Pittsburgh Penguins

For a team with so much in the way of expectations, it was only a matter of time for the second guessing and “Monday morning quarterbacking” to reach a fever pitch. I just didn’t take it that it’d be before the Pittsburgh Penguins were eliminated from contention. Let alone in the second round, a series they’re currently winning 2 games to 1. Or about a player with above a point per game average in the playoffs so far. But that’s where we are with Dejan Kovacevic’s article, entitled “Why did Pens even get Iginla?“ in today’s Trib. This isn’t against Kovacevic personally, who’s probably the brightest and most responsive (and responsible) commentator of the Penguins these days. He’s a terrific writer and has usually has wonderful insight and perspective. To me, he misses the mark here, but it’s more about the temperature in the water about how just about everyone, it seems, feels about head coach Dan Bylsma. Clearly, I don’t stand by all of Bylsma’s decisions- especially when it comes to playing Deryk Engelland over Simon Despres. Or the decision to dress Tanner Glass (and play him on the penalty kill) when it’s clear he’s not been a very effective option. I’ve never been one to be in lock-step with the coach every step of the way, but common sense doesn’t add up here to me. That said, the complaint is about misuse of Jarome Iginla? The guy with 10 points in 9 games? Below are a couple of rational responses to Kovacevic's biggest charges: When the Penguins went on the power play four times in regulation, Iginla alternated with James Neal on the first unit and was out of position. Rather than being on the left point, where he'd feasted on goaltenders for a decade-plus in Calgary, he stood idly at the left lip of the crease waiting for passes that never came. It’s fair to take umbrance that Iginla was on the left point for “a decade-plus in Calgary”, I’ve sent a few tweets and emails to get some reports from more knowledgeable Flames viewers, but as Ryan Lambert (@twolinepass) tweeted “i wouldnt say ‘regularly’” when I asked if Iginla was used on the point on power plays. The point being- hockey is a fluid sport. Sometimes Iginla uses his shot from the left faceoff circle, sometimes he plays closer to the net looking for gritty goals or rebounds. And that makes sense with Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby usually operating from the wall, or point, or somewhere far from the net, spacing-wise you’d expect other players to be positioned closer to the net. Power play personnel has long been an issue, the Pens have too many skill players for the tradition first unit. When the Penguins went on the power play in the second overtime with a chance to bury the Senators in this Stanley Cup playoff series, Iginla sat on the bench. Iginla did sit that power play, but he also played the shift before the penalty and had 2 shifts in that short 2nd OT when the penalty was called. Chris Kunitz and James Neal were more fresh and with that perspective, just as good of options to play in that situation. Now, tell me again: Why did Ray Shero get this guy? I’m sure glad the Penguins got Iginla instead of Boston, and if the two teams meet up next round that feeling will be multiplied one hundred times over. I’m not going to go “Fire Joe Morgan” and pick apart Dejan’s every sentence, because he doesn’t deserve that. It’s a well-constructed and reasonable argument, just one I wouldn’t make to question why the Pens acquired Iginla just because he hasn’t seamlessly slid into the Pens. The feeling that Dan Bylsma can’t win, unless the team wins is the pervasive growing sentiment that I’m picking up on here. The pressure and expectations he’s under is incredible. I tweeted tha

There is no reason not to do this exact same celebration if you do something good at work.

