Sure it's early..

Yeah so if this NHL season was a person it barely be out of diapers, but let's give the devil his due (gahhh) compared to other notable line-mates of Sidney Crosby....

• Miroslav Satan: 7 games, 4 goals, 2 assists
• Marian Hossa: 5 games, 1 goal, 4 assists
• Ryan Malone: 6 games, 1 goal, 0 assists
• Gary Roberts: 6 games, 0 goals, 0 assists
• Mark Recchi: 6 games, 2 goals, 0 assists
• Erik Christensen: 6 games, 0 goals, 1 assist
• Colby Armstrong: 6 games, 2 goals, 0 assists

Just sayin'.....

Why wouldn't the Lightning sign Mark Recchi?

The Tampa Bay Lightning continued to pile on veteran support on Monday, signing forward Mark Recchi to a one-year, $1.25 million contract that's worth $1.5 million with incentives.

Pittsburgh south indeed. Recchi, Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Adam Hall and don't forget Michel Ouellet (how could you)....The Lightning also had ex-Pens Andre Roy and Karl Stewart in their coffers last season, though both are now unrestricted free agents.

That got us to thinking of the breakout 2006-07 Penguins that all those men (except Hall) played for Pittsburgh....8 out of 31 skaters to appear in a Penguin jersey that season--the Tampa four plus Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen (ATL), Josef Melichar (CAR) and Noah Welch (FLA) will start the season in the Southeast division.

Consider that only 10 skaters from that season--which ended for the Pens only fifteen months ago--are still with the Penguins. They are as you'd imagine, pretty much the core of the team: Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar, Whitney, Staal, Talbot, Scuderi, Orpik, Eaton and Letang.

Like roster turnover? The NHL is the place for you.

Key quote by Shero...

From the Pensblog who linked the Shero presser...

"Come training camp we're going to be than we were [at that time] last year."

--Last year's top 6 entering training camp:

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Mark Recchi, Colby Armstrong, Petr Sykora and Ryan Malone.

This year:

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin [a year stronger, smarter and better], Petr Sykora, and three unknowns.

How Shero fills those unknowns will decide the outcome of the year. But it's very like he can fill those holes better than a 38 year old Mark Recchi, a glorified checker in Colby Armstrong and Ryan Malone.

A lot of Pens' fans are acting like Chicken Little, but the sky is not falling. Marian Hossa is gone and that does suck, but it's not the end of the world. The Penguins still have the absolute best caliber of players from about the age of 19-24 in the league. No other team has the base of Crosby, Malkin, Jordan Staal, Marc-Andre Fleury and Ryan Whitney. Relax. Free agents come and they go, it's a business. The main thing is retaining the core and surrounding it with talent. See how Shero fills things out before slipping it out.

Something to get the spirits up

A spirited loss yesterday in Ottawa. Back and forth, lots of action (and penalties) as well as emotion out the wazoo. Despite Evgeni Malkin's three point night, the Pens didn't have enough to win; hey it'd be hard to picture Ottawa winning if they didn't have, say Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, Anton Volchenkov and Andrej Mezawhatever in the lineup.


Anyways, a quick turnaround for a home game today against Atlanta Thrashers and some old friend....Recchi, Hedberg, Thorburn, Christensen, Armstrong, heck they've even got themselves a Kwiatkowski.


Here's something we found that brought a chuckle...And in case Tyler Kennedy needs to get a part-time job in the offseason, there might be a natural position for him..

Caps fall to the Thrashers

I wish I was awake when this happened

And now thoughts from the game we attended and didn't Tivo tonight:

