RECAP. Yeah. Like That Game Is Getting Recapped. Pens LOSE

Lol yeah that game isn't getting a recap.  Or a score for that matter.  Everyone sucked last night.

Instead of a recap go read Andrew's post on how the NHL does a pathetic job of Marketing the Western Conference.

Link is RIGHT HERE!!!

Pens go to St. Louis on Saturday.

Go Pens

How the NHL Should Market the Western Conference

At school, I work an overnight shift in dorms on Monday nights from Midnight until 8 am on Tuesday morning. During my shift, I have a lot of downtime so I read other blogs, main articles, etc. A couple weeks ago, I was reading the Pensblog and they had a link to sign up for the Puck Drunk Love newsletter. Once I signed up, I came across a post that really intrigued me. The post was "How the NHL needs to market the Western Conference."  With the Penguins playing the Rangers tonight at 7:30 on NBCSN, it got me thinking about this subject.

I am a senior in college and I'm studying Sport Management, so I have a little bit of expertise in this area. In my marketing class, we were taught that you have to go outside of the box sometimes in order to sell your product. The NHL does an outstanding job marketing their stars like Sidney Crosby, Henrik Lundqvist, Alexander Ovechkin, and Zdeno Chara, but they aren't the only superstars in the NHL. Think of some of the Western Conference teams and specifically the Pacific Division. Outside of the Chicago Blackhawks, what Western Conference teams actually get airtime on NBC and NBCSN? NBCSN has started a Wednesday Night Rivalry series where every Wednesday, they showcase a rivalry game, or a game that they want to be a rivalry. This, in my opinion, is a great marketing strategy to try to bring in new fans and expand the NHL brand and market. Wednesday Night Rivalry games usually consist of the Pens, Rangers, Flyers, Capitals, Bruins, Red Wings, Blackhawks, sometimes the Wild. The game usually starts at 7 or 7:30 and they usually end around 9:45-10.

I am also partially an NBA fan. The NBA does a fantastic job at marketing their teams, especially in the Western Conference. Think for a minute of some of the superstars in the NBA. Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Paul Pierce, Derrick Rose, and Paul George as well as up and coming stars such as Kyrie Irving. Those are some of the big names that are in the Eastern Conference in the NBA but this list is missing names like Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Steph Curry, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Dwight Howard just to name a few. The NBA reaches out and extends their market past the Eastern Conference by nationally televising Eastern and Western games. For example, tonight the NBA is nationally broadcasted on ESPN.  At 7:00, the Chicago Bulls travel to Indianapolis to take on the undefeated Pacers. That game is really no different than the Penguins and Rangers nationally broadcasted tonight. This next example is where the NBA is better than the NHL. After the Pens game, the NHL goes into a studio show in which Mike Milbury and Jeremy Roenick argue on who had worse career while the NBA will travel to Oklahoma City and broadcast the Mavericks at the Thunder. They do this every Wednesday. On Thursday the Clippers travel to Miami to play the Heat and then following that, the Lakers travel to Houston and both games are nationally televised on TNT. Why doesn't the NHL have two games on Wednesday nights and Thursday nights?

Imagine if after the Penguins game ended tonight, NBCSN went to a brief studio show to get ready for a Western game tonight between either Nashville and Colorado or Phoenix and Anaheim. Teemu Selanne is in his last season, shouldn't the NHL have more games on nationally? What about the Kings? They won a Cup two years ago and have some great talent on their team, people who don't have Gamecenter probably would love to see that. The Sharks are one of the best teams in the NHL right now and they are never on NBC or NBCSN. Colorado is 12-1-0, with great players like Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchene plus a legend is coaching them. Why are teams like this not on TV more? The NHL is missing out on a huge market as well as extending their market even more.

This season, NBCSN will broadcast a total of SIX games between Pacific Division teams playing each other. These teams do make appearances on there, but usually those games are in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington.

Another part of where the NHL is really missing out is not broadcasting Canadian teams nationally to American audiences. Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa are some of the best teams in the league and the American audiences really only see them if they purchase Centre Ice, Gamecenter, or when those teams play in their city. TSN in Canada sometimes will put a Penguins-Capitals game on nationally just so that their fans can watch other teams. NBC also needs to make better use of their networks. As a college student, I only get ROOT and NBC. If I want to watch hockey, I have to either go to a bar, illegally stream it, or buy Gamecenter. Why doesn't NBC use NBC or MSNBC or CNBC like they do in the Playoffs and show more games?

