Recap: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Florida Panthers (W 4-2) ; vs. Washington Capitals (L 3-2 OT) ; vs. Buffalo Sabres (L 3-2)

Arron Asham fights Jay Beagle (AP)

Forwards:

-James Neal scored 4 goals during this stretch. While they all were not highlight reel goals, he is doing a great job of getting the puck at the net and not overthinking it. His "garbage" goals seem to come with Malkin out of the lineup, but that is exactly what the Penguins need when he is out of the lineup.

-Evgeni Malkin played against the Washington Capitals, adding two assists. From what has been described, he is experiencing some pain from scar tissue in his surgically repaired knee. Some were amazed that he was able to play through that, but his heartfelt concern and sympathy for the victims of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash carried him through it. He was not going to miss the night where the focus was on that tragedy's victims and families.

-Arron Asham brought the early part of the season to life with his devastating knockout of Jay Beagle in the Capitals game. As he skated away he made a few gestures which he later described as "classless". The opponents of fighting in hockey have used this a chance to whine about children watching the game having to see such a thing, the fact that it was a "headshot", and anything else possible to compare hockey to Roman gladiators.

Respectfully, I tell these people to watch another sport. Please leave our sport alone. Seriously. If you are concerned about someone getting knocked out by a non-cheap shot then go watch a safe, civil sport like football where there is not any violence and the players are all upstanding citizens.

Fighting has a place in hockey, and hopefully it always will. Asham did not sucker punch Beagle. Until he was knocked out, Asham did not do anything wrong. He was standing up for his teammate, Kris Letang. The offer was put out for a fight and both parties willingly particpated. Beagle does not deserve any ridicule for his part in it, anyone can get tagged with a shot like that. Asham was sincere in his regret over mocking a fallen combatant. That is where it should end. Sometimes people make mistakes in judgment. Most of the people that are critical of Asham fail to mention how when he saw that Beagle was dropping to the ice he stopped from throwing a third right that undoubtedly would have done more damage.

The "holier than thou" attitude of commentators and members of the Capitals, especially Alexander Ovechkin, is what is uncalled for. Hockey has an always been a sport of honor. There have been countless acts that give the sport a bad image when it goes outside of that honor, but this incident was not one of them. Perhaps the WNBA is more your style if you can't handle some good old fashioned agression.

-Richard Park scored his 1st goal in the home opener against the Panthers, a shorthnaded goal. Oddly enough, in his first home opener for the Pens (Park played here to start his career) he had a shorthanded goal.

-Pascal Dupuis scored his 1st goal of the season against the Panthers. While not showing up in the goal column, he was played well.

-Same thing for Chris Kunitz, who still does not have a goal but has added a 2 year contract extension. His cap hit does not change, so you have to like this deal for both the player and team.

Defensemen:

-Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek looked uncharacteristically bad against the Panthers. Too much flopping and allowing the puck by or behind them.

-Still no word on when Brooks Orpik will return to the lineup. While there's no reason to rush him, you do worry that he may struggle to return to his usual self.

Goalies:

-Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves against the Panters and 25 against the Sabres. He missed the Capitals game because of the flu and most likely was still bothered by it on some level against the Sabres. He did not have any noticable gaffes in goal. There was a save he made prior to the Gerbe goal that was very nice, but his momentum took him out of position for the follow up. Nothing he could do about that. At the end of the Florida game, with a 2 goal lead, he resumed his quest for a goal with the Panthers net vactated. Deryk Engelland got in the way so the puck was quickly turned over, but MAF made a nice save on the shot.

-Brent Johnson did not look particularly sharp against the Caps. He made 16 saves

Ups:

-Matt Cooke continues to keep himself out of trouble on the ice. He also knocked in his 3rd goal of the season. Cooke appears to be well aware of keeping his elbows down and when to let up on a guy (as he's turning near the boards or too close to the boards). Hopefully he is able to continue this.

-Penguins achieved 3 of a possible 6 points during this stretch. If you checked in on this blog at all last year, you know that I will always tout that as a success. Getting 1 point a game in your tough stretches is much better than getting none.

Downs:

-The PP failed at the end of the Sabres game in situational hockey. I beleive in winning situations much more than straight percentages. The Pens had a chance to tie with a PP and a faceoff in the Sabres zone with 21 seconds left. Jordan Staal lost the faceoff, then the puck was cleared and that was that for their chance to salvage a point.

-Many outlets are critical of the play of Mark Letestu, pointing out there when Malkin has been out, he starts on the top line. By the end of the game he is playing with the 4th liners, which is an indication that Dan Bylsma and Tony Granato are not seeing what they want from the 2nd year player.

