the Penguins Files: Pens beat the Arizona Chupacobras (Coyotes) 4 – 0

I am a firm believer in taking everything I am given and saying thank you, so thank you Arizona for the win to break the Penguins’ winless streak.

And speaking of believing, I am currently wearing a tee-shirt that bears an iconic quote from the 90s “I want to believe” (Fox Mulder anyone?) Penguins, I want to believe that you turned it around. However, we have been down this road before, from Oct 18 through Oct 27 you looked like world beaters as you feasted on the very same Western Conference teams. In fact you kicked of that run with a 3 – 0 whitewash of an Eastern Conference Scoring Machine, the Toronto Maple Leafs, backstopped by an incredible 38 save performance by Matt Murray, facing far more lethal shooters with far more high percentage shots against.

Against this mid-level Western Conference team, yes you did cut down on the percentage of high quality shots and your defense did funnel more shots to the perimeter and gave up fewer break-away and odd man break shots, but you were still out-shot by Arizona, giving them more than 5 more shots than their season average. Your fats were still pulled out of the fire by your goalie.

And sorry, Mike Sullivan, your line shuffling didn’t, I repeat didn’t improve secondary scoring, or even primary scoring. The only thing your line shuffling did was change which of your top 2 Centers drove the scoring. Your line shuffling put Sidney Crosby in the driver’s seat, while Evgeni Malkin languished with no Wingers that could finish. You took Phil Kessel off of his Wing and split his time between Crosby and Riley Sheahan. While with Crosby, Kessel was able to reach the score sheet, but while on Sheahan’s line, no! You did leave Malkin with Carl Hagelin, and I do like Hagelin as a 4th or maybe 3rd line Left Wing, where his inability to score doesn’t hamstring a top 2 line, but he hasn’t been able to hit the ocean with a beach ball since his 1st season in Pittsburgh, so big surprise he hasn’t been able to put a puck into 4’ x 6’ net.

Yes, Bryan Rust did respond, a little, to being called out by Jim Rutherford; well sort of. Rutherford really didn’t mention names, it was the media that linked Rust’s name as well as Olli Maatta’s name to Rutherford’s rant, earlier in the week. However, Rust only reached the scoreboard on the top line with Crosby and only with an assist on a solid redirect from Dominik Simon. Interestingly enough Maatta picked up the secondary helper on that goal. Furthermore, Rust missed several golden opportunities of his own to get on the scoreboard and did nothing when not paired with Crosby and Simon. Again, no secondary scoring.

As for Maatta, he did he pick up an assist and he did make a decent play to break up a play around the net. However, over-all, when a defense allows a team more shots than their season average, particularly when the actual number of shots was just 1 shy of 40, well, they really shouldn’t brag about anything. They should simply say thank you to their goalie for baling them out and slink away.

Patrick Hornqvist also got on the scoreboard with a nice goal, drifting up into a soft spot to wait for a slick little pass from Simon, while flanking Crosby. (Once again, we are talking about the 1st line and not secondary scoring or even primary scoring from the other top line). When saddled with Hagelin on Malkin’s line he didn’t do too much. When give the opportunity to pot his second goal of the game, late in the 3rd period, he opted to try and force a cross ice pass to Hagelin, but the pass was broken up and no shot was recorded. No secondary scoring.

Brian Dumoulin finished off the scoring, shooting back across the grain, off of a Crosby feed. Unfortunately, here again, we are talking about a play from the number 1 line.

Believe me, I really do want to believe, but the enigmatic Dr Scully is telling me that the evidence is less than compelling. So, I will wait a bit before I jump up and down. I will wait to see what you Penguins do against New Jersey on Tuesday. (By the way Penguins, it is my birthday that day, a win would be a great present, hint, hint), Thursday against Tampa Bay, Saturday against Ottawa, and the Following Monday against Buffalo.

Odds and Sods
Wilkes Barre – Scranton defeated the Hartford Wolf Pack last night, 4 – 1. Thomas DiPauli was the big gun. He had a goal, 2 assists and 12 penalty minutes to lead the way. Anthony Angello had an assist, his third to give him 7 points in his 11 games played. He was +2 for the game raising his season total to +5. Teddy Blueger had 1 goal and 1 assist in the game and was a +3, giving him 5 goals and 3 assists on the season, in 13 games.