Wow, if you didn’t believe that spring was upon us earlier in the week with the warm weather tease, today should sell you! It is absolutely beautiful outside it is almost a shame to be stuck indoors watching some hockey. However, watching our flightless water fowl take the frozen sheet is usually enough to offset the desire to do anything else…at least for a few hours.
Before we start talking puck, I wanted to take a moment to mention another exciting application that can enhance your entire puck experience. Yinzcam…
I will be penning a full blog about the Yinzcam soon, but wanted to tell you a bit about it today. The Yinzcam is the product of Priya Narasimhan and her team of design superstars from Carnegie Mellon University. Basically, the Yinzcam is an application that you can use on your smart phone to view live replays of the in-game action you just saw while sitting in your Mellon Arena seats. Download the app and the Yinzcam brings all of the action to the palm of your hand via your wifi connection . I have used it while covering games for XM Radio and From the Point and would suggest that anyone who is a fan of the game download the app today. . If you love the game, you have to get this application…
Priya and her team have just developed the official Pittsburgh Penguins App for the Droid! Get it now!!! The app brings you replays, twitter, scores, stats, standings, live video cameras and more.
Follow Priya for updates on Yinzcam via twitter here: @priyacmu
Follow Yinzcam via twitter here: @yinzcam
The teams are on the ice for warm ups and Evgeni Malkin is on the ice and moving pretty well. He just did an effortless cross over at center ice before skating hard down the slot and putting a shot on goal. Great to see him looking good and healing up from that foot bruise…an injury that can really incapacitate a hockey player. An injury like that makes it tough to get your skate tied, let alone skate on it.
These points are huge in the East and even more so in the Atlantic Division. The Penguins need these two to help their run to the Division title, in fact they probably need to pick up points on a nightly basis if they want to win the division without having beaten New Jersey on the year.
As I said, I am live at Mellon Arena bringing you all of the action today. Stay tuned for more as it happens…
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Max Talbot, Eric Godard and Jay McKee are the healthy Penguins scratches…
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Jordan Staal starts the game centering a line with Bill Guerin and Matt Cooke. Interesting combo…
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Jordan Leopold, who is still looking for his first goal in a Penguins uniform, just had a great opportunity from the left point. He let a big blast fly that looked to beat the goaltender, but was just wide of the net. He is getting closer…
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Sidney Crosby is centering the red hot Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz. Both wingers have been hot since the Olympic break and head coach Dan Bylsma is clearly going with the hot hands…
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Marc Andre Fleury just made his first big stop of the day on a blast off of the stick of Jussi Jokinen. Jokinen got the puck in the high slot and let one fly, that Fleury kicked aside. The rebound was quickly put back on him, but he was up to that task as well.
Moments later, Evgeni Malkin showed that he is indeed feeling better. He came through the neutral zone with speed, made a move across the ice and let an shot go across his body that almost beat goaltender Legace on the far side. Nice shot, nicer save, but Geno looked good doing it.
Sidney Crosby then wowed the Mellon Arena crowd with a spin-o-rama coming down the right wing boards before putting a shot off of the side of the goal cage.
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The Canes have drawn first blood. Mark Eaton found himself down and out and Sergei Gonchar was unable to break up a corner to slot pass from Joni Pitkanen that was knocked home by Zach Boychuk. Not the best goal that MAF has ever given up, but he didn’t have much of a chance to get set.
1-0 Canes…
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As my twitter follower @brentwhiteley just said: “Crosby is ON FIRE !!!!! 5 min into the game and he’s made some amazing plays and shot attempts.”
Crosby is flying and he just made a great pass to the high slot, where Leopold again gripped and ripped a nice wrist shot…unfortunately, he is starting to look a bit “snakebitten” again put the puck wide of the net…
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For some reason I am feeling a Ponikarovsky goal. He looks to have an extra hop in his step and it skating as part of the “Kiev Konnection” line… with Malkin, and Fedotenko.
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One period in the books here at Mellon Arena and the Penguins find themselves trailing 1-0. For as many opportunities as they came close to generating, they have only managed to put 4 shots on goal. The Hurricanes were firing on all cylinders and put 9 shots on Marc Andre Fleury. The Penguins have got to get more rubber on the net if they want to win this game. They have actually missed the net with 8 shots through one period…
The Penguins have actually won 62% of their draws thus far, which is a good thing. Let’s see if they can maintain it. Sidney Crosby was his usual 67%, but the more shocking number came from Evgeni Malkin. Geno Machino actually won 60% of his draws, which is great to see.
The Penguins are leading in the physical play department, leading 12-4 on the hit counter.
