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Sunday, 13 March 2011 13:35

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

PREGAME

-First things first, the Penguins are going to be shorthanded on defense today. Matt Niskanen will not play on account of the flu. With the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Western Canada, a recall isn't an option. As a result, the Penguins will play with five defensemen today (PG+). Ick.

-Well... anyways... greetings from a gray, chilly overcast day in Pittsburgh, even before the Niskanen news, it was kind of a down day on account of the brilliant weather we had yesterday. Ick.

-Not much of a walk from downtown. Duquesne is apparently already anticipating the state's cutbacks in education funding and can only afford to be known as DU UN:

-We think.

-Here's a positive sign. A new business across the street from Consol Energy Center. A cigar store:

-Speaking of the devil:

-There's one brave Oilers fan here:

-Ron Francis still has at least one fan here:

-This fan was sporting a Nordiques hat too:

-The ice:

-The Oilers will be starting goaltender Devan Dubnyk today.

-Some more jersey sightings. No. 27 is a popular jersey. In Craig Adams form:

-Alex Kovalev form:

-George Laraque form:

-And Dave Semenko Oilers:

-Hmrph... this guys Alex Goligoski jersey isn't skipping the game today on account of the flu:

-Fire Ray Shero.

-Mark Lestestu

-Dustin Jeffrey is popular too. In Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Christmas form:

-And Pittsburgh form:

-Mario Lemieux Team Canada from the 2004 World Cup:

-Erik Christensen:

-Jonathan Filewich and Chris Conner:

-Kevin Stevens:

-Stu Barnes:

-Wayne Gretzky:

-Dear lord. Alberta Oiler jerseys:

(Note: The Oilers were the Alberta Oilers, as opposed to the Edmonton Oilers, in their WHA days and wore "ALBERTA" on the name plates.)

-Oof... A Sheldon Souray jersey:

-Ales Hemsky:

-Rick Tocchet No. 92:

-The Civic Arena:

-Alex Kovalev No. 72 from the 2001 All-Star Game:

-Jersey of the Day: We see this jersey fairly routinely, but given his history with both franchises, Paul Coffey:

-Warm ups:

-The Penguins' starters are Tyler Kennedy, Chris Kunitz, Jordan Staal, Kris Letang, Ben Lovejoy and Marc-Andre Fleury.

-Their scratches are Eric Godard and Matt Niskanen.

-The Oilers' starters are Jordan Eberle, Shawn Horcoff, Magnus Paajarvi, Tom Gilberg, Ladislav Smid and Devan Dubnyk.

-Their scratches are Sam Gagne, Taylor Hall, Ales Hemsky and Theo Peckham.

-No Jimerson today. No photo. We guess after doing two anthems yesterday, expecting him to do two today would be too much.

FIRST PERIOD

18:12: Chris Conner sweeps from behind the Edmonton net and whips a puck to the crease. Matt Cooke appears to get a stick on it. Dubnyk fends it off.

17:10: Letang sneaks a pass from the defensive zone up the right wing to Letestu. Letestu gains the offensive zone and puts a wrister on net from the right circle. Dubnyk fights it off.

14:36: Conner deals a little pass to the slot. Kurtis Foster fumbles hanlding the puck and allows Cooke a chance. Cooke jumps on the loose puck and snaps it wide on the left side of the cage.

16:56: Ladislav Smid chucks a wrister on net from the left point. Fleury eats it up.

16:31: Dupuis caries a puck up ice, gains the offensive zone and guns slapper from above the left circle. Dubnyk steers it to the far circle.

13:35: Kovalev rips a heavy wrister from the right circle to the far side. Dubnyk punches it away with his blocker.

13:25: James Neal makes a nice steal off at the left point and chucks the puck on net. Kovalev and a defender are in front screening Dubnyk who makes a blind save. The puck comes to a rest to the left of the crease. No one seems to know where it is for a few seconds until Dubnyk covers.

11:03: From the right point, Jim Vandermeer chops a slapper through traffic wide of the net on the far side.

10:46: Cooke pushes a wrister on net from an awkward angle on the right wing. Dubnyk kicks it out to the right circle. Engelland steps up and cranks it on net with a one-timer. Dubnyk eats it up. Linus Omark is sent off for hooking Adams who was driving to the net. Chris Kunitz, Mark Letestu, Kris Letang, Kovalev and Neal take the ice. Kovalev is on the left point.

8:46: The Omark penalty expires with little threat from the Penguins.

