Less is More, Pens Win Behind 2 SH goals!

Main Storylines:

- It’s Pens-Flyers, do you need storylines?

- The Pens are 2 points behind the Flyers for 4^th place in the conference and 2^nd in the division.  A win here does not give the Pens that spot, because the Flyers own the tie breaker, but will at least get them close to passing the Flyers.

- Neal did not record a shot in the last game, a first for him this season, and the Pens had a lot of trouble generating offense against Anaheim, getting only 26 shots.  Look for the team to get back to their usual 35+ shots in this one.

- The PK hasn’t allowed a goal against in 7 games, a major reason for the team’s success in close games.

- The only lineup change will be Arron Asham returns after missing a few weeks with a concussion.  Cal O’Reilly sits for him.

Result:

Pens  6  Flyers  4

Goals:  Cooke (10), unassisted

            Staal (18) (SH) from Adams

            Cooke (11) (SH), unassisted

            Jeffrey (4) from Cooke

            Dupuis (13) from Staal, Sullivan

            Neal (30) from Malkin, Kunitz

               

The Good:

- Start with the basics, this was a big win over a division rival that the Pens are trying to catch up to.  It’s the first win for the Pens against the Flyers this season, and there are still 3 more games to go in this rivalry.  Expect fireworks.

- James Neal score his 30^th goal of the season, a continuing career high.  I didn’t think he would be putting up 30, and he’s on pace to go over 40.  Start clearing out room for his contract Shero!

- Marc-Andre Fleury wins his 30^th game of the season.  Despite allowing 4 goals, Fleury’s play was actually above average as he made some great saves at times, especially on the PK, to keep the Pens in it when the game was very close through the first 2 periods.

Don't care about the stats, I'll take a goalie who wins. 

- Engelland’s hit on Giroux was perfect, and may have had a big effect on Giroux’s game.  He was certainly quiet the rest of the night.  It was also hilarious seeing Hartnell bark at Engelland, but refuse to do anything that required physical contact.

- Short-handed goals.  Two of them.  One during a 5 on 3 penalty kill.  That’s called taking an opportunity and capitalizing on it right there.

Matt Cooke – Last recap, I talked about how Cooke was doing everything right aside from getting on the scoreboard.  Touche Cooke.  He blocked a shot and took the puck down on a 2 on 1 with Asham to score the opening goal.  He then somehow found himself going in on a semi-breakaway when the Pens were killing a 5 on 3 powerplay to score his 2^nd of the game.  He also added the primary assist on the Jeffrey goal that gave the Pens the lead early in the 3^rd.  His penalty killing was fantastic, his offense was fantastic, just a great all-around game from Cooke.

Poor Cooke had no one to celebrate with during the 5 on 3.

Jordan Staal – He scored his 18^th of the season, short-handed, and set up Dupuis’ goal for a 2 point night and a +2.  Just as important, however, is that he was matched up against the Giroux line.  Did you hear Giroux’s name aside from getting crushed by Engelland?  Giroux only had 1 assist on the powerplay and was a -3.  Staal continues to give the Pens a two-fold benefit of shutting down top players and adding goals on his own.

Brooks Orpik – In a game where 10 goals were scored, how much did you notice Brooks Orpik?  Not at all?  That’s the perfect answer for the stay at home defenseman.  Orpik was a +4 tonight and led the team with 6 hits.  He is probably playing the best hockey of his year right now.

Well, the Flyers surely noticed him.

 The Bad:

- The Pens allowed a powerplay goal for the first time in 8 games.  It was amidst all the bad reffing and during a 4 on 3, but it’s sad to see those streaks end.

- Paul Martin finally decides to display some sort of emotion, and proceeds to slash a Flyer while he’s laying on the ground in front of the ref.  Are you serious Martin??

- Malkin was a little off with his shooting tonight, only hitting the net twice, though he did hit the post twice as well.  He ended up with 4 missed shots.

Kris Letang – Letang was awfully quiet, and at some times awful, in this game.  He was caught completely flat-footed at the blue line for the first Jagr goal, where Neal attempted to cover for the fact Letang was well behind the play.  He was trying to jump into the play a little too much in this one, and got caught up a few times, especially on the powerplay.  Just a bump in the road for him I would imagine.

Joe Vitale – Vitale didn’t look all that sharp today, taking a bad penalty and not doing much throughout the game.  As the team gets healthy, he’s seeing a little less time, especially in penalty kill situations.  The kicker ended up being that he went 4 for 13 on faceoffs, so between that and the penalty, not his best effort.

