6
4
Dating back to last seasons playoffs the Islanders are one of the teams that gives the Pens fits due to their overall team speed. This game was no different. The Isles punched. The Pens punched back. The Isles took a couple on the chin and gave one right back to the Pens. But Jeff Zatkoff gave the Isles one big uppercut and broke them.
The Pens came out slower than your Grandpap on the freeway. They looked like a team that had a game 24 hours earlier and they paid for it. Taylor Pyatt forgot to go to the boards and take Letang's clearing pass. The Isles chipped it back in. Michael Grabdicks ripped it past Zatkoff. 1-nil Isles. What seemed like 2 seconds later the Isles made it 2-nil. 2 Pens collided in the neutral zone and the Isles came in 2 on 1. Will Nelson sniped it to make it 2-0. Then before a faceoff in the Pens zone Crosby reminded everyone there was a game.
gif via The Pensblog
And after that Crosby and Kunitz went in to Ultimate Warrior mode. Sid tracked down a puck in the Isles zone and fed it to Kunitz in the slot. It was in and out faster than you after a girl tells you she has herpes. 2-1. Then that line struck again. Kunitz circled around the Isles goal. Crosby was in Poulin's mouth. He tapped the Kunitz pass home. Right back to square one. 2-2.
6 MINUTES OF MAATTA.
The first 6 minutes of the period was all about Olli Maatta. He took a penalty early in the period for cross checking someone. I think it was Cal Clusterfuck and if it was he probably deserved it. The Pens killed the penalty and Maatta came out of the box and went to work. He had the puck in his own zone and was trying to take it up ice. Instead of forcing it like most players would do, he circled around and fed the puck to Matt Niskanen. Nisky got the puck up the ice. Maatta was trailing the play and called for the puck and went to work:
gif via the Pensblog...again
So sick. Hey did we mention he's only 19? The game kind of went into a lull after that. Matt Martin may be the worst hockey player ever. He hooked Paul Martin then cried about it. The Pens power play went to work and boy was is nasty. Just watch this gif from you guessed it, the Pensblog:
Filthy.
If you thought this game was over then you haven't watched a Pens/Islanders game in the past 10 months. The Isles are one of the few teams that have a counter to the Jacques Martin Scorpian Death Lock. It looked they were just gonna go quietly but Matt Martin fought Tanner Glass and it woke the Isles up. Paul Martin and Brooks Orpik tripped over each others sacks and Josh Bailey had a breakaway. You knew he was gonna bury it. 4-3. But the Pens answered. Neal stole the puck and hit Malkin with the good ol Ryan Whitney backdoor play. 5-3. Again. If you thought this game was over you haven't watched a Pens/Isles game in the past 10 months. The Isles answered once again. Someone threw a puck towards the net. Zatkoff couldn't control it. It somehow trickled in the net. They looked at it in Toronto. It counted. 5-4. The after 50 minutes of the game elapsed John Tavares finally decided to show up. He drew 2 penalties and put the Isles on a 5 on 3. The Isles had a chance to tie it on a cross ice one timer but Zatkoff got his pad down to save it. The Isles really didn't have any more chances. They turned the puck over in their zone with an empty net and Brandon Sutter made it 6-4. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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1. Best In The World
2. Chirs Kunitz
3. Kyle Okposo. What?
Honorable mention Olli Matta. Kyle Okposo sucks.
Stuff:
- Solid game from Kris Letang
- Zatkoff looked shaky
- 3 point night for Best In The World
- As per usual Tavares was invisible for 90% of the game
- Olli Maatta <3
- No clue what Chuck Kobasew gets to play on the 1st line and Jayson Megna gets shafted and plays on the 4th.
Pens next game is in Dallas on Saturday.
Go Pens
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