Pens vs. Hurricanes: 19 October 2007
“Pittsburgh penalty, number 55, Sergei Gonchar, 2 minutes for hooking. Time of the penalty, 0:25.”
Yeah, that quick.
“Carolina goal, his second of the season, scored by number 13, Ray Whitney. Assisted by number 8, Matt Cullen, and number 17, Rod Brind’Amour. Time of the goal, 0:59.”
People had barely started into their nachos, and we had already given up a power play goal. Dany Sabourin started in goal for the Penguins, and he didn’t have a chance on Whitney’s shot, a laser of a slapshot from the left point that grazed the crossbar to Sabu’s left.
Ryan Malone, still feeling his oats after Wednesday night’s implosion, quickly decided to head the Canes’ momentum off at the pass, and picked a fight with Mike Commodore. (Why isn’t his number 64? Kids these days have no sense of humor. Back in my day, Steve Heinze wore 57.) Commodore won the fight, but Malone got the momentum shift he was looking for.
Until Sergei Gonchar touched the puck again. He and Ryan Whitney both had cosmically bad nights. Gonchar’s early hooking penalty was a result of a giveaway off the opening faceoff. Later in the first, he gave the puck away to Eric Staal behind the net, but Sabourin bailed him out. On his very next shift, he had to return to the bench for a new stick, and ended up with a towel caught on the blade, and couldn’t get away from the bench until somebody grabbed the towel. Meanwhile, Whitney played the entire game with a bizzaro stick. Pucks were bouncing around, over, and off his blade with random results.
This game had a lot more 5-on-5 action, so there was a much better flow. The Pens killed a Jarkko Ruutu hooking call, then Carolina killed an interference penalty to Brett Hedican, and we were back to 5-on-5 again, where the bounces started getting a little goofy. Sarge’s bad day continued, when he blew a tire while attempting to clear a puck to the back boards, and he ended up shooting the puck directly at Sabourin. Fortunately, it was a weak backhand that Sabu was able to steer aside easily. Carolina had the momentum through this long stretch of play, and the weird bounces went on for quite a long time until Sabu finally froze the puck. After the TV timeout, the Pens got their bearings again.
The Pens finally got the equalizer at 18:58, as Petr Sykora chipped in a rebound off a wrap-around attempt by Sidney Crosby. It was his 250th career goal.
Erik Cole picked up a late hooking call, and the Pens started the second with a little over a minute of power play time. They added four seconds of 5-on-3 when Hedican was tagged for tripping. Erik Christensen, for the second straight game, missed a slam-dunk rebound, but the second PP unit was strong. Cam Ward hung tough and weathered the storm.
Then the Pens screwed up a line change, giving Carolina a 3-on-1 break. Sabourin scrambled, but Trevor Letowski managed to score on a wrist shot before the Pens’ defense could get back. 2-1 Canes.
During the next TV timeout, the Pens PA announcer acknowledged Canes assistant GM and former Penguin Ron Francis, and congratulated him on his upcoming Hall Of Fame induction, which brought a standing ovation from the standing-room-only crowd.
After killing yet another Ruutu penalty, the Pens had a 3-on-1 break of their own, but Evgeni Malkin’s pass through the slot was somehow deflected harmlessly to the corner.
About halfway through a Commodore throwing-the-puck call, Mark Recchi was dinged for goaltender interference, setting up the most bizarre moment of the night. With the puck entering the Carolina zone, a referee whistled the play dead for too many men on the ice. Oh, no, not again. The ref didn’t point at a specific bench and both teams though the call was on them. My best guess is that the ref lost track of who coming out of the penalty box first, Commodore or Recchi. They eventually got everything straightened out, and reversed the call, but for a moment there, it looked like we were going to get a repeat of Wednesday night.
Not long after that, we got a repeat of something else entirely: soft goaltending. Justin Williams carried the puck into the zone 1-on-2, and fired a quick wrist shot that fooled Sabourin. 3-1 Canes.
Then a scary moment. On his way back to the bench, Carolina winger Scott Walker suddenly dropped to his knees. He was involved in a collision with Ruutu earlier in the period, but didn’t seem to be suffering any ill effects until he collapsed. They brought out a stretcher for him, but he was able to skate to the locker room with assistance. After the game, the Hurricanes described it only as a “torso injury,” and that he was released from the hospital and joined the team for their flight to Philadelphia.
This turned out to be ominous for Carolina, as it completely stopped their momentum. The Penguins fourth line came through with a tough goal, with Adam Hall picking up his first goal as a Penguin on a Ruutu rebound.
Then the Pens got a late period 5-on-3. With Commodore and Brind’Amour in the box, Sykora did what the Penguins have done well so far this season: banged home a rebound, this time on a Gonchar slapshot, at 19:54. The Pens entered the third period tied 3-3.