The Ugly:

- Watching Jagr score 2 goals in 18 seconds on the exact same shot on Fleury was painful and shocking at the time.  Luckily, the Pens won out in the end.

- Watching Niskanen turn the puck over at the blue line, Engelland recover for him to save it from being a breakaway, and then Engelland just falls on his own accord with the puck in front of Fleury, leading to the Flyers 3^rd goal.  Talk about a comedy of errors.

- The reffing was flat out horribly inconsistent.  First nothing was called, then everything was called, then calls were being made when nothing happened.  Every part of spectrum from calling a game tightly to not calling anything at all was touched.  Both teams got completely screwed at times, esp when the Flyers’ Simmonds got called for goalie interference that never occurred.  Stephane Auger shouldn’t be allowed to ref in the NHL ever.

When a ref is a focal point of a picture, nothing good is being called.

- From the Flyers side – goaltending.  A good goalie probably allows 2 of the Pens goals, maybe 3.  The Bryzgalov – Bobrovsky combination better make you appreciate the luxury of having Fleury and Johnson in net.  That’s a big hole the Pens haven’t had to worry about in a relatively long time.

Thoughts:

- You wanted secondary scoring?  Well the first line only added one goal and the rest of the team put up 5.  Maybe we should worry a little less about the secondary scoring and the constant search for a scoring winger.  The defense certainly still needs to tighten up a bit.

- There is an above average chance that the Pens-Flyers find their way into a first round matchup.  I don’t think the Devils are strong enough to stay with them, and the Rangers are so far ahead that 4-5 seems inevitable.  If that holds true…yikes.

Even ice girls weren't safe in this game.

- With the team playing a slumping Buffalo (can I say slumping if they have sucked all season?), I would expect Johnson to get the start tomorrow.  Fleury could use a rest after the emotional insanity that occurred today.

- Has anyone missed TK?  Did anyone miss O’Reilly today?  Asham had a very solid, though quiet game.  He forechecked well, and was a key part of Cooke’s first goal.  The Pens, when healthy, have a solid amount of depth amongst their role players.  That depth may give Shero some extra trade pieces to work with, health withstanding.

- Look for Shanahan to analyze Staal’s hit on Coburn.  Staal got a 2 minute minor for boarding, but it was definitely an ugly hit.  Not sure how Shanahan will view it.  Staal has a few things on his side, he’s never been disciplined, Coburn did nothing to help his own cause, and Staal did show some compassion (which I think makes a difference even if no one says so).
UPDATE:  Staal was fined $2,500, the max under the CBA for his boarding penalty.  http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=617649

Pens Record: 33-20-5, 71 pts, 3^rd in the Atlantic, 5^th in the East

Next Game:  2/19 @ Buf, 12:30pm

Ducks Fly. Penguins Can't. Pens lose.

Main Storylines:

- The Pens, one of the hotter teams in the NHL, face perhaps the hottest team in the NHL in Anaheim, who has lost only 2 of their previous 18 games in regulation

- Bruce Boudreau returns to Pittsburgh for the first time with his new team.  He is 12-1-3 all-time in the regular season against the Pens.

- The Pens have overcome 2 goal deficits in each of their last 2 games and will be looking to get off to a much stronger start in this game, especially with the Ducks playing last night.

- Today is the 3 year anniversary of Bylsma getting hired by the Penguins.  On top of it, he coaches against his most memorable team as a player, the Ducks.  I’m sure he’s looking for a big win here.

Happy 3 year anniversary Disco!

Result:

Ducks 2  Penguins 1

Goals:  Staal (17) from Dupuis

               

The Good:

- The Pens honestly played a good game overall.  They had a lot of pressure in the Ducks zone, but just couldn’t find a way to turn that into scoring chances and goals.  This is just one of those nights where you’ll be relatively happy with how the team played though the result did not go your way.

- Letang came up with another save on the goal line, something he seems to be doing a lot since he came back from his concussion.

Matt Cooke – He may not be lighting up the scoreboard or ending anyone’s career, but Cooke had a very big contribution in the game tonight in a defensive effort.  He had 2 takeaways and 2 blocked shots during regular 5 on 5 play, and then contributed his usual stellar work on the PK.  Cooke was a big part of the effort that kept a potentially high scoring Ducks team rather quiet.

Jordan Staal – Staal continues to show that he has found his goal scoring touch from his rookie season.  He picked the corner perfectly on Hiller to score the only goal of the game for the Pens.  He also put in a solid effort defensively along with Cooke, both on the PK and during 5 on 5 play.  Staal’s line was assigned the Perry-Getzlaf line, and Staal and Cooke kept them off of the board when the matchup was in play.

