RECAP. Speechless. Pens LOSE

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The Pens were in Detroit last night and we really have no clue how to recap this game.  Probably one of the most bizarre games you'll see all season.  The Detroit scored 3 goals that hit off of Penguins players.  Pretty much sums this game up.

Pens next game is Saturday at 1 vs Tampa.

Go Pens

RECAP. Crosby And Friends. Pens WIN:

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The last time these two teams met the Pens looked like absolute ass.  Tonight.  They were in the Stars mouth from start to finish.  The Pens came out like a house of fire and didn't look back.  Right from the opening faceoff Crosby looked like he was shot oot of a damn rocket.  Jeff Zatkoff got the start in goal last night and played what was in our opinion his best game of the season.  Remember that time we wanted Bryz or another veteran backup?  Lol.

Like we said, right from the opening faceoff Best In The World looked like he got shot oot of a damn rocket.  He was flying.  Chris Kunitz was back after missing a couple games and you could tell it helped the 1st line.  They were creating shit every time on the ice.  The Pens got a power play just under 2 minutes in.  The power play looked good but couldn't cash in.  Then Crosby got shifted with Gibbons and Adams.  Adams did some solid work down low and got the puck to Best In The World.  He embarrassed Gonch in the slot and waited out Lehtonen and back handed the puck into the net to make it 1-nil Pens.

Honestly forgot Gonch played for the Stars until warm ups started.  Oops.  The Stars got it back though.  The only time the decided to do anything productive all game.  Someone shot the puck from the point and Tyler Seguin got a stick on it and deflected it under Zatkoff to tie the game at 1.  The Pens were like "enough of that" and went back to work.  And once again it was the first line leading the way.  Stempniak hit a one timer in the slot that Lehtonen saved but the rebound went right to Chris Kunitz.  He buried it to make it 2-1 Pens.

The 2nd period started oot just like the 1st.  With the 1st line everywhere.  After a little bit of sloppiness the Pens found their stride they had in the 1st.  Corsby, Kunitz, Stempniak did whatever they wanted in the Stars zone.  They eventually cashed in again.  A sweet passing play that went Crosby to Kunitz to Stempniak and ended with Stempniak stealing the Stars defesnmen's girls then dropping a deuce in Lehtonen's eye.  What a goal by Stempniak.  Does he look comfortable on that line or what?  Honestly can't think of anything else that happened in the 2nd.  Pretty sure Zatkoff made some sick glove save.  Joe Vitale took a penalty late.  

2 goal lead.  3rd period.  Pens go to the Jaques Martin Scorpian Death Lock.  Except the Stars are completely uninterested so the Pens cash in again.  The Pens got a shot on goal and the rebound went right to Best In The World.  He had a wide open net.  He could have made the shot blind folded with a right handed mini stick.  4-1 Pens.  Then shit got chippy.  Cody Eakin showed the first signs of life for the Stars since the goal when he drove to the net and ran over Zatkoff.  A scrum ensued and Kunitz tried ending some dude's man hood.

gif via The Pensblog

The Pens were on a power play at the time.  2 Stars took a penalty and Kunitz took 4 minutes so nothing changed.  The Pens couldn't cash in.  Brian Gibbons went Tanner Glass Secret Service mode and blocked a shot.  He went down the runway but returned.  The Stars got a power play after Malkin knocked someone down.  The Stars had a few chances early but Zatfoff was all business.  Brian Gibbons got a chance to kill the penalty and he ended up setting up Brandon Sutter on a break away.  Sutter roofed it but hit the cross bar.  The puck hit Lehtonen and trickled across the line.  Brian Gibbons pushed it further in the net for good measure.  They reviewed it for whatever reason.  Game.

1. Best In The World

2. Lee Stempniak

3. Jeff Zatkoff

Stuff:

• Pretty solid game for the Pens all around.
• Jayson Megna was scratched for some reason.  He was the best Penguin on the ice Sunday against Philly.
• What a game from the first line. Best In The World: 2g 1a.  Stempniak: 1g 2a.  Kunitz: 1g 1a.  
• Jeff Zatkoff was solid.  Other than his first 2 games he has played some unreal hockey.
• Even though he was held pointless Evgeni Malkin played real well.  It probably helped having James Neal back.  
• The Stars were complaining aboot shit all game.  Seemed like after every whistle they were engaging the refs.
• Pretty solid game from Despres and Bortuzzo as well.
• Good bounce back game for the Pens.