8:29: The Penguins get another chance with the man advantage as Ryan Jones is nabbed for hooking. Letang, Neal, Letestu, Staal and Kovalev take the ice.

7:16: Kovalev takes a pass in the right circle, dekes a few times an snaps off a wrister wide on the near side.

6:53: Kennedy snaps off a shot from the left half wall. Dubnyk eats it up.

6:29: The Jones penalty expires. Once again, the Penguins posed little threat.

6:02: Omark takes a pass on the right wing, gains the offensive zone, makes a nice flip move by Engelland and snaps off a wrister from the slot with clanks off the right post.

4:00: Evgeni Malkin's parents are shown on the video board once again. Malkin's mom waves. His dad does a fist pump. It's the first thing fans have had to cheer for all day.

3:23: Kovalev is sent off for holding Alexandre Giroux. Jordan Staal, Paul Martin, Zybnek Michalek and Dupuis take the ice.

3:09: And the Penguins are in a bad spot as Martin is called for cross checking Shawn Horcoff int the right wing corner of the Penguins' zone. Horcoff sold that a bit. Five on three for 1:46. Cooke, Michalek and Adams take the ice.

2:49: Cooke deflects a pass by Paajarvi out of play.

2:03: Fleury stops a dump in behind his net. Michalek skates back and cranks a slapper around the boards and out of the zone.

1:23: Kovalev's minor is killed. The Oilers still have 14 seconds of power play time.

1:10: Letang chips a loose puck from the slot down ice and kills off the rest of Martin's power play. Huge effort by the Penguins' penalty killers.

0:34: Welcome back Chris Kunitz. Staal force a turnover in the left wing corner by Tom Gilbert. The puck hops to Kennedy on the left wing. He deals a pass Kunitz in the slot. Kunitz takes the pass on his forehand, moves to his backhand and punches it under Dubnyk for a goal. It's his first goal since coming back from injury. Great play by Staal to force that turnover. Kennedy and Staal get assists. The "Woo-Hoo!" song is fresh after having the day off yesterday. Penguins 1-0.

0:00: End of period. Penguins 1, Oilers 0.

FIRST INTERMISSION

-Not that the bar was set terribly high yesterday, but that was a much better effort by the Penguins. They seemed much more focused and aggressive.

-That said, they're not exactly facing the 1984-85 Oilers here. This is a pretty bad team.

-Jordan Staal mad amends for his dreadful day yesterday forcing the turnover which Kunitz scored on.

-The Penguins defense has been solid despite playing with only five skaters.

-The Penguins have a 13-2 lead in shots. Yeesh.

-Dupuis, Kunitz and Kennedy each lead the game with two.

-Gilbert leads the game with 9:05 of ice time.

-Letang leads the Penguins with 8:27.

-The Penguins lead in faceoffs, 12-6 (67 percent).

-Letestu is 6 for 8 (75 percent).

-Jordan Eberle and Colin Fraser are each 2 for 3 (67 percent).

-Vandermeer leads the game with two blocked shots.

-Today's IceTime has Kovalev on the cover:

SECOND PERIOD

18:52: Conner and Vandermeer chase after a dump in to the left wing corner of the Edmonton zone. Conner (5-foot-8, 180 pounds) initiates contact and sticks a shoulder into Vandermeer (6-foot-1, 214 pounds) sticking him on his butt. Impressive.

18:18: Off a give and go play, Eberle rips a wirster from the slot. Fleury is moving back and forth in his crease. He slides to his left and kicks out the puck.

16:29: After some serious cycling down low by the Oilers, Vandermeer snaps off a wrister from the left point. Fleury stretches out to kick it out. Michalek skates the rebound out of danger.

16:12: Cooke gains the offensive zone on the left wing and deals a pass to Jeffrey also on the left wing, Jeffrey zips up the boards and chucks a wrister on net from a deep angle. Dubnyk eats it up as Cooke crashes Vandermeer into the boards behind the net.

16:09: Off the ensuging faceoff win by Jeffrey, Conner snaps off a quick wrister. Dubnyk fights it off.

14:30: Lovjeoy gets a chance in the slot and cranks a slapper above the cage. It ricochets out to the slot. Dubnyk is swimming around his crease and accidental kicks it off juuuuust as Talbot sweeps the puck into the net. Offiicals signal no goal. A big break for the Oilers. Talbot is snake bit.

13:33: He's not snake bit there. From the left wing at the Edmonton blue line, Dupuis taps a pass to the slot setting Talbot off on a mini-breakaway. Talbot attacks the net on his backhand and makes a heavy deke to his forehand tapping the puck by Dubnyk's stick. Talbot crashes into Dubnyk as the puck goes in. Dupuis and Lovejoy get assists. The "Woo-Hoo!" song is played. Penguins 2-0.

