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GAMEDAY! Penguins Devils Pens look to bounce back

March 25, 2012, 3:20 PM ET [99 Comments]
John Toperzer
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
By Ryan Wilson (Gunner Staal)

John has a fantasy baseball draft today so I will be pinch hitting for him, thank you John.


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DEVILS (42-27-6) AT PENGUINS (46-22-6)

The Pittsburgh Penguins are set to face divisional rival New Jersey Devils tonight at the Consol Energy Center for a 7PM faceoff. Chances are the faceoff will not be as severely delayed as last night’s puck drop as somebody with less of an ego will be singing the national anthem tonight. For those that did not see the Pens/Sens anthem last night, make an effort to do so.

The New Jersey Devils hold the lead in the season series 3-2 and the Penguins have the opportunity to even that up tonight.

The Penguins were victims of their own lackadaisical play last night as they were disposed of by the Ottawa Senators 8-4. The Penguins consistently blew defensive assignments which led to prime scoring chances of the Senators. The Senators deserve full marks for taking advantage of the Penguins mistakes and really taking it to the Penguins. Ottawa responded well after their embarrassing effort against the Canadiens on Friday and picked up a much needed 2 points in their playoff pursuit (currently 7th seed).

The Penguins loss and the Rangers win places the Rangers 3 points ahead of Pittsburgh in the race for the #1 seed. The Penguins still have a game in hand. If the Penguins are serious about catching New York tonight must yield 2 points.

Brad Thiessen was left out to dry on numerous occasions in Saturday’s game however he was unable to make the big save that all Penguin fans are accustomed to when Marc Andre Fleury is between the pipes. Thiessen was not at his best and quite frankly he needs to be at his best at the NHL level given his size disadvantage. The one positive was that Bylsma stuck with Thiessen for the entire game and that allowed Fleury to get a much needed night off.

Speaking of Fleury, is there any doubt how important he is to the Penguins success? Fleury is one of the best goalies at making big time saves on big time scoring opportunities. He is the reason the Penguins are able to play loose at times while they run and gun. This is much like how Fuhr was to the 1980’s Oiler teams. He may give up 4 goals, but he won’t give up the damning 5th goal. Fleury will be back between the pipes tonight against NJ, Pens fans will find a sigh of relief with that news. Look for an interesting stat about Fleury when he plays on March 25th in Tidbits from Twitter.


The Crosby factor

Sidney Crosby broke his career long goal drought last night by scoring against the Senators however even when he is not scoring goals the game’s best player is still busy at work. Here is the statistical proof:

Matt Cooke in the 6 games prior to Crosby rejoining the lineup had 0 points. In the 6 games he has played with Sidney Crosby, he has 9 points with 7 goals, including three 2 goals games.

Tyler Kennedy in the 4 games prior to Crosby coming back had 0 points. In the 6 games with Crosby he has 7 points with 3 goals.

Speaking of Cooke he is non too happy with the way the game is being called lately. I really can’t say I disagree with him. Now obviously given his track record he will never get the benefit of the doubt on close calls that could go either way (nor should he),but he has been on the wrong side of many plays this year. The latest being the goaltender interference call against Ben Bishop last night. Cooke had this to say following the game.


"I didn't touch him. It's embarrassing. The ref sees the penalty go down like that, then looks to see who it was. They're staring at penalties that they're not calling intentionally. It's frustrating."


Regardless of your personal view on Matt Cooke, I bet most NHL fans are on the same page with him lately in that regard.

Pascal Dupuis has a 9 game point streak with 7 goals.

Steve Sullivan has a 3 game point streak with 3 assists

Evgeni Malkin on a rare night was held scoreless. The snaps his 6 game point streak. To make matters worse his pursuit of the Rocket Richard Trophy was probably extinguished as Stamkos scored twice for Tampa Bay last night extending his goal lead over Malkin 52 to 45. Malkin is still in the drivers seat for the Art Ross as he has an 8 point lead.


NJ report

The Devils are coming off of a Friday night shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. On the surface that may seem like the Devils underperformed by losing to the struggling Leafs, however it was quite the opposite. The Devils outshot the Leafs by 29 shots and held the play much of the game. The Devils will also want some revenge for the St. Patrick Day game against the Pens where they were run over by a 5-2 score.

The Devils look to be planted into that #6 seed for the playoffs and it looks like they will end up facing the Southeast Division winner, which is a good place to be.

Travis Zajac will make his long awaited return to the Devils lineup as he has been out long term with an Achilles issue. This is his first game action since January 2nd. He will most certainly help out with the Devils forward depth moving forward.

Ilya Kovalchuk has put up some really decent numbers in his career against the Penguins. In 41 games played he has 23 goals, 24 assists for 47 points. When Kovalchuk is hot he can do tons of damage. An example of this was his sample size from March 6-11. He played in 4 games scoring 9 points with 5 goals and a +4. However since then he has played 6 games with 1 goal, 3 assists, and a -6. The Penguins are hoping his recent trend continues.

Patrick Elias is another Penguin killer in his career as he has played the Pens 75 times with 23 goals and 43 assists for 66 points.

Today’s game brings together two of the finder PK units in the entire league as the Devils currently have the #1 PK in the NHL with an 89.2% success rate. Pittsburgh is 3rd at 88.4%

The Penguins have the advantage as far as the PP goes as they are 6th in the league with a 19.2% success rate. New Jersey is 20th in the league at 16.3%

Around the league

Potential great news for all hockey fans as this comes from an interview from the Orange County Register’s Jeff Miller:

"There's more inside me that wants to play than retire," Selanne admitted. "But it's got to be 100 percent when I make the decision."

That would be great news as Selanne is clearly still a difference maker in the league and incredibly fun to watch.

Selanne’s former Stanley Cup winning teammate Chris Pronger was spotted at the Flyers game yesterday on the jumbotron and was given a standing ovation. It is nice to see him making a public appearance given the serious nature of the symptoms he was suffering from.

Big news coming out of Quebec City today as there are plans moving forward to build a new NHL rink in an effort to get back into the league. Taxpayer money is going to fund the project which is slated to start in September.


Tidbits from Twitter

Peter Taglianetti ‏ @PeterTags
Just came to me. Last night anthem singer, Aerosmith wrote song about it. Dude looks like a lady!!

Kevin Paul Dupont ‏ @GlobeKPD Richards and Carter post matching minus 3s vs Bruins. Would be tarred, feathered and fileted in Philly.

Rich Chere ‏ @Ledger_NJDevils Tomorrow-- Mar. 26-- is the 20th anniversary of Martin Brodeur's NHL debut. It was a 4-2 win over the Bruins at the Meadowlands

Got Kasparaitis ‏ @GotKasparaitis In each of the last 4 games that the Pens had on March 25th, Marc-Andre Fleury has recorded a shutout. (07',08',09',11')

Max Talbot ‏ @Max25talbot Ca sent peut-être le hockey à Québec ? Je suis content pour tous les Québécois mordus de hockey! #Nordiques (It smells maybe hockey in Quebec? I'm happy for all Quebecers hockey fans)

Thanks for reading and enjoy the game!
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