March Of The Penguins

Look at that smile!

The Pittsburgh Penguins last game of the month was certainly a memorable one.

The Pens won their 15th straight, setting a couple of records. This is currently the longest win streak of the season for any NHL team, and they are also the first NHL team to have a perfect month of wins in history.

The Penguins’ latest acquisition Jarome Iginla, who only landed in Pittsburgh at 12:30 in the morning, made his debut with his new team. In total, he had 17:30 of ice time, 3 shots on net, 2 hits, and was a plus 1. He was also awarded the 3rd star of the game.

Goaltender Tomas Vokoun recorded his 3 straight shutout, giving the Pens a 2-0 victory over the New York Islanders. He now holds the franchise record for shutouts.

Matt Cooke was a man on a mission. After a spectacular performance killing off a 5-on-3 penalty, Cooke scored the first goal for the Penguins, which ended up being the game winner. James Neal got the second one. Douglas Murray, the Pens’ newest defenseman, got his first point as a Penguin on that goal.

Now the not so great news.

Christ Kunitz was given a 5 minute major and a game misconduct after it appeared he boarded Josh Bailey. No word on whether he’ll hear from Shanahan for that hit.

And the worst.

50 seconds into his first shift, Sidney Crosby was hit in the jaw with a Brooks Orpik slapshot. After not showing up on the bench for the second period, word got out that he was transferred to a hospital. After the game, Dan Bylsma said that he was having oral surgery, and that’s all he knew.

Yikes. Let’s hope everything is OK with Sid. To see him lose any time is just the absolute worst.

Pens have a break until Tuesday, when they play the Buffalo Sabres.

IGGY!

No. Words.

Forget what you heard about Jarome Iginla going to the Bruins.

Earlier tonight, it was reported that Iginla to the Boston Bruins was pretty much a done deal. Everyone was just waiting for official confirmation from the Calgary Flames GM Jay Feaster. Well, we got confirmation of a trade. It just wasn’t to where we were expecting.

Jarome Iginla is now a Pittsburgh Penguin. We were trolled hardcore.

The Penguins didn’t give up much. They gave the Calgary Flames  Kenneth Agostino and Ben Hanowski, as well as the Penguins’ first round pick from the 2013 draft. Amazing.

No word on when Iginla will play his first game as a Penguin, or what line he’ll play on, but one has to imagine he’s going to be playing with Sid. It resulted in some golden results last time (sorry, I had to. Canadian pride and all).

Pens Acquire Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray

Ray Shero doesn’t sleep.

This afternoon, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced they have acquired defenceman Douglas Murray from the San Jose Sharks.

What did we lose? Two second round picks.

Murray isn’t expected to play tomorrow against the Montreal Canadiens, but he is on his way to Pittsburgh.

Brenden Morrow, yesterday’s acquisition, has landed in Pittsburgh and will most likely play tomorrow. He will wear number 10, which Tanner Glass has given up for him. Tanner will take his old number 15, which was worn by Dustin Jeffrey. Dustin will now be number 17.  Got that? Good.

Let’s see what else Ray has planned in the days leading up to the Trade Deadline.

Two-Morrows

The Newest Pittsburgh Penguin, Brenden Morrow

The Pittsburgh Penguins are getting stuff done before the trade deadline.

This afternoon, the team announced they have acquired forward Brenden Morrow from the Dallas Stars for- wait for it- AHL defenseman Joe Morrow (not related, although that would be a fun story) and a fifth round pick. We also received a third round pick in that transaction.

Yeah, somehow, Ray Shero managed to get the captain of the Dallas Stars and a third round pick for an AHL defenseman and a fifth round pick. Amazing.

Morrow, Brenden that is, has some history with the Pens. He was teammates with James Neal and Matt Niskanen in Dallas until those two got traded to Pittsburgh in 2011, and he was on Team Canada at the Winter Olympics in 2010 with Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury, where he won a gold medal.

He also got into a fight with Kris Letang during a game in 2010 (the same game Crosby and Niskanen fought in). So if you play on the Dallas Stars and fought with one of the Pens, you’ll be traded to that team in a couple of years.

No word on when Morrow, Brenden that is, will make his debut with the Penguins, but I’m sure a lot of us can’t wait to see what he does!

Luck Of The Irish Misses Kris Letang

Green looks good on Sidney!

So this was supposed to be a great weekend for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Didn’t really turn out that way.

On Saturday the Pens played the Rangers, who lost their last two against Winnipeg and Buffalo. This wasn’t the best game for the Rangers either. They were shutout 3-0 by the Pens. Marc-Andre Fleury recorded his 23rd career shutout, a franchise record. Congrats to him!

Sunday, the Pens welcomed the Bruins back to Pittsburgh. The last game against them, on Tuesday, was a crazy one, with the Pens scoring 3 goals in the last 5 minutes of the third period to comeback and win 3-2. This time around, it seemed like everything happened in the first period.

Sidney Crosby, who was held off the score sheet against the Rangers, opened the scoring with a goal, his 13th of the season. Crosby currently leads the NHL in points with 48. Tyler Seguin tied it up with a goal of his own, but Joe Vitale scored one in the last few seconds of the 1st to put the Pens up 2-1. It stayed like that for the next two periods, and the Pens won their 9th straight game.

Now the bad stuff.

Kris Letang left the game after the first period and didn’t return for the next two periods. Afterwards, we were told Letang sustained a lower body injury and would be re-evaluated. Let’s hope it isn’t anything too bad.

Pens play next on Tuesday against the Washington Capitals.

Call It A Comeback!

Brandon Sutter, Game Hero

The Pittsburgh Penguins decided to show up to the game 55 minutes late with a Starbucks.

OK, maybe there was no Starbucks involved, but after it looked like the Pens would lose 2-0, the goals started coming.

With 6:18 left in the third period, and the Bruins up 2-0 on first period goals by Zdeno Chara and Tyler Seguin, Chris Kunitz scored, cutting the Bruins lead to one. Then, with 5:27 left, Brandon Sutter tied the game up.

It got better.

3 minutes later, Sutter scored again to give the Pens a 3-2 lead. They held on and won the game, after being down 2-0 for the majority of it.

Goes to show you that we should never give up on this team.

Fun fact: in 27 games played, the Penguins have yet to be a shutout. Let’s hope this keeps up!