STEELERS WIN!!!

(AP)

The Steelers beat the San Diego Chargers 35-24 to advance to the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens. We can't wait to shut up Ray Lewis. Recap/post later. Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Steelers vs. Chargers

The Steelers will face the San Diego Chargers today at 4:45 p.m. in an AFC playoff game. Winner goes to the AFC Championship game against the Ravens. Woo! We honestly try not to read too much when it comes to this stuff because at the end of the day, someone is going to come out a winner no matter what these so called experts say. And in terms of this game, it seems like all we heard or read was that this was basically a tiny speed bump for the Steelers to the AFC Championship game. Don't get us wrong, we want the Steelers to win and think they will, but it seems like a lot of people are completely writing San Diego off. After all, we've been talking about the AFC Championship game rematch against the Ravens for how long now? We don't think this will miraculously cause the Chargers to win the game or anything, but we doubt it'll be as easy as so many people think it will be. Of course, if it is, we'll be happy to eat crow. Or raven.

Ron Cook has had two good articles the last couple of days that are worth a read. First off is his article titled For playoff Steelers, there's no better time for Miller Time. Basis of the article is how he thinks (and James Farrior agrees) that Heath Miller is the best tight end in the league and he can be a big factor in today's game. He disagrees (as do we) on Bruce Arians' decision to take Miller out on some third downs. Who has better hands and the ability to basically run over defenders? Okay, Hines Ward. Miller also works hard on each and every down he is in the game. More than likely, on a good run play, Miller has been responsible for a key block. He definitely deserves more recognition for what he does.

Cook's second article called Let Roethlisberger find the win, the way he knows how is another one we agree with. You can argue all you want on how Big Ben takes sacks and holds on to the ball too long, or how he throws interceptions, but when it comes down to a close game, there's a good chance he's going to win the game. How many times has he won close games in the fourth quarter or overtime? Actually, five this season and eighteen in his NFL career. That's pretty darn good. If the game is close, we trust Big Ben to do what it takes to win the game. And with the Steelers' defense, we think that equals a pretty good chance of winning.

Steelers' Harrison took circuitous route to stardom

Injury never holds Roethlisberger back

Bouchette on the Steelers: The hot and cold debate

Consistently left in postseason tatters, Steelers must recreate history or else - Gene Collier

http://www.post-gazette.com/steelers/ for all the Steelers reading you could ever want. As well as coverage from San Diego as well.

That's all from us for now. Time to rest up for the big game. HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE GO!

Big surprise, Pens lose

We were completely entertained today when we watched Inside Penguins Hockey with Max Talbot and Marc-Andre Fleury. Things were great. Talking about fashion, dinner, and Danny Potash. We were laughing our heads off. Ah, good times. Then we found out Dany Sabourin was starting in net and figured it was over before it even began. Yeah, we know, great attitude. Right from the start we calmed down a bit, it was going okay in net, he was making some saves. The first goal didn't seem to be his fault so we were okay. And then Crosby assisting Geno on a nice goal (a Power Play goal!!!) tied it up and we felt like we could breathe. Bad idea. 

Colorado scores in the second and the Pens are down again. Then the two-headed monster strikes again, this time Geno to Crosby, and we're right back in it. So we feel better for a while. A very short while. Almost no time at all. Then before you know it the Pens are back down by two to head into the third. 

Fleury comes in and plays pretty well. We think. We're guilty, we switched over to see the score of the Ravens - Titans game a few times. Whoops. Jordan Staal gets a short handed goal and a it looks like the Pens are in business. Not for long. Soon it's 5-3 and hopes are waning. Where's the urgency boys?! Finally, towards the end of the game we see a little effort, but it's a little late and nothing came of it anyway. And what is Satan doing out there in an extra attacker situation? He's practically invisible all the time lately, why put him out there when you need a goal?

Glad to see Hal Gill out there but we don't know if he's 100%. And what's with sitting Alex Goligoski all the time lately? Last time he played he was on offense as a winger. We don't understand what he did that he's not playing. Maybe our seeing is off or something but we haven't seen any reason why he shouldn't be playing. Especially with Mark Eaton out there. Boucher can be a little iffy as well although he seemed to play well today.

Something just needs to happen and we really do feel like no trade or coach change could really help. Unless all those rumors that never seem to go away about the players hating Therrien are true, we doubt the coaching is really to blame. It seems like the players need to just get on the same page. You'd think that team only meeting would have done something, but obviously not. One thing we do think needs to change and soon is the presence in front of the net. Max Talbot seems to be the only one really doing anything there. They need to get guys in front of the net to score some of those dirty goals. And where is the defense in front of the net? Players stand in front of Fleury (or Sabourin) all day. Where are the players getting these guys out of there? It seems like no one wants to do the dirty work. Those beautiful goals and plays aren't going to cut it. When will they finally wake up? When they really are out of the playoff picture? We hope not.

