Pens (29-17-4, 14-10-2 Road) at Leafs (25-19-6, 14-8-4 Home), Air Canada Centre, 7:30 pm EDT
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“When it rains, it pours, but when we goal, we roll.”
Okay, perhaps my NHL All-Star entertainment themed rap lyrics don’t impress, but you get the idea.
And phew, thank goodness Marc-Andre Fleury isn’t good enough to be an All-Star, otherwise he might have died from overexertion Tuesday night – he needed all of the week-off break he could muster against a turbo-charged Toronto squad.
The Penguins’ 5-4 shootout win might’ve led to a shooting by coach Dan Bylsma of his defensive corps had Fleury not stopped odd-man rush after odd-man rush.
Paul Martin made like Sergei Gonchar (circa spring ’10 playoffs) on the Leafs’ first goal, getting Phaneuf’d along the boards and then basically watching the Toronto defender set up forward Mikhail Grabovski from behind the Pittsburgh net.
Matt Niskanen played ole at the point on the Leafs’ second goal.
Deryk Engelland and Brooks Orpik missed golden opportunities to at least put the puck on net with wide open looks.
You get the point. Tuesday wasn’t one of Pittsburgh’s better lock-down performances by any stretch.
Still, when it mattered, a few breaks went a long way toward giving the Pens a chance to get back in the game.
Matt Cooke combined with Martin for an unlikely goal late in the second. Martin took a slapper that Cooke deflected beneath goalie Jonas Gustavsson’s blocker. Cooke’s goal was his first in 20 games since Dec. 10. The forward also leaked some of the feistiness missing from his new-found game with two minor penalties. He has six PIMs and eight hits the last two games.
Martin’s assist was his sixth in the last seven games. The defenseman’s production has gone largely unnoticed.
After Toronto took a 4-1 lead with two goals 19 seconds apart, Steve Sullivan found himself all alone on a breakaway attempt where he couldn’t pass to anyone else. The result? A beautiful slapper from the right dot past goalie Jonas Gustavsson for Pittsburgh’s second score.
Thanks to acrobatic saves by Fleury and Kris Letang, the Pens still had a chance.
When Joe Vitale cleaned up the garbage in front of the Leafs goal to make it 4-3 with 4:59 left, the pressure was squarely on Toronto. The Maple Leafs have the second-youngest average age in the NHL at 26.6 years of age and it showed.
With the Flower finally able to come out of his cage with 43 seconds remaining in regulation, Pittsburgh staged an offensive assault leading to James Neal-Evgeni Malkin magic. Neal’s shot smacked Geno’s left arm, deflecting past an outraged Gustavsson.
However, a closer look reveals that a selfish play by Toronto forward, Mikhail Grabovski, gave the Pens their last-minute opportunity. Grabovski, apparently more interested in securing a hat trick than a win, gained possession of the puck with 27 ticks left. Three seconds later, Grabovski steered a weak attempt from his own blue line toward the Pens net. Sullivan, playing emergency quarterback, easily corralled the shot/clear.
Had Grabovski simply pushed the puck along the left boards, no Penguin could’ve touched the puck and Pittsburgh would’ve been forced to regroup in its own end with time expiring.
As Don Henley sings in the Smuggler Blues, however, the lure of easy money, it’s got a very strong appeal.
A scoreless overtime led to a virtuoso performance by the Flower in the shootout. Fleury stoned Grabovski with the glove, quarantined a Nazem Kadri backhand and denied a Phil Kessel attempt that looked like he was more interesting in a walk in a park than scoring a goal.
The Penguins covered up some glaringly poor play Tuesday but came up big when it counted. Wednesday figures to be an interesting rematch with more of the same – unpredictable but interesting story lines.
*****
-The two best soccer-skilled Penguins I can think of are Evgeni Malkin and Martin Straka. Their feet are almost as dangerous as their sticks.
-Fleury’s four-goal performance is the best one I can recall in recent memory.
-I have yet to see another player with the threat of a potential cross-check as fierce as Brook Orpik’s.
-It would be kind of interesting to see Jeff Carter in a Penguins sweater, if only for the revenge factor against the Flyers.
-Colby Armstrong is expected to play against the Pens on Wednesday, so much for that 28 to 20 advantage in hits Tuesday night.
-James Reimer will start for the Leafs, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Dave Molinari.
-Dustin Jeffrey and Joe Vitale both went 10-5 on faceoffs. The Pens and Leafs each won 30 of 60 draws.
*****
Sidney Crosby is not a doctor and neither am I. That said, my opinion is that Crosby’s soft-tissue injury involves whiplash. The Mayo Clinic defines whiplash
here. One of the treatments is to wear a foam collar. Shades of Joey Mullen, anyone?
Crosby sounded hopeful that the soft tissue injury could be the culprit keeping him off the ice. Again, it doesn’t sound as though anyone can really say, with any authority, as to what’s causing the continued trauma. But at least it’s a start. The diagnosis gives Crosby something to hang his hat on, something tangible that he can actively attack and rehab.
My 92-year-old Aunt Helen always searches for a concrete medical reason as to why something hurts. Otherwise, she feels she should be perfectly healthy – never mind she’s 92 years old!
Let’s hope the most recent Sid diagnosis gives him some level of comfort – at least until that diagnosis changes again tomorrow or the next day.
*****
The ghosts of the Civic Arena, seen
here, sprang up against Toronto on Tuesday. The old barn doesn’t want to come down and isn’t giving up that easily, the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. Good for her!
*****
RINK LINKS
Crosby says there is no rift with medical staff, in the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Tom Brady lauds Crosby’s physical therapist, the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
Brent Johnson’s long wait is expected to end Wednesday, the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Crosby diagnosed with neck injury and won’t return until symptoms go away, according to the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Watch the Sidney Crosby press conference on the
Penguins’ Web site.
“Thank you everybody for coming, my name is Ray Shero and I am the general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins …”
*****
Treasure Life & Let’s Go Pens!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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