Gameday Poop: Pittsburgh vs Montreal – Game 7 – Down & Dirty

Many of the Penguins players will be facing their favorite childhood team in a game seven playoff game that they’ve played over and over in their younger heads scoring the game winning goal for the Canadiens. It’s time to trample the ghosts of their childhood heroes, it’s time to spit in the face of 100 years of hockey history, It’s time to get down and dirty.

The Penguins need to play hard hitting, fore checking and shot blocking hockey.  They have been letting the Canadiens dictate the style of play that must come to an end.

To win tonight’s game the Penguins defense has to be aggressive, not passive. Attack the Montreal players before and all the while they are coming into the zone. Montreal has great snipers but they are all small, get in their face and hound them, stop letting them get in close enough for a good shot.  Block the shots.  The defense needs to do more than bend over, they need to lay down or dive if need be.

Hit Somebody. In the three games the Penguins have won, they have averaged 31 hits per game. In the three games they lost they averaged 23 hits a game. Brooks Orpik didn’t even register a hit last game and the Penguins as a team only had 20 total hits.  The Pens averaged 36 hits a game in the Ottawa series.

Get to their net, get in front of their net, poke Halak a few times. Adams is the only Penguin player that has touched Halak all series, take Halak off his game, rattle him a little. Put the shots on net, stop worrying about picking corners, if there are Penguin players in front just get the puck there and let them get the puck into the net.

Today’s Lines, Ponikarovsky is back in, Letestu is out:

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Guerin-Malkin-Ponikarovsky
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Talbot-Adams-Rupp

Who cares if the Montreal Canadiens were the first team the Penguins played at the Civic Arena, the Penguins were the first ...

Gameday Poop: Pittsburgh vs Montreal Game 6 – Shellak the Halak

The Penguins are becoming the best closer of series on the road that the NHL has ever seen. Tonight the Pens have a chance to close out the series against the Canadiens once and for all and once again on the road. Don’t count the game as won just yet though, Washington was up 3 games to one against the Habs in their last series and lost after the resilient Canadiens fought tooth and nail for three wins in a row.

How about a little respect for Marc-Andre Fleury. I have a friend I argue with back and forth about Fleury.  He claims that the only way the Penguins can win a game is if they score 4 or more goals if Fleury is in net. While that should not be a tough feat for a team so skilled on offense, I wonder if my friend had a chance to catch the last two wins the Penguins had this series? The Penguins were out shot last game 33-25 and still won, by scoring only two goals. Fleury wins the big games and is the only goaltender left in the playoffs that has won the big one. So I say to my friend who plays D for Mahajibee, cut Fleury some slack!

Hal Gill was injured in the game on Saturday and is a game time decision for tonight’s game. He was injured when Kris Kunitz skate hit him in the leg, left the game and never came back. When questioned about how he felt for the game tonight he left the usual SS Hal Gill over detailed answer “I feel good.” If he doesn’t play, the Habs will most likely be filling in his roster spot with defenseman Jaroslav Spacek.  I think Gill could skate just as fast on one leg as he does on two.

The only difference in tonight’s lineup versus Saturdays lineup is Dupuis and Guerin being changing lines:

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Talbot-Malkin-Guerin
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Rupp-Letestu-Adams

On Saturday night the Penguins benched Ponikarovsky and Fedotenko together for the first time in this seasons playoffs and the media and everyone else gave the Penguins rave reviews for having their most complete game yet. While I believe that Ponikarovsky’s problem is that he doesn’t have a competitive bone in his body, Fedotenko has the opposite problem, he is very competitive, yet his skill level this year is just not there.

Speaking of Fedotenko, the Pittsburgh Penguins playoff roster contains three out of the only four players still playing in the NHL that have ...

Gameday Poop: Pittsburgh vs Montreal game 4 – Guerin & Staal are back!