Game recap

Aftermath: Pens vs. Avalanche

Pens drop to 10th place with Colorado loss

The Pens will play again on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Oh boy, the Flyers. Will this get the Pens going?

Pens vs. Avalanche

Pens play the Colorado Avalanche (21-19-1) today at 3:00 p.m. The Pens better play a heck of a lot stronger today than last game. Hopefully the Dads won't have to suffer another bad loss on the road. If they do, the Dads should totally ground their sons until they play some good hockey.

And we're totally out of it right now so we'll spare you any rambling that makes no sense and get some sleep so we can make a somewhat coherent post after the game later today.

Game preview

So the thoughts/rumors are true. Ruslan Fedotenko is out four to six weeks with a broken right hand after fighting Colby Armstrong during the Atlanta Thrashers game. He was playing good hockey before this so this does hurt the team. Too bad Satan couldn't take his spot. We're not sure how we feel about this. The "fight" was good as Feds took Colby down mighty fast, but that's gotta suck. And make you feel kind of stupid. Maybe we're wrong on this, we're not fighters so we have no idea.

Along the same lines, the Pens have called up Chris Minard to take Feds' spot in the lineup.

Troubled Avalanche getting no sympathy from Penguins

Seth over at Empty Netters is awesome as usual and had some great posts yesterday. Including part of an interview with Jaromir Jagr and what he would think about returning to the Pens. Talking to Ken Campbell of Hockey News, he said this: 

"I was thinking about it and if Mario (Lemieux) would call me and say, ‘I’d like you to play for our team,’ I would think about it a lot. I would play for the minimum salary. I would play for $350,000 just for him because I owe him my hockey life. I want to pay him back because he has made me what I am…besides my parents."

Wow. We have no idea what we have to say about that. We're too incoherent to think about it. Although right now, if he could come and score a bazillion goals on Sid's line, that'd be awesome.

Head over and also read that the Dupuises are not brothers (sorry folks) and see a freakin' amazing goal by Bobby Ryan.

We're sorry we're so lazy and we really need to learn to get our posts done before 3 a.m. We'll be earlier tomorrow. And hopefully more coherent. We promise.

We'll leave you off with the picture that Dick LeBeau and his defense took. We posted the link to the video yesterday. And yes, Troy Polamalu is missing from that picture.

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Sorry Dad! Pens lose.

What a game to have the Dads at. Get a three goal lead and BAM! we're off to a great start and the Pens are on top of the world! YESSSSSSSSSSSS! *Napoleon Dynamite style* And then all of a sudden, before you know it, here come the Predators. 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 4-3, and now you're having flash backs from earlier in the season. You know, when the Pens would build a lead and things were great and then they'd let up and all of a sudden they're losing. Yeah, good times. We can deal with those down to the wire games where they come out with a win, but these build a lead and then let it all fly out the window is for the birds.

We still have no idea what to say anymore. It just seems like there is no real chemistry there and some guys just aren't holding up their end of the deal on the ice. The line shuffling is now starting to bug us. Before, it was eh, but now it's just annoying. How can you gain chemistry when you're playing with different guys every night? Therrien is switching before games, during games, probably all night long for all we know but it's getting ridiculous. The defense isn't good enough and Marc-Andre Fleury can't do it all. Don't get us wrong, we're not saying he gets no blame, but he's not getting the help he deserves either.

That's really all we have to say about tonight. We missed the majority of the third period because we had extra hands to help us put up our new Sidney Crosby Fathead. Trust us, it takes more than one person. Took a bit longer than we thought and was kind of a pain in the ass, but in the end it looks pretty freakin' awesome. We took down a Ben Roethlisberger banner and put up a Sidney Crosby Fathead. Now we call that an upgrade. We have no idea if we think these things are worth the price, but damn does it look awesome when it's done. The extras you get really add to it too. Especially if you get a good deal, get one. It'll make your room, game room, team room, whatever look awesome. And yes, they are HUGE.

Game recap

Penguins blow a three goal lead to fall to Nashville

Penguins Notebook  Pascal Dupuis could play in Denver on Saturday. Coach Therrien said "there's a chance."

Today's question for Dave Molinari is an interesting one. Should Sidney Crosby move out of Mario's house? Now we've heard some people talking about this lately and don't really see how it would help. We get what people are saying in terms of growing up and all of that, but we think people tend to forget that this kid has had eyes on him for years and needed to grow up fast years ago. Most 21 year old guys are still slumming around at the bar trying to pick up girls, not making multi-million dollar contracts and leading a professional hockey team. Moving out of Mario's house isn't going to change his playing, nor will it make him any more of a leader. Not to mention he has his own section of Mario's presumably large home. Please give up on the excuses and stop trying to find answers where there are none and look at the situation at hand.

