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Monday, 28 November 2011 01:47

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

Penguins

-"This is the first time in a couple of years that everybody's in and playing to their full potential." - Pascal Dupuis on the team's relatively good run of health the past week.

-Foligno-gate continues. After Senators forward Nick Foligno and Sidney Crosby ripped each other through the media, Senators general manager Bryan Murray got in on the act calling out Crosby and Dan Bylsma and suggested his team will have tough guys Chris Neil and Matt Carkner in the lineup when they meet again Dec. 16 (4:05 mark):

-Happy 27th birthday to current Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. The first overall pick of the 2003 draft, Fleury has spent part of the past eight seasons with the Penguins. As a rookie in 2003-04,  Fleury appeared in 21 games, went 4-14-2 with a 3.64 goals against average, .896 save percentage and one shutout. Following the 2004-05 lockout, Fleury became the team's full-time starter midway through 2005-06. That season, he saw action in 50 games, compiled a 13-27-6 record with a 3.25 goals against average, .898 save percentage and one shutout. Arguably his best regular season was 2006-07. With a 40-16-9 record, he set career highs in wins, games (67) and shutouts (5) while sporting a 2.83 goals against average and .906 save percentage. Helping lead the franchise to its first postseason appearance in five seasons, Fleury (right) went 1-4 with a 3.76 goals against average and .880 save percentage. Injuries limited "Flower" to 35 games in 2007-08. He went 19-10-2 with a 2.33 goals against average, .921 save percentage and four shutouts. In that spring's postseason, Fleury saw action in 20 games, went 14-6, had a 1.97 goals against average, .933 save percentage, three shutouts and helped the franchise return to its first Stanley Cup final in 16 years. In 2008-08, Fleury rebounded by playing in 62 games, and compiling a 35-28-7 record with 2.67 goals against average, .912 save percentage and four shutouts. In that spring's playoffs, Fleury saw action 24 games, went 16-8 with a 2.61 goals against average, a .908 save percentage and led the franchise towards its third Stanley Cup title. Fleury followed that up by playing in 67 games in 2009-10. He had a record of 37-21-6 with a 2.65 goals against average, .905 save percentage and one shutout. The 2010 postseason saw Fleury play in 13 games and go 7-6 with a 2.78 goals against average, .891 save percentage and one shutout. Despite a slow start in 2010-11, Fleury appeared in 65 games, 36-20-5 with a 2.32 goals against average, .918 save percentage and recorded three shutouts while becoming the second goaltender in franchise history to be selected for an all-star game (Michel Dion in 1982 was the first). He appeared in seven postseason games this past spring and went 3-4 with a 2.52 goals against average, .899 save percentage and one shutout. This season, Fleury has played in 18 games while compiling a 13-3-2 record with a 2.07 goals against average, a .925 save percentage and two shutouts. In 385 career regular season games with the Penguins, Fleury is 197-129-39 with a 2.70 goals against average, .909 save percentage and 21 shutouts. His games played, wins and shutout totals are the second-best marks in franchise history trailing only Tom Barrasso. In 69 postseason games, Fleury is 41-28 with a 2.52 goals against average, .910 save percentage and five shutouts. Once again, his postseason numbers in games, wins and shutouts are the second-best in franchise history, trailing only Barrasso.

-Happy 38th birthday to former Penguins forward Brian Bonin. A ninth-round pick in 1992, Bonin's Penguins' career amounted to five games and no points in 1998-99. In the 1999 offseason, he joined the Canucks as a free agent. Bonin (1995) is one of four former Hobey Baker Award winners to play for the Penguins. Kip Miller (1990), Brian Holzinger (1995) and Jordan Leopold (2002) are the others.

Atlantic Division

-The preview show for the lastest edition of "24/7" came out last week:

Northeast Division

-Two goals by Jason Spezza led the Senators to a 4-3 win against the Hurricanes. Former Penguin Sergei Gonchar and Erik Karlsson each recorded two assists for Ottawa while Craig Anderson made 35 saves in the victory.

-A good look at two former Penguins - Ottawa's Sergei Gonchar and Carolina's Alexei Ponikarovsky - going one-on-one:

-Two goals by Tyler Bozak led the Maple Leafs to a 5-2 win against the Ducks. Teammates John-Michael Liles and Joffrey Lupul each recorded two assists for Toronto while Jonas Gustavsson made 26 saves in the victory.

