Pens 5, Devils 4; Flirting with Disaster....

On behalf of all Pens fans, let me exclaim, "we'll take it".

Another game, another game with a big lead, another game with a blow....

Not so fast.

The Pens combined some fortunate deflections with a less-than-Brodeur-ish effort, and then held on for dear life in defeating the Devils 5-4 in front of thousands of empty seats at the Meadowlands. The official attendance was 15,404, but obviously the weather played a part in many of those paid ticket holders staying home.

MAF let his share of bad goals in tonight. The shot from the blue line from Zajak that went in the net off of MAF's glove was really bad.

Sid finally got off of the schnide tonight with his 26th goal of the season when he beat Brodeur by the 5-hole.

Next up are Ovechkin and the Caps on Sunday afternoon on NBC.

Pens 5, Flyers 4 (SO); Don't be fooled by the wins...

It's true in every sport, professional and otherwise.

Good teams will find a way to win games in which they played poorly.

So in that respect, yes, it's nice to see that for the first time in six years, we're getting confirmation that indeed, the Pens are a good team.

But while they continue to win and get points, they've won and/or gotten points in three out of the last four games in which they've played quite badly.

The Pens 2-0 win vs. the Caps last Saturday was just as much a result of a lousy Caps offense (less Ovechkin and Semin) as it was the Pens performance.

They then went to Montreal the next day and for the most part should have walked out of there with zero points. They played that poorly, especially the defense.

The Pens rebounded on Tuesday against the Predators, leading the NHL in points. After a very sluggish first period, they refocused and played inspired hockey, dominating the Preds.

But then they went right back to their lackadaisical play last night against the Flyers.

Constantly trying to make the pretty pass, the Pens were fortunate to get two of their goals on tips, not deflections, but tips that made their way into the net.

I know I counted at least five turnovers for Malone alone. I don't care what anyone says, his presence on the first line is hurting this team. His ability to freeze the puck along the boards just doesn't cut the mustard to keep him with Sid's line.

Even after the Pens scored twice in the 3rd period to make it 4-2, they still found plenty of time to play on their heels to allow the Flyers to tie it up to force overtime and the shootout.

Speaking of the shootout, I think it's time Christensen gets a new move. The league has seen him plenty by now.

Malkin's move was decent, and I think he had Nittimaki beat, but he just shot it wide.

And FINALLY, Sid puts one past the goalie, and combined with MAF's goose egg, sealed the win for the Pens.

But make no mistake my friends, this team had better take it up a notch, or they WILL get blown off the ice by the Leafs tomorrow night.

Pens 2, Caps 0; Muckers bail out flat Pens....

I could've sworn that was the Devils out there as the Pens opponent today.

An obvious flat effort this afternoon, combined with a good defensive effort by the Caps, aided by new arrival Milan Jurcina from the Bruins, really turned this into a snoozer.

But we'll take a 2-0 win as a snoozer, as opposed to a 2-0 loss.

MAF registered his 2nd shutout in his last 3 games, as well as the Pens winning their 6th straight, with points in their last 9 games.

In addition, I believe I also recall the stat that this is the 1st game that the Pens have won in which Sid has not scored at least one point.

And oh by the way, as of this writing, the Pens are a paltry two points away from the Habs and Senators in 4TH PLACE in the Eastern Conference (the Habs lead 2-1 right now late in the 2nd period against the Isles as I type this).

Speaking of defensive efforts, the Pens played an excellent defensive game themselves. I would also give high marks to Ryan Malone, who really did a great job today against the boards.

Ron Petrovicky's wrister kinda fooled Ollie Kolzig for the Pens only main goal. Jordan Staal had an empty netter in the final minute to close the scoring.

Well, the Pens got away with one today. There is no way that they can have that type of effort tomorrow afternoon in Montreal and come away with a win.

And I don't think they will. That place will be jumping tomorrow, and I'm sure that the Habs will be throwing plenty of elbows to wake up the Pens really quickly.

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UPDATE: Montreal lost 4-2 to the Islanders this afternoon. If the Leafs beat Ottawa tonight, and the Pens beat the Habs tomorrow afternoon, your Pittsburgh Penguins will be in 4TH PLACE in the Eastern Conference.

Pens Gameday; Alex and the boys pay a visit...