The Pens next game is tomorrow in Detroit.

Go Pens

PREGAME: Pens vs. Stars

Consol Energy Center. 7:00. ROOT.

I don't know, I guess I'd better do a gameday before Andrew and Brandon rip my head off.

Anywho...

The Penguins (44-19-4) look to bounce back from their disappointing two-game losing streak from this past weekend tonight as they face the Dallas Stars (32-24-11). Dallas is also coming off two consecutive losses (versus Flames and Jets). The Pens and Stars last met on January 25th in Dallas, where the Stars shut out the Pens 3-0. Yikes.

Zatkoff will be in net. Neal and Kunitz could possibly return for the game tonight, if they are cleared by doctors. The rest of the line-up is said to be game-time decision, no surprise there.

LINES:

Kunitz – Crosby – Stempniak

Jokinen – Malkin – Neal

Glass – Goc – Gibbons

Adams – Sutter – Pyatt

Orpik – Niskanen

Maatta – Bortuzzo

Scuderi – Engelland

Zatkoff

Benn – Seguin – Nichushkin

Cole – Eakin – Sceviour

Roussel – Fiddler – Garbutt

Whitney – Mueller – Chiasson

Goligoski – Daley

Benn – Dillon

Connauton – Gonchar

Lehtonen

UPDATES:

• Kris Letang participated in full team practice yesterday afternoon, still no timetable for return but more on that here.

LET'S GO PENS!

March Madness

Even though we're a hockey blog, we want to see who is the smartest basketball person on the interwebs. We set up a Free March Madness Bracket on ESPN.com. If you win, you'll get a shoutout from us on twitter. Good luck.


Join Bracket Here

Recap. The 15 Minutes From Hell. Pens LOSE

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The Flyers were in down.  And this game could be broken down into two parts.  Which we are gonna do.

THE FIRST 15 MINUTES

The first 15 minutes went something like this for the Pens:

The first 15 minutes were a disaster for the Pens.  It started out when a puck bounced of Robert Bortuzzo's stick and gave the Flyers a 2 on 1.  Fleury made the initial save but couldn't stop the 2nd one.  1-nil Flyers.  Then Scott Hartnett hit Lee Stempniak while Stempniak had his head down.  Both Crosby and Bortuzzo took exception to the hit.  Bortuzzo got a penalty and the Flyers cashed in on the power play.  Wayne Simmonds deflected in a point shot. 2-nil.  Then things calmed down for a bit until Taylor Pyatt took a penalty.  He apparently high stick Adam Hall.  1 if Pyatt's stick hit Hall it barely did.  2 Hall pulled Pyatt's stick up into his face.  Pens went back to the PK and the Flyers went back to the scoreboard.  No one was watching Wayne Simmonds in front of the goal.  Fleury made the first save but Simmonds kept hacking and eventually put it in.  3-nil Flyers.  Dan Bylsma pulled Fleury for Zatkoff.  Fleury didn't play bad he was just left out to dry.

THE FINAL 45 MINUTES

The final 45 minutes of this game were completely different from the first 15.  After pulling Fleury the Pens finally woke up and got on the scoreboard.  Brooks Orpik hit a knuckle puck that skipped off the ice and over Mason's shoulder to make it 3-1.  The Flyers took a late penalty in the first and the Pens had a power play to start the 2nd.  They couldn't cash in though but did cash in a few minutes later.  Matt Niskanen added another $6,000 to his next contract when he ripped a shot by Mason to make it 3-2.  After a shitty first 15 minutes the Pens finally woke up.  They were back in it.  They got another power play......Then Bylsma decided to put Deryk Engelland on the ice during the power play.  That went about as well as you would expect it to.  Engelland vomited all over himself and the Flyers went the other way 2 on 1.  Matt Read sniped Zatkoff to make it 4-2 Flyers.  But the Pens came back.  Brian Gibbons found Jayson Megna in front of Mason and Megna deflected it home to make it 4-3 Flyers.  The Pens would go to the 3rd period down 1.  The Pens tried everything to tie the game.  But for the first time in his career Steve Mason acted like an NHL goalie and said no.  Game.  Flyers win 4-3.

