Pittsburgh Penguins vs Phoenix Coyotes Pros and Cons

Tonight the Pittsburgh Penguins play in Phoenix against the Coyotes. The start is an hour earlier than last night. The puck drops at 9:08pm EST. Dont forget to set the clocks back after the game tonight!

The Coyotes come into the game with a record of 4-5-3. That puts them in last place in the Pacific division. There stats break down like this...They score 2.5 goals a game and give up 3.2 goals a game. These both rank 22nd in the league. Their power play clicks at 14.3%, good for 19th in the league. They kill 77.4% of power plays. That ranks 26th in the league.
They are coming off a 6-3 loss to the Stars last night in Dallas. Both teams will be playing their 3rd game in 4 nights.

Last season, the Coyotes blew through the league and collected their 1st 100 point season in team history. They finished with 107. However, they lost to the Detroit Red Wings in the opening round of the playoffs. In the offseason, the Coyotes lost Zybinek Michalek and Mathew Lombardi, 2 key players in their lineup. They added Ray Whitney. So far this season, their top 3 forwards, Whitney, Shane Doan, and Wojtek Wolski, have only 1 goal goal between them. Their leading scorer is a defensemen, Ed Jovanovski. Yes, that same Ed Jovanovski!

The probable goaltenders for tonight are Brent Johnson for the Pens and Iyla Bryzgalov. We all know about Johnson. Bryzgalov has been ok this season but has not been getting any offensive help. He has posted a 4-2-3 record with a 2.84 GAA and .916 save%.

On to Pros and Cons......

PROS:

• The Pens are playing a good team that is struggling(sound familiar??). If the Pens can dig down deep and come out with the same intensity they played the final 20 minutes last night, they will win this game. When teams are down, you gotta kick them. In other words, the Pens gotta kick the Coyotes before the Coyotes kick the Pens. 
• Brent Johnson is the probable goaltender tonight. We will get to see what he is made of. He is coming off of his 1st poor performance of the year. I think you will see a veteran backup regain his form and lead the way. 
• The Penguins power finally got their 1st goal in 7 games last night. Tonight they are playing one of the worst penalty killing teams in the league. I saw progress in the Pens pp last night as the game went on. They were getting pucks at the goal and creating chances. If they keep it simple and continue to get pucks at the net, this may be the break out game they need

CONS:

• The Coyotes should be a better team than their record indicates. The Penguins cannot take this team lightly. Although Phoenix's top forwards arent lighting it up every night, they have the potential to break out at any time.
• Although both teams are playing their 3rd game in 4 nights, the Penguins are coming off 2 emotional, physical games. They have also traveled across a few time zones. You have to be leery of the fatigue factor. 

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Quick hits on Pittsburgh Penguins vs Anaheim Ducks

I don't want to spend alot of time looking back on the Ducks vs Pens game last night. The Pens lost. They are now under .500. They are now 3rd place in the Atlantic, 4 points behind the Flyers and they have played 1 more game.
I guess there are a couple positives we can take out of the game.

• The Penguins finally scored on the power play!!! And guess what worked? Goligoski wasnt roaming, Malkin wasnt on the blue line, it wasnt a serious of fancy passes.  It was just a simple play where a shot at goal was made and Crosby was around the net to tap it in on a backhand.

• I loved the 3rd period fire. The Penguins really laid it out. It would be hard to keep that type of play every period, every game, but it sure was nice to see determination and will on behalf of the entire team. 
• The Penguins power play continued to impress, holding the Ducks off the scoresheet. Anaheim only had 2 opportunities but they do rank high in the league in pp%. The Penguins are now 8th in the league with a 86.7% kill rate.

I thought Fleury did ok. However, ok wasnt good enough. 3 goals given up on only 19 shots just doesnt cut it. We continue to wait on that "in the zone" game where Fleury shuts it down. I hope the time comes soon because I am starting to lose a little faith. I am a Fleury supporter but I am objective enough to realize that right now the Pens are at a disadvantage when Fleury is in there.

