Wallace called up, headed to Chicago with the Pens.

Tim Wallace was recalled yet again by Shero to the Penguins for this weekend's scrum against the Blackhawks. The recent recall is due in part to Nick Johnson's injury to his lower body that he suffered during practice a few days ago. At this point it is very clear that the Penguins must eliminate all practice for the end of the year due to injury. Not really, but this is the fourth time so far this year a player was injured significantly during practice.

Soon the Penguins will be getting Chris Kunitz, and Dustin Jeffrey back but there is still no word on Mark Letestu, Arron Asham, or Eric Tangradi, two of which are suffering Concussion like symptoms. Slowly but surely the Penguins team will piece itself back together. Which of these prospects will become involved in a trade closer to the deadline if any is less clear of a picture but the fuzz is starting to dissipate and we'll know soon enough what Shero wants to do.

Penguins Injury woes continue, 3 players now suffering Concussion like symptoms.

During Penguins practice today a couple new faces were welcomed back onto the ice in Kunitz and Letestu, however neither will be joining the team this Sunday against the defending champion Blackhawks.  Dustin Jeffrey is also not expected to play this weekend and is still recovering. It is now being reported that Arron Asham's injury to his upper body, is actually concussion like symptoms.

"Arron Asham, we listed him as upper-body, he has been experiencing concussion-like symptoms. Day-to-day is not accurate at this point in time. He has been progressing." stated head coach Bylsma, "He hasn't gone to exercise. That's where Arron's at."

This leaves Sidney Crosby, WBS Penguins AHL top prospect Eric Tangradi, and now Arron Asham with concussion like symptoms, which essentially means that they all have concussions. What this means to each of them individually in the future of their careers will differ between the three, but neither of them will be the same they were before.

In addition to that, Nick Johnson a recent WBS call up is also suffering an injury that he received to his upper body during practice today. This is the fourth player to be injured during or after practice this year and the trend is not a good one for this battered squad. Penguins management will have to call up yet another Wilkes-Barre boy from the AHL and after sending Wallace back down expect to see a new face in the headline, there are only 2 players left on two-way contracts so the options are becoming limited.

Malkin is on his first week of rehab and was walking around the practice rink this morning. There is still no change in Sidney Crosby's status but most don't expect to hear word until early March. Thankfully the Penguins are one step closer to receiving Chris Kunitz and Mark Letestu back into their line-ups and considering Chris Kunitz would bring back one of the top 5 scorers on the team it is a welcome return. Getting Letestu back means that the team will get a player who is hot in the faceoff circle winning 52% of his draws taken this year, one can only hope that would continue after a few calibration games.

Picking up the win in Colorado was big, but the Pen's now go on to face five teams in 7 days,  including three games on the road. They'll face Chicago first on Sunday however on NBC as part of USA Hockey's "Hockey Day in America" campaign trying to raise awareness of the game across the country. So if you haven't put one on already today, remember to dawn your Hockey jersey and team colors today.

Tim "I want to call him William" Wallace reassigned to WBS.

 
Well the Baby Pens get one of their scorers back for a while after a 6 minute lack of performance from Wallace in the game against the Avalanche. Between the slow going for Wallace in the NHL and the return of Matt Cooke this coming Sunday, Tim finds himself back on the way to Scranton. Wallace's efforts are still highly valued and necessary even in an under performing game.

Penguins vs Avalanche Recap. T.K Saves the Day.

 

Well, we finally got to see what a real competitive hockey game looks like again. It felt like it was going to be a long time before that happened. The game started with one of the better periods for the Penguins in recent memory, and the Wilkes-Barre Boys came through again to tip the first goal of the game in for the Pens. Before the Penguins could score though, the Avalanche ran into something I touched on in the gameday post. Saves in the crease, the Av's on a solid scoring chance are denied by a combination of Rupp and Michalek in the crease helping Fleury deny the shot.

Not but a minute later off a long feed by Martin down to Sterling entering the zone, he dishes a pass off to Vitale who's beaten 3 guys in the slot, Vitale rings one home in the top left corner for his first NHL goal of his career.The Avalanche announcers forgot to review their press doc's to see that another forward had a number in the 40's, reads Vitale's goal as a Kennedy goal, little did he know he foreshadowed the future.

The second period didn't go as smoothly for the penguins, 3:24 into the period the Av's score with half the right side of the net wide open after Fleury tries to pokecheck the puck. Not but a minute and a half later Nick Johnson decides to test the Johnson name and gets in a "fight" with Ryan Wilson. Steigerwald goes ballistic. Wilson destroys Johnson in this fight sadly while raining down blows on his head for upwards of a minute before the fight is over. Steigerwald goes into how he feels like Johnson was outright attacked, and basically is still steaming over the fights on Long Island, this had been the first since, and it wasn't necessary, nor a good one to take. Errey somehow calms Steigerwald down, by avoiding the subject entirely and actually talking about hockey, a first for Bob.