Florida

Jose Theodore (AP)

-Marcel Goc and Tomas Fleischmann both scored their 1st goals of the season.

-Jose Theodore made 25 saves.

Washington

Alexander Ovechkin (AP)

-Alexander Ovechkin scored his 1st goal of the season. Recently he was called out by Coach Bruce Boudreau for his slow start to the season.

-Dennis Wideman scored the GWG on the PP in OT for the Caps. It was his 2nd of the season.

-Tomas Vokoun had a tough to start to the season, but this game settled him in to a groove it seems. He stopped 39 shots.

-Mike Knuble scored his 1st goal of the season. Without checking I blelieve this is at least the 7th straight game against the Penguins that he has scored a goal. Luckily, the 39 year old won't have too many more years left in the league to haunt us.

Buffalo

Jhonas Enroth (AP)

-Drew Stafford had a very nice shot for his 3rd goal of the season.

-Nathan Gerbe had a goal (1) and a very nice assist on the Stafford goal.

-Jhonas Enroth got the start in place of Ryan Miller, who usually has a tough go in Pittsburgh. Enroth made 29 saves.

Recap: Games 68-71

photo courtesy of penguins.nhl.com

Games: vs. BUF (W 3-1),  vs. MON (L 3-0) Edmonton (W 5-1), @ BOS (W 3-2 OT)

Notable Highlights:

-6 of 8 possible points. The playoff spot is nearly secured. I'm not going to roll around in a pile of $$ over these wins though. Edmonton and Ottawa are very bad. As The Pensblog points out, we are entering a stretch where 6 of the next 7 games are against playoff teams. Even though it will likely be a time to coast and get guys back in to the lineup, there is a definate chance to find out if there is reason for optimism in the playoffs.

-It seems pretty clear that the Pens go out of their way to hit and mess with Montreal D P.K. Subban. F Mike Rupp took a swipe at him in a scrum and F Max Talbot got him with a pretty good slash. This seems directly related to the opinion that Subban's injuring of F Jordan Staal in last season's playoffs was not accidental.

-The home game against Montreal was the 200th consectutive sellout for the franchise (regular season and playoffs). I've been a half-season ticket holder for 7 years and attended many games prior to that. Even though I've become jaded by the game day experience (not including playoffs), it is nice to see things going so well after being in the building for so many lean years in the early 2000s.

-Wins against Edmonton and Ottawa give the team some confidence after the poor showing against Montreal. Even though they are bad, they are on the schedule and it would be very alarming had the team looked bad again in either of these contests.

-There's been some positive news on the injury front with Mike Comrie, Arron Asham, Eric Tangradi, and Sidney Crosby all returning to the ice in one form or another. Crosby had been symptom free for enough days in a row that he was able to skate for 15-20 mins. He remained symptom free the day after that, so he skated again. Speculation that he will return is extremely premature, but after all the ridiculous rumors swirling around Sid, it is good to see that he is not, in fact, retiring as the most ridiculous rumor speculated.

Ghastly Lowlights:

-Penguins power play was 0 for 7 against the Sabres. Could have changed a close game in to a comfortable win. Nothing new, but this stood out to me.

-Terrible effort against the Canadiens. I am way too lazy to look up the day game stats of the past 3 or 4 years, but for some reason I feel they start sluggish each and every time. In this case, there was an early goal scored by Plecanic. Turnovers galore. Ugly. Lucky for them, Edmonton and Ottawa were up next on the schedule to get their confidence back.

-D Kris Letang has been playing really poorly of late. He is not showing up on the scoresheet like he did at the beginning of the year and it's like injured Evgeni Malkin has been giving him pointers on how to constantly turn the puck over. His turnovers lead to goals in both the Montreal and Ottawa games. Hopefully he will settle down and get out of this funk. I do have to point out that I don't hear many of yinz calling for the trade of Tang...guess he's lucky his name isn't Goligoski.

-The NHL has a new hot topic of discussion: the "turnbuckle" hit. The "turnbuckle" is an area that juts in near the end of the player benches or in the buffer zone between the benches. It has become a topic of discussion because of this hit by Boston's Zdeno Chara on Montreal's Max Pacioretty. He suffered a severe concussion and a cracked vertebra.

