So I heard there were these important games tomorrow.

So, just in case anyone forgot, there is a huge day for Pittsburgh tomorrow going on in a few cities that aren't Pittsburgh. First off, the Penguins are going to face the Capitals at the Verizon Center in D.C at 12:30pm, then of course, there is this little game called the Superbowl, that the Steelers will be a part of.

After the Steelers beat the Jets I was making comments that if you see the Steelers win this weekend against the Packers you can expect the word Dynasty to be coming out of the mouth of anyone who covers football. Well apparently that has already started as the ESPN AFC North blog has a posting about the Steelers being the next Dynasty if they win.

Dynasties... The Steelers were one in the 70's, and if you ask me are well on their way to being a Dynasty in the new era of football. 3 Superbowl appearances in 6 years is no easy feat. Sure the Steelers have not gone back to back unlike those teams of the 70's but they still get there the year afterward. They are definitely one of the most hated teams in the NFL now, simply because of their winning ways. That's alright though, when the Patriots were in Dynasty mode everyone hated them too because of their greatness. It's easy to forget to take off the jealousy blinders and hate something or an organization simply because they succeed where the other organizations didn't, but I digress.

It's hard to deny that Ben Roethlisberger is one of, if not, the most clutch QB's when it comes to 4th quarter come backs, and playoff victories. He has always been in my category of top 5 QB's of the current era, and if he wins this 3rd Superbowl will vault to my top 5 QB's of all time list. Roethlisberger doesn't put up the big fantasy numbers the league looks for now, and he doesn't always make sound decisions off the field, but what he does do, is win games. Many, many games.Whether it be with long bombs to Wallace, play action bootlegs that turn into runs for touchdowns, or handing the ball off to Mendenhall for the rush, he finds ways to dissect the defenses he faces and win games.

At the beginning of the year when Roethlisberger was suspended for 4 games, nearly everyone, except for Steeler faithful, wrote off the Steelers season, most saying we'd go 0-4 or 1-4 at best! Well without Roethlisberger they were 3-1 as we all know, and when he came back he led the team on a war path back to his old stomping grounds, the Superbowl and primetime football. It's almost as if when Roethlisberger makes it to the playoffs he turns on this whole new mode in himself and plays football like a man on a mission.

The Steeler offensive line is going to have a lot of work cut out for it with Green Bay's tendency to blitz, and the insane power of Clay Matthews, who for all intents and purposes should of been born a nordic viking. Woodson will also be blitzing and usually causes problems and turnovers when he reaches out to attack QB's. Steelers O'line wants to win one for Flozell as he has no rings, well you boys are going to have to work hard to earn it. It's good to see Flozell has fixed his false start issues this year and only did it for a bit early on in the season which was excellent to see his improvement from his time as a Cowboy.

The Steelers are a team that worked through the dark times, and forgot about Neil O'Donnell and went on to win 2 Superbowls with 2 coaches in 4 years. Now they're back again and even though they're the underdogs, which is how we like it, are well on their way to the Stairway to Seven and NFL infamy. Don't discredit the Green Bay faithful however, if you ask them they deserve this and the Steelers don't because they've got the most already. Well to the victor go the spoils, not the most deserving. So if you want it, go out there and take it, but until the smoke clears tomorrow, I'll take experience and history in the Superbowl paired with a strong Defense and an Offense with sick sick weapons on it over the Pack attack.

Just remember, Dynasty is going to be a word us Steeler Nation faithful will have to get used to. Good or bad.

Here we go Steelers, here we go. Number 7 by number 7, walking the stairway to 7.

Sabres vs Penguins recap Game 53. Pens win 5th straight but lose Malkin, again.

Friday night, Terrible Towel night in Consol Energy Center to commemorate the Steelers before the Superbowl tomorrow. The energy and the good feelings were there for the Penguins, they had just gotten Malkin back into the line up after a sinus infection and soreness in the knees. Things however were not going to be all good times and smiles for the Penguins.

Within the opening 17 seconds the Sabres tallied a goal off Gaustad's stick to open up the scoring and it went down hill from there for the first 22 minutes of the game. The Pens were able to stifle the Sabres for a time but 7 minutes later a puck goes in off of Engellands skate, not his fault though he was making the right play and had his man D'd up, but the unfortunate deflection puts the Sabres up by 2. Still not getting to their game the Pens were struggling early, turnovers and poor decision making were key to giving scoring chances to the Sabres. Malkin had been charging hard in the first period but did cause a few mistakes that led to the goals. He was also getting tee'd up often by Sabres.