All the talk is about Marc-André Fleury’s big shutout as well it should be. How about a big standing ovation for the Penguins defense! They held the Montreal Canadiens to 18 shots on net, the lowest amount of shots on net allowed in the playoffs by the Penguins since they allowed 17 once back in the early 70′s.

It’s that game.  Montreal’s goaltender Halak had been pulled 50% of the games this season against the Penguins before last game.  This is the game that will pull the percentage back down to 50%.  I’m predicting the Pittsburgh Penguins win tonight 5-2, with 4 of the five goals coming first period and Halak being pulled once again.

The Penguins well balanced attack was too much for the Canadiens to handle. Sure the Habs kept up for a period, maybe a period and a half, then their legs started to get heavy. Something I’ve been clueless about is why the Habs dressed eighteen players and one of them, Mathieu Darche, never stepped on the ice. Throw in the fact that Glen Metropolit only played 5 minutes and you’ve got yourself what I would call some weird coaching decisions.

The Canadiens AHL minor league team the Hamilton Bulldogs are in the midst of a playoff playoff battle against Calgary’s minor league team the Abbotsford Heat. Are the Canadiens not pulling up players because of this or is the best they have Darche who is not worth playing? By the way, the Hamilton Bulldogs are leading their series 2-1.

I also keep hearing about how the Penguins withstood the all out barrage Montreal put on in the first period, Montreal only put 7 shots on net in the first period, that’s an all out Canadien attack? I hope Greenland never tries to take over their country, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

We’re putting the band back together. Billy Guerin and Jordan Staal are back skating with the team and Jordan Staal has a new skate protector on his right skate. No official announcement has been made and I’m sure when they make it, it will sound like Staal & Guerin are ”a game time decision” but judging how Staal looked yesterday in practice ...

Gameday Poop: Pittsburgh vs Montreal Game 3 – Fixing Evgeni Malkin

What’s wrong with Evgeni Malkin?  All I keep reading & hearing is how come Malkin hasn’t shown up yet. If I told you that Malkin has 1 more point this year through 8 games in the playoffs than he did last year when he was the Conn Smythe MVP of the playoffs it wouldn’t matter would it?

Evgeni Malkin and Alexei Ponikarovsky are like oil and water. Through 8 games of the playoffs Malkin has registered 4 goals and 5 assists and not one of the points that Malkin has registered the entire playoffs has been while Ponikarovsky is on the ice, not a single one, even though Ponikarovsky has been playing most of his time mainly on Malkin’s line. The Penguins don’t need to bench Ponikarovsky, it’s time to get him off of the top two lines, he doesn’t mix well with the Penguins top forwards.

The Penguins can make a big statement tonight by taking it to the Canadiens the way they did last game AND putting the puck in the net by playing a little scrappier. The Pens played hard and soft last game. They hustled their collective arses off yet didn’t go into the high traffic areas in front of the net.

Sidney Crosby has been frustrated to the point of breaking his stick on the goal post then tossing it away. The Penguins need to keep Kunitz or Cooke or both on Crosby’s line to keep players like Hal Gill from mugging him all game. Crosby needs to take a page from the Montreal School of Diving and start going down. I would have sworn that there was a sniper high up in the stands picking off Montreal players the way they were flopping down last game. It is sort of an embarrassment to the ...

Gameday poop: Pittsburgh Penguins vs Montreal Canadiens Round 2 Preview

Don’t let the Montreal Canadiens #8 seed fool you. They had injuries all season just like the Penguins did and are a very good team. Just ask Washington. They have a solid all around team, good coaching, good goaltending, solid experienced defense and a very fast offense. Do they have what it takes to beat a Pittsburgh Penguins team that has been to the Stanley Cup finals two years in a row? Probably not.

The Penguins have experience oozing out of their pores. They are a team full of young hungry players that been to finals twice, they know what it takes and are looking to build up their reputation as being one of the leagues best teams and ‘gasp’ possibly earn some dynasty accreditations.