I suppose this is the point in my blogdom where people can call me a hypocrite, but I did not find the hit on Pacioretty dirty. How is that possible? Two simple answers. First, it is an unavoidable area of openness from the playing surface. Players will from time to time be hit there an knocked in to the "turnbuckle". Did Chara know what he was doing? Yes. Was it interference? Yes, but not because Chara targeted the head. He looks to rub a player out in to this area to make him pay a price for the territory he is trying to gain. I see no indication that he was trying to do any more than shove his body hard in to the "turnbuckle". Secondly, this area really isn't much different that the boards or the goal. Sure the goal has give to it, but it's still possible for injury if a guy is hit in to it. Same with the boards. It's the way a hit is carried out that makes it dirty or not. Pens D Ben Lovjoy hit a Buffalo Sabre in to the turnbuckle and the Sabres went after him hard. F Max Talbot was the near victim of a hit like this against Ottawa, but wisely skated out of trouble by slowing up.

The "turnbuckle issue" will certainly come up again, but for now the NHL has the "headshot issue" on its hands. At the GM Meetings in Boca Raton, FL the discussions were dominated by how to best protect the players from the league-wide rise in concussions. A ban on hits to the head was rejected, with support being thrown behind proposals to expand Rule 48 and have increased enforcement of existing rules for charging and boarding. It was also reported that Penguins Owner and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux sent a letter to the league outlining a proposal for a fine scale to be used against teams based on the amount of games suspended. In it, the Penguins were used an example. Under the proposed structure, they would have been hit with $600,000 in fines based on the suspensions to players (mainly Matt Cooke) this season. These are great ideas, but it remains to be seen if the NHL brass and officiating have what it takes to be consistent and sustained in their enforcement both in-game and after the fact. As a lifelong fan of the NHL, I have my doubts but will hope for the best.

Forward Recaps:

-Guess who gets another mention?? Tyler Kennedy (...Kennedy). He scored his 16th goal of the season against the Sens.

-LW Chris Kunitz scored his 19th and 20th goals against the Oilers.

-C Jordan Staal scored his 8th and 9th goals of the season during this stretch.

Defenseman Recaps:

-Zbynek Michalek went without a goal until the Buffalo game. In a strange quirk of fate, he now has 3 goals in his past 4 games with goals against Edmonton and Ottawa. He has been a very steady piece of the defensive end, so it's good to see him get some breaks in the o zone.

-Ben Lovejoy had a goal against Ottawa and continues to play well with his expanded role.

-Corey Potter and Steve Wagner were called up from Wilkes-Barre Scranton prior to the game. Potter played in his first game for the Penguins. He has played in the NHL before.

Goalie Recaps:

-Marc-Andre Fleury played well against Buffalo and Edmonton. An early goal against Montreal did not help the cause with the team playing incredibly flat. He was pulled in that game about 7 minutes in to the 2nd period. With a 2 goal lead in the last few minutes of the Sabres game, he was attempting to get off a shot at the vacated Buffalo net. No real chance was launched. This is mainly because the puck was to his right. Fleury's best chance at a goal came a few years ago against Edmonton. The puck was settled to his left and he had time to set himself. Expect him to continue to try for a goal in any situation where the Pens have a 2 goal lead.

-Brent Johnson had a good game in relief of MAF against the Habs and then stopped 21 shots in the win against Ottawa. Good to know he's around for the playoffs as our #2. He has proven his worth time and time again this season. If there is such a thing as an "unsung hero" award for the team, he should be the unanimous winner.

Opponents:

-Buffalo

-C Rob Niedermayer scored his 2nd goal of the season.

-Buffalo fans are rejoicing at the rapidly completed sale of the team to natural gas billionaire Terry Pegula. Having a billionaire fund your team is always a good thing, just like Pens co-owner Ron Burkle. Even better for Sabres fans is the fact that Pegula is a passionate hockey fan. He donated $88 million to Penn St to help develop an arena for an eventual Division 1 hockey program and his dog is named after Sidney Crosby. I'd wish him luck, but it doesn't seem like he's short on reasons to feel good about himself. This is still welcome news for their fans, and there is a real sense of optimism surrounding their fan base. They are great fans (not obnoxious) and travel well. I'm happy for their organization.

-Montreal

-The Canadiens are involved in their own controversial hit, with the injury to Max Pacioretty (discussed above). Montreal Police had to ask fans to stop calling to report a crime took place the outrage was so bad. I'd like to wish him the best in his recovery.

-C Tomas Plecanic scored his 21st goal of the season.

-G Carey Price recorded his 12th career shutout. This was his 61st game played of the season!

-Edmonton

-LW Ryan Jones scored his 16th goal of the season for the Oilers only goal.

-Star Rookie Taylor Hall will miss the rest of the season due to ankle injury. He has been one of the few bright spots for the team this season.

