Pens Gameday; Beware of the mighty Letdown...

Some might say it wouldn't be surprising at all.

Coming off emotional wins against Toronto, Carolina, and Buffalo, the Pens come back home tonight to host Tampa Bay in the first of a home-and-home series.

But unlike the last 3 games, the Lightning aren't the kind of team that the Pens would naturally get pumped up for.

Meaning, the Leafs came into town with their 3,000 fans or so and it created a great atmosphere.

The Canes are the defending Cup champs, and since the Pens played two of their worst games of the year previously against them, a spirited effort was not a surprise, in fact, one of their best games of the year.

And then on Friday night in Buffalo, against one of the best teams in the NHL, another great effort resulted another great win.

But Tampa Bay just isn't the sexy matchup for the Pens. And it's because of that that I believe we might unfortunately see a mediocre game from the good guys tonight.

Beating Tampa means stopping the Big 3 of Lecavalier, St. Louis, and Richards. Unfortunately, in recent games the Pens haven't done a good job at that, including the OT winner earlier this year.

Let's hope they keep their momentum going.

LET'S GO PENS !!!!

Pens 3, Canes 0; Game of the Year ??

May very well have been.

I mean, it wasn't the blowout win like vs. the Flyers, but against one of the best teams in the NHL, that was one complete team win by the Pens last night.

The Pens last night hustled their asses off, the thing that when they've lost, was one of the main culprits. They got nearly every loose puck, and if not for Cam Ward's efforts, might have made this game 6-0, or worse.

I don't know if I've ever seen the Canes that sluggish, they just did NOT have it last night. But it's those games that the Pens have to take advantage of.

Oh yeah, that Crosby kid was pretty good again. Three more points, ho-hum. Of course, I'm joking, he juked Ward out of his jock on his first goal.

MAF was stellar once again. Great time for him to get on a roll, the schedule doesn't get any easier, with the Sabres on Friday night.

I want to see the Pens put another complete game together and knock off the Sabres. I don't think they're going to get rid of that inconsistency until they see that they can beat the best team in the Eastern Conference.

Pens Gameday; Let's hope for a better effort....

Well, let's put it this way, they couldn't play much worse vs. the Canes this year.

Their first game vs. Carolina was an absolute stinker at the Igloo on Oct. 14th, losing 5-1.

And they followed that one up with another doozy on Nov. 11th in Raleigh, also just so happened to be The Confluence's first road trip of the year, losing 6-2.

So all signs point to a much improved effort tonight for the Pens.

Now whether that will result in a win, we'll just have to see about that.

Appears that Sid and Geno will once again be paired together on the first line. It's the smart move, especially now that Ekman will be out for a while.

Gonna have to get a good outing from MAF tonight. Both previous games vs. the Canes, the first one with MAF and the second one with Thibault, were quite bad performances.

LET'S GO PENS !!!!

Canes 6, Pens 2; When it rains, it pours

Well, we enjoyed ourselves once again during our Raleigh road trip, but watching this current version of the Penguins should make no one wonder why my hair will quickly be turning from salt-and-pepper to Bob Barker-ish.

First of all, I'd like to thank the Hockey Gods for forcing me to drive 200 miles through a torrential downpour to get back to Virginia Beach this morning. I'm positive that it's just a continuance from last night's hellish performance.

Prior to the game, of course we had to get there prior to the pregame skate. The usual throng of Pens fans, as compared to previous Pens/Canes games in Raleigh, was not as huge. I'd say a couple of thousand fans. I think it'd be a pretty good bet that a bunch of others have probably jumped on Canes bandwagon after the Cup championship last year. Like a woman I met on the concourse, who'd grew up in Pittsburgh but lives in Raleigh now, she tells me "I'm a Canes fan now".

What kind of shit is that ?

The Pens took the ice for the pregame, and Roy and Cairns were feigning dropping the gloves, and giving each other hard shots to the boards. I guess I'm not describing it very well, but it was funny as hell.

Cairns spent most of the pregame jawing with Mike Commodore, skating up and down the center ice stripe. Turned out that both Cairns and Roy were scratched.

As the Pens were doing their pregame, and we were right on the rail next to the Pens locker room, Michel Therrien stood right next to us, watching his team.

Here's what I never seem to understand about NHL teams. Why don't they make more of an effort to interact just a little bit with the fans ?? I don't mean signing autographs before the games, I mean how about some high fives with the fans as they enter and leave the locker room ?? Would that be so much trouble, boys ?? I'm not talking about me, I'm past that stage, I'm referring to the kids. Don't you guys realize that you're trying to win the fans back ??