The third was good back and forth hockey, with one power play for each team. Sabourin settled down after that Williams goal, and Ward continued to stand tall. The highlight of the OT third was Sid, but it wasn’t a goal. Charging to the net right-to-left, Crosby launched himself into the air, tucked his knees into his chest, and cleared the entire crease, Ward included, before making a rolling landing into the corner. No goals, so we go to overtime, which was more of the same, but with two fewer skaters.
Shootout!
- Christensen gets Ward to commit to his left, and scores on a wrist shot.
- Cullen slows as he gets to the slot, gets Sabourin to commit to his left, and scores on a wrist shot.
- Sykora fakes Ward out with the forehand-backhand, and scores.
- Jeff Hamilton fakes Sabourin out with the forehand-backhand, and scores.
- Crosby fakes Ward almost entirely out of the crease with a sick move, and scores an easy wrister.
- Ray Whitney realizes that he can’t copycat Sid’s moves, and just goes for a straight-in wrist shot, which Sabourin easily gloves to win the game for the Pens.
Final Score: Penguins 4, Hurricanes 3 (SO), number of games Alain Nasreddine has been a healthy scratch this season: 4. The other two were a “conditioning assignment” in Wilkes-Barre. Since when did rust count as requiring “conditioning?”
Three Stars:
- Petr Sykora (2G, 1 SOG, 250th NHL goal)
- Sidney Crosby (2A, 1 SOG)
- Justin Williams (1G, 1A)
If ESPN says “Who’s Now” is meaningful, it’s meaningful, dammit.
Excuse me for a moment, as I slip into my Media Critic gear. (It's a Hartford Whalers Pat Verbeek jersey, if you must know.) I saw this on rangerland.net, and it lit the fuse.
Have you checked the Who's Now results lately? Looks like things are holding to form, aren't they. Not an upset in the bunch. And, as you would expect, the lone NHL representative in the bracket lost in the first round.
Interesting.
Wouldn't you think there would be a lower seed winning somewhere along the way? Just one?
As the voting system works, 70% of the total vote is from espn.com readers. The remaining 30% comes from a three man panel: NFL analyst Keyshawn Johnson, college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, and Pardon The Interruption co-star Michael Wilbon. (Yes, there's going to be some math.)
To demonstrate a) how ESPN can't be honest about their hockey coverage, and b) how badly ESPN is manipulating the Who's Now results, I'm going to pick apart the transcript of the panel discussion, moderated by SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott, of the Derek Jeter vs. Sidney Crosby matchup, Daring Fireball Jackass Of The Week style.
Stuart Scott (SS): Alright, the 2-7 matchup. One name: Jeter. Against… pretty cool nickname, Sid the Kid. Keyshawn Johnson, Kirk Herbstreit, Mike Wilbon. Does Sid the Kid have a chance here?
I think we all know the answer to that going in.
Keyshawn Johnson (KJ): I think it’s gonna be tough, and the reason, one of the reasons why, you’re talking about a guy, who’s probably one of the top three shortstops of all time…
Don't get me wrong, now. I'm not taking anything away from Jeter.
SS: Wait a sec…
KJ: …four championships…
SS: He’s not—He might not be the best shortstop on his own team.
KJ: Well, we may not find that out…
[laughter]
KJ: …but if you think about it. Best shortstop. Four championships. Ton of money, and y’all know what else…
SS: What else? What else?
KJ: A ton of the nice figures [makes hourglass figure gesture] the whole thing.
SS: Oh, he has been linked, he has been linked, lemme just, lemme just run some names. He has been linked to Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel…
Michael Wilbon (MW): You can stop right there.
Yeah, Stu. You're rubbing it in.
SS: …Mariah Carey…
Kirk Herbstreit (KH): He’s already the winner.
SS: …Jordana Brewster. This guy—Vanessa Minillo— Miss Universe—
Calm down, Stu. Calm down. This is for national TV, now.
[laughter]
SS: Derek Jeter could hit .150 for the rest of his career and still win this whole thing.
MW: It is sealed. It is sealed for Derek Jeter.
That's right. Screw on-the-field achievements. He's getting every piece of starlet ass that passes through Manhattan. That's what puts him ahead the best player in the NHL.
KH: It is sealed. And this whole thing about Sid the Kid being up against Derek Jeter, I mean—think about—forget Derek Jeter for a second, just Sid the Kid. Playing in the NHL in this country right now, it’s hard to get any exposure. Even with the year that he had, he would literally have to win 3 Cups, and win an MVP within all of those Cup runs to—and then come back…
BINGO! The moment where ESPN pretends that it doesn't have a news department! ESPN is that exposure that the NHL can't get. Remember? That whole "Worldwide Leader In Sports" thing? Highlights? Analysis? Complete coverage? Those things that we only get on Thursdays, when Norby (NORBY!) lets Barry Melrose out of the shack he sleeps in on the outskirts of Bristol.