Open up the action in the second period and not but a minute or more in Malkin gets tagged by Myers and well, the rest is a torn ACL and MCL which many of you already know by now. It wasn't pretty and frankly won't write anymore about it. I will say this, the Penguins took offense to it and decided to come out firing.

Having one puck already go in off our players skate, off a Jeffrey charge to the net and shot off a rebound, his shot gets deflected in off the skate of a D man in the crease, 1 -0 Pens.

Just two and a half minutes later with 6:24 off the clock,  Tyler Kennedy scores off of a beautiful shot against Miller and knots it up at 2-2 for the Pens.All the extra practice pays off for T.K as he has 2 goals in 2 games.

I can't remember if it was before or after the T.K goal but Cooke had charged the net and had a really good scoring opportunity blanked. Well, after the T.K goal Cooke was not going to be denied a second time. After Staal battles hard to keep possession of the puck he dishes it off to Cooke, who dekes Miller left then goes right and dumps it up into the net. 3-2 Pens just 40 seconds after tying the game.

Now I also want to show you a reverse angle of the above pic. Because Dupuis was celebrating like he just won the cup. Look at the smile on his face. Cooke looks like he wants to cry.

The period after that came and went. I didn't catch the first half of the 3rd period but I do know that at the end of the game Fleury was making all the saves he needed to make, in spectacular fashion as always, to keep the Pens in the game. Even all the way down to the wire.

A lot of fans were upset at the 2-0 deficit that the Penguins faced early in the first but just like in Madison Square Garden against the Rangers, down 2-0, the Penguins come out and with the help of Dustin Jeffrey begin a scoring surge to win the game.

Paul Martin has come out in these past few games after the all star break and put on a skating clinic for all the other skaters on the ice. He is working those legs harder than any other D man on the ice and putting together a lot of big plays for the Penguins.

The Pens pick up a much needed 2 points, even if it is at the cost of Geno's season they most certainly will continue to surge like they have. 5 straight wins, 1 point behind Philly in the rankings, and winning 8 of their last 9 games. The road to the playoffs continues tomorrow against the Capitals in D.C at the Verizon Center.

Evgeni Malkin suffers torn ACL and MCL vs Sabres

Pretty sure that lady by Kunitz is crying. I don't blame her.

Well, most of us pretty much feared the worst, except for ESPN but I digress, when Malkin went down after the hit by Myers in the opening minutes of the 2nd period. The Pens have been driving without Malkin, but to get him back only to have him quickly and painfully taken away from the team? No one would of expected that, a bit of a scoring slump for a game or so but not a possibly season ending injury. This is definitely long term IR and it could be career altering in the future after rehab.

Thank god Dustin Jeffrey is still getting lucky bounces and producing. 2 goals against the Sabres already.The kid is filling in very nicely for us and will obviously be long term now that the Penguins have lost Malkin and Letestu at center.

Sabres vs Penguins Gameday 53

Tonight marks the 3rd match-up of the year between these two opponents, and the third match up in a row vs a New York team. The last time these two teams met, Dustin Jeffrey came out to score the opening goal, and the Pens went on to win 5-2, completing their 12th straight win and extending the streak that eventually ended against the Isles the next game. Prior to that Fleury stopped all 30 shots against the Sabres in their first match up to record his first shutout of the season. Injuries and Goalie fights have been the hot topics recently, but I'd like to touch on a little gem that has been trying to gleam in the spotlight, Chris Kunitz.

Kunitz has almost silently been playing himself up to his best season of his career. Looking at 18 goals pacing 29 for the year, Kunitz has 2 goals in the previous two contests and also has goals in five of the previous 8 games. Kunitz has worked hard to provide offense for a team missing two of it's biggest playmakers. In the 5 games that Sid and Geno have both been out of the line up, Kunitz has 4 points (2g 2a) leading the team in scoring when the superstars aren't shining. Four seems to be a good number for Kunitz, as he ranks fourth on the team in total points (18g 18a), and fourth on the team in hits with 112. Here's hoping he can keep the offense going and generate some more scoring chances now that Malkin is back on the ice.

Another interesting storyline is the possible line up combination of Eric Tangradi - Dustin Jeffrey - Chris Conner, aka the Wilkes-Barre Scranton line which came up during practice. The three found that they gelled really well still and had a lot of good things going for them during practice. If this line makes an appearance tonight, with the WBS boys coming out and contributing like they usually do, it should make for an interesting look at the future of the Penguins. Look for Tangradi to be doing big things, and hopefully tallying a point in this game unlike his game against the Isles on Wednesday evening.