Anyway, onto the game.

The Orpik/Cole matchup was absolutely nothing to it, not a damn bit. They bumped one time, and that was about it. In fact, Orpik, in my view, was timid the majority of the night. He laid one decent check along the boards, but other than that, he was lustily booed every time he touched the puck, and it really appeared to me that he didn't want to give the refs or the Canes any reason to target him.

We had outstanding seats, five rows from the ice, three rows directly behind the Canes penalty box. However, the problem with having seats THAT close to the ice is that while you see the speed of the game up close (read: Crosby/Malkin), it's kinda hard to see as much as you do on the TV feed.

The first period was filled with more of the same for the Pens, leaving Canes forwards wide open in front of the net, plenty of penalties, and the like, resulting in a 2-0 Pens deficit. It also featured the fight between Thorburn and Commodore. Now, I understand the layman hockey fan, who sees the opponent fall down and the home guy punch him on the way down, look like he knocked the opponent on his ass. But c'mon Canes fans, is that all you were looking at ?? Thorburn got the majority of clean shots in the tilt, and he is quickly rising up in my book. His combination of scrappiness and decent offensive ability are just what the Pens need.

After the second period saw yet another Canes goal from a wide-open Brindamour, the Pens finally woke up, one goal coming on an excuse-me goal from Leclair, and the other from a nice slap shot from Recchi. I saw Recchi messing around with Ward during the pregame skate, playfully lofting pucks at him, and he gave Ward a nice friendly smirk after his goal to make it 3-2 Canes after two periods.

The third period is where the game's momentum shifted for the last time. At around the 15:30 mark or so, the Pens put one of their few offensive assaults towards Ward, an it really appeared that Nils Ekman tapped the puck over the line to tie up the game. I, to be honest, didn't get a good luck at the puck, but my buddy Pojo Risin was incensed, he basically said Ward was in the net himself and the puck was over the net. Ekman's comments, courtesy of the Trib, were "It was a goal, for sure. I will bet anything on it. The puck was turning up on an edge. The whole puck was over the line, by a lot. There's no doubt about it. I had a pretty good view. I was by that post. I can't explain it." If that weren't enough, check out the Raleigh News-Observer's own photo gallery from the game, specifically shot #16, which shows the puck crossing the red line, and BEFORE LaRose even touches it to hit it back into play. We were about 10 feet from the refs, as they were on the phone with the officials in the booth, and obviously with the NHL offices in Toronto. You could clearly see that the refs were telling Leclair, after they ruled no goal, that they couldn't get a clear shot of the puck going over the red line.

Whatever.

After yet another decision to go against the Pens, that was pretty much the ballgame.

Soft goal against Thibault to make it 4-2.

Couple hundred more penalties against the Pens.

Even when they got a damn power play, then pulled Thibault to get a two-man advantage, they still gave up two short handed goals, one with an empty net, another one on yet another soft goal in the last couple of minutes of the game.

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I really don't like crying over spilled milk, but just what the hell is happening when the Pittsburgh Penguins take the ice nowadays ??

Are you to tell me that the Pens are THAT undisciplined, such as last night in Raleigh when they took 14 frickin' penalties ??

Are you also to tell me that every Pens opponent is THAT disciplined ??

I'm not foolish enough to suggest any type of conspiracy against the young Penguins, but it sure as hell appears that the Penguins get absolutely no benefit of the doubt when it comes to calling penalties AGAINST them, and their opponents, most often older and more experienced, seem to get away with similar actions with no penalty call.

Then you get calls like the no-goal last night. How can so many people see that puck cross the goal line, but four referees can't ??

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Miscellaneous notes:

1. Malkin - He's just as advertised when you see him in person. Big. Strong. Fast.

2. After watching the game today on TIVO, I heard yet again Paul Steigerwald talk about how the Canes are such a good "puck possession team". I'm sorry Paul, but I'm tired of hearing that. Let's call the kettle black, the Pens opponents are such good puck possession teams because the Pens are such a poor defensive team, 'nuff said.

3. Anyone else tired of hearing nightly references by Bob Errey about Peterborough ??

4. Vintage Pens jerseys spotted (other than the more recent Lemieux/Jagr/Straka); 3 Tocchet's, Ulf Samuellson, and a Nedved.

Flyers are up next on Monday night back at the Igloo, just what the doctor ordered ??

Pens gameday; Road Trip - Confluence Style !!!!

