Staal Falls

I mean...it's kind of creepy. After a disappointing loss to Ottawa last week, the Pens took on their 2009 playoff championship rivals at Mellon Arena this afternoon. It promised to be a good matchup, as both teams are very tough. Unfortunately, sometimes a good, even matchup just makes for a pretty boring game. It took nearly two entire periods for the Pens to put a goal on the board, and well into the third before the Red Wings tied it up.

++Staal falls: 3

++Most people involved in a Staal fall: 2

++Staal falls resulting in a successful goal: 0 (but not for lack of trying, especially in the third)

++Number of times Malkin landed in the box: 1

++Fighs: 2

It seems like both sides were trying to stir up a bit of a rivalry here. I guess playing each other for the Stanley Cup championships 2 years running will do that to people. Flower was quoted as saying something to the effect of, "I don't think they like us very much...but we don't like them either". All he needed to do was stick his tongue out, and we could have had a really nice grade-school scene going on.

Today's only regulation goal was scored by Sidney Crosby (surprise, surprise). Regular time ended with a 1-1 tie, which was maintained through the five minute overtime period, culminating in a shootout. I would like to say that the shootout was just awesome to watch, and I'm sure it was exciting, but I was foiled by TWC again. The recording cut off before OT was over, and I missed the end. But apparently Sidney and Malkin came through again, and put the Pens up, 2-1.

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I guess this'll have to be a combined recap of the last week or so. Special thanks to "p kels" for allowing us to take over his computer for the Capitals game. I really hope they show the next one on a channel that we get, so we can watch it on Riz's shiny new TV instead of a rather small computer monitor. I'm going to use screen size as an excuse for why I wasn't paying all that much attention. Some points were made, penalties were handed out, and the Pens got a smackdown from Ovechkin and Co. We were super sad. Really.

On Sunday our Pens took on the Flyers again. And beat them. Again. This one actually wasn't broadcast on Center Ice either, plus Riz and I were a little distracted by some live hockey. We went to see the Hurricanes take on the Boston Bruins in Raleigh. We got cheap tickets (or what passes for cheap tickets in hockey) and Riz wanted to see Patrice. This was another one where I wasn't really sure who to pull for. But I ended up being excited to see the Canes pull a huge 5-1 victory. It's so rare this season, after all. Riz was of a different opinion about the final result, but good times were had by all. And it wasn't like we were really cheating on our Pens. We even wore our Penguins shirts, and we were thinking about them the whole time...

Last night we finally got to watch a game on the good TV again. The Penguins were playing the NY Rangers, so it was Jordan Staal vs. big brother Marc. Riz and I disagree on which Staal brother has an edge, in both looks and talent. Riz favors Eric, while I have to go with Jordan, but we do agree that it's definitely between those two for the number 1 spot (sorry Marc and Little Staal). Anyway, we had no qualms about cheering solely for the Pens in this one. But I still have to admit to zoning out a bit.

I know Jordan Staal fell at least once because Marc shoved him. And Malkin landed in the box at least once. The weirdest moment came from a rare highsticking penalty called on Jordan. It looked to be a very average penalty. Jordan kind of tapped a Ranger in the chest with his stick, but there was no falling, no fighting, no blood, no nothing. And yet the refs felt that deserved 4 minutes in the sin bin. We were confused. It turned out to be irrelevant, as the Rangers couldn't score in the third, even with a man advantage for nearly six straight minutes. Pascal Dupuis put the puck in the empty net for the last Pens goal, making the final tally a 4-2 victory.

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And the return of Malkin didn't hurt either. Tuesday's game against the NY Islanders saw Brent Johnson return to the nets after recoving from an "undisclosed lower body injury" (why don't they just say broken groin...that's circumspect enough). The Pens desperately needed Johnson to be on point, since they sent Little Malkin back to Wilkes-Barre and Curry was the backup. And for once, they got what they needed. Johnson gave a fantastic performance and, except for some shaky moments early in the third, the rest of the Pens stepped up too.

Times Jordan Staal fell: 0

Times Malkin landed in the box: also 0

Fights: 2

The biggest drama stemmed from a major penalty against Pascal Dupuis late in the game, where he was shoved into the boards and left the ice with a towel over his face. And a puddle of blood behind. The perpetrator, Andy Sutton, has since been suspended without pay for two games for his vicious boarding. Well-deserved, I would say.