Buffalo hasn't played a game in 10 days, so they've been resting and practicing. The Penguins players don't feel like the Sabres are going to come out rusty however and have prepared for a high energy team. Here are some of the players comments about the game against Buffalo:

Marc Andre Fleury; "They have a good goalie to start with, so that always makes it hard on us. But as a team, they play hard and play an intense game. For 60 minutes you can count on them to be in there. It’s always a hard-fought game. There are never any easy points there."

Paul Martin; "They’ve had good games but we’ve been able to get the puck in deep behind their net. Our forwards have done a good job of finding ways to create opportunities. The last game we were able to get a couple goals early, so that helped."


Eric Tangradi, when commenting about the WBS line;"Dustin came up to me at the end of the skate and said it’s the WBS Penguins line.  We’ll see how it goes. We have a lot of chemistry and we’ve all played with each other at some point, so it was nice to get out there with them."

Projected line ups aren't set in stone like always but here is what you can expect from the Penguins:
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Mike Rupp - Maxime Talbot - Craig Adams
Eric Tangradi - Dustin Jeffrey - Chris Conner

Marc Andre Fleury will be in between the pipes tonight for the Pens.




The Penguins are on a 4 game winning streak going into this game. Don't forget to bring and waive that Terrible Towel with pride if you're going to the game tonight.

Lets go Pens!

James Harrison doesn't care if you don't like his opinion.

James Harrison... Talk of the league this year due to some not so clean hits, and some clean hits that got fined anyway is still in the spotlight during Media Day. In a league where Harrison gets held on almost 99.99% of his pass rushes and gets .1% of those called against the holding team, Harrison as we all know by now has been fined over 100 large just for the act of doing his job. Well, according to Harrison he has 100,000 reasons why he isn't going to keep his mouth shut about this business with protecting players, yet wanting to add 2 more games for extra revenue.

"Before, I might've been a little more quiet about the fines and everything because I was hoping to get a little bit of money back...Right now, after they fined me $100,000, I have 100,000 reasons to speak my mind."

He knows the league wants just the money, we know the league wants just the money, and for the most part we all know exactly whats going to happen. Either 2 more games are going to get added in or we're probably not going to see football next year, which is an entirely sad concept and I don't even want to think about it.

James Harrison has been to the Superbowl. You might remember he holds the record for the longest touchdown return in Superbowl history off an interception, the media doesn't seem to want to remember this feat of heroism however and continues to ask him about the hits he levied this year instead of talking about his on field accomplishments.

Harrison decided to really let it out again, ""If you ask me a question, I'll give you an answer," going on to say, "I'm not worried about anything. This is a free world. I can say what I want to as long as I don't cuss you or anything else. I can say what I want to. It's my opinion."

Bottom line here? The guy is pissed off, he's had to run through a gauntlet of a season dealing with Goodell, reporters, and players, all trying to tell him to play the game he's played his whole life, differently. You'd probably be a little pissed off too. Hopefully he takes this situation and uses it as a motivator to do something else amazing in Superbowl XLV.

Here we go Steelers, here we go!

This just in, Brent Johnson Breaks DiPietro's Face, DiPi out 4-6weeks.

Had to save it as soon as I saw it, too funny.

So, it's been the talk of the NHL world, two goalies got into a fight and one didn't have a chance. Well, that fight led to Glass Jaw DiPietro to suffer a little bit of a facial fracture. No surprise as he's more fragile than a leg lamp. Johnny law came out, DiPietro tried to fight the law, and the law won. Lesson learned DiPietro, if you don't want to get your world rocked for 6 weeks, don't job Cooke at the end of a game you had no business prolonging.

Pens vs Islanders again in Long Island next Friday.

Better luck next time Rick.

Hungry? Bite into some Fleury Flakes.

What happens when your goalie plays out of his mind after looking like he was going to have the worst season of his career, going to the all star game and working his way back into top 5 contention with the other netminders?

Fleury Flakes is what you get, your own god damn cereal and a t-shirt. Needless to say I'll be getting this.
19.99 buys you a box of cereal and a pretty decently designed T-shirt so get at it Pens fans. Put the cereal with the rest of your memorabilia and wear the T-shirt every time you do anything, ever.

You can get yours here.

Letestu is gone for 4-6 weeks. Malkin back in lineup against Buffalo.

I still find this funny for whatever reason. 

