right now Alex Ovechkin is #2 in this category, also for a reason. The opposition knows the elite players that they must hook, hold, slash, grab, trip, interfere, etc.
``Dany Sabourin was good. But can he be good for the next 6-8 weeks? Tough question. But considering Sabs was the goalie of the year in the ECHL once, and he was the goalie of the year in the AHL once, he has the skill and knows it. Surely his confidence could all fall apart and we could see repeats of the 8-2 debacle in Philly.....But I honestly believe Sabourin could be the stopgap for the next month and a half and do his part to keep the Penguins in playoff contention. IF he can (and I realize that's a hefty if) that's all you can ask for.....For tonight at least, he did his part.
``One of the unsung trio, Rob Scuderi, left early with what appeared to be an ankle injury. That's 3 current ankle injuries (Fleury, Maxime Talbot), if you're keeping track at home. Maybe we should try wrapping these things or something??
``Connor James made his NHL debut. The Pens chose him over a more flashy guy like Stone, Filewich or Jeff Taffe because he fills the Talbot role of speed, energy and PK ability better. James looked decent in his limited action. He definitely is a very fast and quick skater. The Penguins sure do have a great crop of all-around skaters in their organization, it's something that's been emphasized by at first Craig Patrick and now Mr. Shero. I can't believe I paid a compliment to post 2000 Craig Patrick, but apparantely I just did.
``Sports Illustrated did a huge article on Chris Simon a couple of weeks ago where they basically tried to state that he really is a good person that just does bad things. I bought this, after all hockey is a rough and tumble sport and it's emotions run high so it's easy to cross the line occasionally....But Simon's latest line crossing; where he attempted to stomp Jarrko Ruutu's ankle off was inexcusable. Too much adds to his shoddy reputation. There's no place in the NHL for that kind of recklessness. I'm sure Colin Campbell will be giving the Isles a call soon to let him know how long he's suspended. It should be a lengthy one, no one deserves to be stomped on with an ice skate. Total classless and bush-league by Simon.

It's a great thing to get 2 points from a division rival on the road....Even moreso when your #1 goalie and #1 defenseman (Sergei Gonchar) are out of the lineup, and when the two big guns combine for just 1 assist.

Around here, we'll take it....These two points are worth just as much at the end of the season as the Flyers earned for winning 8-2 the other night. It all counts the same.

My advice to you is to start drinking heavily

Sorry for no posts recently, I've been drinkin ever since learning that Marc-Andre Fleury is out for the next 6-8 weeks.

2 months of Dany Sabs and Ty FREAKIN Conklin?

If you'll excuse me, I'm going back to the bottle.

Flyers Game Preview and a NEW Feature

The Penguins are back in action tonight, in one of America's 3 dirtiest, nastiest cities (as voted by me....the others, of course, being Baltimore and Cleveland). The Penguins and Flyers have very similiar season records; the Penguins have two games in hand but have unfortunately lost them both in regulation. So tonight's game is about holding serve and keeping up with the (Randy) Jones'.

Another thing of note; when you mention the Philly Flyers, you mention questionable injuries that they dish out....5 and counting. Tonight I don't think much cheap stuff will happen since:
``Riley Cote is out on suspension
``Given uber-pest Steve Downie recently got sent back down to the AHL, the Flyboys don't have too many dirty players in the lineup.
``Ben Eager is rough and tumble but not nearly as reckless as a guy like Downie....Eager is, well eager* to drop the gloves, getting in 5 fights in just 20 games...However, the folks at hockeyfights.com (predicatably, with a huge following of Flyers fans) have scored Eager at 2-3 this year, and his lone wins were not against heavyweights (Montreal's ex-Baby Pen Tom "the original TK" Kostopolous and Washington castoff Brian Sutherby). I suspect Eager may just be about to get in the way of about 10 of Georges Laraque's patented left hands to the head.

*I know, I know, I couldn't resist....Rest assured I feel shame

Now that we've covered the obligatory cheap Flyers play and a heavyweight matchup, I suppose they're playing a hockey game too. Max Talbot and Marc-Andre Fleury didn't even travel with the team to Philly, so using my expert hockey analysis I'd say neither figures to be in uniform tonight, save for Talbot maybe going back up to Toronto to put on another Crosby jersey and kick up a real show!

Anyways, look for the Penguins to try to continue to outshoot and outwork the opponents with their cycling, take advantage of what should be a top 5 powerplay when penalties are drawn and stay out of the box themselves. Hopefully Dany Sabourin can be as solid as he's been so far in Fleury's abscence....Every day I really feel like this could be the night where Jordan Staal breaks out so I'm probably going to keep harping on this until it inevitably happens so I can take credit for it. I call this my Sean Salisbury analysis cap.


And now for our award!

For some reason this trophy cracked me up

This blog really doesn't have any features, but thanks to a little bit of looking at google searches from lost souls who type questions into google, we have our first....

So without further review, your inaugural google search of the day:
"
is marc-andre fleury going to be the best goalie in the nhl?
"

GO PENS!!

Fleury "day-to-day"

Marc-Andre Fleury's ankle x-ray were negative (which is actually a positive) and sportsnet is calling him "Day-to-day".

Still, he's probably not going to be dressed tomorrow night, as according to Wilkes-Barre beat writer Jonathan Bombule, veteran Ty Conklin has been called up.

The team isn't going to send Conklin cross-country and take him away from the AHL club if they didn't need him to dress for a game.

As I've mentioned in the past, not having goaltender depth isn't an issue, unless your guy gets hurt or struggles. Teams cling to their #1 guy nowadays in the NHL, and under the salary cap you won't, for long, have anything much more than a serviceable #2 guy.

Conklin, while not a great goalie, is at least a guy who's been around the block and, at times, can be a capable NHL level goaltender. He's not a player you want to see on the NHL roster for very long though.

All in all, the Penguins seem to have dodged a bullet with this. It seems Fleury just rolled or sprained his ankle a little and didn't do any serious damage. But, as some have found out, even though an ankle sprain may be a relatively tame injury; it can have quite a bite, especially if player returns to action before fully recovering.

Pens Win, Pens Win

2 Points is 2 points....

Sidney Crosby had a good game but he didn't make an impact really.....

``Georges Laraque made an impact when he whooped Eric Godard. But, as always for those bold enough to drop the gloves with BGL.
``Geno had a terrific game, culminating in a goal....Couldn't have won without him.
``Ryan Malone had a sensational individual effort to score the game tying goal....Good for him.
``The shootout was won by a great move by Kris Letang. Credit the coaches for trusting him, and credit Letang for coming through...
``Dany Sabourin wasn't terrific, but he didn't have to be....Once again, the Pittsburgh goalie did enough to win.

The Penguins have now won 3 in a row, and 6 in the last 7.....And, as the Capitals bloggers would say....It has been a 2 point night!!!