It’s a great week for hockey! The Penguins kick off their own personal rivalry week with a trip to Detroit to face the team they ousted in the Stanley Cup Finals last year. The Penguins actually look forward to traveling to the Joe Lewis Arena now. The Penguins Sidney Crosby, Ruslan Fedotenko, Sergei Gonchar and many others this will be the first time back on the ice that they were on when they first held the fabled Stanley Cup above their heads. The Penguins did play a pre-season game in Detroit at the beginning of the season but many Penguins did not participate.
This week the Penguins play in my opinion their three biggest hated rivals. Today the Detroit Red Wings, Wednesday away versus the Washington Capitals, and Saturday at home against the dreaded goaltenderless Philadelphia Flyers. The Pens have faced the Flyers & Wings both twice in the last two playoffs and the Caps once. This week will definitely show the Pens playoff mettle.
Evgeni Malkin will be missing tonight’s game, they are saying that he re-injured his foot (you know how that goes). I’m hoping he didn’t injure his shoulder when he tripped into the boards on Saturday. He skated off awfully slow after that.
The Penguins are facing the Red Wings at a tough time. Though the Wings are barely in possession of the 8th and final playoff spot in the West, they have been ripping apart the NHL with only two regulation losses in their last 13 games. If we kick them when they are down now, maybe we won’t see them in the playoffs! The rest of the WesternConference is rooting for the Pens tonight. We finally have a cheering section!
Does Sidney Crosby know any of Detroit’s coach Mike Babcock’ssecrets?...
Game time is 12:30PM and can be seen in Super HD at the Igloo or on NBC
When the Penguins knocked off the reining Stanley Cup Champs last June, Detroit started to slowly fall apart. It started with Marian Hossa saying he wanted to keep playing in Detroit and then jumping ship for Chicago (sound familiar?) along with the Red Wings Tomas Kopecky, then Detroit lost ex-Penguins Ty Conklin & Mikael Samuelsson and had a huge kick in the nuts when Jiri Hudler opted for the KHL instead of staying with the Red Wings. By the time it was all said and done Detroit had lost players that had accounted for over 1/3 of the goals they had the previous season.
The injury riddled Red Wings are currently not owners of a playoff spot. Mike Babcock the Red Wings coach is also Canada’s Olympic hockey team coach, and you have to wonder why Olympic Hockey GM’s wait to the last minute to pick the players on how well they are doing currently, but they do not wait last minute to pick the coaches. Is it possible the players confidence in the coaches ability will be undermined by the fact that Babcock can’t coach with a little adversity? We will see in two weeks.
The injury riddled Penguins are currently owners of a playoff spot. Can you name how many Penguins regulars have not missed games because of injuries? If you said three you would be correct. You get 12 1/2 PenguinPoop Bonus Points if you can name the three, the answer is at the very bottom of this post below info Darius Kasparaitis’ purple sofa.
Johnny can’t read and Sidney can’t shoot. This may sound crazy but… The number one goal scorer in the playoffs last year is atrocious at shooting the puck. When you look at the goals he scored, only one goal was from a shot more than five feet away. You can view all 15 goals here:
Philadelphia’s coach John Stevens will even tell you that the one Crosby goal was scored by putting the puck in his feet and throwing himself into the net, but fear not, Crosby is an emperor who is aware he has no clothes on. During the regular season last year Sidney Crosby spoke to Penguin play by play announcer Paul Steigerwald and told him that in the off season he was going to work on his shooting. That was before he won the cup.
With the playoffs going until mid June, the celebrations going well into July, his August 7th birthday celebration with the cup, having Mike Babcock and the Canada’s Olympic Team fishing for a Stills to go with Crosby and Nash for a few weeks, and with training camp right around the corner, you have to wonder if he’s found the time. The big money is on ...
At a few minutes after 8pm tonight, a puck will be dropped inside the Joe Lewis Arena in downtown Detroit and the hopes and aspirations of 40 NHLers and millions of fans will be riding on a 60 minute battle to the end. All bets will be off. Lord Stanley’s Cup will be polished behind the scenes, fans from both cities will be figuring out the best place to celebrate the win, and every player whose skate touches the ice will use every ounce of ability in their body in a quest for something every hockey player fought all season for. It all comes down to this game. Are you ready?
Penguins Will Fly!
This game is going to be off the Richter Scale. This is Crosby vs Zetterberg, this is Fleury vs Osgood, this is the leagues top scorer Evgeni Malkin versus anyone who comes in his way. This is where the stars shine, and the Penguins have the two brightest. The Red Wings have only lost one game at home this playoff season and the Penguins plan on doubling that total by the time it is all said and done. The Penguins have proven their game seven mettle already this playoff year by easily offing the Capitals on their home ice.
Here is a list of four things the Penguins need to do to win: ...
This week the Penguins play in my opinion their three biggest hated rivals. Today the Detroit Red Wings, Wednesday away versus the Washington Capitals, and Saturday at home against the dreaded goaltenderless Philadelphia Flyers. The Pens have faced the Flyers & Wings both twice in the last two playoffs and the Caps once. This week will definitely show the Pens playoff mettle.
All PenguinPoop Posts, PKrundle | Phil Krundle | 
March 22, 2010 2:14 pm | 
Comments (3) 
for the KHL instead of staying with the Red Wings. By the time it was all said and done Detroit had lost players that had accounted for over 1/3 of the goals they had the previous season. 
