Penguins’ superior depth finally does in Ottawa

Whew, let’s all catch our collective breaths now that the first round is finally over.  It sure didn’t look like we’d be saying that about midway through the second period last night as the Penguins trailed the Sentaors 3 – 0 at the 9:48 mark.  Someone apparently forgot to tell the Penguins that the puck dropped at 7:00 because you would have sworn that for the first 29 minutes of this game, there was only one team on the ice.  Although the shots were almost even at the end of the first period, you would have been hard pressed to have found more than a couple taken by the Penguins that seriously challenged Senators’ goalie, Pascal LeClaire.  The Senators were skating circles around the Penguins, beating them to almost all of the loose pucks and generally outworking them in the corners

Right after Chris Neill scored to make it 2 – 0 just shy of 2 minutes into the 2nd period, Chris Kunitz had a breakaway chance that would have gotten the Pens right back into the game, but he was stonewalled by LeClaire, and when Daniel Alfredsson scored 7 minutes later to make it 3 – 0, many Pens fans were already looking ahead to a Game 7 at home.  Fortunately, the Penguins’ depth players decided to wake up and  come out of hibernation.  It seemed like from this point on, every time you looked up, the line that was on the ice was either the third line of Staal, Cooke and Dupuis or the fourth line of Conner, Adams and Rupp.  The Penguins first line of Crosby, Guerin and Kunitz was a combined minus 8 on the night while the second line was a paltry plus 1.  On the other hand, the third and fourth lines were a combined plus 7.  Jordan Staal’s third line performed like it hadn’t since Tyler Kennedy went out of the line up, and the addition of Pascal Dupuis was the reason.  For the pervious two games, Coach Dan Bylsma had tried Ruslan Fedotenko, and he just didn’t fit in with the other two regulars.  His plodding style of skating and unwillingness to do the dirty work in the corners just did not jibe with the usual third line work ethic.

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Pittsburgh Takes a Commanding Lead Over Ottawa

 The Penguins bring a 3-1 series lead back to Pittsburgh Thursday night.  It was an interesting game.  The Pens scored 7 goals on 42 shots.   No problem generating offense tonight.  Unfortunately, they allowed 4 goals to the low-scoring Senators.  Two of the goals, however, came on two-man advantage power plays for the Senators. 

(AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Fred Chartrand)

It is wonderful to see some of the “role players” really making a difference in this series.  Of course, we expected Max Talbot to step up and play at a higher level.  He had done just that and maybe more.  Tonight he had a goal and an assist.  Craig Adams gave Talbot a wonderful pass for Max’s goal.  Chris Kunitz had a goal and two assists.  Matt Cooke scored a goal.  Everyone is chipping in.  Let’s not forget to mention the defensemen, who have come together for the playoffs.

The “stars” are also doing their thing.  Crosby……need I say more.  The kid is playing just amazing.  2 goals and 2 assists tonight, in case you weren’t keeping track.  Malkin scored another goal and Jordan Staal poked one in tonight.  Sergei Gonchar chipped in with 3 assists.  The team is hitting on all cylanders right now.

Notes:

• Ponikarovsky seems to have used his goal in game 3 to create some momentum for himself.  He showed a bit more energy and generated some chances tonight.
• This game was very chippy.  If the Senators were playing scared last 
  

  Photograph by: Jean Levac, The Ottawa Citizen

  game, as Krundle postulated, they made a complete 180 tonight.  There was a lot of physical play including alot of extra-carricular activity.

• Letang, though playing a very strong game, did miss the net after taking a great pass from Crosby that sprung him for a partial breakaway.
• I, personally, would love to see someone, anyone level Andy Sutton with a huge hit.  This guy is smashing people left and right.
• How about Chris Neil’s goal celebration.  What a tool!  It would have been awesome had the Pens scored on the ensuing PP.
• Was anyone else annoyed by Paul Steigerwald repeatedly referring to Daniel Alfredson as Alfie?

A five game series victory would be very nice.

Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators Playoff Predictions

We have a saying here at PenguinPoop that “We have more hockey knowledge in our body than you have in your entire pinky“, that just being a little humor and all, the “body” of people writing here at PenguinPoop have probably been to more Penguin games in their lifetime than any other collection of Pittsburgh Penguin writers on the internet.  With that I give you some of our eight contributors predictions of how the Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators playoff series will end up, starting with STH35 who’s been a Penguins season ticket holder for 36 years.

STH35: Predicting the outcome of the Senator-Penguin first round match-up is no easy task.  Ottawa has a decent team, the Penguins have a better one.  I wanted to say that the winner of the series would depend on what Penguin team shows up, but Ottawa has been more of a mystery than Pittsburgh.  They were 8-11 since the Olympic break.  The stretches went like this –  1-8 in the first nine, 7-1 in the next eight, and finished by losing their last two.  Not much consistency there. Eight of their last eleven losses came against non-playoff teams, including twice to Toronto.  The Penguins were 11-9 after the Olympics.  They were also streaky through that stretch — 4-0, then 2-6, and finishing 5-3.  It wasn’t really the wins and losses that were inconsistent that were bothersome.  It was the way they played — long stretches of poor play every game.  Undisciplined penalties took their team out of their game and giveaways galore — all things that can’t be done during the playoffs. I think the Penguins are good enough to understand the weak points in their game, and will do something about it.  Ottawa will not go down easy, as they do have some battlers in their lineup.  Penguins in six – another series won on the road. 