KJ: His time will come…
KH: …and then come back and (garbled)
MW: If we were in Canada…
We'd be watching TSN.
KJ: …it’s just not now.
MW: …it’s not now. He is…
KH: In Canada…
MW: He is in the future. Sid the Kid is the future if you’re in Canada. In, in the United States, it’s tough to be seen, it really is tough to see the games. I’ve talked to NHL players who call the hotels on the road first, to find out if they can get Versus, so they can find out—so they can see Sid the Kid. That’s not a good situation.
It is a situation of ESPN's own making. Lest anybody forget, after the lockout…
ESPN REJECTED THE NHL, not the other way around.
MW: Derek Jeter is the captain of the New York Yankees.
KJ: As weak as baseball is…
Baseball? Weak? Yeah, maybe Bud Selig rivals Gary Bettman in gross incompetence, but at least ESPN respects the game of baseball. ESPN shits on hockey.
MW: That alone…
KJ: As weak as baseball is in our country, a lot of us still know who Derek Jeter is.
MW: Everybody.
KH: Oh, absolutely.
MW: Everybody.
KH: (garbled) four rings.
KJ: Our kids don’t grow up saying “We gonna play hockey. We’re gonna play hockey.” None of our kids say that.
Right. None of the ten American first-round picks in this year's draft said that. They must have gotten lost on the way to Pony League Texas Hold 'Em practice, and their parents made them stick it out in hockey.
KJ: They say, “Well, maybe we’ll play baseball. We’ll run track. We’ll play football, basketball.” Derek Jeter, I’ll probably say, in a landslide.
Foreshadowing.
KH: Plus, the way Derek Jeter carries himself.
SS: Okay, but…
MW: He’s done nothing…
SS: …all class, all class…
KH: He is class…
MW: There’s no baggage for Derek Jeter. Everything he has done has been great.
SS: But… Sid the Kid: All class. No baggage with him, either. And, Sidney Crosby, the youngest scoring champion, at nineteen years old, of any major pro sport in the history of North America.
KH: That’s great.
SS: I’m just givin’ him a little bit of love.
KH: We appreciate those facts.
You're welcome. Right back at you for the condescension. That's only worth a 7-seed?
SS: Now for your votes.
KJ: He has a great resume, but not now.
SS: [gestures to Keyshawn] So I’m taking it your vote is…
KJ: Derek Jeter, and all twenty of the… [makes “long list” gesture] …yeah.
SS: [gestures to Kirk] I’m taking it you’re vote is…
KH: Derek Jeter, in a landslide. This will be the biggest blowout, I think, of the first round.
More foreshadowing. This needs a pipe organ sting, for emphasis. (They recorded these en masse before any voting began, so they didn't anticipate the 90%-10% smackdown Tiger Woods put on Matt Leinart.)
MW: Unfair to Sid the Kid. Maybe in the future, not now. Derek Jeter is now, and maybe forever, Stuart.
KJ: I wanna read the rest of the list.
[laughter]
SS: Alright, he’s played two years, one year as, like, The Man, for the National Hockey League. That’s what they think. What do you think? To vote, text “WN” for “Who’s Now” to 4ESPN. That’s 43776, or log on to espn.com. Who do you think is the ultimate sports star? Derek Jeter, or Sid the Kid Crosby? Our polls are always open.
Well, the polls have closed. The results:
Derek Jeter: 63.8%
Sidney Crosby: 36.2%
Not quite the predicted landslide, but close. Or is it? Don't forget, Keyshawn, Kirk, and Wilbon accounted for 30% of the results, so if we subtract 30% from the total, then divide by 70%, ( ($final_percent – ($panel_votes * 10)) / 0.7 ) we can get the actual internet vote:
Sidney Crosby: ((36.2% – 0) / 0.7) = 51.7%
Derek Jeter: ((63.8% – 30) / 0.7) = 48.3%
Oh, my.
Oh, my goodness.
Did the general public, who ESPN insists doesn't have any hockey fans, just prefer Sidney Crosby to the captain of the New York Yankees?
Yes they did. Guess what?
They also voted for mixed martial arts fighter Chuck Liddell (#5) over Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (#4), 54.7% to 45.3%.
They also voted for Barcelona midfielder Ronaldinho (#6) over Laker Kobe Bryant (#3), 56% to 44%.
They also voted for Barry Bonds (#5) over Jeff Gordon (#4), 54% to 46%.
Maybe this is why ESPN is only showing the grand totals, not the internet vote. Because a full analysis of the numbers would show that ESPN is forcing readers to select an underdog by a 2/3 majority to overcome a unanimous decision by the panel.