• You'd look at the shots (advantage Washington 36-13) and think they really carried the play. But they didn't really apply pressure in flurries or come close to scoring that often.
• Atlanta, without their best player in Ilya Kovalchuk, looked like a boxer that wasn't trying to land any punches but was being very cautious about not giving up the knockout blow either. Though the ever dangerous Alex Ovechkin registered 7 shots on net (and 10 more that were either blocked or off-target) he wasn't really that much of a threat.
• Ovechkin did have one golden opportunity, he was close to the net (with Kari Lehtonen out of position) but his back was turned and he rushed the shot. Literally, after he spun around and controlled the puck he had almost the entire net empty but he shot before his balance was set and it sailed high and wide. Unknowingly he could have had another second or two to steady himself and slam in the easy goal; but that's an easy call when you're in the stands and not on the ice.
• Alex Semin continues to be consistently inconsistent. While not news to Caps fans he often takes terrible penalties. Plus it seems like he loses and edge and wipes out at the most inopportune of times. Also we can't find the exact stat category right now but he's got to be among the league leaders in diving penalties...
• Shaone Morrisonn (or however you spell it) seemed a little over anxious in his first game back from injury in pinching in. Considering that he wasn't too effective at it, plus his role is to be the steady partner for the very talented Mike Green it seemed odd. Morrisonn needs to settle down and not try to do too much to be at his best.
• We thought Pascal Dupuis (even though he had just one shot on net and no points) was the most forceful and best offensive forward for the Tbombs throughout the game.
• It was nice to see Old Man Recchi end up with 2 assists on the night, he made the play happen on Todd White's goal (the only goal of consquence in the whole game) and deserved to be a star of the game over Ovechkin.
• Coaches will tell you there's no such thing as a bad idea to throw the puck at the net. We'd disagree. Ovechkin will shoot from anywhere anytime he can. Shooting lanes or angles be damned; he WILL shoot as much as possible (as evidenced above from 10 ten shots either blocked or mis-fired). Ovechkin must be the least efficient superstar of all-time. But considering he's still the goal and points leader in the league at the moment perhaps there's no room for our insight there.
• Point being, if old boy could learn a little bit of patience and try to work to pick his spots a little better he could become an even more effective player. Now that would be a scary thought. It'll be interesting to see if he ever tries to adapt and adjust his strategy towards this or just keep firing away. Maybe there's no use in changing his style, since it's working for him. Maybe we're not in any position to offer advice. Just calling it like it seems.
• Ifwe know Caps fans, some blogger will probably point their injuries (like Captain Chris Clark and top 4 defenseman Brian Pothier) to show the result could have been different. While Clark is a warrior and a heart-and-soul guy and his absence from the lineup is notable, it's an impossible game of "what if" to imagine him actually suiting up and playing.

Overall it was probably one of the most boring and least active games we've seen this season. Both teams--but especially Atlanta, were playing a very conservative playoff style game. For a while, we thought it was actually Minnesota vs. Calgary (minus Jarome Iginla and Marian Gaborik). Literally that much of nothing was happening throughout most of the game. It's a shame it was a vanilla game too, there was a large crowd on hand and we get the feeling more than a couple were taking in a game for the first time....We get this feeling because it was overheard by someone behind us asking a buddy: "So what number is Ovechkin again?"

In the end, Atlanta made one play (courtesy of Recchi and White) and Washington couldn't make any. That was your "ball"game. Whether this game at the end of the year ends up being just 1 out of 82 or a turning point for either club or even the difference in the division race remains to be seen. One does get the feeling though while Atlanta is happy and relieved to get two points on the road, it's more of a disappointment for the Caps to let this opportunity slip away.

Hello Old Friend

Naturally when a change is made, like a good player joining a new team or a new coach joins a team, there is a pop and for a period things go well. Mark Recchi (who had just 2 goals and 6 assists in 19 games in Pittsburgh, despite prime ice-time with Sidney Crosby and the #1 powerplay unit) has 7 goals and 8 assists in 15 games for his new team, the Atlanta Thrashers. Old man Recchi has been on a line almost exclusively with goal scoring dynamo Ilya Kovalchuk, so it's hardly as if he hasn't been surronded by talent himself on his new club.

The Penguins, for their part, are 18-6 without Recchi in the lineup, so the lack of his famed "veteran presence" hasn't seemed to doom the club just yet.

One has to wonder at the way Recchi's era as a Penguin ended: coach Michel Therrien frequently made him a healthy scratch and either he or Recchi seemed unwilling to put "Drive 8" in anything but a Top 6 role. Obviously Old Man Recchi isn't an imposing checker, but he has always been somewhat of an energy player that will attempt to throw a hit or two and play pretty hard every game. Briefly after the T-bombs got him off of re-entry waivers, several important forwards (Maxime Talbot, Gary Roberts, Ryan Malone) all suffered injury and surely would have opened up a spot for Recchi to become a contributing member to the team again.

But it wasn't to be and now Recchi is in Atlanta, a team two points out of a playoff spot, but a team that has played 1 or 2 more games than most around them in the standings.

Interesting plot lines to follow; will Recchi be able to help the Thrashers claw into the playoffs after such a horrid start? Will the Penguins miss Recchi's production and leadership come playoff time. The man did score 68 points last year and has 2 Stanley Cup's to his name, and the Penguins cast him aside like some sort of journeyman tweener.

CONK CONK CONK CONK

Mark Recchi Waived

In a move that's had it's writing on the wall for a long time now, it appears Mark Recchi's stint as a Pittsburgh Penguin is over. And there will be no next time.

