Game 3

The Pens are back home for Game 3 in what we consider a must-win. There is no excuse for not stepping up at home in front of a crazy, whiteout crowd against a growing rival. The Pens cannot go down three games to none and it's time to play desperate. Despite their sub par play, they could have won either of the first two games. It's time to wake up, go to the net, and get as many shots as possible on Varlamov. It worked for Crosby, it can work for others. We like the Pens chances if they can do this. Although the defense needs to play better and not allow Ovechkin to be wide open time after time because he will burn you time and time again.

Time to get desperate. Time to step-up. Let's go.

Game preview

Penguins Confident Heading Into Game 3

Today is Black & Gold day, rally outside Mellon Arena, and a whiteout

Penguins Notebook  Kris Letang is questionable for the game although the injury isn't as bad as initially thought

Capitals Notebook  The Caps aren't happy about Chris Kunitz's cross-check on Varlamov in game 2. Kunitz was not suspended but was fined by the league. We do understand why the Caps would be upset, it was pretty blatant, but this coming from a team with a player suspended for just that is a little hypocritical. Ovie also had plenty to say that you can read in the link above and we have to say the same thing. It's not like it's never been said that Ovie takes cheap shots. He threatened revenge. Maybe he'll be too busy head hunting to score. Bring it Ovie.

There is also talk of Ovie's stick having an illegal curve. That may be true and it wouldn't surprise us, but we're not really going to comment on this one. Unless the Pens are going to ask for it to be checked there's no point in even talking about it. If you don't know, a Captain or Alternate has to ask for the stick to be checked. Can you imagine the backlash on Crosby if he asked for Ovie's stick to be measured? If the stick is in fact illegal that player's team will be assessed a minor penalty and be fined $200 and obviously said player cannot use that stick. If the accusing team is wrong, they will get the minor penalty and be fined $100.

The rest of the Post-Gazette's coverage

The crowd in Mellon Arena tonight better be loud and behind their team 100%. It's time to show Washington how hard it can be to play in Pittsburgh. We also hope Mom and Dad Malkin are there to give Geno a boost. If Geno plays well, the Pens have an awesome chance of making this series 2-1 with the next game still in Pittsburgh. Who knows what happens then.

Go Pens!

P.S. We've been watching hockey all night between Versus and NHL Network. We are now the proud owners of both channels. Ah, it's wonderful. Go Ducks.

Remember:

We have some Versus hockey stuff to give away! We'll randomly select a few winners to receive a Versus hockey merchandise pack. If you're interested in entering please send us an e-mail at faceoffsandfirstdowns @ gmail.com with GIVEAWAY as the subject. Please include your full name and address where it can be sent. We'll pick the winners Wednesday at NOON so please send your e-mail before then. Thanks!

EDIT: We will take entries until THURSDAY at NOON. Also, if you don't want to send your full address to enter, send us an e-mail and if you are chosen we will contact you to get your address.

Caps take 2-0 series lead

(AP)

Feel free to caption that how you wish, the possibilities are endless.

This is isn't exactly what we had in mind for game two of this series. We truly felt the Pens were the better team and would take game two to even up the series heading back to Pittsburgh. Not what happened unfortunately.

The Pens once again were up on the scoreboard first with a goal from none other than Sidney Crosby. And on the power play! Wow! The first goal is huge. You feel good. The captain came through once again. The Pens were flying. Things were looking good. Fleury made some nice saves, the Pens had some nice chances. One goal went in and the Pens were heading into the locker room with a 1-0 lead after the first period.

It wouldn't take long for everyone's favorite shooter to tie up the score. Where did the Ovie go who was playing horribly sloppy in the first? Or the one that wasn't really showing up for the playoffs? We were allowed to hope he wasn't going to show up. With a little less than half the period left to play, guess who, would put the Pens up once again 2-1. Someone named Crosby definitely showed up. But before you could really relax (who are we kidding, you weren't going to relax) the Caps would tie the score at 2 with a goal by Steckle.

