Final Roster Cut To Come Soon

Last night, in the wake of the Toronto game, Ray Shero and Michel Therrien cut two players from the active roster, leaving one more cut to be made today. Since the Pens will play their first two games overseas in Sweden, they are permitted.

Forward Connor James and defeseman Danny Richmond were both sent to Wilkes Barre.

The Penguins will take 25 players to Europe with them, but only 24 will begin the voyage on the active roster. Alex Goligoski apparently has the team made, as does Jeff Taffe.

This leaves two roster spots left for Janne Pesonen, Bill Thomas, and Paul Bissonnette. All three of these players will make the trip to Sweden, but only 2 will be on the NHL roster.

My prediction is that Pesonen makes the roster along with Bissonnette.

Following completion of the Sweden trip, Thomas will head to the AHL, most likely, while Bissonnette sees limited time here, but still winds up on the NHL roster.

John Curry will tag along as the third goaltender, and then be returned to Wilkes Barre.

I really do think that Pesonen has this team made. So does Jeff Taffe.

So, if my predictions come true, the Pens lineup looks like this.

Sweden Trip-

Fedotenko-Crosby-Satan
Staal-Malkin-Sykora
Dupuis-Talbot-Cooke
Kennedy-Taffe-Pesonen

Orpik-Goligoski
Letang-Eaton
Scuderi-Gill

Fleury
Sabourin

Extras: Godard, Bissonnette, Sydor, Thomas, Curry.


After the Sweden trip, Thomas and Curry will go to play in the AHL with the Baby Pens. Bissonnette, Godard, Taffe, and Pesonen will all remain on the NHL roster, and 2 of the 4 will play each night, while the other two watch from the press box.

The Cardiac Pens Do It Again

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs closed out their preseason home and home series tonight at the Air Canada Center in downtown Toronto. The Leafs jumped out to leads three times, but the Pens fought back in each instance, eventually winning the game 5-4. It was about as entertaining as it gets for a preseason hockey game.

Former Penguin Dominic Moore continued his strong preseason, scoring a shorthanded goal on Marc-Andre Fleury 15 minutes into the game, giving the Leafs a 1-0 lead.

The Penguins answered almost immediately, when newly acquired Finnish winger Janne Pesonen scored a beautiful goal on Vesa Toskala on a rebound. "Golden Helmet" snatched a Ruslan Fedotenko rebound, turned it over to the forehand with great speed, and flicked it into the top left corner of the net. Pesonen has looked great this preseason, and had his best game yet tonight. The goal was the first assist of the night for Fedotenko, who was all over the place. What a great pickup by Ray Shero. The other assist went to Alex Goligoski.

Paul Bissonnette absolutely pummeled Ryan Hollweg in this period.

Hal Gill left the game with a knee injury. The extent of the injury is unknown.

The Pens defensemen are dropping like flies, and it could become a major problem.

The Maple Leafs jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first 11 minutes of the second period. Top five draft pick Luke Schenn scored his first career goal, and longtime underacheiver Alexei Ponikarovsky also potted one for Toronto. Things looked bad for the Flightless Birds.

Then, out of nowhere, the Penguin struck back.

Mark Eaton scored his first goal in three years with the Penguins on a perfectly place slapshot from above the right circle that just got by Toskala's shoulder, cutting the lead to 3-2. Goligoski picked up his second assist of the night.

Just a few minutes into the final period of play, Crosby showed the hockey world why he is the best player in the game. 87 took a pass from Miroslav Satan, and bursted through the defense, beating Toskala one on one, forcing it into the net with his body.

Tomas Kaberle pulled the Leafs back ahead just a short while later, scoring on a wicked slapper from the point. Fleury gave up a bad goal here. Tonight was just not his best effort. The Maple Leafs led the contest again.

Things, once again, looked bad.

The Penguins needed a hero, and Kris Letang was it. Tang got the puck at the point, after some crisp passing between Fedotenko and Brooks Orpik. He wound up, and beat Toskala with a rocket shot. Letang was excited, pumping his fists in the air, and going down to one knee. Fedotenko garnered his third assist of the night.

With a bit more than a minute left, the Pens controlled the puck in the Toronto zone. It was a tie game. Max Talbot and Pascal Dupuis worked the puck around the attacking zone.
Dupuis took a shot, and Toskala stoned him. Then, out of nowhere came new Penguin Matt Cooke, banging the rebound into the back of the net, leaving Toskala stunned.

Cooke was mobbed by Dupuis and Talbot.

PENS WIN.

