1:06 Welcome to the Three River Sports Live Blog of our beloved Pittsburgh Penguins taking on the Filth-adelphia Cryers. The tensions are always high in these games, and we'll be watching closely to see if Sidney Crosby's personal declaration of war on the Flyers continues. Ever since that Derian Hatcher dirty hit knocked out some of Sid's teeth and made bleed all over the ice, Sid has been transformed against Philly into a one man wrecking crew. Sid has something in common with his landlord, Super Mario in that they both own NHL teams, all Mario's is financial ownership of the Pens, whereas Sid just flat out owns the Flyers on the ice. Should be a good one.1:08 Marc Andre Fleury is still out, though he is in uni at least, as Dany Sabourin gets the start. Flyers win the faceoff and away we go.
1:10 With Sean Avery now out of the division, I think it's safe to say that Scott Hartnell is now my least favorite player and the guy that, if he suffered a career-ending injury tomorrow, I would be most excited about hearing. Just a dirty player with no real skill or ability whatsoever. Anyway, Geno takes a BS holding penalty. This already looks like a war in the making.
1:12 Looked like Mark Eaton was going to head to the box for firing one over the boards, but turns out just milliseconds before that, Joffrey Lupul held Jordan Staal. Not only do the Pens avoid being down 5 on 3 for a few seconds, they get a power play of almost 1:50. Good times! Let's see what they can do.
1:15 The Flyers PK outshoots the Penguins PP 2-zip. Not good times. And almost as soon as the Pens' power play ends, we have yet another penalty, this time on Matt Cooke for holding, as Jeff Carter started whining worse than Jim Boeheim after a Syracuse foul.
1:17 Joffrey Lupul puts the Flyers up 1-0 about 6 minutes into the first. A shot goes wide of Sabu, and for some reason he flopped down trying to make the save. Lupul grabbed it behind the net and stuffed it in. Paul Steigy is talking about the Flyers having a guy in the crease. Not sure about that one, and FSN of course doesn't show a replay after Steigy makes this statement to see if its true or not.
1:20 Okay yeah there was a guy in the paint for the Flyers that the official didn't call anything on. To be honest he didn't impede Sabourin at all though I don't think. Still, that's Cryers hockey for you.
1:23 Pens on the man advantage again. 4 penalties already, and of course the Flyers get another PK shot. Ridiculous. The Flyers are the most aggressive PK team I've ever seen I think. Logically that should mean the team on Power Play should be able to take advantage of this aggression, but that just doesn't seem to ever happen.
1:25 Jeff Taffe and Connor James both see time on the power play. Evidently the other 10 forwards all have food poisoning or something.
1:26 AHHH! Another penalty on the Pens. The Flyers special teams are superb. The Pens are a better 5 on 5 team, but I don't see how they can beat Philly in this kind of a game.
1:29 Good Lord, another Flyers goal, 2-0 Filth adelphia. Mike Knuble gets the goal after Mike Richards was given all kinds of time and space on an absolutely hideous PK effort by the Pens. This is my first Pens live blog, and if this keeps up it will be my last, too.
1:33 Hey it's another penalty, this time on the Flyers, though the way the Pens PP has played, I don't think it matters. And oh good! An interference call against Petr Sykora to even things up even though the refs blow two tripping penalties that should have been called on the Cryers. Nothing gets my blood pressure up to unhealthy levels like watching a poorly officiated hockey game.
1:39 The Flyers are just doing what they please in the offensive zone, getting things set up and moving the puck effectively. The Pens meanwhile are a hot mess when they get in the offensive zone, as the dump and chase has been their most effective tool thus far. Just hideous. Mikey Therrien is going to have some choice words at the intermission I think.
1:41 Ouch! A nasty looking hit on Ruslan Fedotenko, who got his head smashed into the boards. A moment later Fedotenko appears to be wide open on a breakaway but somehow ends up offside. Not his best shift.
1:43 End of the first period, I'll be back for the start of the second, 2-0 Flyers. The Pens need to change things up somewhere if they're going to get back into this one.
2:00 And we're back. The big intermission story was about sharpening the players' skates. Didn't take long for the well to run dry for Penguins stories at FSN.
2:04 Pens continue to be about as coordinated as diarrhea. I'm growing concerned here, as that offense just likes totally impotent right now.
2:06 Bob Errey makes a good point (imagine my surprise) about Dany Sabourin making plays on shots he doesn't have to because they are wide or high. This led to one of the Flyers earlier goals. They say its a potential confidence issue. Worth keeping an eye on.
2:09 Put on the board! J-Staal sneaks one behind Marty Biron for his 10th of the season! The Flyers lead is cut to 2-1. Tim Wallace, Ruslan Fedotenko and Alex Goligoski make that play happen for him as it started back at the other blue line and Rus and Golo both get assists on that one I believe. Wallace was as important as any there though and has faired pretty well in his 2 games since being called up.
2:12 Tim Wallace apparently comes from a long line of snow bowlers up in Anchorage Alaska. Good thing you're there Dan Potash.
2:16 CRAP! 3-1 Flyers, as Mike Richards reads a telegraphed play like he's Antonio Cromartie or something and takes it to the house on Sabu, who is having some issues out there it seems. That wasn't really his fault, though.
2:19 CRAP Part Two! 4-1 Flyers, and Scott F-Ing Hartnell scores for the Flyers. Nothing pisses me off as much as seeing that D-bag scoring a goal. This one is getting ugly.
2:25 Connor James takes a nasty spill in front of the Flyers net after being shoved down. What's more notable than yet another non-call from the refs (whose jerseys should probably be orange and black striped) is that there is little friskiness from the other Pens on the ice after this.
