Gameday Poop: Pittsburgh Penguins vs Detroit Red Wings – January 31

Game time is 12:30PM and can be seen in Super HD at the Igloo or on NBC 

When the Penguins knocked off the reining Stanley Cup Champs last June, Detroit started to slowly fall apart. It started with Marian Hossa saying he wanted to keep playing in Detroit and then jumping ship for Chicago (sound familiar?) along with the Red Wings Tomas Kopecky, then Detroit lost ex-Penguins Ty Conklin & Mikael Samuelsson and had a huge kick in the nuts when Jiri Hudler opted for the KHL instead of staying with the Red Wings. By the time it was all said and done Detroit had lost players that had accounted for over 1/3 of the goals they had the previous season. 

The injury riddled Red Wings are currently not owners of a playoff spot. Mike Babcock the Red Wings coach is also Canada’s Olympic hockey team coach, and you have to wonder why Olympic Hockey GM’s wait to the last minute to pick the players on how well they are doing currently, but they do not wait last minute to pick the coaches. Is it possible the players confidence in the coaches ability will be undermined by the fact that Babcock can’t coach with a little adversity? We will see in two weeks.

The injury riddled Penguins are currently owners of a playoff spot. Can you name how many Penguins regulars have not missed games because of injuries? If you said three you would be correct. You get 12 1/2 PenguinPoop Bonus Points if you can name the three, the answer is at the very bottom of this post below info Darius Kasparaitis’ purple sofa.      

Fedotenko won the infamous Pittsburgh Penguins “Mustache Boy” competition on Saturday. Two Questions: It is not the end of January yet, Will Billy Guerin still have his mustache for today’s game? If Fedotenko gets traded before the trading deadline does he have to keep growing the mustache till the end of the month?

Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle are supposedly trying to purchase the Pittsburgh Pirates from Bob Nutting. The news and everyone in Pittsburgh has come down very hard on Nutting and the job he has done with the Pirates, but I think that the fans are putting the blame on him for the 17 or 18 years of losing.  Nutting only purchased the team in 2007 and changed GM’s and has been trying to build the team from the ground up before he starts throwing money out on free agents. In baseball you can’t have the fast turn-around you can have with hockey unless you have Steinbrenner’s money.  Personally I would like Lemieux to focus on the Penguins.

Darius Kasparaitis’s purple sofa is for sale on Craig’s list over the weekend, I’m not sure if it has sold yet, but it is listed for $1000. The big question is will the Lithuanian Dr. Hook buy it for his new shack up north?  Here is the listing check out the great spelling:  Craigs List Kasparaitis Sofa

Once again the Penguin injury report is a crazy one. Of the injured players that are possible today Goligoski, Talbot & Kennedy, only Talbot has been penciled into the lineup yet he did not practice today, Kennedy and Goligoski did practice. Also penciled in are WBS Penguins Johnson & Letestu. I have no idea which magic hat Shero uses to pick which players come up but I would sure like to own one.

Jordan Staal, Mike Rupp and Craig Adams are the three Penguins that have played every game so far this year, chalk up 12 1/2 bonus points for yourself if you got this one.