As you may have heard, I took a little road trip between Christmas and New Year's this year -- for no good reason besides awesome. The plan was simple: five cities in five days to watch ten teams play five games. So on Boxing Day I hopped in my car just outside of Toronto and started my trip. I traveled through 1 province, 10 states, and also DC (plus another state if you count my trip home for Christmas...). I put almost 3000 Km on my car, found out that Amtrak can actually run on time if it tries, and discovered some absolute gems in the world of hockey. In a word, it was splenderific.

Follow me after the jump for excessive ramblings on everything from the games I watched to the arenas I watched them in, the fan-bases I watched them with, and the former Penguins who played in them. And also a poll.

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Aloha, Canes fans. I'm taking a Super-Fun-Hockey-Road-Trip over the holidays, with a stop in the Raleigh area. I plan to attend the Canes-Leafs game on December 29th, and since you guys and gals are presumably the experts, I'm here in search of any advice you might have on visiting the arena and/or buying tickets.

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Aloha, Blue Jackets fans. I'm taking a Super-Fun-Hockey-Road-Trip over the holidays, with a stop in the Columbus area. I plan to attend the Columbus-Calgary game on December 27th, and since you guys and gals are presumably the experts, I'm here in search of any advice you might have on visiting the arena and/or buying tickets.

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So it's that time of year again, when it seems like one more player is lost to injury during every game. We experienced it last year when the Pens did that whole "hey, our coach should totally win the Jack Adams award!" thing, and the year before there was that stretch in the middle of November where Mark Eaton was the only regular NHL D in the lineup. Martin Skoula may have been in there too, but my sources are unable to confirm whether he fits into the category of "regular NHL D" or not. Either way, it was awesome.

This time we're back at it with a broken-body-parts theme: broken wrists, broken feet and broken heads.

In a recent post, ozman_fiftyone argued that "there is no distinct difference in games missed to injury over a season between current Head Coach Dan Bylsma and his predecessor Michel Therrien". In support of that argument ozman compared man-games lost to injuries over the last few seasons, along with a projection for this season based on what we've seen so far.

In this post I consider a related question: how does our current injury situation stack up against what we (okay ... they ...) went through last year?

Follow me after the jump for a wee bit o' comparison.

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As we all know, 2011 has brought with it a spate of injuries to the forwards of the Pittsburgh Penguins. As a result, we have had the chance to see how guys who would otherwise have been relegated to the AHL for the season, fare at the NHL level. There have been some Sterling surprises (see what I did there?), and some slightly more disappointing showings (like Tangradi's fall down the depth chart), but so far they are all still considered by most to be AHL players enjoying successful call-ups.

We know that Evgeni Malkin is out until next year, but everyone else has the potential to return to the lineup before the end of the regular season. If they do, and if there was no such thing as a 23-man roster limit, our roster would include the following 21 forwards:

Craig Adams, Arron Asham, Mike Comrie, Chris Conner, Matt Cooke, Sidney Crosby, Pascal Dupuis, Eric Godard, Dustin Jeffrey, Nick Johnson, Tyler Kennedy, Chris Kunitz, Mark Letestu, James Neal, Mike Rupp, Jordan Staal, Brett Sterling, Max Talbot, Eric Tangradi, Joe Vitale, Tim Wallace.

Since there is a 23-man roster limit, and since a team typically carries 2 goalies and 7 D, that leaves 7 forwards to send back to the AHL, a few of whom may be required to go through waivers to get there. So who goes down?

Follow me after the jump for more details on waiver rules, and how I think it could play out.

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Another Pensburgher posted a list of our injured players in a fanpost, and I decided that I wanted more information: like what's wrong with them, and when we might start seeing them come back to our lineup. So I made a list. I have also included their current point-stats in order to help give some sense of what they have contributed to the team so far. That obviously doesn't tell the whole story, but it's a start. And besides giving us regulars the whole depressing picture in one (fan)shot, hopefully it will help to give random passersby a better sense of what the Pens are dealing with.