I believe that if the NHL used these other markets to their advantage, they would increase revenues as well as sell more of their product that they continue are trying to grow. I know you guys probably all agree with me and would like to see more hockey than just teams in the Eastern Conference. I hope the NHL uses its market to their full advantage and starts selling their stars in the West just like they do in the East. It would be good for the game and it would grow the game in ways that they probably can't believe.

Be like the NBA and sell the game out West.

Go Hockey.

PREGAME: Pens at Rangers

Madison Square Garden. 7:30. NBCSN.

Tonight the Penguins (11-4-0) ride into MSG on a 4-game win streak to take on the New York Rangers (6-8-0) for the first of four meetings this season. Pittsburgh has won 8 out of the last 9 meetings with the Rangers, outscoring them 30-15. The Pens are also 4-1 in their last 5 meetings in MSG.

Marc-Andre Fleury was named NHL's 2nd Star of the week (ending November 3rd). He now holds a 10-2 record with a .929 save percentage and will start in net tonight.

James Neal participated in this morning's skate in MSG, as did Beau Bennett and Chris Kunitz. Kunitz is a game-time decision for tonight, while Bennett could be back in the line-up as soon as this weekend. Neal is anticipated to rejoin team practice by Friday (per Dan Bylsma).

BLAST FROM THE PAST:

LINES:

(Via Daily Faceoff)

Kunitz - Crosby - Dupuis

Jokinen - Malkin - Megna

Glass - Sutter - Adams

Jeffrey - Vitale - Engelland

Orpik - Martin

Niskanen - Letang

Maatta - Bortuzzo

Fleury

Hagelin - Richards - Callahan

Kreider - Stepan - Zuccarello

Pyatt - Boyle - Pouliot

Mashinter - Brassard - Dorsett

McDonagh Dan Girardi

Staal - Stralman

Moore - Del Zotto

Lundqvist

INJURY REPORT:

• PIT - Vokoun (blood clot), Bennett (lower-body), Neal (upper-body), Kobasew (lower-body), Scuderi (ankle).
• NYR - Moore (oblique), Nash (concussion).

And if you missed this last Monday, major typo on the Rangers' Twitter account...

LOLOLOL.

LET'S GO PENS.

Why finishing 2nd in the Metro might be better than 1st

So as you know, no one at this blog likes Mark Madden at all.  He's a douche.  But one thing is true.  He is very smart and he knows what he's talking about.  Recently Double M brought up an interesting point.  Finishing 2nd in the Metropolitan Division may be better than finishing 1st.  Why you may ask?  Well first lets take a look at the current standings in the Easter Conference.

In the Atlantic we have:

1. Tampa 20 pts

2. Toronto 20 pts

3. Detroit  20 pts

4. Boston 16 pts

5. Montreal 16 pts

6. Ottawa 12 pts

7. Florida 9 pts

8. Buffalo LOL

And in the Metro we have:

1. Pittsburgh 22 pts

2. Islanders 15 pts

3. Washington 14 pts

4. Rangers 12 pts

5. Carolina 11 pts

6. Lumbus 10 pts

7. New Jersey 10 pts

8. Broad Street Babies 8 pts

Ok.  There are your divisions in the Eastern Conference as of November 4th.  One thing that jumps out is that the 4th and 5th place teams in the Atlantic would be 2nd and 3rd in the Metro.  The 2nd and 3rd place teams in the Metro would be in 6th and 7th in the Atlantic.  Just shows how bad the Metro is right now minus the Penguins and we aren't even being homers hear.  Just look at the standings.  Anyways back to my original point.  Finishing 2nd in the Metro would probably be better than finishing 1st.  And here is why.  

If the Playoffs started today your playoff teams would be:

From the Atlantic

1. Tampa

2. Toronto

3. Detroit

From the Metrlol

1. Pittsburgh

2. New York Islanders

3. Washington

And the Wild Card teams would be Boston and Montreal

Now.  Here is why finishing 1st in the Metro could be bad.  It would give us the Pens a 1st round playoff match against Montreal.  Or even worse.  Should Montreal and Boston flip 4th and 5th it could be Pens/Bruins in round 1.

