Hockey Night In Pittsburgh? I'd Say So

Best. Song. Ever?

You might have to check out the life-altering happenings at Soul Merchants. It appears our Penguins have a new fight song.

A few notes about last nights win:

I kinda remember someone saying:

"I don't mean to sound over-confident, just excited. The Sens will likely be without Captain Daniel Alfredsson, which coincides nicely with the return of Senator-killer Gary Roberts...Happy holidays, Penguins fans!"

and:

"Lots of people were concerned when Roberts broke his leg. He's old, and prior to his injury, he struggled at the onset of the season. However, before he got injured, I still wasn't worried about his offensive output. Looking back on what he contributed after Ray Shero traded for him last season...he's a guy who is much more valuable in the playoffs. Even if Roberts played all 82 games this season, I would have been okay with no goals and no assists. The man is a playoff force, and frankly, anything positive he gives the team in the postseason trumps any struggles he had prior to breaking his leg."

Who was that guy?

What a way to open the post-season!

Go Pens!

Time For Revenge

(picture blatantly stolen from, then credited to, The Pensblog)

I'm not that pissed about yesterday's loss to Philly. How can I be, when we wrapped up a season that saw the Penguins secure the 2 seed in the East? Getting the 1 seed would have been a paper championship, and the team needn't focus on those with the grueling playoffs starting in a handful of days.

The real reason I didn't mind the loss is because our first-round opponent is set. And they're a familiar foe. The Ottawa Senators.

You may remember the Senators destroying Pittsburgh in the opening round of last-season's playoffs. Pittsburgh was on the wrong side of the 4-5 series, playing more games in Canada than in the States. The Pens won only one game, then hit the links early. If you hadn't prayed for this matchup in the first round of this year's playoffs, then you are not a Penguins fan. We need to serve up some revenge. Senators beware.

I don't mean to sound over-confident, just excited. The Sens will likely be without Daniel Alfredsson, which coincides nicely with the return of Senator-killer Gary Roberts. Also, I enjoy knowing that Ottawa played sub-.500 hockey since Christmas. Happy holidays, Penguins fans!

My head is nearly exploding with the possibility of destroying Ottawa in the first round. Now, they still have Spezza and Heatley, so I'm not writing them off before we even play a game. However, not having Captain Alfredsson makes MAF's job that much easier.

The puck drops in two days. All the accomplishments of this past season are gone. Evgeni Malkin is 100-some points lighter, and MAFer is looking for his first win of the season. Sid the Kid has two healthy ankles. There's blood in the water, and the Penguins have the scent.

Go Pens.

100th Post! Awesome.

And the 100th post is about...the Pens. Come on, with game 4 tonight and the Pens looking at a 2-1 series deficit, what else could consume my attention? Also, since I'm graduating from college in a couple weeks, I need to get my mind off of the tragedy at Virgina Tech yesterday. Seriously, all prayers and thoughts go to the entire Hokie nation.

With that being said, its time to look at what the Pens need to do differently in game 4 (uh...everything?), in order to have a fighting chance against Daniel "I'm going to outshoot the Pens in this series" Alfredsson and Company.

The shooting is a big problem. Although Geno has 4 assists in only 3 career playoff games, he has been nearly nonexistant. 8 needless penalty minutes in the series will do that to a player. If he doesn't snap out of this shooting slump, there might be problems in Penguins-land. Sidney Crosby needs to pull the trigger more as well. Actually, all of the Pens need to start firing the biscuit. How many times has just putting the puck on net helped the team? Isn't this one of the reasons that we picked up Gary Roberts? Haven't both of his goals in the series come while cleaning up in front of the net? And what about redirects ? Even unintentional redirects will find the back of the net. Ryan Whitney's goal in game 2 hit a Ottawa leg before going in.

