Oh What A Feeling, Pens Win

Wow. What a game. We're having a hard time saying anything other than that right now. Other than we wish we'd have been there, the atmosphere looked pretty amazing. The Pens may have been having a hard time scoring goals but they sure didn't last night when they beat Boston 6-5 and got scoring from some unlikely sources. Jay McKee started off that unlikely source list when he scored less than two minutes into the game with a nice back hander and in the third period Mark Eaton put the Pens ahead 4-3. The other Pens goals came from Sidney Crosby, Billy Guerin, and Pascal Dupuis who had two for his 100th career goal. Evgeni Malkin had three assists and now has 200 in his career.

No goal was bigger than Billy Guerin's with 0.4 seconds on the clock. Admit it, you thought the game was over when the Pens couldn't get it out of their own zone and the seconds were quickly ticking off the clock. Who would have thought with that little time left that Geno would pass the puck to Billy Guerin and he would actually get a shot off fast enough, let alone score? We admit it, we didn't think so either. We'll also admit that we never thought the goal scorer would be Billy Guerin either. We don't want to leave Malkin out of this talk either though, because with so little time on the clock who would have thought to pass it? We definitely would have just thrown in to the net in hopes of some kind of miracle. What a job by Geno too. These guys never say die and it sure pays off.

Recap

Aftermath: Penguins 6, Bruins 5 OT

Another highlight of the night was Deryk Engelland's fight with Byron Bitz. Nice to see Engelland willing to drop the gloves.

We don't know if it was the return of Malkin to the lineup but the Pens looked good last night and sure did end their scoring drought. Hopefully things continue in this direction. The Pens still have injuries, including Chris Kunitz who has been added to the injury list for two weeks, but they look like they'll be able to overcome.

Couple of quick notes. Seth over at Empty Netters said that the new Talbot A&L Motor Sales commercial has been pulled at the request of the Pens because they used their logo with out permission. That was probably for the best because the ad was pretty bad. Although we are tired of the other one too. Eh.

Secondly, there will be some Penguins shows airing on FSN including our favorite, Inside Penguins Hockey which will debut on Saturday November 21st at 6:00 p.m. with Alex Goligoski and Chris Bourque as the first guests. The Geico Penguins Report and The Dan Bylsma Show will also be in the lineup, alternating Mondays starting with TGPR on November 16th at 6:00 p.m.

All for now, our eyes are killing us.

Yes, we're still alive

It's no secret we haven't been around for about a week. If you've read us long enough you know we have some health problems. Compound that with some eye issues that do not allow for staring at a computer screen and you've got some real fun. Unfortunately we don't have any backup or anyone to fill in for us so this blog gets a bit lonely. We're going to try to throw a few observations and thoughts out there but in all honesty, there isn't too much to say.

- Obviously the Pens have been ravaged by injuries the last couple weeks and as much as the team, or even us, doesn't want to blame it on that, how could you not? It's not just losing some of your best players, it's finding someone capable of taking their place as well as chemistry. The lines have obviously been switched around and unfortunately not all players can just find chemistry right away. Think about playing with Sidney Crosby. You can't be lazy, and you have to be able to keep up with him. Not an easy task. You also have to be alert at all times, you never know when Crosby can create something out of nothing, not to mention those ridiculous between the legs drop passes you better be ready for. Yeah, so Crosby is one of those players that are supposed to make the people around him better, and he does. But not everyone will gel with him right away, or any other linemate for that matter. There appeared to be some confusion in some of their recent games and unfortunately that's bound to happen. So for the fans that are freaking out, calm down. Oh and on to point two...

- Those bashing Crosby should calm down too. For one thing he's only human, in case you forgot, and he can't do everything by himself. People tend to forget anything he does that doesn't involve scoring. The Pens lost to the Sharks 5-0 last week but in our notes we noted Crosby's skills. Most Crosby haters will look past it and so will the ones who bash him one night and love him the next. He's still the hard worker he always was and still has those unbelievable, defense-splitting moves. He's working with new linemates on some nights and generally dealing with the other team's top defenders. Not excuses, and he'll agree, but let's not pretend it's easy.

