Crosby and MAF Named to Canadian Olympic Team

Team Canada announced its rooster for the upcoming Olympic games today and on that list were Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby and Penguins Goalie MAF. These selections were no surprise, but I was a little dissapointed that Staal was unable to make the team. I thought when Staal was invited to Canada's Olympic camp over the summer that he would be a long shot to make the team, but after watching his offensive production and PK talents so far this year I thought he would make the team as a third or fourth line center. Staal is in good company though considering Crosby was also snubbed by Canada's Olympic team the first time he was eligible as a pro back in 2005.

Nice Nose

Jordan Staal had a puck deflected into his face that split his nose wide open in the game against the Devils. He was extremely lucky that puck caught him in the nose and not the eye or we could have been looking at a Brian Berrard situation. I am not sure why the league does not mandate that players wear a shield or at least a half shield. An even better question would be why don't players take it upon themselves to start wearing them. All of these guys played levels of hockey in their younger days that required them to wear full shields at one point and time, so why stop.

In my personal experience wearing a cage inhibits your sight a little bit, but it is a much better option than losing an eye or teeth. Most people that don't wear a mask because they feel it is a tough guy thing not to wear a mask and it makes you less of a man if you do wear one. Let me remind everyone that as recently as 1994 there were still players that didn't wear a helmet for the same reason. Looking back on that now it just seems stupid to play with out a helmet, and i would expect in the next 10 years the same will be thought of playing without a cage. Even now as my competitive hockey days are over i still wear a full cage to play adult league and it has saved me many cuts and bruises. It always surprises me to see how many adult league players who make no money to play hockey feel the need to take there cage off and risk injury just so they can feel like a tough guy.

Anybody else out there that has an opinion on this?

Penguins Beat Sabers 2-1 (SO)

I was really excited to watch this game because it is very likely this will be a team that we will see in the playoffs. I was disappointed to see that Miller was not in the net for the Sabers but Lalime proved to be a worthy adversary until Letang completely undressed him in the shoot out. This was a fun game to watch, the low score was no indication of the speed of the game and offensive opportunities. Lalime had a lot of bounces go his way that kept the puck out of the net for the Sabers and once again MAF played great, if it wasn't for that we would have been looking at a 5-3 Penguins victory. This win kept the Penguins tied with the Devils for first place in the Division along with first place in the NHL.

Positives:
- Chris Kunitz has continued to play above his abilities
-Crosby's point streak continued last night with an assist on the Kunitz goal
- The PP generated a lot of scoring opportunities even though they were unable to finish.
- Suddenly our PK is creating odd man breaks and goals, we are almost more affective short handed than we are on the PP
- Jordan Staal is getting better every game.
- MAF

Negatives:
- Malkin, even though he has been putting up points he hasn't looked like the dominate player we all know he can be. Not sure if he is still hurting or if he sand bags it a little when Crosby is in the lineup because there is not as much pressure on him. It just seems strange to me that his productivity sky rockets every time Crosby is out of the line up. One should have no effect on the other its not like Crosby is taking his ice time or his wingers, if anything you think Malkin would do better when Crosby is in the line up because he draws the best defensive players from the other team.

Penguins Beat Flyers 3-2

Penguins continue to own the Flyers beating them in all three games they have played this season. This game was however much closer than the last two and I thought the Flyers actually played a pretty good game.

Positives:
-MAF played a great game without his effort the Penguins would have lost.
- The new PP formation, the umbrella format featuring Crosby, Gonchar, and Malkin across the top has scored 3 goals in the last two games. Last nights games was the first two PP goal game for the Penguins since Halloween.
- Sidney Crosby continues to be at the top of his game. I can't understand why the Philadelphia fans continue to chant Crosby sucks when it clearly motivates him. In the last two games Crosby had 2 goals, 2 assists, and a shot out goal to ice the game. Those stats really look like the stats of a guy who sucks.
- I can't believe I am going to say this but Chris Kunitz was a real asset tonight, who was creating turnovers, and was a disruptive force in the offensive end.

Negatives:
-We had to depend on MAF and the PP to win this game.


Questionable decision:
- Kris Letang was named player of the game. Letang played a good game and did have the game winner in the shot out, but didnt really do anything during regulation to make me believe he deserved the #1 star. Crosby should have been the #1 star with his game tying goal and shoot out goal. This just goes to show how much the people of Philadelphia hate Crosby even the writers who vote for star of the game refuse to acknowledge his greatness.

Pens Destroy Flyers.

This was a very entertaining game to watch, but was never really close the Penguins controlled the game from start to finish. There were however 3 consecutive fights in the first period which I don't know if I have ever seen before. It was nice to see the Penguins prove to the Flyers they could play any style they want against them and still beat them. I enjoyed watching the new PP formation which produced the first goal of the game last night and had also produced a fair number of shots. Once Malkin gets comfortable on that left side I think this formation will be lethal.

