Devils vs Penguins Gameday 75. We're going streaking!

Coming into the fourth match up with Playoff or hopeful playoff contenders, the Penguins are 2-1 so far after shootout wins in Detroit and Philly's arenas. Chris Kunitz is playing absolutely lights out hockey, tallying an assist in last nights win over the Cryers, he extended his point streak to 5 games, he also had the shootout game winning goal. Last time these two teams met the Devils won in extra time tying the series 2-2 for the year.

New Jersey must win out essentially to get anywhere near playoff contention, the Penguins on the other hand with a win tonight and a Hurricanes loss in regulation will clinch a playoff birth for the Penguins and take some of the stress off them. Jersey is fully intent on raining on this parade, after the injury to Dustin Jeffrey last night (Right knee) there is a question mark as to how effective the first line will be now. Mike Comrie will be filling in for Jeffrey, Comrie hasn't played since November due to a hip injury that required surgery. Analysts thought the world of Comrie in the preseason but in his stint in the regular season before injury wasn't impressive. It will be interesting to see how he does with Neal and Kovalev as his wingmen considering they've not played with him, all three are new Penguins as of this year.

Neal and Kovalev had several opportunities last night that were turned aside so it is good to see that the shots are there but they aren't getting behind the net. Tyler "Crosby" Kennedy is still doing a good Sid the Kid impression and has scored a career high 18 goals this season, with him and Kunitz providing the offensive charge, the acquisitions need to step up their game and help this hot duo. No practice this morning officially, Sid and Testtube practiced at 9am, Devils skated around 11am, then there was an option Pens skate.

Lines will look something like this:

James Neal - Mike Comrie - Alex Kovalev
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Pascal Dupuis - Maxime Talbot - Chris Conner
Mike Rupp - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

Zbynek Michalek - Paul Martin
Kris Letang - Ben Lovejoy
Deryk Engelland - Matt Niskanen

Between the pipes for the penguins? Marc Andre Fleury.
Brad Thiessen will not be in net tonight, Fleury has been given the nod.Fleury has a 3 game shutout streak on March 25th dating back to 2007, they did not play on march 25th in 2010. Here's hoping the Flower will keep that streak alive as well.

It's time to show these teams who's boss and who doesn't need superstars to succeed. 2 more points needed here Pens, lets shut the Devils and the Canes down in the same night!

Do it!

Crosby's on ice. 3-25-2011 Jeffrey down and out.

He is looking better and better every damn time he goes out there and hits the ice. This time the waterbottle plays victim to Crosby's shot, watch it explode in the video. Thiessen is the goalie on net, best goalie in the AHL but up against a practicing Sid? No chance.

In other news, yesterday during the game against Philly, in a hit similar to the one that Malkin took in the Sabres game that ended his season, Dustin Jeffrey went down in a heap and couldn't get himself off the ice and had to be helped off. Jeffrey is listed with a leg injury, and most likely won't suit up again for the Penguins this season. Due to this injury Mike Comrie has finally been called up from I.R to play again, even after I said he probably wouldn't. I wished he wouldn't because the guys we had were all gelling together but here we are, against the Devils tonight, with Thiessen most likely in goal and Comrie heading the top line? This Season gets stranger and stranger as the days go on.

If the Penguins win tonight in regulation or OT and the Canes lose in regulation, the Penguins will clinch their Playoff berth and we can all breathe a sigh of relief that it's finally settled.

Penguins vs Flyers Gameday 74 Battle for P.A.

Pennsylvania... Land of opportunity, land of the Blue Collar folk, and Brotherly love. However there will be no love for our "brothers" in Philadelphia. The last time these two teams met, the Philly Cryers ended a 12 game winning streak heading into the Winter Classic. The last time these two teams played the Penguins were on the top of the world and no one was going to stop them, at least that's how it seemed... Unfortunately their momentum was put to a crawl, however despite that the Penguins are still just 5 points outside of this Flyers team for first place, but the Flyers have a game in hand above the Pens.

Without a doubt, Penalty Killing must be improved on in this game, since Cooke's ejection in the game against the Rangers, the Penguins have let in 4 power play goals, and have dropped their percentage down to 85.9% PK and tied for 1st in the league with the Kings and the Capitals.Cooke's presence on PK will be missed for the remainder of this season but someone will need to step up to make things happen out there.

Goaltending is a question mark today, as Brent Johnson will not be attending this back to back pair of games, Brad Thiessen has been assigned to the Penguins and has traveled to Philly to meet the team. Brad will back up Fleury tonight in net, and possibly start tomorrow against the Devils as there is another game on Sunday against the Panthers. In Thiessens 42 games he has a32-7-1 record, 1.88GAA .924SV % and 7 shutouts.

Player to watch for? Chris Kunitz who is hotter than hot right now with 4 goals and 4 assists in 4 games. Everyone kept talking about Ben Lovejoy and his production, meanwhile Kunitz was coming back from a 12 game injury like it never even happened. He didn't score the first two games against Buffalo and the Habs but now that he's gotten his wheels back it definitely shows why he is one of the top scorers on this team. Expect Kunitz and Kovalev to do something tonight, Neal needs to eliminate his regulation time struggles but Overtime Neal is beastmode.

All of the Pen's defense practiced today but Orpik will not be in the line up until Tuesday at the earliest. Your lines look something like this based off of practice:

James Neal - Dustin Jeffrey - Alex Kovalev
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Pascal Dupuis - Maxime Talbot - Chris Conner
Mike Rupp - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

Zbynek Michalek - Paul Martin
Kris Letang - Ben Lovejoy
Deryk Engelland - Matt Niskanen

Between the Pipes for the Penguins? Marc Andre Fleury!