For as much as the prospect of Alex Ovechkin and the Caps visiting the Igloo this afternoon should be enticing to the Pens, I'm a little concerned about the Pens overlooking the struggling Caps while looking forward to the rematch in Montreal tomorrow afternoon with the Habs.

I firmly believe the Caps look forward to facing the Pens nowadays much like they would face a divisional rival.

In fact, I would love to eventually see the Caps and Pens back in the same division, like the old Patrick Division days.

But if the Pens overlook the Caps today, and aren't as mentally sharp as they've been the past week, I have no doubt that the Caps will take advantage of that and pounce.

This will not be an easy game.

In much the same way that opposing teams have recently turning up the heat and applying physical pressure to Sid, I would hope that Therrien will call out the dogs and start doing the same to their opponent's stars, starting today with Ovechkin today, and definitely tomorrow with Koivu or anyone else they deem necessary.

Also gonna be interesting to see if Therrien plays MAF in both games today and tomorrow, or if he'll play Thibault for example tomorrow.

I'd also expect now that Chris Thorburn is back from his personal departure from the team that he'll be back in the lineup to apply more muscle.

LET'S GO PENS !!!!

Pens 5, Habs 4 (SO); Now that was a hockey game....

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Sunday's rematch in Montreal will be, shall we say, physical.

Tonight's game had just about everything you'd want in a great hockey game, including ferocious hits, end-to-end action, and most importantly, a big 5-4 Penguins win.

Yeah, I'm still pissed off that they gave the Habs a point by playing on their heels for the last half of the 3rd period.

But give them credit. They got it to overtime, killed a penalty in overtime, and for the 2nd time in row, won in a shootout.

By the way, how many spears does Crosby have to take before 1) the other guy at least gets a penalty, and 2) he gets suspended ?? It's absolutely ridiculous the shots that Sid is taking nearly every game now.

Army's vicious hit on Koivu was completely clean, and Souray deserved every minute of the penalty that he got, although I believe he was right for standing up for his captain.

But like I said, the Pens should have never been in that predicament late in the game, I hope they'll learn from it.

Next up for the Pens is Ovechkin and the Caps on Saturday afternoon.

Goose Egg for Sid at All-Star game; Pens roller coaster ride coming back up

Well, hope he had fun anyways.

All of the hype surrounding Sid's first All-Star game, the matching up of Sid and Ovechkin on the 1st line, the new uniforms, yadda, yadda....

Well, it kinda went off like a dud, if you were looking for fireworks anyway.

Neither Sid nor Alex really had any flashes of their collective brilliance during the game, although Alex did get a tap-in goal late in the game.

But Sid was either bottled up or was the subject of poor passes the entire game, and never really got off a good shot.

I read some articles today that said the Western Conference's D-men had already agreed that they would simply clutter up the middle of their own zone in order to eliminate the chance of the usual spectacular cross-ice passes.

Thanks for playing along, boys.

And, not unexpectedly, I thought that the line that had the most chemistry, and therefore looked the best, was the one with Lecavalier and St. Louis.

A lot of the hockey articles today also mentioned that Gretzky had a goose egg in his first All-Star game.

At least Sid's got that going for him.

------------------

It's also been widely reported that Gov. Rendell had a lengthy conversation with Ron Burkle Tuesday night discussing some of the details that had been a sticking point during last Thursday's heated negotations.

Everyone needs to understand, Rendell and Burkle are longtime buddies. They've negotiated business deals for many years.

Does anyone SERIOUSLY think this isn't going to happen ??

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Demolition will begin in February on 11 buildings that will be cleared in preparation for the construction of the new arena.

I say again, still think it's not going to happen ??

----------------------

And finally, Noah Welch probably has worn out the PA highways (dunno how those guys make the trip, I-79 to I-80 to I-81, or Turnpike to I-81 ? Who knows) going up and down from Pittsburgh to Wilkes-Barre. So a couple of days after being sent down, he's now on his way back up. I guess the thinking is that they want the extra D-man just in case Eaton isn't quite ready.

NHL All-Star Game; Sid does it once again

Night one of the NHL All-Star Game festivities was most definitely Penguin-laden.

The NHL Young Stars started the night off in, sorry to say, boring style.

Nice to see Phil Kessel keep rebounding from his testicular cancer treatments with his hat trick.

But boy, I kinda feel sorry for Geno Malkin.

