Therrien makes lineup changes

And we can't say we agree with them...

Winger Miroslav Satan, who does not have a goal in eight games, has been demoted to the fourth line, where he will work alongside Dustin Jeffrey and Eric Godard, and defensemen Alex Goligoski and Hal Gill apparently will be healthy scratches.

If you're going to send a message, why not scratch Satan for a game and use Tim Wallace (a hard working 4th line forward) on the 4th line, instead of sitting him?

Goligoski, while being a rookie, hasn't looked out of place, and while Gill has had a couple of shaky outings in his few games back from injury, Mark Eaton and Phillipe Boucher have been shakier this whole season.

Some of the moves Therrien made, like moving Tyler Kennedy to the top line with Sidney Crosby, we do like. Kennedy plays with energy, causes turnovers and actually isn't afraid to put the puck on the net. Keeping the 3rd line of Matt Cooke-Jordan Staal-Max Talbot together also makes sense.

Of course, the results will be known tonight. If the Penguins can finally shake that six game powerplay goal drought, especially early, the sigh of relief may be good enough to carry them to a win and start playing a little looser. But if Boucher and Eaton, two noticably bad players of late (3rd bullet) are out their for some PK goals against, the cries for Therrien's head are only going to get louder.

Gameday: Trust the Gordon's fisherman

Better know an Opponent: The New York Islanders
Record: 4-8-1 (9 points, last in the Atlantic Division)

Notable wins: at NY Rangers
Notable losses: Montreal, at Philadelphia, Carolina
Last game: 4-3 loss Thursday night at Atlanta

Statistical star: Three players tied at 11 points (Mark Streit [4g, 7a], Trent Hunter [5g, 6a], Doug Weight [2g, 9a]
Disappointment so far: Jeff Tabellini [0 goals, 1 assist, -5 in 11 games]

Notable Notes: The Isles only have five players with an even or better plus/minus rating and other than our old friend Richard "The Penguin killer" Park, none have played more than six games...And, interstingly enough as the PG pointed out, the Isles are just 1-6-1 when defensemen Mark Streit registers a point

---
Well the news is in and it is good, via NHL.com Sidney Crosby will play tonight. He's believed to still be a little salty in the hip area from some sort of weird, undisclosed injury that happened during the Phoenix game when it appeared he took an unintentional stick into said hip region.

For the Penguins though tonight will be an interesting game. While they are on the road against a divisional opponent, this ought to be a win. The Islanders and tied with Florida for the lowest number of points in the standings so far this season (and the Panthers have a game in hand). No one is expecting much out of the Fishsticks this year and they are not disappointing. With franchise goalie Rick DiPietro still on the shelf, the Isles are giving up 3.46 goals per game this year and have only been scoring 2.46.

But as we saw on Thursday night, if you take a period off in this league any team can make up a lot of ground in a hurry. If the Penguins don't show up, they won't win. Simple as that. They've been taught this lesson a number of times this season, like when Washington got back from a 3-0 deficit, or when the Rangers climbed out of a 2-0 whole in the 3rd period and obviously just last game when Edmonton scored 4 straight goals late in the game.

Getting an early lead is good and exactly what the Pens should do, but generating that killer instinct and giving a 60 minute effort is even more critical to winning the game. Hopefully by now they realize it. Tonight could be the perfect way to show it, against what is on paper as an inferior opponent.
---

TST Opposing Player to Watch: Richard Park
--When you play the Isles guys like Bill Guerin, Mike Comrie and Trent Hunter need to be minded. But Richard Park has feasted on his former team the Penguins, scoring 4 goals and 5 assists in 20 career games. That seems modest but consider Park has a career point/game figure of .31 (172 points in 545 games). Also Park has six points in seven contests at home this season and as we mentioned is the Islander to play in all games and have an even +/- rating.

TST Homeboy of the Game: Miroslav Satan
--Gotta go with Satan against his former teammates here...Satan, with 8 goals in 13 games, is now on pace for a 50 goal season. While he's not Marian Hossa, he's a lot better of a winger than the other guys Sidney Crosby has ever had--Colby Armstrong, old ass Mark Recchi, Ryan Malone, etc. Satan has been feeling it lately

A win is a win, right?

In Casa De Hooks there is a new problem: the DVR is currently not recording shows...But up 5-0 with about five minutes left in the second, surely we could pull away from the hockey game to watch "The Office" and "30 Rock", right? We think the Penguins wanted to be somewhere else too that last frame as well.

--For the first 35 minutes the Pens played one of their best games; they were getting a lot of Edmonton's turnovers, cycling the puck well and putting a lot of shots on the goal. The skill wingers showed skill; Miroslav Satan scored the first goal between his legs and deflected another, Petr Sykora was quick enough to one-time a sudden puck won by Evgeni Malkin, then he deflected a Malkin shot (which was saved) and put the rebound by the battered goalie Mathieu Garon.
--The second 25 minutes the Pens showed they could just about give away everything they'd established. As mentioned, we were off in comedy-land for a while and thankfully were spared the high blood pressure of witnessing the meltdown. But a lot of the breakdowns (deflections here, giving up a shorthanded breakaway to a defensemen there) didn't look like too much fault could be placed on Marc-Andre Fleury. Maybe the 18 guys in front of him wanted to watch NBC comedies as well.
--Rough night for the 4th line (Matt Cooke-Mike Zigomanis-Eric Godard), they were each on the ice for two of the goals. 4th lines have to play "nothing against" because they're not generating much in the way of offense anyways. Being on the ice for two goals against, no matter the circumstances, is inexcusable for this trio.
--But we will give Godard his due, he rocked a young buck named Joey MacIntyre in a fight. Then when MacIntyre (who plays at 250+) totally flattened Kris Letang with a huge open ice hit--which looked clean except for the fact Letang passed the puck a full 2-3 seconds before getting trucked--Godard was there to remind Mac you can't do that. Thankfully Letang appears to be OK, but he was bleeding a little from the nose either from his visor or a stick.
--What a complete effort from Max Talbot; his first game of the year playing 20+ minutes, a short-handed goal to go along with 5 shots on net and a lot of hustle plays that the stat sheet can't record. With Talbot playing up there we think this is the best the first line has looked at even strength all season...And yes that includes the stint where Malkin played with Sidney Crosby.
--Malkin was a tour de force tonight, 3 assists, two of them were Ovechkin-esque (as in they were initially shots) but the play he made stepping around an Edmonton center immediately after the draw and firing a quick pass over to Sykora was a thing of beauty.

