SB Nation - Eric Godard

Tales of the Tape: Beating on the Flyers in Three Parts

JDunman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:00:46 -0000

When the Penguins meet the Flyers, be it in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, the chances of a fight breaking out are quite higher than most other games. Toss in the level of frustration that Philadelphia has to be feeling, and that high chance becomes an inevitability. So, with little surprise, the game featured three fights, all within the first six minutes of the game. We'll be taking a moment and checking out all three.

First up - the Noted One Mike Rupp taking on Arron Asham.

The two meet up and exchange pleasantries (and jabs) before Rupp begins going for Asham's helmet. Asham responds by grabbing for Rupp's jersey, but instead gets a handful of face. Rupp answers back with a nice shot, and gets the helmet off, with Asham slipping to the ice. Asham regains his footing and shifts Rupp off his balance, ending the fight. I could see this one being called a draw, but with the shot leading to the helmet removal, I'm thinking it's a win from Rupp. And I'm writing this, so that's how it will be.

Quickly after the first fight comes another (with another annoying 'Well, well, well' call from the announcer) which is not at all surprising once we learn that it's Eric Godard and Riley Cote (round 5).

Spinning and punching. That's what these two are good at, and that's what these two do. Godard gets Cote's helmet off and gets some shots in to the head. Also with these shots came Cote's helmet, which got stuck on Godard's arm and was also swinging towards Cote's head. As the two near the boards, it looks like they await the linesmens' intervention, but when the officials make no moves, they decide to swing a few more times at each other. A few more fist/helmet shots from Godard and the officials finally get in and break the two up. I'm calling this one for Godard - he got the better offense in, and hit the man with his own helmet.

So with Rupp and Godard both getting decent showings, when a fight breaks out between Craig Adams and Dan Carcillo, we're expecting good things, right?

Oh no. Well, Adams did manage to get Carcillo's helmet off...but he also managed to get punched. In the head. A lot. The less said here, the better. That's a loss for Adams...but 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

These matchups have something in common with each other. All three pairings have fought each other before. Godard and Cote is certainly nothing new - we saw it three times last season and the two even have an AHL bout against one another. Mike Rupp had a noted fight against Asham last season while he was playing for the Devils. Neat little tidbit about that one - Rupp also fought Riley Cote in that game. In fact, when Rupp was fighting Asham, Cote was fighting another Devil right next to him. Certainly nothing special about that - it's just kind of neat. As for Adams and Carcillo - they also fought last season, and Adams actually took a worse beating then.

With these three fights, the Pens are tied for 5th in fighting majors with the Sharks, only below the Flames, Lightning, Flyers and Maple Leafs. Next up will be the Flyers again, and do I really need to write a preview for that one? Of course someone's going to fight.

Poll

Overall, who came out on top of the fights?

Fight, fight, fight; score, score, score, score, score, score. Pens embarrass Flyers 6-1

Hooks Orpik — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:07:29 -0000

More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

Brian Boucher got used to this sight tonight.

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Flyers vs Penguins coverage - Broad Street Hockey

The Philadelphia Flyers, if nothing else, are known as a physical rough-and-tumble bunch. The Pittsburgh Penguins matched that willingness with three fights early (and a busy day tomorrow for Dunman!). Hockey is more about just the fisticuffs and the Pens are able to do that too, scoring six of the seven goals from Sidney Crosby, Bill Guerin, two by Jordan Staal, Ruslan Fedotenko and Evgeni Malkin.

One team is in a groove, getting good goaltending and playing strong defense....And the other is not right now. The results were as clear as the scoreboard; a 6-1 virtual whitewashing by Pittsburgh.

