Some interesting Pens stats for you, and a trip around the 'Burgh Blogosphere

Some of these are quite understandable, some are pretty surprising...

• While players like Sid (+11) and Recchi (+9) are having much better +/- years as compared to last year, it may be surprising to some of you that Nils Ekman is actually a -9 so far this year.
• Sid is currently #4 in the NHL points race at 32 points, 5 behind Jags, with 5 less games played of course. He's 5th in assists at 22, 3 behind Jags.
• In what is a pretty good indication of the Pens propensity for not shooting the puck, the Pens' leader in shots is the one that didn't play the first 4 games of the year. Geno leads the Pens with 72 SOG, but that's only good enough for #43 in the NHL. And if you're wondering, Sid is currently ranked #151 with only 49 SOG. 49 shots in 20 games played, that stat is an eye opener.
• Gonchar is ranked 10th in the NHL in ice time per game with a little over 26 minutes a game. Whitney is ranked 16th at over 25 per game. Where's Sid you may ask ?? #116 at over 20 minutes a game. Malkin is #126 with about the same time per game as well.
• Wanna take a guess who leads the Pens in faceoff percentage ?? It's not Sid, it's not Malkin, it's Dominic Moore. He's ranked #40 in the NHL with a 51.7% faceoff winning percentage. Crosby is 46th at 51.1%.

A look around the Pens blogosphere this morning shows our buddies at The Pensblog working on a Q&A session with Joe Starkey of the Trib (hmmm, maybe I can throw a quick email to Trenni). Also scroll down a bit and check out the Top 10 goals in Penguins History. Really brings back some great memories.

Also, if you're game, head on over to The Sidney Crosby Show check out the bizarre video that features Sid.

On the Buccos front, Honest Wagner and WHYGAVS discuss the no-spending Pirates in Dejan's Pirate Q&A article in the PG today.

And a hearty welcome aboard (LOL, like I'm a salty blog veteran myself) to Cory at A New Pirates Generation. Cory tells me he's working on a Pirates blog project that he asked me to participate in, of course I gladly accepted.

After all, there's always a PLETHORA of topics to be pissed off at the Pirates about, and therefore to vent on our blogs. You guys ain't seen nothing yet in reference to my anger towards the Bucs, I'm pacing myself, it'll be unleashed in the springtime.

Lastly, today is my two month anniversary on the Blogosphere, and just as I'm typing this, we just went over 2000 hits. 2000 hits is chump change compared to some of the established blogs, so I'm keeping it in perspective. While it's difficult to predict how popular or unpopular The Confluence turns out to be, let me once again thank all of those who've helped me out with formats, links, and comments. It's much appreciated.