Or at least it did. Today (February 18th) we got a superfantastic update from Head Coach Dan Bylsma who let us know that while Kunitz and Letestu hit the ice sans gear, they, along with Jeffrey, "won't be playing this weekend".

And for all you suckers who voted in the previous version of our poll (Results: roughly 40% of you thought Asham would be back first, while the rest of you were split pretty evenly between Letestu, Tangradi and Crosby), it turns out that Asham has a concussion-like. That's right: a concussion-like! Word is that Dupuis was in the background during Bylsma's press conference, snidely remarking about how they'd fooled us all. It's a good thing we had our helmets on ...

And finally, Nick Johnson, he of 4 NHL games and 1 NHL goal this season, sustained some sort of upper body mojo during practice and will not likely be available this weekend. You know, the Pens should really consider skipping practice altogether. Although it's not likely that he got hit in the hand with a slapshot, or got stuck in a rut and twisted his knee: because that clearly never happens.

Follow me after the jump for a list of our injured players, roughly sort of kind of in order of when they are expected back. ...

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Recent events have inspired me to investigate just what the gender breakdown is on this site. We seem to have more women involved than one might expect on a sports blog, but perceptions are sometimes wrong. So I thought I'd ask.

Of course, this will only tell us the breakdown of readers who pay attention to FanPosts and also vote in polls, but it's a start!

Feel free to use the comments section to muse about things related to gender and hockey fandom.

(Note: The "Other" option is for people who identify as neither "male" nor "female".)

As we all know, the Pens played their first pre-season game of the year last night. And they beat Chris Osgood often enough to make him look ... well ... like Chris Osgood. To be fair, we should remember that the Pens had the first-game-in-the-new-arena energy going on, as well as a slightly stacked (for pre-season) roster. But still, any chance to make fun of Detroit is not worth wasting.

Along with 18,086 other people, I had the good fortune of attending the game and looking at all the shiny and new hockey-related goings on. Despite the distraction of my giddiness at the return of hockey, I kept my wits about me just enough to make a few observations about the players on the ice. Join me after the jump to see my thoughts ...

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This weekend I officially joined the ever-growing list of hockey fans who have toured -- and subsequently been impressed by -- the new arena in Pittsburgh. Before I went I was, quite frankly, worried that everything had been over-hyped and blown out of proportion. It wasn't as if I was expecting to meet Mario or anything, but I sort of felt like I was on my way to the theatre for Star Wars, Episode 2: an expedition that did not end with puppy dogs, ice cream, or rainbows.

Anyway, the short version is that I was not disappointed. Even a little bit!

After the jump you'll see my two favourite aspects of the arena. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.

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One of the things that has most intrigued me about the 2010 Pens-Habs series is the coaching match-up. Both Dan Bylsma and Jacques Martin are very good at their jobs, and both understand the differences between regular season and playoff victory. They both know it's not just about heart and skill: it's about adjusting your team's game in response to how the other team plays.

We saw this at the beginning of the series: from the moment the Habs beat the Caps, all the talk coming out of the Pens' dressing room was about "shooting smart" and reducing the number of shots that would be blocked. They also worked extensively on their power play, after seeing the Caps' high-powered offense be all but shut out during Round 1 power play opportunities.

The result? A decisive 6-3 victory which included 4 power play goals, and 24 Pens shots to the Habs' 31. And only 15 shots blocked by the Habs.

Some might argue that the Habs were tired after an emotional Game 7 upset just a few nights before, but the game I watched involved the Pittsburgh Penguins buying into the game plan that Bylsma drew up, and executing it well enough to hand the Habs their panties on a platter.

This series is, and has been all along, a duel between coaches. The teams are built differently, and there are lots of things we could say about turnovers that lead to goals, bad or brilliant defensive plays, suspicious officiating, execution, and so on. At bottom, though, we find each coach's plan.

After Game 1, Martin adjusted his game plan, and the Habs won. It looked like the Pens had stopped taking smart shots, but it appeared to me that the Habs were taking away most of their good opportunities and taking charge of the play. This time, the Canadiens let the Penguins pick their shots -- over and over and over again -- but they also provided the Pens with a truncated list of options: take crummy shot A or crummy shot B, but you can't have good opportunity C.

