Ok my fellow yinzers, our beloved flightless birds have now won two playoff series, and await what is likely to be the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Confernce Finals unless the Rags can pull off a miracle. Here is to hoping they at least extend the series a game or two. I don't know about you, but the Penguins early exits in recent post seasons has me out of practice for this marathon. Is it me, or does it feel like they were in two tough back and forth battes? In reality, they are 8-2, and were never in any real danger of elimination. Maybe recent history played a part in that feeling, or the fact that Marc Andre Fleury was chased seven games ago, but man, I am not sure I could live through a six or seven game series, or one where we fell behind, though in 2009, I very much believed in the Penguins in both the Caps and Red Wings series' even when they fell behind two games to none. I hope to get that swagger back for this playoff run, my life may depend on it! Instead of blowing up my Facebook page with all of the ramblings in my head, I figured I would take our halfway point in the March to the Cup to put most of my thoughts in one place. First and foremost, Ray Shero, you are the best GM in all of sports. All of the late season acquisitions have performed pretty much as expected in this post season. I know, some are a bit disappointed in Morrow, but he has done okay, and has been coming on late in this series. He will be very valuable in the Bruins series in my opinion. Murray has been the shot blocking monster he is supposed to be, Iginla has more than a point per game, and Juicy has added depth and versatility to a lineup that is tough to crack, but he has delivered when called upon. Now to give a recap of the statistical performance of the Penguins that I find interesting. First, if you look at playoff points leaders, after David Krejci of Boston who has 17 points to lead the league, the Penguins fill out the remaining positions of the top 5 with Malkin, Letang, Crosby, and Iginla in that order having 16, 16, 15, and 12 points. The Pens boast 4 of the top 5 scorers in the post season. Crosby and Dupuis are tied for the league lead in goals with 7, and James Neal is coming on like a freight train right behind with 6 goals, giving Pittsburgh 3 of the top 5 goal scorers in the playoffs. Neal in fact has 5 goals and 2 assists in his past TWO games after a rather sluggish start to his post season. As far as netminding, despite not starting the first 3 games, Tomas Vokoun is second in wins in the NHL after a three way tie for first between Lundqvist, Rask, and Quick. If not for a mind numbing display of stupidity by the Malkin, Kunitz, Letang, and frankly Byslma in the waning seconds of game 4, Vokoun would be tied for first in wins despite playing 3 less games than the leaders. He also boasts a 1.85 goals against and a .941 save percentage putting him in the top 3 in both categories amongst playoff goaltenders. I would say Shero's move there is paying the proper dividends no? Kris Letang leads the NHL in assists in the playoffs with 13, while Geno is right behind him with 12 assists. Letang also leads the NHL in plus/minus at a plus 7. That is truly amazing given the number of goals he has been on the ice for, and speaks volumes about his ability to just take over games when he is on. For example, he looked pitiful in the first period plus of game four, directly contributing to both Ottawa goals scored early. Then he took over the game, getting 4 assists, followed by a goal and 2 assists last night. So in the last five periods of play, Letang has added 7 points, while also playing sound defense.
Daniel Alfredsson took a lot of heat for referring to the thought that his Sens would have a tough time recovering for their 3-1 deficit in the series due to the depth and skill of the Penguins. Well, the Penguins have five players who have MORE than a point per game in these playoffs including Malkin, Letang, Crosby, Iginla, and Neal. Also Dupuis, Kunitz, and Martin are flirting with a point per game. Umm, that would be what they call scoring balance! As for team statistics, the Penguins still have the most goals per game of the remaining playoff teams at 4.27 goals per game, and the worst goals against per game at 2.54. I am hopeful that the Pens can work a bit on the goals against, but when you score more than 4 and allow less than 3, it is still a pretty good goal differential. Special teams have been a positive for Pittsburgh, with the power play tops in the league, clicking at 28.3% and the Penalty Kill second only to Chicago at 89.7%. That is a combination of special teams stats that could net you the Cup. One caution about the stunning special teams play is that the Penguins have also given up 3 short handed goals, the most in the league for the playoffs. That is an area that needs to be locked down going forward.
