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You know. Its kind of awkward doing a recap when no one does a Pregame post. *Cough* Haylie *Cough*. Anyways. The Leafs were in town last night for the first time since collapsing the first time they came to Consol this season. There is a difference between the two games other than the score. The Pens were playing without half their salary on the ice. The team the Pens put on the ice last night combined salary is something like 33 million dollars or there about. 8.7 million of that comes from Best In The World. The only 2 regulars on the Pens blue line last night were Olli Maatta and Matt Niskanen. Robert Bortuzzo had the game of his life. He showed why he deserves to be in the lineup. Harry Keysmash was on the SECOND FREAKIN LINE. And yet, the Pens still found a way to get a win. It also helps that Toronto just flat out sucks.
39 seconds in the Pens got on the board. Brian Dumoulin threw the puck at the goal. It hit about 800 people in front and went in the net. The last Penguin it hit was Chris Connor apparently. 1-0. Pretty much the only other thing that happened this period was Bortuzzo fighting some jobber after he boarded Bortuzzo. Whatev. Fighting is stupid.
Matt Niskanen took a penalty early. Nazem Kadri was embellishing all night. Leafs would net one. Morgan Reilly would get his first career goal to make it 1-1. Leafs fans immediately think he should win the Norris. The Leafs were buzzing but MAF was in their mouth. He didn't put his young defensemen in tough positions all night. Made the game simple for them. The same jobber that fought Bortuzzo fought Zach Sill because Sill touched Morgan Reilly. THE CODE YOU GUYZZZZZZZZNSKDFBN. Vom. What a pointless fight. Things really started getting chippy. Nazem Kadri tried to give Crosby the Trevor Gillies elbow but Kadri missed. Crosby shoved Kadri and Kadri threw himself against the boards and went down faster than a 2 cent hooker. Kadri drew a penalty. Pens killed it though. With under 2 minutes left there was a faceoff in the Leafs zone. A source told us that Harry Keysmash told Dion Phaneuf that he sucked in 24/7. Still trying to confirm. Phanuef proceeded to act like a petulant child and went after Keysmash. Both guys went to the box. Typical Dion Phaneuf. And he is supposed to be a captain. LOL. As the ref was taking care of that Kadri and Best In The World were chirping each other at the faceoff circle. Best In The World gave Kadri the biggest glare we've ever seen:
pic via The Pensblog
Did anyone else feel like Crosby was gonna impact this game in the 3rd because we did.
The 3rd period was bonkers. It started off slow but then Jayson Megna was chasing a puck in all alone. Bernier came out to meet him and took Megna out. Pretty nasty collision. What happened next was absolutely Bush League. Jayson Megna was visibly shooken up after the collision. He was favoring a leg on his way back to the bench. Morgan Reilly must have thought since he scored his first NHL goal he could do whatever he wants and he cross checked Megna in the back as he was going towards the bench. Bush League. Such a low class play by Reilly. Then Robert Bortuzzo must have done a line of cocaine with Rob Ford because he went nuts. In a good way. First he destroyed Jerry D'Amigo:
gif via The Pensblog
Bort was called for a penalty on the play because he made contact with Jerry D'Amigo's head. They might as well have called it 2 minutes because Jerry D'Amigo is short and an idiot. Keep your head up dumbass. We found out after the game that Bortuzzo will NOT face supplemental discipline as the NHL Department of Player Safety said it was "Unavoidable contact to the head on a clean body check". Perfect explanation and a perfect call too. The head wasn't the target and the only reason there was contact to the head is because, like we said, Jerry D'Amigo is a dumbass. The Pens killed Borts penalty. The Leafs almost scored after the penalty was over but Phillip Samuelsson playing in his first NHL game knocked the puck away. Unreal awareness by him. Remember how we said we thought Crosby was gonna impact this game in the 3rd? Well here you go. For some dumb reason Jake Gardiner decided to ice the puck. That meant the Leafs couldn't get Phanuef out there against Crosby. The Leafs won the ensuing faceoff. However they couldn't clear the puck. Bortuzzo added to his incredible game by making a big time play to keep the puck in and get it to Pascal Dupuis. He found Crosby in the slot all by himself. It was pretty automatic from there.
2-1 Pens.
Then Jerry D'Amigo came back for some more. His next shift on the ice Bortuzzo ended him:
gif via The Pensblog
Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Chris Kunitz took a penalty because Nazem Kadri dove again. Leafs had a few chances but The Shield prevailed once again. Brandon Sutter iced it when he potted an empty netter. 3-1. Game.
We usually post the actual Three Stars here but this time we are doing our own. In descending order:
3. Best In The World.
2. Marc Andre Fleury.
1. Olli Maatta, Matt Niskanen, Simon Despres, Robert Bortuzzo, PhillipSamuelsson, Brian Dumoulin.
Stuff:
- What a game for the Pens defensive corp. Unbelievable performance all around.
- Olli Maatta was in Phil Kessel's mouth all night. He shut him down all game.
- Congrats to Brian Dumoulin on his first career NHL point.
- Robert Bortuzzo was on acid. What a game from him.
- Nazem Kadri sucks
- Keep your head up Jerry D'Amigo.
- As you know we will take any and all opportunities to gush over Olli Maatta. In addition to shutting down Phil Kessel he had 24:17 of ice time. 6:12 of that was on the PK. My God. Oh and by the way. He's 19.
- Pretty solid game from Phil Samuelsson in his first NHL game. If you didn't watch the game and were wondering, no, he plays NOTHING like his dad.
- Marc Andre Fleury was lights out once again.
Go Pens
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