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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Penguins Bust Out Against Panthers 4-1

Hockey players are famously superstitious. Many suffer from triskaidekaphobia—a fear of the number 13. Fortunately, the Penguins aren’t among them. On the contrary, 13 players have captained the black and gold on a full-time basis. Penguins superstars captured the Art Trophy 13 times. So perhaps it was fitting that the Pens snapped their worst losing streak in recent memory with a 4-1 win over Florida … on Friday the 13th.

The victory capped off an emotional day for the boys from the ‘Burgh. Amid rumors of internal strife over the status of injured captain Sidney Crosby, each player took to the ice for the morning skate with a ‘C’ stitched on his jersey. General manager Ray Shero addressed the team’s recent woes by declaring, “We will make the playoffs.”

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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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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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Pumped-up Penguins Steamroller ‘Canes 4-2

Contests between the Penguins and the equally swift Carolina Hurricanes usually feature lots of end-to-end action and plenty of shots. This time, however, the Steel City sextet outdid themselves. Facing a Carolina team that was fresh off an emotional win over New Jersey the night before, the Pens poured 52 shots at ‘Canes goalie Justin Peters and rolled to an impressive 4-2 victory.

Despite the gaudy shot total, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. Carolina drew first blood midway through the opening frame, courtesy of another tough shift by Zbynek Michalek. Trying to shake free from Andreas Nodl, the rusty Pens defender coughed the puck up to Tim Gleason at the left point. Gleason quickly fed ex-Pen Tim Brent, who beat Marc-Andre Fleury to put the ‘Canes up 1-0.

Meanwhile, at the far end of the ice the 25-year-old Peters was giving a pretty fair imitation of the immortal Georges Vezina. Making his first start of the season, the Blyth, Ontario native held the Pens off the scoreboard for 28 minutes.

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With Malkin & Crosby Out GM Ray Shero Can Scout the Penguins

I’ve never been much for the idiom “Is the glass half empty or full?”  The glass is always full, it’s just a matter of what’s in it. When the Pittsburgh Penguins take the ice tonight for the third time in a row without the services of both Sidney Crosby & Evgeni Malkin, Penguins’ GM Ray Shero will have a fantastic chance to see which players on his roster can raise their level of play to help the team in a time of need.  This “test” if you will, would be more of a test of the players heart. It would not necessarily be how many points a player gets, but how they step it up.  Almost exactly as could be needed in a playoff situation.

Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ray Shero for the most part has a good portion of the main lineup signed for the next year or two. As far as the players considered “roll” players on the team, most of them are not signed into next year. It is not that Shero isn’t signing players, he has already shown this month that he liked the performances of center Mark Letestu and defenseman Deryk Engelland enough to reward them with contract extensions.

There are players in question who Shero may or may not have contacted about contract extensions. These players contracts expire at the end of the season and these players need to raise their level of play if they wish to remain on the team. They are: ...

Pittsburgh Penguins Getting on Track

Hi again folks.  Old Reg has been invisible for a while now.  It turns out my day jobs and other responsibilities have been taking over recently.  I did want to take a few minutes to jot down a few thoughts I had at this point. 

1.  It turns out that maybe Sidney Crosby was right about Marc-Andre Fleury.  Crosby told reporters that MAF needed to play 5 games or so to get his rhythm back.  It seems like maybe he has gotten said rhythm back.  (Or at least let’s hope)  Over Fleury’s past 7 games, he has recorded a 6-0-1 record.  He has looked pretty good in each of those starts.  I, for one, am hoping he can continue to play like that and lead this team to the promised land.

2.  Speaking of Crosby, he is good.  After scoring a hat trick in the Pens victory over the Calgary Flames, he leads the league in scoring.  Not bad after a “slow” start.  Did anybody realize that had he made the penalty shot against the Flames, he would have topped Mario Lemeiux’s “unbreakable” record of scoring 5 goals in 5 different ways.  Lemieux   scored at even strength, on the power play, short-handed, a penalty shot and an empty netter.  Had Crosby scored on that penalty shot he would have scored a penalty shot, an even strength goal,  a power play goal and on the same shot an empty netter and a shorty.  So, he would have accomplished what most have said would never be duplicated, in four goals instead of five. ...