Pens beat Lightning

The Pens took on old teammate Ryan Malone and the Tampa Bay Lightning last night at Mellon Arena and came out with a 4-1 victory. The Pens are now 7-1 with 14 points and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury sitting pretty with a perfect 7-0 record. The game looked about like it should have, the Pens dominating a lesser team, even giving the Lightning seven power plays in which they could only score once. The Pens cannot continue, however to give teams this many chances because all teams are not like the Lightning. We can't figure out exactly what it is with the lack of discipline or why but it is an aspect of their game they need to cut down on.

Speaking of things the Pens need to work on, the power play could use some help. The Pens were not bad in terms of puck possession, but were doing a heck of a lot of passing at times last night during the power play and not enough shooting and scoring. The Pens even had over a minute and a half on a 5-on -3 in which they couldn't capitalize. The Pens did have one power play goal courtesy of Billy Guerin early in the first period to put the Pens up 1-0. Assists coming from Evgeni Malkin and Alex Goligoski. Before the first period was over the Pens would make the score 2-0 on a Sergei Gonchar goal assisted by Brooks Orpik and Sidney Crosby.

In the second period Pascal Dupuis would take a tripping penalty to put the Lightning on the power play. With 13:42 left in the second, Steven Stamkos would score the Lightning's first and only goal of the night. But it wouldn't take long for the Pens to answer that goal with one of their own to take back their two goal lead. With 11:45 left in the second, Sergei Gonchar would appear to have another slap shot goal but it would later be awarded to Dupuis with assists from Ruslan Fedotenko and Gonch. Score now 3-1. The Lightning would take a ridiculous amount of penalties at the end of the second period, even giving the Pens a lot of time on a 5-on-3 but the Pens could not convert. The period would end with the Pens up 3-1.

The Pens would still have over a minute of power play time to start the third period but no goal once again. The Pens would get even more power play time during the first half of the period but there was still nothing going on there. But the scoring wasn't quite over for the Pens. With 8:39 left in the third, Mike Rupp would get his second goal from a nice Sidney Crosby backhand pass that would put the Pens up 4-1. The Lightning would get plenty of chances to score thanks to some penalties by the Pens but would fail to score another goal, even after pulling their goalie. Pens win 4-1.

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 4, Lightning 1

- We weren't sure about the Jay McKee signing but once again it's another example of just trust Ray Shero. McKee had SEVEN blocked shots last night and leads the league with 28 of them. He's not afraid to sacrifice his body to help the team, exactly as he was advertised.

- We've mentioned it before and we'll say it again, Alex Goligoski looks great. We thought he was good in his time with the team last year with Gonchar out but he's remarkably better this year. He made several great plays last night and even had a few tricks up his sleeves like his nifty backhand pass at the blue line during a power play. Looks like losing Scuds and Gill wasn't as painful as we thought.

- Fleury continues to look great. Not that he hasn't always been a loose and laid back kind of guy but he looks amazingly relaxed all the time. He has even more reason to stand in his crease and smile with a perfect 7-0 record this year and seeing pretty much anything that comes his way.

- How good do the Pens look in general? They are definitely not playing perfect hockey and taking way too many penalties and the power play could use a little help getting going but they're winning games and looking good doing it. If they can fix those faults, continue to get scoring from all lines, and Fleury keeps playing the way he has in the last seven games and it's kind of scary how good they could be.

Next game is Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. on Versus against the St. Louis Blues.

FSN has been airing segments called My Day With Stanley that chronicle what the players did on their day with the Cup. Last night was Geno and here's the video.

Let's Go Pens!

Greetings from training camp

We headed down to Pens training camp last Sunday and took a ton of pictures, some of which were not worth looking at unfortunately. Below are a few of them with a story or two while we're at it. Enjoy.

Consol Energy Center from the Mellon Arena side.

Jordan Staal walking in just before the start looking a tad sleepy.

GENO!

Eric Goddard

Tyler Kennedy with Dan Bylsma practicing a little shooting.

Marc-Andre Fleury

Jordan Staal on the "faceoff."

Doing a little planning on the white board.

Brooks Orpik

Sergei Gonchar

Fleury and Dupuis having a strategy session.

Brooks Orpik

An end of session puckfest on Fleury.

Billy Guerin and Chris Kunitz chatting it up.

Sidney Crosby!

Sid is even intense in practice.

Fleury

John Curry

Sid

After session stretching.

After practice shots of the guys leaving.

Sergei Gonchar

Could it be Sidney Crosby?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! *screaming*

Nope. But everyone sure thought it was, yelling his name and demanding autographs. He finally had to say "I'm not Sid." We have to give it to them, it does look like Sid from that point of view, but Sid has bigger calves! C'mon people!

Billy Guerin showing the cooking staff his goodies. Someone asked him what it was and he responded "booze!" Laughing ensued and he proceeded to say that it was "the special kind" and that "he wouldn't drink it." He threw it in his car and then went to sign autographs. When he came back to his car he told everyone to take it easy and waved. Very likable guy with a great personality. He was taking the guys you'll see below over to the Marriott near Mellon Arena.

Alex Goligoski

Gogo and Billy's friends whose names we can't tell you. Sorry!

The real Sidney Crosby. He dropped off his "booze" and proceeded to go over to a group of people waiting for autographs just down from his Range Rover. The people were polite when asking for autographs from the lesser known guys but once Sid started walking over there it was total chaos. People didn't care about barriers or anything for that matter and basically mobbed him. He was being surrounded and quite frankly we have no idea how he deals with it. The picture below shows the crowd, just before he became completely engulfed.