I am going to end this post because I want to get to tonights game vs Phoenix. This will be the 3rd game in 4 nights and and the last 2 have been pretty exhausting. Lets see what the have left in the tank..

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Updates for tonights Pittsburgh Penguins vs Anaheim Ducks game

The Penguins report for the morning skate is in. There are a few interesting things going on.

First off, according to Jason Seidling of the Pens Report, the Penguins are working hard on their 


power play with a new look. He reports Alex Goligoski is back on the blue line matched up with 


Kris Letang. The twist is, Malkin and Crosby are now rotating in on the "rover" position.


I suggested this in an earlier post. The only difference I noted is to keep Malkin on the right half 


wall and let Crosby do the roving. Crosby's ability to see the ice and make plays and passes 


can  help open up that one timer for Malkin. It also keeps 2 Dmen back at the blue line, which 


they are generally better at keeping the puck in and not letting odd man rushes go the other way.




The lines at practice were>>>


 Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Cooke-Malkin-Comrie
Talbot-Letestu-Asham
Rupp-Adams-Godard/Kennedy

Not sure what Kennedy did to get split time duties with Godard on the 4th line. He, in my opinion, clearly deserves to be ahead of Asham right now. 

Obviously, Dupuis has made it back to the team and will play tonight. How many times have we seen a huge game by a player following the birth of their child. Maybe Dupuis can add to that phenomenon. 











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Pittsburgh Penguins vs Anaheim Ducks Pros and Cons

Tonight the Pittsburgh Penguins have a matchup against the Ducks of Anaheim. Gametime will be at 10pm EST.
The Penguins are coming off a disappointing loss Wednesday at the hands of the Dallas Stars. The Pens did not play a good game as they were outhustled, outplayed, and probably outcoached. The Ducks are coming off 3-2 win vs Tampa Bay on Wednesday. That outcome left Anaheim with a 5-7-1 record good for 4th place in the Pacific division of the Western conference. The Penguins 6-6-1 and 3rd place in the Atlantic. Heres some statistic breakdowns....

The Ducks have a lot of scoring potential but it has not shown in the scores as of yet. They are currently 22nd in the league in goals per game with 2.5. The Penguins are 12th with 2.8. The Ducks have been giving up quite a bit. They rank 25th with a 3.3 GAA. The Pens have been a little stingier, ranking 13th with 2.5GAA. The Ducks do alot of their scoring on the power play and rank 6th in the league at 23.4%. We all know the Penguins troubles in this area. They are currently in an 0-27 slump, which has dropped them to 12.1% and 26th in the league. As for penalty kill, Anaheim is vulnerable, killing off 80.3% of power plays which ranks 22nd. The Penguins are gonna need good penalty killing tonight and have gotten it most of the year. They kill 86.2% and are 10th in the league.

Despite the Ducks record, they have plenty of good talented players. Among the leaders are Ryan Getzlaf. He leads the team with 16 points including 5 goals. Teemu Salanne is still going strong. Tonights game will be his 1200th in the NHL. He leads the team with 6 goals and has 8 assists to go along. Another player to look out for is Corey Perry. He is a feisty winger and has 13 points on the season. He also leads the team in penalty minutes.

The probable goaltenders for tonight will be Marc Andre Fleury for the Pens and Jonas Hiller for the Ducks. Hiller has had some issues this year. He has posted a 4-5-1 record with a 2.99 GAA and a .918 save%.

The Ducks play a spirited game. They take it to opponents and are near the top of the league in penalty minutes. The game could resemble the Stars game a bit, especially if the Ducks feel they can get the Pens off their game. Here are some Pros and Cons....


PROS:

• I keep going back to this, but at some point, the Penguins need to have that fire and desire. The humiliating loss to Dallas has to serve as motivation. They have to come out strong and set a tone, both physically and performance wise. I look for them to do this.
• Matt Cooke has been a force against the Ducks. He has scored 6 goals in 6 games vs this team. Sometimes certain teams bring out the best in a player. Maybe its luck or coincidence, but lets hope Cooke can keep up this production

CONS:

• The Ducks play a similar style to the Stars and we saw how that ended. The Ducks, especially seeing how the Stars were able to work it, will no doubt come out and try to disrupt the Penguins and their stars. If it comes in the form of stupid penalties, then good, but if they can pull the Pens from their game, it may be another long night. 
• Marc Andre Fleury...I hate to include him in the cons, but until he puts a little streak together, he has to be listed a liability. At some point I know he will turn it around. Maybe tonight can be his break out game. 