Unanimous decisions so far: 9 out of 13, counting tonight's open poll, Bridget Monahan's baby daddy vs. Big Papi.
So it looks like the "Who's Now" competition, which was designed to reinforce ESPN's preferred sports celebrities in the first place, is also designed to prevent the general public from deviating from those preferences, except in the most extraordinary of circumstances.
Don't let ESPN tell you that your vote counts. It doesn't.
Catch-up post
The overriding theme of the past few games has been "living and dying by overtime". The Penguins haven't been able to keep leads lately, and have been hanging on by their fingernails night after night.
Pens vs. Devils: 8 Mar 2007
Patrick Elias must have been scouting Marc-Andre Fleury in shoot-outs. Everybody else has been skating straight in and hoping that the deke or the quick release will beat him. Very few have succeeded. Elias had the last shot in the third round of a scoreless shoot-out. He swung wide right from the start, stayed out until he reached the face-off dot to Fleury's left, then skated laterally across the slot, waiting for Fleury to open his legs as he moved side-to-side. Elias beat Fleury five-hole to win the game.
Final Score: Devils 4, Penguins 3 (Devils win shoot-out 1-0)
Three Stars:
- Sergei Brylin (1G from flat on his stomach)
- Evgeni Malkin (1G, 1A)
- Patrick Elias (1A, GW SOG)
Pens vs. Rangers: 10 Mar 2007
Another one of those early-afternoon matinée games, so the first was mostly– Oh, my God! Oh, my God! THAT'S LARAQUE'S MUSIC! The fight everybody has been looking forward to since the trading deadline finally came to pass: Georges Laraque vs. Colton Orr. Orr got a couple of rights in early, and both players were down and back up multiple times. Laraque ended things with an overhand left and a roar from the Mellon Arena faithful.
The Rangers jumped out to an early lead by wrapping two goals around the first intermission. Early in the third, Evgeni Malkin scored on a power play to wake the Pens up. Three minutes later, Sidney Crosby scored a huge power play goal. A Malkin shot hopped up in the air, and Crosby caught it at the post to the right of Henrik Lundqvist, set it down on his stick, and poked it into the net over Lundqvist's outstretched leg. Not only did it tie the game at 2-2, it was Crosby's 100th point of the season, making him the youngest player in NHL history with two 100-point seasons.
Then, for everything Crosby and Malkin did to tie the game, they weren't even on the bench for the end of it. They had both gone to the runway for equipment work during the break before overtime, and didn't make it back before play resumed. The game ended with everybody from both sides over-shifting. Maximum Talbot made a tremendous effort to hold the puck in the Rangers' zone, and found Colby Armstrong open at the right half-boards. Colby took the pass and flung a wrist shot at the net. The puck hit Marek Malik's stick and deflected over Lundqvist's shoulder and into the net. Crosby and Malkin had to join the celebration from the hallway.
Final Score: Penguins 3, Rangers 2 (OT)
Three Stars:
- Evgeni Malkin (1G, 1A)
- Sidney Crosby (1G)
- Sergei Gonchar (2A)
Pens vs. Sabres: 13 Mar 2007
Party at Mario's house!
Who invited all these people from Buffalo? And why do their jerseys have hairpieces on the front?
I'm not sure I like the fact that we had to celebrate the signing of Plan B against a team that travels well. There was entirely too much "Let's Go Buff-a-lo!" last night. Ya know what? We were too damn happy to care!
The referees were intent on keeping their whistles in their pockets, which led to three periods of wild up-and-down action and a month's worth of highlight-reel saves. For all that, what little scoring there was in the first two periods came in bursts.
- Late in the first, Jason Pominville mucks a rebound behind Fleury. 1-0 Sabres.
- Less than a minute later, Ryan Malone tips a Gonchar slapper in the net. 1-1.
- Late in the second, Maximum Talbot gets the Cheapest Goal In NHL History, by flinging a pass across the slot, only for the puck to hit Ryan Miller's leg and deflect into the net. 2-1 Pens.
- Chris Drury finds Dmitri Kalinin with a pretty one-timer pass. 2-2.
It looked like Pittsburgh was going to finally bury a game early in the third. Crosby poked home a Mark Recchi rebound for a power play goal a little over one minute in to make it 3-2. Gonchar made it 4-2 with a booming slapshot with about ten minutes to go.
Have I mentioned that the Sabres have the best record in the Eastern Conference?
Just two minutes after Gonchar's goal, Daniel Briere and Jochen Hecht got a 2-on-1 break. Hecht made a beautiful saucer pass to Briere, who buried it. 4-3.
With Miller pulled, Recchi almost had an empty-net goal, but his shot was Wide Right. (Wide Right is a registered trademark of Long Suffering Buffalo Fans, Inc.) With the Pens' defense hanging on for dear life, Drury fought for a rebound and scored with seven seconds remaining to tie it at 4-4.