About halfway through the third period we were wondering if this was going to head into overtime, where things obviously become a lot more nerve wracking. But then Ovie decided to break that tie with a little over seven minutes left in the game on a Caps power play. Four seconds into a Caps power play. Yeah, that hurts. But wait! Ovie wasn't done burning the Pens just yet, he decided to add another goal with just over four and half minutes left for a hat trick to make the score 4-2. After what seemed like an eternity waiting for all the hats to be picked up, we watched the Pens give a admirable attempt at scoring two goals with about four minutes left. With 30.4 seconds left, Sid would score his third goal for a hat trick in which one hat was thrown to the ice. Thank you Crosby fan, you made our night a little better. The Pens would fail to score another goal to tie the game before time ran out. Caps win 4-3, lead the series 2-0.

Game recap

Aftermath: Capitals 4, Penguins 3

Pens lose to Caps 4-3

Penguins Notebook

Crosby's play still gives Penguins a chance

- Ovie looked crappy early on. He looked lost and fanned on shots, missed passes. What happened? The Pens need to do the same thing and wake up.

- Is Ovie's hair red? On Versus someone mentioned his new dye job and we were confused. Then we saw his interview after the game and it looked red. No, it was red. Like the lady that used to live across the street from us red. Not that that helps you any. Sorry.

- Did Sidney Crosby come to play or what? His teammates need to follow his example because all of those goals he scored were right on the doorstep. What is there not to understand about that? Get bodies to the net! Get pucks to the net! If even one or two of his teammates would do something, the Pens wouldn't be down 2-0.

- Where is Malkin? We saw him get a nice takeaway and hit Ovie once and then he took a stupid penalty that led to a Caps goal. We're not going to be too hard on him because let's face it, if his name wasn't Malkin, people wouldn't be throwing him under the bus. We know, he's the leading scorer in the league and MVP candidate and this is the worst time for him to not show up, but everyone has a bad game or two. We don't see anyone else stepping up.

- Is Varlamov really that good? Or are the Pens doing their best to miss the net? The kid is obviously good or no matter how hard the Pens tried to suck, they'd have buried more pucks into his net. But is he as good as he looks? We're not ready to say yes or no yet.

- People love to throw Fleury under the bus and say he sucks because Varlamov is "outplaying" him. We don't know. Both have made awesome saves, several last night, but the Pens being down 2-0 is not Fleury's fault. Especially last night when you leave Ovie wide open. Seriously, someone cover him. Please. And yes, we'll even praise Ovie here, he probably has the best shot in the league. Cover him!

- Fleury's bouncing the puck off of his stick a couple times before catching it with his glove after a shot was so cool to us. Maybe because we're uncoordinated. 

- Did the better team really win these first two games? We aren't ready to say yes. People are throwing the Pens under the bus, you'll see more about that below, but what are the Caps really doing? No, the Pens did not play their best hockey by any means, especially when you have one person doing all of your scoring, but what can you say about the Caps? Good goaltending and Ovie. Woo hoo. We truly believe both of these first two games would have been the Pens' if someone other than Crosby had stepped up. The Caps last night had Ovie and one person step up to score and that is what made the difference. If the rest of the Pens can't see that we don't know what to say.

- Did anyone like Ovie's Oscar winning performance last night? What a way to buy a call. Terrible. Sidney has the diving reputation but Ovie pulls BS like that? We think you've got the wrong guy. And Doc's quote on that play was awesome, something along the lines of: even though the sign says no salesmen, sometimes the doorbell rings anyway. Nice.

We're like a lot of other people who read comments and whatnot on the internet. The overall feeling we got was 99% negative. Now are we happy that the Pens are down two games to none? No, obviously not. But this is a best of SEVEN series and there's a lot of hockey left to be played. This is no time to give up on the Pens, no one said this series was going to easy. The power play has been bad, yes. Last night's defense on Ovie was bad. Did they play 60 minutes? No, probably not. But did they get blown out? No. Were the Caps all that great? No. Both teams had one player who showed up, the two superstars, Sid and Ovie. Who else would you have thought? If Sid continues to play the way he's been playing, the Pens still have a chance at this series. If he can get someone to join him in his fight, Malkin maybe, we like their chances of winning this series. Yeah, you heard us right. We're not throwing everyone under the bus and freaking out. Being down two games sucks, but it is by no means the end of the series. How many times have we watched the Pens battle back? Does the end of the season, you know the push to even make the playoffs at all, ring a bell? We're going back to Pittsburgh and anything can happen at home. A couple of guys wake-up and step-up and things could be heading in the other direction. The Pens need us more than ever, so let's do this thing.