We know we haven't done our Steelers post yet, and more than likely we'll have some huge post with a lot of random stuff for you to read if you choose to do so. But before then we have a couple of videos for you. First off, Jim did a new episode of Yinz Luv 'Da Stillers. Jim, where's Yinz Luv 'Da Guins?!

The Steelers 'D' had a family portrait taken and the Post-Gazette has the video of it. As you can imagine, the guys were having a crazy good time. Enjoy.

Pens sign Jordan Staal for four years

The Pens and Jordan Staal have agreed on a four-year contract worth $16 million and an annual cap hit of $4 million a season. He is now signed through the 2012-13 season. Staal was considered the last core player Shero wanted to sign to a longer contract. We know some of you out there wanted Staal to be traded for a winger for Sidney Crosby. Well tonight, Staal is Crosby's winger. Staal will be playing the right wing, with Tyler Kennedy on the left. These three were together for a brief period of time at the end of the Thrasher's game on Tuesday.

As for the rest of the lines, they appear to be Geno with Satan and Sykora, Talbot with Cooke and Go-go, with Tim Wallace, Dustin Jeffrey, and Eric Godard on the fourth line. Hal Gill will be a healthy scratch for the third straight game. We kind of like these lines. Should be interesting.

The rest of the All-Star Game lineup for the East have been announced. You knew Ovie was getting in there, and another Staal has made it in Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes. You can see the rest of the list here.

Sean over at Going Five Hole has posted a link to a workout with Sidney Crosby. If you're a guy and want abs like that (trust us, you do) then pay attention and try out that workout, if you're a girl and you like abs like that (trust us, you do) then go over and watch the videos and drool. There is a screen shot of his abs to start the post so at least go and look at that for now, you won't regret it. ;)

Pens, Thrashers Preview

The Penguins will play the Nashville Predators (17-19-3) tonight at 8. The Predators are in the midst of a five-game losing skid. Sounds familiar, huh? The Pens are looking to keep the momentum from their win over the Thrashers going and get a win in Nashville. Hopefully scoring some goals and getting a win will give the Pens the confidence they need to play better as a team. It's definitely not time to say the slump is over after only one game.

Game preview

Pens Make Third Annual "Dads' Trip"  Twenty-seven fathers of players, coaches, and staff members will be making the trip with the team on the road to Nashville and Colorado. Ray Shero started the Dads' Trip during his first season with the Penguins after he had participated in others with other teams. Seven Dads are "veterans" of the trip and have participated in the three years before including Troy Crosby, Dan Whitney, Henry Staal, Andre Fleury, Serge Talbot, Rick Orpik, and Bob Scuderi. It seems weird to see Andre Fleury without the Marc and Rick Orpik? What a name!

For Orpik, The Hits Keep Coming  Good article here. Brooks Orpik is third in the league and first in the Atlantic Division with 134 hits.

The Penguins' game against the New York Rangers on Sunday, January 18 at Mellon Arena will be televised nationally by NBC. The time of the game is 12:30 p.m.

Penguins' to-do list for rest of season is lengthy  Malkin knows this, saying "We need everybody to score," he said. "We need wins. We need to win every game. Now it's ninth place. We need to play hard and win every game and go up [in the standings]."

Why don't the Pens go after Avery?  Wow. Just wow. Don't get us started on that one.

We'll try to get some Steelers info on here tomorrow. In the meantime, check out Jeff Reeds' new do.

OMG, PENS WIN!!!

(AP)

FINALLY! PENS WIN! The Pens beat the Thrashers 3-1. The power play finally produced a goal, two actually, to help the Pens get off of their five game skid. It's nice to finally be able to write a post that doesn't involve losing. Sykora had two goals and Crosby had one to help the Pens win. Malkin also had three assists and Whitney had two. We're glad Whitney is back, he's been logging a lot of ice time and either leading the team or close to it in time recently. Although we have missed Go-go, we didn't see where he was playing poorly to get scratched but maybe we missed something.

(AP)

He looks like he's about to puke. Nice shot.

Colby Armstrong was all over basically everyone last night. Checking, shoving, tackling, and fighting just about whoever was near him. He fought Ruslan Fedotenko, which was basically a one-sided fight with Feds landing one good punch and Colby falling to the ice. Each of them went to the penalty box, but Feds didn't stay for long and he went down the runway for medical treatment. He was seen flexing his hand after punching Colby. He never returned. You can watch the fight here:

Pascal Dupuis also left the game and didn't return.