Lets go Pens! Do it!

Penguins Recall Brad Thiessen from WBS; Orpik practices with team, travels to Philly.

Due to personal reasons/undisclosed injury Brent Johnson is not able to be in attendance with the team, this means that another call up from Wilkes-Barre is happening. This time though they're calling in for the force field that is known as Brad Thiessen, the number one goalie in the AHL with a .924 save percentage 1.88GAA, 7 shutouts and a record of 32-7-1! All the best for BBJ and his reason for being away during this tough two game stretch. The question now, do the Devils see Thiessen or will he battle Bobrovsky in Philly?

In other news Brooks "Crazy Eyes aka Free Candy" Orpik is back at practice and expected to return to duty on Tuesday against Philly for round 2 at home in Consol. Bylsma hopes to have him back for the last 5-6 regular season games and of course for the full stint of the playoffs. This means that Lovejoy will most likely go back to being either undressed or sharing time with Engelland. This is very good news for the P.K and Defense, as one of the last pieces available to come back to the team is about to be set back into place.

Waiting patiently for Sidney Crosby.

Free Cookie

So the suspension was levied yesterday and even though everyone knows it already, the NHL and Mario Lemieux aren't happy about Cooke's behavior. 5 suspensions for Cooke means he gets 10 games and the first round of the playoffs. That's all I'm gonna say about the matter.

"I made a mistake. I'm the one that's accountable for that. I take full responsibility for it. I'm sorry to my teammates, my management, my coaching staff and my organization. It's something that, moving forward, I'll make different." - Matt Cooke.

Sidney Crosby, grant them the strength to defeat your enemies.

Free Cookie.

Penguins vs Redwings gameday 73. Pittsburgh comes to Joke Town.

Welcome to Joke Town.

After swallowing a pretty tough pill yesterday in Pittsburgh, the Pens got on a flight headed over to Detroit for the second half of another back to back set of games. This is the second time this year the Pens and the Flying Tires will face off against each other. What you might of missed in the last game was Chris Conner breaking an almost 5 year drought on penalty shots with this beauty:



This of course was against MacDonald in net, not Jimmy Howard or Chris Osgood. Howard will be in net tonight for the Wings, Pavel Datsyuk will not be in the line up tonight for them however and that will add a bit of breathing room for the pens. They'll still have Zetterberg out there though, and of course Bertuzzi.

The upcoming stretch of games has officially become the toughest set of games the Penguins are going to have to go through all year, probably even tougher than when 40 of the skaters were injured. Of the upcoming games to finish March only the two against the Devils and Panthers are games against non playoff teams. Including Philly twice, this game against Detroit, and Tampa on the 31st. You also can't discredit the Devils due to the fact that they were playing lights out hockey since the middle of January, even if they will ultimately fall short of their goal. Pens must win and get 2 points to pull out ahead of Tampa in the playoff race and keep 4th place in the standings. Tampa Bay has been off the previous two days and plays the Islanders tomorrow in Tampa.

Cooke will most likely be suspended for his shenanigans in the game yesterday for the rest of the regular season, however Arron Asham is now ready for hockey and will be in the line up in Cookes spot today. The Penguins lines today from practice looked something like this:

James Neal - Dustin Jeffrey - Alex Kovalev
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Arron Asham - Maxime Talbot - Pascal Dupuis
Mike Rupp - Craig Adams - Chris Conner

Zbynek Michalek - Paul Martin
Kris Letang - Ben Lovejoy
Deryk Engelland - Matt Niskanen

Between the pipes for the Penguins? BIG Brent Johnson!

Lets go Pens! Do it.

Crosby's on Ice.

Sid is out practicing again on the ice, doing more stick handling drills and shooting. At this point, with Crosby being 8th in goals scored after missing 200 games this season, I'll take a 50% concussed Sid the Kid over 90% of the NHL.

Penguins vs Rangers game 72 mini-recap.

Pens played a good 2 and a half periods of hockey against the Rangers yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, like seems to be the theme in Consol against teams in their division, they dropped another game at home against a rival trying to get the Pens home ice playoff spot. The Penguins are now just 1 point ahead of the Lightning who could take home ice advantage from the Pens with a victory tonight and 1 or 0 points form the Penguins. This cannot happen and beating Detroit is essential tonight in "Hockeytown."

With the game tied 1-1 in the third period yesterday afternoon, this happened:


Completely unnecessary penalty, which was being killed off handsomely to the tune of 18,000 people screaming for a huge PK. Well then comes a Matty "Ice" Niskanen high stick and 2 Ranger goals after Chris Kunitz put this beauty in after going out of his mind for a series:

Not only does Kunitz almost get a free breakaway after a neutral zone turnover, he gets the puck anyway after battling hard along the boards and from the face off circle lets that sniper round off through the stick side of Henrik Stunnedqvist. Leaving him... stunned, I'm sure. Kunitz now has 6 points in 3 games (3g 3a).

In the end the Pens got beat up because of a 5 on 3 penalty kill that gave up 2 goals due to just down right bad penalties to take in a playoff caliber game. Did the Cooke hit cost them the game? No, because Kunitz scored the shortie during it, did the Niskanen high stick cost them the game? Yes, because asking your PK unit to kill upwards of 7minutes straight of penalties including nearly 2 minutes of 5 on 3... is well, not a recipe for success.

Pens take on the Flying Tires tonight in Detroit. Some one probably has a squid taped to their leg. Cooke will most likely be suspended through the rest of the Regular season. The hearing is at 1:30 today.