Kind of sad, as the Penguins put him on waivers today.

That link says that Recchi was a part of both Pittsburgh Stanley Cup teams, which is inaccurate. Rare that TSN is inaccurate, but they are here. Recchi was a member of the 1991 SC Champions, but he was traded to Philadelphia in a deadline deal in February of 1992; the deal in which the Penguins acquired Rick Tocchet, Kjell Samuelsson and Ken Wregget.

Recchi's due to make $1.75 million this year before becoming a free agent, and since the season is 31% over, a team that wished to pick him up would only be obligated for the about $1.20 million that remains.

If there are no takers, a precedent has been set by another Penguin who hit the wall and fell out of the NHL at about this time last season. That, of course, being John LeClair. The Pens waived him but found no takers. After talks with LeClair and his agents, the team ended up sending him to the minors. LeClair decided not to report and was given an unconditional release shortly there after. The Penguins did not have to pay him any longer, but the full value of his contract was considered "dead weight" and not dropped off the salary cap. Since the Penguins are not close to the cap ceiling and won't be again this season, having that kind of dead weight is not a big issue.

Unlike LeClair, Recchi may have a little something in the tank, and may be re-invigorated in a new setting. He played pretty well in Carolina's Stanley Cup run in 2006 so a change of scenery might give him a spark. After all, it wasn't as if Recchi wasn't GETTING scoring chance, just that he wasn't converting them. Plus he was giving the puck away too much.

If he found the right situation to play on a team as a 2nd/3rd line winger for 14-16 minutes a night total and get a little PP time and the occasional night off, I think Recchi would make a good option for a team that could benefit from a little added skill. Plus Recchi's a pretty good veteran leader and has handeled this whole situation with a lot of class and dignity.

Hopefully his run as a professional hockey player isn't over yet....But it does seem to be a chapter that's ended in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Gretzky Goes To Pittsburgh

The Mark Recchi bobblehead giveaway tonight?

Tonight the Coyotes are in town, carrying a 11-13 record and the Penguins have a great chance to pick up 2 points in the standings.

Maxime Talbot will not be wearing a Sidney Crosby jersey tonight, he'll be in his #25 and is expected to be back in the lineup. It's not known which Penguin will be scratched; supposedly Georges Laraque has had a cranky back but all other forwards are healthy. My guess would be Jarrko Ruutu or Adam Hall; neither has played poorly, but with a hectic schedule coming up, the Penguins need to get Talbot in the lineup and back on track.

The news isn't so good for #1 defenseman Sergei Gonchar. His groin will, in all likelihood, hold him out for another game. His abscene was starting to be noticable to the blueline, hopefully the likes of Ryan Whitney and Kris Letang can pickup the slack on the powerplay and try to make something happen.

As usual, Old Man Recchi is not expected to be in the lineup tonight; another healthy scratch, despite the fact that it's his bobblehead night to commemorate his 500th goal from last season.

My prediction: A Pens win if they score first or early. If they fall in an early hole, a win is not guaranteed, even if Phoenix is considered one of the weakest and least skilled teams in the NHL.

Odds and Ends

Some numbers of interest:

4 to 3: The edge in assists 24 games into the season for Brooks Orpik holds over Jordan Staal.

March 11, 2006: The last time the voters at hockeyfights.com agreed that Georges Laraque lost a fight. It was against Jody Shelley, if you're wondering. The recap stated Laraque his Shelley with his patented jackhammer lefts, before Shelley got in a couple rights, one of which caught BGL. Shelley then curiously lost his balance and the refs intervened. Sadly, no youtube evidence of this fight exists, so like Bigfoot I question it's existence.....Since that fight, Laraque has been voted a winner (or scored a draw) in his 16 fights since that point. Which includes pre-season and post-season scraps.

48: The number of goals Sidney Crosby is on pace to score at this point.

12/12: Sergei Gonchar's split of home points versus road points

65: combined points of Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the 2nd highest tandem of teammates in the league behind Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis (69). Sid and Geno do have 2 man games in hand on the Tampa players.

3: The number of defenseman who have been credited with more hits than Brooks Orpik. [They are Montreal's Mike Komasarek, Calgary's Dion Phaneuf and surprisingly the Ranger's Fedor Tyutin].