Phil Krundle: I’ve said it a few times this season the the Senators are great looking team, on paper that is. The offensive skill they possess makes them one of the top offensive teams in the NHL and this is what makes this match up scary. The Pens have had two different teams the entire season, one team that shows up and plays incredible hard hustling hockey and another team that lolligags around the ice. I truly believe that we will not see the Penguin lolligagger team on the ice in the playoffs. The Senators leader Daniel Alfredsson is one of the best divers in the NHL, but with the Penguins penalty kill playing the way they are, that should negate his Greg Louganis ancestry. Which brings up the Penguins powerplay. I have never been a person to yell shoot the puck at a Penguin game and I never will be. So I’m saying it now. SHOOT THE PUCK. Studies done by people high up in the NHL have determined that shooting the puck is the best way to score goals. This is odd to say with such a young team, but the Penguins have the upper hand in playoff experience. Throw in the the Senators poor defensive play and them not having a goaltender that has ever played a game in the NHL playoffs the Pens win a not very hard fought series in 5 games.

Southside Shultzie: There has been a phenomena for years where ex Penguins players score at will against us.  For that to hold true in the Pens opening playoff series vs Ottawa it will be up to Jarko Ruutu.  The torn ACL suffered by Alex Kovalev will prevent him from scoring at all this playoff season but don’t count out the Senators!  There is an old saying about an injured dog being the most vicious!  Jason Spezza has been a notorious pain in the arse for the Penguins as is Daniel Alfredsson.  That said, I’m calling the Pens in a hard fought 7 game series! I’m also calling that Ottawa’s 3rd jersey is among the worst in the NHL.  “SENS”?  If they wear that sweater I am calling for a shutout 4-0 by the Pens!

Jean Pronovost:  The Pens enter the 2009/2010 playoffs matched up against the Ottawa Senators for the third time in four years with each team having won one of the previous two meetings.  The Pens split their season series against Ottawa this year 2 – 2 with each team winning once and losing once at home.  The only game that I could find any kind of aberration in was the Penguins 8 – 2 victory at Mellon Arena on December 23, a game that featured the return of goalie Pascal Leclaire after an extended absence due to a knee injury followed up by being hit in the face with a puck while sitting on the bench.  His extended absence was noticed quickly as the Pens put 5 pucks past him in succession in the second period before he was ...

Penguins will play the Ottawa Senators first round of Playoffs

I would love to tell you guys that I care about the Pittsburgh Penguins vs NY Islanders game later this afternoon, I’d like to debate whether the Penguins should keep their stars out of the game today so they don’t get injured, I’d also like to talk about Sidney Crosby’s chance of winning a bunch of different trophies if he does play, but I’m not going to do it.

Penguins play the Senators at home 7PM Wednesday night.

The Penguins playoff opponent for the first round of the playoffs has been secured and the Penguins will have home ice advantage when they play the Ottawa Senators.  The playoffs for the Penguins will start either this Wednesday or Thursday, we will let you know as soon as it is announced. 

The Pens played the Sens 4 games this season and split the series 2 games a piece, all four games were blowouts by both teams and the stats were basically even. With all of the injuries to the Penguins this season, as long as the team is healthy in the playoffs, the regular season doesn’t mean squat other than acquiring a playoff spot and maybe home ice advantage. 

Ex-Penguin and a Penguin fan favorite Alex Kovalev who was inked by the Senators in an effort to make a playoff run has torn his ACL and will not be skating for 3 to 4 months.  Daniel Alfredsson the Senators captain was honored in a big ceremony on Saturday celebrating his 1,000 game in the NHL and also his incredible diving ability.  We will have more on the in the next few days including an analysis by each of the PenguinPoop writers in the next few days.  I can’t wait!

Gameday Poop: Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators – January 28

Game time is 7:00PM and can be seen in Super HD at the Igloo or on FSN 

The Pens take on the red hot Ottawa Senators who have won their last seven games in a row tonight. Maybe I should say the streaky Senators. Before they won seven in a row they lost 5 in a row.

When everyone was looking the other way the Senators double secretly amassed quite a lineup of goal scorers Alfredsson, Kovalev, Spezza & CheeChoo all of which have decided to not score goals this year. Now that the Senators are healthy, no thanks to the Penguins, they come at teams with a 4 line balanced attack. When your 3rd line has one time 56 goal scorer 29 year old Jonathan CheeChoo on it, that’s a balanced attack.

With all of the Penguins injuries, Goligoski, Talbot, Guerin, Kunitz, Kennedy and Godard. It would be hard to tell you exaclty who will be in this evening’s lineup but I can tell you that the Pens have penciled in Guerin, Talbot & Godard and the rest are not listed and I can also tell you that Godard, Goligoski and Kennedy did not practice this morning. 

Dan Bylsma announced that Godard is out 4-6 weeks with a groin injury.   I think the Olympic break is going to be huge towards getting a healthy team back on the ice.

Chris Connors was recalled again, they are bouncing him up and down to save cap money, it sounds like Shero is planning on making a move, though there is one other possibility.  I think Shero noticed that when he brings a player up from the WBS Pens they usually score their first game up, to take advantage of that he is trying to send them up and down in between every game. It could work. The odd thing is that  ...