In the end winning 5-4 has just as much significance in the standings as winning 5-0. Hopefully the Penguins learn the bigger lesson on display for the night; that if you don't put in a 60 minute effort and try to coast in down the home stretch, you will pay. They've lost a couple games already when they were winning late into the game (Washington, at the Rangers) so you think that lesson would be learned. Whatever the case, a win is a win, now off to the Long Island for a matchup with the unimposing Islanders (4-8-1) in what could be a "trap game" before going to see our old friends in Detroit.

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'.....

Let's Go Camping

As you've doubtlessly seen, Jesse from Faceoff Factor did a spectacular job recapping Day 1 of Pens on-ice training camp over at the blog. Here's our take:

• Perhaps the most interesting tidbit were how the players lined up. With such a short camp (it's only sixteen days away from opening night) the Pens can try different combinations but they don't have the time to try things that won't work. Based off of expectations, here's how the forward lines looked (teams were staggered to make it even): Dupuis/Crosby/Satan, Staal/Malkin/Sykora, Fedotenko/Talbot/Cooke, Pesonen/Taffe/Kennedy
• As you can tell, the question about where Jordan Staal will play, at least for Day 1, seems to be answered. If he remains on Evgeni Malkin's wing with Sykora the Penguins have arguably replaced Ryan Malone with a bigger, younger, and dare we say better power forward. According to the PG, this line lost the scrimmage 3-1 but Staal scored the only goal
• FF's first point was how great Miroslav Satan looked taking passes from Crosby. This doesn't surprise us, Satan puts the puck in the net and Crosby should be putting them on platters for him all season long. In the scrimmage (a 3-1 for this line) Satan scored 2 of the goals.
• The D pairings were: Orpik/Gonchar, Eaton/Letang, Scuderi/Gill, Goligoski/Sydor
• High praise was given for the duo of Mark Eaton and Kris Letang. If Eaton can stay healthy it'll be a huge defensive boost for the Penguins this year. Letang's importance to play more purposeful hockey is obviously at a premium too with Ryan Whitney out of the lineup for months.

Great to even hear reports of camp and know the boys are back in town, back at work.

28 profiles in 28 days....The Scoring Winger (Who Isn't Hossa)

Welcome back to TST's 28 profiles in 28 days. Here's the backstories of players previously profiled:
Kris Beech....The Unwanted One
Matt Cooke...The New Ruu
Sidney Crosby....The Chosen One
Pascal Dupuis….The Iceman
Ruslan Fedotenko….The Battletank
Eric Godard....The Goon
Tyler Kennedy....The Sparkplug
Evgeni Malkin....The Showstopper
Janne Pesonen...The Finnish Wildcard


Basics
Player Name: Miroslav Satan
How Acquired: Signed as a free agent 7/08
Position: Left/Right Wing
Age: Turns 34 on October 22
Contact Situation: Signed thru 2008-09 season, $3,500,000

History
Last Season Stats: (New York Islanders) 80 games played, 16 goals, 25 assists = 41 points
Last Season Write-up: Last season with the Isles Satan revealed that he played through an injury that he didn't disclose, he didn't want to miss time. So that shows he's tough and willing to play through the pain. He only scored 16 goals, which might be alarming but consider his woeful teammates (Mike Comrie led the Isles with 49 points last season...Sidney Crosby had 48 assists last year, and he only played 53 games!). Don't read too much into the lack of production by Satan, it was a year to forget on a team to forget.
Career Year Stats: (2002-03 with Buffalo) 79 gp, 26g, 49a =75 points


Outlook
Player progressing, in prime or regressing: Probably in his prime, maybe starting towards the downhill portion of his career
Potential line-mates: Crosby, his old buddy Ruslan Fedotenko, Evgeni Malkin, Petr Sykora
"Best case scenario" stats: 82 games played 40 goals, 45 assists, 85 points...Satan could be the skilled winger Crosby's never had for a full season
Notes: Satan is a nine time 25+ goal scorer, he's got nice hands....On his team profile he's listed at 6'3 which is significantly taller than our memory serves. Satan, at almost 34, seems like he should be older than he is since he's been around forever (1995). Satan, like Sykora, contacted the Penguins and wanted to be on this team; that is a good sign to bring in guys that really want to be a part of this. Everyone talks about Marian Hossa and to be sure he has skill to spare but don't forget for the most of Crosby's career his linemates have still been guys like Colby Armstrong and Old Man Recchi. He hasn't had a full year with a slick, skilled winger winger like Satan. On a one year deal, Satan might be a short-term option for the Pens, but that's the cap world we live in. When your core is locked up it takes a large chunk of the cap to keep the guys like Crosby and Malkin...It's going to take creative short-term signings like Sykora and Satan to round out the lineup with talent to play with the big guns.
Interesting fact: From 1998-99 through the 2002-03 season, Satan was the leading scorer at the end of each season for the Buffalo Sabres.

Pens sign Satan, Fedotenko

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


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


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


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


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


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