-Ottawa

-D Erik Karlsson has a very promising future leading the Senators in points, but after the game his +/- dropped to -36. FSN Pittsburgh's Bob Errey has a funny line about him being in contention for the green jacket (golf reference).

-RW Ryan Shannon's 7th goal of the season served as the only tally for Ottawa.

Recap: Games 51-53

Games: @ NYR (W 4-3),  vs. NYI (W 3-0 ), vs. BUF (W 3-2)

Notable Highlights:

-6 of 6 possible points without Sid and Geno again (mostly). A lot is made by media types and people like me about the Penguins lack of depth and skill on the wings. One thing goes without question: this group knows what it takes to grind out games and get wins. The key thing for the team long-term is for these role guys to continue to step up and take control of games as they have without the stars in the lineup. When they are in the lineup, there is too much of a tendency to watch them work and wait for them to save the day as opposed to taking control themselves.

-The PK unit killed 10 of 11 chances during this stretch. Ryan Callahan's PPG for the Rangers was the first goal given up by the PK in 22 chances.

-Even though it's not from this stretch, D Kris Letang had 2 goals in the All-Star Game. He also has a nickname in case you haven't heard: Cinco Ocho.

Ghastly Lowlights:

-The injury bug continues to rear its ugly head. Sid has now missed 12 games due to his concussion and has returned to his home province of Nova Scotia to work out with his trainer. Evgeni Malkin returned to the lineup against Buffalo and went right back out in the second period after an awkward looking tweek of his leg/knee. An MRI is scheduled to see if anything is wrong. He was not on the ice for practice Saturday (Feb 5). Mark Letestu injured his knee at practice, has had surgery and will miss 4-6 weeks.Lastly, Arron Asham left the Ranger game with what is thought to be a shoulder injury.

EDIT: Coach Bylsma has confirmed that Evgeni tore his MCL and ACL in last night's game. Sorry to hear that. Best of luck in recovery.

-PP was 2 for 13 during this stretch. I'm thinking of just giving this feature a rest until the playoffs. Broken record...

-C Jordan Staal  was kicked out of the Ranger game, after punching LW Brandon Prust. Prust had a fight earlier in the evening, looks to have taken a severe dive on this play. At first glance, it looked like this could be an ugly incident, possibly even the type that the NHL is trying to clamp down on.

When I stop and watch what happens during this sequence, it really makes me sick. Prust elbows Staal in the face as he approachs the scrum. Staal hits hit with a closed left fist with his glove on. The stick was not in the left hand. Prust reacts as if he was shot from a grassy knoll nearby, tumbling to the ice and waiting for the trainer. Jordo is sent to the box, and then sent to the locker room as it is determined that he committed a "match" penalty (intent to injure) and given a game misconduct.

The match penalty aspect is what disgusts me. Jordan Staal committed a penalty, possibly even a double minor worthy penalty if Prust gets 2 mins for roughing at the same time. There was speculation that Jordan received the match penalty because of the brace on his hand. That would be an incorrect assessment because the brace is on his right hand, and as mentioned before he did not use his stick as a brass knuckle type device to strengthen the punch. He also did not strike a player from behind, or blindly from the side. Prust drew the first contact, so I would have to assume that he was expecting a potential strike from Staal

Other have said that this was a blatant cheap shot, and a head shot. This is where I may come off as hypocritical, but I do not believe a punch to someones face a head shot or a cheap shot if delivered properly. If someone disagrees with that, it is time to remove scrums and espeically fighting from the game of hockey (which I do not support). Each fight would allow for a potential "intent to injure" and it would be irresponsible of a league, and us as fans, to support that. I do believe fighting has a place in hockey, though I also believe that it is not as important as many would claim.

On the subject of Prust's actions, I can only express disgust and sadness. Prust really tarnished his reputation with a severe dive and embellishment of a punch to the face. If you don't agree that this was a dive, ask yourself how you react if Sidney Crosby hit the ice in this manner (which you may feel he already has). Chances are if this was Sid, you'd still be talking about it during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Luckily, the league assessed the situation the next day and rescended the automatic 1 game suspension and match penalty from Staal's record. He was able to play against the Islanders and aside from some disgust with officiating, nobody was worse for the wear.

photo courtesy of thepuckdoctors.com

Forward Recaps:

-Eric Goddard was in the lineup for the Ranger and Islanders games, returning from a facial fracture suffered in a fight against Ottawa. He logged 7:07 and 4:24 worth of ice time and was an even rating with 1 shot on goal.

