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My Day With Stanley: Dan Bylsma

My Day With Stanley: Matt Cooke

"Deryk Engelland" - History Will Be Made

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24 7 Pens Caps Final Segment

Pens win 5-1 in Ottawa

The Penguins did what they had to do tonight, taking 2 points from a weaker opponent. Ottawa has a horrible home record, going only 1-9-2 at home since they beat the Penguins at home back on 12/26. That said, the Senators had been 7-3 in their past ten games, so they were kind of hot going into the game. Tonight, Tyler Kennedy opened the scoring with his 16th goal. Kennedy added an assist later in the game giving him 1G and 4A in his past two games. He also has 9 goals in his past 19 games, and has really elevated his game in the absence of Crosby and Malkin. Jordan Staal had another strong game, chipping in a goal and an assist as well. Staal has 2 goals and 2 assists since his UGLY performance on Saturday against Montreal. How about Zybnek Michalek as another guy who has really elevated his game lately. After going 92 regular season games without a goal, he now has 3 in his past four games. Add in a goal by Ben Lovejoy, and the Pens blue line had a nice evening! How about Kunitz following up a 2 goal, and 1 assist performance with a 3 assist night tonight? He has really looked solid since his return from injury. And public enemy number one, the Cookie Monster adds his 12th of the season. The win gives the Pens 90 points on the season, and keeps them within sight of the Division/
Conference leading Flyers who own a three point lead on the Penguins, but have 3 games in hand. The two head to head games between Pittsburgh could decide the Division if either team can take both games. If Philadephia wins both, the race is over, and if Pittsburgh can win both, especially in regulation, they could really put the heat on the Flyers down the stretch. Next up, a big game against the Rangers on Sunday which is a four point swing game in the race.

Pens beat Edmonton 5-1

Well, today was a great rebound game, and a workmanlike win over a bad team. The 2 points gives Pittsburgh 88 points, which leaves them 3 points behind Philadelphia for the Division and Conference leads, and two behind Washington. It also put 3 points between the Pens and Lightning, and 5 between the Pens and Habs. Next up is Ottawa, who despite only having 59 points, are now 7-3 in their last 10 games. The Penguins are getting very close to clinching a playoff spot,( 9th place Carolina would need to get EVERY point of their possible remaining 26 to hit 98) but the Pens also remain in contention for the top spots in the conference as well. This means that if the Pens win 5 of their remaining twelve games, Carolina would have to win every single game to tie them, and put the Pens in 9th place. What that means is that the focus is really not going to be on making the dance, but more on getting a top 4 seeding. If you read my previous post, I said that Jordan Staal, Alex Kovalev, Kris Letang, and James Neal had to be more productive for the Penguins to win. Staal answered the bell with a goal and an assist. His assist on the first goal by Kunitz was a thing of beauty. First, he won a battle in the corner to chip a puck away from the Oilers, then as the Oiler regained possession, Staal deflected a break out pass that Kennedy picked off and put on the stick of Kunitz out in front. Kunitz patiently waited for Dubnyk to go down and put a backhander through the five hole. That was Penguins hockey! It not only came with only 34 seconds left in the first period, but it came after the Pens killed a prolonged 5 on 3 without giving up a shot on goal. Staal also scored a goal, the third Pens goal of the game and his 8th of the year after a Kennedy shot leaked through Dubnyk's legs. Staal was in the blue paint, and made sure the puck rolled home.

As far as Letang goes, he did not score today as I had hoped, but he did not make careless plays that created turnovers, and played a much more simple game. He did get lucky on a 2 on 1 break in the first period, as he seemed to panic late in the play, attacking the shooter, which allowed a scoring chance when the pass connected with the trailing Oilers player, but all in all Letang was better than yesterday, if not back to his early season form. Kovalev had three shots on goal, and did not play poorly, but also did not show up on the score sheet. I thought James Neal again created quality scoring chances for himself, but remains somewhat snakebit. I think that when he gets some breaks, the goals will come in bunches. He did assist on Kunitz's second goal of the game, and 20th of the season, as did Kennedy, who collected his third assist of the night. So two of the four players referenced wound up on the score sheet in Staal and Neal. Letang improved his game, and Kovalev played ok. As far as other Penguins who stepped up today, Max Talbot played his best game of the season in my opinion, and got rewarded with a sweet goal on a partial breakaway. Tyler Kennedy, a guy who at one point looked like he might be the odd man out, stepped up again with 3 assists. Kennedy looked horrible for the past two games, but other than that, has been one of the players to step up the most in the absence of the two headed monster. The power play was 1 for 6, not great, but on this team any power play goal is a big one. The penalty kill as usual was awesome, killing an extended 5 on 3, and 3 other power plays with minimal shots on goal surrendered. Public Enemy Number One, Cookie played a strong game today, and his assist on the Pegnuin's third goal was the 300th point of his career. Mark Letestu had an overall strong game, and had another strong showing in the faceoff circle with a 13 for 16 outing. Hey, a 5-1 win against Edmonton is no reason to start planning the parade route, but after yesterday's showing, it was nice to see the Penguins "get to their game" today and get two points to keep them in the top 4 of the conference. Lost in this, is the fact that the defense played a very solid game despite only dressing 5 players due to an illness with Matt Niskanen. Great to see Kunitz break the 20 goal mark. A healthy Sid and he has 30 plus goals this season. An interesting statistic related to Kunitz is that the Penguins are 36-15-4 with Kunitz in the lineup, and 13-2-1 when he scores a goal. Also, of note, the Penguins have only surrendered 19 goals in their past 12 games at CEC.