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.

Pens vs Senators Recap Penguins on parade.

Nine different players for the Penguins have scored a goal or more in the past two games. Chris Kunitz specifically has come out of his injury as if he was better than ever, scoring 2 goals in the game against the Oilers and tallying 3 assists last night in Ottawa. Talk about bolstering a floundering offense, yet the damage was done against the worst team in the West, and now the worst team in the East... even still, one can't deny that having most of their forwards back has heavily helped this team.

The first period was a bit slow as the Penguins were getting into their system but once they got to it, they never left it and kept the pedal to the metal the entire game. Johnson made a couple of spectacular saves in the first to keep things alive, and Tyler Kennedy puts a deflection in off a Paul Martin blue line slapper, off two posts and behind the net to get the first goal of the game, and his ninth goal in 20 games. including 2 game winners.T.K All Day continues to put on a good Crosby impression down in front of the net.

In the wild second period of this game is when it really opened up. In the first 3:05 of the second period there were three goals scored. The first, came off of Jordan Staal's effort to stay with the puck after a few shots rang off of Kunitz's and T.K's sticks, Staal finds the puck in front of the crease and dumps it in 2-0 Pens, 1:21 gone in the 2nd. Not to be outdone the Senators took control of the offensive zone after a Michalek penalty and put one behind Johnson, it was the last goal they'd earn that evening, 2-1 pens after 2:08 was gone in the second. "The Penguins need to answer back and fast." I remember saying to myself, and not within but another minute, at 3:05 in the second, Kunitz along the boards, puts it down low behind the net to Staalsy, he kicks out to Lovejoy in the circles, slapshot, goal 3-1 Penguins. Hell of a 3 minute period, but it wasn't over yet.

Not to be out shown, Cooke added in his own little bit of controversy, with what looks like a kicking motion on this goal:
Matt Cooke in the crease almost "kicks" one in, goes off OTT defender.


It would go to review but ultimately Toronto says: "It's a good goal!" Pens go up 4-1 and the last 12 minutes of the period tick away.

What really impressed me was the team kept the pressure on, they didn't let up, they wouldn't let up. Including Alexei Kovalev, who even despite having boos rained down upon him by Ottawa fans who apparently don't understand Kovy was traded, not asked to be traded, was able to do work on this goal that kept the play alive and got it to the right players to make it all happen. Take a look:

 

Kovalev battles, battles and battles along the corner boards to keep the play alive in the zone, only when the double team comes does he dish the puck out to Jeffrey behind the net, who gets it to Michalek in the circle and blasts one home for his third goal in four games.The true testament to this play was Kovalev's work ethic and his desire to win with this team, to play his role and be a part of something special, he did just that on this play and solidifies why he is still a force in the NHL.

Two points for the Penguins that are much needed, the offense is opening up even if on bad teams, Crosby is skating, and things are turning around injury wise, 3 points outside of Philly and first place, and a tightening playoff race await us.

Lets go Pens!

Penguins vs Senators Gameday 71

With just 11 games left in the regular season the Penguins (4-3-3 in last 10) will take on the Senators (6-4-0 in last 10) for the fourth time this year, the Penguins lead this series 2-1. This will be the first game these two teams have met since the Alexei Kovalev trade, a trade which is working out handsomely for Dan Bylsma. "He’s fit in tremendously." the newly extended headcoach said of Kovalev, "The first meeting I had with him, he said, ‘Tell me what you’d like me to do. Tell me what my role is. Tell me what I’m doing well and what I’m not. I just want to help this team win. I can be a leader on this team.” He’s done all of that." That he has. It didn't take long for Kovy' to come into his own again in a Penguins sweater scoring his first goal of the 10-11 season as a Pen against the Maple Leafs. It is his only point this year but his production has still been there. He has set up many opportunities that just have not been capitalized on yet, or simply didn't get past the goaltender.