12:07: Gilbert Brule snaps off a wrister from the left circle. Fleury kicks it out.

11:51: Kunitz is called for slashing Eberle. He pretty much lumberjacked Eberle's stick in half. Cooke, Adams, Michalek and Lovejoy.

10:01: Cooke steals the puck off Omark on the left wing wall of the Penguins' zone and backhands it down ice to kill off the rest of Kunitz's penalty.

8:19: Neal gets held up at the Edmonton blue line with a cross check by Vandermeer to Neal's right hip. Neal is slow to recover and limps to the bench. He stays on the bench and doesn't go to the locker room. Kunitz Kennedy, Letang, Jeffrey and Cooke take the ice. Jeffrey mans the left point.

7:07: Letang wheels round a defender in the left circle and lifts a wrister over the cage.

6:19: Vandermeer's penalty is killed. Not much going on there for the Penguins.

5:34: Kurtis Foster guns a one-timer from the right circle. Fleury fights it off.

5:16: Jeff Petry strikes a slapper from the right point. Fleury kicks it out.

3:54: Vandermeer smacks a one-timer fron the left circle. It hits a body in front and deflects wide on the far side.

3:16: Another power play for the Penguins. Jason Strudwick is sent to the penalty box for interference against xxx. Letang, Neal, Kovalev, Letest and Kunitz take the ice. During the kiss cam, Malkin's parent's are shown. They both laugh, then Vladimir pretty much preforms CPR on Natalia.

2:37: Letestu whips a wrister on net from the left point. Dubnyk fights it off.

1:32: In the right wing corner, Staal moves around sliding Smid and deals a backhanded pass to the slot. Cooke crashes in and punches it on net with a backhander. Dubynk holds it out.

1:16: the Vandermeer penalty expires. The Penguins are now 0 for 4 on the power play.

1:04: Welcome back the third line. Vandermeer loses his stick behind the Edmonton net. Cooke and Staal battle him and Petry for possession. Cooke is able to move a pass to Kennedy in the left circle. Kennedy drives a quick one-timer on net. Dubnyk makes the initial save but the puck squirts through his gear and slides towards the goal line. Staal is on the back door and dives to poke it into the cage before Vandermeer can knock it away with his hand. A nice dirty goal for that re-united line. Kennedy and Cooke get assists. The "Woo-Hoo!" song is played. Penguins 3-0.

0:00: End of period. Penguins 3, Oilers 0.

SECOND INTERMISSION

-More of the same there for the Penguins. They kept things simple, initiated contact, attacked the net and punches in a few goals.

-Once again, we'll suggest you temper your excitement. The Oilers are pretty bad.

-Staal is playing like he's motivated. He should be given how poorly he played yesterday.

-James Neal continues to play with confidence.

-The Penguins have a 23-13 lead in shots.

-Kennedy leads the game with three shots.

-Vandermeer, Omark, Foster and Brule each lead the Oilers with two.

-Gilbert leads the game with 18:16 of ice time.

-Letang leads the Penguins with 18:06.

-The Penguins control faceoffs, 24-13 (65 percent).

-Letestu is 9 for 12 (75 percent).

-Eberle is 2 for 3 (67 percent).

-Letang leads the game with three blocked shots.

-Vandermeer leads the Oilers with two.

THIRD PERIOD

18:49: There goes the shutout. Cogliano snaps off a wrister from the slot. Jones is in front and appears to re-dierct it under Fleury. It squeaks through Fleurys's gear and is loose behind the net. Jones chops the loose puck into the cage as the world crashes down around him. Nice dirty goal. Cogliano and Giroux get assists. Penguins 3-1.

17:44: Fraser and Horcoff each get denied in tight by Fleury. Fraser and Engelland mix it up after the whistle. Fraser kind of does a fake head but at Engelland to give him a bit of a scare. That was similar to when Mario Lemieux faked a punch to Florida's Brian Skrudland in the 1996 Eastern Conference Final:

15:53: Vandermeer chops a half slapper from the left wing. Fleury eats it up.

15:12: Kovalev cuts in off the right wing towards the slot and is tripped up by Petry. That's a penalty. Another chance to waste two minutes score a power play goal.  Jeffrey, Letang, Kennedy, Staal and Cooke take the ice. Jeffrey mans the left point.

