Sports Night In Pittsburgh

Tonight we have game 5 of the Pens Flyers series..... WE CAN DO THIS!!! I have complete faith in the Pens today that they will continue with the momentum they created in game 4.  Neal and Adams will be back in the lineup tonight and hopefully that translates into a few more goals and the ability to shut down the Flyers.  I am also hopeful that game 4 helped Fleury build some confidence and that will help him shut down the net tonight... lets all keep our fingers crossed and think "brick wall Fleury BRICK WALL"

I can feel it, its going to be a great night in the City of Pittsburgh, Pens will win this one 6-4 and the Pirates will also pull out a win tonight, 3-2.  Those are my predictions.....

Pens Blow Out Flyers In Game 4

This is a post I wrote on the FanVsFan site about last nights Pens game.  What a great game it was (at least for a Pens fan!)  Check out the post and let me know what you think!

Pens Blow Out Flyers In Game 4

Can The Pens Win One?

I haven't posted in a few days...... I was a little hostile and afraid that I might take my anger at my beloved Pens and splatter it all over this blog.  I didn't really want to do that so I took a few days off to regroup, it worked for me so dear god please let these last few days off work for the Pens too!  There is a chance that they can still win this series, a slim slim chance, but any chance is better than none.  They have come back from 3 games down before, although not to Philly and not without Malkin stepping up and scoring.  He hasn't scored in 12 playoff games.  12.  I just read that stat on Mark Maddens twitter feed.  I knew he hadn't scored this series, but I didn't realize how many playoff games he has been scoreless.  That stat really hurts.  We need the leagues leading point scorer to step up and SCORE!  I feel like I should take the opportunity to say that our defense has hopefully also arrived in Philly.  I think they got lost along the way because they certainly were not on the ice last game.

I am not a Marc-Andre Fleury fan, thats not a newsflash or anything so I would love to blame him for the insane amount of goals Philly has scored but I can't.  Oh I know I can blame a few on him, believe me hes not innocent in these debacle games.  He just isn't 100% to blame either.  At some point someone has to step up and help him out.  Maybe playing a thousand regular season games in goal isn't looking like such a great idea anymore, maybe Fleury is tired, maybe Bylsma is regretting that decision.... maybe not.  Maybe Disco Dan is going to come out tonight with the exact same game plan he has used for the last 3 games..... I hope thats not the case and some adjustments were made..... I guess I will just have to start pacing and impatiently waiting for this game.  I'm optimistic about tonight though..... LETS GO PENS!!!

Bad Pittsburgh Sports Night

I am not even sure where to start this post.  Luckily its a blog and not an article because the only thing I can manage to think about the Pens playoff game last night is "Horrible".  Yet again we jumped up quick.... and yet again we managed to let the Flyers not only come back,  but take the lead AND WIN.  What makes this even worse is not only did we allow Sean Couturier to get a Hat Trick but we also let Claude Giroux collect a Hat Trick (while also adding 3 assists Giroux had a great game).  Two hat tricks in one game.... that makes me wonder where on earth our defense was?  I can tell you they were not out there last night, well they were on the ice but they weren't very good.

We had far to many costly turnovers to even dream of winning that game.  Ben Lovejoy had one of those costly turnovers allowing Couturier to score a breakaway goal to even the score at 5.  From that point on the Flyers didn't look back.  And my head began to hurt.  I guess my head hurt so much because I can't understand how we can jump on them so quick and not take full advantage of the lead that we created.

The fact is game three in Philly is going to be HUGE, if we don't pull out the win then the series is basically lost. We absolutely need to win Sunday's game to stay alive and stop the momentum the Flyers have built up.  Many writes, bloggers, and assorted sports junkies said from the beginning this was going to go all seven games, and I was in agreement with that, I just didn't think it would be because we dropped the first two games in such a horrible fashion.  Sunday's game holds all the marbles for the Pens.... Lets hope we can keep it together.