Riley Cote was the only Flyer that escaped a minus in the plus/minus column, and he got a grand total of two shifts and 0:31 of ice-time. Conversely, only Tyler Kennedy and Craig Adams were the only Pens that weren't pluses. Just one of those nights.
Shots ended up being 35-27, hardly the edge to demonstrate the zone time and puck control that Pittsburgh had all night long. Crosby, Malkin and Kris Letang led the way five shots on goal a piece.
Strong effort by Marc-Andre Fleury getting in front of 26 of 27 shots. The Flyers did throw them on him, and he was there. Fleury's 8-1-1 and has given up 2 or fewer goals in eight of his last ten games and is sporting a .927 save percentage over that stretch.
About the only place the Pens didn't dominate was in the faceoff circle; Philly won 60% of the draws, no Penguin player who took more than one draw had over a 50% rate.
The blowout allowed the Pens to mix things up. No forward played more than 18:50, much under the season averages of guys like Crosby and Malkin. Defensively, only Sergei Gonchar played more than 20:00 minutes -- and even his 23:39 was under yearly average. Philly, playing catchup, had seven of their players go over the 20:00 minute mark. Might this show up in the second game of the home-and-home?
Brooks Orpik had 2 assists, Eric Godard had a nice flip that got him an assist, Staal wristed a nice shorty and a tap-in rebound, Fedotenko went 1 and 1, as did Malkin....You could go almost all the way down the line. Almost everyone who dressed made nice plays and a lot of them ended up in the net. Just one of those nights.

One of those nights indeed. Pittsburgh re-takes their lead for most wins league wide and the Flyers must be as frustrated as ever. Things change, and change quickly in the NHL. Philadelphia will get a shot in the arm with their crowd --and stewing over their performance -- on Thursday. If the Pens aren't out the gates running, make no mistake, Philly (with a 9-7-2 home record) will make them pay. But if the boys in black-and-gold have another showing like tonight, it'll likely be the same result.

November grades and Player of the Month

Hooks Orpik — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:00:23 -0000

More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

Alex Goligoski (getting mobbed here by teammates) was the overwhelming choice of Pensburgh voters to be named Pensburgh player of the month for October...Who will take the honor for November? Vote below!

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To see the report card from October, click here. You voted Alex Goligoski the player of the month, garning 50% of the vote to easily out-pace the other finalists of Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Tyler Kennedy and Jay McKee.

While the training staff and doctors probably deserve MVP status for all their hard work, let's look at the players performances for the month of November.

Overall the Penguins were 8-6-0 on the month, but it was a month of stretches. They lost five of seven games from Nov. 5th to the 19th. Then they won five of seven from Nov 20th to month's end.

Goalies	Grade	Comments
Marc-Andre Fleury	C+	(7-5-0, .891 save percentage on the month) A rocky month for Fleury, who got pulled twice. Considering the makeshift defense in front of him, it was about holding on and winning games; which he did reasonably well by month's end. The bar is set high, so allowing three or more goals 6 out of 12 outings is not ideal.
Brent Johnson	B-	(1-1-0, .887 save %) Again Johnson's save % almost exactly matches the starter, and Johnny has done well to stay sharp, despite not getting into many games.

Defensemen
Mark Eaton	B+	(2 goals, 1 assist, -1, 6 penalty minutes) Who would have thought Mark Eaton would be the Penguins' defensive ironman? Eaton picked up a lot of slack in terms of ice-time, being the lone defensive constant.
Alex Goligoski	I	(1g, 3a, -1, 0 PIM in seven games) Battled illness and then eventually missed seven games. Continues to play well when he's been in the lineup, but gets an I for Incomplete since he missed half the games and is back on the shelf.
Sergei Gonchar	B	(1g, 4a, -3, 4 PIMs in seven games) Points in four straight games, fair to say he's rounding back into game shape. Now it's time to get those PP numbers up. We'll give him a grade, since he's been back for a while.
Kris Letang	I	(1g, 3a, +2, 0 PIM in five games) Barely played due to a shoulder injury, but played very well when he was in. His puck moving ability was sorely missed. We'll give Letang an Incomplete, since he missed so much of the month.
Jay McKee	B	(1g, 2a, -2, 21 PIM in eight games) Before the shot blocking master somehow got a finger infection, the highlight of his month may have been getting 19 PIMs in San Jose, or maybe that awesome deke against Boston resulting in a goal.
Brooks Orpik	B+	(0g, 6a, even, 2 PIM in ten games) Since his return from injury the Penguins have won four of five games and Orpik had his most proflific scoring month ever in the NHL even missing time.
Martin Skoula	B+	(3g, 3a, -1, 0 PIM) Skoula proved himself to be a viable NHL defensemen still with his fill in duty. The two goals he chipped in against Atlanta (Nov 20th) were critical in a 3-2 win.
Deryk Engelland	B+	(0g, 2a, -2, 17 PIMs) Engelland was protected (he only played 16:08 a night) but he was good and physical when he was out there. Plus three fights helped keep some sandpaper around.
Nate Guenin	B-	(0g, 0a, -2, 0 PIM) The Pittsburgh product appeared briefly in two games (13:32 per night). He didn't make any glaring mistakes, but wasn't put in many situations in where he could.
Ben Lovejoy	A-	(0g, 3a, +5, 2 PIM in eight games) Lovejoy got the most responsibility of the callups, in terms of minutes and PK time and also faired the best. He had a great plus/minus and generally didn't look out of place in the NHL.

