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Thursday, 03 March 2011 11:23

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

Penguins

-Shelly Anderson's recap from last night's game. "We kind of handed that one to them." - Matt Niskanen.

-The Globe and Mail's recap.  The Maple Leafs are now four points out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

-The Toronto Star's recap. “We knocked off a good team." - Maple Leafs forward Clarke MacArthur.

-The Associated Press' recap. The Maple Leafs are only 3-24-3 in games in which they trail after two periods this season.

-NHL.com's recap. "I would have liked to see us get to 3-1." - Dan Bylsma on the second period.

-Highlights:

-Happy times for Niskanen and Ben Lovejoy:

-Dan Bylsma speaks:

-Ray Shero has quite a bit of faith in Dustin Jeffrey.

-The Penguins were supposed to fall apart without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Right?

-Thanks to HBO, James Neal knew all about the Penguins prior to being traded.

-The Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission rejected a bid to nominate the Civic Arena as a historic structure.

-Nick Johnson and Eric Tangradi aren't crazy about the rule which prevents them from playing for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the Calder Cup playoffs.

-Patrick Killeen made 22 saves for the Wheeling Nailers in a 5-2 loss to the Elmira Jackals.

-Happy 48th birthday to former Penguins forward Richard Zemlak. Acquired early in the 1988-89 offseason in a deal that sent the rights of Rob Gaudreau to the North Stars, Zemlak spent parts of two seasons with the Penguins. In 1988-89, Zemlak played in 31 games and failed to record a point but racked up 135 penalty minutes. He appeared in one postseason game that spring and once again failed to get on the score sheet. Zemlak followed that up in 1989-90 by playing in 19 games and scoring six points and recording 43 penalty minutes. He left the Penguins when he joined the Flames as a free agent early in 1990-91. In 50 regular season games with the Penguins, Zemlak scored six points and netteded 173 penalty minutes.

Atlantic Division

-The Devils aren't quitting. Martin Brodeur made 15 saves and led New Jersey to a 2-1 win against the Lightning. The Devils are 18-2-2 in their past 22 games.

-Check out the cannon Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk scored the game-winning goal on:

-Funny Face of the Night: Lightning forward and former Penguin Dominic Moore chasing New Jersey's Henrik Tallinder:

-Solemn times for the Tampa Bay bench:

-Intense times for New Jersey coach Jacques Lemaire:

-New Devils forward David Steckel actually poked fun at his new team's attendance woes in his debut.

-Two goals by Blake Comeau helped the Islanders beat the Wild, 4-1. Frans Nielsen recorded three assists for New York while teammate Kyle Okposo netted a goal and an assist. Al Montoya made 33 saves in the victory.

-Check out the passing on this goal by Comeau:

-Check out Okposo's between-the-legs goal:

-As we discussed earlier, Islanders forward Trevor Gillies returned to the lineup following a nine-game suspension and was ejected for this hit to the head on Wild forward Cal Clutterbuck:

-Cool Photo of the Night: New York's John Tavares kicking up ice:

-Bright times for the Islanders:

-We're not goaltending experts, but we're not sure Minnesota's Niklas Backstrom was playing the right angle here:

-Awkward Photo of the Night: A view of New York's Matt Moulston from Backstrom's five hole:

-Backstrom had issues with this puck:

-Backstrom reached out to poke this puck away:

-New York's Zenon Konopka and Minnesota's Brad Staubitz had issues:

-Gillies denied hitting Clutterbuck from behind.

-Gillies is scheduled to have an in-person disciplinary hearing with the NHL Friday.

-We don't know what's worse - the fact that her parents allowed her to show support for Gillies or the pink jersey:

-Devils forward Zach Parise was given medical clearance to resume skating. He has been sideline since Nov. 2 due to a knee injury.

Northeast Division

-"Both teams will be up a little bit more for this one." - Sabres forward Tim Connolly on tonight's meeting with the Hurricanes. The ninth-place Sabres (67 points) trail the eighth-place Hurricanes (65) by two points.

Southeast Division

-Washington signed defenseman Dmitri Orlov, a second-round pick in 2009, to a three-year entry-level contract.

-The Capitals picked up Jason Arnott for his abilities off the ice as well.

-The Panthers recalled former Penguins forward Bill Thomas from Rochester of the AHL and demoted forward Hugh Jessiman to Rochester.

