Messages for the Islanders from yours truly

A bigger win than I thought

The Penguins won a pretty big game tonight in a way that felt good. Their pathetic power play, you know that abomination that was 3 for its past 65, and last in the league in thetime frame since Crosby's absence at 12.9%, yeah that one, actually scored a goal. Staal buried it with assists from Neal and Kovalev to put the Penguins up 1-0. They got big goals at big moments for the first time in a while. After NJ ties it, Dupuis quickly answers to put the Penguins back on top 2-1. Then after new dad Chris Kunitz scored his 23rd of the year to put the Penguins up 3-1, the Devils score again to close to within 3-2. Finally,after yet another late chicken shit call by the fuckwads in stripes, Dupuis closes it out with an empty netter short handed to seal the win, 4-2. Of note, oft maligned Pascal Dupuis now has 16 goals and 35 points and is +15 on the season, while "offensive juggernaut" Alex Kovalev has 16 goals and 33 points, while playing to a -6. Interesting statistic. Also, Philadelphia continues to struggle, losing its 13th of the past 19, thus leaving the door open for Pittsburgh to possibly still win the Atlantic Division. If Philadelphia loses its last 2 games in regulation and Pittsburgh wins one game, they get the title. If Philadelphia lose one game in regulation and wins the other, Pittsburgh can win the division by winning its final two games. The conference can be won only if Washington loses its final games in regulation and we win our final games. Other commentary and notes from tonight. Alex Kovalev played in his 1,300th NHL game tonight, only the 50th player in NHL history to do so. Jordan Staal, who had a rough stretch a week or so ago, now has 11 goals and 30 points in 41 games. That would equate to 22 goals and 60 points over a full season, despite coming off of multiple surgeries. He has 8 multi point games this season, and 5 points in the past two games. After a promising start, Niskanen looks shaky to me, enough so that I would give Engo a go, especially Friday night against the pond scum on the Island. Kris Letang continues to regress and that scares me a bit. They need some production from Tanger on the point, and far fewer stupid turnovers if they are going to be a post season force. Chris Kunitz now has 48 points, one fewer than Letang's 49 for second on the team behind Crosby. The Penguins have 102 points which is one better than last year with two games remaining. Finally, Fleury had another strong outing tonight making several big saves early.

An unimpressive win, but we will take it!

I am going to do my post early tonight, as this team bores me to death anymore. With about 9 minutes left, the Penguins are in a dogfight AGAIN with bottom feeding Florida. Their "power play" again fails them with a chance to do something big. I am going to issue an APB for the Letestu, Kovalev, Neal line as they did not arrive at the rink tonight, and I am getting worried about them. Listen folks, if this team cannot come out and kick the snot out of Florida after losing two in a row, with home ice and a 4th seed at stake, I am beginning to really worry. They have made the Panthers look like a top 4 seed now twice in week, bookending two unimpressive losses to Philadelphia and Tampa. At this point, winning this game will not impress me, losing it will nauseate me. I am happy for Tyler Kennedy, one player who has been consistently productive. He netted his 20th goal of the season tonight, his first ever 20 goal season. He now has 42 points to his name, congratulations to TK! As I type this, Michalek gives the Pens a lead on a delayed penalty call, with a nice assist from Staal, his second of the evening. Z, who had gone something like 92 games without a goal, now has 4 in his past 12 games! The game ends with Craig Adams getting an empty netter, with a 3rd assist from Jordan Staal, who had a strong game. The Penguins' win gave them 100 points for the 7th time in their history. I would like to see some playoff level hockey from this team in the next three games, and a little life from the power play, which is now 3 for its past 65 attempts. Also, it is way past time we see a couple of goals from James Neal, who has just 2 in his past 29 games. I would like to see what the next three games brings as far as key players getting ready to battle. Tuesday is the annual, Shirts off our Backs night, then a war with the Islanders on Friday, and the finale against Atlanta next weekend. This is a three game stretch against teams who have all been eliminated from the playoffs and final playoff positioning will be determined. The Penguins will be in dog fight with Tampa for fourth, as the Pens can finish with 106 points if they win out, and the Lightning can finish with 105 if they win out. Which team will blink? Also, the only team that could now catch Tampa for the 5th seed is Montreal, and that would take Montreal winning out, and Tampa not gaining one additional point in their final four games. So barring that, it is Pens v Lightning in the first round, home ice to be determined. On a final note, Johnson who may not start another regular season game this year was solid again, and ran his record to 12-5-3 this season. He finished the season with a 2.18 GAA and .920 save percentage, not bad at all!