And remember:

We have some Versus hockey stuff to give away! We'll randomly select a few winners to receive a Versus hockey merchandise pack. If you're interested in entering please send us an e-mail at faceoffsandfirstdowns @ gmail.com with GIVEAWAY as the subject. Please include your full name and address where it can be sent. We'll pick the winners Wednesday at NOON so please send your e-mail before then. Thanks!

Go Pens!

Pens beat Caps

(AP)

The Pens capped off their five-game road trip with a fifth win and two more points to give them ten total out of ten with a 4-3 shootout win over the Caps yesterday. Sidney Crosby earned the number one star after scoring a goal in regulation, scoring the winning goal in the shootout, and also gained an assist. So much for taunting Crosby, he did just as we thought he would, make the Caps pay on the scoreboard. And Crosby bashers were out in full force in Washington yesterday.

Crosby opened the scoring not long into the first period off of a nice pass from Kunitz to Guerin who was with Crosby on a 2-on-1 breakaway. Guerin slid the puck to Crosby who put the puck behind Theodore. Alexander Semin would tie it up before the first period was over after a mistake by Kris Letang.

Gonchar had a second period goal on a Pens power play with a slap shot from the point to put the Pens up 2-1. Guerin had parked himself in front of the net to shield Theodore who never saw the shot. Exactly what the Pens needed. Not long after that Guerin would be part of the scoring once again, only this time he was the one scoring the goal, and nice one it was. Pens up 3-1 going to the third period.

The Capitals had a power play to start off the third period and it didn't take long for them to take advantage. Ovechkin scored around 30 seconds into the period to make it 3-2. Less than a minute later the Caps would score again after a mistake by the Pens created a one-on-one by Laich to tie the game at three.

The game would end up tied despite a couple of power plays for the Pens after the third period and the game would go into overtime. The Pens had some good chances and so did the Caps, including a fleury of shots that Fleury would stop all of. Talk about a heart attack waiting to happen. OT was over and it was time for a shootout.

Alexander Semin was up first and he couldn't score on Fleury. Letang was up next and he couldn't get one past Theodore either. Kozlov was next for the Caps and Fleury stopped him as well. Crosby came to center ice to plenty of boos, but that didn't hinder Crosby who faked out Theodore with a backhand to forehand over the glove hand. Now it was Ovie's turn to try to save the game and Fleury said no. Pens win 4-3. Crosby was definitely the star in today's game.

(AP)

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 4, Capitals 3 SO

Penguins finish road trip 5-0

Penguins Notebook

No meltdown by Fleury; just blossoming at the right time

Obviously Caps fans will never learn that taunting Crosby will only make him play harder. But hey, that's good for us. Rob Rossi over at the Trib wrote a good article on the pressure put on Crosby. Most of you probably know we're not huge fans of the Trib but this is a good article. What has Crosby ever really done to deserve the treatment he gets from just about everywhere? Play good hockey and be a good person? What a crime!

The Pens next game is at home against Florida in another four point game on Tuesday.

Go Pens!

Ovie and the Capitals

(Reuters)

BFFs?!

Today the Pens will play Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals in Washington, their second game in as many days. We sure hope they have some energy left after yesterday's game for the Caps because they'll need it. NBC is advertising this game as they always do, Ovie vs. Sid. Is Geno invisible? We realize he's underrated and doesn't get a lot of attention even though he leads the league in scoring and now has a permanent "A" on his chest, the sign of a leader. We consider him to be the best player in the league right now, which is totally worth ignoring obviously. We realize he doesn't do a lot of media because of his English, which we think is bull now because his English is pretty darn good, but how can you ignore him in a game against Ovie and the Capitals? Ovie and Geno have only had a feud for a little while now but that obviously takes a back seat to Ovie and Sid even though it's really not all that exciting. Yeah, they're both good players but it's nothing like head-hunting with Ovie!