As an aside: Hits are a very subjective stat to track, which is why the NHL briefly got them unofficially tracked. All it takes is a scorekeeper with a hometown bias and a quick finger to quickly inflate the smallest bumps into an official hit. Back in the early part of this decade the clown in Florida who used to always inflate Robert Svehla's hit statistics would always seem to bump him above rightful hit champion Darius Kasparaitis. This, obviously, has left a bad taste in my mouth after all these years.

Komasarek is a tough customer who hits a lot (2nd last season), so I don't think it's going on there. Phaneuf's basically a national hero in Canada for how he hits, so it wouldn't surprise me if he's slightly inflated. The surprise is Tyutin, who only average 2.25 hits a game last year's. His numbers have popped. Interesting. Orpik, for his part, has earned his stats, in my observations. He's been hitting everything in his radius. And not Svehla-style nudges, we're talking checks that take you out of the play here.

/rant

-7: Darryl Sydor's +/- rating this season for games at Mellon Arena

o: Sydor's +/- in away games.

4-1-0: Record when Mark Recchi has been a healthy scratch.

3.6: Goals scored per game the Pens score when Old Man Recchi is not in the lineup

2.8: Goals per game when Recchi dresses.

101 man games, 0 goals, 9 assists: Combined production of all Penguins defensemen not named Gonchar or Whitney. The list is (Nasreddine, Sydor, Letang, Eaton, Scuderi, Orpik). And as mentioned, Orpik's 4 assists is the class of this group too. To be fair, except for the rookie Letang none of these players see anything close to significant powerplay time. But then again, there is a reason the coaches ride Gonchar the full two minutes and rotate Whitney and Letang on the other point.

1: The number of Eastern Conference teams (excluding the porous Southeast Division) that have given up more goals to date than the Penguins. That team, of course, is Toronto.

27: The number of points the Penguins accumulated in the first 27 games of the 2006-07 season. That's right, they were 11-11-4 at one point last year. But then two really healthy streaks later they ended up getting 105 points on the season. So achieving 78 points in the standings in just 55 games averages to a pretty sweet 1.41 PPG. If these Penguins can get points at a similar streak, they'll end up with 106 points at season's end, one better than last season. Get 1.41 points a night for the rest of the season is certainly easier said than done though.

One old foot out the door?

Stop me if you've heard this before: Penguins sign an aging skilled player. Player shows no skill. Player loses spot in lineup. Player sulks/gets upset.

Next step: player taken off team.

It happened to John LeClair last season, and by all indications it's about to happen again to Mark Recchi.

SPECTOR'S MAILBAG.

"Faizal" sends in the following on Mark Recchi:
Pierre Maguire was on the TEAM1040 this morning (Wednesday)in Vancouver and he was talking about the Recchi situation. Him and Recchi were texting each other last night before the Canucks/Ducks game and Maguire says that Recchi will
likely be traded by Friday. Pittsburgh apparently wants to hand over the reigns of the team to the younger players and they feel that with the presence of such veterans as Recchi, Roberts and Sydor, its hard for those younger players to be that voice in the dressing room. I don't know what that means for Roberts or Sydor, but so far only Recchi has been told to call up other clubs and work out a trade for himself."

Whispers have teams like Columbus (who's coach, Ken Hitchcock has connections with Recchi dating back to Kamloops) or Phoenix as interested in Rex.

Some team that needs a top 6 forward will take the bait on this. And maybe a change of scenery and a fresh lockeroom would do Recchi well. He didn't so much look as if there's nothing left in the tank just as much as he wasn't finishing opportunities. Unlike LeClair last season, where it was quite clear he was done, Recchi probably would have something to contribute to a NHL team. Although in a huge shell of his former self.

And for the Penguins, any return at all to shed Recchi's salary and sulking aura will be an improvement. I do not suspect they will be bringing to much back, probably a low draft pick if possible.

McGuire mentions Darryl Sydor and Gary Roberts as possibly the next in line out the door. While both of these vets have been relatively under-performing and disappointing, I see this as unlikely, for many reasons.

• Depth of defensemen. If Sydor is jettison, one injury to the defense (a matter of when, not if) means that Alain Nasreddine is back in the NHL lineup. I still would argue might be a steal candidate on re-entry waivers for a team that would only have to pay 50% his salary, so it's no guarantee he'd be there. Then who comes into the lineup, Ryan Lannon?
• Unlike LeClair and Recchi, Gary Roberts game is built around checking, hitting, menacing, intimidating and the like. Last I checked, you can still do that without scoring. Roberts needs to produce more, but his icetime has been adjusted. In the past 6 games Mr. Gary is getting less than 13 minutes a night. Unlike Recchi, he wasn't chewing up 20 minutes a night and still not scoring.
• Veteran leadership. The team needs someone who's done it before, and only Recchi, Sydor and Roberts have won Stanley Cups. Get rid of all of these guys and there would be only 3 players on the whole roster over the age of 30 (Sergei Gonchar 33, Petr Sykora 31 and Georges Laraque 31 next week). That's obviously not going to cut it for a potential playoff push.