It's a team game and one little slip can cost you the game. The Pittsburgh Penguins learned that the hard way. The below isn't really meant to dish out blame (everyone could have done something better) but just to illustrate how the breakdown happened. 0:08- Unreal play by Matt Cooke to bat the puck ahead and blow by Erik Karlsson, forcing Karlsson to slash at him, which breaks Karlsson’s stick. 0:20- Whistle blows, Karlsson is yelling at the referee for some reason, not understanding how HE gets the penalty when his stick broke..Maybe cuz he slashed another player and that’s why it broke? 0:55- What a face on Matt Cooke seeing his old buddy throw a fit and go into the penalty box. 1:12- Ok, power play is about to start. 1:27 left in the game and a two minute minor means Ottawa is short-handed for the duration of regulation. Faceoff in Ottawa end, Sidney Crosby to take it. Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz are the forwards, Kris Letang and Paul Martin are the defensemen. Not the true #1 PP unit (since there’s 2 natural defensemen instead of one), but given the situation that’s a good call. 1:20- Right off the bat, this is showing trouble. Crosby loses the draw cleanly to Kyle Turris, Sergei Gonchar controls the puck, makes a pass and another stretch pass is made to Turris who’s inside the Pens zone. 1:31- Malkin muscles the puck away from Turris, swings around the net and skates back to the Ottawa blue-line, where he dumps it in. Ottawa has three players on the blueline and Craig Anderson steadies the puck behind the net. 1:41- Turris skates the puck all the way into the Pens zone, but is stood up at the blueline and Malkin again comes away with it. 1:00 left to go in the game. 1:51- Senators are changing and so does Crosby. Malkin has left the puck behind the Pens net for Letang, who looks out, waiting, 50 seconds left in the game. 1:58- Kunitz gets a pass from Letang, skates up to the Ottawa blueline and somewhat gently chips it in. Somewhat troubling, he’s the only Penguin you see, Malkin is about 5 feet to the right, standing on the wall stationary. 2:05-Chris Phillips won the puck and passed it to Daniel Alfredsson who has wheeled up the zone. Again, you see no other Penguins in the shot other than Kunitz, which is troubling. 2:08- Alfredsson drops the puck for Gonchar and Kunitz stays with Alfie, which is great on his part. So long as the Pens can keep marking all the Sens, they should be just fine.. 2:10- Gonchar has entered the zone and at least 4 Penguins are looking at him and closing in on him as he chips it over for Milan Michalek. Kunitz has lost Alfredsson. In fact, no one has even noticed that the guy who just had the puck now has a clear path to the net. Big huge, red lights flashing danger. Even if you didn’t know what happens next, you probably know what is going to happen just based off this picture. 2:11- Paul Martin stays with Gonchar, who’s cleared out room for Michalek to operate. Malkin and Letang are playing in space. Kunitz is coasting. Sutter is ready to challenge Michalek but isn’t going to make it in time. No Penguin on the ice is 100% aware of Alfredsson. 2:11 (part 2)- Moment of the pass from Michalek. Letang and Malkin haven’t done anything and aren’t in a position to stop the puck from going by them, they’re in space. Kunitz hasn’t been a factor in the play since he let Alfie go right by him. Martin’s covering a guy that’s not going in a position to score and Sutter wasn’t able to get to Michalek in time to deflect or break up the pass. And Alfreddson is all alone. 2:12: Good luck, Tomas Vokoun! And that's how you blow a 1-0 lead with the power play in the last minute of the game. Definite culpability to all five skaters out there, but in order I think you have the best case to