13:12: And two minutes later, nothing was accomplished with that power play.

12:18: Liam Reddox flips a backhander on net from the right circle. Fleury knocks it down and covers.

12:08: Michalek for Norris. Adams wrestle a puck away from a defender just outside the Edmonton blue line on the left wing. He turns and whips a cross ice pass to Michalek on the right wing. Michalek has a clear look at the net and rockets a slapper to the far side toasting Dubnyk's blocker. He tries to jump into the boards ala Alex Ovechkin and falls over. Ha! His teammate give him grief for it in the corner. What a shot by Michalek. Adams and Talbot get assist. A two-point game for Talbot? Interesting. The "Woo-Hoo!" song is played. Penguins 4-1.

10:15: Attendance is announced as 18,197. It is the team's 201st consecutive sellout.

8:42: Paajarvi crnaks a one-timer from the right point. Fleury fights it off despite traffic.

8:10: Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly is played:

7:47: Fraser blasts a slapper from the left wing. Fleury kicks it out.

6:46: Fleury flips a puck out of play. That's a delay of game penalty. Mike Rupp will serve the two minutes. Cooke, Martin, Michalek and Talbot take the ice.

6:31: After fighting off a one-timer by Foster from the left point, Fleury denies Jones on a nice chance from the left circle.

5:24: And The Oilers' season just gets better. Paajarvi cranks a loose puck from the left point with a slapper. It hits Horcoff all of seven feet away in the left skate. Ouch. Horcoff is shaken up and is slow to recover. He makes his way to the bench with help from an atheltic trainer.

5:04: Letang flips a loose puck net to the net up ice with a backhander. Gilbert Brule comes flying in from 30 feet away and levels Letang. letang tumpbles to the ice holding his face. Talbot and other race in to jump Brule. A scrum develops with Talbot tin the middle of it. Letang makes his way to the bench hold his face. He appears fine for the most part. Four on four for 18 seconds.

4:46: Fleury's minor is killed. The Penguins will have 1:42 of power play time.

3:49: And the Penguins make Brule and the Oilers pay. Kenned controls the puck above the right cicle. He taps it down low to Neal along the goal line. Neal is able to sneak a pss across the slot to Kunitz who easily punches it by the left leg of a helpless Dubnyk. Neal and Kennedy each get assists. The "Woo-Hoo!" song is played. Penguins 5-1.

3:24: Cotton-Eyed Joe is busted out:

2:42: Lovejoy drives a loose puck on the right wing on net with a slapper. Dubnyk eats it up.

1:40: Horcoff is back and lifts a wrister from the left wing. Fleury gloves it.

0:00: End of game. Mike Lange informs us of Elvis' whereabouts. Penguins 5, Oilers 1.

POSTGAME

-That was quite a response by the Penguins on a team and individual basis.

-As a team, they were far more aggressive and executed their game plan very well. And they did it despite the fact they only had five defensemen.

-Individally, Staal and Letang each rebounded after poor days yesterday. Staal played like he had something to prove and Letang kept things simple and took a few less chances.

-We're not the first to suggest this, but why doesn't Dan Bylsma just re-unite the line of Kennedy, Cooke and Staal and make them the third line. And re-assemble the remnants of the first line (Dupuis and Kunitz) and stick them with Jeffrey?

-Fleury was strong but hardly tested. He needed a bounce back after a rough day yesterday.

-Talbot has not had a game like that in a long while. Maybe since last season.

-The Oilers might have been the worst team we've seen all season. They don't have a lot of talent to begin with and a lot of it (Taylor Hall, Ales Hemsky, etc.) is beat up.

-Kris Letang was okay after the according to Dan Bylsma following the rough hit he took from Brule. Brule actually left the game on account of bumping heads with Letang. According to Oilers coach Tom Renney, he was a little "fuzzy" after the hit but was fine afte the game.

-We didn't have a problem with the hit. Brule followed through on a hit against a puck carrier. Letang just wasn't ready for it.

-Of the hit, Oilers coach Tom Renney said: "I was disappointed with the call to be honest with you. (Brule) did not come from 40 feet away to hit him. They were straight up with each other. In my mind, Gilbert finished the check. This is hockey and a lot of times it ends with a finished check. In my mind, Letang wasn’t quite ready for it. (Brule) skate through a responsibility of finishing a check and I thought it was a tough call."

-The Penguins had a 33-29 lead in shots.

-Fraser led the game with four shots.

-Letestu, Kunitz, Neal and Kennedy each led the Penguins with three.

-Gilbert led the game with 25:57 of ice time.

