Demoralized, but not done. Pens drop Game 2.

Quick Notes:

- The recap style I tried for Game 1 doesn’t work when there are 13 goals scored and no form of defense or opposition. (I’m a defenseman by nature and I am offended and irritated by that 8-5 ridiculousness)

- If you read my last recap (and I hope you did: http://crosbyftw.blogspot.com/2012/04/start-strong-relax-blow-lead-repeat.html), you saw that I called out the line matchups as not making sense in Game 1.  Well, they still didn’t make sense, and it worries me that I can call it out but Bylsma didn’t bother changing it.  He knows far more about hockey than me and is far more qualified than I am to do anything, so how does he miss it or why does he ignore what he sees?  More on this below…

Stop handicapping yourself, Disco. 

- Lastly, I hope you listen to the podcasts I’m trying to come out with!  Give them a shot, and feedback is encouraged!  The first 2 are in the previous post.  Thanks as always for reading and listening!

Result:

Flyers 8  Pens  5

Goals:  Crosby (2) from Sullivan, Dupuis

            Kunitz (1) (PP) from Neal, Malkin

            Martin (1) from Crosby, Dupuis

            Kunitz (2) (PP) from Neal, Malkin

            Kennedy (2) from Cooke, Staal

Interesting Stats:

- Craig Adams had 5 hits and a takeaway in 10 shifts over 8 minutes

- Kunitz was a -5, Malkin -4, Neal -4, Sullivan -3

- Letang and Neal lead attempted shots with 6.  Letang only got 2 on net, Neal had 5.

The Good:

- The Pens did a great job sending a message physically with some huge hits by Neal, Letang, Adams and others.  Their playoff intensity was there at least.

If only physicality meant wins.

- Well, an offensive output of 5 goals is solid, and 2 of them on the powerplay erased the offensive PP questions that everyone had from Game 1.  Bylsma took Sid off the 1^st PP line and Neal-Kunitz-Malkin combined for 2 PP goals.  They looked much more comfortable at times…

- The 1^st period was yet again, a great period top to bottom.  The Pens were up 3-1 by the end of it and had yet again survived a Laviolette timeout. 

- Best 3: Dupuis, Kennedy, Adams.  Great game by all 3, Duper was somehow a +2 in this debacle with 2 assists.  Kennedy scored a weak goal admittedly, but he was solid all over the ice.  Adams was crushing people all game despite limited time.

"Woah buddy, pull it back a little"

The Bad:

- Of course, another 2 goal lead was blown as the Penguins continue to get destroyed defensively.  This team does not know how to drop into a strong/aggressive defense stance when they are in the lead.  They only know how to either attack at full speed or how to be completely passive.  Their inability to transition between the two stances is giving Philly a lot of leeway to adjust to the Pens’ style and then attack in different ways.

Malkin/Neal/Kunitz – The +/-‘s say a lot on their own about how this line played.  They are doing a great job hitting, but the puck possession for this line has been dismal.  Their 2 goals together were on the powerplay; at even strength they are being fully dominated by the Flyers’ checking line.  The reason this line was so successful in the regular season was 1) natural talent, and 2) their ability to work with the puck in the offensive zone, wearing down the D with their size, and sneak into open areas.  They are generally losing even puck battles and the guys away from the puck don’t seem to be working towards open ice to provide passing outlets.  It’s not like we’ve seen these 3 missing on great chances, they are simply just trying to do too much on their own looking for a spark.

Lovejoy/Engelland – Lovejoy will obviously get called out right off the bat for his turnover to Couturier in the slot that led to an easy goal against Fleury.  That isn’t all though, this pairing was also on for a breakaway that began at the Flyers blue line but luckily Fleury saved.  Engelland had a very poor game in my opinion as I counted at least 5 missed hits where he slammed into the boards but did not touch the guy he was aiming for, pulling him out of position.  This pairing has low expectations to begin with, all we ask is they not make mistakes…they failed.