Brooks Orpik – Orpik led the team in ice time with 24:39, had 2 blocked shots, was a +1, and led the team with astounding NINE hits.  He was very sound positionally and didn’t commit a single mistake as far as I could tell all game.  This may have been his best game of the season, though unfortunately it did not help enough on the scoreboard.

The Bad:

- For all of the pressure the Pens got tonight, they only managed 26 shots and the failure to get the puck on net even led to the 2^nd goal for the Ducks.  There was a little too much work done at the blue line in the offensive zone, leading to the turnover that sent the Ducks in on a 2 on 1 and a beautiful game winner for Selanne.  To make my point even more clear, 13 of the Pens shot (half for those of you counting at home) were by defensemen tonight.  Additionally, Neal was shotless, which is rare for the leading shooter in the NHL.

Michalek going in for a wrap-around isn't exactly a good sign offensively.

- The Pens simply don’t know how to beat Bruce Boudreau in the regular season.  The Ducks clearly knew what they were doing against the Pens and how they wanted to handle their matchups.  Gotta give Boudreau credits, it doesn’t matter who he’s coaching, he knows how to play the Pens, moving to 13-1-3 in his career against them.

If anyone outside of the organization knows the Penguins, it's definitely Boudreau.

The Ugly:

- The Martin/Michalek pairing.  They weren’t even paired together tonight, but ended up on the ice for the last minute of the 2^nd period.  The last minute saw Martin lose coverage on Bobby Ryan skating around a corner.  Ryan then passed it off to Perry.  Michalek, who seems to go brain-dead when paired with Martin, dropped to the ice and Perry shoved the puck under him and then through Fleury.  One shift together, one goal against.

- The powerplay.  We’ve all seen at this point that refs are now giving out only 1-3 powerplays per game.  With their one powerplay, the Pens managed to give up a breakaway, a semi-breakaway, and more chances to the Ducks than they had for themselves.  Efficiency is key with the reffing now, and the Pens were awful on their one chance.

Thoughts:

- Being a hockey dork, I found the line matchups to be fascinating tonight.  With the Pens having last change, the Staal line was matched up against Perry/Getzlaf and the Malkin line was matched up against Selanne/Ryan.  How did it work out?  The Staal line held Perry’s line scoreless, and even came up with a goal of their own.  The Malkin line was out for Perry’s goal and for Selanne’s goal.    It is becoming increasingly clear that one of the ways to slow down Malkin’s line is to put your top offensive guys against them so they have to play defense instead of putting out a normal defensive checking line.

- The Kunitz “slash” with 3 minutes to go was a BS call in THIS game.  I’m okay with that being a slash, it was a slash.  However, refs stopped calling that about 3 months ago.  If these refs would have called every slash like that through the game, each team would have had 5-6 powerplays and I would have been okay with the call.  The lack of consistency is infuriating though.  Make those calls all game, or don’t, but it’s gotta be one or the other.  Even Teemu Selanne called it a weak call in his post game interviews.

Shero, get Selanne at the trade deadline, PLEASE.

- Watching the Park-Vitale-Adams line tonight made me realize how much help Arron Asham might actually be for that line.  I imagine Park will be the one who sits as he gets the least ice time per night and the PK has a lot of depth right now.  Asham will add a lot of size and grit to that line in their forechecking.  Adams and Vitale can certainly skate and hit, but they don’t necessarily have the size to turn it into something.  Asham could make even more waves with that line.

Pens Record: 32-20-5, 69 pts, 3^rd in the Atlantic, 5^th in the East

Next Game:  2/18 @ Phi, 1pm

Two Goal Deficit? No Big Deal, Pens win!

Main Storylines:

- Brent Johnson gets the start today after Fleury suffered through an 8-5 win yesterday.  Bylsma said he wants to get Johnson in about 7-10 more games this season, so let’s see what he can do with it tonight.

Johnson's iffy stats may be explained by these situations.

- Simon Despres has started skating with the team again.  Though I think he has played well enough to stay up with the big team, lack of room clearly dictates that he goes down to WBS barring a trade soon.

- The Pens are wearing their blue jerseys in back to back games.  This isn’t a storyline at all, but it annoys me when we wear blue against teams that wear blue…and we’re doing it in back to back games.

