By Ryan Wilson (Gunner Staal)
Find me on twitter here:
Apparently John will be away for one more day. He gets treated to a Pirates/Phillies game on his final day in FLA.
*************************
The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Boston Bruins 5-2 yesterday at the Consol Energy Center. From the opening faceoff the Penguins played about as well of a first period that any coach could ask for. The Penguins physically imposed themselves on the Bruins while finishing every check. This high intensity brand of hockey opened up time and space for the Penguins which was good enough for a 3 goal first period.
The Penguins are one team that does not allow Chara to roam freely. Chara is always matched against the other teams top lines, but not many teams top lines like to finish their checks like the Malkin, Neal, and Kunitz trio. Neal set the tone by laying out the big Slovak early on in the game (interference penalty). The Penguins consistently got the puck behind the Bruins defense and made them operate with their backs to the play. This led to turnovers and puck possession, which led to goals.
The Penguins got to Tim Thomas early on and he gave up 3 goals on 10 shots. The Bruins went with Turco for the rest of the way and the newly acquired goaltender held his own with a few nice saves of his own (20 saves on 22 shots).
James Neal put any discussion about 2nd half production drop offs on hold as he had a goal and 2 assists in the winning effort.
Evgeni Malkin did not waste any time getting point #500 on Sunday as he assisted on the Penguins second goal in the first period. Geno ended up with 3 assists and regains the point lead from Tampa’s Stamkos (84 to 82) in the race for the Art Ross trophy. There will also be no fine or suspension coming for Malkin. Malkin was penalized for boarding Boychuk.
Jordan Staal earned an assist on the 5th goal and he has extended his point scoring streak to 8 games, a career high.
Pascal Dupuis continues to put up top 6 numbers as he scored yet again, his goal put the game on ice for the Penguins. He has 9 points in his last 9 games with 5 goals.
Marc Andre Fleury continues to make the saves when it counts. David Krejci had a great opportunity to earn his 3rd goal for the hat trick with 6 minutes left in the third period. Fleury sprawled and made the save to keep the game 4-2. Two minutes later Dupuis scored to put the game out of reach. If Fleury does not make that save the final 6 minutes could have been really interesting and the result may have been different.
David Krejci played an excellent game, he was consistently in good spots to get chances and buried two goals. His linemates Seguin and Lucic had two assists each.
Side note on Mario: He is the only player in the top 35 all time leading scorers who has not played in 1,000 games. He is 7th all time in points (1723) and played in 915 games. Pretty impressive stuff. To put it into perspective Jagr has played in 1332 career games and still has 78 points to go to catch Lemieux .
Around the League
The New York Rangers responded to the Penguins win yesterday as they pulled out the OT victory against the Islanders last night. It was probably closer than the Rangers would have liked but this time of year results are the only thing that matter. The Rangers maintain their 4 point cushion on the Penguins for the time being. The Rangers play the Hurricanes on Tuesday night at MSG. The Penguins do not have a game until they face the Rangers on Thursday night at MSG. Needless to say it is a huge game for the Penguins if they want to seriously take a run at the #1 seed. Oh yeah, and some guy named Sid is probably going to play in that game too.
The Flyers lost to the Devils last night 4-1 and are now tied for overall points with NJ at 85 points. The Flyers have the tiebreaker and are currently in 5th. The Flyers and Devils might want to slide down to the 6th spot so that they get the perceived easier matchup against the Southeast divisional champion.
Congratulations to Martin Brodeur on reaching career win #650.
The Los Angeles Kings earned two very important points last night against Chicago in the shootout. They remain two points behind Phoenix for the 7th spot and they are tied with Calgary for 8th and final playoff spot. The Coyotes have dropped from the division lead to the 7th spot due to their 1-4-1 mark in March. Calgary is quite the surprise as I did not give them much of a chance to be in the playoff picture, to their credit they are right in the thick of things.
The Washington Capitals have started to string some wins together (3 in a row) and they are now in the 8th and final playoff spot. They now have a 4 point lead over Winnipeg and Buffalo.
GM’s will be discussing a myriad of topics at their annul GM meetings this week. One topic is putting the red line back in. I personally do not think they should put the red line back in. I assume they think it will slow the game down, but putting the red line back in does nothing to change the kind of plays that Letang recently found himself in. If anything discuss eliminating the trapezoid instead. That will help the defense out from receiving more vicious hits. Removing the trapezoid would help more than taking the red line out would. Do we really want to see teams start trapping again, knowing that the other team cannot use the stretch pass? Sounds like backward progress to me.
The other interesting item on the table is adding 5 minutes to overtime. The nice twist is that it would still be a 5 minute 4 on 4 overtime session, however the additional 5 minutes would be played at 3 on 3. I think that would be a nice change and not too many people would complain about it (other than tired players).
Last but not least the most pressing issue on player safety in my opinion is the Kevlar like equipment. There is no need for the equipment to be as hard as it is these days and there is no doubt it has had a negative impact on player safety, specifically head shots. Soften up the shoulder and elbow pads
Thanks for reading, John should be back tomorrow.
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»