Rest of the Defense – The defense simply looks like they do not communicate with each other at all.  On the Couturier goal with 3 seconds left in the 2^nd period, THREE guys were covering Eric Wellwood in front and no one paid attention to Couturier on the back door.  Not only is that clearly a vast misuse of resources and failure in coverages, but how is Fleury expected to see a puck clearly through 3 of his own guys.  This isn’t rocket science, if the team is looking around then they will realize that at least 2 guys are uncovered in that situation.  Just like I harped on in my last recap, heads on a swivel!  Every defenseman hears that phrase a billion times growing up, I’d like to see the Pens act like they know what it means.

Ike Taylor would have had this covered.

The Ugly:

- The powerplay, defensively.  Two short-handed goals…are you kidding me?  The first one was a mess, Crosby turned it over at the point on the powerplay and Giroux went in on a semi-breakaway with Sullivan chasing him.  Fleury stopped the breakaway but the rebound went to Talbot who buried it into a basically empty net.  Two issues:  1) Sullivan was the guy following Giroux, Crosby had no business still chasing Giroux and should have been watching Talbot, horrible defensive awareness by Sid.  2) Where were the other 3 guys on the ice?  Martin was the only defenseman on that line, but he and the other 2 forwards were doing anything but hustling back to the play.  No one bothered to chase Talbot at all.  Lack of effort there is inexcusable in a vital playoff game, everyone should have put their heads down and skated as hard as possible.  For the second short-handed goal, Letang, Malkin, and Sullivan were back to cover 3 Flyers.  No one knew who to cover and it turned into 3 Penguins back covering no one.  Lack of communication, lack of awareness, I’m not sure what to call it.  But the coaching staff should be concerned when 3 players who are defensively capable don’t know what to do in that situation.

- The penalty kill had another dismal performance, allowing 1 powerplay goal on 2 chances.  They were acting very passively and again seemed unaware of their surroundings at times.  The Flyers had Voracek circling to the left of the faceoff circle by himself just like where he was at for the OT winner in Game 1.  The Pens simply ignored him for most of the powerplay (the whole team did this all night for some reason actually) and when the Flyers finally gave him the puck, no one knew how to react.  He had time and space to move towards the crease, draw everyone in, and flick the puck back to Giroux for an easy PP goal.  The Pens made the Flyers PP good on that chance by giving them all the time and space to work with in the world.

Fleury shouldn't have to act as a defenseman and a goalie.

- Normally I would say hindsight is 20/20 for line matchups, but seeing how I was questioning it in Game 1, it’s really inexcusable that line matchups were a problem in Game 2 when the Pens get last change.  Couturier’s line owned Malkin’s all night, but Bylsma kept putting Malkin out there against him.  My seats are behind the Flyers bench, so I tend to pay more attention to this than most, but Laviolette had his way with matchups.  He predicted what Bylsma wanted to do and placed the line he wanted out first.  Bylsma then did not adjust to it. By the 3^rd period, I was hitting at over 80% for picking the lines that were coming out.  Even before the game, I was a fan of how Couturier played.  Talbot said he looked like Staal in his rookie year, and I tend to agree, actually I think that’s undercutting him.  Couturier has Staal’s ability plus he is far more physical than Staal was his rookie year.  Bylsma did a massive disservice to his season long MVP in game 2 (don’t worry, I don’t absolve Malkin, that’s below).

Thoughts:

- The goaltenders have been solid.  It sounds ridiculous, but it is very true, these results should be much worse for both teams but Fleury and Bryzgalov have made some huge saves at times.  With that being said, Bryz is outplaying Fleury.  He has made bigger saves and has improved as the game goes on.  None of this is necessarily Fleury’s fault, but the Pens are going to need him to make some absolute steals if they want to stay in this series.  Bryzgalov did it twice, once to Letang on the backside, once to Sullivan alone in front.  Fleury does stop some breakaways, but the Pens need more sadly.

Bryz has had to bail the D out just like Fleury.

- Bylsma, Granato, and Reirden are being outcoached, very badly.  I mentioned the line matchups earlier, but the powerplay and penalty kills clearly don’t know what they are doing either right now.  Laviolette and his crew just appears to be one step ahead in all facets.  Not to mention, Laviolette seems to be okay allowing his team to play the Pens style until Pittsburgh makes enough mistakes that the Flyers take advantage and take the lead. The game last night was run and gun, the Pens style dictated as the Flyers kept playing catch up.  Once the Flyers took over, they went into lockdown mode and played strong playoff hockey.  The Flyers are letting the Pens screw up their own game before forcing what they want and it is working masterfully.  That being said, I am not calling for Bylsma’s head or anything crazy like that.  I am just saying Laviolette is doing a better job.