Overtime was a lot of up-and-down, with nothing to show for it. Shoot-out time. Again.
- The Specialist Erik Christensen dekes Miller to the ice, then uses the Forsberg Reach-Around to score. 1-0 Pens.
- Daniel Briere doesn't take Patrick Elias' advice, and tries the deke-o-rama. It dribbles wide. 1-0 Pens.
- Jarkko Ruutu finally gets his chance, and can't beat Miller with the forehand-backhand move. Ruutu can't beat Miller with the rebound either. Um, Jarkko? You're not allowed to try the rebound. But that's not Ruutu's job. His job is to get in people's kitchen. A linesman kept Ruutu from learning just how in Miller's kitchen he was.
- Drew Stafford didn't take Elias' advice, either, but damn, was that a wicked release! 1-1, and we need a brief time-out while somebody finds a fire extinguisher for Fleury.
- Sidney Crosby rubs his hands like a mad scientist. "Perfect. Ruutu has Miller so aggravated, he'll never expect the Forsberg Reach-Around twice in the same shoot-out!" Just to rub it in, Crosby went to the opposite side that Christensen did. 2-1 Pens.
- Thomas Vanek might have considered Elias' advice, but after watching Stafford, figured he'd try that instead. Fleury teaches Vanek the error of his ways.
Final Score: Penguins 5, Sabres 4 (Pens win shoot-out 2-1), number of Zamboni breakdowns: 2. One died in the first intermission and wasn't ready for the second. Of course, the other one died in the second, so we had an extra-long break because they barely got the ice done after getting one Zamboni back on its wheels.
Three Stars:
- Sidney Crosby (1G, 2A, GW SOG)
- Ryan Whitney (3A)
- Daniel Briere (1G, 2A)
Pens vs. Predators: 6 Feb 2007
If you saw this game on the schedule back in October, you probably thought it would be one of those marginally interesting inter-conference games that are like speed bumps in the quickening playoff race. A good Central division team that couldn't get over the Detroit hump against a young Penguins squad that would be, hopefully, within reach of the 8th seed in the East.
Fast forward to game day. The Nashville Predators, with a 37-14-3 record, are atop the NHL. The Pittsburgh Penguins are quickly climbing the Eastern conference standings, holding the 6th seed on the strength of an 8-0-2 run. Instead of a snoozer, we got an opportunity to see just how good the Penguins really are.
The Penguins had the territorial and shot-on-goal advantage (10-5) in the first period, but couldn't solve Chris Mason. Things started to look bad when, late in the period, Scott Nichol, unmarked on top of the crease, deflected a Sheldon Brookbank slapshot over Marc-Andre Fleury's shoulder to give the Preds a 1-0 lead.
Nashville used that momentum to their advantage to start the second, but Darcy Hordichuk got a little too energetic. For some reason, he decided to go headhunting, and chose Alain Nasreddine as his target. Nas dipped and dived away from Hordichuk's first attempt at boarding, but couldn't dodge the second try. As he circled behind his own net, Nas got wallpapered. To Hordichuk's credit, he immediately turned around to see which Penguin would race to Nasreddine's defense. Never bet against Maxime Talbot in a race. He literally beat Rob Scuderi to the punch. (Note to Sheldon Souray: This is how you defend a teammate! You don't jump on an opponent from behind as he's skating away.)
Talbot and Hordichuk got five each for fighting, and the Pens got their wake-up call. Less than three minutes later, Jordan Staal carried into the zone, skated to the top of the left circle, and sniped the far corner over Mason's shoulder to tie the game at 1-1. Less than three minutes after that, on a power play, a Sidney Crosby slapshot was blocked at the point, but came right to Mark Recchi at the left half-boards. Rex found Evgeni Malkin sneaking in the back door, and made a perfect one-timer pass. Malkin buried it from the right slot, it's 2-1 Pens, and the Preds are reeling. The rest of the second was a defensive struggle, with both teams collapsing around their goaltenders.
The third started in a stalemate, with a lot of back-and-forth in the neutral zone, but not many scoring chan– GOAL! Mark Recchi carried one of those takeaways up the right wing boards and toasted Mason with an innocent-looking wrist shot. Remember when it was Penguin goalies giving up those back-breaking soft goals?
From there, it wasn't the Marc-Andre Fleury Show. It didn't have to be. Instead of falling back into an over-cautious passive defense, the Pens stayed aggressive and kept Nashville from getting any offensive flow going. Jarkko Ruutu continued his goal-scoring binge with an empty-netter, Elvis' limo pulls away, and the Pens move into 5th place in the East.