Colby also decided to go after an old friend in Sidney Crosby. Getting on top of him on the ice and doing a little wrestling. We have no idea what his motive was in going after everyone he could, but it was kind of like watching Ovechkin become possessed and go after Geno over and over. Okay, so maybe it wasn't that bad, but was it really necessary to that extent?

The Pens looked good in the first two periods, although we're not sure whether it was because the Thrashers are that bad or the Pens really did look good. We do know that the Pens were outplayed in the third as the Thrashers out-shot them and had the puck in the Pens zone a lot more. Again, we don't know if the Pens let up or if the Thrashers were playing with more desperation. Could be a little of both.

Crosby and Malkin looked good tonight and those two need to be leaders and step up. Marc-Andre Fleury also played really well and stopped some good chances. We still think the defense in front of him could be a little more helpful, but they did block quite a few shots tonight we thought.

Hopefully this win and confidence can go a long way and pull the Pens out of this slump. One win isn't going to change things all around. The Pens will go to Nashville for their next game on Thursday. The Pens' fathers will be on the trip, as well as to Denver on Saturday.

Game recap

Aftermath: Pens vs. Thrashers

Game highlights:

We're just excited we can post that.

Power Play Breaks Pens Losing Skid

Penguins beat Thrashers to end five game slide

Penguins Notebook

Empty Netters Blog

Thoughts from a Rangers fan

Here is our guest post from a Rangers fan and his thoughts on last night's game and the Pens and Rangers in general. His name is Mike and he runs the site nhlsnipers.com. Be sure to check out his site and thanks go out to Mike for sending his thoughts our way. Enjoy.

Coming into tonight's game I was a bit nervous. The Rangers have been playing pretty awful lately. Every game the Rangers play; they either win a very close one goal game, give up a huge lead only to have their fates decided in overtime or the shootout, or just flat out lose and look ugly in the process.

I looked at this game as an opportunity though as well to pick up some confidence for the Rangers. The Penguins are in the middle of probably the largest slump so far of the Malkin/Crosby era, at least that I can remember. It is one of those slumps that every bounce just seems to go to the opponent no matter what.

Sidney Crosby seems to be the only Penguin with any juice and emotion left in him still. We saw that in the Florida Panthers game with Brett McLean. While the whole happenings of that "fight" are very controversial, there is no question as to what Sidney was aiming for. He was trying to pick his lackadaisical team up off the ice and start playing like the Pittsburgh Penguins.

If I were a member of the Penguins, although that fight was not as pretty as it could have been, I would have seen my captain ready to fight for my team and that would/should give me enough emotion to start playing with some pride again. Let's be serious, Sidney is not Jarome Iginla or Eric Godard. Sidney should not ever be fighting. He is a playmaker, not a fighter. But he was willing to get his hands dirty and show his team that they need to step it up.

For whatever reason, the Penguins still came out into this game sleeping. Sidney was the only player who I saw have anything to offer and the results were what happens for a slumping team: the puck just won't go in the net. The one shift in the first period, Sidney had three very good chances to score and all resulted in a combination of Henrik Lundqvist making a great save or a goal post. That is unfortunately what happens in a slump; you just cannot buy a goal.

Besides that shift this game was pretty ugly on both ends of the rink. There were Powerplays left and right and both teams have had awful Powerplays basically all season.

As for the Rangers goals, they basically resulted from the Penguins bad luck, rather than the Rangers excellent play.

1. Dawes: Lucky goal that took a weird deflection on its way to the net

2. Mara: This slapshot was a blast, but Fleury should have had it. I think this shows that the Penguins just are not focused.

3. Drury: While it was a great goal, it resulted from Letang losing an edge in the corner. Letang is a stud and would have been there to break up that goal.

4. Gomez: Great effort by Therrian to throw it on the line with 3+ minutes remaining, but again the bounces just were not going the Penguins way.

Overall, I think this is just a slump that the Penguins and their fans need to work through. Everyone just needs to stay positive. The Penguins have 2 of the top 5 players in the world on their team. You can argue all day where they are: 1,2,3,4, or 5 but you cannot argue that they are in the top 5. The slump will pass when you have that on your roster.

I know it is easy for me to say "stay positive" as my Rangers have been playing average hockey all season and thanks to the Shootout and Henrik Lundqvist, they hold the reigns currently to the Atlantic Division. I expect a similar outcome to last season as far as the Atlantic is concerned. The Atlantic will send 4 teams to the Playoffs again, but who knows where the seeds will end up.

Stay positive Pens fans and I expect some moves to be made soon for the Penguins.