Notes-
-Alex Goligoski and Ruslan Fedotenko ruled the rink tonight.
-I already love Matt Cooke. He's tough, and he can score. Makes me forget Ruutu ever existed.
-Hal Gill better be alright. It'll be devastating to lose another defenseman.
-Fleury has one week to get his act together.
-Damnit I hope Fedotenko plays on the first line this year.
-Kris Letang is ready to contribute 20 minutes a game.
-Crosby is still Crosby, and that's a good thing.
-Who needs Gonchar or Whitney? Mark Eaton is the offensive future of this team.

-1967.

Go Pens.

Preseason Game #4- Penguins at Maple Leafs

The Pittsburgh Penguins will pay a visit to the Air Canada Center tonight where they'll meet the Eastern Conference doormat Toronto Maple Leafs. Sidney Crosby will play for the Penguins tonight, seemingly fully recovered from groin discomfort that had bothered him earlier in the week. Evgeni Malkin, and Petr Sykora are the Pens' notable healthy scratches for the game. Marc-Andre Fleury will be in goal for the Penguins.

LET'S GO PENS!

Pens Rake The Leafs In Preseason Play

In front of a crowd of 15, 731 at Mellon Arena tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins moved to 2-1 on the season with a solid victory over a team they were expected to beat, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The final score was 3-2.

Sidney Crosby didn't play for the Pens, due to a sore groin.
Word on the street is that some girl pulled it last night.

Sergei Gonchar was also out, only his injury is much more serious.
He has a dislocated shoulder, and is out indefinitely. This is a huge loss, but the Pens, as they showed tonight, are capable of winning without him...

The Pens got to young Toronto netminder Justin Pogge early, scoring two relatively fluky goals in the early going of the game.

Petr Sykora opened the scoring when his pass, intended for Jordan Staal, caromed into the net off of Maple Leaf Anton Stralman's stick. It was Sykora's third goal in two games this preseason, and a power play goal.

Newly acquired Ruslan Fedotenko put up an insurance tally a few minutes later, again on the power play. "Fedex" attempted to pass to Kris Letang cutting to the goal, but once again, Anton Stralman made it easier on the Penguins, deflected the puck into his own net....again.

The Pens, and Stralman, were not done yet.

Early in the second period, on a Toronto power play, Stralman tried to pull an escape move to the boards on Geno Malkin, only to lose an edge, and turn the puck over to #71 in black. Malkin took the puck in on Pogge, and dished it to Staal, who went right back to Malkin for the easiest goal of Evgeni's life, a tap in.

Dany Sabourin was strong in goal all the way through, holding a shutout until the final 5 minutes when Toronto's Alex Ponikarovsky and Mikhail Grabvoski scored meaningless goals for the Leafs.

The final score was 3-2 Penguins, but it was a dominating performance by the black and gold.

Notes-
-Alex Goligoski is an awful fighter, but should be a good short term replacement for Gonchar.
-Dany Sabourin willl be just fine as the backup goalie this year.
-Brooks Orpik has blossomed into an adequate top pairing defenseman.
-Kris Letang is so versatile, and so talented. He'll have a great year.
-Jordan Staal is going to be a beast this year at the second line left wing spot.
-Petr Sykora still has that goal scoring touch of his, and will be good for 30 goals this year.
-Miroslav Satan is a monster. A great combination of skill and size.
-Evgeni Malkin has shaken off his Stanley Cup slump, and will score 50 goals this year.

-The Toronto Maple Leafs will win no more than 22 games this year.

Go Pens.

Preseason Game #3 Leafs at Pens

Student Rush News for Tonight's Game

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1500 Tickets are available. Tickets are sold at 6:30 (1 hour before game) and are purchased at Gate 8 with School (High School or College) ID. The earlier you get there the better cause the best tickets are given out first.

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Live Video Stream Online

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If your not going to the game you can watch the game on http://www.pittsburghpenguins.com/. The video feed will be from the raw jumbotron feed, so there will be no announcers. This stream is only available in the Pittsburgh area.

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If you'd like to watch the TSN feed, with announcers then you can view the game here - http://www.justin.tv/xs_sports. This stream will be available to the entire world.

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GO PENS!!!

First Win. Pens Win.

I didn't watch or listen to much of the game, sorry.

I'll be going or watching via web stream tomorrow, so a better recap.

Bye.

Only The Preseason. PENGUINS LOSE.