-Dustin Jeffrey scored 2 goals in this stretch (3 in his last 5 games), and had the shootout winner against the Rangers. He figures to stick around for a bit due to the Letestu injury. This could be a defining period for DJ with Sid and Malkin out. Jeffrey has not looked out of place with anyone in the lineup, so seeing top 6 duty could be his chance to show where his long-term future is with this team.

-If you'd never watched a hockey game before the Buffalo game, you'd still come away with a pretty good sense of all things Matt Cooke. He was invloved in a game long battle with D Tyler Myers. There was a pretty long post-whistle match with F Tyler Ennis in which Cooke came away with a cut on his nose and it appeared that he was mouthing the words "you f'n bit me" to Ennis. After all this agitation of the Sabres, he then chipped in a goal...the game winner. The goal was Cooke's 10th of the season.

Defenseman Recaps:

-I've Brooks Orpik delivered a shoulder to head of chief punk on that Rangers team, Sean Avery. This was a moment where I was torn, because I loathe Avery. At the end of the day, I say this was wrong. Even head shots against creeps are not acceptable in the NHL today.

-Zbynek Michalek was initially thought to have his 1st goal as Penguin in the Ranger game, but it was discovered that Chris Kunitz tipped it. Z will have to wait another few days before he scores his first with the team.

-Alex Goligoski had a terrible 1st period against the Sabres. There were multiple defensive zone turnovers, one which lead directly to a goal. I've talked about his upside and this clearly is his downside.

Goalie Recaps:

-Mark-Andre Fleury had 2 wins during this stretch. The Buffalo game started off rough, but the team bailed him out. He had 26 saves and a strong shootout performance in the Ranger win. He also mopped up the final 16 seconds of the Islander game.

-Brent Johnson was about to have a shutout against the Islanders, but he took exception to Rick DiPietro clotheslining F Matt Cooke and the other end. You likely know what happened, but in case you have been comatose for the past week, Johnny skated on down and engaged DiPi in a fight. A one punch fight. A one punch fight that ended up causing facial fractures and knee swelling in the oft-inured DiPietro, who will miss 4-6 weeks. As long as BJ doesn't do anything that directly costs the Penguins a Championship, his legacy in the city of Pittsburgh will be forever cemented: the badass goalie that turned the end of an unevenful game on a cold, windy night in February in to something that anyone that watched it will always remember. Nice work Johnny!

Opponents:

-New York Rangers

-C Artem Anisimov scored his 11th goal of the season by batting a puck out of mid-air a la a baseball player.

-Aside from scoring a 9.0 in the diving competition of the evening, Prust had a fight and a nice goal, his 8th of the season. That's what makes the dive all the more disturbing to me, there is no need for him to tarnish himself like that. He seems like a decent player that can handle him. Very puzzling.

-American born Ryan Callahan scored his 11th of the season.

-New York Islanders

-G Rick DiPietro has got to be disappointed in himself and frustrated. It's one thing to lose a fight, that happens. It's a completely separate issue for a goalie that has missed countless games since signing a giant contract to be injured in a fight. One also wonders what role his little post-shootout celebration in December played in this.

-C Zenon Konopka fought again. This time we went with F Mike Rupp.
-Buffalo

-C Paul Gaustad scored his 6th goal of the season just 0:17 in to the 1st period.

-RW Mike Grier scored his 3rd goal of the season.

-D Mike Weber is from Cranberry Township. He was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2006 draft.

2010-11 Preview: Buffalo Sabres

2010-11 Prediction 3rd Eastern Conference

The problem I've always had with predictions is that there are just too many variables to accurately assess whether or not they were worthwhile or just a waste of time. Since I'm the one writing this, I already know my predications are a waste of time, but for the sake of giving an accurate portrayal of this edition of the Sabres, I feel the need to disclaim that predicting them to win the division a) does not indicate I think they will have playoff success, and b) could be rendered even more useless with a few key injuries. If G Ryan Miller goes down for any period of time, this team could be in trouble. The same could be said of Calder (Rookie of the Year) winner D Tyler Myers or any of the other defenseman this team has left after the departures of Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman. Guys like Jordan Leopold, Steve Montador, and Andrej Sekera will need to stay healthy and log quality minutes for this season not to go south. Up front the team is not exceptional, but solid. C Derek Roy, RW Jason Pominville, and LW Thomas Vanek  are more than capable of putting up enough points to give this team a chance to win. Add C Rob Neidermayer (the last standing Neidermayer) to the mix for some additional veteran leadership and Buffalo should have plenty of times to celebrate until mid-April.

Player to Watch: D Tyler Myers