Negatives:
-there were none

Positives:
- special teams, the PP came up with a goal, and we scored two short handed
- Jordan Staal, Shero is looking more and more like a genius for signing this guy to a long contract rather than trading him like almost everyone was suggesting including myself. Staal has looked amazing this year and will continue to improve over the life of his 4 year contract.
- Crosby and Malkin, put up healthy numbers last night. However Malkin still has not looked like the Malkin we saw last year, can't help but to wonder if his shoulder is still bugging him.

Bylsma Must Have Read My Last Post

There is an article on the Penguins website www.pittsburghpenuins.com saying that the Penguins will be using a different formation on the PP tonight that will feature Malkin, Gonchar, and Crosby playing up high with Guerin and Cooke down low in front of the net. Anybody who has played hockey will tell you that this formation is called the umbrella. This is exactly what i had suggested in my last post. The only change I would make is Cooke, I think he has the right personality to play that spot but would rather see the larger Mike Rupp there who has proven he has some scoring touch. I would expect to see a lot of back door plays from Malkin to Crosby and vice versa out of this formation. Hopefully this works out or I will not be able to criticize anybody but myself considering i fully endorse this move.

Whats Worse?

Whats worse right now the Penguins Power Play or the Steelers?

This is a question that everybody will easily answer because the Penguins are doing so well right now and the Steelers have choked any playoff chance away by losing to the worst 3 teams in the league. But when you step back and really look at it I think you would have a good argument that the Penguins PP has been worse. Can you name one game this season that the Penguins have won because of there PP (I can think of one where they had a PP goal in OT). They have been winning because they are head and shoulders better than most other teams, but most of there games have been close and could have went either way. If their PP was producing they would be beating teams by 2 or 3 goals rather than having these nail biting finishes.

Even though the PP was bad once again last night against Montreal I was glad to see they changed what they were doing a little bit, Crosby was playing much higher than he normally does. I would really like to see them play an umbrella with Crosby and Malkin on opposite sides of the ice.

Penguins Winning Streak Snapped.

The Penguins lost to the Hawks Saturday night in OT 2 - 1. Despite the game being low scoring, and the Penguins losing, this was the most exciting game to watch since the Penguins beat the Capitals in the playoffs last season. The game was fast paced, hard hitting and featured some great goal tending. The Penguins out played the Hawks in this game but their goalie was able to make all the big saves, and preserve the win for the Hawks. I really hope both the Penguins and the Hawks make it to the Cup finals this year. It would be great to watch two teams that are loaded with high end talent and play the game at such a high tempo play for the Cup, there would be no trapping in this series, just end to end action and a lot of scoring chances.

Stat of The Day

I found this stat on the Penguins website and thougth it helped prove my point that Kunitz has no business playing on a line with Crosby.

+0.89 — Points per game difference for Sidney Crosby without left wing Chris Kunitz in the lineup

Thank you

And the Trade Rumors Begin

I came across a rumor last night on hockeybuzz.com that has Jordan Staal and one of our offensive defense men going to the Kings, there was nothing noted about what the Penguins would be getting in return. The only player I would love to have on that team is Anze Kopitar, but i can't see the Kings parting ways with him. A more likely senario would be Staal, and Gonchar, for Frolov, Brown, Johnson and a third round pick. I am not sure I would be willing to make that trade, Staal is just starting to realize his potential and is far more valueable than either of the wingers listed in this trade however I would love to see Jack Johnson in a Penguins uniform. Both wingers in this trade would be an upgrade over what we have, but neither are the elite scoring winger that we are looking for.

Penguins Putting up Healthy Numbers

Going into Saturday nights game with the Rangers the Penguins were finally healthy, short only winger Chris Kunitz. As predicted by almost everyone, once the Penguins were healthy again they would go back to their winning ways and the offense would start to click again. They proved everyone right by putting up 8 goals on Saturday and 5 more on Monday. Sidney Crosby lead the way by scoring 5 goals and a total of 8 points in those two games, this was enough to win him the NHL player of the week. Crosby has looked amazing over the last 3 games, and has thrown his name back into contention for the scoring title. Hopefully Malkin will pick his game up as well, he has been putting up some numbers over the last couple of games, but just hasn't looked as dominate as he should out there.

Negatives:
Not much to talk about right now our offense, defense, and goal tending have been great. The one part of the game that the Penguins are still struggling with is the PP, they were 0 for 5 last night and have not looked impressive at any time on the PP this season. Its time to put someone other than Mike Yeo in charge of this PP. I just don't understand how a team with this much talent can be this bad on the PP.

Positives:
-Crosby is playing great and on pace to score 49 goals this season.
-Mike Rupp scored a hat trick last night and has proven to be a great signing by Ray Shero, I don't think anyone in the league expected Rupp to be putting up the kind of numbers he is this year.