This time, Martin's game plan prevailed.

For Game 3, Bylsma responded to Martin's adjustments, got his players on board, and the Pens once again prevailed -- with a shutout. Fleury was great and Malkin came alive, but it should also be noted that shot totals were low, and the Pens were in control.

Game 4 is a slightly different story, where two quick goals in the third period led to something of an explosion in the Bell Centre. I would have liked to have seen our guys get it together in time for a win, but that's not the way it went.

After Game 4, though, the Pens were all about traffic. "Create traffic", "get traffic in front of Halak", "set up screens". Clearly someone (i.e. Bylsma & co) took a look at the way the Habs were defending their net, and came up with a game plan. A game plan that the Pens executed marvelously. There's a reason the goals were from defensemen: because the Pens were using the Habs' collapse around the net as a screen, getting the puck to the point, and shooting past Halak.

Then, last night, the Habs abandoned their 'collapse around the net' plan for the first two periods. And during that time, the Pens continued to shuffle pucks to the point and take shots from there. But Halak wasn't about to miss those pucks, without a screen. There were plenty of juicy rebounds, but the Pens were rarely around the net to pick them up.

Not because they weren't playing well. Because that wasn't their game plan.

And in the third period? I think the Pens had figured out what was going on by then, and they started crashing the net a little more. But the wily Jacques Martin must have anticipated this, and he had his team, once again, collapsing around the net. This time, the Habs' game plan prevailed. But only just.

I don't know what Game 7 holds in store for us, but I am certainly looking forward to seeing what the coaches have up their sleeves. There are obviously plenty of factors that go into deciding a Game 7, but the foundation comes from the coaching staff. So play on, fine men: my money's on Bylsma!

Playoff hockey is a rite of Spring. And in Canada, complaining about the officiating in said hockey playoffs is as much a rite of Spring as playoff hockey itself. What I've learned since moving to the great United States, however, is that there are more important things to complain about.

Like Versus.

I miss Canadian hockey commentary, but I have, over time, become accustomed to the characters on FSN-Pittsburgh. And, of course, there is the wonderful world of Mike Lange and Bob Grove.

But as the playoffs progress, I am more and more subject to the spectacle that is Versus hockey coverage. Among other things (like interviews carrying on in pop-ups covering half the screen as the new period begins), I am continually astonished at the strings of words that come out of the hockey commentators' mouths.

Normally when I am forced to watch hockey on Versus I spend half the time yelling at the television, and I spend the rest of the time deciding whether to laugh or cry. But this year, in an effort to channel my rage, I decided to keep a record of their buffoonery.

As it turns out, they offered several gems.

For no particular reason, here are a few of my favourites:

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                                             "Bryzgalov struggled ocularly with that one!"
                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~

He was screened. That is all.

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                     "That's the way the Red Wings would like to do it. They like solarity in their game."
                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~
                               "There is some serious placitude in the Phoenix Coyotes right now."
                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~

Solarity = ??

Placitude = ??

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                   "Optically at a disadvantage is Quick. And Samuelsson scores! Wow. That puck had eyes."
                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes. The punctuation is an accurate depiction of the expression on that one.

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                                          "Oh my goodness! Luongo with a tentacular save!!!"
                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't know what that means (although it turns out this one has a definition), but I'm sure it is astounding.

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                 "You'd have to put lipstick, earrings, wigs on the three goals that have been
                                                   scored tonight -- to make 'em pretty."
                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~

Really? That must have been Mike Milbury.

And finally ...

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                     "I f'ng love acid so much. It's just almost impossible to plan a day to do it."
                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay -- that last one is from my roommate. But it came at the end of the Detroit-Phoenix Game 7, and it seems somehow relevant.

The hockey gods are frowning upon you, dear Versus. Please give all your money to the Lifetime Movie Network, and start covering baseball instead of hockey.