Tumbling Penguins Drop Fourth in a Row

For the past 11 days Dan Bylsma has patiently awaited the victory that would move him past Michel Therrien on the Penguins’ all-time list for coaching wins. If the black-and-gold’s recent results are any indication of what’s in store, the affable skipper might have a long wait.

Continuing a dismal stretch that harkens back to the dark final days of Therrien’s reign, the Pens surrendered another early lead and dropped a 3-1 decision to New Jersey at CONSOL Energy Center. The victory propelled the surging Devils past the land-locked Penguins and into third place in the Atlantic Division.

The contest was a virtual cookie-cutter replay of Friday night’s loss to the Rangers. Determined to escape the doldrums, the Pens played another passionate first period. Evgeni Malkin snapped a prolonged dry spell against New Jersey (no points in his last six games against the red and black) when he laced a bullet past Martin Brodeur from the left point at 4:48.

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Devils Sting Slumbering Penguins 3-1

Perhaps it was fitting that the Penguins closed out 2011 the way it began—with a disappointing 3-1 loss. After all, the year was none too kind to the boys from the ‘Burgh. Starting with Sidney Crosby’s concussion on New Year’s Day and continuing with a spate of misfortune to rival the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the Pens endured more than their share of travesty and travail over the past 12 months.

Fresh off Thursday’s deflating loss to the Flyers, the Penguins were hoping to right the ship against the improving New Jersey Devils (8-3 in their last 11 games) and gain some momentum heading into the New Year. Instead, the black and gold served up a foul-smelling effort that packed all the aroma of rotten eggs.

With the notable exceptions of Evgeni Malkin (a game-high six shots) and Marc-Andre Fleury, the Pens appeared to miss the wake-up call for the 3 o’clock matinee game at the Prudential Center. Predictably, the Devils took full advantage. Following a brilliant stop by Fleury on Patrik Elias with five minutes left in the opening frame, Ilya Kovalchuk was awarded a penalty shot. The Jersey sniper flew down the left side of the zone and rifled the puck through Fleury’s pads to give the Devils a 1-0 lead.

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Gameday Poop: Pittsburgh Penguins vs Nashville Predators – February 14

Thanks to the Olympics this afternoon’s Valentine matinee 1PM game against the Nashville Predators is the last Penguin game until March. That being said the Pens should leave it all on the table as they try to take down a Predator team that is barely hanging onto a playoff spot in the western conference. Unfortunately I believe that the penguin players who will be boarding a plane immediately after the game headed to the Olympics will be playing safer than usual.

I know there are a bunch of fans that do not like Pittburgh players and other NHL players going to the Olympics because of the possibility of them getting hurt, I am not one of them. While hockey for the last month has been interesting with players pulling their punches against their soon to be Olympic teammates, it to me is well worth it for the quality of hockey I will get to see in the next two weeks.

The Penguins have been releasing Olympic pictures for you computer desktop, I haven’t seen the USA Orpik one yet, but the Canada and Russia ones are kind of scary, especially Fleury’s. I’ve never seen him look anything near that cleaned up before. You can get them here: Penguin Olympic Wallpapers

BTW: Martin Brodeur, one of the Canadian goaltenders that Fleury is competing with got pulled again last night after letting in a few to many goals to the last place Hurricanes.

For the records I believe Slovakia is going to win it all. I will be routing for USA though I do not ...

Pittsburgh Penguins Game Day Poop – Islanders – 1/19/10

The Pens are back from their road trip worse for wear, but with a little good news, even though John Curry is penciled in as goaltender tonight Marc Andre Fleury did practice some this morning.  Brooks Orpik has been cleared to play and is might be in the lineup tonight. The Islanders chased Martin Brodeur out of net last night after two periods and the Islanders with their main goaltender Rick DiPietro back in the lineup shut out the Devils.

The next Sidney Crosby or the next Evgeni Malkin or the next Mario Lemieux, John Tavares of the Islanders will make his first appearance at the Igloo tonight. Tavares’ numbers are just not there yet. Crosby had 102 points his first season, Malkin had 85 and Lemieux had 100. Tavares currently has 31 points in 49 games which is on pace for 52 points this season, numbers more like the next Stamkos or next Lindros.

The last two teams the Penguins beat, the Oilers and Flames both lost last night by a combined score of 15-1.

Mike Yeo is back working practices and will be assisting behind the bench tonight.

Where is the love? Rob Rossi who we accidentally complimented last week, just joined Ron Cook’s withered journalistic form of “let’s kick our superstars when they are down and chase them out of town” with his article: “Malkin paid like Crosby; needs to play like him“    Clark & Heptner no longer the “Suburban Rob Rossis” summed it up perfectly: “Change Is Necessary“.  How about tonight at the game we cheer Geno! Geno! Geno! all night.

Petr Sykora was placed on waivers today by the Minnesota Wild, his salary is $1.6 million and would be half that on re-entry. Hmm…

Fedotenko and Talbot are penciled in as Malkin’s line mates tonight. They have a combined 9 goals on the season, is this ...

Fleury could better Brodeur’s pace, in front of Brodeur

If your going to compare yourself to a goaltender, you might as well compare yourself to the best in the NHL. As luck would have it, this Saturday when the Penguins play Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils, Marc-André Fleury will have a chance to bypass the pace that Brodeur has set on his way to most wins in NHL history for a goaltender.

When Brodeur turned 25 he had 119 wins under his belt on his way to the 562 wins he currently owns which is the most by any goaltender ever in the NHL. Fleury right now is 24 years old and currently has 119 wins. With one more win before November 28th of this year (Fleury’s 25th birthday), Fleury would be on pace to break Brodeur’s record. If Fleury doesn’t get the win this Saturday, he will have sixteen more attempts to get that win including a game on his 25th birthday against the NY Rangers.

By his 25th birthday, Brodeur had already won his first of 3 Stanley cups and had 29 playoff wins.  Now he needs to play only 23 more games to pass up Patrick Roy’s most games ever played by a goaltender, 1029.  At 24 years of age Fleury has won a Stanley Cup, has 31 playoff wins and already has 8 more games played at the same age as Brodeur.

The 2010 Canadian Olympic team has invited Marc-André Fleury, Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo (Vancouver), Steve Mason (Columbus), Cam Ward (Carolina) to their tryouts.  Geniuses like Allen Muir from Sports Illustrated think that   ...

Gameday Poop: Penguins vs. Devils – Bye Bye Sutter?

The NJ Devils are mired in a 5 game losing streak, “But now it’s time. I mean, the foot is down. Enough is enough.” said Brent Sutter.   That foot is down and is shaking in it’s boot.  In 2007 the Devil’s GM Lou Lamoriello fired coach Claude Julien on April 2nd (two years ago tomorrow)  and took over with a week left in the regular season, that should have Sutter looking over his shoulder.  Julien had the Devils at 107 pts when he got canned, the Devils only have 98 now.

Fleury only needs 12 regular season wins by November 28th of this year to be ahead of the pace that Brodeur has set being the goaltender with the most wins in the NHL. 

You know you are good when they other team chants “Crosby Sucks”  You know your the best when someone writes a song:  ”Utoob: Crosby Sucks“    Made by some hack of a band from Washington, probably more fair weather Capital fans.  It has 997 hits on Utoob, I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I think the fact the fans of another team wrote a song about him is a testament to how good of a player he is.  If they wrote a song “Crosby is a Swell Guy” then I’d be worried. ...