2:28 In a wildly transparent effort to get us fired up, Errey and Steigy spend a good deal of time ignoring the on-ice action and talking about the record-breaking pace of comeback wins this season in the NHL. Of course, this team looks half asleep right now and will need some kind of spark in order to get back in this game. So far they've shown little sign of a pulse.
2:30 Good lord another freaking Flyers goal, 5-1 now after Geno gives up a bad turnover and the rest of the Pens stand around staring as Mike Knuble rules in a pitiful shot past Dany Sabourin who is doing his best impersonation of the Dany Sabourin who gave up 4 goals in a period in his first ever game with the Pens.
2:33 In play typical of the most despicable city on the planet, a few Flyers knock Matt Cooke around with some cheap shots, the refs who apparently all wagered heavily on Philly today, call absolutely nothing and play continues even as a near fight is erupting in the corner. And, in typical fashion of the inhabitants of the 9th circle of hell, the Filth adelphia fans start chanting "Crosby sucks" as Sid comes over to help Matt Cooke while his useless teammates stand around doing nothing. Seriously what is going on with this Penguins team chemistry?
2:35 Mercifully, the period ends. I'm thinking we may see Marc-Andre Fleury in the third period. I mean why not at this point? Let him go out there and shake off some of the rust. And for some reason, Bob Errey thinks MAF has a shot at making the All-Star team even though he's third on his own team in Save % and is well behind Carey Price in the fan voting, because Errey is rooting for Flower to get into the game so he can get closer to qualifying for all-star play. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that head of his. I'll be back for the third.
2:38 Uhmm...Dan Potash, why are you interviewing Scott Hartnell?!? Way to know your audience there FSN. The last person on the planet earth I want to hear from there is Scott Freaking Hartnell. The only way I would've wanted to see that interview is if Potash was setting Hartnell up for a sniper to pick off or something.
2:52 We're back here and ready for the third period. If the Cryers get up 6-1, I'm probably going to pull the plug on this thing, as I just really don't know if I have the heart to write about a blowout loss to our archrivals. We'll see. And by the way, for some reason, Marc-Andre Fleury is not in the game. I guess maybe they're still not 100% on him being able to play, but as Bob Errey points out, there shouldn't be any doubt about Fleury's health if they were willing to send Curry down today. I don't know, this seems like the ideal time, but they'll have 4 days until their next game to get Flower ready, so I guess that's enough for the Pens.
2:58 Pens don't have a shot in the first 6 minutes of the third period, and as Errey and Steigy have pointed out about 20 times in the last few minutes, our boys just look flat tired out there right now. They look ready for that nice break.
3:02 Seriously someone needs to take that Potash-talking-with-an-actual-Penguin commercial out back and shoot it. In fact we should probably do a similar thing with Potash himself. Can you tell I'm a little grumpy? Yeah.
3:04 Finally some heated moments. Mike Richards goes over to get in Matt Cooke's face about Cooke's earlier hit on Kimmo Timonen. Richards partically shat himself when he realized Cooke wanted to throw down and quickly looked around for backup. Sid came blistering over and jumped on top of some useless Flyers player. And of course, all the demon spawn sitting in the Wachovia Hell hole are chanting "Crosby sucks." We all know you're jealous that we have a once-in-a-generation Canadian talent who actually panned out, unlike Eric "The Human Concussion" Lindros. Seriously, how long before the city of Filth Adelphia is just walled up and forgotten about like New York is in that old "Escape from New York" movie? It needs to happen. Nothing even remotely useful comes from there.
3:09 HOLY CRAP! Eric Godard scored a freakin' goal! Just as I was about to call it day with this blog, Godard scores and allows me to say I was here for a truly historic moment. 5-2 Flyers now, and that is a pretty god awful moment for the Flyers team a whole. Godard might be the least offensively talented player in the NHL. And almost as importantly, Geno gets an assist to up his league leading total.
3:15 Looks like Russie Fedotenko may have been injured more than I thought on that earlier dirty hit. He hasn't returned to the lineup it turns out, which explains why Godard was playing with Geno.
3:18 Eric Godard and Scott Hartnell go toe to toe and Hartnell goes down in a hurry there, clearly wanting no part of Godard and instead turtles up almost instantly. Seriously Hartnell, grow a freaking pair.
3:20 As Errey points out, Godard is now an assist away from the Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Unfortunately, he got an additional 2 minutes onto his penalty and won't be returning unless the Pens pull off a miracle and take it to OT. Too bad.
3:21 Freakin Jeff Carter tips in a Lupul shot and it's 6-2 Filth Adelphia. Rough day for the Pens penalty kill and for Dany Sabourin. Let's hope thats the last of the day.
3:23 Tim Wallace nearly bats one in for a goal, but Marty Biron won't help a brother out. Too bad that would've been a cool thing to see, as Wallace is playing pretty well.
3:26 Well so much for Russie Fedotenko being out, he somehow snuck back in there and puts a goal on the board, 6-3 Flyers with less than 2 minutes to go. Jeff Taffe and Petr Sykora get the assists for the Pens.
3:28 And that will do it from the Wachovia Hellhole, 6-3 Filth adelphia Cryers top our beloved Pens. The Pens just look flat beat at this point and I'm sure will savor their next few days off as they try to climb out of this funk they've been in of late.
While today certainly didn't go as planned, here's a little reminder for us Pens fans of that little showdown from last spring:
I'll be at the Pitt game tonight folks and will give you an update tomorrow on what I saw from the team, and will have a preview of the Steelers and Baltimore Biridies up tomorrow as well.
Posts