Not the best period of hockey from the Penguins, but they did some good things. If they can build on that they will be fine moving forward…it is actually a lucky thing to get to the rooms trailing only 1-0. Score early in the second and we have a new game.
More as it happens…
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Second period underway here in Pittsburgh…
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17,090 in the house for this one… the sellout streak rolls on!
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The Penguins came close to tying this one up, but the whistle has blown before Tyler Kennedy knocked the puck home for the equalizer. Mike Rupp got the twig between Legace’s legs to knock the puck free, which wasn’t smiled upon by the Hurricanes and he came close to a Bobby Flay style throw down with Tuomo Ruutu. They were practically sword fighting with the blades, but no penalties were dolled out…
1-0 Canes…
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Ruslan Fedotenko just went all jack rabbit in his attempts to knock a rebound passed Manny Legace. Legace was able to keep the puck out of the net, but roughly 18 people fell on top of him and he was hurt in the process. He writhed around on the ice for a bit, before being checked out by trainers. He was able to stay in the game and all seems to be well…
Scratch that… Justin Peters has now entered the game. Not good news for the Penguins, who he stoned last week in a Carolina victory.
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The Penguins are about to go on their first power play attempt of the game…only the second penalty called either way all day.
The unit is: Crosby, Malkin, Poni, Letang, and Gonchar
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Peters just made a great glove stop on Sidney Crosby. Crosby walked out in front and fired a back hand on Peters, who flashed the leather and kept his team in the lead 1-0.
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The Canes got the kill and remain in the lead 1-0. Justin Peters has already made several good stops, including the one I mentioned above on Sidney Crosby.
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Crosby just fed Chris Kunitz like a bear at the zoo, unfortunately, he missed a yawning cage with his re-direction of the puck. I love Chris Kunitz, but that is where Crosby suffers in not playing with a true sniper. No point in laboring that point, but you would like to think that a natural goal scorer could have finished that play.
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Official word on Legace per Pens PR – Legace suffered a lower body injury…not expected to return.
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The Penguins are back on the power play, as Brian Pothier who won the last game between these two, was called for holding.
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The Penguins have just gotten the equalizer. Jordan Staal one timed a nice pass from Alexei Ponikarovsky from the right circle that beat Justin Peters. The goal was Staal’s first power play goal of the season. Sidney Crosby gets the second assist.
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We are through two here at Mellon Arena and the Penguins just used a late power play to tie this one at ones…
The Penguins still trail in shots 13-11, but had a better showing than they did during the first. They are still missing the net too frequently having gone wide 14 times on the day. They have also had 9 shots blocked… those 23 attempts have got to get to the net…one way to do that is to release the shots a bit quicker.
The Birds are still leading in the face-off department, but tailed off a bit from their first period dominance. Malkin and Crosby are still doing a great job, having won 67% and 62% respectively, but the rest of the squad has struggled. Jordan Staal has won only 45%, while Craig Adams…only 25%.
Though the shots do not show it, the Penguins definitely upped the offensive ante in the period. Look for them to continue creating in hopes of knocking off the Canes…
More as it happens live at Mellon Arena…
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We are underway here in the third period…
Chris Kunitz just missed another great opportunity in front of Peters, however this time his stick was lifted by a Canes defender. Like I said… Crosby = Feeding him like a bear at the zoo…
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Mike Rupp was just whistled for holding… The Penguin were well on their way to killing off the penalty when Jordan Staal was whistled for tripping. Unfortunately they will now have to kill off :28 seconds of a two man advantage.
The Canes have just utilized their time-out in hopes of getting the go ahead goal here.
All of this is happening, while the refreshing sounds of Bush – Machine Head blare from the Mellon Arena house system.
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Penalty number one = killed. Working on the back end of the PP…
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Penalties killed… Penguins back to full strength and on the attack.
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Erik Cole was just whistled for holding… Penguins on the PP…
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Unfortunately, Alex Goligoski was almost immediately whistled for interference and the teams are now four a side…
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Sidney Crosby and Sergei Gonchar just got themselves a two on one shorthanded breakaway. Unfortunately, Crosby’s shot sailed over the net…
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Geno Machino is back in the saddle again… just galloped off of the side boards and lasered a wrister past Peters, picking the far corner. Great goal for Geno…
2-1 Penguins…
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Some in my circle refer to Paul Maurice as Niles Crane, for his uncanny resemblance to Frasier’s brother… just got this text message following Geno’s goal:
“Niles Crane just hit his noose button!”
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The Penguins are holding onto a 2-1 lead with 5:06 remaining in the game… headed down to the rooms. Be back later with post game reactions and thoughts.
Post Game Highlights