Sometimes, you just get the feeling it's not going to go the way you want it to. For me it happened when Pascal Dupuis rang a shot clean off the far post in the first overtime. Even when the Penguins beat Craig Anderson, they couldn't score. And very rarely were they able to beat him in the first place. Game three between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators featured an entertaining, heavy-hitting, low-scoring affair that saw some great goaltending from Anderson and Tomas Vokoun, as well as a let down by the Pens. In the last minute of the game, with Pittsburgh up 1-0, the Sens were down a man but still pushing hard for a goal. The Pens got in a weird shell- they weren't playing offense but they weren't really in a good defensive mindset either. It's definitely unusual for a team down a man to pull their goalie and push so hard for a goal, but it's what happens in the final minute of a playoff game. Daniel Alfredsson snuck behind all the Pens and went to the net and made a beauty deflection from Milan Michalek and we were tied. Overtime saw more of the same, the Pens pushing but Anderson holding the fort. Ottawa counter-striking but Vokoun keeping it out. Rinse and repeat until 7:39 into the second OT when Penguin-killer Colin Greening collected a rebound and punched it home, ending a good, tough, intense game. Not too much more to say, the Pens were 30 seconds away from a commanding 3 games to 0 lead in the series....Then they were just one goal away. But they couldn't get it, and now we have a series. Some more thoughts: 50 shots on goal, ten of those from Evgeni Malkin. Not much more you can do. Malkin has been flashing everywhere in the offensive zone, beating defenders but not Anderson. Hopefully it's just a matter of time. Despite scoring the team's only goal, Tyler Kennedy only got 11:00 minutes of ice-time, by far the least on the team for every player (except Tanner Glass). Pens PP went 0 for 6. Tough one to take, the power play has to come through, including during an extended 5 on 3. They got some good zone time, passes, movement and even shots on goal, but again, you just have to tip your hat to Anderson, he answered the bell tonight. 29 blocked shots for the Pens tonight, led by Paul Martin (8), Brooks Orpik (6) and Kris Letang (4). Throw in that each of them played 35-37 minutes and you have to wonder what toll this game will have throughout the rest of the series. Luckily there's a two day break and hopefully all will have the chance to recharge, but any multiple-OT game is just going to be brutal on top defensemen. The hit Craig Adams threw on Jason Spezza was a thing of beauty. Clean, solid and textbook. Spezza, in his first game back since January, was really good playing 18:40, getting 4 shots on goal and winning 60% of his 25 faceoffs. Not much rust there. Here's something interesting: out of the 97 faceoffs that happened in the game, Sidney Crosby or Brandon Sutter combined for 79 of them. And they won 54% of them. Very clear to see who the coach is leaning on this time of year. And so, luckily, that's that. Time to turn the page and move on to the next one. It's a tough pill to swallow for the Pens, especially given that they more or less had it in the bag in regulation, but another lesson to learn. Games are 60:00 and a full 60:00 must be played.

This game has the potential to be the first important game of the series. Sid made game two look too easy to exist, and that makes us nervous and weird. A psychiatrist would have a field day with our ability to turn Good Things into anxiety, but that psychiatrist doesn't know shit about playoff hockey. Can we get PSAD (Post-Season Affective Disorder) added to the DSM? The point is that Ottawa is gross and we only recently found out that they're also French-ish so that's a shock to our sheltered American systems. Why are we even here. Oh, right. To win. Let's hope we don't have to burn anything down. The chances for both teams in the first two minute are terrifying and the play is fast and open. We are already confused and scared about what this game is trying to tell us. 5 minutes in Mattie and Sutter get a good chance at the net but Anderson says No. Mattie's hustle was unreal. We dream of a game wherein he has 0 PMS and scores at least once. We also dream of gin raining from the skies. Let's see how it goes for us. Ottawa gets a holding call because they aren't too interested in getting anywhere in this series. Iggy and Malkin try to be BFFS but just knock one another over. The Sens kill it with a minimal amount of trouble. We're not impress. It confuses us that Spezza is playing with Conacher because that doesn't seem like a 2-0 series going into Game 3 decision but idk maybe there is black magic involved. Vokoun is being the monster under your bed and in your closet and in your soul forever and ever. Anderson is keeping up. You wish that went in. I wish that went in. We all dream of brighter