- Tyler Kennedy has really shown this year how valuable he can be. He brings a lot of energy and hard work to the team and without it, they just aren't as good. In the Ducks game he proved how valuable he can be. Kennedy had assists on three out of the four goals the Pens scored that night including his diving "poke check pass" to Goligoski who then buried a slap shot. We're not completely surprised but we're sure there were plenty who were and wouldn't have thought that one of the most missed players would be Kennedy.

- We have to say Jordan Staal has flashes of brilliance where he looks unstoppable, and then most of the time he's just kind of good. We're not suggesting the Pens get rid of him or even that he's bad, but especially with Geno out, this was his chance to shine and unfortunately he hasn't impressed us. He's just not consistent enough. His penalty killing is invaluable though.

- Billy Guerin. We love the guy but he seems a bit slow out there. His play hasn't been very good from our point of view. We don't really have any suggestions or really anything else to say other than that. *shrug*

- All that being said, we felt that the Bruins game was entertaining and last night's game against the Devils wasn't what it was the last time they met. The first was pretty boring (we should know, we were there) and this game wasn't quite that. Things will look up, they already have in our book, and the Pens will be back to their winning ways. Although lets hope everyone gets healthy and there are no more injuries.

- Bob and Steigy said more than once that they hope Geno will be in the lineup Saturday. That in itself should help tremendously. Geno will be healthy and defenses won't be able to concentrate just on Crosby.

- Max Talbot's new A&L Motor Sales commercial was a big let down. Just sayin'.

New Yinz Luv 'Da Stillers:

Three is a Magic Number

Three was a magic number for Sidney Crosby and the Pens last night as they beat the Habs 6-1. Sid had his third career hat trick three years to the day of his first ever. Number three Alex Goligoski remains hot as he had his fourth goal of the season after hitting a couple of posts early. Chris Kunitz had three assists and his first goal of the season after a slump that had fans calling for his removal from the top line. Is that enough threes for you?

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 6, Canadiens 1

- Shouldn't someone tell Sidney Crosby he's not a goal scorer? That's Ovie's job! Watch out NHL, Sidney Crosby is becoming quite the goal scorer. His spin-o-rama back hander last night was especially nice.

- Is it finally time to stop talking about how Chris Kunitz hasn't scored a goal in 5,000 games? He wasn't supposed to be a goal machine and sure has earned his keep in other ways. Kunitz had a nice steal last night that he passed to Billy Guerin who then passed it to Sid who got rid of it so fast Halak probably never saw it. Those seemingly little things mean a lot.

- The Pens are the first team to 10 wins.

- Tyler Kennedy was out and we said recently he's a guy the Pens don't want to be without because of his energy and goal scoring touch so far this year and we still believe that but the Pens did well last night in his absence although Staal and Cooke weren't as noticeable last night without him, coincidence or not.

- Gogo continues to impress us with his play both defensively and offensively. He hit a couple of posts early on in the game but he kept letting those shots go and in the third period he let a wrist shot go from the point that beat Price for his fourth goal of the season. He also has a six game scoring streak going.

- Geno had an assist last night which gave him 199. Billy Guerin will soon be playing in his 1,200th career game. He played his 1,197th last night.

- After this week the Pens will take a trip to the west coast the first week of November. They will visit Anaheim, LA, and San Jose on the third, fifth, and seventh. That means late games, the first two being at 10 and the third at 10:30.

- If you have Dish Network there is a preview of Versus going on right now until November 30th.

Just another day at the office

Care to take a trip down memory lane with us?

Go Pens!

Hockey Season is Here!

Hockey season has officially kicked off today and will continue tomorrow with the Pens facing the New York Rangers at 7:30 p.m. on FSN Pittsburgh and NHL Network. The Pens will raise their Stanley Cup Champs banner as well.

Speaking of Champions, the company who made the Pens' rings has a photo of both sides of the rings that were hard to see in the other pictures. The left side includes the players' name as well as the results of each playoff series including the logos of each (the Caps' is altered). We thought this was a pretty unique idea in terms of using the logos with the record. We like it a lot.

