9 posts tagged “new york”

I'll keep this one short, because a few themes persisted throughout the game:

• Ryan Malone was flying all night.
• Brooks Orpik was meaner than he's been the past few nights.
• Marc-Andre Fleury was sharp.
• The posts behind Marc-Andre Fleury were sharp.
• The Pens were making too many passes.
• The Rangers did a better job of controlling the puck.
• Scott Gomez and Chris Drury still don't fit in.
• Constantly mixing lines leads to too-many-men penalties. The Pens got another one tonight.
  

The critical time of the game was the first two minutes of the second period. With 1:58 of power play time to start, the Pens scored the only goal they'd need. Sidney Crosby, from the right point, to Ryan Whitney, sneaking up the left wing, to Evgeni Malkin to the right of the goal, for a quick flip behind Henrik Lundqvist. 1-0 Pens. 0:25 later, Jordan Staal gets a penalty shot, thanks to a thrown stick. Unfortunately, Staal went straight in and threw an easy wrister on the net that Lundqvist had all the way.

This was one of those nights where throwing the kitchen sink at a goaltender just builds his confidence. The Rangers out-shot the Penguins 36-22, and Fleury just got stronger as the game went on. Meanwhile, the combination of Malone, Staal, Jarkko Ruutu, and Adam Hall kept Jaromir Jagr frustrated all night. By the third period, Jagr was hanging his head at the end of every shift.

Final Score: Penguins 1, Rangers 0, Jagr boos per period: 12.

Three Stars:

1. Marc-Andre Fleury (36-save shutout)
2. Evgeni Malkin (GWG)
3. Brooks Orpik (Hits galore)
   

The overriding theme of the past few games has been "living and dying by overtime". The Penguins haven't been able to keep leads lately, and have been hanging on by their fingernails night after night.

Pens vs. Devils: 8 Mar 2007

Patrick Elias must have been scouting Marc-Andre Fleury in shoot-outs. Everybody else has been skating straight in and hoping that the deke or the quick release will beat him. Very few have succeeded. Elias had the last shot in the third round of a scoreless shoot-out. He swung wide right from the start, stayed out until he reached the face-off dot to Fleury's left, then skated laterally across the slot, waiting for Fleury to open his legs as he moved side-to-side. Elias beat Fleury five-hole to win the game.

Final Score: Devils 4, Penguins 3 (Devils win shoot-out 1-0)
Three Stars:

1. Sergei Brylin (1G from flat on his stomach)
2. Evgeni Malkin (1G, 1A)
3. Patrick Elias (1A, GW SOG)

Pens vs. Rangers: 10 Mar 2007

Another one of those early-afternoon matinée games, so the first was mostly-- Oh, my God! Oh, my God! THAT'S LARAQUE'S MUSIC! The fight everybody has been looking forward to since the trading deadline finally came to pass: Georges Laraque vs. Colton Orr. Orr got a couple of rights in early, and both players were down and back up multiple times. Laraque ended things with an overhand left and a roar from the Mellon Arena faithful.

The Rangers jumped out to an early lead by wrapping two goals around the first intermission. Early in the third, Evgeni Malkin scored on a power play to wake the Pens up. Three minutes later, Sidney Crosby scored a huge power play goal. A Malkin shot hopped up in the air, and Crosby caught it at the post to the right of Henrik Lundqvist, set it down on his stick, and poked it into the net over Lundqvist's outstretched leg. Not only did it tie the game at 2-2, it was Crosby's 100th point of the season, making him the youngest player in NHL history with two 100-point seasons.

Then, for everything Crosby and Malkin did to tie the game, they weren't even on the bench for the end of it. They had both gone to the runway for equipment work during the break before overtime, and didn't make it back before play resumed. The game ended with everybody from both sides over-shifting. Maximum Talbot made a tremendous effort to hold the puck in the Rangers' zone, and found Colby Armstrong open at the right half-boards. Colby took the pass and flung a wrist shot at the net. The puck hit Marek Malik's stick and deflected over Lundqvist's shoulder and into the net. Crosby and Malkin had to join the celebration from the hallway.