Another note to consider going forward is that Pittsburgh is 8-1 in their past nine games against both Boston and New York, so they have been a bit of match up nightmare for both clubs. What does that all mean? Probably nothing, as each series is a different animal, and the playoffs are FAR different than regular season games. That said, it seems as if the Penguins are taking advantage of the depth they can bring to a series to eventually wear an opponent down. Vokoun is making the saves he needs to make, and even after a softie or two in the middle of this series, he always made the saves he needed to make. What's more is the fact the Penguins also have guys like Brandon Sutter, Brendan Morrow, and Tyler Kennedy who may not always show up on the score sheet, but tend to do so with BIG goals when they do. The Pens will most likely face Boston in the Conference Finals next week, and the Bruins sure do look like a handful right now. I was wavering on the Penguins chances against Boston, but I need to remember how a seven game SERIES can unfold with a cumulative effect of a team who can roll out the kind of depth of scoring and toughness that Pittsburgh can. I am warming to the idea of Pittsburgh returning to the Stanley Cup Finals after a tough 6 game series with Boston.
Okay three games in, and it is already a roller coaster ride for us Pens fans. After a 5-0 blowout win in the opener, the Penguins blew a 3-1 lead to the Isles at home in Game 2 to lose 4-3 and also give the Islanders some real confidence that they could win this series. Scary to me, was the fact that it was looking like a movie I had seen before in Game 2, between giving up the lead, taking penalties, making poor puck management decisions, really bad defensive zone structure, and Fleury giving up a couple of questionable goals, despite being stellar early in the game. Instead of a commanding lead in the series going to Long Island, the Pens had let the Islanders off the mat, and now they really believed they could win this series. Then in game 3, the Pens fell behind 2-0 early in period one, then came roaring back to go into the second period ahead 3-2. When Douglas Murray scored late in the second period to put the Penguins up 4-2 going into the third, it really seemed like the Pens had grabbed control of the game, and hopefully the series. But no, flashbacks again to last year's debacle, and the Pens get outshot 13-3 in the third, give up a shorthanded goal, and another two goal lead to send the game into OT. Thankfully, Brian Strait took a penalty in OT, and Chris Kunitz scored his second goal of the game off of a beautiful feed from Sidney Crosby to win this game, despite the sloppy play. Crosby's assist was his third of the game, giving him 2 goals and 3 assists in just two playoff appearances this season. The Penguins dodged a bullet and now have a 2-1 lead in the series, though it feels a bit shaky to me. The Penguins got through today's game by going 3 for 5 on the power play, while getting badly outplayed 5 on 5. They also gave up their second two goal lead in as many games, though this time they overcame that problem to win the game. The Islanders now really believe they can win this series, and despite being a much less talented team, they are giving the Penguins all they want. In fact, outside of game one, they have looked like the more composed team for the most part. That said, Pittsburgh, with a win on Tuesday can take a stranglehold on the series. Some things I think I think:
Despite the fact that Tomas Vokoun was brought in to be an option should Fleury struggle, and Fleury has had a couple of games where he has let in some questionable goals, he also has a .923 save percentage overall, and has made some huge saves while being let out to dry by his defense. The issue is that this has been his issue in recent post season play. Great play getting nullified by morale sapping bad goals at key moments. That said, I think Fleury should start the next game and his play in that game would dictate if it is Vokoun time.
Evgeni Malkin leads the NHL in playoff points with one goal and five assists, while Jarome Iginla has a goal and four assists. The damage has mostly been done on the power play, while the five on five play of the Malkin-Iginla-Bennett line has been pretty quiet. If it were me, I would put Kunitz with Malkin and Iginla with Crosby to try to get better 5 on 5 production, but I sure would not mess with the power play.
Pascal Dupuis leads the NHL in playoff goals with three, and Paul Martin has three assists from the blueline for the Penguins.
I was feeling pretty good about my smarts when Deryk Engelland looked out of place in game two and Simon Despres was in his place. Then Despres was beaten badly in the first period, leading directly to the first two Islanders goals, and I remembered that I am not that smart.
The Penguins have 12 goals in three games, and nine players scored those goals.
There are too many parts of the Pens game that look just like the Flyers series last year to make me a little uneasy, but I still think that the depth of the Pens will ultimately will make it tough on NYI to win this thing.