We know it's hard to stay the course and be positive right now, but that's what the Pens need from us. Hopefully this slump will turn itself around soon. Here is the preview of tonight's Thrashers game. Enjoy the game, or try to, and as always...Let's Go Pens!

What else is new?

Pens lose. Again. 4-0 to the Rangers. That's about all there is to say. As you may know, we don't get Versus so we watched a bit of an online feed that wasn't great once again. We heard they played pretty well considering, but to be honest, we have absolutely no idea. Although it does seem like the bounces are never going the Penguins way and it continued tonight. The power play also failed once again on eight tries. That has to change and sooner rather than later. The Godard fight wasn't bad either, we did see that. We also liked Satan on the fourth line and Tyler Kennedy on the first line with Crosby. Although TK was good with Staal and Cooke, it can't hurt to try it at this point. We'll be back tomorrow to report on the game against the Thrashers as always.

We actually watched quite a bit of the World Junior Championships gold medal game, which from what we could see of the Pens game, was more exciting. Sweden's goalie dove more than a professional diver in that game though. It was rather sad. Even the announcers were commenting on it. Someone would barely run into him and he'd be flopping all over the ice and his helmet would fly off like he just got hit by a big rig. Esposito had another goal and also participated in some figure skating celebrating with a teammate after a goal. It was rather beautiful, really. Okay, so now we've lost our minds. We're going to get some sleep and hope that the Pens put up a win tomorrow against the Thrashers, who also haven't won two in a row since November.

Pens vs. Rangers recap

Aftermath: Pens vs. Rangers

Penguins woes continue in loss to Rangers

Penguins Notebook: Line changes put into effect

Penguins master the art of not scoring

There is no preview of the Thrashers game available at this time. If we remember, we'll put it up tomorrow. Let's go Pens!

Throwing Crosby (and the Pens) under the bus

You knew this was coming, we've made our feelings clear in the past, we don't tolerate throwing people under the bus. It's ridiculous and these people shouldn't consider themselves fans. Granted, there can be players on a team you love that you don't care for because they're an ass, but that isn't the situation here. We don't have any T.O.s or Sean Averys, only a kid who works hard on a daily basis, competes at a high level, and makes the people around him better. Not to mention he does charity work, buys luxury boxes for charity, and hosts hockey camps for kids.

By now you know who we're talking about, Sidney Crosby. Crosby has had a couple issues lately and all of a sudden he's the devil himself. The punching of the guy's balls was a little questionable, no doubt, but let's face it, that and more happens in the bottom of a pileup in football and we don't hear people whining about that. Players or otherwise. The we have the fight from the other night. We've already said that we believe what Crosby had to say, he hasn't done anything to warrant anyone to think otherwise. We say big freakin' deal and everyone is blowing that fight way out of proportion. Everyone makes mistakes and questionable choices. There are so many idiots in this world and we want to punch someone in the face all the time. Sometimes you lose it, and in hockey, fighting is allowed. So go ahead, take out that frustration! Unless you're Sidney Crosby.

But it's so fun to pick on Sidney Crosby! We really think him being the face of the league and the fact that he basically does no wrong, along with his talent, is the only reason people enjoy this. He makes one questionable choice and it's time to jump on his back because all of a sudden he's not perfect. You don't see other players getting this treatment other than the Sean Averys that do this for a living and they deserve it. It's rather pathetic.

Example: this idiot from Fox Sports. The whole thing is a giant mess, but you just don't say this about anyone,

"One can only surmise that Sid lacks the anatomical requirement to fully comprehend the pain associated with such an event, otherwise he never would have attempted it." - In reference to Sidney's balls punch.

Are you kidding us? Seriously? You're a professional writer and you write garbage like that? That crosses a line for us. You may think it, but you don't write it. Disgusting. He also goes on to say that Sidney is no tough guy. We're not going to say that he's some big fighter, but the kid is strong. You don't have tree trunks for legs and be a weakling. Yeah, ok so because you're strong or have big legs doesn't mean you can fight, but you're also hard to take down. Crosby had asked Georges Laraque when he was with the Pens for fighting tips. We're sure he learned a thing or two. Georges also said that when sparring with Crosby, he was strong and extremely hard to move. That has got to be worth something.