This game also marked a great comeback for Crosby and Malkin. With very few goals in the last dozen or so games, and miserable power play stats, both players were slipping fast from past season performances. Between the two, they scored not one, not two, but three power play goals. Malkin also scored the final point of the game against the Islanders' empty net, landing him his fifth career hat trick :D And Crosby's two goals now leave him tied for #1 in goal scoring for the season.

Tomorrow marks this season's first matchup between our Pens and the Washington Capitals, or as they're commonly known, Team Ovechkin. Of course, such a fantastic game must be broadcast exclusively on NHL Net and not available to Riz and me. Totally unacceptable, so we may have to bounce a boy from his room for his internet connection. Can't wait!

Image Credit: www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60G0J720100117?type=sportsNews

Poor Johnson.  Poor Flower.  It seems that we've managed to lose both of our goalies to unforeseen injuries (I hope Flower's finger didn't get all bendy cause that's pretty gross) and two new players had to be brought up from the baby Pens, if only for a day.  Slick and I were less than impressed with Curry but we were pretty pleased with the goal tending skills of  Pechurski.  It was incredibly cute to watch him play his first NHL game and for him to do so well during the third period.  Unfortunately the Penguins ended up losing 6-2 to the Canucks (lamest uniforms ever btw).  By the time that Pechurski took the net, the damage had pretty much been done.  Hopefully the Pens will keep the new goalie, at least until Fleury and Johnson get better, as he's pretty cute and Malkin could always use someone else to talk to (they're from the same home town, yay Russians).  Regardless, we hope Flower gets well soon as the team seems rather sad without him.  This week's countdown:

++Staal Falls:  1 

++Times Malkin ended up in the box: 2

++Fights: 2

All in all this game wasn't terribly exciting but the two temp-goalies more than peaked our interests.  Let's hope that Flower, Johnson and Orpik come back soon and that the Pens start to perk up.   We're also very sorry to see Caputi and Lovejoy go back to the AHL, maybe they'll be back soon.

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Looks like a change of scenery has brought out the inner Canadian in both Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury. Wednesday's game against the Calgary Flames was miles above the previous rout by the Wild. They even scored on the power play! And while we recognize that Flower did seem to be finally getting himself together, we must be honest...he is also one lucky bastard. Our recap:

++Times Jordan Staal fell: 0

++Times Malkin landed in the box: 1 (to match Crosby's 1)

++Fights: 1 (the other two skirmishes would probably be more accurately categorized as dogpiles)

All in all, not a super exciting game. Even the fight was pretty anemic...I think both players would have just given up before being pulled apart by the refs. But I'm sure that would be some kind of Man Code violation or something.

The Jordan Staal award is given to Flames forward Mark Giordano. His out of control scoring attempt caused him to fly into the Pens goal, tipping over Flower and dislodging the net. Our Pens were not pleased.

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Sorry, couldn't resist. The Pens took on the Wild in Minnesota on Monday. During the pre-game, the announcers reminded us that Sidney Crosby has played quite a bit of hockey in the North Star State. This prompted Riz to comment that Crosby attended Hockey Hogwarts as junior player. As cool as hockey is, I think I'd rather have quidditch. We would have liked to watch the Pens play the Maple Leafs, as the actually won that game, but TWC denied us two in a row. We were stuck with the Wild, and the final tally, a 4-3 loss, may have given Jordan Staal and the rest something to cry about. Our recap:

++Times Jordan Staal fell: 5 (I think that's a record this season)

++Most people involved in a Staal fall: 2

++Number of falls resulting in a goal: 0

++Times Malkin landed in the box: 0

++Fights: nothing of note

The Staal Award is bestowed upon Sidney Crosby for this game. After a wild scoring attempt in the second period, Crosby had a bit of a hard time stopping and ended up in the Wild net.

Since the Pens had a couple of days off, we decided to pass the time by watching Ovie, Sasha, Nicky and the Caps play a couple of games in Florida. That, in turn, led to our discovery of a rather disturbing website: The Scarlet Caps. Now, it may seem like a nice effort that Washington is reaching out to the women's contingent, but Riz and I are insulted on behalf of female hockey fans everywhere. We fully admit that we are not exactly hockey experts, but I don't think we need a tutorial to tell us what the goalie does. We will give them major points, though, for their "Meet the Players" section. They have a small photo gallery featuring Ovechkin, and you can't see his teeth in any of the shots. And all of the player photos manage to avoid showing that mangy look that they get late in the playoff season, when they quit grooming. At least other women realize that it's not a cute look.