But back to Sid. I know he's already got a goal in each game and he's a great passer, but he is passing up way too many scoring opportunities by trying to feed his teammates with better shots. I can't count how many times during this series, as well as the final 2 weeks of the season, in which Sid was streaking down the right wing with a teammate to his left, and he opted to pass to the teammate rather than shoot (for which he still had a good angle). Many of these passes were intercepted or blocked by the opposition, so the Pens got no shot rather than a clean look. Its a best of 7 series, and any smart team would put a lot of time into learning the tendencies of a superstar like Sid. Eventually, they are going to figure out that Crosby looks to pass first when he's coming down the right wing with a teammate to his left, and blocking these passes become an easier task. If Crosby puts the puck on net rather than passing to the guy to his left, he can set up a perfect rebound just as easily as he can fire a perfect pass. All I'm saying is mix it up, Sid. What's the harm in putting the puck on net? There's 3 outcomes.

1. Save
2. Goal
3. Rebound

Plus, more shots equals a greater chance of numbers 2 and 3 happening. The Pens have been outshot 99-66, so its not hard to see the biggest reason we're down 2-1. Actually, the Pens are fortunate to have 1 game. A few different bounces in game 2, and we're down 3-zip. Good article here regarding the "must-win" status of tonight's game, by Penguins playoff-beard wearer, Larry Brown.

I think Laraque needs to play game 4. He seemed kinda frustrated with not being in the lineup for games 2 and 3. I read an article yesterday, but can't seem to find it again, where Laraque basically said, "I'm not going to talk about it now," in response to his benching for games 2 and 3. If I was Laraque, I'd be upset, too. The Senators have been much more physical than the Pens, and its come down to Sid, Max Talbot, Gary Roberts and Colby Armstrong to provide the physical plays to boost the team. Now each guy can hold their own, but no player on this list is Georges Laraque. And now with a huge bullseye on Colby Armstrong (that was a legitimate hit, though), Big Georges needs to be in uniform for game 4.

The game starts at 7. My predicted score for game 3 was right, but the Pens scored the 2 rather than the 4. Tonight, I think the Pens will (must) win, by a score of 3-2. I know, I'm boring. I always pick the Pens to win. However, tonight can be (needs to be) the Penguins night, because a 3-1 hole might be impossible to climb out of. Plus, LBS will have to shave his playoff beard, which is just starting to come in nicely.

Pens Win, Even Series Up At 1

What a game! After scoring on their first shot of the game, the Penguins lost the lead on 2 separate occasions, and won it on a thrilling goal by Sid the Kid. The 4-3 win knots the series up at 1-1, with game 3 starting today at 6 P.M., a mere 24 hours after game 2 concluded. Gary "Senators-Killer" Roberts exerted his influence on the game, much like Ottawa did in game 1. With a goal and an assist, Roberts kept up his stellar success in Ottawa. Crosby's goal midway through the 3rd period put the Pens up for good, and the passing was much crisper than game 1. Recchi took a great pass from Malkin (I don't think Recchi took one pass cleanly in game 1), and fed Crosby a midair pass, which the Kid redirected off of the shaft of his stick and past Emery.

Yeah, my predicted score of 3-1 Pens was wrong, but the ultimate outcome was right. Fleury seemed sharper than he was in game 1, and the team was able to get the crowd out of the flow early on with a power play goal by Ryan Whitney (After a -2 rating in game 1, he needed a big game). I was trying to take a picture of the tv while the Pens were on the PP, and Whitney scored right as I took the picture. Perfect timing!

This is a short analysis of the game, because its always easier to overanalyze a bad loss rather than comment on a well-played game. Also, with game 3 starting in a mere 4 hours (less, actually), I'm preparing myself for the first playoff game at the Igloo since 2001, when the Pens lost to the Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The win was a huge confidence booster. After the debacle that was game 1, there was a cloud of despair over Pittsburgh regarding the rest of Sid and Company's playoff-opening round. The win, coupled with a charged up Igloo crowd only 24 hours later, can lead to good things. If the Pens can ride this momentum swing in Pittsburgh, then there is no way the Pens go to sleep tonight down 2-1 in the series. I'm not big on predictions, because anything can happen in a game to change the outcome (see Daniel Alfredsson's breaking stick leading to Crosby's go-ahead goal). However, I gave a half-assed prediction before the game yesterday, so I'll pick the Pens to win 4-2 today (in honor of Jack Robinson Day in the MLB. Honestly, its going to be weird to hear "playing infield for the Dodgers, wearing number 42, its...Jeff Kent!).