tomorrows. Zach Smith is a chode. Just a statement of fact. Malkin gets a rush that looks like Jesus Christ but the Sens can't stop being haters and trip him up. We are dying for a penalty shot, but we go into the 2nd with most of the power play left. Ktang celebrates the beginning of the second by getting a prolific pass to Sid, who is robbed by Anderson on his shot. Ottawa apologizes by getting a quick Too Much Man to give us the two man advantage. Malkin gets an amazing shot but Anderson, who is really standing on his head, says nope. NBC thinks it is a time to make a Charlie Sheen joke. No one is amused. They run it out to even strength. We are starting to get Agitated. Zach Smith decides to get cute with Malks and goes to the bench for roughing. A pane of glass has an existential crisis over the state of our special teams and simply explodes. We know the feeling. But we don't really have to worry about seeing it because Cowen clips himself with Sid's stick and that is obviously a reason for Sid to sit on the bench amirite. That is used up, but then of course there is another reason for us to be on the bench because adsfkjhasdkj. Karlsson gets an unsportsmanlike, though, which is pretty hilarious. 4-4 again. Someone remind me how many players are normally on the ice because I can't seem to recall. When we pretend for a few minutes like we're done with penalties, Koun really kills it with some huge saves. The Sens have too many solid chances. Death and dying. Finally, finally, finally Mattie Cooke makes it happen in front of the net, and TK is there to get it in. We'd have taken an ugly one, but it was surprisingly pretty. The flow of the game picks up a little for the remaining moments in the second. We're hoping the mojo makes the jump into the third The mojo doesn't really jump the gap, but Koun is on point so it's sort of okay. Koun makes a sick leg save on a shot that erryone thought was going in. Anderson keeps up his insanity too, and it's kind of fun to see the boys in both nets looking so solid. It adds an extra layer of horror and pain and gut wrenching nervousness, many of the emotions that make us love the

26 seconds away from being up 3-0. Whoops. Tough game to have to think about until Wednesday. But such is life. The Pens played a masterful 59 minutes. But with 26 seconds left they had a breakdown while on a powerplay, and Alfie tied it up. In the first OT Craig Anderson stole the show. ( Basically the whole game) In the second OT, the Senators stole the win on a Colin Greening goal. Sens win 2-1. Ugh.

hahahaha sorry we put this game on our Tumblr and forgot to post the recap here last game. Follow that shit if you can. Game 1 felt a little bit like a joke. The semifinals, now, feels like the center of a very dangerous storm. We're used to an NHL where things are not what they seem, where we march through surreal forests made of light with strangers and enemies. The idea that we could be doing something right is very frightening and not okay. NBC starts the broadcast by trying to do a graphic about Vokoun's shutout streak (going on 60 minutes) so things might be getting back to normal. God the speed of playoff hockey. And the NBC mics pick up the gasps of CEC so much better than ROOT. It's like we're right there. Hands on the glass. Crying and spitting. PAUL MACLEAN SPEAKING WORDS: A FILM BY WERNER HERZOG For the first time it really feels like the playoffs. Neal was wide open early on and while his shot was big and good and scary not much was going on. Kris Letang is skating like God. Something feels just. . .right. Sidney Crosby hopped on the ice and decided he was going to take a little stroll around Erik Karlsson. Karlsson was basically meaningless on that play. Bye bye. Sid Snipe. Anderson can't even deal. God The shrieks gif from Pensblog: Couple of beats later you hear the iron when Malkin hits the pipe. KOUUUUNNN chants raining down for routine saves. Pens get the first PP but it kind of makes the Pens look more human. Ottawa in their dicks. Looks more like even strength. Marc Methot gets a penalty for roughing after the next TV timeout though. Don't get too comfortable boys. Malkin almost scores but it dies dramatically short of the goal line. Pens get all kinds of confused retrieving in their own zone and they even allow a shorthanded chance. Come on assholes. Paul Martin keeps his