Gameday Poop: Game 3 – Penguins vs Senators – Open Season on Sutton

Call it lighting a fire under the Penguins collective arses or call it awakening a sleeping giant Penguin, the cheap shot Andy Sutton threw at Jordan Leopold will end up being the Senators undoing. From that point on you could tell that the Penguins finally had that hatred for their rival that according to Max Talbot is needed to win a series. Talbot and Rupp’s gritty play at the end of the period really brought the team and fans to life and really did show why they are needed in the lineup.

Marc-Andre Fleury looked better, he didn’t let any easy ones in, the first shot was the Penguins defense once again backing in too far, and just an incredibly placed hard shot to the top corner. The Penguins defense picked it up after that and was a big difference keeping the shots down to 20 and clearing the zone fast. The Penguins spent around fifteen minutes in the offensive zone, to the Senator 7 minutes. That is a big difference.

We have all heard about the Gordie Howe hat trick a goal, an assist and a fight all in the same game, now there’s the Sidney Crosby hat trick, a goal, an assist and a save all in the same game.

Max Talbot wrote in his blog the other day about how he has something to prove these playoffs. He wrote it in French, but I had my good friends at Google translate it to english for you, you can read it here: “I can not wait and we wait”

Friday wasn’t the last game at the Mellon Arena, but every media person reported that it could be. I don’t know about you but I’m tired of hearing about it already and you know we’re going to hear about it 50 thousand more times before the playoffs are over.

Is it possible the Penguins Kris Letang is playing the wrong side on defense? Letang worked extra on his shot after practice with assistant coaches before last game and for a while it didn’t seem like it was helping after he missed the net five times from the left side, but his first shot from the right side was a game winner. Just a little something to think about.

Jordan Leopold will not be playing tonight because of the illegal head shot by Andy Sutton in last game. Luckily for the Pens, they have a more than capable defenseman to take his place, Jay Mckee. I have thought since the Penguins picked up Leopold that the best defensive lineup would have Mckee in
place of Eaton.

Speaking of lineups, the Penguins have not posted the lineup for today’s game, but look for the Penguins to keep the lines the same as Bylsma last year did not change the lineups after a win unless there was an injury. Goaltender Brent Johnson was back practicing this morning, look for him to back up
Fleury tonight.

The NHL has decided that it would be best if they completely avoided anything controversial in the playoffs. This will force the players once again to police the game themselves causing open season on Andy Sutton.  We have a PenguinPoop exclusive! We are lucky to have a friend that interns at the NHL main offices and we had her secretly tape the phone conversation between NHL head cheese Gary Bettman and the guy in charge of dishing out suspensions Colin Campbell the night of the Sutton cheap shot on Jordan Leopold. Here is the transcript:

Bettman “Hey Colin, you watching the game?”
Campbell “Yeah, the Yankees are up 5-1 but it’s in rain delay”
Bettman “I love football, but I was talking about the Pittsburgh hockey game”
Campbell “Just changed the channel, But I didn’t pay extra for the NHL network”
Bettman “I’m getting a bunch of messages about a Andy Sutton cheap shot”
Campbell “Ah, those Sutter brothers always did play cheap”
Bettman “Sutton, S.U.T.T.O.N. Andy Sutton”
Campbell “Oh, He must be one of their sons”
Bettman “Pittsburgh is looking for a suspension”
Campbell “Gary, you know I don’t like making decisions, someone always gets upset with me. How ’bout we just do nothing like we did last year in the playoffs?”
Bettman “That’s a good idea, maybe it will just go away, I’ll let you go back to watching football.”

The Penguins called up Big Ben. No, not the one that takes advantage of drunken women and has his friends destroy all the evidence. 6ft 2in Penguin defenseman Ben Lovejoy was recalled from the Penguins AHL farm team to be a back up defenseman since Jordan Leopold won’t be playing anytime soon. Lovejoy is ready for the NHL and should already be in the lineup. The Pens need a big defensive defenseman.

I’m going to start a Pittsburgh Steeler blog so I can rip on Ben Roethlisberger. I think I’ll call it SteelerPoop.

One of my favorite parts of Friday’s game was when Jarkko Ruutu looked back at Crosby then faked going into the boards head first to draw a penalty and almost hurt himself pretty badly doing it. That’s trying to take one for the team, and also stupid because we’ve seem him do it over and over again for years here in Pittsburgh. We’ll give him a 4.3 out of 10 for the Greg Louganis head off the board attempt.

This is a must watch video of Sidney Crosby wheeling and dealing behind the net faking Jason Spezza right out of his jockstrap. This is the Canadian feed, the key part is to watch at the 34 second mark when I kid you not, Jason Spezza looks for his jockstrap! Don Cherry’s description of it is pretty good later in the video right up until he calls Alex Goligoski – Gonchar. Also pay attention to the great job Billy Guerin does screening the goaltender on Letang’s shot.

 

Additional Reading: Penguins Are A Good Road Playoff Team

Gametime is 6:30PM and can be seen in HD at Scotiabank Place or on FSN Pittsburgh. *Versus and CBC will airing the game outside the Pittsburgh area.

* The “Gameday Poop” is provided to give you enough information to sound intelligent while talking about hockey for 10 minutes. Anything after that and your on your own.

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