Bits And Pieces

– Sidney Crosby has been named one of the finalists for the Ted Lindsay award, awarded to the league’s most outstanding player and voted on by members of NHLPA.

Crosby is up against Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightening, and his old friend Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.

Crosby was having a stellar season up until he took a puck to the jaw and missed the last month of the season. Despite that, he still finished tied for third in points. Good luck to Sid!

– Some big changes for game 5 tonight. Tomas Vokoun will be starting today, instead of Marc-Andre Fleury, who hasn’t been playing his best recently. This will be Vokoun’s first playoff game since 2007.

Crosby Returns!

He’s baaaaaaaack

Game 2 of the Pittsburgh Penguins vs the New York Islanders just got a little more interesting.

The Penguins announced this morning captain Sidney Crosby, who has been out with a broken jaw since March 30th, will make his return to the lineup tonight. He missed the last 12 games of the regular season and the 1st game of the playoff series.

“I’m cleared to play tonight,” Crosby said. “I’m excited to get back in there and play in the playoffs.

“(The doctor) was around and I wasn’t sure if he would give me the OK or even consider it. I’m happy that he did and happy to be back.”

Speculation started mounting that he was ready to return when, instead of practicing with the spare line at practice, Crosby was reunited with his usual linemates Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz. He also took a spot on the first power play unit.

This isn’t the first time Crosby is making a comeback against the Islanders. We all remember what happened last time he did.

Puck drops for game 2 at 7:00pm. Let’s Go Pens!

Crosby Out For Game 1

The Pittsburgh Penguins go up against the New York Islanders in game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight. However, a couple of familiar faces won’t be playing.

Sidney Crosby, who has been out since March 30 after being hit with a puck and shattering his jaw, will not play tonight. He says that while his doctor thinks everything looks good, he still isn’t ready to give him the green light for full contact.

Brooks Orpik, who has been out with an undisclosed lower body injury, also won’t be playing tonight. He didn’t give any info on what was wrong with him.

With these two out of the lineup, Pens will have to make do with Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, Jarome Iginla, Kris Letang, Marc-Andre Fleury, Pascal Dupuis, Chris Kunitz, and Brenden Morrow. The horror.

Puck drops at 7:30 tonight. 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.

Crosby Misses The Canadian Cold

Keep warm, Sid (source: Flickr/ztil301)

No, seriously.

Instead of taking a car or bus down to the MTS Centre for practice this morning, Sidney Crosby decided that he wanted to walk down to the arena so that he could experience the real Canadian cold again. It’s about a 4 block walk from the hotel to the arena.

To make this story even more Canadian, our captain even stopped at Tim Horton’s, according to TSN’s Gord Miller on Twitter.

Imagine being the person behind the counter when Sidney Crosby comes in to order a coffee. Awesome.

The Pens play the Jets tonight at 7:30PM. Let’s Go Pens!

Surprise! Crosby Plays Hockey!

A regular charity game in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia that usually draws 50 people at the most became the biggest draw yesterday when Sidney Crosby was a last minute addition to the roster.

Cole Harbour’s most famous resident played in the 13th annual Generation Cup. While his participation wasn’t advertised, the arena had filled up by the second period thanks to Twitter.

Sid scored 3 goals and was named player of the game, which raised money for the Sidney Crosby Foundation.

It was extra special for Sid, as he got to play with a ton of his friends that he hasn’t played with since his junior days.

Sid hasn’t been participating in many charity games because of insurance costs, but it’s super heartwarming to see that he hasn’t forgotten where he comes from.

Malkin Misses Crosby

You and me could write a…

Here’s your daily “awwwww” news of the day.

In a new interview with RT.com, Evgeni Malkin admitted that he misses Sidney Crosby while he plays in the KHL for his hometown team, Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

““Playing with such as Crosby as a partner is a pleasure. He’s the best hockey player in the world. Of course, I miss him and Pittsburgh. I can call this city my second home. But it turned out that I’m playing here now. It’s a joy for Russian players to compete in their own land at their favorite arenas, making the fans happy.”

All together now: awwwwwwwww.

Geno also told the website that the KHL is eagerly awaiting Sid’s arrival to play there. Whether he actually plays in the KHL or not is not known yet.

“Everybody’s waiting for him here,” Malkin said. “I know that his agent called [Metallurg’s general manager, Gennady] Velichkin. But no decision has been made yet. Crosby has pretty big insurance. I don’t know how they’ll resolve this issue.”

Are you one of those people, Geno? I bet you are!

PS: check out RT.com’s interview. They spell Evgeni Malkin a couple different ways, and spell Geno “Jeno”. Hmm, which way is right?

Is There Anything Sidney Crosby Can’t Do?

Source: Twitter/@jheaney16

With this lockout still going on, NHL players will do anything to play some hockey.

For Sidney Crosby, that includes changing positions as well.

According to Twitter, last week, Sid surprised a rec hockey team in Pittsburgh and played a game with them. But instead of playing forward, Sid played goalie.

Even cooler? He had a 4-0 shutout. But he’s not taking credit for it. According to Seth Rorabaugh on Twitter, Sid claims his team was really good defensively and he didn’t face a single shot.

Hey, any of those d-men want to come play for the Pens?

Playing goalie isn’t exactly a new thing for Sid. The story goes that when he was young, he started off in net until his father, a goalie himself who was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens, noticed his son’s skills and put him in as a forward instead.

I doubt Sid will make this a normal thing, but it’s really cool that he did this. Imagine how happy the other players were!

Happy One Year Anniversary!

Where Were You When…

One year ago today was the day we were all waiting for. Sidney Crosby was coming back.

After being sidelined with a concussion since January, Sid worked hard all summer, going to difference doctors across North America and practicing as soon as he was cleared for contact. After whisperings of how good he looked in practice and how any game could be the game, on November 20th, the Penguins Twitter account sent the hockey world into a tizzy with this tweet

Sidney Crosby Is Ticked Off

Through all this CBA nonsense, one thing remained the same: Sidney Crosby’s positive attitude.

He’s always said that he believes both sides would come to an agreement and that there will be a season. Whether he was programmed to say this or whether he truly believed it was another story, but it was almost adorable how positive he stayed.

However, that is all changing.

In a new interview posted by Shelly Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Crosby is letting his frustration be known and he doesn’t care who knows it.

“It’s just frustrating. You kind of hear the same things coming out of the meetings all the time. Just waiting to hear something new from their side. It’s almost to the point where you don’t want to ask because you know you’re going to get the  same answer you got a week before. There’s no reason we can’t figure something out”.

He’s also getting annoyed with the owners involved in this. Awkward, considering his relationship with Penguins’ co-owner Mario Lemieux.

“It’s pretty 1-sided. I don’t really know what (the owners) have given up to this point. They’re trying to take away all the contracting rights. The question I’d ask is why would we change that? I think we all think it’s the most competitive league in the world so why would you go and change that — the way contracts go and the way teams can operate? If it’s not broke, don’t fix it”.

While Sid says he understands where the owners are coming from, he doesn’t think the way they’re handling things is any good.

“I understand their point. At the end of the day it’s dollars, but at the end of the day you want to get a deal done. I don’t think they’re going to get a deal done if they’re trying to take away guys’ contracting rights”.

While he wants to remain optimistic, Sidney admits it’s getting harder.

“I really want to be optimistic. It’s not easy right now. It’s just a roller coaster … I don’t know what’s going to happen”.