- How much of a difference do you think Talbot is making by the way?  There is literally no better scouting report in existence than what he knows about the Pens, their style and their coaching staff.  Years ago, people said the Flyers signed Chris Pronger so they could beat the Penguins and neutralize Crosby.  It didn't work.  GM Paul Holmgren may have done it right with a second chance by signing Talbot over to neutralize everything.

I don't hate you and I won't boo you, so please stop.

- I’m prefacing this with I’m not throwing Malkin under the bus, but if he’s the best player in the NHL, he needs to adjust.  He will definitely see a lot of Couturier’s line in Game 3 and clearly the 1^st 2 games haven’t gone well.  I would like to see him pushing the puck and finessing less.  Malkin needs to start crossing the blue line, pulling up, and firing the puck.  It will give him space and make the Flyers question how much they should press on him.  He starts doing that, and everything will fall into place better as they start giving him room to work with.  He’s capable of changing this series; he just needs to adjust quickly to do it.  His coaching staff should be helping him with this too, by the way.

- Another note on Malkin, and this is one that if I was Laviolette, I would have flipped out on (probably moreso after a loss).  I counted (by the way, every time I say I counted, it’s because I literally keep a tally on things on the notepad app on my phone while I’m at games), 4 penalties that Geno got away with.  Two slashes, a trip, and a hook, so not necessarily judgmental penalties either.  This isn’t a slight against Malkin, I just want to point out how the refs are calling the game.  So don’t go complaining if they don’t call something against the Flyers, they are giving the Pens plenty of leeway as well.

- Despite how ugly everything looks right now, this series is far from over.  All it takes is one game to change a series around (go back to 2000 when the Pens went up 2-0 against the Flyers on the road and came home to lose Game 3 in OT, and then Game 4 in 5OT and then Games 5 and 6).  If anyone can predict the future of this series, you would have predicted the 2-0 deficit for the Pens right now.  Absolutely no one did that.  So just keep faith and watch Game 3, see what happens.  It’s a best of 7, crazy things are possible.

- Finally, while I want to burn Consol to the ground right now, home ice disadvantage isn’t unique to the Pens, Consol, or us as fans.  So everyone stop harping on fans for it.  Aside from potentially the Pho-Chi and NJ-Fla series’, home ice has already been rendered a moot point in every other series.  It just simply isn’t what it used to be now that everyone has made cookie-cutter arenas.  I tend to hate the crowd at Consol as much as most, but it has nothing to do with them unless every other home crowd sucks too.

Let's build a new arena with white seats for these whiteouts. 

Keys to Game 3:

- I want to see a defensive start, not an offensive one.  Forget pushing the tempo and just play solid, opportunistic defense.  Let the Flyers make their mistakes and capitalize on it rather than pushing the offensive play to the point of mistakes.  Given the same amount of opportunities, I would pick a more talented Pens roster to score more goals than the Flyers, stop giving them more opportunities as the equalizer.  The Flyers are a very solid team, but we are making them look amazing on our own accord.

Flyers lead series 2-0.  Next Game: 4/15 @ Phi, 3pm, NBC

Crosby, Malkin, and Staal, Oh My! Pens Win!

Main Storylines:

- Coming off of a terrible loss in Ottawa last night, the Pens get a chance to rebound and hit the 100 pt mark tonight at home against the Devils.

- Fleury gets the start tonight.  Steve Sullivan is out with a lower body injury, so Dustin Jeffrey finally gets back into the lineup to take his place.  Vitale and Niskanen remain out.  Park and Lovejoy fill their spots respectively.

Result:

Pens  5 Devils  2

Goals:  Kunitz (23) from Malkin

            Staal (23) from Cooke

            Dupuis (23) from Crosby, Adams

            Crosby (4) from Michalek, Dupuis

            Malkin (46) from Staal, Kunitz

Stats/Milestones:

- The Pens have hit the 100 pt mark for the 3^rd straight season, setting a franchise record.  This is also the 10^th straight win at Consol, setting a record there as well.

