Kris Letang

This isn't official yet but it looks like Letangs new contract will pay him 3.5 million a year. This is a little more than I was hoping we would pay him, but he is going to be worth a lot more than that by the last years of this contract.

Letang Signs Contract Extension with the Penguins

Penguins.com has just reported that Kris Letang has signed a four year extension that will keep Letang in Pittsburgh through the 2013-2014 season. No financials have been released yet but I am very happy that Letang will be staying in Pittsburgh. This signing more than likely means the end for Gonchars run as a Penguin. I will post more on this once the financial information is released.

Wings Down Pens 3-1

I didn't get to see this game and from what I understand that is a good thing. This loss leaves the Penguins 2 points ahead of the Devils, but the Devils now have 2 games in hand. Lets hope the Penguins bring their A game against the Capitals on Wed night.

Thoughts:
Even though Malkin is not having his best season, seeing the Penguins play without him shows how important he is to our success. It amazes me how great our offensive depth is when we are healthy, buy you take either Crosby or Malkin out of the lineup and our offense looks pedestrian at best.

Penguins Beat Bruins

The Penguins dominated the Bruins from start to finish. We were so dominate that the Boston fans were actually mock cheering their team in the third period when they got a shot on net. There were several shifts in the third period where the Penguins looked like they were on the PP in the Bruins end. This was also the first shutout of the season for the Penguins and MAF. Hopefully the shutout will help bolster MAF's confidence going into the playoffs.

Notes:
The Devils lost to the leafs in a shoot out last night to give the Penguins a one point lead in the division.

Scott Thorton was awarded the third star of the game last night for dropping the gloves with Cooke. Do you think this was "fair or foul" to give him the third star for fighting Cooke after he took out Savard for the season last week?

Devils Sweep Season Series

The Penguins still can't solve the Devils. After last nights loss the Penguins are still hanging on to a 2 point lead in the division. Every time I watch the Pens lose to the Devils I think winning the division becomes more and more important. Winning the division is the only way we can ensure ducking the Devils until the conference finals. There is no other team in the Eastern conference that scares me as a playoff opponent more than the Devils. The Devils might not be as good as the Capitols but they have the Penguins number. We can't find a way to beat the trap, and when we do we can't get the puck by Marty.

Last nights game was particularly frustrating because the Penguins out played the Devils but made a couple of turnovers that the Devils capitalized on. I would love to know what are D was thinking on that PP where they turned the puck over two possessions in a row for a break away. On the second one that lead to a goal everyone in the building could see that Elias was making a break to intercept the D to D pass but our guy tried to force it through anyways.

Negatives:
Kris Letang and Gogo look like they are regressing since the trade deadline. If Letang thinks he is going to sign a deal worth 4 million a season he is going to have to have a monster post season. Right now he looks like hes worth about 1 million a season.

I praised the Poni trade the soon as it was made and truly thought we was going to be a huge asset offensively to this team. He hasn't played bad, but I have not been impressed with him. Hopefully this changes before the playoffs start or Shero is going to look like a fool for trading Caputi for him. However i was not a big Caputi fan so I still feel this was a good trade.

Positives:
Leopold has looked pretty good. He has been better than I thought he was going to be and is probably our second best defensive player behind Orpik.

Even though we lost two games to the Devils this week the Penguins have been red hot since the olypic break.

Pascal Dupuis is playing well above his talent level.

Malkin Day-To-Day

The Penguins website is reporting Malkins x-rays show that his foot was not broken by the Kris Letang shot that hit him in yesterdays game. He is listed as Day-To-Day and will more than likely be playing in Wednesdays game against the Devils.

Penguins Get Their First Win of the Road Trip

The Penguins picked up their first win of the road trip on Sunday against the Lighting. This was a huge win considering we lost our last game to the Devils which allowed them to close within two points of the Penguins. Since then the Devils lost to the Islanders and this win allowed the Penguins to regain their 4 point lead in the standings. Winning the division is going to be extremely important for the Penguins because it is going to allow them to duck either the Devils or the Capitals in the playoffs, and if we are really lucky maybe we can avoid both of them.

Thought of the day:
Guerin better watch out because Dupuis is clearly been the better first line winger as of late. If Dupuis keeps playing like this Guerin will be riding the pine come the playoffs.

Cooke Not Suspended

It was announced today that Matt Cooke will not be suspended for the hit to the head he laid on Boston forward Marc Savard. I thought Cooke would be looking at a suspension of more than 5 games considering he was suspended 2 games for a similar hit earlier this season. The fact that he is not going to be suspended is great for the Penguins, but I am not sure this was the right decision for the league. I am all for big hits but there is no reason to hit a guy in the head from the blind side like Cooke did. Even more unfortunate than the hit and Savards injuries is the national coverage this hit has received that portrays the NHL as a savage league. Its extremely irritating to me that this league has such amazing athletes that make highlight real plays every night and you never see any of that on ESPN, but the soon as something ugly like this hit happens it shows up on every talk show and highlight show ESPN has.