OK, I'll admit, there won't be any trips to a sperm bank, or jumping a closed bridge, but we look to have a great time today as we head down to Raleigh to meet up with my good buddy
Pojo Risin and head to the RBC Center for the long-awaited matchup between Brooks Orpik and Erik Cole, and oh yeah, the rest of the Pens and Canes will be there as well. Five rows from center ice, just to the right of the Canes' penalty box (which should be well occupied tonight).

To their credit, both teams are downplaying the "revenge factor", the Canes stressing discipline, the Pens desiring just to get it over with.

Give me a frickin' break.

Anyone who has watched hockey for any amount of time knows that this is going to be one very rough game. The Canes fans alone are treating this like it's Ali-Frazier. Not only for Orpik/Cole, but let's not forget that bruising hit that Armstrong put on Letowski.

But I have a feeling that Orpik won't be much of a fighter tonight. He's still very sore from his broken wrist, so while I don't think he'll do the 'ol turtle routine, its not like he's going to be throwing haymakers though. I'm sure that Thierren will put Cairns and Roy in the lineup for those matters. Maybe even some other muckers will jump in the frays, like Armstrong or Talbot. It definitely appears to be a very entertaining night.

The game most assuredly will be a sellout, granted mind you, with up to 5,000 Pens fans. The Raleigh-Charlotte area, much like the D.C. region, is filled with transplanted 'Burghers, and us Pens fans always make our presence felt there. One good barometer that I see when I go there, and I think this is the 6th Pens/Canes game I've been down there, is the huge crowd that surrounds the Pens entrance to the ice before their pre-game skate. Other than that, the Canes fans have always been very hospitable towards "the enemy fans".

Not like when I attended Game 7 of the 2003 playoff series between Philly and Toronto in Philly, when taking a leak between periods, I saw Flyer fans pummelling unsuspecting Leaf fans with Sundin jerseys, who were actively pissing, in the back of the head.

I'll give everyone a full report on Sunday.

Let's Go Pens !!!!

Army apologizes to Letowski; Class move

Colby Armstrong called Trevor Letowski on Monday after his explosive hit on Saturday night.

"I talked to him for a good 10 minutes," Letowski said. "I thought it was a classy move on his part. He's not that type of player to go out and intentionally hurt someone."

Army goes up a couple of notches in my book. Not that Brooks Orpik doesn't, I think the entire soap opera back and forth between himself and Erik Cole has gotten ridiculous.

I'll be in Raleigh on Nov. 11th six rows from the ice, along with my son and my good friend from The Pojo Dojo. The return of Orpik, plus now the Armstrong hit, plus the regular 3,000 or so Pens fans that are always there, it promises to be a raucous night !!!

Lethargic Pens fall to Canes, 5-1; 'Burghers see this stuff too often

Piss.

Poor.

Effort.

Ya know, the more I think of it, the more the Steelers and Penguins have similar mentalities when it comes to playing at home.

When the NFL playoff started last year, and the Steelers snuck in with their #6 seed, I told my good buddies at The Roth Army that this was the best position for the Steelers to be in. The Steelers, for at least the last several years have been playing in Heinz Field/Three Rivers with an incredible sense of perceived invincibility and quite often playing lackadaisically (it's a word, I looked it up). The opponents jump on loose balls quicker, hit the holes faster, and are tighter on defense a lot of the time. Don't believe me ? They almost lost to freakin' Miami to start the year because of it, and came that close to being winless so far.

So the Steelers go on the road, and granted, they get a fortunate twist of the knee by Carson Palmer, but soundly defeat the Bungles, completely dominate the Colts, and easily defeat the Broncos on the way to Super Bowl XL. Those Steelers teams went into those hostile environments completely focused, hitting everything that moved on defense, and executed their gameplans nearly flawlessly.

And that leads us to the Pens.

Don't you see a similar pattern developing ?? I've said for quite a few years now, probably going back to when Mario came back in '00, probably even earlier than that, the Pens at home just play too damn cutesy, too fancy.

Too many damn times that instead of driving hard to the net, they widen the ice on a 2-1 to make that pretty saucer pass for the one timer, that most often fails.

Too many times that they're trying to make that perfect pass on the power play, only to get it intercepted and tossed back down ice.

Too many times that the opponents, in last night's case the Canes, get to nearly EVERY loose puck first.

Compare that to the effort they did in MSG against the Rangers. Great checking against Jagr's line, excellent hustle along the boards and grabbing loose pucks, and getting good shots on net.