chin strong and manly and manages to not let his pocket get picked behind the net. And also saves a sure shorty breakaway when three Senators attack him in the high slot. God damn, Paul Martin. Your balls. Gonch sighting: Gene eventually hooks someone because the Sens are fighting back. C'mon Gene baby don't you do us like this. Oddly the Senators power play doesn't look as oddly impotent as the Pens one. Turris has all kinds of room down by the goal line. Wham bam: fuck so, those power plays guys. Sounds like a turning point. Also hahahaha remember that "shutout streak" NBC good job NBC you figured out the secret. Vokoun looks intense behind his mask, like he has realized the dream is up, and it's time to do some more serious work. But I mean we have Sid, which apparently Anderson finds difficult to deal with. Sid beat him because his body language was faking pass pass pass. Anderson bought that little twitch. Pens finding their legs again ever so slowly as a result of this moment in which Anderson has been exposed as average. 2-1 what a period, you guys Early second, Karlsson completes his fucked up bildungsroman by hooking Neal on his way to the goal. GOOD JOB ERIK GOOD JOB ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE OKAY WE REALLY WISH YOU WEREN'T LIKE THIS WE WISH YOU WERE BETTER WE ARE SO SORRY THAT AN ACCIDENT BEFELL YOUR PERFECT BODY PP city. Wasn't even thinking about it because of how bad the last two were. They were that bad. Sid wins the faceoff a bit dirty. Malkin to Letang up top to Sid at the top of the left circle to HOLY SHIT WHAT A SHOT. This whole game so far has just been Sid proving that Anderson can't do this right now. And who is this guy? Robin Lehner? We haven't heard of him so he'll probably play his balls off. Good for you, boo. Lehner takes his first shot of his playoff career, an absolutely nasty little look from Dupuis after Cooke ran some kind of crazy cyle. Never mind that 2-goal lead though. Colin Greening proves to be The Most Dangerous Senator by coming off and scoring an easy goal on the rush. don't even want to dignify with a real pic jeez. 3-2 Neal and Iggy get a

Ottawa's Craig Anderson has definitely taken the road less traveled to the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs. He's been drafted by two NHL teams (first by Calgary in 1999 then by Chicago in 2001 when he didn't sign with Calgary). The next five years he bounced between NHL and AHL in Chicago's organization before spending three years in Florida and two more in Colorado before a 2011 move to Ottawa. In three seasons with the Senators, Anderson has posted save percentages of .939, .913 and a sterling .941 mark this season in 24 injury shortened games of the lockout season. By any means, the mark of a goalie who's found his rhythm and become a solid NHL starting caliber goalie. One who would have even merited some talk for Vezina trophy discission, had he not been injured and played more games this season. There's been one consistent thorn in Anderson's side this season, and that's the Pittsburgh Penguins. Anderson's .941 save percentage would have been .946 (557 saves on 589 shots) had he not faced the Penguins three times in the regular season. The Pens won all three of those games, including a shootout where James Neal, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin all humbled Anderson in the only three shots Anderson faced. Like them or not, shootouts are used to decide games, and again Anderson had no answer for shots off the Penguins sticks. The same trend has continued so far in the playoffs. The Sens made short work of the Montreal Canadiens in five games, anchored by Anderson who stopped 171 of 180 shots for a terrific .950 save percentage. But ihe first two games of this series, Anderson's yielded seven goals on 51 shots (.863 save percentage) and got a quick hook early in the second period in favor of backup Robin Lehner, who played very well in relief for Ottawa. For the Senators, their chances of beating the Penguins begins and ends with Anderson. If he isn't, by far, the best player on the ice, Pittsburgh will win games. In a zero games to two hole, Ottawa will have to win four of the next five games in order to move on. Given Anderson's performances so far in 2013 against Pittsburgh (0-3-1, .892 save percentage, 3.40 GAA) it's looking like an uphill battle indeed.