Misc:

We learned after the game that Beau Bennett and Kris Letang yes Kris Letang have been cleared for full practice.  Great news for both.  Bennett has been out for something like 12-13 weeks with a wrist injury.  Kris Letang has been out for just over a month after suffering a stroke.  That is nuts.

Dallas comes to town on Tuesday at 7.

Go Pens

Recap. Orange Crushed. Pens LOSE

This is really all you need to know.

The teams are back at it in like 6 minutes.

Go Pens

Praising Dan Bylsma

If you read this blog or follow Brandon or myself on twitter, you may know that we're not always the biggest fans of Dan Bylsma.  After the past three Penguin games, Dan Bylsma deserves as much praise as he's ever deserved as Penguins coach.  Sure at times he has played Brian Gibbons with Sidney Crosby, Taylor Pyatt with Evgeni Malkin, and Deryk Engellend over Robert Bortuzzo, but the coaching that he has done in the last three games is esentially why the Penguins have 6 points in those games.

Let's backtrack to the Olympics to start off.  After watching some USA games, Brandon and I were texting back and forth and the one thing that pissed us off more than anything with the Americans was the way Dan Bylsma was coaching. There was no grind these bitches down, there was no get to our game.  He was playing matchups like we've never seen before.  One thing that Brandon and I had said is that we wish Bylsma would play matchups like he did in the Olympics.

Now fast forward to right after the Olympic break and remember the Penguins played some of their worst hockey of the year minus a win in Nashville.

Fast forward again to the Anaheim game in which the Penguins played poorly for two periods and were lucky to be tied 1-1 even though only recording 7 shots.  So what did Dan Bylsma do that let the Penguins steal two points from the Ducks?  He switched up his lines.  The lines that have worked throughout the entire season.  He moved Jussi Jokinen to the 3rd Line and moved Taylor Pyatt to the 2nd line.  These moves looked a little crazy at the time, but in return, he got three lines moving and the Penguins recorded as many shots in the 3rd as they did in the 1st two periods.  

Move forward to Monday night in Washington.  We start out by saying, Dan Bylsma owns Adam Oates.  After last nights win, Bylsma is 7-0-0 in his career against Oates.  As you may know, the Capitals entire offense runs through Alex Ovechkin.  Dan Bylsma matched up Maatta and Orpik against Ovechkin as much as he could Monday night with last change.  According to Shift Chart of Ovechkin's 20 shifts on Monday (including Power Play) 14 of them he saw either one of, if not both shifts with Maatta and Orpik opposing him. We've been down on Orpik for a lot over the past few months, but his play over the past two games in shutting down Ovechkin were two of the best defensive games we've seen all year.

Another really good matchup that Bylsma played on Monday was getting the Crosby line out against Mike Green and Dimitry Orlov.  As a Pens fan, thats a matchup that I want to happen all day.  Especially because Bylsma is keeping Crosby away from Carlson and Alzner.  Almost all of Green and Orlov's shifts were mimicked by Crosby.  Adam Oates may have wanted that matchup all game, but you've gotta give Byslma credit for keeping that matchup.

In last nights game, Bylsma made sure he got the same matchups, which is to why Alex Ovechkin looked invsible throughout the entire game.  Ovechkin saw Maatta and Orpik on nearly every single one of his shifts.  Another reason as to why Ovechkin didn't get anything going is that the Penguins dominated the play in the First Period and it seemed like on every one of Ovechkin's shifts, the Penguins had puck possession.  

To finish, the Penguins sudden recent turnaround is only on one man's shoulders.  

If Dan Bylsma keeps coaching the way he has the past few games, the Penguins have a really good chance to go very far in April, May, and June.

Go Pens.