The Next Level!

The last two Penguin games have been heart stoppers. It seemed that we forgot how to play our style of hockey. I was actually worried about the series simply because we let them take control. Then, out out nowhere, our hero emerged. Was he on the first line? Nope. Second line? Nope again. Third? Wrong again. It was our hometown favorite Max Talbot to the rescue. It is amazing what a simple fight can do for a team. And they want to take fighting out of hockey? This is the definition of why it needs to stay in!

In game five at home, we played great in the first period, out shooting the Flyers 15-5 and getting all kinds of chances. Unfortunately none went behind Biron. The spirits were down and the Flyers scored one more in the second and two in the third to clinch it. We were outplayed and outmaneuvered in the second two periods. We somehow forced ourselves out of that game. We let them win that battle. It was at home as well. It shouldn't have happened. The battle we can lose, but not the War!

Game six started almost the same way, although we looked much better. The Flyers got two quick goals in the first though and one early in the second and it looked like game five all over again. I was scared to come back to Pittsburgh for game seven. I know how I felt last year when other teams were not able to close it out and forced into it. I felt that they weren't Stanley Cup quality. That is just how my mind works. I feel if a team can't close it out soon after going up three games to one or none, they won't make it to the finals. I am glad the Pens didn't give me that thought.

At 4:21 in the second period, we were down 3-0. Every minute before that mark in the second, we looked like we were done. We looked like we were going to lose and deservedly so. Then Max Talbot got on the ice and started talking to Daniel Carcillo, an ex-Penguin for Wilkes-Barre. He used to play with Max down there. Now, as far as fighting goes, you don't typically fight when you are up 3-0, simply because you could possibly, win or lose, give the other team some momentum. When Max asked for the fight, Carcillo was hesitant even though he wanted to, but with some encouragement from the bench, he agreed. This was the best example of a player being a bonehead. Max may have been beaten in that fight, but what happened afterward with the team was nothing short of amazing.

In a matter of 14 seconds after the fight, Evgeni Malkin crashed the net and Ruslan Fedotenko push the puck in past Biron's right pad. He finally broke the ice after a game and a half of not scoring. It also looked as if it broke Biron's will to play on the level he had been previously. Before the period was up, we had Mark Eaton and Sidney Crosby scoring in a similar fashion, batting the puck out of mid-air into the net after a juicy rebound. If you do the math right, we tied it. If the Flyers truly deserved to win this one, they wouldn't have let that tying goal in.

Just past two minutes into the third period the clincher happened. Malkin skated into the zone and it looked like he pushed their defense back, without actually touching anyone. He then had a nice little dish to Sergei Gonchar who wound up and fired his signature slap shot into the top left corner of the net. Biron didn't have a prayer. They let the Penguins control the ice. That was all she wrote aside from the hard fought empty netter by Crosby in the end. We won the game and clinched the series, now we wait for our next opponent.

Now, back to fighting. I am a big proponent of fighting in hockey, but only a certain kind. This was it. It was the type that comes with passion and emotion. Now I have said that I didn't like the ones right after the faceoff, but in this case, it was right. I guess it is circumstantial. What I mean is that when you send your heavyweight guy out that is know to be a fighter and the other team does as well, it isn't an emotional fight. It is just their jobs and doesn't have the same effect. Now, if the great hockey minds can figure out how to control the difference, that would make it great!

Just to let you know, Boston won its series as the first seed, so if the Rangers knock off Washington today, no matter what, Boston would face them and we would get whomever wins between New Jersey and Carolina. If the Rangers eventually lose the series against the Caps, then we would play Boston. I don't care who we play, but think of this...the last two times we played Boston in the Conference Finals, we won and went on to win the Stanley Cup!

Let's Go Pens!

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Here We Go Pens!

The playoffs are here! This is my favorite time of the year. I even love it more than football playoffs time. I love it more than baseball playoff time as well. I mean seriously, when I watch the NFL playoffs, the teams step it up a notch, and it is very exciting. I watch the MLB playoffs, the catches are more spectacular, but that's it. In the NHL, the teams step it up like six notches, and it is fantastic. The game gets ten times faster and even harder hitting. The saves by the goalies seem that much more dramatic. I love it. To top off the whole thing, it is almost every day for six weeks or so. You simply can't beat it.