Final Score: Penguins 3, Rangers 2 (OT)

Three Stars:

1. Evgeni Malkin (1G, 1A)
   
2. Sidney Crosby (1G)
3. Sergei Gonchar (2A)

Pens vs. Sabres: 13 Mar 2007

Party at Mario's house!

Who invited all these people from Buffalo? And why do their jerseys have hairpieces on the front?

I'm not sure I like the fact that we had to celebrate the signing of Plan B against a team that travels well. There was entirely too much "Let's Go Buff-a-lo!" last night. Ya know what? We were too damn happy to care!

The referees were intent on keeping their whistles in their pockets, which led to three periods of wild up-and-down action and a month's worth of highlight-reel saves. For all that, what little scoring there was in the first two periods came in bursts.

• Late in the first, Jason Pominville mucks a rebound behind Fleury. 1-0 Sabres.
• Less than a minute later, Ryan Malone tips a Gonchar slapper in the net. 1-1.
• Late in the second, Maximum Talbot gets the Cheapest Goal In NHL History, by flinging a pass across the slot, only for the puck to hit Ryan Miller's leg and deflect into the net. 2-1 Pens.
• Chris Drury finds Dmitri Kalinin with a pretty one-timer pass. 2-2.

It looked like Pittsburgh was going to finally bury a game early in the third. Crosby poked home a Mark Recchi rebound for a power play goal a little over one minute in to make it 3-2. Gonchar made it 4-2 with a booming slapshot with about ten minutes to go.

Have I mentioned that the Sabres have the best record in the Eastern Conference?

Just two minutes after Gonchar's goal, Daniel Briere and Jochen Hecht got a 2-on-1 break. Hecht made a beautiful saucer pass to Briere, who buried it. 4-3.

With Miller pulled, Recchi almost had an empty-net goal, but his shot was Wide Right. (Wide Right is a registered trademark of Long Suffering Buffalo Fans, Inc.) With the Pens' defense hanging on for dear life, Drury fought for a rebound and scored with seven seconds remaining to tie it at 4-4.

Overtime was a lot of up-and-down, with nothing to show for it. Shoot-out time. Again.

• The Specialist Erik Christensen dekes Miller to the ice, then uses the Forsberg Reach-Around to score. 1-0 Pens.
• Daniel Briere doesn't take Patrick Elias' advice, and tries the deke-o-rama. It dribbles wide. 1-0 Pens.
• Jarkko Ruutu finally gets his chance, and can't beat Miller with the forehand-backhand move. Ruutu can't beat Miller with the rebound either. Um, Jarkko? You're not allowed to try the rebound. But that's not Ruutu's job. His job is to get in people's kitchen. A linesman kept Ruutu from learning just how in Miller's kitchen he was.
• Drew Stafford didn't take Elias' advice, either, but damn, was that a wicked release! 1-1, and we need a brief time-out while somebody finds a fire extinguisher for Fleury.
• Sidney Crosby rubs his hands like a mad scientist. "Perfect. Ruutu has Miller so aggravated, he'll never expect the Forsberg Reach-Around twice in the same shoot-out!" Just to rub it in, Crosby went to the opposite side that Christensen did. 2-1 Pens.
• Thomas Vanek might have considered Elias' advice, but after watching Stafford, figured he'd try that instead. Fleury teaches Vanek the error of his ways.

Final Score: Penguins 5, Sabres 4 (Pens win shoot-out 2-1), number of Zamboni breakdowns: 2. One died in the first intermission and wasn't ready for the second. Of course, the other one died in the second, so we had an extra-long break because they barely got the ice done after getting one Zamboni back on its wheels.

Three Stars:

1. Sidney Crosby (1G, 2A, GW SOG)
2. Ryan Whitney (3A)
3. Daniel Briere (1G, 2A)
   

US$100,000 per year. There's a lesson in that.

That's the difference between the Oilers standing pat at the trade deadline and Ryan Smyth making a tearful farewell in the hallway of Edmonton's airport.