No word yet on the lines for tonight. Pascal Dupuis is expected to be back so I imagine we will see Crosby, Kunitz, and Dupuis back on top. From there who knows. I'll update as soon as the info comes out. It will probably be a little later today since the Pens are on the West Coast and practice will start later than we are used to

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Sidney Crosby maintenance

After Wednesday nights fight, Sidney Crosby needed a "maintenance day" Thursday to recover. Apparently he has some bruised and swollen knuckles. On the tv broadcast, when Crosby was standing in the penalty box , you could see his hand and knuckles were cut open. Nothing broken and nothing to worry about. He will be in the lineup Friday night vs Anaheim.

His linemate, Pascal Dupuis, is also expected to be back with the team. Dupuis left Wednesday morning to be with his wife and brand new baby daughter.


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Civic Arena stuff for sale

Civic Arena seats go onsale today for season ticket holders. The seats are being sold as pairs and sell for $495. The public can get in on the sale beginning December 1. The seats are being refurbished and lead paint removed.

Civic arena fixtures, equipment, and furniture will be up for auction beginning Nov. 10. There will be weekly auctions running through February. The auctions will be held at www.asset-auctions.com.

Items considered memoribilia such as signage, lockers, logo fixtures, ect will also be auctioned off on the above website. These auctions will begin Dec. 8.

All the details can be found on the Penguins website and this article.


If you could have any 1 piece of the old arena, what would it be?





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Police issue with Winter Classic

Figured I would pass this article along that is posted on thepittsburghchannel.com. Basically the Pittsburgh Police who were to work the Winter Classic on New Years Day 2011 were told they will not receive holiday pay. However, SGT Fisher, who is responsible for arranging all police detail for the Steelers, is encouraging officers not to work unless the holiday pay is paid.

The whole story can be viewed here




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Pittsburgh Penguins vs Dallas Stars quick hits

I just finished watching the Penguins and Stars. I have a few spare minutes and wanted to jot down a couple quick thoughts....

• Having not seen the Stars play this year, I could only judge them by their record, stats, and scouting reports. They all painted a picture of a decent team. What I didnt expect was their speed and grit to be at the levels they were. I think the Pens may have been taken by surprise as well. The Stars played the game on edge. They took some cheap shots. They made plays. I don't particularly care for how they played, but gotta give them credit.
• Brent Johnson looked human tonight. A few of the goals would be hard to pin solely on him, but nonetheless, he gave up 5 goals and did not play a very good game.
• OK. It is time to stop making excuses. Stop with the "it will come around". The power play is simply inexcusable at this point. They went 0-4 tonight including 1:37 worth of 5-3. They are now in an 0-26 stretch. To some degree, you have to start looking at Crosby. Sure he is the leader and captain of the team, but he has to step aside and let Malkin be the man on the power play. Let Malkin have that spot on the right wall where he is comfortable. Crosby is much more adaptable and can be suited to play elsewhere. It's time for him to go to Coach Bylsma and concede that spot for the better of the team.
• Speaking of Crosby, it was good to see him step up and drop the gloves. Not a bad fight. He held his own and got a few punches in
• One other thing that disappointed me tonight was the Pens reluctance to go after Morrow late in the game. It's possible Morrow did not know about Letangs injury but that is no excuse. If he didnt know, he should have been made aware when Asham or Engelland knocked him out. 
• On to Asham again. I am still unimpressed. He had a couple hits tonight but he also took a couple dumb penalties. He has not been causing any havoc on the ice for the opposing team and not contributing on offense. 
• It was good to see Stu Barnes on the telecast tonight. His sighting brought back alot of memories of the 90's. Barnes was a small but crafty player for the Penguins from 96-99. His best year was 97-98 when he put up 30 goals and 35 assists. Every time Barnes had the puck at the arena you could here the STUUUUUUU chants. He was fun to watch. He finished his playing career in Dallas and is now an assistant coach. 
• Kennedy is trying his best to make me look dumb!! I have stated in this blog that I thought Kennedy needed to sit when everyone was healthy. His play however is not proving that theory wrong. It was also good to see him stick up for his team mates tonight.
• Matt Cooke is definitely one of those players who you love him on your team but hate him if he played somewhere else. Well, he is on our team and I love him. He just plays that perfect role. 