It should be interesting to see tomorrow how Ovechkin and Geno are. Competitive? Of course! Ovie attacking Geno every five seconds while on the ice? Maybe not anymore since they seemed to have ended their feud. Either way, the game should be pretty exciting with what we consider to be the top three players in the world on the same ice. Hopefully the Pens have some gas left in the tank and can match their aggressive style from yesterday. And allow less goals, please.

Game preview

Geno and Ovie: BFFs!

(AP)

Aren't they cute? (Well at least one of them) Geno and Ovie have put bad times behind them and are now BFFs. Don't believe us? Check out these pictures:

(Getty)

Geno helped Ovie in the breakaway competition by providing some props and even some Gatorade.

(Getty)

(Getty)

You can watch the video of that right here:

Awww! Nothing like teamwork between two of the world's best players. It was also reported that the two hit the town last night together. Can this story get any better?! We think we're tearing up. Or not. Does this mean Ovie won't be attacking Geno anymore?

As for the breakaway competition, Ovie's prop stunt was the best part. We weren't impressed to say the least. Ryan Getzlaf of the Ducks did the best thing we saw all night in terms of actual skills, but that's just us. You can watch the whole thing here:

Geno participated in the accuracy part of the Superskills competition. Video here:

Can you guess who won? Congrats Geno! He hit 4 of 4 in the first round, as did Dany Heatley. In the tiebreaker, Geno was 3 of 4, while Heatley was only 2 for 4.

(Getty)

Edited to add:

Seth over at Empty Netters has a thing or two to say about the All-Star game and Ovechkin. He says that Ovie gets it that he's in the entertainment business and he's there to entertain. We have to admit Ovie's stunt was pretty amusing and it didn't hurt that Geno was his helper. We still think Ovie could gain a little more class and aren't exactly fans, but we'll give him this one. How can you not like the goofball in this picture? Are we getting soft? Let's hope not.

(AP)

Ovechkin, Malkin put feud to rest in SuperSkills

Language barriers falling quickly for Penguins' Malkin  Geno is still a little shy speaking English, and still getting away with dodging reporters.

We're going to be total girls here on this. You know we love accents and Geno doesn't disappoint on this interview. Certain parts of his English are getting really good. How can you not love him? Geno talking after the SuperSkills:

Geno after the morning skate 1/24:

Geno on 1/23:

We can't believe we didn't notice until now that Geno cut that mullet off. YES!

Molinari on the Penguins: Number crunched

We decided if we talked about the suspensions for not participating in the All-Star game or the comments from Sharks player Jeremy Roenick on Sidney Crosby, we'd be here all day and night. Let's just say the suspension thing just seems ridiculous, especially if you are truly hurt. Ruutu gets two games for biting and you get one for missing the All-Star game? Okay.

As for the comments, considering this guy's past, he should keep his mouth shut. We can't stand when people run their mouth when their past is less than stellar. You're better off not saying a word. Yeah, you got yourself some publicity. In a bad way. Unless there is some big problem going on concerning who you're talking about, we think you just look stupid bringing it up. Even if this stuff were true, why did you need to say it? Maybe he should take lessons from Crosby.

We like what Faceoff-Factor had to say, so you should go read that instead of us blabbing on here. Plus, it was probably better worded over there than we would of spit out at 2:30 am.

Lastly, do yourself a favor and watch this Inside Penguins Hockey if you haven't already caught it on FSN. This episode featured Max Talbot and Marc-Andre Fleury and it was a good episode that will make you laugh.

Whew, that was quite the post. We'll be back with some Steelers stuff later on.

The last few videos are giving us some trouble now and aren't loading right all of a sudden, if they don't load for you we'll try to fix it tomorrow.