Mazmania

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Somebody liked Hosebag

Monday, January 11, 2010

Geno.......should we be worried?

In a blog post last year responding to the Crosby haters/Ovechkin lovers I wrote that Evgeni Malkin may just be the best of the three, as he combines some of the goal scoring flair of Ovechkin with the playmaking flair of Crosby, along with the great ability to create turnovers. He is not as good a goal scorer as Ovechkin, but he has been better than Crosby, and he is not as good a playmaker as Crosby, but he has been better than Ovechkin. Malkins history in the NHL warrants that type of praise and is as follows:

Malkin was drafted second overall in the 2004 Entry draft right behind Alexander Ovechkin. Though an international transfer dispute delayed his arrival with the Penguins until the 2006-07 season, Geno made an immediate impact. He started by breaking a modern day NHL record by recording a goal in each of his first six games in the NHL, finishing the season with 86 points and winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL Rookie of the Year, as the Penguins arrived in the post season for the first time in awhile.

Malkins sophomore year was even more productive, as Geno 47 goals and 106 total points, finishing second in the race for the Hart Memorial Trophy and helping to lead the Pens all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, scoring 22 points in the playoffs. Who can forget the surge Geno went on when team leader Sidney Crosby was injured for 28 games in mid season. With Marc Andre Fleury also on the shelf for 27 games, most experts thought that the Penguins could have their playoff hopes in jeopardy as a result.......Well Geno put the team on HIS shoulders scoring 44 points in those 28 games and was clearly the best player on the ice for most of those games. The Penguins won the Atlantic Division Title and swept through the playoffs before finally losing in 6 games to the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals!

Geno built on his 07-08 campaign to have a dominant 2008-09 season. Geno won the Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the leagues scoring champion with 113 points and was again the runner up for the Hart Memorial as league MVP, a trophy many thought he deserved. Fortunately for us, Geno had his sights set on bigger hardware as he tore through the playoffs, and in a scoring tear where he was neck and neck with Sidney Crosby, Geno scored 36 points in the post season (14 G and 22 A) while helping to lead the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Championship AND winning the coveted Conn Smythe trophy as the MVP of the playoffs. Geno was a beast throughout the playoffs, but was particularly dominant against Carolina, almost single handedly chasing them from the Eastern Conference Finals with a performance that I, like many others will never forget! Wow, what could we expect from this guy in 09-10, as he was still only 23 years old, and had not peaked yet!

Well, this year has been a different story, and despite having numbers 13 G and 30 assists through 39 games played, that would be very good for some people (projecting out at 27 goals and 62 pts), this is a far cry from the pace Geno had set over the past two seasons, and would land him at roughly the same output he had in his rookie campaign. Add to that the fact that he is turning the puck over consistently at the blue line, taking dumb penalties (often on the same play), losing most of his faceoffs, and generally not dominating games and the fans are in an uproar. It is troubling enough to see those statistics, but add to that the fact that Geno has only 3 goals in his last 12 games, all of them v Ottawa on 12-23 when the Russian Olympic scout was in attendance, and it is frustrating to watch. You can rest assured though, that nobody is more frustrated than Geno.

His talents are undeniable, and his stats prior to this year overall speak for themselves. If you recall, Geno completely disappeared late in the 2007-08 conference Finals and that extended through the Finals, where his lack of production was a key reason that the Pens were unable to beat the Wings. He did however rebound from the rounds of criticism this generated to be thoroughly dominant in the Stanley Cup run, winning the Conn Smythe. This season he has had one dominant game all year, the above referenced game........is Geno saving himself for the Olympics? Is he a legend in his own mind? Is he too immature to deal with the pressure of being a leader? I doubt all of the above..........Only time will tell......One thing is for certain, and that is that a team built to dominate from its center ice position will not go deep into the playoffs if Evgeni Malkin does not find some semblance of the game he has displayed over the past two seasons.............but if he does, and I believe that he will,well then, we have another magical spring time to look forward to..........

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Messsage to Pens Fans

It is almost depressing to turn on the sports, read NHL.com, or even Pensblog right now..........the same as last winter.......but we all know how that turned out. The leadership of this organization, and of this team will right the ship, and soon.

Miracle on Ice, the beginning of my madness

As I sit here on another cold winter morning, wondering what got me to the point that I spend most of my down time scouring the internet for hockey memorabilia, articles on junior and professional hockey, and great hockey tidbits, I found this little gem. Prior to February 1980, I LOVED football, the Steelers and Pitt Panthers, and still liked baseball quite a bit. The game of hockey was something I had very little knowledge of. Yeah, I played street hockey for a couple of years in a recreational league in Lincoln Place, but did it only for something to do...............but like many others of that time I got swept up by the Miracle on Ice as it played out during the winter olympics. My family watched the Olympics every night, and my father was particularly interested in the hockey that year. The USSR seemed like and unbeatable juggernaut, and the US team was made up of kids, but as the US team advanced to the medal round, we got more and more interested in hockey. Watching this miracle unfold on ice, the pride and emotion of the US crowd, and the excitement it generated in the area, I became hooked. Beating the Soviets to eliminate them and guarantee at least a bronze medal was a great moment to be sure, and winning the gold by knocking of the Finns, had me hooked for sure. I suddenly spent the rest of the winter shooting pucks off the side of the house, get reinvolved in street hockey, then ice hockey. My father and I spent lots of time during the spring watching the NHL playoffs, and I realized what an accomplishment it was to win the Stanley Cup! During these years, the Penguins were very mediorcre, but watching the games with my father remain a favorite memory of mine. In 1984, the Penguins drafted Le Magnifique, and there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel. With hope on the horizon that the local team could be competitive, the love of hockey grew even more. In 1988, I met my wife, and we began attending games on a fairly regular basis as a result of her boss giving us tickets. In 1989, the Pens had a very good year, and despite losing to the Flyers in the first round of the playoffs in 7 games, you could see a bright future.........the Pens then won two straight Cups, should have won a third and were one of the dominant franchises of the nineties.........the new decade brought a fire sale and return to very ugly hockey, but the bug remained. The drafting of 87 felt very similar to the drafting of 66 in 1984, and the Pens seem poised for another extended run amongst the elite in hockey..........and it is great to be a part of it! This video brings back memories of the origin of the MADNESS.