Sid's Range Rover and Fleury's Lamborghini

Marc-Andre Fleury

Fans above were asking him questions to which he said he didn't know. He then was telling the guy beside him to help Sidney because he was going to get mobbed. They weren't fast enough. A woman who came out took charge and told the mob he was leaving and basically dragged him out of there and forced him into his RR. Kind of amusing really. (See below)

Fleury hiding from the mob.

Chris Kunitz

That's it! It was a good day and an enjoyable experience. We mentioned it before but Chris Conner stood out to us the most. He has good speed and was scoring left and right. Eric Tangradi looked good as well. Dan Bylsma also has this child-like love of the game that really shows. He was out skating laps and shooting pucks with the rest of the guys and enjoying every second of it. Kids along the glass were taking pictures and he would skate by and make faces at their cameras. Just an all around good guy. We can't wait for the season to start.

The Pens had their annual Black and Gold game with the Black team winning 3-2. Alex Goligoski had a hat trick to win the game for the Black team. Details here.

The Pens play the Maple Leafs Friday in their last home preseason game.

The Pens will receive their Stanley Cup rings on September 29th.

It's been a week

It's been a week since the Pens won the Cup. Are you tired of hearing that yet? Didn't think so. We know we already posted the celebratory video but we'd be remiss if we didn't post it now. We know you can watch it over and over again anyway.

Even the Stanley Cup gets lost.

Gordie Howe says that Sidney Crosby is shy.

Some jerk scammed Sergei Gonchar.

Pens win in OT, lead series 3-2

(AP)

Wooooooo! What a game. Secondary scoring once again and Geno comes through for the win. Take that Ovie.

A few things:

- Matt Cooke scoring was great. Jordan Staal scoring was great.

- How insane is Feds right now? We don't know what he did but he needs to keep doing it because he's getting goals and a ton of shots.

- Malkin's parents in the house a coincidence? We think not. Geno says they're good luck. We believe him.

- Rob Scuderi continued to play good defense against Ovie.

- Can you believe the Pens were down 2-0?!

- Time to end this Monday in Pittsburgh so we can see Ovie cry.

Game recap

Sorry for the lack of a good post but we have to end it here. We have to get up in the morning early for a busy couple of days. Unfortunately we won't have computer access until Monday night so nothing from us until then. Enjoy the game on Monday night, it's time to take care of business at home. Go Pens!

Latest episode of Yinz Luv 'Da Guins:

Look for another episode soon. We won't be here to post it on time. You can view them at the Yinz Luv 'Da Guins myspace.

We just saw on NHL Network that TSN is reporting that Gonchar is out for several weeks with a knee injury. Bad news for the Pens. It was nice to see Gogo back though.

Go Pens!

Pens win Game 4, Tie series at 2

Wooooooo! We hope we get to start two more posts like that because we have a series. The Pens once again played strong and beat the Caps 5-3 to tie the series at 2-2. Things didn't look good less than a minute into the series when Fleury let in a pretty soft goal and just like that the Caps were up 1-0. The Pens wouldn't stay down for long though and on a power play, Gonchar shot a slapper from the blue line to tie it up at 1. From there on out the Pens played pretty damn well, including holding Alexander Ovechkin to only two shots. When has that ever happened? The Pens would end up getting five goals from five different players including Bill Guerin and Max Talbot.

Short recap from us and probably like that for the next game or two. Gotta get some sleep for a busy couple of days.

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 5, Capitals 3

- Have the Pens figured out Varlamov? His coach thought four of his five goals were questionably soft. This is the first game in the post-season he's allowed more than three goals. With a game tonight less than 24 hours after last night's, we're hoping they have or that fatigue will be an issue. Time to steal a game on Washington ice.

- Alexander Ovechkin's knee to knee hit on Sergei Gonchar was obviously a topic of discussion. Ovie isn't exactly an angel on the ice and has been known to take runs at people. Was this one of those times? He's friends with Gonchar so you could argue it was an accident based on that but to us that's not enough to say Ovie wouldn't do it. It sure looked like he stuck his leg out to us and at the very least it should have been a knee on knee penalty. Instead he gets a tripping penalty. What a joke. The league will review it and decide if any action should be taken. He better at least get fined for that. We highly doubt they'll suspend him only for the fact that he's AO, which is sad.

- Gonchar's loss will be felt but the Pens can still win without him. Someone has to step up. The Pens have the momentum going into Washington and they need to keep it that way. Hopefully the injury isn't as bad as it seems.

- The Pens getting goals from five different players is extremely promising. They were having trouble getting scoring from anyone not named Crosby. The whole team needs to contribute in order for them to be successful. We now need Kunitz to get a goal.

- What is it with Max Talbot and big goals? He sure knows when to score them. He's not who you think of to get you a big goal but he sure can come through for you. He had a couple of chances before he scored the Pens' fifth goal to put the game away and he said Geno shook his head at him. We think Geno forgave him after that goal.

- The Pens holding Ovie to only two shots is pretty amazing. That doesn't happen very often.

The Pens need to ride the momentum into Washington for Game 5 and keep getting to net and throw as many shots at Varlamov as possible. Taking the game in Washington could be the end of this series and the chance for the Pens to clinch at home.

Game preview

Go Pens!