I borrowed (slightly altered) the title from Terry Pratchett. If you got the reference, kudos to you. But I figured it was a good time to break down the current state of the lower leagues as they battle through their post-seasons. As you may well be aware, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are currently enmeshed in an uphill battle in Round 2 of the AHL playoffs. In Round 1, we manged to beat the Binghamton Senators in a 3-game sweep. The rest of the Eastern Conference was a hard fought battle, and we didn't find out who our 2nd Round opponent would be until 2 days before the next series began, though it gave our guys a week long break. The 2nd Round against the Providence Bruins started out really bad with 2 away games, losing Game 1 8-5 and losing Game 2 4-2, with Jeff Zatkoff giving up 12 goals in just 4 periods of hockey. Remember, this is the same Zatkoff that finished the season with the league's best GAA and won the Best Goaltending Duo award. Brad Thiessen took over in the 2nd period of Game 2 and held them scoreless for the remainder, but the team was unable to bounce back and Zatkoff notched another L. Game 3 rolled around, back home in WBS, and they chose to go with Thiessen. He played well enough, but the game went back and forth all night, with the score tied 1-1 after 60. Unfortunately, a tricky goal mere seconds into OT and the Pens lost 2-1, trailing the series 3 games to none. At this point, winning the round became nearly impossible, but they were not willing to call it quits yet. But the final two home games, the Pens bounced back, and they bounced back hard. Game 4 last night the Pens walked away winning 3-1, and then kicked it up a notch and won Game 5 tonight 4-0. They head back to Providence to finish the series with Game 6 on Monday and hopefully Game 7 on Wednesday. The odds are certainly against them, very few teams have ever accomplished a comeback when trailing the series 3 games to none: 1942 Maple Leafs over Red Wings, 1975 Islanders over Penguins, and 2010 Flyers over Bruins in the NHL and 2004 Red Sox over Yankees in the MLB. So far Thiessen is the star of the series, only allowing 3 Goals in 11 periods of play and stopping 97 of 100 Shots, giving him a 0.82 GAA and a .970 Save % so far, with 2 Wins (1 Shutout) and 1 Over Time Loss. Add in his Game 3 victory in the 1st round of the playoffs, and Thiessen currently leads all AHL playoff goalies with a 1.08 GAA and a .959 Save %. If anybody can manage a miraculous comeback to take the series, it is him. Unfortunately, he can be a bit streaky. When he is on his game, he is one of the best goalies in the AHL (as shown 2 seasons ago when he made the All-Star team and walked away with awards as both the AHL's Top Goaltender and the AHL's Best Goaltending Duo). But when he is off his game, he struggles, as he did last year. Even during the regular season, he was on fire in January, winning Goaltender of the Month, but at other points in the season struggled and finished with fairly average stats. Even last year in the NHL he was up and down, with two great performances followed by a sub-par performance and then an awful one (3 W, 1 L), finishing strong by allowing no goals in his final showing relieving Fleury to finish a 3rd period. So lets hope his hot streak can hold out for the next 2 games, and the Pens can do what few teams have ever been able to accomplish and move on to the 3rd Round. Of the skaters, currently Chad Kolarik leads the team with 4 Goals, while Brian Gibbons, Riley Holzapfel, Paul Thompson, and Warren Peters (Alternate Captain) have 3 Goals each. Next is Chris Collins with 2 Goals in 7 Games and then Trevor Smith (Alternate Captain) with 2 Goals in 8 Games. Finally is Brian Dumoulin (the lone D goal scorer), Jayson Megna, Zach Sill, and Adam Payerl. Kolarik, Gibbons, Holzapfel, and Smith lead the team with 7 Points, followed by Thompson and Joey Mormina (#1 D and team Captain) with 6 Points. Dumoulin comes next wi

This is a pretty huge deal for the Ottawa Senators. Jason Spezza will be back for game three. From the Montreal Gazette: It might be a lot to ask, but the Ottawa Senators are hopeful Jason Spezza will be just what they need to get back into their playoff series with Pittsburgh. Spezza, who hasn't played since January 27 after undergoing back surgery for a herniated disc, will draw into Ottawa's lineup Sunday for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series that the Penguins lead 2-0. "I'm excited to have a chance to play again," said Spezza. "I feel ready to play." The 29-year-old will immediately add depth to a struggling offence and power play. Spezza could drastically improve the Senators' fortunes.