Letestu will undergo surgery to his knee and will be missing 4-6 weeks of time, this is another blow in a long line of recent team injuries. The crack in the Test Tube means that the Penguins are now without the services of 3 of their centers, but really Mike Comrie shouldn't count because he ... we won't even go there yet. Sidney Crosby will miss his 12th regular season game on Friday, Letestu will be missing his 3rd game, Aaron Asham his 2nd, however thankfully there is a bit of good news.

Evgeni Malkin has signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers!

Just kidding, but he will be back on the ice against Buffalo and back in the lineup.A much, much, much needed addition to an injury depleted Center corps. Geno practiced hard the past few days and should come out strong against the Sabres at home on Friday night.

Remember everyone going to the game on Friday, bring those terrible towels and keep them swinging. Speaking of terrible towels, check this ridiculousness out. http://twerribletowel.com/

Isles vs Pens Game 52 Recap

Wow. Who would of thought this game was going to have excitement written all over it right down to the final 16 seconds of the game. Wow. I'm still in awe at this game. Lot's to talk about in this one! One of the major story lines? How terrible Rick DiPietro is.

Even Eric Tangradi takes down DiPi. How is that Bud Light can still there?!

So the Pens just got done shutting out the Islanders last Tuesday night, we were treated to the same thing last night with a 0-3 shutout. The first period we saw a lot of action from the Penguins including goals by T.K and Kunitz. Kunitz's goal was a bit of a surprise as DiPi was cheating the post a bit and left an opening anticipating pass, well no sir, Kuni didn't pass and instead put one in from usually an impossible angle, 2-0 Pens.

Not much else happened after that leading up to the third period, Max hit 2 posts with one shot and it didn't go in, but the horn rang, that was kind of funny and upsetting all at the same time. Max also laid Comeau out and he laid down like a baby waiting for a call. The Isles are upset, Konopka went on to say, "We're not happy, and we're not happy with the outcome of the game. We have to remember this." Remember it however you want Konopka, but the hit was fair, and Comeau didn't even miss a shift! The Penguins and the Islanders face off again next Friday. 3 games in as many weeks for the two clubs, so any memory Konopka has will be fresh.

Fast forwarding through the majority of the third period we get down to the juicy bits.Craig Adams tries hard to get Talbot the puck on any empty netter and Talbot just misses. Adams doesn't give up though and gets possession again, dishes it yet again to Talbot who finally gets his goal! 20+ games without a goal 10+games without a point, things were looking frustrating for Mighty Max. Now though, he tallies his 50th career goal and 100th career point milestones all within the same Empty Net shot, during a standing ovation we get to see his happiness.

You'd think at this point, 3-0 against the Islanders, Talbot getting his milestones and back on his feet, that this one would be all she wrote in Pittsburgh. Well, you can thank DiPietro again for some extra fireworks. During the final 20 seconds of the game the Pens on the offensive yet again, Cookie gets a little close to the crease and DiPi decides that he takes offense, Cooke being Cooke he probably taunted him. DiPi basically attacks Cooke, which raises the ire of the Pens, including Big Brent Johnson down there at the opposite end.

The zebra starts skating out towards Johnson to say, hey buddy, don't come down here. Johnson skates right by him and goes for DiPi.

Then seconds later, Glass Jaw goes down.

Ow! Don't hurt me anymore BEEJ!

After that Fleury comes out and cleans up the last 16 seconds. Still unknown who gets what in terms of shutout credit, Johnson doesn't care if you see his interview. Win is a win, 4th straight for the Pens, 7th of their last 8, all without almost 6 guys now.

Lets go Pens!

Brent Johnson lays out Glass Jaw DiPietro with one elbow.

In case you missed it, or you just want to relive the awesome again and again, here it is straight hot off the youtube presses.




Fan submission from their glass seats:


Hell of a game Pens!

Islanders vs Penguins Game 52, Didn't we just see these guys?

Well here we go again, seems like we did this recently... Oh yeah last Tuesday. So before I said that Fleury needed to be the guy to stonewall the Islanders and he definitely came out and earned that 5million a year paycheck during the 0-1 shutout he posted against them. Tonight that chore falls on Brent Johnson but after his last performance hopefully he comes out and has something to prove.

Penguins injury woes continue as they are now without Aaron Asham who has suffered an injury to his upper body after last nights first period. Letestu is having an MRI done today to see how severe his problem is, he was rumored to be on crutches so hopefully it's just a precautionary thing. Malkin will also not be in the lineup tonight, however he has practiced the past two days including a practice today with Bylsma, Kennedy, Lovejoy and Eric Tangradi.Sidney Crosby will be missing his 12th (including ASG) consecutive game. Here is hoping Sid's scoring streak stays longer than his missed games.