Two garbage games in a row

Not much to say. The Penguins offense is offensive, the power play is not even professional. Letang looks just BRUTAL out there, Staal, Kovalev non existent. Staal appears unable to take a pass anymore, and Kovalev is a turnouver machine. Letang looks like he is running around like a chicken with his head cut off. Two big games, three total goals, and zero power play goals. In fact the Pens have scored just 6 goals in their past 5 games, which will not be nearly good enough to survive a playoff round. Lots of questionable calls and non calls tonight, though the non- calls should not matter much with our current power play. I would really be touting Dan Bylsma heavily for the Jack Adams given the fact the Penguins have hung in there with all of the injuries, but frankly, the power play may be the factor that makes that a tough sell. It is beyond pathetic. Not too much more to say, other than if this is what the Penguins are going to take to the post season, it will be an ugly, and short ride. Not in the mood to say much more, despite winning two of the past 4 games in shootouts, watching the last 4 games has been kind of like throwing up in your mouth. That said, the Penguins have locked up at least the 5th seed and are virtually assured a matchup with Tampa Bay unless Montreal and NYR win out and Tampa loses out. The issue will be whether we get Tampa as the 4th seed with home ice, or the fifth seed without it. Home ice does not seem to be a big advantage to the Pens this season, but you would rather have it, than not.

Pens lose crucial game to Flyers

Well, first off, I jinxed Fleury, sorry Marc. Second, the Penguins played a sloppy game in all phases, and lost to a team that was just sharper last night. Neither team played a clean game, but the Flyers took advantage of the Penguins' mistakes and the Pens did not take advantage of Flyers mistakes. Kennedy, shoot the damn puck from 1o feet away, Kovalev, no more drop passes 10 feet inside the blueline. Defense, how about punishing forwards taking their 4th whack at a puck in front of Fleury?? Neal, how about crashing the net and getting a garbage goal. Letang, those two red tubes with the red crossbar and twine is the direction the puck should go. Enough of that.....The Flyers take the season series with a 5-2 win, and likely clinch the division barring an epic collapse. The Pens have a 5 point lead on Tampa, whom they play Thursday night. That is a game they need to win, unless they want a sphincter tightening white knuckle ride down the stretch to hold on to home ice. A win, and the Pens will ensure at least 5th place, and put 4th place firmly in their command. A loss, and the battle for 4th seed is on. The Penguins power play remains a joke going 0 for 4 and is now 3 for its last 59. The penalty kill surrendered two goals tonight as well. The Penguins have another disturbing trend to correct for the postseason as well. Last night's loss makes the flightless birds 4-11-1 against the East's top 8 teams this season on home ice. That is a disturbing trend for a team that is hoping to make big noise in the post season.

Fleury for Hart Trophy?

Marc Andre Fleury, though a great goaltender is not the best goaltender in hockey in my opinion. Statistically, he is rarely in the top ten, despite two trips to the Finals and a Stanley Cup ring to his credit. And for the month of October 2011, he was not even the best goaltender on the Penguins, that was Brent Johnson. However, since November 12th, when he got his groove back, I do not think that there has been a player more valuable to his team than Fleury. He will not win the Vezina Trophy awarded to the league's best goaltender, that will likely go to Roberto Luongo of Vancouver. The Hart Trophy, voted on the Professional Hockey Writers Association is given to the player deemed MOST VALUABLE TO HIS TEAM. With the Penguins losing 303 man games to injury this season, and many of those games being lost by critical players, the fact that the Penguins are playing tonight for a share of the Conference lead is a testament to the value of Fleury. The number of man games lost is only 8th in the league, but nobody is missing the firepower of the Penguins over that time. Consider that the entire model of the Penguins was built strenth down the middle. Crosby, Malkin and Staal are supposed to create matchup nightmares for the opposition and MAF is supposed to stop just enough pucks for that strength in the middle to win most games. Well, those 3 centers have played 4 periods of hockey together this season, so the Penguins are not here due to the heroics of those guys. They are not here because of they have filled the net with pucks in the absence of the likes of Staal, Crosby, Malkin, Kunitz, Letestu, Jeffrey, and now Cooke for extended periods. They are here because they committed to team defense and Marc Andre Fleury has put the team on its back, and allowed them to win games, or at least steal points in many games in which they could not muster more than 2-3 goals.