- Pascal Dupuis extended his career high point streak to 10 games.  He has also set a new career high for points with 50.

Dupuis looks more shocked with every goal he scores.

- Marc-Andre Fleury has now tied his career high in wins with 41 this season.

               

The Good:

- After a horribly disappointing effort on Saturday night against the Senators, the Pens bounced back with a better game, though work still needs to be done. 

- Matt Cooke’s effort on Staal’s goal was simply unreal.  Cooke was the one who initially got the puck into the zone to Staal, and then he was back on the boards to block a clearing attempt by the Devils, where he took the puck and fed Staal for the goal.  It’s little things like that play that show you Cooke isn’t the goon he portrayed himself as last year, but is a legit, smart hockey player.

- Crosby’s breakaway goal was simply vintage Crosby (hey, if every shot can be vintage Ovechkin, Crosby can have those too).  He tapped the puck past Marek Zidlicky on one side and skated past him on the other side to leave Zidlicky confused and in the dust.  Crosby then finished off the breakaway with a goal much to the delight of the home crowd.

- This is the first time that Staal, Malkin, and Crosby have scored in the same game since late 2009.  Wow.

Pascal Dupuis – Joe Vitale’s absence has left me searching for a true grit and energy guy in the lineup.  Somehow, while he kills penalties, plays along superstars, and scores goals, Dupuis has found a way to be that guy as well.  Dupuis showed by far the most energy on the Pens last night and was well-rewarded for it when he pounced on a rebound sitting in the slot to score what was ultimately the game-winner.  His effort is simply unmatched right now and he simply shows an aptitude for playing with any one of the Pens’ 3 big centers.  The biggest luxury with Dupuis might be the fact that he can comfortably rotate onto any line and adjust to the playing styles of Crosby, Malkin or Staal. 

Marc-Andre Fleury – If that Ottawa game didn’t demonstrate the value of having Fleury in net, this one should have.  Fleury stopped 32 of 34 shots he faced and bailed out the defense and the PK on a few occasions.  He faced quite a few “surprise” shots due to bad turnovers (led by Crosby and Letang, making them even bigger surprises) but looked calm and comfortable all night.  The Pens have to admit they were outplayed in a good portion of that game, but #29 in net made sure the scoreboard never said it.

Fleury 1 on 1: No problem.  His backups: goal.

The Bad:

- The turnovers in this game were astounding at times as the Pens couldn’t clear the zone on numerous occasions.  They were sloppy with the puck and never got to their puck possession game that saw them absolutely dominate New Jersey just a week ago.  It appears that some bad habits may have formed during the course of winning over this past week, especially in the defensive zone.

- Ben Lovejoy left after 3 shifts in the 1^st period with a “lower body injury”.  I imagine we will hear more about it on Monday.  Kris Letang also missed a few shifts, but returned to action.

Kris Letang – While Letang had issues just surviving this game as he left the ice due to a hit to the head and after crashing into the boards on a trip, he didn’t play his best when he wasn’t being abused.  Letang as turnover city at times in the D zone, twice giving the puck up to Kovalchuk, the last man you want to see battling Fleury.  On the 2^nd Devils goal, Letang got caught chasing the puck carrier too far from his zone, and while Staal and Adams failed to give him support, he was still out of position.  He also seemed to be headhunting a little and going out of his way for hits.  He took that high stick to the head because he was taking a run at someone and missed – that shouldn’t be forgotten.

The Ugly:

- Who would have guessed that the first 2 goals of the game would be on major gaffes behind the net by Brodeur and Crosby.  Brodeur mishandled the puck (I’m not sure that’s ever been said in his career) behind the net and lost it to Malkin, who fed it to Kunitz with a wide open net for the first goal.  Meanwhile, Crosby gave a gift right back – passing the puck to New Jersey in the slot while Fleury was behind the net for an empty netter basically. 

While both screwed up in the 1st, Crosby got the last laugh.

Thoughts:

- The defense still looks very lackluster as it has for the past week.  Many of the defensemen seem to be trying to play out of their styles and are simply trying to do too much.  I’m not sure how this got started, but it’s a trend that needs to be fixed over the course of this week before the Pens play the Rangers once and the Flyers twice in games that will surely determine the final playoff seedings.  The team would be much better off if we don’t see Orpik leading rushes like Letang would and Letang throwing the body like Orpik would (both of which occurred against NJ).