Ok, so I may be a little sarcastic here.....I LOVED the game played by the Penguins last night in their 5-0 drubbing of the Islanders in Game One of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Penguins chased Evgeni Nabokov, they got physical with John Tavares, their achilles heel, the PK delivered going 4-4, and the power play went 2-4, including a beauty by rookie Beau Bennett. The world turned upside down, as the Penguins even got a goal from Tanner Glass! But, yinzers I spoke with everywhere today were convinced that the showing last night likely meant a sweep of the Isles, and a run right to the 4th Cup. I am more with the Penguins players who correctly enjoyed the moment, then immediately began to put their focus on Game Two Friday night. 10-0 or 2-1, it is only one game of the four necessary to win the series. Lest you think I am just a hockey Scrooge, in two of the past three first round exits, our flightless Birds handled Montreal 6-3 in game one, chasing Jaroslav Halak in the 2010 first round series, which they ultimately lost in 7 games. In 2011, the Pens shut out the Lightning 3-0 in Game One, then lost the series, which they led at one point 3-1, in seven games. I suspect that those experiences, plus the additions of Morrow and Iginla will keep the Pens focused on the task at hand, and I do expect that they will prevail, but calm down folks. If the Isles storm back and take Game Two, we have a best of five series with both teams even. Friday night is a big night for Pittsburgh to make a statement about their overall depth and talent being too much for New York. A New York rebound win, and people, you may have a dog fight to contend with. After presenting my cautionary tale, let me get back to things that I liked about Pittsburgh last night:
Marc Andre Fleury came out and played a very strong game, hopefully setting up the frame of mind he will need to put recent post season failure behind him;
Pascal Dupuis continues to show the hockey world what kind of player he is, putting home two goals, including the dirty second goal of the game which seemed to deflate the Isles a bit;
Iginla and Jokkinen both continued their hot streaks adding 2 assists each to the scoresheet, while Iggy played a physical game all night long, physical, tough, straight line hockey;
Kris Letang was simply in beast mode, nuff said;
Mark Eaton played a very steady defensive game, and blocked 8 shots;
Crankshaft showed the element missing from the past three playoff disasters by his physicality in front of the net, sending Islanders flying like bowling pins;
Beau Bennett, the "scared" rookie took a Martin to Malkin tip on the boards and roared in on Nabokov and tucked a power play goal in a small space over his shoulder and played tough and smart all night long;
As noted, the Pens won the special team battle with a 4-4 PK effort and a 2-4 PP effort to control the game from the drop of the puck;
Brenden Morrow, though not on the score sheet, played the kind of relentless physical hockey that over the course of the series will take its toll;
Matt Cooke is already under the skin of the NYI, and drawing the early penalty from Brian Strait, put the Pens on the PP which led to the Bennett goal.
Evgeni Malkin to me had a mixed night. He had two assists, and those cannot be discounted, but he also played some pretty uninspired hockey at times, mixed with rushes where he tried to beat four Islanders and turned the puck over. You may think I am too hard on Geno, but he earns what Sid earns, wears an A, and after admitting to the fact that he did not deliver in the regular season, turned in an up and down night in my opinion. Other than the psychological damage it may do to strip it, I can think of several more deserving Penguins in terms of the A. A step in the right direction, but still not what Geno is capable of. The other downer are more injuries to both James Neal and Juicy. With Orpik still day to day and Crosby still out, I would prefer not to keep testing the depth of the team this early in the post season. I LOVED the game played by Pittsburgh, and love the fact that they quickly deflected the love they were thrown for the win, and turned the attention immediately to Game Two. Love the focus and physicality, but unlike many others here, I would prefer to take this run game by game. LETS GO PENS!
As I sat and watched the Senators score an empty net goal against Boston, allowing them to leapfrog the Islanders, we finally know our round one opponent, the New York Islanders. Eerily, they were the opponent who derailed the last Penguins "can't miss" Stanley Cup Championship team in the 1992-93 season in round two as David Volek burned Tom Barrasso in OT of Game 7 to crush our dreams of a threepeat.
