Ducks 3, Pens 2 (OT); You don't shoot, you don't win

It's a common statement to make in sports.

Doesn't matter whether it's baseball, football, basketball, hockey, or shuffleboard.

If you don't score points, you can't win.

And you don't score if you don't generate offense.

So you can attribute the 17 shots on goal last night in Anaheim to the Ducks' defensive pressure on Crosby/Malkin, or the fact that they were 1) on the PK so many times and 2) on the PP so few times, or simply that the Pens continue to desire for that perfect feed for the one-timer, and are very hesitant to puck the puck on net from the blueline and pounce on the rebounds.

Admirable effort from Thibault last night, although I won't go as far as to describe his performance as "heroic", as was stated online on some of the websites. He got caught early for the first goal, but settled down and played a very respectable game for the remainder. The OT goal by Selanne, from a beautiful feed from Niedermayer, can't be faulted to T-bo, it's tough enough on a 4-on-3 penalty kill.

Which leads me to the penalties. I won't kick and scream like I've been reading this morning, but you can't seriously tell me that the Ducks were playing that game last night with as much discipline as resulting in only three non-scrum penalties.

I'm not sold on Thorburn on the 1st line with Sid/Geno. Matter of fact, I'm not sold on pretty much anyone at this point. I will say this though, Ekman has impressed me much more than he was the first several games of the year, maybe it's time he got his old job back.

So it turns out that the Pens got 5 out of a possible 8 points on this road trip. I would confidently say that if you asked knowledgeable Pens fans, aware of their past failures on West Coast swings, they'd take those 5 points at the drop of a hat.

Pens win 4-3 in OT; Malkin NHL Rookie of the Month

You know, if the Pens could ever hit the ice running, so to speak, there wouldn't nearly be so much trepidation later in the game.

The Pens gave up goals early in both the 1st and 2nd periods, got a fortunate carom off of a D-man's skate in the 3rd period, got a fortunate tripping call in OT, and came out of it with a 4-3 win in OT for the Pens' 5th win in a row.

But ya know, good teams win games like this. Penguins teams as recent as last year would have easily lost games like this.

The Pens are 4-0 now on the road, once not so long ago was a near sure loss. And in California ?? Puhleeze.

Oh yeah, that Malkin kid scored two more goals. I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict this kid's got decent NHL potential. He was also selected as NHL Rookie of the Month. I can hear the pundits crying fix now, just as they did when Sid was selected last October.

And as some other of my fellow Pens bloggers noticed last night, Army was moved off of the 1st line down to the 3rd line, as Michel Ouellet was moved to the 1st line with Sid and Geno. I'm not sure about Ouellet up there right now. Although he is indeed a sniper, and for sure will get plenty of feeds from Malkin and Crosby, I just don't know if he's going to be able to keep up their speed.

However, having said that, both of those guys simply make the defense gravitate towards them, almost to the point that they're playing a zone defense. That in itself will allow Ouellet to get to the net. So, maybe this will turn into another great coaching move. One thing's for sure, with those two guys up there, the situation is nowhere close to being a dire one, it's simply a complimentary one.

Also, I think that Army may really enjoy that 3rd line. It may relax him a little bit, and enable him to use the physical aspect of his game more than he has been.

And in addition, I'd like to personally thank Jordan Staal for making my prediction come true. He did come out strong last night, and his goal very early in the 1st period reaffirmed that.

So it's onto San Jose on Saturday night. I don't know how many times the Pens have to be burned with early goals to get the light bulb to come on in their collective heads. One thing's for sure, if they do that vs. the Sharks and Ducks on Monday night, the final outcome probably won't be as rosy.

Pens gameday; Beware of the Wild Wild West

For some reason, this is always one of those road trips that the circumstances just don't seem to matter.

The Pens may have been considered great, good, bad or terrible, but headed out to Cali has been a disaster for the last several years.

Since the '01-02 season, the Pens are a combined 2-11-0-1 against the teams they're going up against on their California swing (1-3 against Anaheim, 0-4-0-1 against the Kings, and 1-4 against San Jose).

The Pens are saying the right things at least. Matching the intensity. Coming out strong. Working hard. Finishing their checks.

But they're really going to have to guard against several factors tonight, including soaking in too much California sunshine (and the eye candy as well), playing down to a Kings team that is not playing very well at all, reading too many press clippings about their surprising start, and just a general complacency after the long trip.

Reading some articles today concerning Army's lack of scoring any goals yet. Let's throw some good karma out to the Left Coast, Army gets his first tonight.

It should also be interesting to see the intensity of Jordan Staal tonight. Not that I think that he'd dog it now that he's staying with the Pens, mind you, but just the opposite, I think he's going to make a concerted effort on this trip to show the team that they made the right decision.

Let's Go Pens !!!!