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Penguins Fall To Devils...Post Game Reaction |
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Updates at Bottom...
Tonight will mark the first time that Petr Sykora has met the team that drafted him as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sykora spent parts of seven seasons with the New Jersey Devils and still ranks tenth on both the all time goals (145) list and points (350) list for the Devils.
Colby Armstrong played three years under Devils head coach Brent Sutter when he was a member of the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL. The two captured the Memorial Cup Championship in 2001.
The Penguins Power Play was not overly effective against the Devils last season. Though the team scored 94 power play goals, they were able to convert only 2 of 23 chances against New Jersey.
Sidney Crosby has faced the Devils 14 times during his short career and he has been held off of the board on 6 occasions. Martin Brodeur was in net for all 6 of those games.
Still think that the Penguins need to acquire a face off specialist? Well, they may have found one in Adam Hall. Hall has won 61.9% of his chances this season. He has also been better than 50% in all three games he has played this year. Sidney Crosby has also been much improved in the circle. He has won 58% of his chances which is up from 49.8% a year ago. Crosby also won a career high 19 face offs against Montreal on October 10th. He ranks 11th in the league with 58 wins this season.
Keep an eye on Marc Andre Fleury tonight, as he always seems to be overly excited to face his idol, Martin Brodeur. Will the excitement help or hurt him?? It has done both in the past.
More in a bit...the Pens just hit the ice for warm ups.
*****
Rather than talk about the fact that MA let up 2 less than stellar goals, let's talk about the move the Sidney Crosby put on the devils team late in the period. He came into the zone on a pseudo 2 on 1, that was broken up. He pulled up, did a Savardlike spin-o-rama and fed a perfect pass between his legs to the late man coming in to the zone. What would have been a broken play tunred into another scoring chance. It never takes long for the kid to do something else unbelievable.
The Penguins played a decent period, though they were outshot 14-10...12-4 at one point. They seemed to be able to get plenty of traffic in front of Marty Brodeur. They were deflecting pucks in on him and shooting from odd angles and were finally rewarded with a couple goals.
The first came on a great give and go play between Max Talbot and Ryan Whitney. Max floated a nice pass to Whitney entering the zone and then went straight to the net. Whitney showed why he is becoming one of the premier offensive d-men in the league by laying a great saucer pass right on Talbots blade for the tip in.
The second was directly attributed to traffic, as Sergie Gonchar threw a shot towards the net on a late power play. Gary Robetrs got his stick on it and behind Brodeur it went.
All in all, a decent period against the Devils. The Penguins have 1:11 remaining on a power play...let's see what they can do...
More later...
*****
Insanity is breaking loose at Mellon Arena...I haven't heard the boos rain down like this in years.The Penguins spent the better part of the period in the penalty box. Some of the calls were warrented and some were not.
The bone of contention with this crowd stems from a goal that was disallowed. Somehow Malkin and Staal got behind the Devils defense, scoring of course. Well the Penguins had too many men on the ice and the referee made the call a bit late. While killing that penalty the Penguins were whistled again and the Devils scored a garbage goal. It was reviewed, but it was a good one. Fleury thought that he had the biscuit covered only to have it come free to Travis Zajac who knocked it him. Though the series of events stunk it is nice to see the crowd so alive and into the game.
The Penguins finally got a power play of their own late in the period and Malkin finally got his goal on a two man advantage. 71 was credited with the disallowed tally earlier.
Though they were able to tie the score at 4, the Penguins were not able to shake the penalty bugaboo and find themselves having to kill 3:39 when play resumes. At least their penalty killing has been up to the task...can they keep it going? We will see...
More in a bit...
*****
The Penguins have killed off the long penalty assessed to Ryan Malone and have had some chances. They need to stay disciplined...no more penalties. The refs seem to have put the whistles away for the time being, but they always tend to come out again late in the game. We will see...
*****
The Penguins seems to have some MO going into the latter stages of this game...Crosby is flying. Can he lead them to the promised land tonight? Maybe if one of his line-mates could hit the net?