Everyone knows, Geno speaks very little English, so when the coaches told him to stand at the blue line and wait for the pass, well, that's sure enough what the hell he did.

Of course, the Canadian idiots in the press gave him a hard time, as if that was HIS intention. Grow the hell up, and get off of your Canadian high horse.

Staal and Whitney looked pretty good as well.

But overall, the game was really too slow for the majority of the game. It's just that all of these guys don't want to be like Iverson and be a super gunner during these games. But what that does is slow the game down way too much, with too many passes.

Then the big boys came out, and I guess there were some more decent moments.

Ovechkin being the slowest skater on the ice, when everyone said he would dominate, got a good chuckle out of me.

But when I saw Sid come out for the shootout, I was thinking that some demented Leafs fan in the NHL front office must've selected him.

But like Sid just seems to do everytime we think he can't do it, he was the star of the show again, smoking Luongo on 2 out of 3 shots during the final shootout phase. He also beat Kiprusoff on his 1st shot during the initial shootout round.

If we know Sid by now, I think it's going to be a good bet that he's gonna work like a dog to improve on the shootouts for the rest of the year. I'm not worried about him at all.

Gonna be fun to watch Sid and Alex on the top line tonight. Danny Briere is their linemate to start with, but I heard on XM Home Ice 204 that one of the other linemates they'd have sometime during the game is Brendan Shanahan.

Sunday tidbits at The Confluence

• Let me just say first of all that today is a little brighter after a day in which the Ravens, Flyers, and Eagles all lost. Not to mention the opportunity to shut Ray Lewis the hell up for another 9 months.
• The Colts impressive but surprising defense has me thinking that they just might make it to the SB this year. Well, maybe. Let me say this; If the Chargers win today, the Colts will go to the Dance, if the Pats win, then those bastards will go again.
• Speaking of the Pats/Chargers game, I'm just not following the coaches' record angle that so many are. Rather, I'd say the ability to stop LT, and therefore the ability of Rivers to throw the ball will be the determining factor. I think the Chargers' run defense will slow down Dillon/Maroney at home, but give me the Pats by a TD.
• I have to admit that I was dead wrong on Deuce McCallister. That guy has done some impressive power running all year, and the Cinderella Saints are one game from the Big Dance.
• That early game hit on Reggie Bush may have been the hit of the year. Just brutal, clean but brutal.
• Give Jeff Garcia and the Eagles credit, most people didn't think they'd get anywhere close to this point in the season. By the way, I wonder if Jeff is still boinking former Playmate Carmella Decesare. Yeah, he's gay alright, just ask T.O.
• Will ANYONE out there be surprised if/when the Bears choke at home today ?? Weather looks to definitely be a factor though, but we'll see if Grossman can "not lose" vs. the Seahawks today.
• Some in the Pirates blogoshere are predicting that the coming out of Bob Nutting may preclude the pulling of the trigger of the LaRoche trade. While I'd welcome that, I'll believe it when I see it.
• The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the Cubs are considering trading Jacque Jones to the Bucs for either Duffy or McLouth. So let me get this straight, Littlefield won't include Duffy in the LaRoche trade, but he may trade Duffy to the Cubs for Jones ?? Geezus, just do something for Christ sakes.
• The trade winds are also a-brewing in the hockey world, if you believe the NY Post's Larry Brooks, anyways. Brooks is reporting this morning that the Rangers are talking to the Pens on a trade that would trade Malone, and possibly Orpik, to the Rangers for Prucha and possibly another player. Also, Brooks reports that GM Ray Shero himself was in NY on Thursday scouting the Rangers/Sens game. This might very well be the reason that the underperforming Malone has remained on the 1st line with Crosby, when he really hasn't deserved it. My view, if I'm Shero, and I'm not, I do this trade in a NY heartbeat. Prucha is a young sniper, a 30 goal scorer last year, and RIGHT-HANDED. He would be an outstanding replacement on the 1st line.
• Mark Eaton looks due to come back after the All-Star Game, when the Pens make their 2nd trip out West to Dallas and Phoenix. The sooner, the better. If anyone needs a reminder, the Pens were 7-3 when Eaton got hurt, he would really shore up the Pens inconsistent defense.
• The NHL announced the All-Star reserves and the participants in the YoungStars game. Kinda surprisingly, the Pens got no other players besides Crosby to represent them in the big boys' game, but are well represented in the YoungStars game, with Malkin, Staal, and Whitney selected.
• I'm really looking forward to seeing Sid and Ovechkin on the same line in Dallas.

