Staal Falls

photo credit

Today's game against the Montreal Canadiens started on a sour note, and didn't get much better for our Pens. Maybe they were a little off balance after four days off. Maybe they were distracted by thoughts of taking on the Capitals tomorrow, and got overconfident. But the 5-3 loss of this game was sad. The Canadiens have barely scrabbled their way into the top half of the NHL rankings, and they were missing several key players this afternoon due to injury. Our recap:

++Staal falls: 3

++People involved in a Staal fall: 2

++Falls resulting in successful goal: 0

++Malkin in the box: 1 (though it was Billy Guerin's penalty)

++Fights: 2

I was expecting a fight a bit earlier in the game. Less than 30 seconds in, Fleury moved behind the goal to redirect a puck and was shoved over by the Canadiens' Mathieu Darche. Before Flower could move back into the crease, they had scored on the empty net. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that a penalty should have been called for goaltender interference...but it wasn't. And said goaltender was pissed. The Pens coaches were reported as saying that the refs later apologized for screwing up that call, but the tone was set. I had thought the Pens would lay the smackdown on Darche for the cheap shot, but it then occurred to me that I may have watched too many Capitals games this week. Team Ovechkin would have been all over that.

I'm sure I'm biased, but I thought the Canadiens (and their fans) showed a real lack of sportsmanship through this game. From Darche's goaltender hit to the fans repeated rendition of "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" for most of the last TEN MINUTES of the game...it was not attractive. And it's sad because they were in Quebec, and I wanted to like the French Canadians. Their accents are so cute. Anyway...we'll see who's on top, come playoff season. In the meantime, the Pens are scheduled to take on the Caps tomorrow. I would worry about how today's play will affect them, but given the 2.5 feet of snow dumped on DC today I think they'll have bigger problems. Hopefully the game will go on, and our Pens will manage a good showing after the bus ride (ew) from Newark.