Result:

Pens  4  Lightning  2

Goals:  Malkin (31) (PP) from Letang, Neal

            Kunitz (16) from Letang, Johnson

            Letang (8) from Kunitz, Neal

            Malkin (32) from Kunitz, Neal

               

The Good:

- The Pens overcame another early 2 goal deficit to come out with a win that ties them with the Flyers at 69 points. 

- The Martin/Michalek pairing was finally split up late in the 1^st period and pay major dividends for the team defensively as Michalek was with Niskanen and Martin with Engelland.

- Brent Johnson got a win on home ice and played very well after letting up a weak first goal.  He bounced back to keep the Pens in it when they were down by 2 and keep the lead intact afterwards.

Evgeni Malkin – Where to start with Geno…he drew 3 penalties, by himself.  He added 2 goals as he makes a move for the Rocket Richard trophy, and added to his Art Ross leading point total.  His backchecking was incredible tonight, and the powerplay and 1^st line are simply electric because of him right now.  Malkin has simply taken over the NHL on pure will alone.

Kunitz pleading his case that Malkin shouldn't impale him apparently.

Chris Kunitz – A big assist to Malkin’s production goes to Kunitz, who had a 3 point night, including a perfect saucer pass to Malkin across the crease for the Pens’ 4^th goal.  Kunitz is clearly seeing the ice very well right now, as demonstrated by that pass, and another to a wide open Letang on the far side of the ice which led to the 3^rd goal.  He also had a great backhander to Neal, but Garon robbed him.  Add in a goal, and Kunitz is doing his best to keep up with supporting Geno.

Kris Letang – I wasn’t happy with Letang’s defensive performance on Saturday, but he surely made up for it tonight.  He had a 3 point night, including the game winning goal, and was unbeatable on defense tonight.  He was out against the Lecavalier line for most of the game, and the Bolts’ top line simply didn’t get any quality chances.  Letang’s play in this game gave him a good argument for being the top defenseman in the NHL right now.

Zbynek Michalek – Michalek looked absolutely spectacular after he was switched to Niskanen’s side.  He was 2^nd in the team with 5 shots, and led the team with 5 blocked shots.  He skated comfortably, and stuck to his game completely.  He was perfect positionally, and probably played his best game of the season tonight.

The Bad:

- The Pens need to stop spotting teams a 2 goal lead before they find one they can’t come back from.  It may work out against non-playoff teams like Winnipeg and Tampa Bay, but that is certainly a bad habit to form at this time of the year.  The fact that the Lightning scored 2 goals in 11 seconds was flat out pathetic.

Steve Sullivan – Sullivan looked a little off in the 1^st period, and never really got into his game.  He had a couple of bad turnovers in the neutral zone, and looked a little hesitant on the point for the PP.  With how great he has looked since the All-Star break, I wonder if he should be getting some of the 2^nd games in back to back nights off to keep him fresh.

Those short legs can't keep up with turnovers.

The Ugly:

- Nothing to report here, hooray!

Thoughts:

- One of the big aspects to the success of Malkin and Neal right now is their shot total.  Neal now leads the league with 232 shots and Malkin is 2^nd with 221.  Like every broadcaster will stupidly say at 20 different times in a season, put the puck on net and good things will happen.

- Speaking of Neal, while it’s early to look at this, his contract is going to be an interesting situation for the Pens.  Toronto is talking about giving Mikhail Grabovski around $4.5 - $5 mil after this season.  Grabovski has 39 points in 50 games.  Luckily, Neal is a restricted free agent, but his production (55 pts in 56 games) might actually warrant an offer sheet from another GM.  The Pens are going to have a tough time finding a good mix of money and years with him and the salary cap.

- Malkin now has a 7 point lead in the Art Ross race, and is averaging 1.41 points per game.  Second is Claude Giroux, who is averaging 1.19 points per game.  Malkin might win this race by the end of the month at this rate.

Might wanna keep track of where that Malkin guy is.

- While the Pens have tied the Flyers for 4^th place, this is where all of the shootout wins will hurt.  The Flyers have 5 more non-shootout wins, and thus easily have the tiebreaker over the Pens.  New York looks like they will run away with the division easily, so it’s going to be a dogfight between Pittsburgh, Philly, and NJ for seeds 4-6.  There will definitely be an Atlantic only matchup in the first round.

- Monday morning news:  Despres has been activated off the IR and sent down to WBS.  Former Penguin Mike Comrie retired. 

Pens Record: 32-19-5, 69 pts, 3^rd in the Atlantic, 5^th in the East

Next Game:  2/15 vs Ana, 7pm