Until next week.....

Sunday tidbits at The Confluence

• 10 players were thrown out of last night's Denver/Knicks game after, you guessed it, a brawl erupted. Why should it not be surprising to anyone when these brawls continuously happen in a league in which 40% of the players have criminal records ??
• One of those players ejected was NBA golden boy Carmelo Anthony, who connected squarely with a punch during the fight. Let's just see how many games he'll be suspended.
• Will someone please take Allen Iverson ??
• Another ho-hum showing for Kobe the other night, lighting up Houston for 53 points. For my money, Kobe Bryant is STILL the best player in the NBA.
• Phil Kessel, impressive rookie for the Boston Bruins, confirmed this week that he had successful surgery for testicular cancer, which much like breast cancer for women, is one of those unspoken things that is so important for men to regularly check for.
• For all of the hype given to the Crosby/Ovechkin matchup this past Monday, the TV rating for the broadcast on Versus was .2, or about 200,000 homes. As Larry Brooks states in his column today, "The NHL tired to promote the Crosby-Ovechkin showdown in its own way, but without access to ESPN, what exactly were the promotional platforms?". Hmmm, I wonder who just got on his soapbox recently and said basically the same thing ?? Oh, that's it, I remember now.
• Sidney Crosby is without question the best player in the NHL right now, and he can't even buy an Iron City Beer in Pittsburgh at age 19. Maybe he can sneak in a glass of wine at Mario's house, since he has over 5,000 bottles in his collection.
• Sidney may be the best overall player right now, but I gotta say, I just love to watch Alex Ovechkin play as well. Talk about explosive.
• I've gotta take a hockey road trip to Montreal one of these days. What a wonderful atmosphere, or so it looks like it is anyway.
• Why is it when I hear the French language, I immediately think back to Steve Martin's standup days, when he screws up ordering in French at a restaurant, orders a shoe with cheese on it, and tells them to force it down his throat.
• Joey Porter blamed the media this past week after repeatedly calling Kellen Winslow Jr. a fag in his post-game comments. Funny, I didn't see anyone holding a 9MM to Joey's head forcing him to make those remarks.
• Speaking of blaming the media, Jim Mora Jr. stuck his foot squarely in his mouth when he "seriously" said that he'd immediately leave the Falcons for the Univ. of Washington if that job were to open up. Then, curiously but not surprisingly, he gave the 'ol "just kidding" the next day. There should be some people that should not have the ability to speak to the media, ever.
• Tank Johnson had what would be called a bad week. Cops raided his home and found 6 guns. Then after he apologized to the Bears and the public for his 3rd arrest in 18 months, he goes to a club Saturday night, gets involved in a fight, and his bodyguard is shot and killed.
• Those in Steelerland who still have illusions of the playoffs may get plummeted back to Earth after this week's games. If Jacksonville and/or Cincinnatti wins today, it's all over.

Pens gameday; Um, who's playing tonight ???

Little humor there, forgive me.

You couldn't build this one up anymore than it already has (unless it was on ESPN, but that was yesterday's topic, I digress).

Tonight's game at the Verizon Center in Chinatown, D.C. is just another example why I really wish the Caps were still in the same division as the Pens.

If you ask me, it's the Caps, and not the Flyers, who are the Pens' most hated rival nowadays. This isn't 1987 anymore. The Pens/Caps series over the last several years has been hard-hitting (borderline dirty), fast-paced, and has generated an excellent hatred between it's fans.

Versus is pulling out all the stops tonight. Mikes on both Sid and Alex, interviews with both coaches during the game, and pre-game interview with Geno, with Alex as his translator (that should be fun).

In terms of the game itself, I have to give Brian credit at The Pittsburgh Penguins Report, as well as a contributor to Hockeybuzz.com, 'cause he basically read my mind on this one.

I think that it's Malkin, and not Crosby, that could very well be the deciding factor in tonight's game. You'd have to know that Geno will be extremely pumped up to play against his buddy Ovechkin tonight for the first time. In addition, we should also see a continuation of Malkin's aggressiveness that he showed in Atlanta last Saturday.

