Pens gameday; Distractions = Trap game

This "should" be a relatively easy one, if any game in the new NHL can be considered easy.

The St. Louis Blues have lost 11 straight games, just the sort of streak that a young team like the Pens could easily allow them to relax a bit.

And then there's that little discussion about the ownership.

If words around the Igloo are anything like they are around the 'Net, this could easily become a big distraction for the Pens tonight.

It's really easy to SAY that the slots decision won't be an issue when they get on the ice, but it's gotta be hard for them to totally get it out of their mind.

Looks like Dom Moore is the healthy scratch tonight, that's a curious one. Although he hasn't scored a goal in a while, he's been a good with the puckhandling.

LET'S GO PENS !!!!

Pens gameday; Therrien's musical lines continue

Here we go again.

Coach Therrien has shaken the lines for tonight's tilt against the Rangers up again, big time.

Malone and Armstrong have been swapped, with Malone now on the 1st line with Sid and Recchi.

Mistake, in my view. Malone is too slow, and his hands are not the greatest either.

Army is now on the 2nd line with Christensen and Malkin. Very impressed on how Christensen has stepped it up since his callup. One thing is for sure, Malkin needs a supporting cast. The defense just has one big bullseye on him, they could care less what the wingers are doing.

Staal is back in the lineup, and on the 3rd line with Talbot and Ruutu. Ekman has been demoted to the 4th line with Moore and Ouellet, who's finally back in the lineup.

Thorburn, Scuderi, and Petrovicky are reported to be the scratches tonight.

Yes, the Melichar infatuation continues.

On defense, Micki Dupont (I think I've been calling him Dumont on this blog, my bust bro) gets his first start. The other defensive enigma, Alain Nasreddine, starts again as well.

Therrien ran the hell out of the team in practice yesterday. That should result in quite a spirited effort.

Now just to get some of that spirit to actually put the puck in the damn net.

LET'S GO PENS !!!!

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.

Confluence Report Card; Pens at the quarterpole

At face value, Pens fans don't have too much to complain about as the first quarter of the season is completed, as compared to last year's 0-4-5 start.

But then again, the '05-'06 Pens at this same point were 7-9-6, compared to 10-8-4 this year. So for as pitiful as last year Pens' team was, their record is not too much worse than this year's much improved group.

So let's take a gander at my half-assed attempt at grading the Pens so far this year.

Center - This is probably the easiest one (I know, no shit Tony.) With Crosby, Malkin and Staal, they're set for at least a decade (unless free agency rears it's fugly head). It appears that, before the groin injury, Sid was shooting the puck more frequently, and his temper seems to have calmed down some, resulting in fewer penalty minutes. Malkin, with all fairness, is still getting used to the NHL, so I can't honestly judge him too harshly just yet. I would like to see him lay some more checks, though, especially considering that D-men are starting to target him a lot. Also, you can't ask for more production than Staal has given them. He's an excellent penalty killer, and his long reach makes for outstanding puck possessions. Speaking of surprises, the signing of Dominic Moore looks to be a great one. He may not be lighting the lamp very often, but his maneuverability and penalty kill skills are a valuable asset on this team, an asset that was sorely needed. The two 4th line centers, Talbot and Thorburn, are both contributing doing what they do best, agitate the hell out of the opposition.

GRADE: A-

Wingers - These guys are doing a decent job, but there is much improvement to be done. Recchi has been hot lately, and his constant hussle is setting the example for the younger players to follow. Army needs to get off the schnide, it's that simple. He's played better the last few games, both with his shots on goal (but none have gone in) and his puck possessions. Ouellet has pretty much duplicated his '05 effort, specializing in power play sniping, however he needs to be more consistent. Petrovicky is another Shero signing that looks to be paying off immediately, an excellent checker/agitator with pretty good hands. Malone has only played in a handful of games so far this year due to his broken arm, but in those few games he really wasn't making any worthy contributions to the team as of yet. He may be trade bait once we get closer to the trade deadline. Ekman has done a decent job while he's been flipflopping on Therrien's lines. He's one of the few wingers that actually puts a lot of shots on net so far. Leclair seems to acknowledge what his role is at this point in his career, that being a pest in front of the net and to provide sound veteran leadership. Ruutu performs his agitator role very well, but the Pens need more wingers that can actually put the puck in the net. Finally, Roy has been a scratch in the majority of the Pens' games so far, I'd be surprised if he makes it past the trading deadline also.

GRADE: C+

Defensemen - With reference to the constant harassing of the D-men group on the blogosphere, I'd have to say that overall, this group's performance has made a significant improvement. Yes, the bad outlet passes still happen, the turnovers still happen, and they still screen the goaltenders, but those errors, relatively speaking, are not happening as frequently as they did in past years. Eaton's injury, at first glance, didn't seem that it would cause such as drastic change in their performance, but it's clear as day now. His solid defensive play, and most importantly, his shot blocking have proved invaluable, and now that he's out until probably the January timeframe, his absence is highly noticeable. Gonchar has done a decent job, at least he didn't get off to the horrendous start that he did last year. He needs to cut down on the "2 minutes for hooking" penalties. I believe Scuderi has improved his game quite a lot in the last year. Sorry to say, I don't think the same applies to Melichar. I'm not sure how long he lasts if the Pens ever get off of their ass and get a righty D-man. Orpik of course missed the first chunk of the season because of his wrist injury, and he still looks to be in training camp with some of those breakout passes he's made. In reference to Whitney, I'm not one of those guys who'll say he's having a good year because of his offensive stats. For as good as he's been in the opponent's zone, he's been easily as poor in his own end. Welch has done pretty well since his callup, and sorry to say, is one of the few Penguins D-men who actually throw checks well. Last, and least, how long does Eric Cairns take up a roster spot on this team ?? The Pens have plenty of agitators who can drop the gloves AND do other things as well. He's another one who shouldn't be a Penguins at the trading deadline.