Two parties letting obstinacy and pride prevent them from making one last small concession. Smyth could have shrugged and said, "Close enough." But he didn't. Oilers GM Kevin Lowe could have conceded and said, "The difference isn't even 1/4 of the league minimum salary. Don't spend it all in one place, Smytty." But he didn't.

Calgarians must be bitter about this.

I say there's a lesson here because we've heard almost nothing about Plan B for a few weeks now. Yesterday, the Penguins declined an opportunity to exercise a one-year extension on their lease at Mellon Arena. They'd lose much of their negotiating leverage if they did, so that makes sense from a business perspective. For most of February, however, the word from County Executive Dan Onorato, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, and/or Governor of Philadelphia Ed Rendell (but almost never from Penguins management) has been, "blah blah agree on principles, blah blah little details, blah blah closer every day."

The stakes are obviously much higher in Pittsburgh. For Smyth, it's just the difference between a third jersey designed by Todd McFarlane, and a third jersey designed by an eighth grader during study hall. Here, were talking about 41 tax-revenue-generating home games a year; national and international events that wouldn't dare tolerate the Igloo's poor acoustics, outdated infrastructure, and inhospitable corridors; and the stigma of being a City That Lost A Major Sports Franchise. (Hello, Cleveland!)

I've said all along that the arena issue has become a referendum on the City of Pittsburgh's desire to rise again. I'd hate to see that all come apart because of something small that only the stubborn would trip over.

These 7:00pm starts mess with everybody. Normally, the opening faceoff for Penguins home games is at 7:30, but tonight started at 7:00. Which means the crowd was slow to arrive (aided and abetted by a road-closing accident at 7th and Grant), and both teams were slow to get up to speed. Much of the first period was rough, but things picked up as the night went on.

This was the sixth of our eight games with the Isles this year, so we're deep into "familiarity breeds contempt" territory here. That was evident early, when Brendan Witt flipped Sidney Crosby with a hip check, and got many knuckle sandwiches from Ryan Malone for his effort. Lots of post-whistle scrums. Lots of extra shoves at the end of checks. I rather enjoyed watching Dominic Moore love-tap Sean Hill in the back four or five times on the way to their respective benches. Hill was giving Moore the "What was that, a mosquito?" treatment, but it was still a nice indicator of how pesky everybody was feeling.

The Penguins goals were almost all rebounds. The Islanders goals were all defensive lapses.

• Erik Christensen pots a rebound early in the first. 1-0 Pens.
  
• Early in the second. Richard Park, playing out high on a 5-on-3 penalty kill, clears the puck to the boards in the neutral zone, and breaks up ice, seeing that the Pens point man was leaning the wrong way. A favorable bounce off the penalty box door, and Park is alone behind the defense on the right wing. The wrist shot was perfectly placed, high to the far post, to tie the game at 1-1.
• Later in the second, the Pens get a face-off to Mike Dunham's right with a man advantage. Five seconds after the puck dropped, Michel Ouellet collected a rebound, and poked it under Dunham. 2-1 Pens.
• Late in the second, the Pens lost track of Aaron Asham who was all alone in the slot for a chip-in. Tied at 2-2.
• Crosby gets an easy rebound on the power play, with Dunham down and out of his crease. 3-2 Pens.
• Christensen gains the blue line, flings an innocent looking wrister on net, and burns Dunham to a crisp. 4-2 Pens.
• Crosby gets another rebound on a 2-on-1 break. 5-2 Pens.

And then things got ugly. With less than a minute to go, and the Pens cycling in the Islanders' zone, Jason Blake raised his stick as if to hook Sid, then gave Crosby a blade-first spear to the ribs instead. Sid dropped to the ice, popped back up, grabbed Blake by the collar, gave him a shove, and was promptly escorted to the penalty box by the linesman. The score sheet says "unsportsmanlike conduct", but Sid really got two minutes for defending himself from a blatantly obvious spear that the referees didn't call! Crosby gave the refs a little verbal abuse after the horn, but played it cool in the locker room. Coach Michel Therrien was a little less gracious, calling for the league to punish Blake.

Final Score: Penguins 5, Islanders 2, consecutive sellouts: 7.