Forwards
Craig Adams	C	(0g, 2a, -2, 10 PIMs) Hardly generating any offensive, and his faceoff percentage is still hovering around 45%. Adams is forechecking hard (lots of hits) and playing well positionally, but that's par for the course for him.
Chris Bourque	D	(0g, 2a, -3, 6 PIMs in 13 games) Has looked like a placeholder for the injured. And the injured are on the mend, so Bourque's time may be running short. November was a great chance for him to prove himself, and it wasn't a smashing success to say the least.
Chris Conner	D	(0g, 1a, -1, 0 PIMs in four games) Made two turnovers that resulted in goals against on Nov 12th, was shipped back to the minors on Nov. 13th.
Matt Cooke	B+	(3g, 4a, +2, 34 PIMs) The good: Cooke supplying some offense, hitting and penalty killing. The bad: Cooke crossing the line with hits on Shean Donovan and Artem Anisimov, drawing a two game suspension on the latter. Gotta take the good with the bad with Cooke.
Sidney Crosby	A-	(8g, 9a, -2, 12 PIMs) Much like the team, Crosby had a tough beginning of the month (only 1 point in first five games) but closed strong, highlighted by the eight points in two games the Rangers to end the month.
Pascal Dupuis	A-	(5g, 1a, -3, 0 PIM) Dupuis' perhaps the surprise player of the month with his offensive output. The Penguins were 4-0-0 when he scored a goal in November.
Ruslan Fedotenko	C-	(1g, 3a, -4, 0 PIM) Not much production for a guy getting top-six minutes, even worse he only recorded more than one more shot on goal in just three games. He needs to get the puck on the net more, so he can get the puck in the net.
Eric Godard	C-	(0g, 1a, even, 16 PIMs) The big guy is only playing 4:56 per game on the year, but he's really trying. He had 4 shots on goal on Nov 25th, his center drive created a goal on Nov 28th. He's lugging around out there with a purpose, even if many of us aren't sure just what it is.
BIll Guerin	B-	(3g, 5a, -2, 13 PIMs) Like Crosby, only one point in the first five games and then a better production in the final two weeks of the month. The goal with 0.4 seconds he scored against Boston on Nov 14th is the stuff of legends.
Tyler Kennedy	I	(1g, 2a, +2, 0 PIM in three games) Kennedy is having a great year and really making things happen with the puck when he's been healthy, which hopefully he is now. He earns an Incomplete this month, since he only got into a few games.
Chris Kunitz	I	(1g, 0a, -6, 4 PIMs) Thought to be nursing injury, Kunitz only played five games before leaving the lineup after Nov 12. Let's give him an Incomplete as well.
Evgeni Malkin	A	(4g, 7a, +8, 4 PIMs) It's probably no coincidence Pittsburgh's won seven of nine games since Malkin returned to the lineup on Nov 14th, and Malkin's registered at least a point in seven of those games. He didn't look himself in October, but he certainly is back to his dominant ways now that he's healthy and rested.
Mike Rupp	A-	(5g, 1a, +2, 10 PIMs) Some [noted] timely goal scoring, a physical presence and no mistakes have made Rupp a cult favorite here at Pensburgh. His hat trick on November 30th gave him a career high in goals, and he's on a 23 goal pace. Can the big guy keep it up?
Jordan Staal	B	(3g, 7a, +1, 19 PIMs) Staal found the scoresheet on 9 of 14 games this month, an important step towards his consistency in generating points.
Maxime Talbot	C	(1g, 1a, +1, 2 PIMs in seven games) Understandably, it's been a little rough for Talbot to shake off the rust and catch up to everyone else in mid-season form. He does have two points in his last three games and is getting his timing back.
Mark Letestu	C+	(0g, 0a, even, 0 PIMs in two games) Didn't look out of place in his brief first taste of NHL action, but didn't stand out either.