We'll have to see what happens, but short-term it definitely seems like Recchi is going to get a new team, if one will take him. After that the next movement shouldn't be paring more vets from the roster, it should be to bring in a player the team needs; like a goal-scoring winger or a defensive-defenseman.

Hockey Players: Best in the world

No professional athletes are more approachable, more friendly or more compassionate than hockey players. From my own experience of seeing what the Penguins (namely Jaromir Jagr, and Kevin Hatcher) sent to my best buddy who was diagnosed with lymphatic lymphoma at the age of 10 in the late '90s, our parents transplanting us 300 miles away fromPittsburgh...Everything from pucks to sticks to well wishes written down, signed by all.

But nothing, and I mean NOTHING, topped a clearly personalized and signed letter from Mario Lemieux, a cancer survivor himself. Inspiration indeed to my buddy and gestures that I will never, ever forget.

And with that, today's PG on what Sidney Crosby has rented out a suite:

Twenty-five children and their families attended practice and a luncheon with the team that included autographs and photos as part of the Penguins' annual Make-A-Wish party.
Two players, forwards Sidney Crosby and Mark Recchi, facilitate similar, albeit smaller, parties regularly. They have bought suites for children and families to use at home games through various children's charities.
Crosby's family decorated his suite, which is closed off with dividers so that only his guests get to see it.

"My mom and dad went through a lot of albums and took out some pictures when I was the age of a lot of the kids who are in there, and more of them are from school and away from hockey," Crosby said. "There's a map of Cole Harbour [Nova Scotia, his hometown], and they can see where it is compared with Pittsburgh. When kids go there, they can see more than just the hockey side of things, be able to have fun and maybe see things that everyone doesn't typically see."

Countless other hockey players (including Alex Ovechkin) entertain special guests like this on countless nights. These men are answering beyond the call of their professional super stardom, they're being terrific human beings that are leaving a great impact than they'll ever know....A heartfelt hat-tip to them all.

A long November

Well, I suppose one point is better than no points, after the Penguins lose tonight in overtime from a most unlikely source: Jason Strudwick.

The good:
``Sidney Crosby pushes his scoring streak to 19 games with a sensational effort, 1 shorthanded assist (a tap-in for Maxime Talbot) and a goal from an impossible angle. As usual Crosby was the best player on the ice and making good things happen for the Pens left and right.
``Geno extends his personal best point streak to 13 games on a primary assist on Petr Sykora's game tying 3rd period goal. Malkin was clearly the 2nd best player tonight "galloping" around the ice, beating defensemen, setting players up. Another awesome display.
``Ryan Malone showed great effort and had a season high 5 hits.
``Mark Eaton, as usual, was very solid and had 23:29 of icetime and was a +2.

The bad:
``Marc-Andre Fleury didn't do enough to win, surrendering 4 goals of 26 shots.
``Michel Therrien scratched two of the youngest forwards (Colby Armstrong and Tyler Kennedy) in favor of Gary Roberts and Old Man Recchi.....The vets responded with a combined 24 minutes of ice-time, 4 fairly pedestrian shots and nothing else.
``The Pens took 7 penalties; all but one were of the lazy variety (hooking and tripping). And only one powerplay was generated. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize your odds aren't very good to go 1 powerplay against 7 penalty kills and come away with a W.
``All goals scored by the Rangers were defensemen, most of them coming on transition plays, which, of course, means blown coverage by the Penguins forwards.

Thoughts:
``Does anyone miss Darryl Sydor or have noticed that he's been scratched for two straight games now? Didn't think so. Kris Letang has acquitted himself decently, and obviously Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney are staples in the lineup. The unsung trio (Eaton, Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi) have done nothing to deserve getting taken out of the lineup.
``Still need to see forwards not named Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin generate offense.....As per usual, didn't happen tonight. But if the Pens have any hopes of playoffs, it needs to. I'm looking at you, Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi, Erik Christensen and Jordan Staal.
``Speaking of, has anyone seen Jordan Staal? 19 minutes of icetime tonight and not a shot to be had. Classic sophomore slump. But remember: dude is 19 years old, not many teenagers are a staple of the penalty kill like Staal was, logging 7:40 minutes of short-handed time and not being on the ice for a goal against.
``Don't look now but Ryan Whitney blocked a team high 4 shots tonight and was credited for a hit. Hardly highlight worthy, but at least he's out there trying.
``As usual Gonchar lead all skaters in icetime on both teams, with 27:00 minutes. Quietly he's the glue holding this team together (other than Crosby and Malkin of course). God forbid, but if either Sid or Geno got hurt the other could pick up the slack.....No Penguin defenseman could pickup the matchups or eat up the minutes Gonchar does (7:05 shorthanded tonight)....To brake up the Sarge love-fest he rushed the puck end-to-end and couldn't get back in time for Strudwick's OT winner. Gotta take the good with the bad.