-Check out this rocket by Toronto's Clarke MacArthur:

-Hit of the Night: Anaheim's Francois Beauchemin tried to smack Toronto's Matt Frattin but got helicoptered for his troubles:

-Spitting times for Anaheim's Jonas Hiller:

-Things are getting ugly in Anaheim:

-The Maple Leafs recall defenseman Keith Aulie from Toronto of the AHL and demoted defenseman Korbinian Holzer to Toronto.

Southeast Division

-“It’s a garbage schedule." - Panthers forward Kris Versteeg on his team's schedule which has been heavy on road games.

Central Division

-Brian Elliott made 23 saves for the Blues in a 2-1 defeat of the Blue Jackets. Columbus had a five-game point-scoring streak snapped.

-Pass of the Night: St. Louis' T.J. Oshie's blind backhander setting up captain David Backes for a goal:

-Blues forward Vladimir Sobotka is dealing with a mouth injury.

-Red Wings forward Patrick Eaves will be sidelined six to eight weeks after suffering a broken jaw Saturday.

-Predators defenseman Francis Bouillon is dealing with a groin ailment.

Northwest Division

-Miikka Kiprusoff made all of 19 saves for the Flames in a 5-2 win against the Wild. Calgary snapped a three-game losing streak.

-Goal of the Night: Calgary's Lee Stempniak undressing Minnesota's Marco Scandella en route to a five-hole score on Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom:

-Calgary's T.J. Brodie, who you might remember for wearing No. 66 last season, scored his first career NHL goal:

-Check out the passing on this goal by Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck:

-Someone on the Wild bench doused Flames captain Jarome Iginla from the bench with a water bottle:

-Oilers forward Taylor Hall is dealing with a wonky left shoulder.

Pacific Division

-The Ducks recalled goaltender Jeff Deslauriers from Syracuse of the AHL.

-The Stars recalled forward Francis Wathier from Texas of the AHL.

(Photos: Dupuis-Jamie Sabau/Getty Images; Fleury-Peter Diana/Post-Gazette; Hurricanes/Senators-Phillip MacCallum/Getty Images; Maple Leafs/Ducks-Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Comments (8)

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written by tennpen, November 28, 2011 - 04:00 AM

Bryan Murray - what a d*******g joke of a coach

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written by tennpen, November 28, 2011 - 04:46 AM

Sorry, he's not a d-bag coach anymore, he's a d-bag GM, always whining about something whatever his job title is. Flyers still suck

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written by Luiz Mello, November 28, 2011 - 05:30 AM

The enlightened and forward-thinking of people like Bryan Murray is just what the NHL needs.

Sarcasm aside, I think the NHL disciplinary powers that be should say something about the incident. Granted, if they were to crack down every time such a scuffle happens in a hockey game, they wouldn't have time to do anything else. Nevertheless, they cannot allow this to escalate. Also, the very last thing the League needs is to reinforce the idea that stars like Sid get any kind of pass.

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written by chuckinrlp, November 28, 2011 - 07:06 AM

This has Pens/Islanders written all over it again. Check out what some of the "knowledgable" hockey Sens "fans" are saying in their papers:
http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/...osby-pens
Kind of funny that they forgot that Foligno ran MAF at least twice and also took a run at Sullivan during the game.

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written by chuckinrlp, November 28, 2011 - 07:07 AM

Try this again
http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/11/27/send-gm-warns-crosby-pens

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written by chuckinrlp, November 28, 2011 - 07:19 AM

(Sorry, it's Monday!)
http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/11/27/sens-gm-warns-crosby-pens

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written by chuckinrlp, November 28, 2011 - 09:45 AM

Wow! Maurice and Boudreau fired today. Is Randy Carlyle next?

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written by a guest, November 28, 2011 - 12:25 PM

Jesus H. Christ, Murray is such a baby.

Well, Mr. Murray, i have 2 words for you: 1. Mac, 2. Engel.
I mean in response to the question "what are you gonna do if i deploy Carkner and Neil?"

Or, Mr. Murray, feel free to ask Jay Beagle about how it feels when "someone" slips you the sleeping pill...

In all seriousness, Murray's just a baby talking sh*t, he's a joke for a GM.
Will you ever hear Shero running his mouth like that? You won't.
End of story.

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