Final Score: Penguins 4, Predators 1, wind chill in the Student Rush line: -4F. (Which is why Mellon Arena was 600 short of a sellout.)
Three Stars:
- Marc-Andre Fleury (25 of 26)
- Sidney Crosby (2A)
- Jordan Staal (1G)
Pens vs. Maple Leafs: 20 Jan 2007
Now that was some old-time hockey!
I had a feeling things were going to be interesting tonight when I noticed the large number of Ontario license plates in my usual parking garage. I said to myself, "Self, them hosers are making a weekend of this." Looked in the window of Christos: Blue and white jerseys everywhere. Olive Or Twist: More Leafs fans. Six Penn Kitchen… not so much. (Guess the symphony crowd had all of the reservations.)
Needless to say, things were loud and rowdy in the Igloo tonight. Favorite sign:
Losers
Even
After
Forty
Seasons
Next indication that things were gonna be interesting: five guys dressed in superhero costumes in B27. Superman, The Hulk, The Flash, Spider-man, and Wolverine. I don't mean to dis on Toronto fans, but in five years of being a Penguins season ticket holder, I've never seen anybody in a superhero costume at a game before, so I'm guessing They Are Canadian.
Next hint: Jarkko Ruutu scored a goal! On a penalty shot, no less. Not a cheap one, either. Faked Andrew Raycroft onto Bigelow Boulevard with a forehand move, then tucked it in backhand. Friday morning, Tim Benz was talking to post-game radio host Bob Grove. Bob said that a caller after Thursday night's shootout loss in Boston found an interesting statistic: Ruutu was 2-for-4 on shootout attempts last year with Vancouver. (Michel Therrien sent Sergei Gonchar over the boards again Thursday night. WTF?)
For the first two periods, it was just a lot of up-and-down action, with the Pens converting on far more of their opportunities. Jeff O'Neill scored an early power play goal, then Jordan Staal tipped in a pass from Evgeni Malkin to even it up less than two minutes later.
Then Toronto's penalty problems started again. First came Ruutu's penalty shot goal, about halfway through the first. To finish the first, Mark Recchi redirected a Ryan Whitney shot for a power play goal.
The second period was the Crosby & Recchi Power Play Revue. First, Crosby takes a pass from Gonchar at the top of the right circle, skates a big arc across both points, casts an area-of-effect mesmerize spell on the Leafs' penalty killers, reaches the left half-boards, and feeds a perfect one-timer pass to Recchi, who is criminally undefended in the slot. Three minutes later, that same combo does it again, tic-tac-toe style. Recchi gets a natural hat trick, putting him just two goals away from 500 for his NHL career.
Then, in the third, the wheels fell off Toronto's cart, starting with Jean-Sebastien Aubin replacing Raycroft.
Travis Green got whistled for hooking, and Jeff O'Neill must have said something awful about a referee's mother, because he got 2 and 10 for unsportsmanlike conduct. Crosby scored on the ensuing 5-on-3, turning a rout into a laugher, and the Leafs completely lost their cool. Here's a breakdown of the rest of the third:
- 5:22 — Bryan McCabe and Chris Thorburn, 5 each for fighting (Very few punches thrown before Thorburn wrestled McCabe to the ice)
- 6:04 — Maxime Talbot, 2 for hooking
- 6:42 — Nik Antropov, 2 for hooking
- 6:55 — Michel Ouellet, 2 for hooking
- 10:52 — Hal Gill, 2 for roughing (where "roughing" == "bending Ruutu over the boards at the Pens bench and demanding that he smell Colby Armstrong's skates")
- 11:08 — Power play goal by Ouellet
- 12:15 — Gill and Thorburn, 5 each for fighting (Thorburn wins another wrestling match)
- 12:51 — Ouellet, 2 for hooking
- 13:44 — Power play goal by Brendan Bell (really an own goal, deflected in by Whitney)
- 14:36 — Goal by Ryan Malone
- 15:08 — Antropov, 2 for interference; McCabe, 2 for roughing and 10; Brooks Orpik, 4 for roughing and 10 (really for skating in from somewhere around Harmarville to hit McCabe during the scrum after Antropov's call)
- 15:11 (yes, three seconds after the ensuing faceoff) — Maxime Talbot and Green, 5 for fighting (Green must have caught a glimpse of Mad Max's eyes, and turtled); Wade Belak, 5 and a game for spearing somebody away from the fight. (I didn't see who, and I haven't found a box score that lists a victim)
- 18:57 — Ruutu, 2 for hooking (as the Pens were trying to not run up the score by, among other things, putting Jarkko Ruutu on a power play unit. I kid, I kid! Ruutu was flying tonight.)
Meanwhile, I think I saw the cops in the stands more often than the Pens Patrol, as frustrated, drunken Leafs fans clashed with gloating, drunken Pens fans throughout the third.