A funny note about the Cooke hit:
I was discussing the Cooke hit with my friend Blaine, and I told him I thought it was a cheap shot and expected him to be suspended for 5 - 10 games. Blains response " I really don't think it was that big of a deal, its not like he raped someone" (clearly taking a shot at Big Ben).

Penguins Heating Up

The Penguins have strung together 4 game winning streaks a couple of times already this season but none of them have been as impressive as this one. The Penguins have not only been winning, but dominating there opponents. This was never as noticeable as it was in the Rangers game when the Penguins out shot the Rangers 55 to 16. Not only have the Penguins looked great since the Olympic break, but they have now passed the Devils for first place in the division.

So why have to Penguins looked so good since the break? There are two reasons that answer this question, first the Penguins wingers and depth players have been chipping in goals and playing a physical game, second Shero found Malkin the winger he needs in the Poni express. If the Penguins are able to resign Poni after this season, it will go down as the best deal Shero has made since taking over as GM for the Penguins.

On a side note, how many games do you think Cooke will be suspended for the cheap shot he gave Savard? My guess is 8 games considering he is a repeat offender, if his suspension is that long it could really hurt the Penguins down the stretch.

Grading the Trade Deadline.

Once again Ray Shero did a great job of upgrading the Penguins lineup without giving up to much to do so. I was a strong believer that Gogo was going to be traded to get the Penguins a scoring winger. But Shero managed to bring in Poni while only giving up Luca Caputi, who in my opinion is a very over rated prospect.

Shero also picked up defense man Jordan Leopold for a second round draft pick. This pick up is a little curious to me. I believed the Penguins biggest need at the trade deadline was a physical shut down defense man, instead Shero picked up a puck moving defense man that is an upgrade over what we have defensively but not exactly what i would call a shut down defense man. For the short run i would have rather seen Shero trade for Sutton who also went for a second round pick, but I believe Shero was looking beyond this season when he made this trade. It is now public knowledge that contract talks with Gonchar have broken down, which probally means he will not be back next season. Leopold will not only be upgrading our defense this year, but he will be auditioning to fill Gonchar's spot next season. Sure he is a drop off in talent compared to Gonchar, but Shero will be able to sign both him and Letang for what he would have to pay Gonchar. This should leave the Penguins with enough cap space to sign Poni or another scoring winger that will command between 3 to 4 million dollars.

So my overall grade for Shero at this years deadline is an A-, he could only have done better by bringing in a shut down defense man. I believe this years moves took the Penguins from a contender for the cup, to the favorites to win the cup.

Sid Strikes Gold

Congratulations to Sidney and the rest of the Canadian team for winning the gold medal. it was bitter sweet watching Crosby score in OT yesterday afternoon to beat the USA team, Or as a guy I saw on tv yesterday put it "watching Sid score the OT winner was kind of like watching your mother in law drive over a cliff in your new Cadillac".

So what did we learn from watching the Olympics this year:

1. An Olympic gold metal means as much to NHL players as winning the Stanley Cup. I was amazed to see how physical everyone was in this tournament, and shocked to see how upset the USA players were when they lost the game.

2. The NHL need to keep fighting. For a long time I really had no opinion on whether or not the NHL should get rid of fighting, but after watching the Olympics I think it is necessary that the NHL keeps it. I know this sounds funny but the game is played much cleaner when there is fighting involved. In the Olympics we saw a lot of cheap shots that would have never happened if the player throwing them thought they would have to stand up and fight after they did what they did. A couple examples of this were Semin Hitting Boyle from behind (completely out of character for him) and then Boyle chasing him down and slew footing him to the ice (which is more dangerous to a players health than being in a fight). If this was an NHL game Semin wouldn't have made that hit and if he did Boyle of one of his tea teammates would have dropped the gloves and beat him senseless.
Here is a list of other things I saw that wouldn't have happened if fighting was allowed:
1. Jack Johnson hits a Canadian player well after the horn sounded to end the period.
2. there was a delayed penalty called so Mike Richards decided rather than just touching the puck to get the whistle that he would fire it into the USA bench.
3. A USA player slashed Luongo in the hand behind the net.
4. There were numerous hits from behind.

These are only a few of the things that I saw that would never happen in the NHL. The one thing we did see because there was no fighting that i did like was star players were able to be hit cleanly without the hitter being instantly engaged by the star players teammates.