GRADE: C

Goaltending - I think it's fair to say that MAF has won the Pens a handful of games already this year. If he isn't listed among the top goalies in the league now, he's damn close. Yes, he still allows those big rebounds, and it has cost him a few times already, but overall he has played outstanding. Thibault hasn't had the best luck so far this year, although he's had a few occasions where his play behind the net has cost some goals. He's also given his fair share of soft goals.

GRADE: B

Coaching - I can understand the need to attempt to get the lines flowing as smooth as possible, but I don't see that happening based on how quickly Therrien is changing his lineups. In the same respect though, it appears that the Pens are really bought into Therrien's system. It has resulted in an improved defense, and they now have several players that are flexible to multiple areas on the ice.

GRADE: B

Special Teams - The powerplay has been pretty decent this year, up until the time that Sid was injured anyway. However, they're still relying too much on Gonchar's slapshots, and not enough passes inside. The penalty kill has been maybe the biggest improvement on this year's team. Penalty killers such as Moore, Staal, and Talbot make the Pens quite a dangerous PK unit.

GRADE: B-

Pens blast Flyers 8-2; Oh how sweet it is !!!

I'll be honest, if I would have had time today, I would have posted that the Penguins need to be careful tonight in Philly.

Ya know, new coach, new GM, one game winning streak, playing at home, playing against that damn Sidney Crosby, loving to smack around the new Rooskie, lots of reasons to be cautious.

And for sure, the Pens did not play very good hockey in the first period of tonight's game. In what was a frightening flashback to the '05 Pens, Ryan Whitney's giveaway led to the opening goal of the game. They had relatively no offense in that period in addition to that. Crosby's goal on the 2-on-1 and Talbot's shorthanded goal were nearly the only shots on goal for the entire first period.

But boy did that change in the 2nd period. The Pens used their team speed and combined it with the Flyers pylon-like defense to quickly build that lead to 4-1, which sent Nittimaki to the showers. The second period not only included the completion of the 1st hat trick of Sidney Crosby's young career, but also extended Evgeni Malkin's goal scoring streak to 5 games as he begins his NHL career. Malkin's goal, in what is quickly becoming average for this guy, came on a one timer from an extremely difficult angle.

There was another guy who used to play for the Pens who used to make those impossible angle shots, what was his name again ?? :-)

The 3rd period, in all honesty, was not what I expected. I really thought that the Flyers would start throwing the elbows and send their thugs out. That really didn't happen at all. The Pens, not wanting to rub salt in the Flyer wounds, played their top line sparingly. The Pens did score two more goals in the 3rd period, the 1st of the year from both Mark Recchi and Dominic Moore.

And finally, in what Pens fans had to sound like music in their ears, the Flyer fans roundly booed their hometown team upon their exit.

So now, the Pens have played their 9th game, which may or may not be Jordan Staal's final game of the year for the Pens.

I for one will be shocked if he is sent down. As Paul Steigerwald said very well tonight, the Pens are a better team with Staal as the 2nd line center, and are a better team with Talbot (rather than Staal) as their 4th line center.

By the way, anyone else notice on the "CW" feed how many couples were in attendance, with Penguins fan guys and hot Flyer fan girlfriends ??

What's up with that ??

Pens gameday; It's pop quiz day

OK boys, let's see what you've learned.

You've gotten some chemistry flowing between your two top players, now that they're finally together.

Your special teams are clicking at some impressive rates so far, the power play is ranked #1 in the NHL right now, and the penalty kill is ranked 14th (5th at home).

You've won two in a row, and while sure, it's early, you win tonight, and as the Atlantic Division leader, you're ranked 3rd in the Eastern Conference.

But this is no simple quiz, you've got to do some studying to pass this.

First and foremost, you've got to put some serious pressure on Marty Brodeur. Maybe if the refs have it in their hearts to call more than one damn penalty will accomplish that.

Secondly, you've got to take advantage of the pairing of Malkin and Crosby on the 1st line. John Madden will definitely be watching Crosby like a hawk, and Crosby needs to recognize that and dish that puck to Malkin to work his magic.

Third, there's gotta be starting to get some production from the bottom 3 lines.

Simple, huh ??

We shall see on "Versus" at 7PM.

Max Talbot was recalled today as the 4th line center, since Staal was moved to the 2nd line center. To be frank, I've never been on the Talbot bandwagon. I think he's a sparkplug, and a decent penalty killer, but I just don't see him as being such a huge asset, especially since the addition of Dominic Moore, and especially if Jordan Staal stays.

Various reports have the initial hearing on the Malkin case in U.S. District Court in New York on November 9th.