Some of the more humorous things yelled in my earshot:
Crosby, you're a traitor! Go back to Russia!
Toronto fans: KAN-sas CI-ty! KAN-sas CI-ty! Kan-sas… feh.
Pens fan: Wow, I didn't know there were that many Royals fans in Canada!Anybody want to bet on the guy in the Flash costume being the slowest runner?
So, to sum up, we had a penalty shot, a natural hat trick, three fights, multiple altercations in the crowd, two failed attempts to start a "KAN-sas CI-ty" chant, two successful "SIX-ty SEV-en" chants, no waves, five guys in superhero costumes, and Evgeni Malkin racking up five assists about as quietly as one can have a five-point night in the National Hockey League.
God, I love this game!
Final Score, Penguins 8, Maple Leafs 2, time of the first F-bomb from one of the louder Leafs fans behind me: 16:22 of the third. (Admirable restraint, I must say.)
Three Stars:
- Mark Recchi (3G, 1A)
- Evgeni Malkin (5A)
- Sidney Crosby (1G, 2A)
Postscript: This morning at church, Rev. Ramsey opened the service with an apology and a huge smile: "If my voice sounds a bit low and hoarse, I apologize. I was at the hockey game last night…"
Pens vs. Islanders: 16 Jan 2007
These 7:00pm starts mess with everybody. Normally, the opening faceoff for Penguins home games is at 7:30, but tonight started at 7:00. Which means the crowd was slow to arrive (aided and abetted by a road-closing accident at 7th and Grant), and both teams were slow to get up to speed. Much of the first period was rough, but things picked up as the night went on.
This was the sixth of our eight games with the Isles this year, so we're deep into "familiarity breeds contempt" territory here. That was evident early, when Brendan Witt flipped Sidney Crosby with a hip check, and got many knuckle sandwiches from Ryan Malone for his effort. Lots of post-whistle scrums. Lots of extra shoves at the end of checks. I rather enjoyed watching Dominic Moore love-tap Sean Hill in the back four or five times on the way to their respective benches. Hill was giving Moore the "What was that, a mosquito?" treatment, but it was still a nice indicator of how pesky everybody was feeling.
The Penguins goals were almost all rebounds. The Islanders goals were all defensive lapses.
- Erik Christensen pots a rebound early in the first. 1-0 Pens.
- Early in the second. Richard Park, playing out high on a 5-on-3 penalty kill, clears the puck to the boards in the neutral zone, and breaks up ice, seeing that the Pens point man was leaning the wrong way. A favorable bounce off the penalty box door, and Park is alone behind the defense on the right wing. The wrist shot was perfectly placed, high to the far post, to tie the game at 1-1.
- Later in the second, the Pens get a face-off to Mike Dunham's right with a man advantage. Five seconds after the puck dropped, Michel Ouellet collected a rebound, and poked it under Dunham. 2-1 Pens.
- Late in the second, the Pens lost track of Aaron Asham who was all alone in the slot for a chip-in. Tied at 2-2.
- Crosby gets an easy rebound on the power play, with Dunham down and out of his crease. 3-2 Pens.
- Christensen gains the blue line, flings an innocent looking wrister on net, and burns Dunham to a crisp. 4-2 Pens.
- Crosby gets another rebound on a 2-on-1 break. 5-2 Pens.
And then things got ugly. With less than a minute to go, and the Pens cycling in the Islanders' zone, Jason Blake raised his stick as if to hook Sid, then gave Crosby a blade-first spear to the ribs instead. Sid dropped to the ice, popped back up, grabbed Blake by the collar, gave him a shove, and was promptly escorted to the penalty box by the linesman. The score sheet says "unsportsmanlike conduct", but Sid really got two minutes for defending himself from a blatantly obvious spear that the referees didn't call! Crosby gave the refs a little verbal abuse after the horn, but played it cool in the locker room. Coach Michel Therrien was a little less gracious, calling for the league to punish Blake.
Final Score: Penguins 5, Islanders 2, consecutive sellouts: 7.
Three Stars:
- Erik Christensen (2G, 1A)
- Sidney Crosby (2G, 1A, 1 subplot for the next trip to Uniondale)
- Michel Ouellet (1G, 1A)
Pens vs. Lightning: 7 Jan 2007
WDVE, what game were you watching?
This morning, the DVE morning show was raving about how good last night's game was, even though the good guys lost in a shootout.
OK, so Sidney Crosby had one amazing goal. And Marc-Andre Fleury had two great sequences of saves. But that was about it for the good hockey action.
The rest of the game was slop.
Mark Recchi got his 1300th point in the NHL, on a pass from Crosby that pinballed from Recchi's skate to Corey Sarich's skate, and into the net.