I haven't seen anything indicating that the lines will be shuffled too much at all tonight, which should be a good thing. Perhaps we're seeing an indication of what Therrien believes will be the quasi-permanent lines for the team, unless injuries take their toll.

This should be a good one, I'll be interested to see how Versus pulls this off.

LET'S GO PENS !!!!

Pens 4, Thrashers 3 (OT); A glimpse into the future...

Now THAT'S more like it.

Maybe the most complete game of the season for the Pens, certainly since the West Coast trip.

There was no doubt that the right buttons were pushed leading up to this game, especially the broken English to broken English talk between Therrien and Malkin on Friday. Malkin was dominant out there tonight, certainly up to the level of Sid, if not a notch above.

The thing to watch for now is whether Malkin can sustain that effort on a consistent basis, or settle back into his old routine.

But this was one of those games this year that showed the NHL what it's gonna be like having lines centered by Crosby and Malkin coming at them at a frenetic pace.

I have to give a tip of the hat to the defense as well, they really seemed to play a sound game, and yes, that includes my buddy Joe Melichar. That was his best game in a long time.

I'm not that concerned that MAF gave up three goals, the last two were fluky bounces, one off of Gonchar's shin pad, and the last off of a fortunate rebound.

Now it's onto Washington, where the NHL and Versus are doing some major advertising leading up to this game. I don't think either Sid nor Ovechkin nor Malkin will disappoint us, their competitive juices should have no trouble flowing Monday night.

Who pissed in Darren Dreger's Wheaties ???

So I'm watching the Sens/Caps tonight on NHL Center Ice, and they're broadcasting the TSN feed.

The TSN boys are doing their thing during the 2nd intermission, which I've always enjoyed as compared to a U.S. broadcast.

They start discussing the shootout, how some like it, some don't, yadda, yadda.

Then they go into the topic of the schedule during the BOG meetings, and the example that the Western teams don't get to see Crosby and Ovechkin but every three years.

And what does Darren Dreger do ?? Immediately changes the subject and starts blasting the Penguins about only getting 12,000 through the turnstiles last night (yes we know Darren, even Tuesday night games in December against the Panthers still sell out the ACC, we frickin' get it). Calls it "unacceptable".

Bob McKenzie defends the Pens and Caps to a certain extent, saying they've been bad teams for a while now, they need to start winning in order to consistently sell tickets well. And what does Dreger respond with ?? "Well, then just let them leave"

And if Dreger had his way, surely that's exactly what he'd do.

Dreger has had a hard-on for the demise of the Penguins ever since Lemieux put the team up for sale. This guy must be getting a kickback for any future deal involving moving the Pens to Canada. EVERY commentary this guy makes slants the future of the Pens towards the possibility that Jim Balsillie "wants" to move the team, and QUICKLY dismisses the very real possibility that 1) the Isle of Capri wins the slots license, or that 2) Balsillie will actually negotiate a deal in support of Plan "B".

Darren, I fully expect to read your full and hearty congratulations to Balsillie and the Penguins on December 20th, when hopefully the Isle of Capri wins the slots license for the city of Pittsburgh.

And if the IOC doesn't win, why don't you practice some actual journalism for a change, rather than the same old boring Canadian-slanted hockey propaganda.

Sunday tidbits at The Confluence

Didn't ya just love the 180 degree turn that Michael Strahan did this week ?? First he publically calls out Plaxico Burress (which I totally concurred with, any Steeler fan could've told you that). Then he tries to cover his ass and do what all big-mouth overpaid athletes do, BLAME THE MEDIA !! Yeah, that's it, I'll blame the media, it's all their fault. Give me a frickin' break.

Speaking of things I loved to see, wasn't it lovely seeing USC look past UCLA, thereby ruining their national championship shot. You guys made a helluva run, but perhaps you need to finally get off of your high (Trojan) horse.

Even though I don't agree with it, I'm starting to get a sneaking suspicion that the human voters are going to have Florida play OSU for the championship. The "no rematch" philosophy, plus having a 12-1 SEC Champion play OSU, rather than a runner-up Big 10 team, seems to be will be a common theme.

Baseball's winter meetings begin today in Orlando. Still quite a few marquee free agents out there, but I'll be on the lookout for the trade discussions, and just how ridiculous Dave Littlefield's demands are this time why they won't happen for the Pirates.