-Letang was right behind him with 25:37.

-The Penguins controlled faceoffs, 36-21 (63 percent).

-Letestu was 13 for 16 (81 percent).

-Fraser was 5 for 11 (45 percent).

-Smid and Letang each led the game with three blocked shots.

-Cooke's assist was his 300th career point.

-Kennedy (115 points) moved past Pete Mahovlich and Terry Ruskowski for 66th place on the team's all-time scoring list.

-Talbot (105 points) moved past Craig Simpson (105) and Duane Rupp (104) for 75 place. Talbot (52) has more goals than Simpson (50).

-Cooke passed up Alex Goligosk for 92nd place. Both place have 90 points, but Cooke (39) has more goals than Goligoski (23).

-Game summary.

-Event summary.

Comments (10)

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written by Purple Moose, March 13, 2011 - 03:46 PM

Bad news about the D since it certainly appears as if Letang has hit "the wall". In the past month (12 games) he only has 3 assists and is a minus 7.

If Sid is coming back, it looks like Letang needs a few games off to reenergize. If no Sid, then it really doesn't matter.

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written by leahbackus, March 13, 2011 - 03:59 PM

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If we can't win games without Sid, we're doing something very wrong. There are 29 other teams in the league that don't have Crosby and they manage to win games. 15 of those teams will make the playoffs without Crosby. So will we, if necessary. And we'll do fine. Especially if people stop focusing on who's *not* in the lineup and focus on who *is*.

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written by Purple Moose, March 13, 2011 - 04:13 PM

Well who is in the lineup is a player who was the second pick in the entire draft, who hasn't gotten more than 50 points in 5 years in the league, who is a minus player on a winning team, who has less than 50% faceoff wins, and who hasn't stepped up his game when needed the most.

I have never seen an athlete receive such kid glove treatment or a second overall draft pick have such low expectations of him.

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written by leahbackus, March 13, 2011 - 04:19 PM

Are you talking about Staal now? If so, I can't agree more! He's been making absolutely no effort that I can see. I will give Neal and Kovy the benefit of the doubt for adjusting to a new system, but Staal has no such excuse.

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written by Louder_Is_Best, March 13, 2011 - 04:31 PM

I've flushed things that were more effective at a power play than the Penguins.

Even when they manage to get a shot, it comes nowhere near the net. That drives me nuts more than anything else: the shots are just way, way too wild.

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written by belial1134, March 13, 2011 - 09:51 PM

True..29 other teams do not have Crosby however one team has an Ovechkin, another has the Sedin Twins, another has Datsyuk/Zetterberg...

Point being, other (playoff) teams have their superstar players..we are without our top scoring forwards.

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written by bastage42, March 13, 2011 - 10:52 PM

Staal would be on pace for a 21-goal, 53 point season, right on par with his past two (or just a shade better) and not bad for a 22-year old 3rd line CHECKING centre who's missed half this year with significant injuries.

If they wanted Toews, they could have drafted him instead. They knew who and what they were getting, and weren't looking to shift Toews to the wing.

He had a pretty good game today, has had some decent games lately, and still he continues to take abuse. He's not going to score 40-50 goals, people, no matter who plays with him or who is injured. Let's just hope he's lost all his rust by the time the playoffs roll around (speaking of which, 16 goals and 24 points in 60 playoff games, on the 3rd line often against the other teams' top lines or on PK).

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written by bastage42, March 13, 2011 - 10:54 PM

And, I'll agree with the basic sentiment -- without focusing on who's not in our lineup, we still have a pretty darned good team, just our superstars* are in net and on D instead. Not a bad area of strength in the playoffs.

*with all due respect to Max of course

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written by djbst75, March 13, 2011 - 11:20 PM

no surprise that Renney would be upset with the call. He is part of the old guard that wants people getting run from 80 feet away, and thinks head hits are ok. As for the hit in question well there is only one man who can tell you if it was kosher or not, and that man is Andy Sutton!!!

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written by Bones, March 14, 2011 - 08:35 AM

Agree with bastage. Toews would be much less effective as a winger. Shero drafted the player that the team needed, not the best point-producer. I don't think anybody projected Staal to put up better numbers than Kessel, Backstrom, or Toews. I don't see any of those guys accepting a third-line centerman role behind Crosby and Malkin. Staal fits in well there, and will produce with those two drawing the attention of an opponent's top D pairings. And there is absolutely no reason why Staal, Kennedy, and Cooke should be separated at this point. As long as all three are healthy they need to be out there together.

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