And then there's the fan that loves him when he's hot and hates him when he's not. You know the type. Now these people don't surprise us, but we have to admit it's just a tad surprising when people are calling for him to be traded. Just a tad though. He makes, possibly, a couple of mistakes and isn't hot for a while and OHEMGEE let's trade him now while he's still worth something! Still worth something? You have to be kidding. He'd have to do a heck of a lot more for him to have any decreased worth. One fan even saying his production is down and it's obviously never going back up. WHAT?! What are you on or what are you watching that you think that? Then there are the whiners that complain about him not shooting enough. We agree he should shoot more, but how many times have you seen him making that impossible pass for a beautiful goal? We put this in the same regard as Ben Roethlisberger and his whiners about how he holds on to the ball too long. Once again, we agree he can do that and takes a few sacks that you can't blame on the O-line, but how many times does he hang in there and make that big play on third down? Then they love him, right? Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad when it comes to talented players. They can do things others cannot and when they make a mistake, oh no they're normal! Sidney Crosby is not superhuman as some of you may think, so please stop whining about his imperfections, he's still one of the best players in the world.

We also have to add this, the fans also want to throw the entire team and it's staff under the bus. Time to fire just about everyone. We use a program that keeps track of who visits this blog and one of the options is to see what a person typed into a search box to land on this blog. Well yesterday one person searched, "Penguins should fire Therrien." Nice. What are you looking for when you type that? Someone who agrees with you, no doubt. Have fun with that.

Lots of random stuff

We're going to hold off on our opinion post until later today and give you a lot of random info. We'll start off with hockey.

Sergei Gonchar spent a little time on the ice yesterday with his teammates as his conditioning skate overlapped with a few early arriving Pens for practice. Good to know he's on the right track, but it is expected to be weeks before he returns. Gonchar is expecting his second daughter in early March, around the time he could return to playing. He says, "Me and the cat, we'll be the only men in the house." Poor Gonchar.

Speaking of family, Jordan Staal texted his brother Marc after his strange fight with Alexander Semin Saturday night. Staal said "I got a pretty good chuckle." Jordan will play Marc tonight in MSG. Anyone want to bet on how many times the fact that "the Staals are brothers" will be mentioned?

Mike Zigomanis, who hasn't played in what seems like forever, has finally been placed on injured reserve. Pens notebook here.

Ray Shero hears Pens fans but the Penguins aren't going for trades. We agree with this. We don't think bringing in more new faces will help the Pens win now or help team chemistry at all. The only thing we wish for is a winger for Sidney Crosby since it seems they can't find a good fit there other than the departed Marian Hossa. This is obviously difficult since not just any good hockey player can play and keep up with Sid.

Dave Molinari's Pens Q & A today is a good one. We like his sarcasm, it's great in our book. *Hint, hint* This is a preview of our opinion post later today so we'll hold off on any comment for now. Pens Q & A.

Penguins vs. Rangers Preview.

As for the Steelers, we know we haven't kept up. Our posts the last week or so haven't been spectacular and obviously hockey has been played while the Steelers had the week off. It is the playoffs and we should be more on top of things. We'll try a bit harder.

The Chargers beat the Colts in overtime to advance in the playoffs to come to Heinz Field on Sunday. This is the team we would have chose to face, now we'll see if it was a good choice. The game will be at 4:45. What a weird time. The Steelers would have no problem with another weird game like their first meeting against the Chargers as long as they come out the winner.

Ron Cook is getting a little ahead of himself and predicting the future by saying the Steelers will beat the Chargers at home and the Ravens will beat the Titans in Tennessee resulting in a Ravens-Steelers rematch. We really don't have a whole lot to say about this one.

See you later today.

Crosby fights!

Okay, so we're completely tired of typing Pens lose as a title so we figured we'd jazz it up with a title that will totally rock your boat. Or not, but it's the best we've got at this point. We don't even know what to say here other than the Pens came out strong and we have no idea what happened after that. This whole our cat could score a goal and show more drive than they are thing is getting old. Okay so we made that up just now, but seriously, he probably could. We have no idea what the answer is or even what the problem is, although we might bet money on they're not playing as a team. Any team who has that kind of talent should not be in this position and definitely should be able to score a power play goal at some point here. We don't want to push the panic button but we're getting awfully close because it's about as low as we can get at this point.

*Ok, game break, we're watching NHL on the Fly and they showed Alexander Semin in a fight tonight against Marc Staal and talk about pathetic. It's like a small child beating on his stuffed animal during a temper tantrum. Embarrassing. You can watch it here. Now back to the show.*

We'd also think that the Pens would be getting as low as they can before something breaks. Or maybe it already has and that's the problem. Sidney Crosby seemed awfully frustrated since he decided to fight. He said it wasn't exactly frustration, but how much can one person take? We all know his mentality on the ice and he's a competitor. Obviously he had no idea he'd be in the box for 20 minutes and we take him for his word on what he said about the fight after the game. We can hear the Crosby sucks, Crosby's dirty, Crosby's cheap etc talk now. You can watch his comments here:

We thought Max Talbot's fight was a good one, pretty entertaining to us. He won that one and good for him to stick up for his teammate. Too bad that didn't spark a little something out the Pens. Between that and Crosby's 20 minutes in the box, it wasn't for a whole lot of anything unfortunately.