I am not saying that to scare you, but just to bring the "easy pickings" crowd back to reality. I will say that one major difference off the top for this version of the Penguins, is that they are coming off of three disappointing outings out of the past three post seasons as opposed to back to back Stanley Cups, which should make this team a lot hungrier and less prone to assuming all they have to do is to show up to win the Cup. Add to that, the Penguins added two former captains in Brendan Morrow and Jerome Iginla who are playing great hockey, and both see this as likely their best chance to live a childhood dream and hoist the Stanley Cup. Both players are tough, gritty leaders who carried their respective teams in Dallas and Calgary. When added to the nucleus already in place in Pittsburgh, along with the physical Douglas Murray, and versatile, faceoff demon, Jussi Jokinen, the Penguins sure do look like a team that SHOULD come out of the Eastern Conference. This does not mean that they will, but I will give my summary of the upcoming series below. First, the Penguins sit atop the Eastern Conference with a record of 36-12, second only to Chicago for the President's trophy and tied for the most wins in the NHL. They face the Islanders who are 24-17-7 and eighth in the East. The Penguins lead the league in goals per game at 3.38 goals more than half a goal per game more than the Islanders at 2.81 goals per game. The Penguins are 12th in goals against at 2.48 goals against per game, and that is also better than the 2.83 goals per game allowed by the Islanders. Special teams are always key in the playoffs, and if you had to look at an area that could come back to haunt our flightless birds, it is in the penalty kill area, where the Penguins 79.6% PK is 25th in a league of 30 teams, and only Washington has a worse PK of all of the Eastern Conference playoff teams! The good news is that the Islanders are not much better, with a PK of 80%, good for 21st in the league. The Penguins power play is clicking at 24.7% for the season, good for second in the NHL, while the Islanders are clicking at 20.4%, good for 11th in the league. This gives the edge on special teams to the Penguins based on a superior power play, and a very similar penalty kill. One area to watch is that the Penguins have given up three short handed goals, while the Islanders have not surrendered any. In the five matchups against the Islanders in the regular season, after losing the first game in January, the Penguins won the next four games by a combined score of 16-5. Goaltending is critical in the playoffs as well and the Islanders netminder is Evgeni Nabokov who posted a 23-11-7 record, with a 2.50 GAA and .910 save percentage. Nabby played in 41 of the 48 games the Islanders played, while Fleury and Vokoun split the season with Fleury going 23-8, with a 2.39 GAA and .916 save percentage, while Vokoun was 13-4 with 2.45 GAA and .918 save percentage. The edge in goaltending goes to Pittsburgh slightly based on an ability to use either goaltender in a tough series, both of whom have slightly better numbers than Nabokov, but Nabokov is more than good enough to steal some games here. The difference for Pittsburgh to win should be the superior firepower and depth of scoring. The Islanders have three players with more than 30 points including John Tavares, Brad Boyes, and Matt Moulson, with Tavares leading the way with 47 points. Michael Grabner is always dangerous, particularly against the Pens, while Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo add some nice grit and secondary scoring. Mark Streit and Lubomir Visnovsky anchor the blue line, while former Penguin Brian Strait plays a depth role for the Islanders as well. The Penguins meanwhile have six players with thirty or more points, with Crosby and Kunitz both netting more than 50 points, while Letang, Neal and Malkin would have also had 40 plus had they played a full season. Crosby was running away with the scoring race prior to a broken jaw, while Kunitz added 52 points, Dupuis 38 points, Letang 38 points, James Neal 36 points, and Geno with 33. Brandon Sutter added 11 goals and 8 assists in his third line role, with many of his goals of the clutch game winning variety. On top of this core of the Penguins, at the deadline, they added four players that have been huge for them, with three of them, Jokinen, Morrow and Iginla scoring at nearly a point per game pace, and Murray adding a crease clearing monster that the Penguins had lacked for years. Jerome Iginla played in 13 games for Pittsburgh, scoring 5 goals and 6 assists, with 4 of his goals coming on the power play. In addition to the goals, Iginla adds a toughness and leadership to this team that will come in handy for the Penguins. Then, Brenden Morrow in 15 games added 6 goals and 8 assists, while hitting everything that moves. His grit in the corners will be like body punches taking a toll in a 15 round fight during the playoffs. Then, Jussi Jokinen, who will come in handy taking last game faceoffs to protect a lead, or to win an offensive zone possession while trailing late also added 7 goals and 4 assists in his ten games played. If the Penguins play their game, this is where the difference will come in for Pittsburgh.
The Islanders also have very little playoff experience, and may tighten up under the pressure cooker of their first post season trip in years. For the Penguins, they look to redeem themselves for three subpar post season runs since their 2009 Stanley Cup. Their depth of scoring, toughness and leadership should allow Pittsburgh to handle this series rather handily IF they avoid penalty troubles that will put their wobbly PK on the ice too often. The Penguins are rounding back to good health and the depth options for Pittsburgh should make them a tough assignment for the Islanders to survive, but please remember a Turgeon less Islanders team in 1992-93 was told the same thing. I will take the Penguins in five. Go Pens!!