The only other entertaining part was the amount of booing directed at Andre Roy. He started this season with the Pens, getting ice time in drips and drabs and sitting in the penalty box, when he wasn't a healthy scratch. Eventually, the front office tired of his occupation of a roster spot, and placed him on waivers, where he was picked up by Tampa. Last night was his first game back in Pittsburgh, and he spent most of the night trying to start something with someone, anyone in a black sweater. There were no takers. Roy and Josef Melichar were jawing a bit in the first, and I imagine the exchange went something like this:
Roy: [French-Canadian accent] You wanna go?
Melichar: [Czech accent] No, I wanna trap you in the zone and force you offside.
Linesman: [whistle] Offside!
Melichar: Ha-ha! [skates to bench]
For punctuation, Roy gave a fan the middle finger as he left the ice for a coincidental minor at the end of the first. Welcome back, Andre!
Final Score: Lightning 3, Penguins 2 (Lightning win shootout 1-0), number of times I thought the woman sitting next to Man-Child was going to elbow him in the mouth: 6.
Three Stars:
- Martin St. Louis (1 shootout goal, 1A)
- Mark Recchi (1G, 1A, 1300 career points!)
- Sidney Crosby (1 OMFG G, 1A)
Pens vs. Hurricanes: 2 Jan 2007
This was an easy one to break down. The Pens out-hustled Carolina whistle to whistle. Out-shot them, too, 37-31. And aggressive penalty killing led to a number of short-handed breaks (but no short-handed goals). Simple, right?
Carolina managed to get through the game with no more significant injury than a shiner to Rod Brind'Amour. After the Cole and Letowski incidents, I think everybody's happy that both teams got through unscathed.
Final Score: Penguins 3, Hurricanes 0, number of people around me who expressed relief at Man-Child's absence: 4.
Three Stars:
- Sidney Crosby (2G, 1A, reached 61 points a month ahead of last season's pace.)
- Marc-Andre Fleury (31-save shutout)
- Maxime Talbot (No points, but skated like his ass was on fire all night.)
Pens vs. Maple Leafs: 29 Dec 2006
Tonight's magic word is energy.
As usual, Leafs fans who can't get a sniff of tickets at Air Canada Centre invaded Mellon Arena. It wasn't quite as bad as last year, when it looked like a dimensional rift somehow exchanged entire sections of the Igloo and the ACC. Tonight was on par with the usual Philly crowds, except we're not getting the usual Philly crowds this year on account of they suck.
I think the players picked up on the dueling chants of "Lets Go Pens!" and "Go Leafs Go!", because the tempo started fast and never let up. Lots of back-and-forth rushes, everybody was finishing their checks with authority, and a great fight between Ben Ondrus and Jarkko Ruutu.
What did the Leafs in was penalties. The Pens went 3-for-10 on the power play, with goals by Erik Christensen, Sergei Gonchar, and Evgeni Malkin. Mats Sundin got the Leafs only goal, collecting a rebound on an odd-man break. Jordan Staal closed the scoring with some aggressive forechecking, stealing the puck from Bryan McCabe behind the net, curling to the front, and stuffing it behind ex-Penguin Jean-Sebastien Aubin.
Unfortunately, I had to wait until I got home to see most of the replays. At some point Wednesday night, one of the jumbotrons visible from my seat died, leaving 3/4 of the screen dark. Tonight, that screen was still mostly dead, and the other screen visible from my seat slowly died before our eyes. From the start, a small patch in one corner was dark. Then, in the 2nd period, a Toronto defenseman's attempt at clearing the zone with a high flip arced so high in the air, the puck hit the jumbotron! For the rest of the game, we watched that screen degrade from an odd-colored patch around the point of impact, to something that looked like a broken LCD TV from wiihaveaproblem.com, to going 3/4 dark, just like the other screen. I'm starting to worry about these Toronto games. The Leafs were our opponent during the infamous double power failure game last season, and now this. What's going to break next? My money's on a Zamboni dumping its crankcase all over the center-ice faceoff circle.
Final Score: Penguins 4, Maple Leafs 1, "For Sale" signs stolen from ill-informed Leafs fans and torn up by a guy in my section: 2. (Don't worry, the Leafs fans were good sports!)
Three Stars:
- Marc-Andre Fleury (30 for 31)
- Sergei Gonchar (1G, 1A)
- Sidney Crosby (3A)
The first movie-goers were afraid that the train would come out of the screen and hit them.
Goaltenders get the same feeling seeing a man in a Penguins sweater.
I've added some of them there "motion pictures" of these jaw-dropping goals I've been talking about. That YouTube/NHL deal was a (rare) masterstroke by Gary Bettman and the NHL top brass.
You can go back to the corresponding blog entries, or you can skip my questionable writing skills and click right through to the video collection.
The Legend Of Vincent Tremblay 