Again I think it's a fairly wide-open debate for player of the month: Crosby had the most points and was in all the games. He was also named the NHL's #1 star of the week last week. Malkin came back strong and is looking like he did last season when he won the scoring title. Pascal Dupuis and Mike Rupp are lighting the lamp like no one expected. Defensemen Mark Eaton and Martin Skoula literally held the fort down while the rest of the defensemen were dropping like flies. Jordan Staal shouldered more of the load, and played well.

I'll cast my vote for Crosby, but it's certainly understandable that there will be a lot of different opinions on this one. Feel free to cast your vote and share 'em!

Poll

Who should be the Pensburgh Player of the Month for November

Sidney Crosby (8 goals, 9 assists, played in all the games)

323 votes

Evgeni Malkin (4 goals, 7 assists)

29 votes

Mark Eaton (only defensemen to play in all games of season)

47 votes

Mike Rupp (5 goals this month)

142 votes

Pascal Dupuis (5 goals)

28 votes

569 votes | Poll has closed

Tales of the Tape: Ottawa Senators, Eric Godard vs. Chris Neil

JDunman — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:10:45 -0000

There's not much good to say about the Pen's game last night, but I'll do my best to try to raise the sagging spirits of the Pensburgh crowd. Would watching Eric Godard pound on Chris Neil make you feel better? Dry those eyes and take a look.

The fight started with Neil doing the increasingly popular move of grabbing the jersey and jabbing with the same hand, but Godard quickly got Neil's hand away from his face and came out swinging. Neil was switching hands, swinging with whatever he could get free, but Godard stayed dedicated to his right hand, and his right hand stayed dedicated to Neil's face. After blows back and forth with both players stopped and looked as if they were going to await the linesmen. Then Neil took the opportunity to take a cheap swing, and Godard answered with a direct shot to the face (or right in the button, if you're listening to the clip). At this point, Neil's face started bleeding, but he kept at it. The energy was sapped, though, and shortly the linesmen broke the two up.

What a bout from Godard. Neil came out with some quick jabs, but Godard just pounded his face over and over again. This is a solid win for Godard - just look at the blows he connected! By the end of the bout, Neil's left cheek was swollen and bloody, but that can be expected when one gets repeatedly punched in the face. Definitely a good fight - I just wish it had come in a better game.

Next up is Atlanta, who thus far have 9 fights this season (coincidentally, the same number Chris Neil has) - five of which coming from Eric Boulton. You may recall a memorable bout last season in which Ruslan Fedotenko broke his hand on Colby Armstrong's face. Let's hope any fights that we may see have similar results without the unfortunate effects.

(Thanks to GhostWalker40 for the video!)

Poll

Who won the fight?

Eric Godard

192 votes

Chris Neil

13 votes

Draw

7 votes

212 votes | Poll has closed

Ranking the NHL's fighters

James Mirtle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:55:54 -0000

More photos » by LM Otero - AP

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If you haven't been stopping by stats man Gabe Desjardins's pad lately, you'd be well-served to do so. He's banging out some good stuff over there.

The latest is a system of ranking fighters, one that comes up with Georges Laraque as the NHL's top heavyweight. Here's the list based on the past three seasons:

Player	Ft	In	Wt	Fights	W	L	T	GP	Fts/82
Georges Laraque	6	3	253	30	24	3	3	177	13.9
D.J. King	6	3	229	22	16	2	4	89	20.3
Derek Boogaard	6	8	257	29	21	6	2	133	17.9
Donald Brashear	6	3	234	37	23	9	5	220	13.8
Wade Belak	6	5	225	28	17	7	4	165	13.9
Milan Lucic	6	3	228	24	18	4	2	149	13.2
Aaron Downey	6	1	215	15	9	1	5	81	15.2
Raitis Ivanans	6	4	256	39	21	11	7	215	14.9
Colton Orr	6	3	222	52	31	16	5	209	20.4
Eric Godard	6	4	214	44	20	15	9	164	22.0

I'm afraid I don't quite get how the ELO rating system is coming into play here, but anything that uses chess to rank hockey fighters is all right by me.