Central Division

-Two goals by captain Jonathan Toews led the Blackhawks to a 6-4 win against the Flames. Michael Frolik added a goal and two assists for Chicago while teammates Dave Bolland, Brian Campbell and former Penguin Marian Hossa each added a goal and an assist. Fire Ray Shero. Corey Crawford made 21 saves in the victory. Rene Bourque scored two goals for Calgary.

-Check out this pass by Chicago's Patrick Sharp to set up Toews for a goal:

-Calgary's Mark Giordano and Chicago's Viktor Stalberg had issues:

-Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff had issues with this puck:

-Tall times for Calgary coach Brent Sutter:

-We don't want to question the skating ability of Chicago's Chris Campoli... but:

-Crawford and teammate Dave Bolland having a moment:

-A foot injury will sideline Blues forward Vladimir Sobotka approximately four weeks.

Northwest Division

-Flames forward Brendan Morrison left last night's game against the Blackhawks due to a knee injury.

-Oilers forward Ales Hemsky is dealing with a wonky right shoulder.

Pacific Division

-A penalty shot goal in overtime by Bobby Ryan led the Ducks to a 2-1 win against the Red Wings. Dan Ellis made 28 saves in the victory.

-Ryan's goal:

-It wasn't all bad for the Red Wings. Check out this save by Detroit's Jimmy Howard on Anaheim's Teemu Selanne:

-Happy times in Anaheim:

Norris Division

-Research by Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy revealed former Red Wings/Blackhawks enforcer Bob Probert suffered from the same degenerative brain disease found in 20 deceased NFL players.

-Thinking Out Loud: It'll be interesting to see how the likes of Dr. Don Cherry and Dr. Mike Milbury dismiss this report with their impeccable medical credentials.

-There's actually a current Lord Stanley but he's not a big hockey fan.

(Photo: Penguins/Maple Leafs-Frank Gunn/Canadian Press and Abelimages/Getty Images; Lightning/Devils-Paul Bereswill/Getty Images; Wild/Blackhawks-Bruce Bennett/Getty Images and Kathy Kmonicek/Associated Press; Flames/Blackhawks-Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press and Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images; Red Wings/Ducks-Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Comments (9)

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written by espo33, March 03, 2011 - 01:25 PM

that was Staal's fault on the last goal. he didn't get the puck deep going up the ice and Toronto countered. Then he watched the puck and lost his man who went down low and scored. Nisk tried to cover him but it was an easy tap in. Staal you continue to suck.

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written by s_rorabaugh, March 03, 2011 - 01:36 PM

espo33, There are 29 other teams who will gladly take a player who continues to "suck" off the Penguins' roster.

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written by D Sanchez, March 03, 2011 - 01:55 PM

Niskanen wasn't within 5 feet of his man he scored. Staal sucks? Not by any reasonable measure.

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written by Disgruntled Goat, March 03, 2011 - 02:45 PM

If by "suck" you mean unable to carry the team on his shoulders, you are correct. Really, Staal's greatest shortcomings in terms of perception are:
A) He has never lived up to let alone improved on the numbers he put up his rookie year.
B) He isn't Sidney Crosby.
There is no shame in either of those things. He isn't supposed to be the first line center, so don't be surprised when he doesn't excell at that position.

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written by Uli, March 03, 2011 - 03:02 PM

Without Staal´s shorthanded-goal in the 2009 SCF, there would be only two Stanley Cup banners hanging from the ceiling of Consol Energy Center.

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written by 929, March 03, 2011 - 03:08 PM

While Staal doesn't "suck" -- the claim that "he'd be a number one center on any other team" looks pretty foolish right now.

He's not even the number one center on this team right now without Crosby and Malkin.

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written by Disgruntled Goat, March 03, 2011 - 03:41 PM

I think the point that everyone seems to be missing is the fact that apparently we have been able to use the word "sucks" all along. That stinks. I mean sucks.

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written by Disgruntled Goat, March 03, 2011 - 04:30 PM

He'd be a number one center on any other team

I never heard that one. What I heard was "He'd be a number one center on several other teams." Those teams suck. They would still suck if he was their number one center.

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written by bastage42, March 03, 2011 - 06:43 PM

LOLOL Disgruntled Goat


As to the rest with Staal and last night's OT -- he absolutely was soft on his coverage, but there were 3 other skaters on the ice that were mostly just kind of watching, too.

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