The Pens next game comes up Friday when they play Anaheim. 

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New Jersey Devils troubles continue, Brodeur hurt

Last week, I had a good laugh at all the troubles the New Jersey Devils are having this year. As if all the events I detailed in that post weren't bad enough, Zach Parise, one of their best forwards, goes down with a knee injury and will be out 3 months. Now tonight, Martin Brodeur left the game with an apparent elbow injury. The severity is not known. Our old buddy, The Moose, Johan Hedburg is the backup.

New Jersey is last in the Atlantic Division despite playing the most games. They are last in the league in goals per game and next to last with a power play % of 7.3. They are also giving up 3.2 goals per game which puts them near the bottom. It's getting to the point I am almost feeling bad for them.....No, nevermind, it's not that bad yet,,,

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Some notes on Malkins move and other stuff

On the Penguins official website, Coach Bylsma had this to say about moving Malkin back to the middle:

“During the first 12 games Jordan missed, we didn’t know when he would be coming back. Now, with him being injured again, he is going to be out six weeks. We thought about this immediately when we knew Jordan wasn’t going to come out.”
I certainly don’t want it to be a situation where he is bouncing back and forth game to game. Right now, with Mark Letestu playing very strong, having (Letestu) be the third-line center makes our third line strong in the middle winning draws. Having Evgeni on the top two lines as a center makes us look more like we have in the past.”.


I think this is the right move at this time. Letestu can move back to the 3rd line, where he may be better suited in the long run. 




Another interesting decision tonight will be whether Bylsma goes with 6 or 7 defensemen. With Michalek coming back, one of either Ben Lovejoy or Deryk Engelland will be bumped down to the 7th spot. Who will be the odd man out? I would really hate to see Engelland take a seat. If you read my posts, you know I have been a fan of his all year. Can he sustain all season and continue to get better at defense? I dont know but I do know I really like what I have seen from him so far. 




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Congrats to Pascal Dupuis

According to Dan Bylsma, Dupuis made it back to Pittsburgh and to the hospital with 8 minutes to spare before the birth of his 4th child. His wife delivered a baby girl, named Lola, at 12:57 PM. Congrats to him and his family..



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Extremely different lines for tonights Pens games

The Penguins held their morning skate today and had some very diffeent looking lines. I asked the question on one of my Jordan Staal posts if it is time to put Malkin back at center. Well, it looks like that has happened. Also with Dupuis out, Comrie has jumped up to Crosby's line. Here's how things looked at practice


Kunitz-Crosby-Comrie
Cooke-Malkin-Kennedy
Talbot-Letestu-Asham
Rupp-Adams-Godard




Letestu, who has cooled off scoring wise, is now centering the 3rd line. I'm a little mixed about this. The top line could be great if Comrie could find that finishing touch and quit turning the puck over. The 2nd line of Malkins will be interesting. 



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Pascal Dupuis to miss tonights game

The Penguins have reported Pascal Dupuis has left the team to fly back to Pittsburgh. His wife is giving birth to their child. Best wishes to him and his family. Hopefully he got that stache trimmed up!


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Pittsburgh Penguins vs Dallas Stars Pros and Cons

I'm running a little short on time, so I'll jump to the point...

The Pens play at Dallas tonight. Gametime at 8:30 PM EST. The Stars come into the game with a 6-4-0 record, good for 2nd place in the Pacific division of the Western Conference. This is the 1st game of a 3 game roadtrip for the Pens that also have them going to Anaheim and Phoenix.