Fighting: Just like Chess

Hawerchuk — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:15:19 -0000

by Chris Young - AP

2 months ago: Toronto Maple Leafs' Colton Orr, right, fights with Montreal Canadiens' Georges Laraque during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

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So how do we figure out who the best fighter in the NHL is? First, we need to know who won every fight that takes place in the league. Hockey-fights.com is an absolutely indispensable resource in this regard - its users vote on who won and lost every fight. But it's not enough - a heavyweight who fights only in his weight class might have a .500 record despite being one of the better fighters in the league.

As usual, chess has the answer we're looking for: the ELO rating system, which handicaps players based on their past performance. Using ELO, the loser of a bout between top-ranked fighters will be penalized far less than if he lost to an unknown or a poor fighter. Here are the rankings for serious fighters using all fights during the 2006-07 through 2008-09 season:

Player	Ft	In	Wt	Fights	W	L	T	GP	Fights/82
Georges Laraque	6	3	253	30	24	3	3	177	13.9
D.J. King	6	3	229	22	16	2	4	89	20.3
Derek Boogaard	6	8	257	29	21	6	2	133	17.9
Donald Brashear	6	3	234	37	23	9	5	220	13.8
Wade Belak	6	5	225	28	17	7	4	165	13.9
Milan Lucic	6	3	228	24	18	4	2	149	13.2
Aaron Downey	6	1	215	15	9	1	5	81	15.2
Raitis Ivanans	6	4	256	39	21	11	7	215	14.9
Colton Orr	6	3	222	52	31	16	5	209	20.4
Eric Godard	6	4	214	44	20	15	9	164	22.0

No matter how you slice the data, Laraque was going to be #1. His 24-3-3 record against no-one but tough guys is unmatched.

And what about the less-frequent fighters?

Player	Ft	In	Wt	Fights	W	L	T	GP	Fights/82
Zdeno Chara	6	9	255	7	5	0	2	237	2.4
Sheldon Souray	6	4	233	8	7	0	1	188	3.5
Gary Roberts	6	2	215	6	5	1	0	137	3.6
Kevin Bieksa	6	0	205	15	13	1	1	187	6.6
Craig Rivet	6	2	210	13	10	0	3	209	5.1

This group definitely includes some solid fighters who've made the highlight of the night with their fists. Just missing the top five were Robyn Regehr and Rick Rypien, who fight less often but have had good success against serious fighters.

And who have been the worst fighters in the league? Presumably, legitimately bad fighters will stay away from fights! But among those who do fight repeatedly, Corey Perry (0 wins in 7 fights), Greg Campbell (1-16), Brendan Witt (1-9), Alex Burrows (0-15) and Tom Kostopoulos (1-23) stand out as particularly poor. Those decisions come from Hockeyfights.com users - if you watch the fight videos yourself, your mileage may vary.

Grading October, and the Player of the Month

Hooks Orpik — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:00:26 -0000

The Pens close the book on October 2009 with an Eastern Conference high 22 points in the standings and boasting an impressive 11-3-0 record. They're a perfect 6-0-0 away from Mellon Arena. If you want a bittersweet moment think of this: there'll never be October hockey in Mellon again. Kind of staggering to think of it like that, isn't it?

We turn the calendar to November, the players keep trudging on, no real big deal for them. But it makes a nice, clean break to grade them. All grades are given based off of player expectations relatively to their role. So, hypothetically, if a guy like Mike Rupp gets a better grade than a Sidney Crosby it doesn't mean Rupp is necessarily better, just better based off of what he's supposed to do.

Goalies	Grade	Comments
Marc-Andre Fleury	A-	9-2-0 record, strong .918 save percentage and a sterling 2.07 goals against average. Even better, Fleury deserves praise for the improvement he's shown playing the puck.
Brent Johnson	A-	Johnson has an identical save percentage (.918) to Fleury. Ideally the backup isn't a dropoff from the starter, so far so good for the veteran.

