Dan Bylsma has always said that the Penguins have two of the worlds best players and that they need to be the ones 
dictating the pace of the game not the other team. He took that to a whole new level on Wednesday when he scratched the Penguins healthy enforcer Eric Godard. Scratching your enforcer against the Flyers is unheard of, the papers will be writing that Bylsma is one taco short of a combo platter, or will they? It turned out to be pure Genius.
The Philadelphia papers are saying Mike Richards looked worn down and are blaming the Flyers coach John Stevens of over playing Richards to the tune of 6 minutes more ice time than Crosby or Malkin. Richards was blaming his tiredness on killing idiot penalties by Hartnell.
I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out. The NHL has fined Flyer coach John Stevens $10,000 and suspended Daniel Carcillo for one game because of the head shot Carcillo gave to Maxime Talbot at the end of Wednesday’s game. “We had a conference call Monday with the General Managers and Coaches of playoff teams and told them explicitly we would not tolerate attempts by clubs to ‘send a message’ late in a game when the outcome had been determined,” said Colin Campbell the Director of Hockey Operations for the NHL.
Kimmo Timonen missed practice yesterday and is still recovering from the hit the Kunitz placed on him. He is expected to be in the lineup tonight. Coach Stevens also added Darrol Powe to the lineup to counter the Penguins speed and benched Arrom Asham.
Gary Bettman said on Wednesday that “the Pittsburgh franchise is a model for other franchises”. I wonder what he was thinking about the Philadelphia franchise after Wednesday’s game.
Speaking of model franchises, what the heck is going on in Detroit? I heard that if it wasn’t for the thousand some Columbus fans making the trip to Motown, that they wouldn’t have sold out Joe Lewis. I guess the auto industry layoffs are taking there toll on the Wings. I wonder what the fans think of Franzen’s new 43.5 million dollar contract.
The Islanders won the NHL “John Tavares Lottery” which could be a big boost to the NHL having such a big name in a big city. I imagine you will see a lot of switched alliances among New Yorkers. By the way, when is the last time that a big name player coming out of the draft went to a Western Team? Crosby, Ovechkin, Thornton, Lecavier, Lindros, Lemieux were all hyped as the next ones all went Eastern.
I counted seven blatant penalties that the refs missed, including the high stick to Cookes face, Hartnell’s slash of Gill, and Knubles slash of Staal after Staal checked him. Did the NHL tell the refs to keep the score close because it was such a big nationally televised game or did the refs just miss the calls?
The WBS Penguins open up defense of their Calder Cup Championship tonight against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Penguin prospect Philadelphia native Eric Tangradi was named OHL player of the week, he had 4 goals and 3 assists in two games. Who is he rooting for tonight?
Gametime is 7PM and can be seen in high definition at the Igloo or on FSN.
I`m so tired of defending Sidney Crosby when it comes to who`s the best player in NHL today. After watching the Caps game today, I know who the best player in the NHL is, and it`s Sidney Crosby. Does face off`s, great unselfish team play, going to the net and grit, speed, smarts, defensively reliable, leadership, sticking up for teammates, unreal passing ability, finishing checks and scoring important goals count? Crosby and Malkin are growing leaps and bounds better every season. The true tell is the playoff`s and Alex Ovechkin hasn`t performed like Sid and Geno. Should Malkin be the MVP? Absolutely. If the criteria is only on the regular season and who`s most important to their team, then Ovechkin gets it. It`s almost impossible having both Sid and Malkin on the same team and expecting them to equal a player who`s the only one that`s spoon feed and only has to play less ice than the other two. I know who is the real MVP. Any disagreements? I love asking that question on all Penguins web site, LOL!
BEWARE THE PENGUINS!
LOL with Ovechkin not getting credit for an assist on his brain cramp cross ice pass. Then he misses the goal from the slot and it’s over the goal and he puts a glove on his face, throws his face back frustrated yet he quit playing there. I’m beggining to believe Kutdacheez and DR Hook about this one man show and the Harlem Globetrotters.
Rut-ro… The WASH DC team just got shut-out by the RAG$. The RED-OUT boos them off the ice. MVP Ovechnik keeps firing them but no goals. The announcers are questioning his skate and shoot. One said if he was picking a team and got first pick it would be Crosby. He probably was considering Malkin if he got 2nd pick.