The crowd's involvement was huge in games 1 and 2, so if the Pens score early, I'll be looking for the Igloo crowd to play a significant role as well. Here we go Pens, and despite the shoddy weather (its currently cold and raining...again), "It's a great day for hockey! (Hope you're proud, Badger Bob!)

Fleury, Rest Of Pens, Have Rough Playoff Debut

wow. that was a tough game to watch. the pens got dominated in every aspect of the game, and fell to ottawa 6-3. that score doesnt even do the senators any justice. ottawa did lead 6-1, before gonchar and crosby added "confidence-booster" goals in the waning moments. therrien and the team had been quick to brush off the teams youth and inexperience, but had to face the music after this one was over. therrien accepted that his team was tight, and crosby felt the team was watching rather than setting the early tone. both were understatements. the senators clearly came out with more passion, and were able to leave their mark on the game from the drop of the puck. andrej meszaros scored 1:37 into the game, and chris kelly added a goal only 5 minutes later.

despite giving up 6 goals, i cant place the blame solely on maf. mark eaton tipped a shot that was easily picked up by ottawa for an easy goal. laraque's intended drop pass to ruutu lead to a senators breakaway that resulted in an easy goal. the defense couldnt get the puck out of their own zone. the ottawa forwards were more physical than the pittsburgh defense. the pens couldnt handle simple passes and stick-handling maneuvers. daniel alfredsson was allowed to take hack after hack at the net, and the score would have been 10-3 if the ottawa captain quit missing the cage. ryan whitney struggled to a -2 rating. in case you dont get the point, i can keep going on about why the pens lost. maf looked nervous at the beginning, settled down for a bit, then imploded upon himself. as frustrated as i was, though, there were plenty more reasons for this loss rather than just the poor play of maf.

"apparent kicking motion." remember those words. any chance of the penguins swinging game momentum last night was crushed by the "war room" in toronto, who disallowed sidney crosby's goal in the opening moments of the 2nd period, which would have closed the ottawa lead to 4-2, after dany heatley scored only 15 seconds prior. colby armstrong crashed the net, and sid put the rebound past emery, thus revitalizing the pittsburgh bench. after talking to the "war room," the refs disallowed the goal, because crosby's sliding foot touched the puck before it scooted past emery. crosby took a legitimate shot with his stick, and was falling to his knees like he has done in the past. however, last night, crosby was right in front of emery, and wasnt trying to break his body in half as he crashed the net. he went from his knee to his butt, and the puck tipped the heel of his stick, hit his sliding foot, and went in. the thing that gets me, is we dont know if the "war room" has any bias against the kid. sid is legendary in the league for his lower body strength, and has been known to use his skates like 2 additional sticks. ive never seen a player protect a puck like crosby can, by passing the puck between his skates and his stick with such ease. if anyone in the "war room" (i cant stand that they call it that) has watched any of crosby in his first 2 seasons, they would know the kid's abilities. i seriously hope that the geniuses in toronto didnt hold this against crosby while making their decision to disallow the goal. i understand "apparent kicking motion," but sid actually took the shot with his stick, and as he was falling into the cage, his eyes were still focused on where the shot from his stick was supposed to go. "apparent kicking motion" is supposed to deter players from kicking pucks into the goal, not for overanalyzing a guy falling down while trying to make a legitimate shot. the pens beat the sens back in march after falling down 4-1, and crosby's goal could have sparked the turnaround in this 4-1 game. instead, any momentum was gone once the ref waved the goal off (to steigy and errey's surprise), and maf allowed 2 more goals before being benched for t-bo.

this is, in no way, critical of ottawa. they clearly won the game. they exerted their influence, and flat-out beat sid and company. hopefully the team can build off of the failures in game 1, and come out with more purpose on saturday.