The Penguins turned in a relatively uninspired effort tonight at the Mellon Arena.
The game was only on radio via web streaming, so nobody was able to actually watch on TV.
The Penguins got goals from Jordan Staal, Sidney Crosby, and two from Petr Sykora.

Crosby's goal was coast to coast, on the penalty kill. A great individual effort.

Tampa Bay brought a JV team to the game, but still won 5-4 in a shootout on goals by Steven Stamkos and Jussi Joke-inen. Don't push the panic button yet folks. It's not a big deal.

Sergei Gonchar was injured in the first period by nobody David Koci.
Eric Godard then beat Koci's ass, sticking up for his assistant captain.
Sarge should be OK.

The Pens played OK, but they were just getting a feel for playing together.

They haven't had a winning preseason that I can remember in my lifetime.

Tampa Bay's radio guy, Dave Mishkin, is a total tool.
He shrieks like a prepubescent girl after every routine save.
When the Lightning scores, he has an orgasm.
When the Lightning win a game in a shootout, he needs his pants toweled off.

Thank heavens we don't have to put up with that shit every game.

This loss doesn't even merit a recap.

For 3 days of training camp together, they looked fine.

Go Pens.

It all begins tonight...

The Pens open up preseason play vs. Tampa Bay tonight.

It's kind of a big deal.

The game will mark the professional debut of top pick in this year's draft, Steven Stamkos.
But other than that, the Bolt lineup looks like mud. Most of their opening night roster players, including former Pens Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi, and Adam Hall.

The Penguins, however, will bring their full arsenal tonight.
Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, Sykora, Satan, Staal, and the vast majority of the regular season roster will be in the lineup tonight. The real importance of tonight is that this game is going to be the Pittsburgh debut of the Finnish forward, Janne Pesonen.

Janne has looked average in camp, and he'll need a good effort tonight in order to show Lords Therrien and Shero that he deserves a chance to play for this team during the regular season.

I expect a 10 goal output tonight for the Penguins.
GO PENS!

Camp Roster reduced to 42

The Post Gazette reports.

Luca Caputi is the most surprising of the cuts.

The season is getting closer....

Camp Opens Up

Today was the first day of Pens training camp.

Jordan Staal, Alex Goligoski, and Miro Satan shined in the scrimmage.

The offensive line combos were as follows, according to Jesse Marshall of Faceoff Factor.

Dupuis-Crosby-Satan
Staal-Malkin-Sykora
Fedotenko-Talbot-Cooke
Pesonen-Taffe-Kennedy
Stone-Beech Godard

Jesse also says that prospect Danny Richmond "blew him away today", and that Ian at Hockey's Future says Richmond is a "logical choice" to make the team. This from the Pensblog.

It's an exciting time, and more will develop as camp rolls along.

Physicals Tomorrow

It is an exciting time to be alive. The Steelers are 2-0, sure, and there is a little election coming up in a few months, but there are bigger fish to fry- The Pens report to UPMC on the South Side for their physical examinations tomorrow morning. On-ice drills and whatnot will begin on Wednesday.

I'll have more to talk about then.

On a somber note, c-blog has closed over at the Pensblog. Very sad stuff.

(Tears Up)

Bulgaria Sucks At Hockey

As you have surely heard by now, a few weeks ago, Bulgaria's national women's team lost a hockey game 82-0.

Finally there is video.

It's really just too funny.

And the Steelers beat Cleveageland. Be happy.

Nothing Yet

The Habs acquired former Pen Robert Lang.
Yay.

Nothing is going on right now.
Camp in a few days.

Steelers play tomorrow night against Cleveland.
Here We Go.

Sorry for the lameness of the post.

Camp starts soon, and I'll be motivated again.

Peace.

Training Camp Schedule Released

The Penguins released their training camp schedule today. Fantastic.

Hockey season is upon us, and the Steelers are looking solid in the NFL.

Oh, it is the best of times.

HERE

The highlight of the preseason and camp comes on September 20th when Pittsburgh South/Tampa Bay pays a visit to Mellon Arena. The game will be the NHL debut of teenaged phenom Steven Stamkos, and will mark the return to Pittsburgh of hometown boy Ryan Malone, grizzly veteran Gary Roberts, and the faceoff specialist Adam Hall. It should be fun.

Finally, I can write about hockey with a little less suck.

Peace.

HERE WE GO STEELERS!

I'd be remiss not to mention it, especially in the midst of a few days with absolutely no Pens news.

The Steelers play vs. Houston tomorrow. I got tickets!

The Pens start camp in a few weeks. Then I'll stop sucking at blogging. (sighs)

Peace.