So what's a trigger happy coach like Therrien to do? Nobody asked me, but my advice would be:

• Insert Armstrong and Kennedy in the lineup (at the expense of Recchi and Jarrko Ruutu). Don't change the defense. No one has merited a scratch, Sydor should continue to sit. He's a pro and making $2.5 million, he can handle it.
• And, for the love of God, leave Fleury in. If the Penguins sink or swim, it's going to be with him. And almost a quarter of the way into the season it's past time to find out now before it's too late.
  

Not good times, but as mentioned, a 1 point night is better than a 0 point night. Still hurts to give up a 2 goal lead. Hat tip to our old buddy Michal Rozsival on his 2 goal night. And kudos to Eaton and Gonchar to hold the ever dangerous Jammer Jagger to no points and no shots.

It's worth mentioning that with only one game to go in this crucial 9 game series of playing divisional opponents, the Penguins have gone 2-5-1, gathering only 5 of a possible 16 points. But more importantly, the lost points are all going to every other divisional opponent which makes the hill to climb that much steeper.

The end result is not nearly enough to get the job done and pretty disappointing; given how purely awesome Crosby and Malkin played. At this point the best hope is just to at least get the next two points and carry on to the next segment of the season.

Much needed win

Almost 1/4 into the 2007-08 season, the Penguins could have been in a tie for last place in the East Conference had they lost tonight and Buffalo and Washington won. Inconceivable. But, as fate would have it, Pittsburgh won their first 1 goal game since Tuesday October 23 and both Buffalo and Washington lost one goal games and the Pens stave off last place.

Tonight's game news:

The Good

``Sidney Crosby had the only assist on the game winning goal from a surprising source, Georges Laraque.

``Evgeni Malkin had two assists, taking him to the top in the league for that category. Malkin strung his current points game streak to 12 games which is amazing. But still Malkin flies under the radar when El Sid is working on a 18 game and counting streak

``Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney combined for over 50 minutes of icetime, 7 shots on net and 1 goal and 1 assist (all the points coming from Gonchar). Just knowing that, you obviously would think the Pens had a lot of powerplay chances and they did (7).

``Marc-Andre Fleury earned a much needed victory; surrendering only two goals and stopping almost 93% of the shots (26 of 28) that came his way.

``Petr Sykora attempted 9 shots. Of course only 3 of them made it to the net (and one of them beat Rick DiPietro). Sykora missed the net on 2 of his attempts and 4 more were blocked. But a least he's firing the puck. That's a good sign.

The Bad

``Nitpicking, but Erik Christensen (5-2) was the only Pen that had a good night in the faceoff circle. Crosby, uncharacteristically of this year, only won 38% of his draws and Malkin only won 43%.

``The powerplay did convert one goal, but had 7 chances. A win is a win but the Penguins need to capitalize on their opportunities a little more if they expect to win night in and night out.

``Jordan Staal's lack of production continues, as he played 16:58 and managed only 1 shot on net. Staal only got 2 seconds of powerplay time.

Thoughts:

``After publically sticking by vets like Gary Roberts and Mark Recchi, Coach Therrien made Recchi a healthy scratch and limited Roberts to 10 minutes of icetime at even strength. Is their pressure or micro-management coming from the front office? Perhaps, but Therrien's no pushover. It's just as likely that he's going to publically be very loyal and very supportive to his proven vets. But then obviously due to Therrien's analysis of their performance has to make adjustments tp his lineup accordingly to give the team the best chance for victory.

And he did, credit to him for that.

``Also it's no surprise given the performance, but it was nice to see Rob Scuderi wasn't taken out of the lineup and Darryl Sydor was. Scuderi has done nothing to hurt the team and has played his role superbly. Sydor, to this point, has not.