- The Pens now sit 1 point behind the Rangers for 1^st in the East, and 3 points behind St. Louis for 1^st in the NHL.  This is looking way too far ahead, but with St. Louis only have 4 home losses this season, the road to the Cup might require the President’s trophy as well.  First thing’s first of course - catch the Rangers.

- Though I expected Niskanen to return this week, if both him and Lovejoy miss some time, I hope Simon Despres gets the call up.  He has looked fantastic in all of his NHL games this season and I really think he’s ready to experience a stretch run with this team.  It will both help the team and his own growing process to get some key games in.

Pens Record: 47-22-6, 100 pts, 2^nd in the Atlantic, 4^th in the East

Next Game:  3/27 vs NYI, 7pm

Defense Optional, Pens Let Up 8 in a Loss.

Main Storylines:

- Brad Thiessen gets the start tonight as Fleury rests up for a big Atlantic Division matchup against the Devils tomorrow.

- With the Rangers losing to the Sabres last night, the Pens have a chance to take over 1^st place in the Conference tonight.  The Rangers do play the Leafs though, so no matter what happens the Pens will have one less game played after tonight and be in striking distance of 1^st.

- Tangradi and Lovejoy get back into the lineup as Park gets a healthy scratch and Niskanen sits out with an upper body injury.  Vitale remains hurt as well.

Result:

Sens 8  Pens 4

Goals:  Cooke (18) from Engelland

            Cooke (19) from Crosby, Martin

            Kennedy (9) from Sullivan, Staal

            Crosby (3) from Asham, Dupuis

Stats/Milestones:

- Matt Cooke added to his career high goals total, making it 19 now.  He’s had 7 goals in his last 6 games with Crosby.

How do you score over a 6'7 goalie??

- Pascal Dupuis added an assist to extend his career high scoring streak to 9 games

               

The Good:

- The game is over and the Pens get a chance to rebound immediately against the Devils at home tomorrow night.

- Honorable mention to Engelland and Lovejoy, who didn’t do anything spectacular, but I felt played very solid and responsible games on a night where no one else felt like doing that.  Also, it was very nice to see Sid get his first goal in his 2nd comeback.

One of the rare reasons for everyone to smile tonight.

Matt Cooke – Another 2 goal game for Cooke, his 3^rd since Crosby’s return, has him vying to become the 6^th Penguin to hit the 20 goal mark this season.  He pretty much has kept it simple with Sid, either going directly to the net or getting the puck to the net.  It’s a shame he got called for a complete BS penalty, but that hardly nullifies his new found scoring prowess.

The Bad:

- Forwards in their own end.  Everyone got caught up with watching the puck in the zone on three of the Ottawa goals.  There were signs of this in the Nashville game as the Preds certainly had their chances from in close.  The Pens are going to have to start watching closer for players on the backside sneaking in looking for passes.

- The powerplay.  Ottawa played a very energetic and aggressive large box setup against the Pens and it disrupted them completely.  The powerplay couldn’t complete passes, got very few chances, and allowed a shorthanded breakaway goal to Daniel Alfredsson as well.  This powerplay is simply too talented to get caught by Ottawa’s aggressiveness like they did.  We need to see more instinct and less thinking in those situations.

- Odd Man Rushes.  The Pens allowed a disgustingly high amount of odd man breaks and breakaways to the Sens.  Thiessen surely didn’t bail them out on anything, but the defensive was pretty much horrible in providing support.  There were 2 breakaway goals and 2 odd man rush goals against the Pens tonight.  That’s absolutely pathetic.  You can add another goal to that list where an Ottawa player skated in 1 on 3, got through 3 Penguins, and slid the puck over to a wide over Alfredsson.  A horrible effort on defense by the Pens.

A goal celebration covering half the zone shouldn't be this devoid of Penguins.

- Steve Sullivan left at some point in the late 2^nd or early 3^rd period (I didn’t catch when clearly).  Reports seem to be that whatever injury has is minor, but we shall see tomorrow.

This is the last play I recall seeing Sullivan, maybe overextended something?