Still in the second period, with a little more than 5 minutes to go, the Av's score again off a ridiculous goal that had no business going in, making the lead 2-1 and forcing the broadcasters to mention the fact that the Av's are sick nasty at winning games after leading in a game after the second period, etc... well Staalsy has something to say about that and 30 seconds later lifts Penguins nation on his shoulders and plays NHL 96 with Budaj, skating down the right wing he lets a shot go from the faceoff circle, top left corner into the net. Budaj loses and the game is tied 2-2.

The most notable thing about the third period were Fleury's saves. Here Fleury turns away O'Reilly after he splits the defense in the zone.

Fleury turns aside Yip on a break away to essentially save the game for the Penguins, even so early on in the third.

The rest of the third period sadly only included a noteworthy post shot by Paul Martin that would of changed the outcome a bit, but no we head to Overtime.

The overtime period was slow, and the Avalanche looked to be trying to just get to a shootout where they felt like they could win the game, and without the Penguins dominating shooters it's entirely possible the Av's would of been right. Slow your roll though Avalanche, you can't trip up Zybenek Michalek behind the net like that. 4 on 3 hockey starts now in the final minute and a half of the game. A few seconds later...

Tyler Kennedy saves the day and gets mobbed by his team mates.

Penguins pick up a highly necessary 2 points in a tightening Atlantic division.

A couple Penguins went missing during this game, so if anyone saw Tim Wallace(Re-Assigned to WBS today) or Max Talbot do anything in this one, pat yourself on the back you're probably the only one.

Pens defeat Avs in OT

Tyler Kennedy slaps a one timer into the net in overtime after Zybenek Michalek drew a tripping penalty behind the net with less than 1:30 left in the OT period.

Pens earn a much needed 2 points. Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy keep being the best offensive Penguins on the ice.

Penguins vs Avalanche gameday 59. D-Fence

In the first meeting for these two clubs since 2009, where the Penguins won 4-1, the battered and bruised Penguins will square off against an equally short handed Avalanche team. Recent re-acquisition Peter Forsberg, has retired on Monday and will not be part of the line up for the Avalanche, forcing them to call up another member from their AHL team, a strikingly familiar headline seen in Pittsburgh the past month and a half.

These two teams since the lockout are 2-2 with the home team winning each time. The Penguins have not won in Colorado since February of 1999, being on a two game losing streak they're hoping to snap the trend. Colorado is on an 8 game snide and wants desperately to snap their losing streak, but the Penguins must prevent that dream from coming true. How do the 'guins look to do that? More discipline, and better performances from their tenured players. Brooks Orpik recently stated to the media that he felt like the issue was not with the Wilkes-Barre boys being called up to the ranks, but the every day vets making the mistakes. The locker room in general understands they need to step up and stay out of the box, and that getting back to a simpler game is necessary for their rebound.

They've gotten pretty versed at stating that too if you watch any of the press videos after practices or before games. You'll hear the saying "Max Talbot, Pascal Dupuis, Tyler Kennedy, those guys have to be those guys, they can't be Sidney Crosby, Max is Max, Dupuis is Dupuis, and Kennedy is Kennedy." or something along those lines a lot tonight during intermission interviews or pregame interviews.

With injury woes being the primary hot topic recently, one thing slipped under the radar, a number 1 PK unit and number 5 defense in Goals Against, has let up 14 goals in two consecutive games. It is absolutely imperative that the team stay consistent on defense, especially since all 7 of their D'men are healthy. So how was such a high number of goals achieved by these New York teams? Fleury and Johnson are not injured and yet were unable to stop the onslaught, but they cannot achieve success merely by their blockers and gloves alone. Defensively several stops have been made in the crease during games recently, two memorably by Michalek which kept a game against L.A closer than it should of been. Engelland against the Rangers on Sunday also made an exceptional save in the crease to boost Fleury.

Those stops are monumental, however preventing the puck from even being put on net is much more important, pressuring the puck handler and getting the puck out of the offensive zone must be picked up, the defensive unit and special teams units simply need to tighten up and step up. Offensively this team is a mess, with 56% of it's goals produced by players currently on the injury list and with offense being as it is Defense must step up it's game. The Avalanche are hurting, and the Penguins are hurting, both teams are looking to take advantage of that but only one can, and it must be the Penguins.