The Penguins are once again playing the Flyers, our most hated rival. I remember last year when we beat them handily in five games, the commentators believed that there would be blood, but there really wasn't. I don't know if it was because Georges Laraque was too much of a gentleman or we just beat them too quickly, but there wasn't. We had hard hitting and that, but it wasn't what I expected. I am going to pull a paragraph out of the last blog I did about the playoffs concerning the Flyers specifically.

"The Philadelphia Flyers, our most heated rivalry other than the Washington Capitals. I don't know who we love to hate more sometimes. We have faced Philadelphia four time in the playoffs, losing the first three. Last year, we won our revenge. We lost in 1988-89 in the second round in seven games. We were destroyed in the last two games of that series with a combined score of 10-3. We wouldn't have to face them again until the 1996-97 season where we lost four games to one. In that series, we went down three games to none right away, only to win a 4-1 decision at home. We then lost the series in game five 6-3. We would then face the Flyers three years later in 1999-00, where we lost again four games to two. This was a key series that fueled the fire between us and them. We went up two games to none before coming back home only to lose in overtime. The very next game turned out to be historic, lasting five overtimes only to end badly for the Pens when Keith Primeau scored to win it. We never recovered from that and lost the series. We finally solved this playoff debacle last year with an easy four games to one. This was the most recent run at the Stanley Cup." 10-APR-2009

In that last post about the playoffs, I was pretty positive that there was no way that we were going to finish in fourth. As it turns out, the Flyers and the Hurricanes turtle shelled. I don't believe that the Flyers did it on purpose due to the fact that they lost home ice advantage as well as have to play us. The Canes had a good reason to drop the last couple games, they are playing the slumping New Jersey Devils. Now, I am not saying they did something as unsportsmanlike as that, but it sure looks that way.

I love how the commentators and major writers all feel it is necessary to start writing when the playoffs begin. It seems like they know absolutely nothing, just what others have been writing. I have been reading a lot and find in mildly humorous that people don't realize that the stats before coach Bylsma don't reflect on how the team is playing now. I just read on NHL.com that the Pens need to be more responsible in their own end because of their season average of 30.3 shots per game. I wish they could have watched the Pens all season and realized that it was the staff from before that allowed a majority of the high shot totals and Bylsma's regime has brought that number down. I believe that the commentators will realize that we are more than just Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. We are a complete team.

Now, onto the season series, we won it 4 games to two. I will honestly say we didn't look dominant at any time against this team. It is like they have the ability to bring us out of our game just because of our utter hatred for each other. The only good part is that it takes them out of their game as well. The team that can work past this will win out. I feel that Coach Bylsma will have that emotional button well within his control for his first playoff series. I also think that this is the best team we could possibly play for the first round with Bylsma. What I mean by this is that it will have everything in it, raw skill, courage, emotion, and speed. It will give him a taste of everything so he can be ready for the rounds ahead.

I was looking at all the statistics for the season between these two teams and although they look completely even, they aren't. I believe aside from the power play, which the Flyers win out easily, we dominate every other aspect of the game now. What I mean by now is that with the new confidence and coaching style, we almost fixed our season stats. They were horrible before and we improved so much that it makes us look even. This just tells me that the way we are capable of playing now is so significantly better that if we would have been able to play a majority of the season like this, we would have been in first in the east and dominated the stats sheets.

I want to compare my preseason predictions to the actual standings:

I guess I wasn't that far off!

Here are a couple links to playoff previews:
ESPN.com
NHL.com
Yahoo Sports
CBS Sportsline
The Sporting News
Here are a couple links to Penguin blogger previews:
Pensburgh
Face-Off Factor
The Pensblog
Experiencing the Evolution
Penguins That Fly
Staal Tactics

I like our odds of going deep, but I am not going to talk about that. It is time to stop shaving and get intense!

Pens will win this series in six!
Let's Go Pens!

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Win, Playoffs, MVP

A big win tonight, despite some last minute heroics by Tampa Bay, finally clinched a playoff birth for the Pens. With a final score of 6-4, some of the players finally got a monkey or two off their backs. It was also a night to add to Evgeni Malkin's resume for MVP this season. There is only two more games left in the season, one home and one away, and we can still clinch 4th in the conference for home ice advantage in the first round.