It would take all night in my opinion to list all of the intelligent moves made by Ray Shero that have put the Penguins in the position they have been in since 2007-08, as one of the elite teams in the NHL. There were many deals that Shero has made for the Penguins that defy logic, but I will briefly mention the Hossa deal for three reasons. Though many thought the price was high for rental, Hossa put the Penguins over the top in the run to the Finals in 2008, and for my money they don't win the 2009 Cup without learning the lessons of the 2008 Cup run. Second, though Hossa did become a rental by signing with Detroit, the players given up to acquire him have not amounted to much since the trade was made. Last, but not least, the "throw in" player Pascal Dupuis is such an integral part of the Penguins success, and at a very cap friendly price, it is hard to believe he was an afterthought at the time of the deal. Then selling high on Whitney to get Kunitz and Tangradi, then adding Neal and Niskanen for Goligoski are two more high return deals that make the Penguins who they are today. I will not go too deep into these three trades, as they are well chronicled from past posts. Let's look at what Ray has done since the bitter disappointment of an early exit to Philadelphia in last year's playoffs. A series where the grit of the Penguins came into question, as did their defensive play and the post season play of their elite goaltender. Fast forward to June 4th when Shero makes a BIG move to improve the Penguins chances in this year's post season by trading a 7th round pick to the Capitals for the rights to Tomas Vokoun, giving the Penguins an elite 1-2 punch in the net that not only will allow Fleury to come into the post season a little less fatigued, but give Pittsburgh options should Fleury struggle in the cage this season. The importance of goaltending in the playoffs cannot be overstated, therefore the importance of this move cannot be overstated either. Then, when Jordan Staal declined to sign a 10 year, 60 million dollar contract offer, Shero gets Brandon Sutter, as good a third line center as there is in the league, highly touted defensive prospect Brian Dumoulin and the 8th overall pick which netted Pittsburgh Derrick Pouliot, an elite puck moving defensive prospect. You know, the kind of guy who will either be a big part of your blue line, or, if you are King Ray, a guy you turn into a top six forward, and a solid role player down the line. And do not forget the cap space he opened up with the move (2M this year and 4M next year). Then Shero moves Zybnek Michalek back to Phoenix in return for a 2012 3rd pick, big defensive prospect Harrison Ruopp, and some traffic cone of a goaltender who will never see the NHL. That move seemed like a bad move in terms of the return, but we soon learned why. King Ray was opening up cap space to make a hard run at Zach Parise and Gary Suter as free agency opened. While Shero pursued these two elite players, the Penguins lost Steve Sullivan a big part of the Penguins' power play success to free agency, and popular tough guy Arron Asham as well. When the Penguins came up empty on both stars while losing two quality role players, the fan base screamed for him to do something big. He did nothing of the sort, instead signing depth defenseman Dylan Reese and grinder Tanner Glass to the Penguins. Glass was brought in to fill the role of Asham and many griped about it. In reality Glass is younger, blocks more shots, and hits more than AA, so all in, not a bad move, but not exactly one that will take you to the heights of the league. People squaked, moaned, bitched and screamed. Somewhere Ray was smiling, as he knew the Penguins had a quality team, a lot of young assets to trade, and thanks to his ability to resist over spending to make a splash, CAP SPACE!! The season starts and despite a good record, the Penguins too often looked like that same team from last season who could run and gun with the best of them, but who looked too much like last year's team, who despite being a top regular season team, succumbed in the first round for the third straight year. Their defensive zone play was lacking and Shero goes out in February and signs ex-Penguin Mark Eaton to a one year deal. Most people thought that this was a curious signing, and likely a waste of the paper it was written on. Well, the Penguins have gone 22-2 since then, and are near the top of the league in defensive statistics in that time frame. A solid signing, but the Penguins still seemed a little light on crease clearing ability, grit, veteran leadership and net front prescence. Not to worry, King Ray steps up and gets highly coveted Dallas Stars captain Brenden Morrow and a 2013 third round pick in return for highly touted defensive prospect Joe Morrow and a 2013 fifth round pick. Many locals screamed about losing Joe Morrow, for "an old player" who wasn't scoring much any more. On losing our Morrow, well, the Penguins have Despres and Bortuzzo, both of whom will be fixtures next year, then Harrington, Dumoulin, Maata, Pouliot, Samuellson and others in WBS who are all highly touted prospects. They added a veteran leader who is chasing his first cup, who will hit everything that moves and wear down an opponent over a seven game series. He was the poor man's Iginla, whom the Penguins were not going to be able to sign. Morrow in 12 games as a Penguin has 11 points, 5G and 6A, while compiling 30 hits and a plus 4. And he made PK Subban soil himself along the