The Ugly:

- The anthems before the game were seriously horrendous.  The singer sounded like Ms. Piggy, botched the words, and held both anthems out to a total of over 6 minutes.  She even paused at one portion to ask the crowd to get into it.  The Pens bench was laughing the whole time and it was seriously just an embarrassment to both countries.  I won’t even give you a youtube link because you deserve better than that.

- The Penalty Kill was uncharacteristically inattentive tonight.  Both powerplay goals were scored on cross-ice passes where the Pens simply weren’t watching the backside.  There was just a serious lack of focus by the Pens in the defensive end.  I am just going to call it a lapse in judgment for the night and leave it at that.

Orpik/Michalek – By far the worst pairing of the night, they put up a -4 and simply never got to their styles.  Orpik wasn’t very physical and got caught in the offensive zone a few times, including on Spezza’s breakaway from his own blue line.  Meanwhile, Michalek was wandering too far away from the crease looking for stick checks and checks instead of doing his usual good job of blocking passes and shooting lanes.  Both players simply did not stick to their strengths and Thiessen is the one who paid for it.

Uh yeah, one of you should probably cover the future Hall of Famer.

Brad Thiessen – Speaking of Thiessen, his effort wasn’t exactly sharp either.  He had issues controlling rebounds and simply looked small in the net.  I can’t blame him solely for this game as the Pens gave him no help, but he also has to come up with a couple more big stops along the way.  20 saves on 28 shots looks bad for pretty much anyone.

Thoughts:

- I didn’t want to see Bishop injured for Ottawa necessarily, but after the major dive he took when Cooke skated past him, you couldn’t help but think the Hockey Gods were getting him back for that move.  Especially since Ottawa scored on that powerplay they never should have had.

- This team can clearly score.  This team clearly has a Cup winning goalie in Fleury.  But the defensive effort over the past week has been all over the place.  Winning the Cup requires defensive consistency just as much as goaltending and probably moreso than scoring.  So while this team can light it up, the kind of effort they showed tonight is the type of effort the Caps showed in previous years with early exits in the playoffs.  This needs to be fixed immediately.

- The Pens looked more tired/sluggish than the Senators did today even though Ottawa played last night.  With the Sens slumping, I wonder if the team got caught being a little too excited about the Nashville win and looking ahead to NJ tomorrow night.

- Everyone get over Thiessen getting the start.  The argument that the Pens could get first place is not a reason to start Fleury for every game for the rest of the season.  The playoffs are more important than first place, so Fleury will need to sit sometimes.  He will likely sit March 29^th as well.  Johnson looks to be healthy again, so I’m pretty sure this was Thiessen’s last start and Johnson will get the nod on Thursday.  Regardless, if Fleury goes out in the playoffs, all is lost anyways.  So protect him, not a chance at first place.

Guess what, not many goalies are stopping one timers from the crease

Pens Record: 46-22-6, 98 pts, 2^nd in the Atlantic, 4^th in the East

Next Game:  3/25 vs NJ, 7pm

Fleury is Perfect, Pens win!

Main Storylines:

- Some roster changes going into this one.  Brent Johnson is “ill”, so Brad Thiessen is on emergency recall to back up Fleury.  Also, Eric Tangradi was called up and is expected to play on the 4^th line.  Expect Cal O’Reilly, and potentially Dustin Jeffrey to sit.

- Bylsma stated that the team wanted to call up Tangradi to add a physical presence and forecheck to the 3^rd and 4^th lines.  Other rumors swirling: showcase for a trade, keep him up in case someone else gets traded

- Brooks Orpik is also out with an upper body injury.  He is day to day and Ben Lovejoy will take his place.  It appears the top pairing will be Martin-Letang….oh no.

Result:

Pens  2  Rangers  0

Goals:  Malkin (33) from Letang, Dupuis

            Sullivan (11) (PP) from Malkin, Cooke

The Pens gave the Rangers a swift kick to...I'll just stop there.

               

The Good:

- Start with the milestones:  Malkin recorded his 300^th career assist and Fleury recorded his 22^nd career shutout, tying Barrasso’s franchise record.

