Pens gameday; Keep your foot on the pedal, boys

Fresh off of their highly successful road trip, the Pens return home tonight to face the injury-depleted Flyers.

The Pens would be well advised to forget that tidbit, though.

Now is not the time to take the night off and get fancy.

The Pens need to keep their collective feet planted squarely on the Flyers' throats. There is absolutely no reason why the season series with the Flyers shouldn't end up at least 7-1.

Looks like Rob Scuderi will return tonight after battling the flu, and Micki Dupont will be scratched. To be honest, Micki didn't have the best game in Washington, so his scratching is probably worthy.

One week to go before the slots license is awarded. I'm sure the collective nerves are starting to build, I already know that's going to be one intense day in Penguinland.

So anyway, let's keep the momentum going tonight, and onto Friday at home AGAIN vs. the Islanders, and then in Montreal Saturday night.

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 !!!!

Pens gameday; OK boys, time to get the sand out between your toes and get back to hockey

There's plenty of buildup before tonight's game in San Jose.

Malkin is getting plenty of headlines, seemingly taking them away from his linemate Sid, although I'm sure Sid will be the first one to gladly let someone else grab the spotlight.

San Jose is shaking things up, although somewhat curiously. According to TSN (via the Contra Costa Times), the Sharks have Forward Mike Grier moved up to a line with Joe Thornton and Milan Michalek, Jonathan Cheechoo dropped to the third line with Marcel Goc and Patrick Rissmiller.

Mike Grier isn't what I would have thought of as a 1st line winger, but whatever floats your boat, fellas.

On the Pens front, Coach Therrien stated that he's reluctant to shake up his D-men, at least right now, to get Brooks Orpik back on the ice. That's a strange one, neither Melichar nor Scuderi are not ones that are the model of consistency in my book.

It also appears that Armstrong will be back on the 1st line with Sid and Geno, after Ouellet was moved up there during the Kings game Tuesday night. Any game now that you'd like to score is fine Army, really.

Oh well, that's about it, we'll see what shakes out at 10:30 tonight.

For me, it's over to a local mall tonight for my son and I to meet and get autographs from Rocky Bleier. I'm gonna see if he can fly up to Pittsburgh in time for tomorrow's game and suit up, the Steelers need all the help they can.

So what are the Pens doing right ??

The easy answer to the question, at least to the NHL layman, would be "Crosby and Malkin, silly".

OK, you'd be blind if that at least weren't a significant reason for the Pens' 5-3 start.

But if you're looking for the complete answer, there are many other pieces to the puzzle.

In order (my .02 anyways);

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1. Goaltending - Marc-Andre Fleury has been having an excellent season to date. His 2.65 GAA is ranked 17th among goalies, and his save percentage of .923 is ranked 10th. He's not constantly flailing out of position, allowing the easy tip-ins. He's not dropping to the butterfly so quickly. His rebounds, while still giving up a bit too many, are being deflected away to the boards, as opposed to directly in front of the net.

2. Defense - On what has been the main problem with the Pens for the last several years, the Pens defense so far has allowed 2.75 goals per game, good enough for 12th in the league. The amount of times that the aforementioned tap-ins occur is dramatically down. They're still giving up 32.5 shots per game, but that average is coming down.

3. Special Teams - Dramatic improvements in both special teams, some would say, is the biggest improvement for the Pens. The power play is now ranked 4th in the league, and the penalty kill is up to the 11th best. In my opinion, the penalty kill is looking outstanding, so much so that I'd predict that this unit will be among the top 10 for the year. That's an amazing turnaround in one year.

And yeah, sure, the terror twins of Crosby and Malkin are pretty good too.

The Pens embark on what turns out to be an important 4 game road trip starting Saturday night in Philly. I'm not concerned about the Pens coming out sharp, the Flyer fans will take care of that by themselves. Look for some serious hitting that night, as I'm sure the Flyers will attempt to get under the skin of Sid and Geno.

It's the next 3 games after the Flyers game that concerns me. The Pens have rarely played well out West. Combine that with the fact that 2 out of the 3 games out there will come against among the best teams in the NHL in San Jose and Anaheim.

This road trip will be a true test where this team really is.

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Karl Stewart was placed on waivers and claimed by the Blackhawks. No big loss to me, I've liked the energy that Thorburn has been showing on the 4th line. The only unfortunate thing to me was that they placed Saborin on waivers to make room for Stewart, and now he's gone too.

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Eric Cairns is on his way to WBS for a conditioning assignment. His situation is very interesting. You've got Cairns probably playing in WBS for maybe two weeks. Brooks Oprik is already beginning to practice with the Pens, albeit lightly practicing. If Orpik comes back, say prior to the West Coast games begin, Letang will be on his way home. However, when Cairns is ready, what will the Pens do then ?? Scuderi/Melichar trade ?? Cairns trade ??

We shall see....

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.

Pens annual golf tourney; A possible Malkin update ??

Let me say right off of the bat, I'm a big Stan Savran fan.

I strongly disagree with those that claim Stan is a Steeler/Pirate apologist, yadda, yadda, yadda. That's utter bovine feces (read: B.S.). I find that he never has a problem saying if he believes a player and/or coach is doing lousy. And he also isn't one of those broadcasters who thinks they're Mr. Rumor Mill, like some others in Pittsburgh do (even though they don't step one foot in a locker room, hmmm).

Anyway, I digress.

Stan broadcast Sportsbeat tonight at the Pens' annual golf tournament. Some interesting items of note;

• Malkin and Gonchar on the putting green, apparently "Gino" (I guess that's Malkin's nickname from the team, since Evgeny is Eugene in Russian) had never played golf before.
• Interviewed six players, including Crosby, Staal, Moore, Leclair, Armstrong, and Fleury. All of them gave glowing reviews to the experience at West Point.
• The interview with Coach Therrien might have given a possible hint at when Malkin may return. He said he definitely won't be playing the first two games of the season, and they'll take it from there. Hmmm, maybe the 12OCT game in New York ?? They did show video of him at practice today, he seemed fine to me. We'll just have to see when he can take a hit on that shoulder.
• Also interviewed Steigy and Errey. Errey seemed quite disappointed that Talbot and Welch were sent down to WBS. Personally, I concur with the team in sending Talbot down, but I would have liked to see Welch stay with the big boys, and take a chance on getting either Melichar or Scuderi (flip a coin for the hell of it) through waivers to send down to WBS.

I really doubt that Staal will stay with the team the entire season, but I believe Letang is here for the long haul, just my .02.

Three days until the Flyers dive into town. Hell, I can't wait until Wednesday to watch Sabres-Canes.