The Pittsburgh Penguins are taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning at home tonight and for the second game in a row, if the Penguins win, they mathematically eliminate their opponent from the playoffs. Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar have been back practicing with the Pens and Sergei Gonchar had been penciled back into the lineup after his bout with strep 
throat, but the Penguins said this morning that both will not be in the lineup this evening. Keep Gonchar away from the rest of the team.
Ryan Malone may be playing tonight, back from the from upper body injury/knee surgery combo injury he had. It sounds like from Tampabay.com that he might be rushing it back to play one last time at the Mellon Arena. On his thoughts about them tearing the Arena down he said: “I asked for seats already, that would be pretty cool to have three or four seats from there.”
The best quote came from Lightning coach former Penguin Rick Tocchet about the Penguin team he was on in the 1990’s. “I really think that team could have won 3 or 4 Cups, then contracts came involved and a lot of stuff came into play, so a lot of factors. I think we could have won 4 or 5 Cups.” I bet if he kept talking he would of had them winning 9 or 10 cups, even funnier is the fact that he was only on the team for 2 1/2 seasons. That’s a lot of cups for 2 1/2 seasons.
The Penguins have killed off 42 of the past 45 power plays that’s an astounding 95.5% kill rate.
The Penguins signing Kris Letang to a 4 year $3.5 million a year contract signals an end between the Pens and Sergei Gonchar after the season unless Gonchar changes his mind and takes less or a shorter contract. I believe that Gonchar’s worth to the team is way overstated in the media. He has the teams worst plus/minus at -7, in fact he is the only Pittsburgh Penguin defenseman that’s a minus. As far as his power play worth is concerned, do you really believe the Pens powerplay can get worse?
I was on the NHL.com website last night checking out game scores when I looked over at the news on the side bar and saw this “Caveman Ovechkin” thing together. I can’t make this stuff up. >>>
The big story in tonight’s game is Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos race for the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy given to the leagues top goal scorer. Crosby, Ovechkin and Stamkos all have six games left, Ovechkin & Stamkos both played yesterday and neither scored a goal. Crosby leads with 47 goals, Ovechkin in second with 46 and Stamkos is in 3rd with 45. They will all play each other 1 more time this season.
Call 911! Sidney Crosby has won 911 face-offs, that’s over 100 more than the next closest player in the NHL.
The Flyers Dan Carcillo has been suspended by the league for an intentional high stick to the face of David Clarkson. Flyers GM Holmgren had this to say: “I am disappointed in this decision by the League office, this was clearly an accidental high stick and I do not believe a match penalty was the call that was warranted.” Here is Holgrem’s idea of an accidental high stick:
One more Rick Tocchet quote: about the ice at Mellon Arena, “the ice was always good. You felt good every home game because the ice was good. And I needed good ice because I had the snow boots on.”
Gametime is 7:30PM and can be seen in HD at the Igloo or on Versus.
* 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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wow kutdacheese that is quite possible the stupidest most idiotic argument I have ever heard. Let’s blame Goligoski for the Penguin coaches not being able to make the powerplay work all year.
Goligoski is 2nd on the team in goals, and has the highest shooting percentage of the entire defense. He may only have 50 hits but Mckee only has 56 and Gonchar only 61. Keep in mind Goli has seen the least amount of playing time and is a plus five – Gonchar is a minus 7.
Other than Gonchar not one other Penguin defenseman has even 1/2 the goals that your Goalessgoski has and this is his first full season. Yeah, he’s going to make some mistakes, he’s 24.
You should stop playing drinking games and watch a game.
Goligoski IMHO isn’t ready to be a prime time player. Not even close.
I thought for a while he was just having a bad game or two – then thought maybe it’s the injury – but now have come to the conclusion that he just doesn’t have it.
Oh, he has some attributes in that he appears to skate well AND SOMETIMES demonstrates the ability to hit a forward with a sweet long pass but all-in-all I’m officially putting the 2-thumbs-down on this guy.
To me he’s a choker who has that deer in the headlights look so much that it drastically affects the PP. Even when Gonchar’s in there. He is not a very good PP QB and his poor judgement on the PP affects the PP adversely.
To top that off, he is very undersized to do anything else. He doesn’t play very well against bigger forwards and quite frankly if there was a drinking game for how many shots he takes directly into players we would all be wasted every game. Goligoski chokes. Goligoski slows down the PP because of his very obvious indecision with the puck.
Goligoski coughs-up the puck REGUARLY and for ever sweet pass out of his own zone there are two that are horrible. He has shown no sign of being able to handle the NHL pressure and IMHO should be benched. I’d be surprised to see a recovery unless this guy is playing hurt – but I don’t buy that either.
This is one of Ray Shero’s mistakes. Hopefully he finds some way to leverage the MIA Poniakaroroskyski and Goalessgoski and take that money to resign Gonchar.
Okay………… rant finished.
As to learning how to QB the PP I’m hoping it’s on another team. As for Letang . . . I have no problem with him on the PP other than someone telling him to put the shots on net and try not to surgically attempt placing each and every shot in the upper corner from the point.
As to Gonchar staying or going……….. the MIA Ponikarovsky ($2.5m) and (please be MIA) Goligoski ($2.75m) would be more than enough to keep him. I’m thinking even Shero sees that Goligoski isn’t the answer.
I agree, we should put Brooks Orpik on the point of the power play.
I’m thinking that Goligoski has become an item of major concern. This isn’t a little one time mistake. He’s coughing up the puck and passing to covered players on the PP so much now that a benching is in order. I cringe every time he has the puck on his stick.
Goligoski makes $1.25 mil not $2.75 mil.
“To me he’s a choker who has that deer in the headlights look so much that it drastically affects the PP”
This “Choker” lead our team to the Calder Cup 2 years ago leading the team in scoring, not just leading the defense, he lead the entire team. Give this kid a chance. I don’t see that many Pitt Pens games, but I promise you as soon as he figures it all out and gets his confidence he’ll be way better than Gonchar ever was.
Crosby needs 3 goals to get 50 and he has 5 games left. Why does he need to do everything in such dramatic fashion? Just get the goals already!!!!
That’s a typical Tocchet quote, I’m hoping we find a real coach next year. With all the talent on this team we shouldn’t be 2nd to last. He’s a nice guy but I think he may have been hit in the head a few too many times. Maybe we can get Therrian!
Another thing to watch for in tonight’s game is that is probably the last time Tampa Bay will have the duo of Vinnie Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis. Most likely, one of them is going to have to be moved in the off season. With Stamkos getting ready to get his first real contract after next season, and then Victor Hedman the year after that, Tampa Bay can’t afford to be hamstrung by two guys making a combined $13 million. In the last 10 years that these two have played together, they have netted 549 goals and 746 assists.