I will start off with a quick wrap up of the game, and considering I don't like giving you what is already out there and easily accessible, I won't go too far. We were up 4-0 at one point and then in a blink of an eye, we were only up 4-3. It was kinda ridiculous. We didn't let that stop us from clinching our third playoff ticket in a row. We got important goals tonight. What I mean by this is that certain players need to get back on the horse and start scoring before the playoffs start. One of them was Petr Sykora, he scored his 299th it seems like a year ago, but tonight he finally flung in his 300th career goal. Two other goal scorers are players that have, as of late, been scoring goals consistently. They are Ruslan Fedotenko and Matt Cooke. Our power play got rolling by the hands of Sidney Crosby who, finally, scored two of them in the second with helpers from Geno and Chris Kunitz. The final score ended up being 6-4, but it wasn't as close as it seemed.

We are currently relaxing in sixth place in the East and will more than likely end up playing New Jersey in the first round. The is a chance, however, that we can move up to fourth place as long as we win the last two games, home against the Islanders and in Montreal, while Philadelphia and Carolina both loses the remainder of their games. Actually, Philadelphia only has to lose two of their last three for us to overtake them. I look forward to seeing what ends up happening.

One quick note I really wanted you to realize is that we have 12 players in double digits in goals, 6 of those with 20+, and 2 are sitting at 30+. That is unprecedented depth for our team. Last year we had 11 with 10+, 5 with 20+, and one with 30+. So, basically, what I am saying is that we can roll all four lines and have one or two players on each line that has scored 10+ this season. That gives us a big advantage.

Just looking at the scoring standings between Malkin, Crosby, and Alex Ovechkin, it is getting down to the wire. Malkin is sitting at 110, Ovechkin at 108, and Crosby at 101. Unless there is some craziness occurring in the last couple games, this is how it will probably end up, just add a couple for each player. Now, it sounds funny, but the bigger thing..MVP. The very definition of the award is, "player adjudged most valuable to his team". So, you look where the Penguins would be without Malkin, or where the Capitals would be without Ovechkin. I think the Capitals would be lower in the standings, but still in the playoffs. I do not think that the Penguins make the playoffs this year without Malkin. I see a few in the rear view mirror like Pavel Datsyuk or Zach Parise. I say sure, but like the Capitals, both the Red Wings and the Devils would have made the playoffs without their star. I think there is more of an argument for Datsyuk than Ovechkin, to be completely honest. He should be the close second to Malkin. Ovechkin will get the Rocket Richard award for most goals, but he doesn't deserve any more than that. The only thing he brings to his team other than goals is hits. Datsyuk and Malkin play a more pivotal role on their respective teams. They are both centers, which requires a whole extra set of responsibilities as well as their takeaway skills and blocked shots put them heads and shoulders above everyone else. Malkin should get it though, based on his scoring lead as well as the need for him on his respective team.

Dan Bylsma has brought this team out of the depths of the draft lottery and put up right in the middle of the heap for the playoffs. If they would have replaced Michel Therrien when I asked for it in December or early January, we may have clinched the division a week ago and a playoff spot two weeks ago. Every team should be very afraid to battle us in the playoffs, they will be afraid.

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Bad Weekend

Well, we are down to three games left and still haven't clinched a playoff spot. We had our opportunity and we blew it. We are supposed to be the team to beat. We are supposed to be this powerhouse that lesser teams can't keep up with. We must have forgotten our identity. We still haven't secured our dominance in any aspect of the game. We still have a lot to prove. We came into last night's game with a drive, but it wasn't nearly enough to beat the Hurricanes. We came into tonight's game with more of a drive and it, once again, just wasn't enough. We ran into two tough goaltenders back to back at the right part of the year...for them, that is. Is this how we are going to play once the playoffs hit? I am going to guarantee a big, fat no!

On Saturday night, I went out on a limb and actually wore my #66 Mario Lemieux sweater instead of my usual Pens sweatshirt. You can blame that loss on me. Tonight, I wore the sweatshirt and it didn't matter. It seemed like we came out to play in the first period, but forgot how to play once the second started. Grant it, I don't want to take full blame for the losses, considering I am just the livingroom fan, but I am a serious fan nonetheless and I am willing to take the heat. If anything, this gives me hope that Tuesday will roll around and we will be back on track to get on that all important roll going into the playoffs.