What we are going to see here in this round of the playoffs between these two teams is some very fast action fun to watch hockey. We will get to see the leagues best player get to play in a playoff game in a city and against a team that he idolized only a few years ago. We will see a goaltender try to stop a team with two of the leagues best players after shutting down a team with one of the leagues best and we will see a young team fight for the respect of a city that watched it’s team have dynasty after dynasty for decades.

One of the big questions of the series is how will the Montreal fans treat Sidney Crosby? Will he be treated with respect because he won them a Gold Medal or will that all be washed away by the sound of boos or the chanting of “Crosby sucers”. I think that’s French for “Crosby sucks”, but I only took 1 year of French.

Things to look for in the series:

• Everyone may not be playing for the Penguins, but everyone is skating and working out. The question marks are Jordon Leopold, Kris Kunitz and Tyler Kennedy.
• Jaroslav Halak’s save percentage against the Capitals in the playoffs was a stellar .939 but during the regular season against the Penguins it was a horrid .840
• The Canadiens can turn the play around very fast from defense to offense and have lots of offensive speed.
• The Penguins speed will be making Hal Gill turn around from skating backwards to forwards to try to catch up to Penguins forwards. I have to give Hal Gill credit, he looks like he’s done some working out and is a little bit faster.
• Sidney Crosby in the last five minutes of any game where the score is tied or the Penguins are down a goal gets better than Gretzky or Lemieux ever were in that situation.
• Montreal defensemen Andrei Markov & Marc-Andre Bergeron missed a combined 59 games yet both put up big numbers. If they both played all season you have to wonder if maybe the Canadiens would have finished better than 8th.
• The Two Headed Monster. Look for coach Bylsma to use his old formula to try to get Crosby and Malkin on the ice together when the time is right, close to the end of each period.
• The Penguins Powerplay. There is no way it will do as poorly as the Capitals. The Penguins puck movement and passing skills will play havoc with Jaroslav Halak. PenguinPoop writer STH35 wrote a very interesting article about the Pens powerplay:
• Sidney Crosby needs to make sure he doesn’t get caught up in the media circus that follows the Canadiens around. They will drain him like a vampire if he lets them. Give them a small amount of time be polite and get out.
• The main thing the Canadiens have to worry about is ...
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Gameday Poop Game 6: Penguins vs Senators – Preview

The Penguins need to find that desire that got them up in this series 3-1 and they need to find it fast. While the Senators didn’t lie down and hand the last game to the Penguins like everybody thought, they did lie down and block shots, 46 of them. The good news is the Pens seem to play a way better game up in Ottawa.

Even though Marc-Andre Fleury lost, he played a great game. The first goal was a powerplay goal that tipped twice then off of Gonchar’s skate then in, the second goal was tipped into Fleury off Goligoski’s skate which he saved, but Ruutu plowed into the crease knocking the puck in. The goal in the third overtime was tipped in off of Matt Cooke. It was his first no soft goal game this playoffs which I hope is a sign of things to come.

They are saying that the Penguins had 125 shots last game, missing the net 20 times, blocked 46 and on net 59. If that do that this game in three periods, I promise a win.

How good is Sidney Crosby? Crosby got an assist yesterday even though he didn’t play. That’s how good. After reviewing Kris Letang’s goal last game, it was ruled that Billy Guerin never touched the puck as it went past him, giving Crosby and assist and upping his season total to 14, his best for 1 playoff series to date. In the regular season Crosby gave away a goal that hit Billy Guerin that would have put Crosby in sole possession of the goal scoring trophy, that’s just good karma.

There is something wrong with the NHL regular season scoring system when this happens. Looking at the Washington Capitals vs Montreal Canadians series, they both have a winning record against each other during the regular season. The way the system works, both teams won two games, lost 1 game and tied a game.  It’s time to fix this idiotic scoring sytem.