- The NHL Network will be airing a show called Off the Ice with interviews from a lot of NHL stars. Monday October 5th will feature Sidney Crosby as well as Alexander Ovechkin. Evgeni Malkin was also one of those shown that will be on an upcoming episode. The show airs at 7:30 p.m.

- For those of you who have Direct TV, you know that they are in a dispute with Versus which carries NHL games. We found a thread on a deals site message board that says that some people have been successful in calling Direct TV and getting NHL Center Ice for FREE because of the Versus dispute and not being able to watch those games. It is definitely a case by case basis as some people have gotten it free no problem, while others have gotten other offers such as half-off. You can read the thread here. It might be worth your time to try and call and tell them you are a huge hockey fan and you are missing games because of this dispute. Feel free to let us know your experience.

- Penguins' Talbot a true 'superstar' Great read from Ron Cook on Max Talbot, Superstar!

- Penguins' Guerin not ready to quit How can you not love this guy?

- Penguins to celebrate Stanley Cup one last time

"It's hardware but it's not hard to wear"

We've got a lot to catch up on but we've got to start with the rings. The Pens received their Stanley Cup Championship rings yesterday and reverting to some annoying early 2000s slang, talk about some bling bling! At around 4.5 karats and 167 diamonds with a custom cut black onyx for the Penguins' logo, that is some serious bling. We think it looks really great. We have to say we think it's better than the Steelers' Super Bowl rings this year, although we expected the Pens' rings to be smaller and not compete with the huge rings the Steelers got. Shows what we know. What do you think?

Enough of us talking, here's the pictures:

(All photos Peter Diana/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Nice.

The rings were given out at a private ceremony Tuesday night. They were given out by number so Captain Sidney Crosby had to wait quite a while for his but didn't sneak a peak of others' before he had his own in his hands. Billy Guerin was eager to share his thoughts with the media which is where our title comes from. Guerin joked about his ring saying, "it's hardware but it's not hard to wear." We're sure it's not.

Something else arrived in Pittsburgh yesterday that has some value. The Stanley Cup was back from the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto with Penguins' names inscribed. The Penguins' site provided the above picture of the newly engraved names.

- If you're in the Pittsburgh area you have a chance to see the Stanley Cup as well as the Lombardi Trophy at the City-County Building Portico from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thursday October 1st (today).

- You can watch the Pens raise their new Stanley Cup Champs banner as well as the game Friday night outside on the big screen. It is up and running now, showing highlights and the Penguins Stanley Cup Champs DVD. The Penguins also decided to add post-game fireworks to the festivities as long as the weather permits.

- The Penguins gained a player and lost a player Wednesday on waivers. The Pens claimed forward Chris Bourque off of waivers from the Washington Capitals. He is 23 years-old, 5'8" and 180 pounds and was drafted in the second round (33rd overall) of the 2004 NHL entry draft. He played four seasons with the Hershey Bears of the AHL and appeared in 12 NHL games. The Pens also lost Paul Bissonnette on waivers when the Phoenix Coyotes claimed him. He will be missed by a lot of people and it's a shame to see him go.

- The other players that were not kept on the roster all cleared waivers and will report to Wilkes-Barre. They are defensemen Nate Guenin and Deryk Engelland, as well as forwards Ryan Bayda and Chris Conner.

- Seth has some good stuff on new Penguin Martin Skoula.

- Sidney Crosby has practiced and feels optimistic about playing in the home opener Friday night.

- The Pens will play Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and it will be shown on NHL Network as well as FSN Pittsburgh. NHL Network should be blacked out to those in the Pittsburgh viewing area. The Pens will also play Saturday at 7:00 p.m. against the Islanders. All 30 NHL teams will be in action Saturday. The season begins today with four games on the schedule.

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.

Pens win Game 4, sweep Carolina to head to SCF

(Getty)

Woohoo! The Pens are going back to the Stanley Cup Final again this year after beating the Canes for the fourth time by a score of 4-1. How awesome does this feel? We don't know how we're going to wait until the finals start. If the Wings don't beat the Hawks tonight to take the series, we're looking at waiting until June 5th more than likely. That's way too long.