Listen the odds are against Fleury as the Hart is almost always given the scoring leader or at least the man with the most goals. Since 1980, or 30 years it has only been given to two goaltenders, Dominik Hasek in 1997 and 1998, and to Jose Theodore in 2002. In 2000, they gave it to defenseman Chris Pronger, and on the other 26 occasions they gave it to a high scoring forward. To add to the difficulties, at least this season, there seems to be an anti Penguins bias. The national pundits tend to talk about Jonathan Toews, Henrik Sedin, and Corey Perry, all great players when the speak of Hart Trophy front runners. They are all worthy of consideration. Sedin leads the league with 96 points, Toews has 71 points and 31 goals, ( only 5 more points more than Crosby and one LESS goal despite Crosby being out 3 months), and Corey Perry is red hot, with 44 goals and 86 points to lead a late season charge for Anaheim into the playoff mix in the western conference. I think that Fleury still has meant more to his club than all three of those guys THIS YEAR given the loss of such high end talent. The Penguins are also in better position than two of those three teams as a result of Fleury's heroics, Vancouver being the exception. Any of those guys winning it over Fleury would be typical of the league based on the above referenced statistics. The player who gets mentioned for the Hart that rubs me wrong though is Carey Price. Yes, he did take the reigns BACK from last year's playoff hero, Jaroslav Halak, and has had a great year as well. Statistically he and Fleury are very similar, both in a 5 way for second in the league with 34 wins behind Luongo's 35. Fleury has a slightly better GAA at 2.28 v 2.40 for Price. While Price has a slightly better save percentage at .922 to .920 for Fleury, and he has 8 shutouts to Fleury's 3. Fleury has helped his offensively challenged team to 7 extra points by posting a 7-2 record in shootouts and a .829 save percentage in them. Price has helped steal 3 extra points by way of shootout, going 3-2 with a .750 save percentage. Statistically, they are similar, but the Penguins are poised to potentially win the East with the injury issues they have had to key players, while the Canadiens are 11 points behind them, while suffering far fewer man games lost to key players. Hey, after a 7-8-1 start Fleury has rebounded to help the Penguins post a 38-15-7 record, and a 14 for 15 winning streak that started on 11-12 against Tampa. In this critical week against great competition, Fleury has posted 4 wins, all four by shootout, and the last three by scores of 2-1 against the Flyers, 1-0 against the Devils and 2-1 against Florida. He allowed one shootout goal, and post an amazing .61 GAA and .975 save percentage during that span. Those 6 point all but ensured the Pens the fourth seed, and kept them in the mix to win the conference. On a final note, I think it should matter who ELEVATES their normal game when necessary when considering the value to an organization, and Fleury has done that too. His career GAA is 2.74 and his career save percentage is .908. This season despite a start that was HORRENDOUS, his season GAA is 2.28 and his season save percentage is .920. When Malkin was lost for the season on top of Crosby, and the other injuries the hockey world figured the BEST the Penguins could do was SURVIVE due to their fast start and hang on to a low playoff seed. Instead, they have THRIVED, stealing points in low scoring losses, getting two points in low scoring wins and shootouts. For my money, there is no bigger reason for this than #29, and for that he deserves STRONG consideration for the Hart. Though I am sure he will not even get any real consideration, that does not change the fact that there is nobody who has been more valuable to his team this season than Marc Andre Fleury, even if Pittsburgh fans are the only ones to know it.

Bettman and Campbell, Dumb and Dumber

The Matt Cooke suspension bleeding over into an entire round of the playoffs is now even more obviously a targetted situation as opposed to the NHL really cracking down on hits to head. Cooke's 10 games plus an entire round of the playoffs was supposed to be the first shot across the bow and a message about head shots to the league. Well, as I knew all along, the extra time there was a more an F you to the Penguins and Mario Lemieux. After elbowing Ryan Johnson in the head last night, and earning a game misconduct, Todd Bertuzzi will not even be summoned to meet with Ruhtards who serve as the NHL Kangaroo Court. They cite the fact that Bertuzzi has not really had an incident of this nature recent enough to be considered a repeat offender as the reasoning behind that decision. Okay, that may be true, but he has quite a history, including a career ending assault on Steve Moore, possibly the most infamous flagrant foul in modern hockey, and at least one other lengthy suspension for a dirty hit. He may have cleaned up his act since then, BUT are we not supposedly sending a message the elbows to the head will draw stern reactions from the NHL? Did Bertuzzi not elbow Ryan Johsnon in head last night? I guess that new tough love policy only extends to the Black and Vegas Gold. From Poland with love, Campbell, please go fuck yourself with the Vezina! Then pass that tarnished chalice to the little elf, and let him take his turn.