Coach Therrien described it best, in his broken English, as "immature" (OK, he said unmature, I'm helping him out here).

The Pens start overall has been encouraging, especially considering that only a few of the offensive starters are contributing anything at all (read: Recchi, Malone, Leclair, Armstrong, Ekman). Malkin's arrival hopefully next week should improve that. But this team is nowhere near the caliber team that is going to take the ice and come out of a ho-hum game with a win.

Something tells me that Therrien's next 3 days of practice before the Devils' game on Wednesday will reinforce that statement.

Sunday tidbits at the Confluence

• Is it just me, or does the sun a little brighter the morning after the Yankees are eliminated ??
• Joe Torre is rumored to be given the pink slip today, with Lou Pinella given another shot in the Bronx. Anyone else think it won't work ??
• I don't care what anyone says, if you think all of the Yankees' problems are A-Rod's fault, you don't know much about baseball.
• I am so happy for Jim Leyland and his relocated Pirates coaching staff of Lemont, Slaught, Belliard, Van Slyke, and McClendon.
• I am eagerly awaiting to see how crude, lude, and rude the Eagles fans will be towards T.O. today. Nothing they do surprise me.
• By the way, the Mets closed out the Dodgers last night, if anyone could filter out the Yankee coverage on ESPN.
• Word is that Culpepper is gonna sit today vs. the Pats. New England's already 9 1/2 point favorites, are we looking at double digits now, Vegas ??
• Indy favored by 18 1/2 at home today over Tennessee. Wow, I'm sorry, but that's a lot of points.
• Call me a Steelers homer (and you'd be right), but if you're jumping on the Ravens bandwagon after THOSE first four games, don't whine to me when they come back to Earth.
• After the first few games of the NHL regular season, the Sabres seem to have "IT".
• It took 13 rounds of the shootout before the Rangers beat the Flyers last night. It took until the 6th Flyer before they put Forsberg in there, and he said it was because he didn't trust his sticks. Huh ??
• The Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes are 0-2-1 after 3 games. Those injuries on the blueline may start to put them in a hole for later in the year.

Awestruck Pens blanked by Red Wings, 2-0

OK, so the Pens won't go 82-0.

But as I was afraid of, the Pens had absolutely zero intensity, at least for the first two periods, during their loss last night.

It was painfully obvious that they were on their heels most of the night.

MAF played well again, although this time he couldn't prevent the tap-in due to the defensive enigma that is Rob Scuderi, who along with his compadre Joe Melichar, just stump the hell out of me why they still have jobs. The second goal, with just over a minute left to play, was a laser to the top shelf.

The most pressing concern to me is the lack of offense generated, with 24 shots on goal, that's a total for both games so far. That's an average total for one game, much less two games.

I just hope that they aren't getting Jan Hrdina disease, 'cause they damn sure ain't shooting the puck.

I think the Pens will rebound Thursday in New York vs. the Rangers, another hated rival who they won't feel awestruck by. Follow that up with games against the Canes and Erik Cole, and the Devils, and I think the Pens will be alright.

24 hours and counting !! Orpik out for a month; Pens sale imminent ?

Aaaah, it's finally here. It's hockey time, boys and girls.

Good games tonight so far, Buffalo and Carolina, along with Ottawa and Toronto.

I gotta say this about those Caniacs, those are some great fans. I've had the pleasure to go down there about six times, mostly for Pens/Canes games, and every time I go down there, I have a great time.

And as is the case in a lot of major cities around the U.S., there are a lot of transplanted Pittsburghers there. Usually, I'd say in a soldout crowd of approx. 20,000, there have got to be about 3,000 Pens fans.

Brooks Orpik is gonna be out of the lineup for about a month after surgery with a cracked bone in his right hand. I haven't seen any callups from WBS yet, but I would think it would be Noah Welch. I hope he's back before the Nov. 11th game in Raleigh, that's the 1st game in Raleigh since Orpik nailed Erik Cole, that should be a wild game. And I'll be there, 6 rows from the ice.

Speculation is flying around that the Pens will announce tomorrow that an agreement in principal has been reached with Mr. Blackberry, Jim Balsillie, to buy the Pens.

According to this story by Andy Conte from the Trib, who was on Sportsbeat tonight with Stan, the announcement will most likely be made tomorrow to coincide with opening night. Also, and most importantly, Andy indicated that according to their sources, as long as their is a viable plan for an arena, Balsillie will NOT attempt to move the club.

I think this is gonna be great news. No way that the Pens make an announcement of a new owner on opening night with an intention to move the team.