Bud Selig's going to retire in 3 years when his contract expires. Doesn't really matter, they'll just select whatever knucklehead that will keep the ridiculous MLB economic environment as is.

Ridiculous signing of the week; Randy Wolf, he of the 69-60 career record, signs with the Dodgers for one year, 8 million clams.

Alex Ovechkin rammed Daniel Briere into the boards face first last night at the Cap Centre/USAir Arena/MCI Center/Verizon Center. He was tossed out with a game misconduct last night. Very interested to see if and how games he'll be suspended. I've read a couple of comparisons on the hit to Brooks Orpik's hit on Erik Cole last year. We'll just see if the NHL has the cojones to suspend one of it's golden boys.

Johnny Vermont (Leclair) is now on re-entry waivers, meaning that any team that claims him now only is on the hook for half of his remaining salary. I've been reading that the Blackhawks may claim him, as well as Dallas. I hope he'll go to a situation that fits him, he's a consummate pro.

Andre Roy was claimed by Tampa Bay. Whatever. File this one under the "no impact at all" section. You just can't have guys like Andre filling up roster spots nowadays.

Anyone else tired of hearing how much tape Ron Jaworski is looking at ??

Steelers play Tampa Bay at 4:15 today, talk about an anti-climatic atmosphere. I can just imagine the scalpers up and down General Robinson. Can't imagine them getting much for those tickets.

I wouldn't have imagined this earlier in the year, but is it just me, or is Coach Cowher's body language saying "get me the hell out of here" ??

Nice to see that Shaun Alexander is back up and running, now that I'm frickin' eliminated from my fantasy football league.

Isles 5, Pens 3; Where's Hee Haw when you need it ??

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

If that doesn't describe the Pens performance last night vs. the Isles, I don't know what does.

After missing about 3 completely open nets, hitting about 3 posts, and just missing about 3 tap-ins, the Isles converted those missed opportunities into goals, quite often directly in transition from the Pens' misfortunes.

I really thought the Pens had quite a bit of jump in them last night, there were several times that they sped through the D-men with little effort.

The problem was that several times during those rushes, their centering passes were nowhere near their target, thus resulting in 3-on-2's the other way.

I read a lot of quotes this morning describing the Pens offensive performance as "too cute", and boy is that an accurate statement. How many games will it take for the Pens to not make that last pass before they attempt to put the puck on net ??

The officiating was terribly inconsistent. How about the Isles player covering the puck with his hand in the crease ?? What the hell was that ??

So now, the Pens have all of a sudden forced themselves into a crucial point of the season. Not only did the Pens get zero points the last two games against divisional opponents Jersey and NYI, but the Devils got four points (winning in OT vs. the Flyers last night), the Rangers got one in a shootout loss to Buffalo Friday night, and of course the Isles got two last night. They are 3 points behind the Isles, and 4 behind the Rangers and the Devils, as well as only 6 points ahead of Philly. The Pens cannot afford to get too far behind, if they have any aspirations at all for a playoff run.

The Pens host Florida on Tuesday, then embark on a 3 game road trip to the Rangers, Thrashers, and the 1st trip of the year to visit Ovechkin and the Caps.

Pens gameday; Sid returns tonight

You can't keep these kids off the ice for too long, you just knew it.

Sid makes his return tonight (with the 7PM start time, by the way) as the redundant NHL schedule has the Pens facing the Islanders again tonight.

Of course, after the Pens play in the Jersey swamp Friday night, then guess who comes to the Igloo on Saturday night ??

That's right, it's the Islanders once again. And this is supposed to be good for the NHL ??

It's not too much of a bold prediction that the Pens will have some extra giddyup tonight with Sid coming back, but most especially in the power play. Of course, that doesn't mean that they'll have 3 or 4 power play goals, you still have to put the puck in the net, but at least their scoring chances should increase.

Christensen gets his chance on wing tonight. I really like this move. Therrien needs all of the snipers he can get on his wings, and Erik is definitely one of those.

Forgive me if I don't shed a tear that Yashin will be out from 2-4 weeks.

Latest All-Star voting is in, and that line of Malkin/Crosby/Ovechkin is looking REAL good, in fact those three youngin's are 1-2-3 in voting. In addition, MAF is leading the way for Eastern Conference goalies. This looks to be a special night in Dallas later on this year.