Based on the past two games and practices recently the probable line ups for this game are:

Pascal Dupuis - Craig Adams - Tyler Kennedy
Brett Sterling - Jordan Staal - Ryan Craig
Mike Rupp - Maxime Talbot - Chris Conner
Tim Wallace - Joe Vitale - Nick Johnson

Between the pipes for the Penguins Marc Andre Fleury will look to keep from starting his own losing streak.

Meanwhile in Tampa Bay last night, the Flyers picked up another 2 points in a win yesterday, further stretching their lead over the Penguins in the Atlantic Division. Currently the Flyers are 5 points ahead of the Penguins in the standings for first place in the Atlantic, and face the Florida Panthers in Florida tonight at 7:30pm.

Let's Go Pens!

Forsberg Retires, ends comeback run.

 Peter Forsberg and the Avalanche had a date with the Penguins in Colorado on the 16th. Unfortunately for Forsberg and his club, he has made the decision to retire, siting the ongoing lingering pain in his foot, and a promise to his future wife as the stipulations for finally retiring. He had told his fiance' if he couldn't defend himself on the ice, he would step away from the game he loved.

Forsberg was offered a million dollar prorated contract for finishing out the remaining year, however after just two road games with the Av's this week, 35 minutes of ice time resulted in 0 points and a +/- of -4. The pain in his foot that he's experienced since the playoff run of 2003 was the defining factor in eliminating his career. "We can fly to the moon, we should be able to fix the foot." Forsberg said during his statement.


I was actually looking forward to seeing him and Adam Foote back on the ice together again, it would of reminded me of the old Av's team. Most notably in my memory the Avalanche vs Redwings brawls in the playoffs, unforgettable games I happened to catch by accident.

Good luck in your endeavors Forsberg, your jersey will be retired, and your career forever remembered for being associated with the Foot(e).

Disco Dan turns two, and some injury news.

Dan Bylsma, great coach, or greatest coach? Michael Therrien at this point in the season two years ago had our Penguins just shy above .500 and a dark year in Pittsburgh was looming on the horizon. Enter Bylsma, who was coaching the WBS penguins at the time prior to being called up as the interim coach in 2009. Bylsma went on to coach the team to the playoffs, and their first championship since 1992.

Four months after becoming head coach Bylsma and the Penguins won the Stanley cup in dramatic game 7 fashion. Ray Shero and Pens nation never looked back. Why should they? In the recent CBC poll 21% of 318 players asked, said they wanted to dance with Disco Dan as a coach.

He's got the smile, he's got the wit, he's got the leadership skills, the know how, the work ethic, and many many more positive adjectives that describe him as a person, coach, and hockey player.

Bylsma played for the L.A Kings from 96-99 and for the Anaheim Ducks from 00-04 in his 9 year career as a winger in the NHL. He totaled 220 games for the kings scoring 9 goals and getting 17 assists. With the Ducks, Bylsma played 204 games scoring 10 goals and 21 assists.

As a head coach Bylsma has led only two teams, both being in the Penguins family of organizations, but assisted on two other clubs. He was assistant on the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks AHL team, and the New York Islanders, he also suffered his first loss as head coach on Long Island.

As he stands now, Dan Bylsma has led the Penguins to 100 victories in only 163 games. He is the third yet fastest Penguin coach to achieve this mark, and 5th fastest coach overal in the NHL. When he came in as interim coach in the championship season he led the team to an 18-3-4 record and onto hoisting the cup in the early weeks of June. In the 09-10 season he would go on to be 47-28-7 leading the team to the second round of the playoffs where unfortunately they were stopped short by a monolithic performance by then Hab's goalie Jaroslav Halak.

So far this year Bylsma has the Penguins sitting at 4th place in the league, with a record of 35-19-4 but his team this year went from all smiles and cheer to frown town, USA, population Penguins. Not for lack of coaching or work ethic, but from injury after injury after injury. 2010 was very good to the Penguins and Bylsma this season. Sidney Crosby saw a 25 game point streak, and the team turned around a slow start into 12 straight wins.

2011 on the other hand, has been nothing but adversity for the Penguins. Beginning with the Winter Classic on New Years day. A game that was supposed to be played in the early afternoon, which got delayed to 5pm, then finally 8pm before the final decision was made that it was best weather supporting as a night game. Crosby and Steckel meet each other and we all know about that. A game later Hedman heads Sid into the boards, and now he hasn't played a game since the first week of January, and isn't healthy enough to work out in hard skate sessions yet.