Chris Conner was called up by the Penguins yesterday because with Tyler Kennedy out the Penguins are lacking a speedy forechecker. Though lineups for today have not been announced, I think the Pens need to put Chris Conner in the lineup and take out Fedotenko. It’s not that Fedotenko had a horrible game last game, but Feds doesn’t fit in with the Staal, Cooke line the way Conners would and Feds hasn’t earned a spot on the top two lines. Jordan Staal matched his worst plus/minus game of ...

Gameday Poop Game 5: Penguins vs Senators – The Elimination Game

The Penguins had a chance last year to eliminate both the Flyers and Capitals at Mellon Arena and both times they failed. Tonight the Penguins have a chance to eliminate the Ottawa Senators from this years playoffs by simply winning the game. The reward is probably what amounts to a week off. The Senators aren’t about to roll over and succumb, the Pens must continue to play with the desire that got them to this point.

Marc-Andre Fleury has had some good numbers since the first game when everyone ready to ship him off to Siberia. Here is how PenguinPoop writer Jean Pronovost thinks he stacks up against the other goaltenders in the playoffs so far: Fleury gives the Penguins a huge advantage over every other team

Sidney Crosby has flipped the switch and I have never seen him this driven before. Forget all the talk about being worn down from all the games, Captain Crosby should be one of the most worn down. Even though he has won the MVP, Art Ross, Stanley Cup & Gold Medal along with  a bunch of other awards and accolades, he is still 3 years short of what is considered the prime NHL performing ages of 25 to 29.

Somebody tell Jonathan Cheechoo that he is still listed as being in those prime ages. Over the last five years after having over 50 goals in one season, he has seen his goal scoring numbers dwindle 56-37-23-12 then only 5 this season and was sent down to the AHL and just called back up last game. He is only 29 years old!  Word on the street is he’ll be benched tonight after only one game back, and Donovan is in.  

Where are all the callups? With the Penguins AHL minor league team going down for the count, I would have thought the Pens would have called up more than just defenseman Deryk Engelland a guy who at 28 has only played in 9 NHL games to skate with the team.

Tyler Kennedy is listed as day to day with a lower body injury, he didn’t skate today and I would say that there is a less than 1% chance he will play tonight, I was impressed last game that after T.K. got hit and went down hard and was struggling to stand, when the puck got near him, he tried his best to get it to the front of the net. That’s why the Penguin team wins. Desire.

Here is the lineup the Penguins practiced with this morning:

Kunitz-Crosby-Guerin
Dupuis-Malkin-Ponikarovsky
Cooke-Staal-Fedotenko
Rupp-Talbot-Adams

I would question adding Fedotenko who has the worst plus/minus to the Pens checking third line, the line that the Penguins try to line up against the other teams top line, but seriously why question coach Bylsma. We need to start a WWBD – What Would Bylsma Do campaign.

Did you know coach Dan Bylsma has written 4 books? Dan along with his father wrote four books to help kids get better at sports and he runs a hockey camp in Minnesota where they call him “Hockey Dan” You can read more about that here: Hockey Dan!

The Ottawa Senators fans have already written their team off. Here are some quotes from Ottawa Senators blogs: Sens Underground “We’re afraid the fat lady is about to sing.” the Sixth Sens: “Start writing the eulogy. Ottawa is toast.” Canucnik: “Next Year!” Black Aces: “Nightmare Goaltending Sinks Ottawa, Likely For Good This Time” Personally I’m the guy that thinks we can still win losing 6-2 with 30 seconds left. It drives my wife crazy.

Wait Sens fans don’t slit those wrists just yet, I found one Senators Blog that’s holding out hope, you could say a true Senators fan: Duff from Another Ottawa Senators Blog: “I know there is one more game and I’m not about to jump ship” Wow, could he rub it in if he’s right. I hope he’s not.

I know I shouldn’t look ahead but… The Eastern Conference playoff race is panning out with all four teams taking a 3-1 lead in their respective  series. If this plays out, the Pens will play ...