Three Stars:

1. Erik Christensen (2G, 1A)
2. Sidney Crosby (2G, 1A, 1 subplot for the next trip to Uniondale)
3. Michel Ouellet (1G, 1A)
   

See what happens when you put the right lines together?

4th line: Jarko Ruutu - Chris Thorburn - Maxime Talbot: All three are great penalty killers and absolute maniacs on the ice. You expect that from a 4th line, but we're getting points and scoring chances from them now, too. Max had a shorthanded goal last night, just 27 seconds after another Penguins goal. Ronald Petrovicky is an interchangeable part with any of these three.

3rd line: Dominic Moore - Jordan Staal - Michele Ouellet: Staal had the goal just before Talbot, directly off a face-off win by Moore in the circle to the right of a frustrated Rick DiPietro. Right now, this line is doing its best work as a puck-possession line. Moore and Staal are also excellent penalty killers.

2nd line: Nils Ekman - Evgeni Malkin - Colby Armstrong: And here's where the Pens are in a quandry. This line was better Wednesday night with Erik Christiansen at left wing. With Ekman back from the flu, Christiansen was a healthy scratch. No goals tonight, but all three had assists on special-teams goals. Over the long haul, we'll need more production from these guys than we're getting but, as you'll see, we have people picking up the slack.

1st line: Ryan Malone - Sidney Crosby - Mark Recchi: Damn, are these guys scary good together. Let's break down the scoring by this line last night:

• The Pens get a 3-on-2 break. Recchi carries up the middle, then passes to Crosby, who gains the blue line along the right wing boards. Sid glides to the top of the circle, then throws a perfect cross-ice pass to Malone in the far circle. Malone lines up his shot, and burns DiPietro with a high wrister.
• The Pens are cycling in the Islanders' zone. Whitney to Recchi, who drops one back to Crosby and heads for the net. Crosby eludes his defender and fires a wrist shot through traffic to beat DiPietro.
• The Pens get a 3-on-2 break. Recchi carries up the middle, then passes to Crosby, who gains the blue line along the right wing boards. Sid glides to the top of the circle, then throws a perfect cross-ice pass to Malone in the far circle. Malone lines up his shot, and burns Mike Dunham with a high wrister. (Yes, I just cut-and-pasted that first goal. The play developed pretty much the same way. Dunham started the 3rd for DiPietro.)
  
• Crosby puts on a puck-handling show worthy of the Harlem Globetrotters in the right corner, gets space from his defender, and sweeps behind the net. Malone camps just off the left post and buries the one-timer from Sid.
  

  Holy Zhitnik, what a move!

Sid gets another 4 points, giving him 10 in 2 games. Ryan Malone gets his first NHL hat trick. Mark Recchi gets his 800th career assist on Malone's second goal. Jocelyn Thibault holds off a late New York charge for his first win of the season.

17,028 screaming fans get treated to one of the most entertaining shows in sports today.

Final Score: Penguins 7, Islanders 4, defensemen faked out of their skates: 5.

Three Stars:

1. Ryan Malone (3G, first NHL hat trick)
2. Mark Recchi (1G, 3A, 800th NHL assist)
3. Sidney Crosby (1G, 3A)
   

I can't decide what storyline to run with tonight...

Familiarity Breeds Contempt: The unbalanced schedule has the Pens playing division games so often, it's just silly. This is the second time we've played the Islanders this week, so all those little scrums from Tuesday night became a string of offsetting roughing calls and one fight tonight. And look, we play the Rangers next week. Again. I'm all for rivalries, but this is ridiculous.

Less Pretty, More Gritty: When, oh when, will somebody finally break the Pens' habit of attempting fancy passes? Drive to the friggin' net!