Latest from the Rumor Mill; Eklund reports that the Pens are among the teams that are making offers for former Penguin Markus Naslund. Wow, that brings a lot of questions rushing up into my old head. Just how much would the Pens have to give up ?? How many draft picks ? Who would be the obligatory throw-ins ??? I'd love for the Pens to get Naslund back, as one of those trades that we all wish never would have happened in the first place.

Let me say this about Eklund, it's obvious the man has a lot of good connections around the NHL, that's certainly enviable. I just think that people get kinda turned off by the whole anonymity thing. I mean come on, this is not Paul and Gene from KISS walking around Hollywood with bandanas to hide from the photographers. Or maybe it's just that I'm jaded because he never returns my emails (I'm waiting, Ek).

Supposedly, good 'ol Gary Bettman is in the 'Burgh tonight. Wonder what he's there for. Anyone else think he just wanted a couple of sandwiches at Primanti Bros. ??

Remember, early 7PM start tonight.

LET'S GO PENS !!!

Sunday tidbits at The Confluence

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. However, perhaps it's time to stop one of those Thanksgiving traditions, that being the Lions playing on it. Although a lot of times the Lions play better on Thanksgiving than on other gamedays, it's getting a little ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, rumors are flying that Matt Millen may be finally out of a job. Better late than never, I always say.

So not only did 70 million homes not receive the Broncos/Chiefs game on Thursday night, due to their cable system not carrying the NFL Network, now we find out that even some of those that do have the channel did not show the game, due to the fact that the NFL added on another surcharge for showing live NFL games. Thanks to ProFootballTalk.com for the link. Are we that far away from Pay-per-view NFL games ??

If you want to watch what's known as a "slobberknocker", watch Steelers/Ravens today. The Steelers rivalry with the Ravens has easily supplanted the Browns rivalry in recent years, and today's matchup looks to be no different.

With six weeks still left to go before the NFL playoffs, it's still way too early to speculate on teams that are in and those that are out. We are at the point, however, that those who are on the outside looking in, have little to no room for error (you listening, Pittsburgh ??)

USC sure as hell made a big statement that they deserve a shot at the title after their convincing win vs. Notre Dame yesterday. I still think that Michigan is the better of the two teams, but who knows, the computer rankings may just boost USC up to #2.

Let's just see how good the Bears really are today, and if they can beat New England, they've gone up a rung on my ladder.

So much for discipline when it comes to MLB free agents. Carlos Lee gets 100 million for 6 years. Slap hitter Juan Pierre gets 45 million for 5 years, 14 million for 3 years for Alex Gonzalez, 18 million for 4 years for Justin Speier.

So where does that leave the Buccos ?? Absolutely nowhere, apparently. When the offseason started, the Bucs priorities were a left-handed power bat, a right-handed starter, and a couple other ham-n-eggers. Naturally, those commodities aren't going to fall in Dave Littlefield's lap. So, the general consensus was that he'd have to part with one of his 4 young starting pitchers (most likely Gorzelanny or Maholm) or one of the closers. However, now we're reading from Dejan's column today that apparently good 'ol Dave feels it's unlikely that he'll trade any of the starters. Just what the hell do you plan on doing Dave, do a "Malkin" and hold prospective free agents hostage in your office until they sign a contract ?? Aw, that's OK, just keep the bobbleheads and fireworks coming, it's all good on the bottom line, isn't it.

Had to love the thugery at the end of the Caps/Thrashers game the other night. They wanted rivalries, they got it. But even if they don't modify the schedule to have all NHL teams play each other every year, they've got to do something about teams playing each other 3 times in two weeks. Talk about overkill.

You'd have to consider the Maple Leafs as overachievers so far this season, although they did open their Canadian wallets up some more in the offseason. But that's OK, I'm sure when the springtime comes, they'll fold like they've always done. Don't feel bad, Leafs fans, I'm sure that 40th anniversary party for not winning the Stanley Cup will be a doozy.

Don't look now, but those teams that were getting snickered at early in the year, like Ottawa, Boston, and Philly, are quickly playing much better.

Early NHL voting shows Crosby and Ovechkin #1 and #2 among Eastern Conference forwards, with Malkin at #7 right now. Count me as among those who'd love to see a line with those 3 guys on it.