The Stars began the year going 4-0, but have struggled lately going 2-4 in last 6 games. They are coming off a win, 4-0, against Buffalo last Saturday. Their statistics are not all that great as far as team rankings go. They average 3.0 goals per game, which does rank 9th in the league. The Pens are ranked 11th with 2.9 goals a game. However, the Stars are giving up 2.7 goals(16th overall) compared to the Pens 2.3(7th overall). The Stars penalty kill has been downright awful, killing only 68.4% of man disadvantages. This puts them dead last in the league. The Penguins are faring better at 84.9%(11th overall). Finally the Stars power play is in the bottom half of the league(19th) with a 14% rate. Of course, this is better than the Pens 12.9%.

The Stars feature some good young players who are up and comers. That group is led by forwards James Neal, Loui Erikson, and Jamie Benn.They also feature some key veterans such as Brendan Morrow and Brad Richards. In goal, the Stars main guy has been Kari Lehtonen. He is backed up by Andrew Raycroft. Lehtonens stats on the year are 5-4-0 with a 2.93GAA and .908 save %.


All injured players for the Pens, with the exception of Jordan Staal are expected to play. This includes Malkin, Goligoski, Letang, and the return of Michalek. Pascal Dupuis will not play due to the birth of his child.

The Stars are healthy. They have no known injured players on their roster. I'd love to be able to say that about the Pens!

Here are tonights Pros and Cons


PROS: 

• The Pens are coming off a solid effort win against Carolina. They simplified their game and looked to get back to basics. They had solid goaltending and good fundamentals. Hopefully they carry that success into tonights game
• The Pens have some dinged up players but they are getting the return of Zbynek Michalek. He may have some rust but he is a big addition to have back
• The Pens are expected to have Brent Johnson in goal tonight. Right now, anytime you have him in there has to be seen as a Pro. He is just playing too strong and looking too good not to have confidence in him. 
• The Stars power play has been downright awful this year. Could this be what the Pens need to spark their power play? I hope so

CONS:

• As mentioned above, the Stars have a pretty good mix of youth and experience. They have speed and some grit. I'm sure they will be using this game as a "measuring stick" to see just how far along they are.

So lets see what team shows up tonight. Both teams have had a long off stretch. They should both be rested although Pittsburgh is more banged up. Should be a good one!






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One more Jordan Staal update from the Penguins official site

The Penguins have made the worst case scenario official. Jordan Staal will undergo surgery tomorrow to repair his fractured hand. The injury occurred when he got hit by a puck at practice today. He is expected to miss up to 6 more weeks. This was announced by Ray Shero and posted to the Penguins official website.

Well, best wishes go out to Staal. In all the interviews I have seen, he was beaming and smiling when the thought of him returning was mentioned. This is a huge setback for him and the team.

Comrie, Letestu, Asham, and others will need to step it up once more. I imagine the Pens will also need to bring up a player as well. Another question to look at, do you possibly consider putting Malkin back at center until Staal can return?



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Jordan Staal update...NOT GOOD NEWS

Well, it looks like it will be a few more weeks until we see Jordan Staal back on the ice. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette is reporting that Staal now has a broken hand. The Penguins have yet to make it official. There als is no word on how the injury happened other than he left practice 45 minutes early today. This is a huge blow to Jordan Staal and you gotta feel bad for the kid. It's expected he will miss an additional 3 weeks or more.

UPDATE HERE

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Other Penguins injury news

In my earlier post, I mentioned the Pens page is reporting Staal left practice early due to an upper body injury.

Alex Goligoski also left practice after only 15 minutes. No word yet on why. There are no injury updates coming from the Penguins other than Malkin, Letang, and Goligoski are all day to day.

Just when we all thought things were getting better! The good news is that the injuries to Malkin, GoGo, and Letang do not appear to be serious. Staals injury right now is unknown to me but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


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Staal has possible setback

It's being reported on the Pens Home page that Jordan Staal had to leave practice 45 minutes early today. Afterwords, Coach Bylsma had this to say"On why Staal left the ice early:
Jordan left the ice with an upper-body injury and is getting evaluated right now. 