Here is how the 1st round of the Playoffs would fall out if the season ended today

1 Tampa vs 4 Boston

2 Toronto vs 3 Detroit (Good lord)

1 Pittsburgh vs 5 Montreal

2 New York Islanders vs 3 Washington

The number 2 team in the Metro gets the shitty number 3 team from the Metro while the number 1 team from the Metro gets a pretty good number 5 team from the Atlantic.  So.  Should the Pens finish 1st in the Metro they could be in for a rough series against any of the top 5 teams in the Atlantic.  Tampa, Detroit, Boston, Montreal or, gulp, Toronto.  Then you would have the 2 shitty Metro teams taking dumps on each other to go to the divisional finals.  Yikes.

So yeah.  The best thing to happen to any playoff from the Metro could be finishing 2nd or 3rd.

Go Pens

HF Boards: Random

It's been awhile since the last HF Boards post. The last one that I did was with the Kris Letang speculation since Rossi thought he was gonna be traded instead of extended. This post is just going to be random trades that I find on HF Boards. Some of them will be Penguins trades and some will just be random terrible NHL trades. Grab some popcorn and sit back and enjoy.

First trade will probably not surprise anyone if you have been reading my posts.

Brandon Sutter

Carl Gunnarson
Nikolai Kulemin










Nikolai Kulemin to the Pens on an HF Boards trade?!?! NO WAY!

The next trade is another Pens trade and it might make you drive your head through a wall. If you even know who the other player is.

Brooks Orpik

Jason Zucker









Ummmmmm we aren't sure why the Pens would even consider this but this isn't even bad compared to some of the shit that I've seen.

The next one isn't a Pens trade, but I'm pretty sure if you are a fan of either team, you're gonna think 'What the fuck'.

Matt Duchene

Oliver Ekman-Larsson





Both of these guys are great players, and this trade probably works in NHL 14, but no reason why either team does this deal.

The next trade might be the dumbest thing ever.

Nail Yakupov
Martin Marincin
2014 1st

Ryan Miller
Matt Moulson







Why in the hell would the Sabres trade Matt Moulson right after the acquired him? The Ryan Miller move would make sense if the Oilers were a playoff team but I don't think they are and giving up one of their best prospects (who just so happens to be a defenseman makes zero sense.) Plus as Pens fans, we want Ryan Miller to stay in the East.

The next one might make you laugh and you almost think it could happen.

Claude Giroux

Morgan Rielly
Nazem Kadri
James Reimer
2014 First Round Pick







First of all, this is entirely too much for Giroux, so it would never happened because Holmgren couldn't get this type of package for him because he's an idiot. Second, why the hell would the Leafs trade Morgan Rielly or James Reimer? But as Pens fans, we can just laugh at this. I guess if this would happen, Holmgren would get a laugh after he lost the JVR trade.

Does Toronto really want this ^

Somehow, I doubt Brian Burke would do that trade.

This next one is a "WHAT?" trade.

Tyler Ennis
Jake McCabe
2014 1st Round (NYI)
2015 1st Round (BUF)
2 2nd Round Picks

Patrick Kane

The next trade is one that, even if you don't like Marc-Andre Fleury, as a Pens fan, you'll never ever ever want to see.

Ryan Miller

Marc-Andre Fleury
Tanner Glass
2014 1st Round
2015 3rd Round








Um? First of all, HUGE overpayment because Ryan Miller sucks. Second this sums up our feels.

Yeah please no.

And if that was bad, this might be just as bad.

Slava Voynov
Tanner Pearson

James Neal
Matt Niskanen










Who is Tanner Pearson and why would anyone even suggest this?

And last but not least, since we all love the Schenn brothers on this blog, we leave you with this

Nail Yakupov OR
Jordan Eberle

Brayden Schenn
Luke Schenn

Other than Paul Holmgren, why would ANYONE want the Schenn bros?

Until next time

Go Pens.

RECAP: Pens WIN Round 1.

