Penguins Burn Leafs 5-4 in Shootout

I’ve pretty much given up trying to come up with superlatives to describe the Penguins’ 5-4 shootout win over Toronto at CONSOL Energy Center on Tuesday night. Awesome? Too trite. Spine-tingling? Close, but no cigar. Amazing? Gettin’ warm.

It wasn’t enough that the Pens overcame a 4-1 third-period deficit—not to mention a stirring two-goal effort by birthday boy Mikhail Grabovski—to snatch their eighth win in a row. Rather, it was the way they accomplished the feat. They won with a riveting display of purpose and intensity that bordered on sheer savagery.

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Hot Rangers Melt Slumping Penguins 3-1

When the Penguins and New York Rangers clashed at CONSOL Energy Center on Friday night, it was a definitive case of two teams headed in opposite directions. While the streaking Rangers (8-1 in their last nine) had scaled to the top of the overall standings, the skidding Pens (7-7 since Nov. 29) were struggling to keep pace in the race for Atlantic Division supremacy.

Thanks to a quirk in the schedule that provided a full week off, the Penguins entered the contest as fresh as proverbial daisies. However, the extra rest did little to improve the team’s sagging on-ice fortunes. After jumping to an early lead, the Pens unraveled over the final 40 minutes and fell to their third-straight loss, 3-1.

Determined to make a statement against an upper-echelon foe, the Penguins played arguably their finest opening period in nearly three weeks. Pascal Dupuis set the tone two minutes in when he tested Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist following a takeaway by Jordan Staal.

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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  ...