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 4, Hurricanes 1

- Once again the Canes had all the momentum at the beginning of the game and even got a goal from their star player who hadn't scored all series not even two minutes in and they still manage to lose. Obviously we're not complaining but they had to just be out of gas. We fully expected this series to be a lot harder than it was.

- Fleury may have given up that goal early, but he was solid the rest of the game. That stick save in the first period was awesome. People like to complain about Fleury a lot, but he's shown he's clutch. And he wins games. How can you complain about that?

Fleury save about 1:20 in.

- Sidney Crosby and Bill Guerin are looking really good right now. Last night we had a pass from Crosby to Guerin on a 2-on-1 for a nice goal. The game before, basically the same thing but reversed. We have to admit we weren't all that impressed when we heard Guerin was coming here but he sure has been valuable in a lot of ways. Does anyone think he plays like he's 38? We don't. Sidney Crosby can do that to you.

- How can you argue with keeping Boucher in the lineup instead of Dupuis? He's played well and that pass to Feds last night for the Pens' first goal was nice.

- We have to give a lot of credit to Cam Ward. He was by far their best player in the entire series and, a lot of the time, the only one who showed up. He made a lot of great saves and tried to keep his team in games and he was just not backed up. He just couldn't do it all himself and when you're left out to dry like he was over and over, goals are going to get scored. He took a lot of the blame but we don't think he deserves to. Hardly any of the blame should be placed on him.

- Crosby is close to the playoff record for points and he dishes off the empty netter to Craig Adams instead of going for it himself. What a player. Now Adams has three goals in the playoffs, two of them empty netters. Although that empty netter directly off the faceoff was awesome. That's skill.

- Sidney Crosby touched the Prince of Wales trophy?! He's shocking us all this year. First the hat and now this? Is he sick? We definitely think the whole not touching the trophy thing was a little over the top. Besides, Mario Lemieux touched it both times before winning the Stanley Cup. How can you argue with that? The trophy even got a nice ride home.

Picture is from the Penguins Facebook page and thanks to Seth from EN for finding it.

The Prince of Wales trophy presentation:

Max Talbot's phenomenal interview with Dan Potash after the game:

Interviews with Sidney Crosby, Bill Guerin, and Marc-Andre Fleury:

Pens coverage at the Post-Gazette

Who's next? Bring it.

Go Pens!

Pens take 2-0 series lead

(Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)

Woooooooooooooo! What a game last night huh? Just when you think the Flyers might have gotten a win, the Pens fight back and win 3-2 in overtime. This was a great game to watch with tons of action with not a lot of stoppages. The Flyers obviously listened to their coach about being more disciplined, well at least until the end of the game, because there were no where near the amount of penalties as in game 1.

The Pens came out flying to start the game and got plenty of good chances in the Flyers' zone. They were swarming and it just felt like it was only a matter of time before they buried one in the back of the net. The game went over seven minutes without a whistle, which was plenty entertaining and all Penguins. Malkin would hit a post and there were hits all over the ice. It seemed like every Pens player on the ice were making big hits, one after the other. Who said the Pens can't be physical? The Pens had a power play but wouldn't cash in. Not long after that, the Flyers got a power play and it wouldn't take long before Scott Hartnell would deflect a shot behind Fleury, Pens down 0-1. Of all people to score. Hartnell would then pull something else on the ice. Sykora had a nice chance and Hartnell couldn't get back to defend so he threw his stick at Sykora to impede his shot. No call. WTF?! How could you not see that? One of several bad non-calls last night. Before the period was over, Marc-Andre Fleury would show why he's so important. He made two huge saves in a span of a few seconds. It's nice to have a good goalie, isn't it?

In the second period the play wasn't quite as fast, but the Pens had some chances early. You know the types, the ones that make you go AHHHHHH! The ones that just don't go in. Frustrating. Fleury would make a few more nice saves and there would be some 4-on-4 hockey before Bill Guerin would put one home to tie the game. Yeah! Dan Bylsma had just put Crosby and Malkin out on the ice together and they would each get an assist on Guerin's goal. Score is tied 1-1 after the second.