In other Pittsburgh Sports news the Pirates lost 5-0 to the San Francisco Giants last night.  They play again tonight at 9:05pm with Charlie Morton making his season debut, returning from off season hip surgery.  I will get more into a Pirates review later tonight but for now I am still trying to swallow the Pens loss....

Pens Fall In Game 1

I am a little disgruntle at the moment.  I actually had to wait a little while after that Pens game before I started this post just because of my anger at how it ended.  The Pens jumped up quick on the Flyers taking a 3-0 lead in the first period off of goals scored by Crosby, Kennedy, and Dupuis.  It was GREAT, and then they stopped playing.  Not literally of course, they still were out on the ice pretending to be involved in the game however, after those first 3 goals they chalked up zero points while the Flyers managed to score 4.  Yep the Flyers came back from a 3-0 deficit to win the game in sudden death OT.  Now I am the first to point out that their first goal should not have ever happened because there was a SUPER OBVIOUS call that was missed. But I will say no more about it because the fact is, it was missed and there is nothing we can do about it. They scored, it counted and we lost..... and it sucks.  On the bright side though I think this will make the Pens come out hungry in game two, and maybe they will remember that this Philly team isn't going to lay down and let us run past them without putting up a fight.  Here's hoping they got the crap out of their system and they move on to better play in the rest of this series.  Friday night better be a notch in the win column.

Tortorella Fined For Rant About Pens

The NHL fined New York Rangers coach John Tortorella for the second time this season for an outburst in front of the media.  The first time he went on a rant about the officiating during the Winter Classic ($30,000), this time he took his unsportsmanlike conduct and pointed it toward the Penguins costing him another $20,000.

After the 5-2 loss he suffered at the hands of the Pens, Tortorella found it necessary to call Brooks Orpik's knee to knee hit on Derek Stepan "Dirty" and "Cheap".  He then went on to rant about how the Penguins entire organization is "arrogant" and that its two stars are in fact "whining" stars.

I watched that game and while the hit Orpik put on Stepan could have potentially caused serious injury, to both players, (seriously, knee on knee contact is dangerous for everyone) I didn't think there was any intent to hurt anyone.  If the intent was there to hurt Stepan why would Orpik have put himself in just as much risk by using his knee..... he wouldn't.

As for the other comments made by Tortorella both Sidney Crosby (one of the Pens two whining stars) and Coach Dan Bylsma think that its just part of the oppositions playoff strategy.  Teams like the Rangers and the Flyers (whose coach also publicly attempted to smear the Pens last week) are trying to get into the head of the Penguins players just as they make plans to start the playoffs.

The Pens and the Flyers meet up today in the final regular season game before they face each other in the first round of the playoffs.  Each second that passes makes me think this seasons playoffs are going to be very very interesting.  Lets hope the Pens can focus on what happens on the ice and not what the coaches are doing off the ice.

Pens Solidify Playoff Spot

With the 5-2 win over the New York Rangers the Penguins finalized their own playoff picture.  It looks like they draw home ice advantage over the Philadelphia Flyers.  Its going to be a brutal series with a hated rival.  I can't wait.  But wait, first lets summarize the New York game....

The Pens looked solid.  Kunitz, Kennedy, Park, Malkin and Letang all scored goals tonight while Fleury stopped 35 shots and let 2 sneak by.  Not bad, not bad at all.  The Pens also racked up 25 penalty minutes in preparation for the Philly series coming up... My gut is telling me both these teams are going to spend a lot of time killing penalties.

Saturday the Pens and Flyers meet up in the final regular season game to get a few shots in before the playoffs begin.  Don't look forward to seeing a lot of star power on the ice on Saturday.  Winning or losing doesn't change anything for either team so I don't look for them to risk injuries to the key players. Look for the Pens to call up some youngsters and give them a little extra ice time.

Now we sit and wait until the real games start with Philly..... I can't say this enough, It's going to be BRUTAL folks..... I know it, you know it, and the players know it.  Its going to make for some great hockey.