Pens 4, Preds 3

Again, I am horribly late with this post. I'm on vacation from work this week, so hopefully that will help me stay caught up. Pens recap:

1. I honestly thought that Bylsma was going to continue starting Johnson until he lost. I was surprised to see Fleury in net.

2. Fleury looked shaky, but he hasn't played for a while, so I guess that's to be expected. Allowing a goal 53 seconds into the game was definitely not a good way to start. Kunitz was also to blame for that...he just seemed to wander away from who he was supposed to be covering.

3. I never realized how tall Pekka Rinne is. Apparently Nashville has an obsession with tall goalies, since their backup Lindbach is 6'6".

4. The penalty kill didn't look too bad, and the power play continues to thrive. The power play is just aggravating to watch...they'll seem like they're getting into a groove for a couple of games, and then just fall apart. Hopefully that doesn't happen this time around.

5. Tangradi continues to look good, and what else can be said about Test Tube? Yet another point this game. Dude is amazing!

6. Is it me, or does Sid seem like he's playing a little more aggressively this season? At the end of last season, it looked like he was beginning to, but it's becoming a little more evident this season. It's good to see.

7. Now that the Pens have Engelland, does Godard have a job? I think we'll see Godard traded at some point this year. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Godard, it's just that now we have an enforcer who is a more complete player in my opinion.

8. One thing I noticed about Fleury in this game was that he did seem a little more comfortable playing the puck. The pass he made to Sid was great!

9. How huge did Geno come up in this game? He was just on top of everything.

10. I was stuck listening to the FSN Tennessee broadcast for this game. Say what you will about Steigy and Errey, but they're way better than these guys. One good thing about watching the Tenn broadcast was this:



Jack in the Box has the best commercials. Too bad there aren't any anywhere near where I live. Or any in the state of Ohio at all for that matter.

11. Dupuis saved the day when he made that great play to clear the puck out of the crease on the one play.

Sorry for how sucky that recap was, but I was starting to fall asleep watching it. Now for the Avs:

Avs 2, Sharks 4

I was more excited to watch this game than the Pens. It ended up being a hell of a lot more entertaining.

1. Welcome back Brandon Yip!

2. Lots of back and forth action in this game. Neither team seemed to have the upper hand for too long, and both teams played very well.

3. Anderson is a beast. He looked confident for the most part in net, but then again, when doesn't he?

4. Good thing Sacco decided to dress 7 defensemen. Adam Foote left the game with a concussion. As far as I know, it is unknown when he will return to the lineup.

5. Kyle Cumiskey's skating ability never ceases to amaze me. He's a quick, strong skater. I'd even go so far as to say he skates like Pavel Bure.

6. All in all, the Avs still need a little bit of help when it comes to special teams. Taking so many penalties in the second period didn't help things.

7. The Sharks pretty much went into a defensive shell once they were up 3-1 going into the third period.

8. Congrats John-Michael Liles! He's the first Avs player to score in 7 straight games to start the season. He's also the first Avs defenseman to have a 7 game scoring streak. He played very well in the playoffs last year, and it's good to see that it carried over to this season.

9. The Avs can be irritating to watch sometimes. One minute, someone is making a beautiful, unreal pass, the next minute, a terrible turnover.

10. I call bullshit on the 4th Sharks goal. The puck clearly hit a Sharks player on the bench, and then ricocheted (that's not a fun word to spell) off of the linesman, resulting in a nasty bounce which resulted in a Sharks goal. It was a non-reviewable play. I think everything should be reviewable.

So there it is. Two games to recap again tonight. Have fun kids!

Pens 3, Isles 2

Yeah, so I'm a little bit behind on watching the recorded games. Well, at least now everyone can shut up about Consol being cursed.

1. It was kinda strange seeing Test Tube on the fourth line.
2. Also interesting to see Adams out and Godard in. Bylsma must know something that we don't.
3. Godard did have a nice fight with Gilles though, so I have to give him some credit.
4. I can't stand watching DiPietro play. First off, if I was an Isles fan, I would probably have a heart attack any time anyone came within 300 feet of him for fear he would get injured again. A fly could land on that man and he'd be out for half the season. Second, he should have been penalized for hitting Kunitz in the nuts with his stick. You can try to get someone out of the front of the crease, but that's just a low blow (literally).
5. Martin and Test Tube continue to impress me.
6. With the exception of the OT goal, the power play continues to suck ass. I think Mike Yeo is still coaching, but he's just hiding under the bench so no one can throw shit at him.
7. Mike Rupp was playing like a man possessed.
8. Tangradi finally got his first NHL goal! Yay!
9. The 2nd period was really when the Pens got a fire lit under their asses. That's more of the play we need to be seeing from them.
10. I'm not generally one to complain about the officiating, because I realize that these guys have a really tough job, but it was incredibly awful this game. Letang should have never gotten a 5 minute major and game misconduct for his hit on Comeau. It was a solid, shoulder-on-shoulder, clean hit. There were also plenty of calls that should have been made against the Isles that were just ignored.
12. By the way, after Letang was given a game misconduct, did anyone else hear the crowd chanting "bullshit", or was I just imagining things? Speaking of the crowd, how huge was their involvement? Nice to see everyone finally waking up.
13. I will openly admit that Bailey had a really nice goal.
14. Goligoski is having a really strong start. Hopefully he can keep it up. He started out well last year, but gradually fizzled out. To be honest, and I'm normally not like this, but I was ready to write him off last year.
15. Comrie really needs to start producing...we all know he has it in him.
16. See what happens when you shoot the puck...you score goals. Imagine that.

