Diego here, and its good to be back after the long weekend break, I’m here to recap this weekends sports action n’at. This weekend was shaping up to pretty good with Pitt hoops tipping off, Penguins playing, and the Steelers matching up with their most hated rivals, the Browns.
I’ll start out with the Penguins who, to say the least, have been struggling recently. They went into the game against the Flyers in Philly on Saturday loosing 4 out of the last 5 games they have played. Regrettably the Pens luck didn’t change in this game and we were once again outplayed and beaten by a score of 5-2. The Flyers were led to victory by Kimmo Timonen, who had 4 points, coming on a goal and three assists, against goalie Marc Andre Fleury on Saturday night. The Flyers utilized four power play opportunities to capitalize and score goals, while badly out shooting the Penguins throughout the night.
The Pens once again struggled to score goals even against Flyers goalie Martin Biron, who previously that week, let up 4 goals on 15 shots against the Devils. The Pens got goals from Geno Malkin and Sergei Gonchar, but it wasn’t enough against a greatly improved Philly team. Also, the Flower once again struggled letting up 4 goals, last one was an empty netter, and has still done nothing all year to prove he deserves to be this team’s starting goaltender on a day to day basis. Does anybody else remember the good ole days when we kicked the Flyers ass every time we played? Seems like such a long long time ago.
Monday night the Pens had another game with the only team in the Atlantic division that had fewer points then they did, the New Jersey Devils. Also Monday the Penguins would be playing back at home at the Mellon Arena, and Danny Saborin would be getting the start in goal. The Pens needed a win tonight; worse than Geno Malkin needs a haircut, worse than the Talbot needs a shave, you get my point. Alas, tonight would not be the night as the Devils, seemingly pissed off from the butt kicking they received at home last Monday came to Igloo ready to play.
The Pens got goals from Crosby and Gino, but came up short when Patrick Elias scored the game winner late in the 3rd period. Of course Elias hadn’t scored in a dozen previous games, but he managed to put the game winner past Saborin after an errant pass from Big Georges. The Devils started backup goalie Kevin Weekes who only had to make 23 saves in order to get his second win of the season.
The Pens needs to do something to give this team some sort of spark because the way they are playing now is just unacceptable. With the loss to the Devils last night, we fall to last place in the division and are badly in need of some points. As far as I am concerned there are several factors contributing to the slump we are going through. First of all someone else on this team needs to step up and score some freaking goals. We expect players like Malkin and Crosby to score, and they have been, but where is the production from the rest of the team? We might as well put Staal on a milk carton because the Jordan Staal I know has been M.I.A. since the playoffs last year. Christenson seemed to have some extra pep in his step lately, but this still has translated into any scoring production. Therrien has been mixing up lines all year to try to find that perfect combination, but nothing seems to be clicking as of yet. And why in the H does he continue to play oldballs Recchi and Roberts as the two have been struggling mightily as of late, why not give the young guys like Colby Armstrong a chance to play more then once every two weeks.
Come on Therrien, show this pale SOB some love...
In order for the Pens to start competing with teams they are going to need to produce more quality scoring chances and also execute on the power play more frequently. The addition of Ryan Whitney back on the power play can help with the latter problem, but the team also needs to address the issue of shot production. I have been frustrated as of late watching the Penguins continually attempt to set up the perfect pass opportunity instead of shooting the puck. Maybe if we were shooting the puck more we could take leads in games instead of continuously playing catch up as we have been doing as of late in the last couple of weeks. And Big Snack has done enough bitching about the goalies for the both of us so I won’t touch that one. One thing is for sure; if the Pens don’t step their game up we are in for a long season. Personally I blame Steigerwald and Errey as their horrible announcing and asinine comments make Pens broadcasts all that much worse.
Where's your partner, jagoff?
Until lata....
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