We have three games left, the first one is in Tampa Bay, then we come home Thursday against the New York Islanders, and the final game of the season is on the road in Montreal. We need all three after dropping two crucial games back to back. I know the first was in overtime, but it doesn't matter. We need the wins going into the playoffs. We need to have that seed in the opponents head that we aren't a team to be messed with. We aren't a team you look forward to playing. We aren't a team you can accomplish your team strategy against. We need to impose our offense at will. We need that secure feeling that the other team is going to hate matching up with us in the first round.

The Lightening plays us very hard typically. I mean, look at them, they are to the Penguins like the Arizona Cardinals are to the Steelers anymore. They are the Southern Penguins. Half their team is our old members, except for the leading superstars.

The Islanders are always a tough team to play against for some reason, another football reference, like the Browns are to the Steelers. It doesn't matter how bad of a record they have, they are able to take it up a notch against us.

The Canadians are a team, much like our own, trying to prove themselves. They have a harder problem though, they play in Canada. You know the hockey capital of the world? They always have a lot to prove to their fans, considering all the cups they have won...even though a majority of them were won when there were only 6 teams in the league.

Two things need to start happening on Tuesday to get us back to where we need to be: First, Malkin needs to start scoring, I mean seriously. I know he is leading the league, but he let Ovechkin catch up somewhat. Second, Sykora needs his 300th goal before the playoffs hit. Period. He needs to get back on track.

I think if we can roll through these next three games, we will roll into the first round. I would like to see us play an opponent that everyone else is afraid to play to get that edge in further series that we beat the tough team in the East first. I know some teams want to play the weaker teams, but I honestly would love to see a tough opponent first, it gives us steam going into the second round. Oh, and yes, I did pick the Pens to win the cup...as always!

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Breaking It Down

So, I have been watching NHL statistics, like always, and something caught my eye. I looked at a lot of things this time and came to several conclusions...one is that stats don't really matter come playoff time and another is that if a team changes style and/or coaching, that team inherits the statistics from the previous administration. Of course, you probably figured out that is the Penguins circumstances right now.

I took the teams that are most likely able to make the playoffs or that are already a lock in the Eastern Conference and evaluated them. I am going to compare individual team statistics from the Penguins to the teams they could face sometime in the playoffs to see where we stand. I also have a graphic so you can see all the actual stats at the bottom of this article.

My first look was at the hits, which is usually my favorite statistic, and I was surprised at how we compare to other teams as well as past Penguin teams. There is only one team that tops our 2051 hits thus far this season and they are, surprisingly, the New York Rangers with 2131. The top four "powerhouses" are not even within 600 hits of the Penguins. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It can be looked at either way. I mean, if we are the aggressor in the playoffs, it will knock the other team off of their game and frustrate them. They will feel they have to match us hit for hit to beat us, which they won't be able to. You can also look at it in the respect that they all have better records than us at this point in time. I think that is weak, though, because there are so many aspects to a game you can scrutinize. If you compare this year's hit count to the Penguins of the last two year's, we are way more aggressive than in the past. For instance, 2006-07 we had a total of 1472, and last year we had 1671. They were both from all 82 games. Take that however you want.

The next stat I looked at is really, in my opinion, an art form. You have to master blocked shots so you can get the timing down and avoid injury. You also stand to help out your goalie a ton if the shots your opponent is taking isn't getting through. A bad point about having a high number of blocked shots is that it means the opponent had control of the puck alot and was open enough to take a crack at scoring. Once again, there is only one team in the top nine that has more than our 1211. Take into consideration something I said earlier, though, we changed coaches and styles, so we are a different team now. The Montreal Canadians are the only team with more blocks than us at 1259. The top three hover around 1000 and Philadelphia is not far behind us with 1186. We are pretty much on the same tract as the 2006-07 and the 2007-08 totals of 1215 and 1268 respectively.