way. Then Shero sends two second round picks to San Jose to acquire huge defenseman Douglas Murray to add size and nasty to the blue line. Murray has been a beast, blocking 27 shots, adding 28 hits, a fight and three points in 11 games. When he hits you, you know it. These two players add a toughness the Penguins have not had in quite some time. Then came the night I went to bed thinking of how much I hated to see Iginla join the Bruins as reported. Then I woke up to hear that Shero stole Iginla from the Bruins for two mid level prospects Ben Hanowski and Ken Agostino! So now the Penguins add the grit, leadership and skill of an 1,100 point captain and certain Hall of Famer while giving up little in tangible value. Iginla is the type of leader who can put a team on his shoulders and carry them through a playoff series. Iggy has 8 points (4G and 4A) in 10 games despitea slow start here. Then, in an under the radar move Shero adds Jussi Jokinen, former 30 goal scorer and faceoff artist for a conditional draft pick. Jokinen has 8 points (4G and 4A), while winning 52.4% of his faceoffs and playing to a plus 4!
Injuries to Crosby, Malkin, Neal, Letang, and Martin have meant that we have not seen what this team can do when all the pieces are together, but this group has the team on a 7 game streak right now without the star power mentioned above. You can see the added dimension of physicality, leadership, and big goal capability as all four of these guys have taken turns carrying this team right now. The depth is scary and should come in handy during the war of attrition that is the Stanley Cup playoffs. Vokoun is now 10-1 in his last 11 games as well. The projected lines if all are healthy would be Crosby centering Iginla and Dupuis, Malkin centering Kunitz and Neal, Sutter centering Morrow and Cooke, and Jokinen will be a fixture on line four with one of several possible linemates. The defensive unit would have Orpik, Letang, Martin, Murray, Niskanen, Eaton, along with Depres and Engo to pick from. Wow. As we learned in 1992-93, being the best team on paper does not mean you will win the Cup, but if they do not, it will not be due to the efforts and skills of Ray Shero in identifying and addressing the holes in a quality team to prepare them for a run at the Stanley Cup! In Shero we trust!
Back on March 11th I wrote a post called Ramblings where I talked about the Penguins' needs related to defense and penalty kill v the much requested "winger for Sid." Well on the 30th of March, despite adding two hard core, if a little long in the tooth, wingers to the team and a defenseman who adds some great PK skills and a much needed net front nastiness, the numbers have changed dramatically. Mind you, I don't think it is so much the trades, though both Morrow and Iginla will add to the defensive abilities in the forward group, much of the improvement occurred pre-trades. I assume that if the team stays healthy, the defensive numbers are likely to only improve. The Penguins riding 3 straight shutouts and a 11 game run where they are giving up less than one goal per game have dramatically improved their statistics in key team areas. On March 11th, the Penguins were 21st in the league in goals against at 2.92 goals per game against, and as of tonight they are now 4th in the league in that category at 2.33 goals per game allowed. By the way they are still first in the league in goals for at 3.36 goals for per game, down a bit from the 3.65 goals per game as noted on March 11th. The Penguins now own a whole month of March without a loss, an NHL record, and their 15 game unbeaten streak they are currently on is secondly only to the 17 game streak the 1992-93 Penguins were on. Of the past 11 games there have only been two where Pittsburgh has given up more than one goal, and those were both 2 goal games. Utterly stunning transformation in defensive responsibility. The penalty kill has improved from 22nd to 16th going from 78.8% to 81%, but looking much more like a key to victory v a reason for losing. The two extended 5 on 3's recently killed may have been two of the most impressive periods of Penguins hockey I have seen in quite some time. Though the power play has cooled from 27 plus percent to just over 23%, it is still third in the NHL, and can be quite lethal. The recent additions should only improve the team and its options in that area also. Fleury was 24th in GAA at 2.71 GPG and 29th in save percentage at .902. He is now 12th in GAA at 2.24 GPG and he is now tied for 14th with a .918 save percentage. Add to that Tomas Vokoun is now 7th in the NHL with a save percentage at .922 and 16th with a 2.33 GAA after pitching 7 straight periods of shutout hockey. In short, there is a lot of hockey left to be played and the Penguins are getting hit hard by the injury bug as I feared with Paul Martin out 6 weeks or so with a hand injury, Letang out 10 days with a foot injury, and the status of Sidney Crosby's jaw and head uncertain after taking a puck to the face from Brooks Orpik today. But you also see a tremendous amount of resolve and battle level at all times from this deeply balanced team, and if they can stay off of the injury list, they sure do have the swagger of a championship caliber team. I am going to try to just enjoy the ride and hope that the additions of two NHL captains who fill offensive, defensive and grit issues in the top 9, and a big physical defenseman will put this highly skilled, but recently underperforming post season team over the top. LETS GO PENS!!
