Banged up Brigade

After last night's 3-2 gimmick loss to the Rangers you can add Tyler Kennedy and Mike Zigomanis to the band of injured players quickly piling up on the Pens...And apparantely Phillipe Boucher is on the IR now as well. Add that to franchise goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and top defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney.

Both injuries are undisclosed, but rumor has it Mr. Kennedy has already flown back to Pittsburgh to have a leg examined and could miss several weeks. Zigomanis is listed as "probable" so perhaps he will be able to win faceoffs tonight.

There will certainly be no empathy coming from the Carolina Hurricanes and old/new head coach Paul Maurice tonight, but hey, it's worth pointing out. Janne Pesonen and Chris Minard have gotten the call.

Tonight's projected lines, from the main site are:

Talbot-Crosby-Satan
Fedotenko-Malkin-Sykora
Dupuis-Staal-Cooke
Pesonen-Minard-Godard

---
Minard and Pesonen have played and played well all season long (no one in the AHL has more goals than Minard so far). But why keep Pesonen on the 4th line? We can tell that Mike Therrien doesn't trust Pesonen, doesn't know him well enough to give him the added responsibility of playing much. It's something that pretty much all new players to Therrien have to do; prove themselves on the ice, especially defensively before more icetime is given.

Another wrinkle to watch: Kennedy was being used on the top power play. Who gets the call now to join Crosby, Malkin, Satan and Alex Goligoski? We'd bet Staal and Fedotenko are the likely choices.

Fedotenko's had a great game, a lot of effort out of him. The recent benchings and line-demotions seem to have upped his game in recent days, hopefully something he can continue.

...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.

We're back...

Sorry for the long delay, with 1200 miles to ATL and back plus the Holiday in there the blog fell by the wayside...Things we think we think--

1) It's good to use Mike Zigomanis in situations to win faceoffs....But should he be sometimes taking full shifts on the top powerplay over guys like Petr Sykora? Even when the puck goes out of the zone and they have chances to change they don't pull Zigomanis. He's a NHL worthy player, but he's got 21 goals in 187 NHL games. Not bustin on the guy, just sayin..

2) Ever since Darren Dreger suggested Sidney Crosby should use a curve on his stick blade in order to help his shot (which would hinder his backhand passes not to mention his shot) El Sid has 7 goals in 8 games....Keep makin' noise up there, Canada.

3) Through now more than a quarter of the season, Evgeni Malkin is on pace for 138 points, which would be the most in a season by any player since Mario Lemieux rang up 161 back in 1995-96....Most would say the best player in the NHL now is Alex Ovechkin or Crosby, but we think that Geno is making his case pretty clearly every single night.

4) It seems a bit odd to say Alex Goligoski reminds us of a "young" Mike Green since Goose is only a couple months younger than the Washingtonian blueliner, but the similarities are there...Other than being left handed and not being as able to rush the puck up ice as a current day Green, Goligoski has become a sensational player that isn't bad in his own end of the ice either.

5) Despite the loss tonight, John Curry is definitely making his case to be the future backup goalie to Marc-Andre Fleury next season. Dany Sabourin is an unrestricted free agent after this season, for the record..Also, listed generously at 5 feet 11 inches, how much smaller does Curry look in the net than MAF (6'2) and Dany Sabs (6'4)?

6) Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Matt Cooke has recorded 20+ assists three times in his NHL career. Any doubt that he'll get there this season with 8 assists already and doing a lot of dirty work digging pucks up and throwing them to the front of the net?

7) It's not often you see a guy score more goals in the NHL than he did in juniors, but Tyler "Mister" Kennedy might just do it. Kennedy's top mark in the Ontario Hockey League was 22. He's got 6 this season and has a penchant for putting the puck past the goalie at the NHL level. We're betting he'll beat his junior mark, probably sooner than later.

8) Ruslan Fedotenko was a healthy scratch tonight against Buffalo, and rumor has it he's asked for a trade, as he doesn't agree with the opportunities the coaching staff has given him...But it's hard to blame HCMT when Feds hasn't really been effective with the Pens....Still we get the feeling Fedotenko will get the chance to redeem himself and he will score a huge goal sometime in the season.

9) Sorry if that last bullet sounded a little Stan Fischler-esque. Hell, Rusty already scored a huge goal-- remember the OT game winner in Detroit? If Fedotenko's production (or lack thereof) is the Pens' biggest problem for the rest of the season, odds are things are going to be alright for the boys.

10) Therrien's finger on the button to slide Malkin and Crosby together in the middle of games for a jump has been excellent. It's reminiscent of Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg in the late '90s...They can play apart and make things happen, but when you need to get a boost put them together and watch the magic happen, like it did for the five goal explosion that 87 and 71 had a part in four of them in Long Island a couple nights ago.

11) By the way in case you didn't know, Sakic and Forsberg raised the Cup two times and probably would have done it a time or two more without a bum foot getting in Floppa's way.."Salvation lies within" and in hockey, strength lies within the middle. Believe that.

12) Finally, just remember: everyday that goes by is a day closer that Fleury, Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar get to re-joining the boys. Heaven help you Eastern Conference when that happens.

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?

NHL.com strikes again

Wow Pascal Dupuis is starting to look a lot like Mike Zigomanis nowadays..

Penguins Acquire Ziggy

No, not THAT Ziggy

Anyways, per the PG:

The Penguins have acquired forward Mike Zigomanis from Phoenix for
considerations. Zigomanis, 27, split last season between the Coyotes and San Antonio of the American Hockey League. In 33 games with Phoenix, he had two goals and an assist; he had 10 goals and 15 assists in 27 games with the AHL Rampage.

Interesting that they liked Zigomanis over Jeff Taffe. They're essentially the same player, good at the AHL level but not too much of an impact player in the NHL --though Zigomanis did tally 14 goals in 75 NHL games two years ago for Phoenix. But don't fool yourself, this is a 27 year old who hasn't established himself in the NHL and was on waivers from a team (Phoenix) expected to be amongst the bottom dwellers of the league...It's not like he couldn't make a forward heavy team lite Detroit or something.

Taffe, btw, cleared waivers and will add a little more offensive firepower to Wilkes-Barre. I'm sure it won't be too long either before he's reminded that he owes the boys down there $500...I wonder if they'll be tacking on any interest?

We'll see how the Zigomanis acquisition shakes out. An interesting development to say the least. The Penguins have taken castoffs before and made them into serviceable players (Adam Hall was the last reclamation project) so we'll see how this turns out.