Avs 3, Devils 2

So this was just a great night overall!

1. It still feels strange watching a more offensive-minded Devils team.
2. Speaking of offense, even though they won this game, the Avs really need to start getting more shots to the net. (This sounds familiar...almost like I was just writing that about another team not too long ago)
3. The Avs defense needs to step it up a little bit. Craig Anderson is like a brick wall in net, but they need to stop relying on him quite so much. They are allowing too many shots.
4. Honestly, the Devils should have won this game. If not for the amazing play of Anderson and some luck, the Avs probably wouldn't have won. The Devils were clearly the better team.
5. And yet another game misconduct for the night. McLeod scored the Avs first goal, only to be followed shortly after by getting a 5 minute major and game misconduct for boarding. The Avs' analyst hit the nail on the head when he said that he understood why they kicked him out, but his only problem was that the NHL wasn't being consistent. Now it makes you wonder with every check whether the player is going to be sent off for it or not.
6. Killing off the McLeod penalty was a huge relief.
7. The Avs' scoring depth is absolutely amazing! This early in the season they already have goals from 10 different players.
8. Early in the game, the Avs had some real problems with puck possession. One common theme I've noticed in all of their games so far is a brutal number of turnovers, and not the yummy pastry kind. (Sorry, I'm hungry)
9. My man T.J. Galiardi scored his first goal of the season, and later got cracked with a high stick. Typical game for him.

Rant of the day:
I may have mentioned this last season, but I hate when the Pens games are shown on NHL Network. For some reason, Time Warner Cable thinks that I live in the viewing area for FSN Pittsburgh, and the game gets blacked-out. I'm about to call and bitch about that, since I missed the game last night because of it. Heard it was a good one too... Avs/Isles recap later tonight. Have a good one kids, now you can put away the matches.

Pens 2, Flyers 3

Shitty way to open the new arena, but what can ya do? Let me start by saying that Consol is absolutely amazing! All I could say when I walked in was, "Wow". The first thing I noticed was how open and spacious the place was. The second thing I noticed was that it didn't smell like the Igloo. Not the the Igloo smelled bad, but it had a unique odor. The seats were incredible, and the crowd noise was unbelievable. Now for pics:



This sign will take some getting used to.




The old barn.




Love this window display!



Another pic of the Igloo.



The new guy on the block.




Pregame warm-up.



The banners.



R.I.P. Barbero. They had a really nice tribute video during one of the T.V. time-outs, followed by the biggest standing ovation I have ever seen.



Matt Cooke with some clean-up duty.



Ben Lovejoy...who I didn't get to see play. :-(




Tangradi is a beast.




This was a great idea. When they melted the ice at the Igloo for the last time, they saved a bottle of the water. Lemieux christened the new arena at center ice with it. Solid.



It's always a great day for hockey in Pittsburgh!



In case you didn't know what night it was.



Almost time for the inaugural faceoff.



Blurry faceoff.



Best license plate ever! I was actually wearing my Straka jersey, and I waited in the parking garage for this person, but they never showed up, and I was getting hungry.

Anyway, key points:

1. The Pens just seemed like they were lacking the chemistry that they had in the preseason. Hopefully they'll get back into the groove soon.

2. Everyone seemed like they were trying to get too fancy with the puck. Just put it on the net.

3. Lots of shots, but they didn't have much quality.

4. Philly's goaltending situation is just bad. Who the fuck is Bobrovsky anyway?

5. How big of a game did TK and Tangradi have? Nice to see TK back to normal. I hope he can keep it up.

6. I think Craig Adams saw more ice time in this game than he's ever seen in his life.

On a better note though:

Avs 4, Hawks 3

If you have never seen these two teams play against each other, you really should. Always fast-paced and exciting to watch. Avs win in OT. My man Galiardi was all over the place. This team is going places this year. They've matured a lot from last season, and I can't wait to see how well they do this year.

That's all for now. I'll have a recap of tonight's game against the Habs as soon as I watch it. TTFN! :-)