The Perks Of Being A Wall, Flower

The Pittsburgh Penguins went into game 1 against the New York Islanders without Sidney Crosby or Brooks Orpik and managed to come out with a 5-0 win.

Beau Bennett opened up the scoring, scoring a power play goal. He was the first rookie to score the opening goal of the playoffs since Jordan Staal did against Ottawa in 2007.

Pascal Dupuis scored his first of 2 after that, and the Pens took the 2-0 lead into the second.

Kris Letang scored the third goal early into the second period, and less than a minute later, Pascal Dupuis scored again.

Tanner Glass sealed the deal by scoring the fifth goal. Yes, Tanner Glass.

Marc-Andre Fleury got the first shutout of the playoffs, and the 6th shutout of his playoff career, tying Tom Barrasso for the team record.

It wasn’t all fun though. James Neal took a hit and a slash from Travis Hamonic, played one more shift, than didn’t return for part of the second and the whole third period. Then near the end of the game, Jussi Jokinen was hit my Marty Reasoner. He left the game, but with only a few minutes left, it isn’t clear what the extent of the injury is.

This was a great effort, but let’s not get overly cocky. We need to win 3 more to make it to the next round.

The next game is on Friday, May 3rd at 7:00PM. Let’s Go Pens!

Pens Are The Atlantic Champs!

Change that X to a Y.

With their win over the Carolina Hurricanes, the Pittsburgh Penguins have become the Atlantic Division champions, clinching the division for the last time in history, as the realignment goes into effect next season. They already clinched a playoff spot on Sunday.

The win wasn’t a pretty one. The Canes were in fighting form, desperate for a win and were leading the game  3-2 until Beau Bennett, who was called up earlier this week, scored.  Evgeni Malkin scored a few minutes later, and Pascal Dupuis sealed the deal with an empty net goal to make it 5-3. Brandon Morrow also scored his first goal as a Penguin

The Pens did all this without Sidney Crosby, who is out of the lineup for the time being after having surgery to repair his broken jaw, Kris Letang, who is still out with a lower body injury, and James Neal, who has a concussion after a hit from the New York Rangers’ Michael Del Zotto. Letang is practicing and might be back soon.

Clinching the Atlantic division is nice, but there’s one prize we all have our eyes on.

Pens play the Tampa Bay Lightening on Thursday. Let’s Go Pens!

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.

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!

The Stache Returns

Oh yeah, it’s returned

Sidney Crosby is on a bit of a streak. No, not that kind of streak. A point streak.

Sid has had a point in the last 6 games. Being the superstitious little bugger that he is, he has refused to shave off  a mustache that had started growing in that span. Let’s see how this one will pan out!

The Pens hosted the Caps, and won. 5 different Penguins scored in the second period, after the Capitals Mike Ribeiro scored a flukey goal in the 1st period.

Evgeni Malkin tied it up in the beginning of the second. Pascal Dupuis put the Pens in the lead 6 minutes later, and there was no looking back after that. James Neal scored the 3rd goal. 11 seconds later, Matt Cooke scored off a faceoff to make it 4-1. Sidney Crosby scored late in the 2nd to make it 5-1.

Ovechkin added one goal, but it didn’t help. The Caps fell to the Pens 5-2.

A lot of the Pens success has to be because of the Pens power play. What was once an embarrassing thing to watch has gotten amazing recently. 3 of the Penguins goals came on power plays.

Niskanen is still out with a lower body injury. Kris Letang, who left practice early today, was not in practice and being listed as having a lower body injury

The Pens play against the Devils on Saturday. Let’s Go Pens!

The Devils Came Down To Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Penguins won their first game at home today, defeating the New Jersey Devils 5-1 in an afternoon game.

Brandon Sutter scored the first goal for the Pens, which also was his first goal as a Penguin. The assists went to Crosby and Malkin. Perfect, really.

Chris Kunitz quickly scored another to make it 2-0. The Devils cut the Pens lead in half, when Andy Greene scored a short-handed goal.

But never fear!

Kris Letang scored at the beginning of the 3rd period to make it 3-1. Sidney Crosby scored another to make it 4-1. And then Robert Bortuzzo, called up for the game against the Rangers, scored his first NHL goal to make it 5-1.

This was the Penguins hockey we were all waiting for. Except for the one goal he let in, Fleury was looking  steady in net. The defense did what they had to do, and the Pens didn’t fall back in the 2nd and 3rd period, the way we’ve become used to recently. Good job all around!

Note: Zach Boychuk made his debut for the Penguins today after being picked up off waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes.

The next game will be tomorrow afternoon, against the Washington Capitals. Let’s Go Pens!

The Pens Win! Hallelujah!

Congrats to Vokoun!

Thursday’s 3-0 win against the Rangers wasn’t a pretty one, but we’ll take it. After all, the Pittsburgh Penguins were 3-3-0 going into this game, which was obviously cause for concern. We weren’t going to be 48-0?! Oh no!

Defenceman Robert Bortuzzo was called up from Wilkes Barre and made his season debut. He ended up with just above 12 minutes of ice time.

Simon Despres scored a goal and an assist for his first two-point career game. His goal came just as he left the penalty box after serving 2 minutes for hooking.

Evgeni Malkin scored the first goal of the game 80 seconds into the first period. James Neal scored the second goal after redirecting a Sidney Crosby shot.

There was a bit of a scary moment when Michael Del Zotto boarded Sidney behind the Rangers  net. Sid skated back to the bench but played the rest of the game, even having a partial breakaway which was quickly stopped by Henrik Lundqvist.

Tomas Vokoun, who got the start, recorded his 49th career shutout. It was the first shutout of the season for the Penguins.

The Pens next game will be Saturday at 1PM, at home, against the New Jersey Devils. Let’s Go Pens!

Leafs Topple Penguins 5-2

Hopefully the first of many this season!

Can someone bring back the Pens from the weekend games?

The Pittsburgh Penguins dropped their home opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs scored 5 times to the Penguins 2.

The good of the game were definitely the two goals. The first one came from reigning MVP Evgeni Malkin. The second came from Sidney Crosby. Both were the first goals of the season for the players.

However, it all unraveled after that. James van Riemsdyk,  a former Flyer, scored two goals. The other 3 game from Clark MacArthur, Mikhail Grabovski, and Tyler Bozak. Toronto goalie James Reimer, getting his first start in net of the season, was shaky at times but managed to keep the Pens away.

Who knows what happened here. Hopefully, the Pens can regroup and get back on the winning side of things when they play the Jets in Winnipeg on Friday.

Penguins Over Broadway

The Pittsburgh Penguins wrapped up their opening weekend with a 6-3 win over the New York Rangers on Sunday.

James “The Real Deal” Neal scored twice, Sidney Crosby tallied his first point of the season, and Tomas Vokoun earned his first win in a Penguins uniform in Madison Square Garden.

After scoring 4 goals in 2 periods, the Rangers pulled goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who also started for the Rangers yesterday.

The Penguins also had their first fight of the season, as Tanner Glass dropped the gloves with former Penguin Arron Asham.

It was a great game for the Pens. Here’s hope they can keep it up for the home opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. Let’s Go Pens!