Ok...we will now quit cheating on our Penguins with the Capitals. The Pens take on Calgary tonight, and we wish them luck. Hopefully this road trip will turn out better than the last one.

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Looks like Dan Bylsma has decided to mix it up a bit in the hopes of pulling the Penguins out of a slump. He chose to start Brent Johnson in nets, and called up Luca Caputi from the baby Pens (another Canadian, yay). Caputi is not a very pleasant name, so I think we'll call him Luca. Turned out to be a smart move in Tuesday's game against ATL, when newbie Luca scored a goal and Johnson blocked 31 shots. Final result...a 5-2 Pitt victory.

++Times Jordan Staal fell: 2

++Most people involved in a Staal fall: 2

++Staal falls resulting in a goal: 0 (but he did score, twice...so close to a hat trick!)

++Number of times Malkin landed in the box: 0, this was a surprisingly well-mannered game

Tonight's Jordan Staal Award for Excellence in Falling is hereby awarded to Thrasher forward Chris Thorburn and an unidentified referee. An unintentional collision behind the Pens net early in the first period led to one ungainly wobble and one full-on wipeout. Apparently Jay-Z's not the only one who can trip a referee. It could probably count as Penguins defense since it kept Thorburn from stealing the puck and scoring on a distracted Brent Johnson.

Riz and I had a plan to watch the latest matchup between the Pens and Flyers on Thursday, but TWC's suckitude reared it's ugly head again. Apparently all the extra $$ (on top of already outrageous cable prices) for NHL Center Ice isn't enough to gain access to NHL Net. Because that makes sense. It looks like the Flyers took an early lead in that game, and although the Penguins tried to rally in the third, Philly took their first victory over the Pens this season. Let's hope that's an event that doesn't repeat itself...the last thing the Flyers need is unattractive egos to go with such hideously unattractive hair.

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Picture Credit:  http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/multimedia/photo_gallery/0901/nhl.winter.classic.2009/images/winter-classic-wrigley-field(2).jpg

Happy New Year everyone!  Slick and I are aware of the fact that we've been neglecting our blog but we've decided that our New Year's resolution will be to restart our commentary on our favourite Staal's weekly adventures on the ice.  Therefore we decided that our first blog of 2010 should be about the 2010 Winter Classic featuring the evil and rather unkempt looking Flyers against the excellently attired Bruins (yay Patrice!).  Although the game itself was not terribly exciting, until the very end, we enjoyed watching them play outside.  We particularly enjoyed how they managed to cram every bit of americana into a 3 hour spectacular.  There were kids, policemen, firefighters, soldiers, flags, a fighter plane and even some colonials.  Our favourite part was when they played the Canadian national anthem even though neither team was Canadian.  We're not complaining as we unanimously agree that they have a much better song than the US.  As you all probably know the Bruins came out the winners as it should be (wth was with that Sweet Caroline musical interlude, btw), but the true winners of the night in our opinion were Alexander Ovechkin and of course the lovely Sidney Crosby.  

Slick and I had watched the Crosby/Talbot Reebok ad the previous day (and if you haven't seen the full thing, you definitely should as it is extremely adorable), but we were most definitely looking forward to watching the ad in HD.  Unfortunately they did not air the full thing but what they did show was still cute and it did feature the dryer (which is apparently now in the hockey hall of fame, hm...).  Slick, who's a big Talbot fan, particularly enjoyed the end and Talbot's taunts about game seven (although it's not our captain's fault that he was injured).  If you haven't seen the full ad, click on the box below and it should take you to the full thing.  

We also thoroughly enjoyed the Capitals vs Flyers ad that showed them snowed in at an airport and playing hockey in front of a plane.  Ovechkin as usual looked all sparkly and Russiany although we wish that they'd chosen a more worthy team than the Flyers to share the screen with the lovely Caps.  I wish they'd shown more of Niklas than just his face over Ovie's shoulder but it's better than nothing.  Also how could the forget Sasha?!  What a shame (check out the full ad below the Reebok ad).  Anyway you guys should definitely take a look at both ads as they are both funny and cute.  We hope to be more consistent with our blogging this year and lets hope Fedotenko gets what he asked Santa for this year or if nothing else maybe Ovie can take the cup to Russia this year (let's hope he gets named Captain now that they've traded Clark :( although if it means keeping Sasha, it was a worthy sacrifice).  Happy New Year again.

-Riz and Slick

Reebok Ad

Caps vs Flyers