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).