The only positive thing we even have to say is we're glad that Tyler Kennedy is back in the mix. He and that third line were really bringing something good to the table before he was injured and maybe this could bring a little life back to the Pens even though it didn't yesterday.

In the end, it's obvious something needs to change whether it's the perfect line combinations, new players, new coach(es), whatever. We're not jumping on the fire Coach Therrien bandwagon or anything, but things don't seem to be looking up after yesterday's pretty crappy performance. Team playing and consistency need to happen, but we have no idea how. Here's to hoping for a turn around.

By the way, the Pens lost to the Panthers 6-1. As if you didn't know that already.

Game recap

Aftermath: Pens vs. Panthers

Penguins search for answers to recent slump

Lowly Panthers pound Penguins 6-1

Molinari on the Penguins: Dcember 31, 2008...remember that date

Penguins Notebook: McLean dupes All-Star Crosby into penalty box

Crosby and Malkin were named starters for the 2009 NHL All-Star game. Marc-Andre Fleury ended up a little behind Carey Price for the starting goalie spot.

Maybe we should get Angelo Esposito back, he scored a nice shorthanded goal against Russia tonight in the World Junior Championships. *shrugs* Now we're really grasping at straws.

Pens play the Rangers Monday night at Madison Square Garden on Versus. You know the drill, we'll get it on the internet. Hopefully. We should also have a guest post sometime after that game from a Rangers fan. Should be good. As always, Let's Go Pens!

Edited to add: Check out The Pensblog's recap, we especially like it and the photoshops tonight.

Pens play Panthers

We're being crappy yet again and having a short post. We should probably just get this out of the way now. We have some health problems and our days aren't always too great anymore. We love hockey and football and it always keeps us going, but some days that's harder than others and our posts may not be up to par. We apologize.

The Pens will play the Florida Panthers today at 1 p.m. Let's hope this is what the Pens need to get a win. Game recap.

Penguins work to get back on track.

Penguins report: Gonchar back on the ice.

Home not so sweet for falling Penguins.

NFL MVP was announced and we doubt anyone is surprised that it was Peyton Manning. Yet we still sort of are because...well we don't like the pick. We have nothing real intelligent to say at this point s we're going to end with that. James Harrison was tied for fourth. Harrison is MVP in our books.

LET'S GO PENS!!!

Pens lose to Bruins again

We're sorry, but this is going to be a short post today. Have to get some sleep so we can get up early in the morning for an appointment. What fun. We're definitely not morning people if you can't tell by out post times.

The Pens lost again tonight to the Bruins 4-2 including an empty netter. We don't know what is more frustrating, the Pens losing all the time and playing not-so-good hockey, or playing good hockey and just not getting the puck in the back of the net. Don't get us wrong, we would rather see them playing good hockey because then you know at some point things have to go their way and they'll win some games, but seeing all of those shots and not being able to get a game-tying goal is so frustrating. The Pens even out-shot the Bruins, but what more than likely killed them is the fact that once again, the Pens could not score a power play goal. Something else that is likely to frustrate you to no end.

On a positive note, Dustin Jeffrey scored his first NHL goal, and we thought it was a pretty nice one. Didn't take too long for that to happen. Seemed like he was playing some good hockey tonight and fit in really well with the team. Goligoski and Wallace got the assists on his goal.

Game recap

Aftermath: Pens vs. Bruins

Pens power play comes up empty again - PG recap

Penguins notebook

Tyler Kennedy is expected to be back within a week. We sure hope that third line can get it's chemistry back fast when he returns, could only help the Pens at this point.

The Geno Jackpot

(Peter Diana/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Does he have any pants on?!

For those of you out there who are like us and enjoy accents, you'll love what the Post-Gazette has to offer. Pens reporter Shelly Anderson talked with Geno about his new home, cooking, his play, Sidney Crosby and more. The bonus is that the audio from the interview is available for us accent-loving-crazies to listen to. What a great accent it is. Toaster, oatmeal, and spaghetti just sound so much better coming from Geno. Okay, so we've lost it. Here's the article itself, Malkin coming out of his shell in third season. And here are the audio clips:

Geno talks about playing cards with teammates.

Geno on how he likes to eat toast with butter and jam before games.

Geno talks about cooking and eating.

Geno says Sidney Crosby is the best hockey player.

Geno on how he's adapted from his rookie season till now.

Penguins Notebook.

The Pens will again be playing the Boston Bruins, this time in Boston, at 7:08 tonight. Game preview.

Let's hope the Pens can turn things around tonight. Let's go Pens!