Much, much, much needed win. At the end of the day you need to beat a division opponent when you're at home and have more talent on the roster than them. The Penguins walk away with 2 more points in the standings, but perhaps more importantly Fleury's confidence has to be improved and team morale got a boost from a coach that made the right calls in who to play, and who not to play.

It remains to be seen if the team can build upon this when the Rangers come to Pittsburgh in less than 48 hours, but it's a start. The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, and the Pens took one tonight.

Pens Recall Tyler Kennedy

Well, it turns out the amount of hours that Tyler Kennedy spent in the AHL could be counted in hours, the Pens recalled him yesterday after sending him down the day before.

So why the yo-yoing? Is it to get Kennedy some game action? I don't believe so. As the ever solid beat writer for the Baby Pens, Jonathan Bombulie called Kennedy "outstanding", saying that in addition to the 2 goals he set up, he was playing very forcefully, very aggressively.

Pittsburgh needs a spark and Kennedy rocked faces yesterday in an afternoon matinee game against Philly.

Kennedy is a great player with a great style to provide some energy for the Penguins. I don't think they're going to keep sending him up and down like what happened to Noah Welch last season as much as it was TK coming out and showing he had something to contribute at the NHL level.

The only downside to this is it could block Colby Armstrong's return to the lineup, which would be a major bummer for all parties. However maybe Michel Therrien will fall to the pressure and scratch a strugglin-g vet like Gary Roberts or Mark Recchi; even though Therrien publically said just days ago that he wouldn't. We'll see.

Gameday 10: Kovalev and the Habs

Tonight's last home-game before a quick western swing to Minnesota and Colorado, and then divisional road games against the Islanders and Devils. So obviously it's going to be important for the Pens to get these two points before hitting the road.

Old friend Alexei Kovalev and his Montreal Canadiens are tonights visitors. Notes:

• You'd think Pittsburgh would be at an advantage, since Montreal played against Carolina. But the Habs put up 7 goals last night against what's been a good team in the Hurramacanes, so they might be carrying some momentum.
• The Penguins called up Tyler Kennedy from Wilkes-Barre. Kennedy has been decent (5 points in 6 games), but unquestionably WB/S's best player has been AHL leading goal scorer Jeff Taffe. Kennedy is more of a NHL prospect and better fits the role of shaken up Maxime Talbot so that's probably why he got the call.
• No word if Talbot is out of the lineup or even if Kennedy will play. Talbot seems like he should go, and other than BGL there aren't any injuries known, so I'm guessing Kennedy will sit tonight and if Talbot is ok; Kennedy will be returned to Wilkes-Barre before the trip West. Seems like he's just insurance for if Talbot can't go, or if another forward gets hurt tonight.
• There is word, from Lord Therrien himself that Old Man Recchi will stay on Crosby's top line, atleast for now. Despite the fact that Recchi seemingly hasn't scored a goal in time that Jordan Staal's as been alive, Therrien is sticking with him, but admitted sooner or later you have to look at the results and make a change. At this rate, Pens fans can only hope it's "sooner". Recchi has seemed to hit the wall this year that Johnny Vermont hit last year. It's over and it's obvious.

The Penguins need to get the two points to be able to get four points in the past three game stretch that I said would be acceptable. So that means a win.

Penguins 4
Habs 2
(winner by Sykora)

2 Quick Hits and Game 8 Preview

1)It was pointed out to me if you do a google search for "recchi stinks" this blog is the first thing that pops up. And I haven't even been openly critical of him yet!

2)Another measure of Sidney Crosby's growing greatness: since getting shutout opening night, he's on a 6 game point scoring streak (for his current season total of 2 goals, 7 assists) and it hasn't even been mentioned once!

Rangers and old friend Jammer Jagr are in town tonight, if the Penguins can break an early trend and not give up the first goal they should be able to jump all over a Rangers team that hasn't really gelled just yet (as their 2-4-1 record would indicate). The Rangers will be a team in the hunt later in the year (think how poor Ottawa started last year), so let's just hope tonight isn't the night they get the ball rolling on that.

Prediction:
Pens 5 (winner by Recchi...see he doesn't totally stink!)
Rags 2

Winning In Washington

A win is a win, and you take one when you can get it so it's nice to see the Pens win at home---err the soft "away" friendly confines of the Verizon Center.

Some thoughts:

• Sidney Crosby is still "Gretzky-ing" (more assists than the other guy has points) his nemesis A-Hole, as Crosby had the primary assist on the game winner, while A-Hole was not much of a factor. Caps fans will point out his shots (which were all from the outside) or his hits (not of much merit).