This is the back end of another back to back series of games, the 10th of such series so far this year. In that time the Penguins are 6-1-2 on the 2nd game, 13-4-2 overall. The Penguins are 6-3-1 in the last 10 games. Tonights game will be a good game to see Tangradi and Jeffrey on the same ice again, only this time in an NHL game together. Jeffrey has been the golden ticket as of late winning key face offs to set up scoring chances, calling his own number for a slapshot or posting the game winning shot in a 7 round shootout. The kid has moxie and he's taking it out on his opponents.

No projected lines for tonight as far as I know, you can expect something like this:

Chris Kunitz - Dustin Jeffrey- Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Eric Tangradi - Max Talbot - Chris Conner
Mike Rupp - Craig Adams - Eric Godard

Brooks Orpik - Kris Letang
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Alex Goligoski - Deryk Engelland


Big Brent Johnson will be in goal for the Penguins.

Love those pads.

After an assist in last nights game, Maxim Talbot is one point away from 100 career points. You could tell in the past two games he has been hungry to get a puck on net. Mighty Max has been mighty silent in most of the games this year, leading some (and me) to speculate on him playing himself out the door. Hopefully that isn't the case as he adds a lot to a team that needs all the support from the bench it can get right now.

I don't know what it is, but you gotta love him.

Eric "Big Dog" Tangradi called up to Penguins from WBS. In Line-up vs Isles.

After an AHL All Star Performance and the blow the Pens suffered to Aaron Asham last night against the Rangers, the Penguins have called up their #1 prospect, Eric Tangradi. Big Dog has played in 9 games this year for the Penguins and has 1 goal and 1 assist. Here is hoping he will fill in nicely after practice and come out like Jeffrey with guns blazing against the Islanders. There was no morning skate today for the Penguins but Tangradi, Malkin, Kennedy, and Ben Lovejoy were practicing this morning.

Bylsma was working Lovejoy and Malkin particularly hard on the ice, weight skating and more.

Tangradi on the ice at practice this morning.

Dustin Jeffrey... Man of the night. Jordan Staal, Not Suspended for Prust's Dive.

So we all knew last night would be a pretty huge game, and a pretty huge game is what we got to witness for sure. Somehow, even while missing 4 of their centers after Staal was ejected with a match penalty in the 2nd, Aaron Asham going down in the first, the Penguins were able to squeeze a victory. That somehow, was off the hard work of Marc Andre Fleury and the spark of a goal from Dustin Jeffrey.

The first period had some interesting prose to the rest of the game. The Rags came out and scored within the first 4 minutes of the game, a goal by Prust facing a practically empty net. Shortly after that during a face off Cooke and Prust are jawing at each other and jobbing each other before the puck drop. After the drop the two appear to want to fight, Prust definitely wants to but Cookie doesn't go. This was foreshadowing for the second period.

The rest of the period was uneventful except for some choice saves, and an injury to Aaron Asham forcing him out of the game.

In the second the Pens took another blow after a huge save by Fleury within the first minute of the 2nd period. Fleury couldn't stop the next onslaught after a turnover in the Rag's offensive zone leads to an Ansimov rebound goal. The Penguins at this point are pissed. 16:43 left in the period and Engellend decides it's time to take some of the hate out on Prust's face.

Engel definitely woke up the Pens after taking out Prust. At 14:30 left in the 2nd, off a fresh power play, Dustin Jeffrey let's one go from the top of the face off circle and beats King Henrik Stunnedqvist for the first of 3 consecutive goals the Penguins would notch this period. With a little over 9 left in the period Rupp came in to score a deflection, with Kunitz coming but 4 minutes later to tally his 17th goal of the season. It was after this that the foreshadowing comes into play.

With just 4:39 left in the period Prust comes out and blasts Kennedy right in front of the bench. Well Jordan Staal took particular offense to this little hit Prust decided to dole out and gives him a good hard cross check then, from what seems like out of no where, a left cross to Prust's face. Prust goes down, but it looks very suspiciously like a dive. Jordan received a match penalty, ejection from the game, and gave the Rags a 5 minute power play... One they capitalized off of and tied it up in the final seconds of the period.