The next two categories go hand in hand, but in my opinion, doesn't factor in as much as it should in respect to overall records. These two categories are giveaways, takeaways and their combined differences as well as goal differential. If common sense tells us that if you have more giveaways than takeaways that you would have more goals allowed than most teams. It also should tell us that if it is the other way around, it would show just the opposite. I will tell you neither is an absolute or even a remote science because of one variable involved in this. The goaltender. We are a +13 in goal differential, but a -137 in giveaway/takeaway differential (GTD). I think this is a better measuring stick to the quality of a goaltender than most other statistics. If we give it up that much and are still a +13 overall, I consider Fleury a success. Boston is a +72 in goal differential and a +8 in GTD. That says that Thomas is good, but not incredible at this point. He is doing what is necessary to win. New Jersey is a +44 in goal differential, but an amazing +204 in GTD. That shows to me that the goalie isn't great, but look who is between the pipes. Ok, so Brodeur wasn't there all season and Clemmenson is now in the minors, so what. The next thought I have is a poor offense, but their offense is on par with everyone else. Washington is a +21 and an incredible -256 in GTD. That shows someone incredible in between the pipes. I know Theodore isn't known for this at this point in time, but maybe we need to look at him a bit closer considering how much his team, specifically Ovechkin with his league leading 100 giveaways, leaves him out to dry so often. Our possible first round opponent, the Philadelphia Flyers are +27 to a GTD of -139. They are almost our equals here with Biron in net. You may be wondering at this point how we measured up against the last two Penguin playoff teams, well, we were a +31 in goal differential both years, but were a -190 in GTD in 2006-07 and a better -68 in 2007-08. So we fall in the middle this year. The only difference is that Fleury's numbers have changed. In 2006-07 he had a save percentage of .906 and a goals against average of 2.83. In 2007-08, a save percentage of .921 and a goals against average of 2.33 was achieved. Remember that this year he only played half of the games. He seems to play significantly better in the second halves. This year, he has a save percentage of .913 and a goal against average of 2.67. So, as we can see, as Fleury goes, so does this team. I think we need to appreciate him a lot more.

Like I said in the beginning of this piece, it really isn't the stats that tell the tale, it is the way a team is playing at the end of the season. Are they making more mistakes than not? Are they having fun? Are they excelling in their "system"? Are they winning? If the answers are yes to all of these, then you deserve to be in the playoffs.

Let's Go Pens!

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My Crystal Ball Could Be Right!

My Stanley Cup Final preview.

You may ask what I am talking about. I will tell you. Way back before the NHL season started, I made some crazy predictions on the playoff atmosphere and all the teams involved. I will tell you that I predicted a Calgary-Pittsburgh finals. It sounds cray, but not so much anymore. I was, at the time, picking them despite Detroit. Honestly, that was the only reason. Now, looking at everything, I see it is actually possible. It makes me look like a genius if you never read this article I am writing right now. I mean I am admitting to hating Detroit so much that I am picking against them in the finals regardless of what I truly think.

If the playoffs started today in the East, we would play Washington. I would love to see this. I know alot of people are thinking that this isn't the easiest route, but what better way to start off the playoffs with a victory against one of the top teams in the East? It is a better way to prove who is better, Ovechkin and Semin or Malkin and Crosby. We all know what I think and we all should know, but to prove it on the ice in seven games would be incredible. I love this idea.

If the playoffs started today in the West, Calgary would be playing Columbus. The Jackets would be in their first playoff race ever, and as the saying goes, you have to lose one before you win one. It makes you hungrier. Right now the Flames lead the season series 2-1. That isn't saying much.

The way we are playing right now, clicking on all cylinders, we are going to be hard pressed to lose this post season. I know, I may be jumping the gun too quick here, but it is what I think. We lost in the finals last year. We have a very young team. We know how to get there again, better than most of the teams out there. Our strengths are our physicality, our scoring touch, and our goaltending. Our weaknesses are portions of our special teams and some team defense. I believe that Coach Bylsma is resolving these weaknesses so they aren't as glaring when the postseason hits. We want the teams to fear us coming into their city. Bottom line. We want them to be thinking twice about showboating and trash talking. We want them to know that no matter what they do, we can still win the game, no matter what the score is. We are almost to that level. We had a small hiccup in the last game against the Flyers, but logically speaking, we can't win them all, and they had a really hot goaltender in Biron playing that day.

I like our odds and I am going to stick to my prediction....

Let's Go Pens!