- Offensive pressure:  The Pens had a period of over 3 minutes in the 1^st during which the puck did not leave the offensive zone.  Though they didn’t score during it, it forced the Rangers to use their timeout, which turned out to be nice a 2-0 close win.  The Kunitz-Malkin-Neal line and Dupuis-Staal-Sullivan line were masterful during those shifts

- Defensive intelligence:  By my count at least, Fleury only faced 2 clean odd man breaks in that game, a massive reduction from either of the past 2 games.  The defense was very smart about stepping up, and committed far fewer turnovers than usual.  Everyone on the defense played well (yes, including Paul Martin).

- Malkin’s goal was just flat out gorgeous.  It was a great outlet off the boards by Letang to spring him on a breakaway, and then Geno just showed an amazing amount of patience in waiting for Lundqvist to be completely out of the play before shooting.

- Sullivan is one of the last players on this roster that I would expect to score on a slapshot from the point on the powerplay…kudos to him.  It was a perfect shot and a great screen by Cooke as well.

Even he doesn't look sure that he did it.

- Literally everyone played a solid game, so I’m just going to highlight my 3 standouts for the night.

Zbynek Michalek – Michalek has been playing lights out since he was taken away from Paul Martin.  He led the team yet again with 3 blocked shots and got his stick on several passes to slow the Rangers down.  His positioning has been very sound and he looks very comfortable and confident now.  He has definitely reverted back to the player that the Pens wanted to pay $4 mil/yr.

Marc-Andre Fleury – Fleury had an outstanding effort in earning his 22^nd shutout.  He made 27 saves, including a breakaway, and was masterful in his rebound control tonight.  Hell, he didn’t even have any mishaps in playing the puck, that’s how in the zone Fleury was tonight.  The commitment to team defense tonight let Fleury do his thing, his positioning was great, he didn’t overcommit on any shots or passes, and he simply was unbeatable tonight.

Thiessen's recall clearly made all the difference.

Kris Letang – Letang gets here, not for his assist, but for his outstanding defensive awareness tonight.  He led the team with over 28 minutes of ice time and didn’t get caught too far up at all.  He didn’t try and force the offense, he just played his game and took open looks as he saw them.  I was concerned with him and Martin being paired together, but both played very well together.  Letang’s patience and commitment to defense tonight was simply perfect against a Rangers team that tends to be opportunistic. 

The Bad:

- Lovejoy played a very solid game and had a nice set of shots, getting 3 on one shift.  One thing that I could have done without was his delay of game penalty, of course.

- Martin also played a very solid game, my only complaint for him was on one play, where he missed his coverage and allowed the one breakaway on Fleury.  Aside from that gaffe though, Martin was definitely in the good category.

 The Ugly:

- Arron Asham made a very boneheaded play when he took his penalties.  Adams drew a penalty with a hard drive to the net, and Asham needlessly started shoving with Bickel as every player skated to the benches.  Asham’s gotta be smarter than that, Bickel didn’t even do anything to him to lead to it.  I would categorize throwing a powerplay away as ugly.

With 2 healthy scratches a game, better play smart to stay in the lineup.

  

Thoughts:

- Nothing against Eric Tangradi, he played well in his 5:39 of ice time.  But why call him up to play 5:39?  Wouldn’t he be better served playing in the minors with a regular shift?  We aren’t doing him or ourselves any favors by calling him up to play that little.

- On a related note, what did Dustin Jeffrey do to get booted from the lineup?  He could have played that 5:39 just as well, with the addition of he has PK capabilities and can take faceoffs.  I don’t think he’s done anything in the past few games to warrant getting a healthy scratch.

- The special teams continue to be outstanding this year.  The powerplay went 1 for 2 and the PK went 3 for 3.  Another sign of a Cup favorite.

- As Phil Bourque said on the radio after the game, this is the type of game that the Pens need to circle and reference.  No matter what ups and downs are left in this season, this game against the Rangers was a complete 60 minute effort, with a team commitment to defense and doing the little things right.  The Pens will not lose a best of 7 series to anyone with efforts like this.

- By the way, this was all without Crosby.  Can you imagine the possibilities?

  

Pens Record: 34-21-5, 73 pts, 4^th in the Atlantic, 6^th in the East

Next Game:  2/25 vs TB, 1pm