Defensemen
Mark Eaton	B-	Eaton hasn't stood out much, but given his style of play, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Alex Goligoski	A+	Highest praise for the guy currently leading the league in plus/minus. 12 points in 14 games for Goligoski, who played as well as any defenseman in the entire league.
Sergei Gonchar	A-	8 points in 9 games and his customary spot as team leader in ice-time before breaking a bone in his wrist. Get well soon, Sarge.
Kris Letang	C+	Zero goals, five assists this month. Letang hasn't been bad, but the Pens need him to be productive, especially in Gonchar's absence.
Jay McKee	A	Brought in as a shot-blocking defenseman, McKee leads the NHL with 44 blocked shots. That earns an A this marking period.
Brooks Orpik	B+	Tied for first amongst NHL defensemen in hits (43), and a fair amount of blocked shots (26). Has taken seven minor penalties, could do a little better of not taking stick penalties.
Martin Skoula	C+	Skoula had to jump into the lineup on a new team, always tough, and he's done reasonably well. Hasn't made any major gaffes in his five games, but hasn't made many plays either.

Forwards
Craig Adams	B-	He does a little bit of everything and generally does it well. Could stand to bump up that faceoff percentage though (45.9%)
Chris Bourque	C-	Has gotten into six games, hasn't created very much, despite seeing some minutes with the reigning scoring champion.
Chris Conner	C	Only played these last two games in limited minutes. He's shown nice speed but has been contained by bigger defensemen.
Matt Cooke	B+	Decent numbers with 2 goals and 3 assists and the usual good PK work. Cooke draws an extra bonus for being 5th in the league amongst forwards in hits. He's not taking shifts off, he's forechecking and finishing checks every time.
Sidney Crosby	A-	At the top of the league in faceoffs, 4 for 4 in shootouts, team leader in goals (9) and points (16). Just another month for the fabled captain.
Pascal Dupuis	C+	Two goals this month for Dupuis, who's mainly seeing bottom six even strength minutes. His penalty kill work has been good.
Ruslan Fedotenko	B-	Quietly a decent month for Rusty with six points. His 29 shots is a slightly higher per game average over his past two seasons, hopefully he keeps shooting.
Eric Godard	D	Godard's point-less in 11 games -- and maybe pointless too, he only has two staged fights and a measely 4:34 per game in ice-time. When he's been out there though he's made a good effort at actually playing hockey though.
BIll Guerin	B	The graybeard had 9 points in the month, but only three goals (none of which Crosby assisted on). We know enough to know Guerin will be there when it counts, hopefully he's pacing himself to have enough in the tank for the long season.
Tyler Kennedy	A	Kennedy's been on a scoring upswing, with 5 goals in 11 games, three of which ended up as game-winners. Nice to see his hard work was being quantified with points, hopefully that doesn't change when he returns from his undisclosed injury.
Chris Kunitz	B+	More assists than Sidney Crosby so far. Kunitz has broken out of his goal slump, with 2 in the last three games of the month. He's distributed the puck well, and needs to keep driving the net (and hopefully lighting the lamp).
Evgeni Malkin	B+	Soldiering through a shoulder issue for part of the month, Geno still put up 14 points in 12 games. When he returns, at full strength, the team will be better for it.
Mike Rupp	B+	Rupp's been impressive: despite only playing 8:40 a night, he's already matched his 2008-09 season total in goals (3) in one month. His play has been a pleasant surprise.
Jordan Staal	C+	Staal's played very well at times, but in the last eight games he's got zero goals (and only has one assist). Now, more than ever with Malkin's injury, Pittsburgh needs Staal to produce points.

The Honor roll (finalists for player of the month) is pretty big, given the great month the team had. Make your choice for Pensburgh player of the month and feel free to lobby for a different grade if you see something that doesn't quite look right.

Poll

Honor roll: who should be the Pensburgh player of the month?

Marc-Andre Fleury

188 votes

Alex Goligoski

374 votes

Jay McKee

9 votes

Sidney Crosby

140 votes

Tyler Kennedy

24 votes

Other (specify in comments)

2 votes

737 votes | Poll has closed

Eric Godard wants to be a Care Bear, 3 forwards miss practice

Hooks Orpik — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:02:10 -0000

Anytime a Penguin player puts a costume sized head on, you can expect it to be posted here. Not enough credit can be given to penguins.nhl.com for what you're about to see after the jump.