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Pens Still Rolling

In Pittsburgh's 100th consecutive sellout, the Pens beat the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins 6-4. Riding Chris Kunitz's first hat trick since joining the Penguins and Bill Guerin's quick goal and two assists, the Pens showed the conference they are back into the same form as last year. Apparently, they took Kunitz's first goal away from him and gave it to Sergei Gonchar, so Kunitz didn't get the hat trick, sorry for the misinformation. They scored two power play goals and Matthew Garon stopped 21 shots in his first start in 19 games due to Marc Andre Fleury's dominance between the pipes.

The Pens also honored Eddie Johnston at the beginning of the game for his 25th year of service to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Now, I don't like blogging by telling you game by game analysis, I figure that is the big sites job. I want to point out what I think about the last couple games and refer to what's ahead. We came back from a hard loss against Ottawa where we securely had a 3-1 lead going into the 3rd and let them creep back and steal a shootout win against us. There is good things and bad things about losing, we gained a point in the last two losses because we went to the shootout. Like I have said in the past, if we are going to lose, do it on overtime, we get something out of it then.

We have gained 4 points out of a possible 6 in the last three games, moving us into 5th place in the East. If the playoffs started today, we would be once again beating the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the playoffs. The way we are playing mow, I think we are ready to take on anyone.

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Malkin vs. Ovechkin...Behind the Numbers

Numbers. I am going to once again get nerdy on you. I was reviewing some stats and came up with some interesting numbers concerning Evgeni Malkin's domination of Alex Ovechkin. I said I was going to put something together showing this, so here it is. I started digging into some statistics concerning both these "superstars" and was not as much surprised, but confirmed in my beliefs. I was reading an Eklund blog on HockeyBuzz.com and was shocked at all the blind fans there are in the NHL. The post involved naming the best player in the NHL. Eklund himself said he thought it was Ovechkin, so did a ton of fans. Apparently scoring goals makes you the best in alot of eyes, but I like seeing how complete a player is, defensively, offensively, and on special teams is the sign of the best.

Player	Team	Pos	GP	G	A	P	+/-	ESP	SHP	PPP	HmP	RdP	DvP	ODvP	P/G
Evgeni Malkin	PIT	C	71	30	67	97	18	63	2	32	44	53	24	73	1.37
Alex Ovechkin	WAS	L	67	49	40	89	10	50	1	38	49	40	27	62	1.33

Player	Hits	MsS	GvA	TkA	FOW	FOL	Tot	FO%	%Tm	Shots	S%	S/G
Evgeni Malkin	67	98	73	85	241	329	570	42.3%	13.8%	259	11.6%	3.6
Alex Ovechkin	219	178	96	55	4	12	16	25%	0.4%	443	11.1%	6.6

Player	Even Strength:	G	A	P	Power Play:	G	A	P	Shorthanded:	G	A	P	GW	OT
Evgeni Malkin		17	46	63		11	21	32		2	0	2	3	2
Alex Ovechkin		32	18	50		16	22	38		1	0	1	10	2

I know numbers can sometimes be overwhelming, but I will try my best to break it down some. Malkin does lead Ovechkin in the points race. He has also played in four more games, but that doesn't mean that Ovechkin is playing any better than Malkin because Ovechkin's point per game average is .04 lower than Malkin's.

Another thing that really stuck out to me is in the shots category. Malkin has 259 to Ovechkin's 443. That is a significant difference, but it gets worse, Ovechkin has 178 missed shots to 98 of Malkin. This tells me that Ovechkin has shot the puck 621 times in 67 games and Malkin has shot the puck 357 times in 71 games. This is significant because Ovechkin only has 19 more goals than Malkin. Could you imagine if Malkin shot as much as Ovechkin does? If Malkin took 443 shots this season, he would have 51 goals to Ovechkins 49, based on the average numbers. This would give him 118 points already. He would be blowing away the competition.

I don't know if this is a negative of a positive, but Ovechkin outhits Malkin 219 to 67.

Another category that caught my eye was in the giveaway/takeaway category. Malkin has a league leading 85 takeaways and Ovechkin has the league leading 96 giveaways. I find this very impressive. It shows who is smarter with the puck and isn't careless.

Another aspect of Malkin's game that he is still working on that Ovechkin doesn't even have to worry about is faceoffs. Malkin takes 13.8% of the teams faceoffs and Ovechkin takes 0.04% of his teams'. This tells me that while Malkin has another aspect to learn, Ovechkin only has to worry about shooting the puck.