Now it's February, and the teams Injury woes are borderline disastrous. This month alone the Penguins have lost Evgeni Malkin for the year, Chris Kunitz (now day to day) going on 3 weeks, Arron Asham (day to day) for 2 weeks, Mark Letestu for 4-6 weeks however he participated in a light skate today, Dustin Jeffrey has gone down for a week and will possibly miss more time while getting used to his new knee brace, AHL prospect and recent call up Eric Tangradi is also still suffering from Concussion like symptoms after the Gillies run, and Mike Comrie has been wasting space on the IR all year for a hip injury.


To add insult to injury, Matt Cooke is serving his 4th and final game of a suspension against the Av's on wednesday, this off of the hit to Tyutin, and Eric Godard is serving 9 more games of a 10 game suspension for leaving the bench on Friday to come act as Brent Johnson's defense attorney. So the Penguins are down 9 players and only have 2 people left on 2 way contracts that can be called up from WBS to play for the 'guins. It is essential at this point the team get healthy and disciplined.

As stated before, the Penguins were in good shape for all of these terrible things to happen record wise. It's just that they really didn't need for any of it to go down like it did, then you throw a bus accident in New York into the mix and well things are the way they are. The team is more than dinged up, and it's morale is a little low with out it's all star leadership but they are still keeping their heads held high, in the hopes they overcome this adversity.

This team only needs to play .500 hockey to win out the rest of the year. Ironically, the opposite scenario of when Bylsma took over the team 2 years ago where they were at .500 hockey and needed a big boost to get to the end. Now all they need to do is simply limp in and use their exceptional work ethic on Defense and Penalty Killing to make a deep playoff run, a run that will hopefully include Sidney Crosby, and his six injured teammates.

The greatest thing Penguins nation could hope for right now is a solid turn around in the months of March and April heading into the post season, solid seeding and a deep deep run to the Cup finals to eventually hoist the giant chalice for a fourth time and second in three years, overcoming the odds and injuries to be crowned champions.

Penguins vs Rangers Game 58 Recap.

I guess you could call that a game... The penguins came out and scored two quick opening goals and things seemed like they were trending in the right direction. Henrik was literally stunnedqvist in the first period and wasn't in shape at all after the two goals. Pens didn't capitalize and keep attacking unfortunately. The Rangers called a timeout and scored 5 unanswered goals until another goal rang through for the Pens during the 3rd period.

Nick Johnson and Brett Sterling tallied goals in this game which is huge for the WBS pens being called up. Penguins need their young guns to come out firing so it was good to see. Deryk "the King of" Engelland scored the first goal for the Penguins in the first period.

There weren't any antics during this game really, not even a fight that I can remember, just a few regular run of the mill penalties. The real controversy from Sunday was Mario Lemieux's statement regarding the state of the NHL after the debacle on Long Island.

"Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be. But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn’t hockey. It was a travesty. It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that.

“The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.

“We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players.  We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action.

" If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it."

This led ESPN and a few other analysts to have a field day over the comments. Saying that Mario is coming on his high horse, and using Matt Cooke as some kind of common denominator for evil in the NHL. First off Matt Cooke is one of the greatest guys in the world, if you don't believe me, check this article out from the Trib:Pen's Cooke gives Unity teen boost in struggle to walk.  That is a good heart warming read. Especially after how badly Cooke has been blasted in the media lately.

December it was all smiles and the entire world was backing the Pens nation. Now it's the Penguins vs the World and preferably, I'll take it this way. It's better being under the radar, especially when your team is absolutely racked with injuries. The greatest thing the team can do this year? Overcome the adversity, the controversy, the spotlight, and come out and win their second Cup in three years.

The Penguins next game will be with the Colorado Avalanche and their re-acquired Peter Forsberg. The game is in Colorado at 9pm on Wednesday.

Islanders suspensions levied, Godard also receives 10 games. Bylsma no suspension.

Fines and suspensions finally got levied out for the debacle on Friday on Long Island. Trevor Gilles is only getting 9 games for what is virtually assault and battery. Thanks Colin Campbell and Bettman for nothing. Bettman wasn't even at the hearings.

Then Martin, Martin only gets 4 games and a fine, for basically trying to level Talbot from behind unexpectedly. Martin claims Talbot saw him in time but I call b.s on that one. A lot of reports show that he actually tags Talbot with the shot but I didn't see it, it looks like Talbot dives to avoid it after seeing the glove slide by him. Either way, this should of been more than 6.

The Islanders ownership is also fined $100,000.00 for the incident so that's something at least.

Eric Godard received his 10 game suspension as per the 70.10 rule in the rulebook about leaving the bench or penalty boxes. Not really a surprise, and even though we need every forward we can get, I honestly can live without Godard. Even though he does stick up for his team, Johnson didn't need the help on Friday, and we're down a forward due to it.

The good news from all this? Bylsma does not get suspended for his actions against the Islanders and will be coaching the team today against the Rangers.