On how discouraging it could be for Staal:
I can tell you my own feelings. And it’s disappointing on a couple levels. But mostly it's personal for Jordan, because he’s had a difficult offseason and training camp. And then to get to the point where you’re looking to coming back to play and possibly having to deal with another injury is disappointing. "

Lets keep our fingers crossed on this one. How disappointing would that be for Staal if this were an injury that will keep him out longer. 

UPDATE HERE

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Whats ex Penguin Billy Guerin up to?

I came across an interesting article today in the Boston Herald. It talks about Bill Guerin and what he has been doing. As we all know, the Penguins chose not to resign Guerin for this year. It was a tough decision but one that, in my opinion, was correct. Guerin was a valuable player the past 2 seasons for the Pens and was a mentor, sort of , for Sidney Crosby. He always told things how they were and had that veteran presence in the locker room. On the ice he fared well too, posting 28 goals in 95 career games for the Penguins. He was also a key addition for the Penguins Stanley Cup title in 2009, posting 7 goals and 15 points in those playoffs. I would love to have a prime Billy Guerin on the team now, but it was becoming fairly obvious he was slowing down. This is no fault of his, afterall, he will be 40 on November 9.

After learning the Penguins would not resign him, Guerin went to Philidelphia during the preseason for a tryout. That ended when he was released Oct. 4. So now Guerin does not have a team, but he is still busy in the hockey world. The article states he is still hopeful someone will come calling and believes he has some hockey left.

So where has Guerin been spotted? According to the article, he was at the TD Garden in Boston Thursday with none other than Pittsburgh scout and official Tom Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald planned on spending a few days with Guerin to show him what the scouting business is like in case Guerin would like to choose that path.

The full article can be read here



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Jordan Staal and Zbynek Michalek coming back!!

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette is reporting that both Jordan Staal and Zbynek Michalek are penciled in to return on Wednesday against the Dallas Stars. This is great, great news! The Pens will be getting one of the best 2 way centers in the league and one of the best shutdown defensemen in the league. How can you beat that? So the debates can really begin now about what the lines will look like and who will sit. I'll post my take later in the week but I think it's fairly obvious who will get knocked down the lineup and his last name starts with Comrie.



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Penguins and Hurricanes wrap up and random thoughts

The Penguins simplified their game last night against the Carolina Hurricanes and the results were positive. The Pens blanked the Canes 3-0. The game was much more "normal" than what we have been seeing lately. Brent Johnson again was just plain great in the net. Here are some quick thoughts from last night......

• The power play only got 2 chances but I liked how they looked. They got some shots and created some chances around the net. They are now 0-22 in the last 5 games. This is obviously a problem but if they throw shots on goal and create traffic in front of the net like they did last night, things will hopefully turn around.
• The penalty kill looked very good. They held the Hurricanes scoreless on 7 chances. They now rank 11th in the league with a 84.9% kill ratio.
• With Johnsons 1st shutout of the season, the Penguins have 7th overall in the league in goals against. The opponents are averaging 2.3 goals a game. 
• I have openly said that I am not a Pascal Dupuis fan. Even I gotta admit he looked great last night. He was flying around the ice and the puck seemed to follow. Even if you take away the goals, this was by far the best game I have seen from Dupuis in quite some time.
• Nice to see Max get on the scoresheet also. How can you not like Max Talbot?
• Kris Letang did not play in the 3rd period. The injury is believed to be in his hand/wrist and occured when he got hit by a shot in Fridays game against the Flyers. He was shown to be in obvious pain at several points through the game. After the game, Coach Bylsma labeled him as day to day. Hopefully thats all, Letang has really been having a breakout season.
• The Penguins were outshot 33-31. 
• The Hurricanes came into the game as the worst faceoff team. They showed why as the Penguins won 36 compared to the Canes 16.
• Brent Johnson is jsimply unbelievable right now. He is always in position and seems to never labor for saves. He makes it look easy. He has lowered his GAA to 1.16 and a save% of .960. Unreal numbers.

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