Plus, three forwards miss practice: cause for concern?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes

The above is Eric Godard, who took the ice in a Care Bear head at this morning's practice. Hey, when you're Eric Godard unless there's a heavy bag in the corner of the rink, what good is practice anyways? Halloween is right around the corner, why not have a little fun every once in a while? Godard won the "player's player" award voted on by his teammates last season, and little gimmicks like this are the reason why. Hey, it's just a game, right?

In perhaps a more serious note, Tyler Kennedy and fan whipping boys Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz all missed practice. There is no notice yet if this could have been injury related or maybe a personal issue or a "maintenance day". More on that when it breaks, but if more than one of those guys are too dinged up for Wednesday's game, a call-up will have to be made.

Pens win big, easily 5-1 against St. Louis, but Gonchar suffers injury?

Hooks Orpik — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:10:15 -0000

More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

Evgeni Malkin, boss of the league, had 1 goal and 12 shots on goal tonight.

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Blues vs Penguins coverage - Blues vs Penguins recap - SB Nation Blues' blog: St. Louis Game Time

The first period was one of the most dominanting performances by one professional team against another. Shots were 20-3 Penguins. Faceoffs were 60%-40% Penguins. Hits were 13-9 Penguins. Goals, most importantly, were 2-0 Penguins. Everyone was in on the act, even Eric Godard was getting chances. Tyler Kennedy corralled a puck from Jay McKee and wired one home to open the scoring. Right after that Andy McDonald high-sticked Brooks Orpik and Evgeni Malkin kept with it and buried the second goal.

Second period was more of the same, with Ruslan Fedotenko wiring a wrister on the power-play followed by Matt Cooke with a great tip off a Kris Letang shot. Pittsburgh applied more and more pressure but St. Louis would get one back off some great effort by T.J. Oshie to keep a play going. The Blues in general had a great shift after a power-play, keeping Letang out there for a 2:29 shift. Paul Kariya would tip in Erik Johnson's point shot for the goal.

The last stanza saw the Blues steady themselves. They trotted out Ty Conklin to the net as something of a relief to Chris Mason. He wasn't bad -- far from it -- but he was shelled and deserved a relief. Especially to shock the rest of the team into a better effort. It worked, sort of, as St. Louis stopped the bleeding, save Alex Goligoski getting a pass from Sidney Crosby and regaining the final victory margin of four goals.

Mentioned above, the Pens got caught on a long shift after a power-play that resulted in St. Louis' goal. Sergei Gonchar wasn't quite on the ice when the goal was scored (he got off just before), but he was out there for a 3 minute and 11 second shift. He wouldn't return, with an "undisclosed injury" according to Versus. Someone say when it's safe to breath again.
The #1 and #2 best defensive pairs have to play Crosby/Malkin, so that means Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy are going to see 3rd pairing defensemen. And, for the most part, 3rd pairing defensemen just aren't going to hold under the constant pressure, cycling, physical play and shots those three can create. Tonight the best 3rd line in the league was a combined 2 goals, 2 assists, +4, 9 shots on goal and 8 hits.
Team balance, part II: 13 of 18 Penguin skaters recorded a point. The only names not on the scoresheet are the ones you wouldn't expect to be (Godard, Orpik, Mike Rupp, etc).
As much as team balance is a great thing, "your best players have to be your best players" as Barry Melrose likes to say. In addition to his goal, Malkin had an amazing 12 shots on goal, 3 hits, 2 blocked shots. His faceoff percentage remains low but an all-around awesome game from the reigning scoring champ.
Jay McKee had four shots on goal all season up to this point. Had four shots tonight. Think he was pressing for a goal against his old team? Don't fear, with four blocked shots and the usual stellar play in his own end, it wasn't like he abandoned his job to do seek his revenge.
Marc-Andre Fleury was never really tested for prolonged periods, and the only one that beat him was a worm-burner of a great low shot tipped from just a few feet out. The fact there was about three Penguins in his field of vision couldn't have helped. Still, nothing else got by and Fleury got 22 of 23 to raise his save percentage to .926. His record is bumped to a perfect 8-0-0 and Fleury's got a GAA of 2.00 or under in five of his last five starts.