Thankfully it was reported today that Jordan Staal will not be suspended, and will be in the lineup tonight. Here is the footage of some cerebral Staalsy in action:

The third period for the most part was very conservative hockey. More spectacular saves by Fleury and defense from the Pens took it to OT. More conservative play in the OT leads us to a shootout. 

After an amazing poke by Fleury and 7 rounds later we get this:

All in all, a tough game, a tough 2 points, but Dustin Jeffrey is really proving his need to be on ice full time in the NHL.

Around the league:
The Flyers lost to the Lightning 4-0
The Islanders stomped the Trashers 4-1, they'll play the Penguins tonight at 7pm.
The Capitals lost in a shootout against the Habs. Cary Price does this Lame Vanilla ice pose again to the stands:

Let it be known I officially hate this pose.

Penguins vs Rangers match up 4 Game 51

Okay tonight marks the first game of February, the first game off of the All Star Break, and a hell of a match up right before a snooze fest against the Isles tomorrow at home. Just when the penguins suffer another injury in Mark Letestu, the Rangers are getting their leading scorer back in Dubinsky and a few other pieces will be back to revitalize their team. Good news for Pens fans was that Geno was back on the ice practicing again for the second time since missing three games, he won't be on the ice tonight for the Pens and will miss his 4th straight game but they should have him back soon to help lead the charge to the playoffs. The Penguins did get Eric Goddard back who will be winging on the fourth line.

This is going to be one of those games the Penguins have to win, first of back to back games, against New York clubs no less. First game off the break, first game of the month. Only ahead of the Rangers by 5 points in the standings, so picking up an extra 2 here will not only increase their hold on second place in the division, it will put them to within 3 points of the Flyers (71pts).

The lines are little iffy tonight so I'm not going to post projections. Who knows what Bylsma will do with the lines. Jeffrey could be on the top line, or Staal could man the top line, we'll see tonight when the puck drops.

Marc Andre Fleury in net for the Penguins. No jumping jacks or push-ups during the game though Flower, we do need a hell of an all star performance and a win though!

Lets go Pens!

Media Day 2/1/2011

So it's Media Day leading up to the Superbowl now that the teams are in Dallas, and so far it seems like it's all smiles and fun for the Steelers. Troy Polamalu's hair has made several appearances so far. Including a resting place atop Brett Kiesel's beard. Both iconic hair styles beard or normal depending on preference, appear to of gotten their own celebrity followings. Troy's hair thanks to the hilarious Head and Shoulder deal he made, and Kiesel's beard just for being an epic lumberjack beard.

 Then Hines Ward got in on the bandwagon for Troy's hair and donned the hair for this interview:

 

 Ward was said to look like the return of Rick James, change that press desk to a DJ booth and it would look pretty crazy. 

I couldn't find a video to embed but here is Mike Tomlin's first Press Conference at media day courtesy of NFL videos.

There are 5 days until Superbowl 45. I still need all 10 fingers and toes to count down this event because of my excitement for it. Number 7 by Number 7.

Dustin Jeffrey Called Up, Letestu Injured During Practice. Malkin Skates.

Earlier today Dustin Jeffrey was called back up to the NHL, this happened roughly around 11am, unfortunately it wasn't for Letestu. Letestu went down around 11:40am during the morning skate and has been sent back to Pittsburgh with a lower body injury and re-evaluation, he will not be in the line up tonight. It is unknown yet which line Jeffrey will be placed on for the game against the Rangers this evening, so far he is slated to be on the bottom line, but Letestu was going to be on the top line. 

Letestu who was the subject of one of the Penguins most recent contract extensions hopefully will not be missing much time due to this injury, as he is very essential to the beginning of this next 10 game stretch. Eric Goddard, who the Pens have been missing for the past 13 games with an eye injury is back in the lineup tonight for Letestu.He has been practicing with the team since before the All Star Break. The Penguins are left with Jordan Staal, Jeffrey, Talbot, and Kennedy at Center with the injuries to Crosby, Malkin, and Letestu.

Here's hoping Goddard doesn't fight anyone yet, but if he wants to make someone smell his armpit again I'm sure he will. That look on his face is priceless. Looks like Brashear is making out with his pit too.

Good news for the Penguins however was that Geno was back out on the ice practicing again today:

 

The superstar Center still won't be on the ice tonight for the Penguins against the Rangers, missing his 4th straight game.However knowing that he is out practicing is a good sign that the sinus infection and soreness in his knees is getting easier to deal with. Still no Sidney Crosby on the ice during practice, it is unknown when his return will be, he will be missing his 11th consecutive game including the All Star Game.