Kris Letang offers words of advice to Kovalev during his first game back as a Penguin at RBC Center on Feb, 25th 2011.

Injury wise the Penguins are starting to come out of the rut they were in prior to the trading deadline. Almost all the forwards with the exception of Arron Asham, Eric Tangradi, Nick Johnson, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Mike Comrie are back, however on Defense the team is without the services of Matt Niskanen (Flu) and Brooks Oprik (Finger). Crosby has been on the ice the past couple of days and is beginning his rehab process. Comrie, and Asham have been doing workouts and skates for some time now. Comrie most likely will not return to action after missing almost the entire season, trying to fit his puzzle piece into the picture isn't such an easy task to do anymore with the players on this team who have been producing. Especially when Max Talbot is getting dangerously closer to healthy scratch status.

Goaltending has been the backbone of this team throughout the injury crisis, and Fleury has recorded his third straight 30 win season with the Penguins. Fleury won't be in net tonight, but instead we will see Big Brent Johnson and his menacing image in between the pipes.Fleury has been the talk of not only HART trophy contention but goaltender of the year contention as well, many will argue against this but it's hard to refute that the Penguins are still just within three points of the Flyers because of the brick wall Fleury puts up in net.

Lineups tonight are a little up in the air due to the defensive injuries this team has suffered recently, no line ups were posted from practice. The possible line-ups should look something like this, but expect the defensive pairings to most likely be different:

James Neal - Mark Letestu - Alex Kovalev
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Dustin Jeffrey - Pascal Dupuis
Mike Rupp - Maxime Talbot - Craig Adams

Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Corey Potter - Kris Letang
Ben Lovejoy - Deryk Engelland

Big Brent Johnson will be between the Pipes for the Penguins.

Let's go Pens!

Niskanen with the Flu, 2 Wilkes Barre Boys called up on defense.

During Sundays game against Edmonton the Penguins had to use five defensivemen because of Matt Niskanen's bout with the flu. It appears he is still battling with that illness and did not travel with the team to Ottawa to play against the Senators. Paul Martin also did not skate this morning however will be playing in the game tonight along with Kris Letang. With that being the case the Penguins had called up two d'men for the game tonight against the Senators. From Wilkes-Barre Scranton the Penguins have called up Corey Potter (left) and Steve Wagner.

Potter in his first season with the Wilkes Barre Boys is putting up 27 points in 62 games, only two goals but with 25 assists to back it up he knows how to get it to the guys who need it, and how to get pucks on net to create rebound opportunities. Potter has played a few NHL games with the Rangers and scored a goal and an assist. With Potters propensity to help others score lets hope he can help light the lamp tonight.

Wagner (right) is in his second year with the Wilkes-Barre Pens and  has 26 points of his own in 64 games this year, scoring five goals and tallying 21 assists. Wagner has played in 46 career games so far in the NHL, all of those games were played with the St. Louis Blues. In his tenure there as a Blue, he was able to tally four goals and eight assists for 12 points in the NHL.

With Paul Martin and Kris Letang ready to go on defense, Corey Potter has been slated as starting as well tonight, unknown yet if Wagner will be included in the line up sharing time with Potter, but Corey will definitely be out on the starting six on Defense.

Crosby's on ice.

Sidney Crosby beats the entire Capitals line at the Verizon Center, December 23rd, 2010.

Well after what seemed like four seasons off the ice, Crosby is back out there working the wheels and doing some stick handling. Don't expect anything too quickly most likely the first round of the Playoffs if at all. There is the possibility he could of been working out at home, staying in shape when he can while preparing with the team as best he could and studying his opposition night in and night out...I hope at least.

Either way, the league should be afraid. James Neal with Sidney Crosby and Alexei Kovalev?! Letang and Orpik on the first line D? In the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs? Possibly against Washington or Tampa Bay? Are you serious? This is shaping up to be something scary for the other teams, not so much for Crosby.

One step at a time, and it will all piece itself back together.