How about Boudreau putting 20 year old Varlamov in net over Theodore! Very, very gutsy decision.
LOL, I sure learned the ropes of poster combat on message boards from that guy when I first started posting. I think Toesave realized the fact that hockey in New Jersey was just too boring to watch on a steady diet, or that he was getting older and hockey in itself, was just to fast a game for him to follow anymore. He was a character, no doubt. Good hearing from you MS FORECZECH.
TOESAVE (whatever happen to him, PenQuin) . . . Fluery’s absolutely point blank save on Carter was the major game changer. Carter had an MT net to slam it home and it would have been a completely different game.
@ PenQuin
No game is easy BUT—- the Pens are waring-down Richards and along with their other vets who aren’t stepping up such as Timonen who looks totally spent— one mistake in the Wachovia Center by Biron and those fans will be booing at the top of their lungs even though without him the game would have been over in regulation. Biron who’s a UFA along with Niittymaki will both try and hightail in out of there and the Flyers will go with someone like Manny Fernandez next season in their 2-1/2 decade search to replace Pelle Lindbergh.
Now that`s a Toesave! What a great game and is there any other players out there who can produce at age 38 like Billy Guerin? Over seventy minutes of disciplined hockey, and then two bad penalties by the Fly`s and it`s a 5-3. Maybe Stevens needs to remind his team that the discipline goes as long as the game is still on. Flys played goo, it won`t be easy going into Philadelphia but I like going in 2 up. This Pens team is tough and as punishing as need be and their goaltender just keeps getting better at playoff time with every season. You got to like our chances. I`m pumped after this one.
He could sign with the Flyers as the Flyers defense just can handle the Penguins speed and depth. It is just too much and that’s why they are taking the dumb penalties. Speed kills.
An announcement to be made around game time as to what team signed Matt Gilroy (key) defenseman on BU’s championship team. It’s not Toronto but is supposed to be a team in the east (not Boston)…. hmmm? Does Shero pull another one off. Most think it’s now going to be the NYR, NYI, or NJD.
@ Boombastic
The FLYS do have that mentality and as pointed out by STH35… it was more so Bernie Parent in goal than ‘intimidation through thuggery’…the Flyers played a lot shorthanded because they had the NHL’s best goaltender.
It was Ray Shero’s dad who said, “Keep the opposition on their ass and they don’t score goals.” Or, something like that. Another quote from Shero’s dad was “In pro sports, the strong survive and the weak fall by the wayside.” Things change and Shero’s son has a much more better view of hockey in this century. Godard sits tonight because we controlled the entire game and the score doesn’t do justice to how much.
The strangest thing is that the ref warned him not to engage in any game ending messages—- yet the ref didn’t call the penalty. What’s with that—- two brain cramps?
Is sitting Godard a stroke of genius or just lucky? The Flyers have always felt that the Flyers are the same bullies that beat up on teams in the 70’s. They aren’t going to change.
Their fans and their local media have been hoodwinked (bamboozled like those at Jamestown) into believing this is how hockey is played. You would think that after all of these years that someone, somewhere, would figure it out. But this is Philadelphia and they get totally hyped over the violence and sip the Jim Jones’ People’s Temple Kool-aid everyday. They cheer, make signs and hit posting boards all over — they love the image more than they care about winning. Why else would they keep it up.
Because of the obvious talent difference this could get much uglier. $10k to Stevens is nothing and will be covered by Ed Snider. Carcillo being suspended won’t hurt them and may actually help.
The Flyers management game plan has always been to be bigger and be stronger and they’ve lost because they’ve never included being smarter as part of the criteria. Things won’t change. This is a less talented and much dumber management team – way below the Mendoza line in hockey smarts.
Dressing Godard IMO won’t hurt anyone and in case these fools start it again at least someone will be there that can bodyslam them into the visitors runway. Old man Gary Roberts showed Ben Eager a taste of his own medicine and the Flyers sent Eager packing for that loss.
In the case of the Peguins, they went to a showing of the movie “Goonies” and a hockey game broke out.
GO PENS!