Pens lose, hold players-only meeting

We feel like we're always writing about a Penguins loss on here. It's getting old. Call us bad fans, but we're sick of trying to write anything about these losses. Don't get us wrong, we watch every game - the whole thing, and wouldn't think of doing anything else, but writing about it gets pretty depressing. The Pens lost to the Bruins 5-2 last night. When you see the 18 point gap in the Eastern Conference standings, it makes you kind of sick and at least for us, it doesn't make the loss seem any better. The Pens started the game out well and continued to play well through at least the second. It keeps looking like things should be better for the Pens, but the end result seems to always be the same. Looking promising only lasts so long. If you can't finish games, none of that really matters. We really do think things will turn around and it won't be like this forever, they have way too much talent, but between Coach Therrien talking about the players complaining on the bench and his latest comments, we're wondering what's going on. He said that some players are more worried about their own goals, rather than the team's. He declined to mention names of course, but he's accusing some of his players of not playing for the team. Great. Brooks Orpik and Matt Cooke had a couple things to say as well. Not exactly let's push the panic button, but it doesn't sound great. They're basically saying they need to work on "team things." The best step in that direction was what happened immediately after the game, a players-only meeting. Coach Therrien is anxious to see what's going to come out of it. He said it was about time they had a meeting. Does anyone think Crosby had a thing or two to say? Someone was rather grouchy after the game when talking to reporters, although who can blame him? Whatever happened in that meeting, we sure hope it helps.

Recap and quotes from Therrien and others from the PG.

Game recap.

Aftermath: Pens, Bruins.

Pens Hold Players-Only Meeting After Loss.

Penguins notebook.

The Pens will play the Bruins again Thursday in Boston.

Yinz Luv...

New episode of Yinz Luv 'Da Stillers! Update tomorrow.

The Pens play the Boston Bruins today at 7:30 at Mellon Arena. Game preview.

Big Ben hurt, Steelers win

(AP)

The Steelers beat the Browns 31-0 yesterday at Heinz Field. Big Ben was hurt and left Steelers fans silent as he lay on the field while they took his face mask off and loaded him onto a backboard. As he was leaving he gave the encouraging thumbs up and the silent Heinz Field erupted. Thankfully it was only a concussion and he should be ready to go for the playoffs. That bye week really looks good now.

Byron Leftwich came into the game and played very well. His touchdown scramble was a highlight and it looked like he hadn't scored one of those in a while didn't it? He looked like a little kid out there. 

Hines Ward went over 1000 yards receiving today and also caught his 800th career reception from rookie QB Dennis Dixon. We would have liked to see more of him to see what he could do, although his first couple of plays did not go well.

We could probably say a lot more but we're headed to bed. We had an emergency to deal with this morning and just got home in time for the game. Frankly, we're spent. Please head over to the PG for all the great Steelers coverage. Sorry once again.

Pens, Sid look good but lose to Montreal

The Pens looked a lot better last night than they have in a while, but still lost to Montreal 3-2. Carey Price was the main reason. The Pens finally out-shot an opponent, but just couldn't get more than two goals past Price. The Pens had a lot of great chances and Price was almost always there to say no. The Pens weren't constantly playing in their own end and Sidney Crosby got off of the no-goals bandwagon by scoring a lightning-fast wrap around goal. He also had one assist on the other goal scored by Pascal Dupuis. We told you he'd get over his "slump."

On the negative front, the Pens power-play once again let them down as they scored no goals on five chances. The defense could have stepped it up a bit too.

Game recap

Aftermath: Pens vs. Canadiens

Crosby once again is number one on Hockey News' '100 People of Power and Influence" in the hockey world.

Penguins unable to dig out of hole

Penguins Notebook: Crosby won't concede scoring title to Malkin yet  Tim Wallace played in tonight's game after Eric Godard was injured in Friday night's game, while Coach Therrien said that Hal Gill will "probably" play again the Boston Bruins Tuesday night at Mellon Arena.

Molinari on the Penguins  Will Sid and Geno be the first teammates in league history to each get 100 assists in the same season?

Sorry for the short Steelers post here at the end, but we're in some pain (long story) and need to go to bed so we're taking the short route tonight.

Tomorrow's game against the Browns is technically meaningless in terms of playoffs or standings, but obviously all Steelers fans like beating the Browns. It's become less of a rivalry in terms of the winning is on the Steelers side in the last bit, but that doesn't mean that either team doesn't play their hardest or sees these games as "just another game." Both teams badly want to win, if for nothing other than bragging rights. Coach Mike Tomlin said that his team will be playing to win. So let the winning begin...HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!

Game Center including preview at NFL.com

Steelers & NFL over at the Post-Gazette

Steelers official website

Enjoy the game!