• The Penguins were playing there third game in four nights and it showed at times. The Caps did well with puck possession and there were several times when they controlled the play for long stretches.


• But the Penguins had some good cycling shifts too. Colby Armstrong had a very solid game and worked the puck low very well. Same for Jarrko Ruutu and Georges Laraque too.


• Marc-Andre Fleury was awesome, finally having a good game. He played like he played last year when he played well: being aggresive to the angles, not afraid to move around and moved confidentially and with a purpose. Definitely good to see him play well and quiet the false rumors from Canada that say Mr. Shero is looking for a new keeper.


• The Heavyweight Champion of the NHL shall remain around Laraque's waist. Donald Brashear lost his helmet and took several lefts to the back of his skull. Credit Brash though for hanging tough and then surprising BGL with a shot that knocked him down at the end. Still, I judge hockey fights on who I'd least want to be. I'd rather take 1 Brashear right (his first one hit helmet) than take about 6 or 7 BGL lefts to the skull. The folks at hockeyfights.com seem to agree, as 71% score the fight either a draw or a win for Laraque.


• For probably the first time since a wrestling match against one of his brothers, Jordan Staal got in a fight. The feisty Matt Pettinger easily handled him, but Staal atleast answered the call; either in the shift he high-sticked a Cap (possibly Pettinger, it was near the boards and I couldn't tell. The refs didn't call the infraction for whatever reason, so Staal had to answer the Code. Good man.


• One under-rated night: Sergei Gonchar. He played well defensively with his stick, got in a few rushes, put the puck on the net and generally neutralized A-HOLE.
• Old Man Recchi was terrible. He looks notably slower, pucks were rolling off his stick left and right and overall just didn't look like he belonged out there. I'd much rather see the healthy scratch victim Erik Christensen out there.
• The "White Out" was weak. Real weak. Not just because of the many Pens fans, but most the Caps fans that were there didn't even wear white. Poor showing, but what did you expect.

It's good to be 4-3 and get some confidence for a young goalie. Gotta be happy for that.

Uhh, this is gonna end well...

Sometimes I wonder about people in positions higher than me; what coaches think putting out certain line combos (like giving Mark Recchi 20 minutes of ice time Wednesday night and giving Evgeni Malkin 14)...Or what GMs are thinking when they make trades or signings.

Add the Washington Capitals promotional department to the list.

Given that:
A)You have one of your closest geographical rivals in town
B)Fans don't really come to your own rink that much (the announced attendance last night was just above 11,000)
C)Your opponent often draws many loud fans

Why would you take the following steps:
1)Announce a "white-out" night, where fans wear white. This is a cool idea when it comes off well (see Penn State, Calgary's 'Sea of Red', etc).
2)Stick your team in white jerseys, which is what the road team wears in the NHL
3)Give out Terrible Towel knock off white towels to fans that come in

Uhh, I hate to break it to you guys, but this is possibly the worst idea since someone thought to fill a blimp with hydrogen.

What could go wrong?

BUT!

The Capitals have aggressively marketed special discount tickets to fill the seats against their biggest regional rivals (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Toronto) with their own fans. A great idea. I bought this. I'm not going to be a dick and sell my tickets to the non-Pens games on eBay, I live close enough to attend. Plus, it's usually worth the price of admission to see guys like Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin and Nicklas Backstrom.

So maybe, unlike last year, there won't be as big of a Penguin partisan crowd. Maybe the Caps who've been losers of their last three games, and without the services of Semin will come out the gates fired up.....If the Penguins get a quick lead though and jump on the Caps early (Olie Kolzig gave up 5 goals last night, some pretty soft) it's going to get ugly. Caps fans will be quiet and the Pens fans will be more fired up.

The ultimate kicker:

If a Penguin scores a hat trick (I'm looking at you Petr Sykora), heaven help us all. Those Terrible Towel knockoffs are going to rain down on the ice so much it might just bring a tear to the old Pacman's eye.

I am very excited for this hockey game. I will be there. It's going to be very interesting to see the atmosphere and if there's more Caps fans than last time around. I went to the Caps home opener and they seemed to be very well represented. Judging from the locals, everyone has had this game circled on the calender for some time now. Should be electric.

Also, since the lockout, some head to head numbers:
Penguins: 7-1
Capitals: 1-6-1 (a shootout loss)

Sidney Crosby: 5 goals, 9 assists, 14 points
Alex Ovechkin: 4 goals, 4 assists, 8 points

So that's right, if you're keeping track at home, Croz is "Gretzky-ing" Ovechkin so far. That of course meaning he's got more assists than you do points.