4

2

So Round 1 goes to the Penguins who despite getting outshot and out played at times, get the puck in the net more and win the game. Marc-Andre Fleury was definitely the difference maker in this one.

The first couple minutes of this game were entertaining as both teams exchanged chances. Both goalies were answering the bell. Then Evgeni Malkin made about 182732 dekes and about snuck one in behind Bobrovsky, but the Jackets were called for a hook because no one could keep up with the moves that Malkin made. Pens got a 2 minute powerplay but they needed only 6 seconds. Kunitz deflected in a Paul Mart shot from the point but the underrated part of the play was Crosby winning the faceoff and getting a good pass to Martin and Malkin with a little interference on Wisniewski. What a deflection by Kunitz though. 1-0 Pens.

Play continued from there like it had been and both goalies were making good saves, Fleury was seeing the bulk of the shots but he was up for the challenge. Then the Pens took a couple penalties but MAF was on meth or something because he wasn't letting anything go in. MAF made 16 saves on 16 shots in the First Period. Unbelievable.

The second was a quick start for the Pens and Brandon Sutter scored the Brandon Sutter goal. How about Tanner Glass and Craig Adams with 5 points each so far this year. Pretty crazy to think about, especially for Glass. Then a minute after that, James Wisniewski thought he could catch, hold, and throw the puck standing by his goalie, but the referee didn't like it and sent him to the box. A minute into the Powerplay, Kris Letang shot an innocent little shot towards the net, Bobrovsky remembered he used to be a Flyer or something and somehow the puck went in. 3-0 Pens and the former "owner and operator" of CONSOL was pulled for Curtis McElhinney (who?). But the Pens didn't care who was in net. Malkin undressed some guy, and threw the puck on net and Jussi J was there with a sick between the legs pass to Megnatron who buried it into a wide open net. We really like how Megnatron has been since being called up. Hopefully the kid sticks. He has already tied Eric Tangradi's career goal total with the Pens or something. Even though it was 4-0, the Jackets didn't quit. Derek MacKenzie scored off a beautiful pass from Nick Foligno and there wasn't much MAF could do about that one. 4-1 Pens. The second went away quietly with the Jackets still shooting the puck a lot.

The Third was kinda dull. Brandon Dubinsky at one point thought he was allowed to hold Sidney Crosby and then Jack Johnson hit Evgeni Malkin with a high stick. Jack Johnson sucks. With about 2:30 left, Tanner Glass destroyed Johnson with a kind of message sending hit, but unfortunately, Johnson kind of landed on Glass's leg and it bent backwards. We aren't sure if Glass returned or what not, hopefully he's alright. Then with like a minute left, Ryan Johansen snipe city on MAF and Steiggy had a homer moment. Who cares.

We really lost interest in the 3rd because the Flyers started to be chodes against the Caps and we kinda got jammed up about it.

Game.

Next game in like 6 minutes.

Go Pens.

PREGAME: Pens vs #Lumbus

CONSOL Energy Center. 7 pm. Root. 105.9 The X

So the Penguins open up a back to back-home and home with the new division rival Columbus Blue Jackets. We are all hoping this becomes a big rivalry in the NHL in the near future and with the Blue Jackets up and coming, this could turn into a rivalry soon. The Pens are 9-4-0 and leading the Metropolitan Division by 7 points over the Islanders and Hurricanes and Columbus sits 1 point behind those teams. These next two games could have a huge outcome on the standings. If the Pens get 4 points, they probably start to run away with the division but if Columbus gets 4, then they're right back into it. Should be a fun couple of days of hockey.

LINES:

Foligno - Anisimov - Gaborik

Letestu - Dubinsky - Atkinson

Comeau - Johansen - Umberger

Chaput - MacKenzie - Boll

Johnson - Savard

Tyutin - Prout

Murray - Wisniewski

Bobrovsky

Kunitz - Crosby - Dupuis

Jokinen - Malkin - Megna

Glass - Sutter - Adams

Jeffrey - Vitale - Engellend

Orpik - Martin

Letang - Niskanen

Maatta - Bortuzzo

Fleury

Here's Sid being the best in the world off the ice too.

http://video.penguins.nhl.com/videocenter/?id=473119

Go Pens.