Just a few minutes into the third some guy named Powe would get a goal for the Flyers to put them up 2-1. We don't even remember ever hearing this guy's name and then after that goal, we heard it all night. We swear he was on the ice the entire rest of the game. With a little more than eight minutes left in the game, Marc-Andre Fleury would make a toe save that would rival his amazing save in game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals last year. Amazing. What do those people who think Fleury sucks have to say about that one? Nothing? Didn't think so. He gave a little jump after the save and was grinning ear to ear. Nice save Flower. Instead of that sure goal for Carter to put the Flyers up 3-1 and probably give them the win, the game was still in reach.

(Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)

Turns out that save would mean something. At 4:04 left in the game the Pens would get a power play. Now was the time to tie the game, the power play had to be clicking on all cylinders. And then it came. A pretty amazing goal considering what happened. Kris Letang took a slap shot that seemed to hit more than one person on it's way into the net. The last person it hit was Evgeni Malkin who got the goal to tie the game at 2.

(Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)

(Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)

The Pens were flying after that and obviously wanted to end this game in regulation. But it wouldn't happen, the game was destined for overtime. And now, it's play until someone wins, no matter how long or how many overtimes it takes. Hold on. This is when you find yourself holding your breathe and feel your heart skip a beat every time a puck goes near the net. There was quite a bit of that on both ends of the ice. With 4:34 left in the first OT period, the Pens would take a penalty. On that penalty kill the Pens would take the puck down ice shorthanded and Biron would come out to challenge. There's an empty net and AHHHHHHHH! the Pens couldn't put it home. Biron ended up out at the blue line. WTF?! We didn't get to see that unfortunately but all we have to say is WTF?!

With 3:02 left in the OT the Flyers would take a penalty to create a short 4-on-4 before the Flyers would take another penalty at 2:35 to give the Pens 1:29 of 5-on-3 play. Thank you Flyers! With 1:31 left in the OT, Bill Guerin would squeeze a puck in between the post and Biron's blocker for the win. How exactly did he do that? He sized things up and what a perfect shot to make it through. Pens win 3-2!

Game recap

Aftermath: Penguins 3, Flyers 2 OT

- What was up with the Refs tonight? The game definitely was not called as tight as game 1 was and there were a lot of missed penalties we thought. We know, can't blame anything on the Refs and we're not, but it is a little ridiculous.

- The Pens were hitting anything that moved last night, especially early in the game. If the Flyers want to play a physical game, the Pens will play a physical game. And win.

- All we kept thinking later in the game was that Marc-Andre Fleury did not deserve to lose. He was playing great and made a highlight reel's worth of saves, especially the toe save a la game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals last year. He can take this team far.

- Mike Tomlin had some nice seats on the glass last night with his two sons. Tomlin had on a white Sidney Crosby jersey and his sons both had white jerseys as well although we didn't see which player. It's nice to see him supporting the Pens as the Pens supported the Steelers this past season.

- Speaking of supporting, FSN showed Dan Bylsma, Tom Fitzgerald, Kris Letang, Phillippe Boucher, and Ray Shero taking in a Pirates game Thursday on their day off. Again, nice to see the teams supporting each other.

- It feels great having a 2-0 lead on the series, especially with going into Philly on Sunday afternoon. The Flyers wanted a split and they almost got it. The momentum going into Sunday's game 3 is on the Penguins side, right where it needs to be going into a place like Philly. We can't wait to hear the Crosby sucks chants and all the Cindy Crysby and diver signs. We all know what happens when Philly is at it's best (worst). You get the best out of Sidney Crosby. Will they ever learn?

Pens coverage over at the PG.

Go Pens!

P.S. Some members of the team have great beards started like Bill Guerin, Max Talbot, Pascal Dupuis, and even the owner himself Mario Lemieux. We hope to find some pictures soon so we can keep up with the progress. ;)