As I write this Jarome Iginla is somewhere overhead en route to Pittsburgh after spending sixteen seasons in Calgary. He was the captain of the Flames since the 2003-04 season, the first black captain ever named in the NHL. As of this writing Iginla has 9 goals and 13 assists, nice numbers for sure, but not the kind to cause all of this fuss right? I write that because many of my friends who are not die hard fans are asking me why is the city on fire as if they just got a King to join their organ I zation as the Canadian people like to say. Well Jarome may not be a king exactly, but he is hockey royalty, and he may not be a young lion anymore, but he sure is the type of player that will make this team that much tougher to play against in the postseason due to his leaderhip, toughness and skill. To put this into proper perspective let me recite some of the details of Iginla, a man who has played his entire career in the western conference and therefore not that well known to the more casual of fans here in the east. Jarome Iginla is a 35 year old right wing who is six foot one inch tall and about 214 pounds. He is a right handed shooter, something that will be a help to the Penguins' power play. In the NHL, you are generally considered an offensive weapon if you score 20 goals, a sniper if you get 30, and once you hit 40 and above you walk on some rather rarified ground, especially if you can also hit hard, and fight when necessary. Well, Jarome Iginla had 20 plus goals in ALL but ONE of his 15 seasons in the NHL, he had two years where he had more than 40 goals and 2 more where he actually had 50 goals or more! If that were not impressive enough, last season Iginla became only the 7th player in the history of the NHL to score 30 or more goals in 11 straight seasons. Think about that....only 7 have been consistently strong enough to accomplish that feat EVER. Iginla has played in 1188 regular season games prior to this season despite his tough as nails style of play and in those games he has scored 516 goals, added 557 assists for a total of 1073 points and 809 penalty minutes. In the playoffs he has added 28 goals and 21 assists in 54 games played, or nearly a point per game in the post season. Iginla has also won Gold for Team Canada twice in the Olympics, and he connected with our captain to win the Gold against Team USA in the 2010 Olympics.
Add Gold in the 2004 World Cup, Gold in the 1996 World Junior Championships and Gold again in the 1997 Worlds. Iginla has also won the Rocket Richard as top goal scorer in the NHL twice and the Art Ross trophy for most points once. The Penguins now boast three former Art Ross Trophy winers in their lineup, the first time an NHL team can claim that since the 1945 Wings. In addition to the winning and the scoring, Iginla is well known for his ferocious physcial style and his willingness to drop the gloves when necessary. The 35 year old Iginla is not likely to be the top scoring winger on this team at his age, but he will for sure add tenacity, toughness, hitting and clutch scoring for a team who could use these attributes in the post season. His style of play will create more room for his linemates as well, and they will take pause before taking liberties with either Malkin or Crosby, whomever Iginla flanks. If the on ice resume is not enough, he is one of the most well regarded leaders off the ice in the lockerroom, and even more so as a key member of the community based on his charitable contributions and general demeanor. In short, Iginla is a warrior you would go to battle with anytime, and he is a man you would be proud to know. Another quality person added to the Penguins organization, and a man who for many reasons I would love to see skating around with that silver chalice over his head in late June. Welcome to Pittsburgh Jarome Iginla, we are proud to call you a member of our hockey family.