The Pensblog twitter is reporting Sergei Gonchar's injury as a broken wrist. If so, that would be tough to deal with losing the #1 defenseman on the team again. Hate to follow that up with a "but", however Goose got a goal tonight, Letang had two assists and Martin Skoula is a NHL caliber defenseman that hasn't even been able to crack the lineup yet. We'll have to wait until tomorrow for the official diagnosis from the Pens', but it doesn't look good.

Sunday evening thoughts: Ex-Pens, Canadian goalies, TK and Goose

Hooks Orpik — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:21:16 -0000

--NHL.com has a cool "100 facts to know feature" up. Among some of the more interesting and lesser known Penguin highlights:

Six of Tyler Kennedy's last nine goals have counted as game winners (something we mused about last week)
TK currently leads the whole league with 3 game winning goals in 2009-10.
Alex Goligoski leads the Pens so far in plus/minus (+8).

We're a couple weeks and 8 games into the season, so here are some "who would have thought" statistical oddities...

Who would have thought:

that Eric Godard would play 6 of 8 games and only rank 7th on the team with 10 penalty minutes.
Mike Rupp and Tyler Kennedy would combine for one less goal than Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (6 for the grinders to 7 for the big boys).
that Sergei Gonchar and Brooks Orpik, the #1 defensive pairing, would be the only two players with a negative plus/minus rating on the team.
that Goligoski and Kris Letang would be second and fourth respectively on the Pens in time played.
the Penguins would rank 3rd in 5-on-5 goals ratio with 1.9. (As in, Pittsburgh has scored 1.9 goals at even strength for every 1 goal they give up).
And who would have thought that the only teams Pittsburgh would be behind in the above category would be Buffalo and Phoenix.

--The grass isn't always greener in the Wild. Former Pittsburgh assistant GM Chuck Fletcher's Minnesota Wild is off to a terrible 1-6-0 start. What I find funny is that Todd Richards would have been next in line to have been PIttsburgh's head coach, since he was a "rising star" coaching Wilkes-Barre before ditching for an assistant coach's job in the NHL. Now in his first crack at being the head man in the NHL it's been rough. And his little known assistant Dan Bylsma is the #1 coach in hockey, based off his results in the past 8 months.

--Team Canada, like other national bodies, are keeping a close eye on how players fare in this season to help decide in large part who's going to Vancouver for the Olympics...Here's the five Canadian goalies from the summer camp's early season stats:

Martin Brodeur: 4-3-0, 2.68 GAA, .908 save %
Roberto Luongo: 3-4-1, 3.41 GAA, .870 save %
Steve Mason: 4-1-0, 2.35 GAA, .925 save %
Cam Ward: 2-4-1, 2.42 GAA, .926 save %
Marc-Andre Fleury: 7-0-0, 2.09 GAA, .922 save %

It'd take a lot of balls not to give Brodeur and Luongo ice-time, given how highly regarded and experienced they are, but the three other guys all have great save percentages and have been making cases for themselves. Could a guy like Mason or Fleury play themselves into Olympic action if they keep making saves and getting wins?

--We all love former Penguins (mostly) so here's how some notable old buddies of ours are doing around the league with their new teams:

Colby Armstrong (ATL): 4 games played, 0 goals, 1 assist
Georges Laraque (MTL): 7gp, 0g, 1a, 5 PIMs
Ryan Malone (TBL): 7 gp, 6g, 0a
Petr Sykora: (MIN): 4gp, 1g, 0a
Hal Gill (MTL): 7gp, 0g, 0a, -4, 10 blocked shots
Rob Scuderi (LAK): 8gp, 0g, 1a, -3, 15 blocked shots
Ryan Whitney (ANA): 7gp, 1g, 3a, 10 PIMs
Ty Conklin (STL): 2-0-0, 1.50 GAA, .950 save percentage

Good starts for Malone and Conklin but a lot of tough times for the other guys. At least they're getting good paychecks though; the combined cap hit of those eight players is $22.05 million.

--Random: If you like to watch "60 Minutes" you must really hate football. Pigskin ALWAYS runs way over and bumps back the old people's show.

--Down on the farm (more tommorow) the Baby Pens went an impressive 2-0-0 this week, on the heels of getting one of their most talented forwards (Mark Letestu) back from an injury.