*****
And there it is...the breakdown that we have all been waiting for. That was just horrible...Asham always seems to burn the Pens and they just let him do it again. First they were beaten on an icing call and the Devils turned it into the go ahead goal. Even with them not being "The Devils" this season, a late game lead could be all they needed.
More post game..
*****
First of all...here are some comments in regard to the comments you guys left on this blog.
The Sid penalty was called a trip, but actually went in the books as interference. They announced it wrong in the building.
The officials were horrible in this game, both ways. They let it get away from them and are lucky that things didn't get out of hand more so than they did.
The Penguins came out flat in the first period, but got some good chances on Brodeur, unfortunately they didn't get enough of them to go in tonight. The defense needs to tighten up and Fleury has got to make some stops. He let in two (arguably 3) soft goals tonight...that cannot happen as often as it has been. The first, third and fifth were horrible...especially the Pandolfo in the first and the first Zajac goal.
Let's put this one behind us and realize that they could have won the game if not for some bad breaks...imagine how it will be when they eliminate the mistakes.
On to the Player/Coach Reaction:
Sidney Crosby:
In regard to the game in general:
"Hard to play when you're in the box for a whole period. We spent the second period in the penalty box and we did a great job of battling hard and making sure it didn't hurt too much...obviously 15 minutes left in the game it's 4-4 and the got the last one."
Thoughts on the Too Many Men:
"I think we had 7 and they might have had 7, so..."
"They had too many guys on the ice period. So I don't know how that works...if it cancels out. I don't know. It's tough to get that call for sure."
On staying focused with all the penalties:
"I don't think there is an excuse there...the guys killing them did a great job. It was just penalties...you know when you get penalties you get 5 on 3s..it wasn't that, it was just one after another within 20 seconds, so those guys weren't getting a lot of rest. They did a great job of killing what they could...they had to go out there to start the third. They did a good job. They kept us in it. Like I said, it was 4-4...an even game...unfortunately they got the next one."
On the Devils Forecheck:
"We knew they were going to come hard...we were probably a bit guilty of not moving our feet. So it probably looked like they were moving a lot better. For us, I think it is a matter of not starting well, but I thought we picked it up after that."
On the Gionta Fleury Sandwich (Goal 4) and if he got an explanation from the official:
"I didn't ask...no. You can only spend so much energy worrying about that. Sometimes you are going to get tough breaks...it's frustrating for sure. You want it all to go your way...it's not going to happen. We still gotta find ways to win those. Obviously we battled hard but we came up short. Hopefully we can learn from it."
Coach Therrien:
Were there any positives:
"We saw some good things...guys play with a lot of energy. I think what happened in the 3rd period...we're short, but we have to find a way to win these type of games...we didn't tonight."
On whether NJ was more wide open these days:
"They usually have won games in the past...low score. You gotta be able to play a better defensive game or allow less goals because it’s too demanding to win game with 5 or 6 goals. This is what happens to us right now...we put too much pressure on ourselves...too demanding."
On the Gionta/Fleury Sandwich (Goal 4):
"They didn't see anything...they allowed the goal. You're not going to make me comment, so don't try to make me talk....I'm not going to make any comment."
The Defense...the style the team has been forced to play:
"Right now it seems that every time there is a break down the puck is in our net...so we have to play some catch up hockey and when you play some catch up hockey you have to open up. Because you have to try to...you're behind two goals and if you want to get back in the game you got no choice...you have to open up."
On the play of Marc Andre Fleury:
"It'll get better."
On the Malone penalty...(Ryan felt that he himself was selfish in taking the call):
"There is no doubt...that was not a good penalty. Unsportsmanlike conduct was not a good penalty."
Well, that is all for tonight...the Penguins are back in action Friday against the Hurricanes...Let's hope they can avenge their opening night loss.
5 Burning Questions will be up tomorrow...thanks again for all the great submissions...keep them coming. I will be unveiling the new logo tomorrow as well. Hope you guys don't mind my constant hyping...but our regular feature really seems to be taking off! Just want to keep it going!
Until tomorrow...
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