One more minor detail is that Malkin scores more at even strength than Ovechkin does and Ovechkin scores more on the power play than Malkin. That tells me that Malkin can score even when he has a defender on him, unlike Ovechkin.

The rest of their statistics comes out about even, however I think that Malkin's statistics proves that he is definitely the better and more complete player.

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Hockey Lore

Tonight is a very important game, yet not very important in the whole scheme of things. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is one of the three games for the rest of the season we can afford to lose, only because it is a Western Conference team. I don't want them to lose, but if they do, this is the game. Let's face it we can't go on a tear like we did in 1992-93 and rattle off more than the NHL record 17 straight wins. That, somehow was our demise back then. We completely wore ourselves out on that next level all the time. It is almost like the team needed a break. The funny thing that I do remember about that year was that we would have gone longer if the season wouldn't have ended. Who knows, but the bottom line is that we won the Presidents trophy that year with 56 wins. It was an amazing year.

I look at the old divisional layouts and I miss what we had with the Patrick division. We had everyone in our current division in the Philadelphia Flyers, the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils, and the New York Islanders, the bonus was that we had the Washington Capitals as well. It was the top four teams in each division that made the playoffs back then, so it was almost like unless you were truly horrible, you were in. Since then we added 6 teams in all obscure hockey places. The Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado and became the Avalanche. The Hartford Whalers moved to Carolina and became the Hurricanes. The Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas and dropped the "North" and kept the Stars. The Winnepeg Jets moved to Phoenix to become the Coyotes. Out of all the moves, three out of the four were successful. Carolina, Colorado, and Dallas each won at least one cup, two in Colorado's case. Atlanta added the Thrashers, Florida added the Panthers, Nashville added the Predators, Columbus added the Blue Jackets, Minnesota added the Wild, and Anaheim added the Ducks. Out of all these new teams, only Anaheim has won the cup. The rest barely made the playoffs once, if that in some cases. I like the competition now, but I do wish we had back some of the old teams like Hartford and Winnepeg. Quebec was a good rival, but is successful in Colorado.

The other thing I miss is the incredible scoring numbers back then. I mean, the Pens themselves had an NHL record four hundred point scorers in Mario Lemieux, Kevin Stevens, Rick Tocchet, and Ron Francis. Jaromir Jagr wasn't far behind with 94. The top three in scoring then all had over 140 points. It is unheard of to get 140 points now. Out of the top ten scorers, eight had 50 or more goals. We have one this year that looks possible to hit 50, and that is Alexander Ovechkin. That is only because all he does is shoot the puck. He doesn't play defense or special teams, he just shoots the puck. I could go on about him as a non-complete player unlike Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, but I will save that for another post.

The thing I really didn't like back then is that I don't believe that the goalies were nearly as talented and skilled as they are today. I looked at the goal against averages and they don't reflect my opinion, but it is my opinion! If you watch some of the old time goals, most of them are standing up and not covering the crease very well. That era ended with Patrick Roy and his butterfly-style of goaltending. This caught on like wildfire and every goalie uses a version of it today.

Another hot topic today is the fighting rules. I agree and disagree with what they are doing. What we want is to leave it in. The only problem is that it is getting away from old style fighting which was just raw emotion. That would be acceptable now. We have these fights that two players just go out there and talk it out first and then fight briefly and then go to the box. The league wants those to stop. I think the staged fighting is a really lame part of the fighting aspect of hockey. I think they do need to remove that part of it. My problem is that they want to enforce the instigator penalty more. I hate this idea. Right now, the way it is, is that is your goon takes a clean run at a star who is visibly smaller than them, no one can go out and defend that one player. You have to defend yourself. That can't always happen if you are the smaller player. I like the idea that goons are policed by other goons and can be policed without fear of the rulebook being thrown at them. The league is trying for this. They say they aren't taking it out, but there isn't much left with the severe enforcement of the instigator. I wish they would just ask the fans. Maybe we should start a petition for the removal of staged fighting along with the removal of the instigator penalty.

Overall, I like where we are at, but do wish some of the things of old were still in place. In my opinion, Wayne Gretzky is right, no one will get his records, but it isn't because players aren't as good as he was now, it is because the rules don't allow it. Ahh...the memories!

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