Who Gave C-28 Stupid Pills?: Not a good performance from the Penguins fans tonight. Just in my section, I had to deal with:

• Frat boys intentionally singing the Star-Spangled Banner off-key.
• A guy screaming "Lets Go Pens" so loud, I though he was going to give himself a hernia. Dude, they don't have to hear you outside the arena.
• Somebody who thought the action in front of him was a voice-activated XBox, not a live game. "C'mon, get it over the line... cycle... rock the puck [whatever that means]... keep it moving... what are you doing?... c'mon!" And that was all in one breath. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating, but only about the pace of his incessant chatter.
• Darmok (who speaks only in bad nicknames) felt compelled to start every complaint about a play that didn't go the Pens' way with "Aw, c'mon, ya gotta..." This phrase, of course, is passive-aggressive shorthand for "You suck, because you didn't..." It's the cheapest cop-out in fandom.
• And finally, Man-Child. I call him that because he behaves like a 12-year old boy in a 30-something body. I used to call him The Foghorn, because he can yell "Lets Go Pens" louder than that other guy, but Man-Child knows how to project his voice. Last year, that was it. A bit obnoxious, but sincere in his support for the team. This year, he's added high-decibel sarcasm and a hair-trigger "Down in front!" to his repertoire, which gets him the occasional stern response. That's when the 12-year old comes out, in the form of insults too juvenile for a school bus, and an insistence on getting the last word. For the fourth time this season, ushers have had to take him aside and give him a reminder of what "family-friendly atmosphere" means. One of these nights, he's going to piss off the wrong guy, and it'll come to blows.

Just an unsatisfying night all around.

Final score, Islanders 5, Penguins 3, Ekman's speed tonight: Warp Factor 9.

Three Stars:

1. Viktor Kozlov (2G, 1A)
2. Sidney Crosby (2A)
3. Mike Sillinger (2G)

Ah, that's better. Sidney Crosby comes back from a sore groin, and immediately sets up Colby Armstrong for his first two goals of the season. Chris Thorburn got the game-winning goal by driving the net, picking up a pass from Jordan Staal behind the cage, catching Rick "15 Years?!" DiPietro off the post, and banking a pass off the back of DiPietro's leg and into the net. (And you thought Crosby or Malkin would get a goal that way first.)

More importantly, the Penguins bounced back from Saturday night's heart-breaker. I think the way they responded tonight indicates how much more mature and confident this year's squad is. Last year, that overtime loss to the Rangers probably would have triggered a long losing streak.

For Marc-Andre Fleury, it was a good birthday/bobblehead night. The Islanders steadily increased their pressure as the game went on, and Fleury was equal to the task, with a little help from his friends. In the third period, a Penguins defenseman Nils Ekman (finally saw the replay) cleared a puck that trickled through Fleury before it crossed the goal line.

Final score, Penguins 3, Islanders 2, successful attempts to start the wave: zero!

Three Stars:

1. Marc-Andre Fleury (33 of 35)
2. Colby Armstrong (2G)
3. Sidney Crosby (2A)
   

Sergei Gonchar's 500th career point, 64 minutes and 57.8 seconds of hard work, and Martin Straka gets lucky.

Final score: Rangers 2, Pens 1 (OT), the clock read: 2.2.

Three Stars:

1. Jaromir Jagr (1G, 1A)
2. Evgeni Malkin (1G)
3. Henrik Lundqvist (28 of 29)

What does it say when the most remarkable things about a tilt with the Rangers are:

• Mark Recchi had 2 goals
• The Pens' division record is now 7-1-0
• It took something like 10 minutes to correct the game clock with less than one minute remaining in the third.

Of course, for much of the first period, the scoreboard alternated between reading "PENGUINS" vs. "RANGERS" and "penguins" vs. "devils". Chalk it up to Crappy Old Mellon Arena. At least the lights stayed on.

As is tradition in Pittsburgh, Jaromir Jagr was booed every time he touched the puck. Other former Penguins get much less hostile greetings: A small cheer for Marty Straka, an indifferent isn't-he-due-for-his-annual-shoulder-injury? reaction to Michal Rozsival, and a loud groan when Darius Kasparaitis was scratched. Yeah, we really miss Kaspar that much.

Final Score: Penguins 3, Rangers 1, number of times a referee skated between the ref's crease and the benches during that damn clock delay: Um, I lost count.

Three Stars:

1. Mark Recchi (2G)
2. Sidney Crosby (2A)
3. Sergei Gonchar (2A)