GAMEDAY 41 - DEVILS
7:00 PM
Prudential Center
Listen to the game at [WXDX]
Check out the enemy:
New Jersey Devils blog "Running With The Devils"
Gameday 41.
The mid-point of the season and the Pens final game of 2009.
For all of our 2000s retrospective stuff, click the links below:
A Decade Through The Fire: The 2000s [Part One]
We'll have some more coming up.
New Jersey.
The Devils have had the Penguins' number this season.
They've beaten the Pens by a combined total of 12-2 in three games.
All of those games were at Mellon Arena.
The Devils have won four in a row at home.
Crosby, Fleury Named To Team Canada
Penguins Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury have been named to the Canadian Olympic team.
Sid was named alternate captain.
Scott Niedermayer has been named captain.
Chris Pronger and Jarome Iginla are the other alternate captains.
Every witty "Rosby" "Cindy" "Crysby" person is gleeful that Sid didn't get the C, as if Crosby will have no impact or leadership role on the team since there's a different letter on his jersey. Clearly Babcock and Yzerman think so little of his leadership skills that they named him alternate captain. Diver.
The full team is available here.
Team USA will be announced following the Winter Classic on Friday.
Brooks Orpik along with former Penguins Ryan Malone, Ryan Whitney and Rob Scuderi are possibilities to make the team.
Image: "Shootout: Sidney Crosby against Marc-Andre Fleury" by John Bristowe on Flickr.
A Decade Through The Fire: The 2000's Part 1
When the clock hit midnight on December, 31 1999 it might as well have been a lifetime ago.
Do you even remember where you were? Y2K city? Jesus.
So much has changed. It is sickening.
The 00's have been one twist and turn after another.
One minute you're 18, on your way to college.
The next you're 26 telling dick jokes on the internet for fun. Doesn't make sense. How you get from one place to another is a spectular case of fate.
But the one constant in all our lives have been the Pittsburgh Penguins. From ol'Double J to the escape of Evgeni Malkin from Russia. From worst to first. Isle of Capri, Don Barden, Easy Ed Rendall.
Game 7 in Buffalo, to Game 7 in Detroit joke city.
After the jump, a trip down the 00's using some old posts to light the way.
Key Lalime Pie. PENS LOSE
[NHL.COM] recap
[Penguins.com] recap
[DieByTheBlade] recap.
There was a game the night the Pens traded for Hossa back in 08' against the Islander in long Island.
Conklin made like 50 saves, won the game 4-2, and had no business doing so. -[Pensblog ver 1]
Yea, this is probably payback for that.
The Pens owned the Sabres for the first period. Ryan Miller wasn't even interested in playing.
But momentum is a strange thing in hockey. Patrick Lalime came in for Miller, and stole the show. Simple as that.
Say anything you want, if Lindy Ruff leaves Miller in for five more minutes, it is 5-0.
Instead, Lalime came in and was on acid.
He was making save after save. Eventually, the Sabres became inspired. They fought back. If you have watched hockey long enough, you knew the feeling.
Doesn't make it any easier to deal with. But we'll move on. The good news there is chance for immediate redemption tonight.
The bad news, it is against New Jersey.
GAMEDAY 40 - SABRES
7:00 PM
HSBC Arena
Listen to the game at [WXDX]
If you have any questions for Mike Lange, Phil Bourque or Bob Grove join the Penguins Radio Network Facebook page.
You can submit questions via the discussion tab for the Crash the Net segments or Penguins Hotline after the game.
It's the first of two difficult back-to-back games for the Pens.
They're in Buffalo tonight and in New Jersey tomorrow night.
Of course, the team had a few issues getting to Buffalo yesterday.
The team bus got stuck in the snow and needed to be pushed out....
... by the team's coaching and support staff.
"We were two blocks away and we needed to get out of there. That meant that most of us got out and pushed the bus... Actually the two players were Sergei Gonchar and Marc-Andre Fleury who made it out... They will be starting tonight... I was a little concerned when it was a full-speed bus and Matt Cooke jumped on."
-- Dan Bylsma
We assume that while the bus was stuck Sidney Crosby got up, walked over to a nearby pond and played a pick-up game with some local kids.
The 20 Most Memorable Penguin Goals of the Decade: The Top Five
To end the 2000s, we've put together a list of the 20 most memorable Penguin goals of the decade.
If you haven't read part one yet, check it out here.
They're not necessarily the best goals or the most important goals.
These are 20 goals that you will remember when you sit back and think of the 2000s.
Today we are at the top five.
These five goals stand out from the hundreds of others scored over the past ten years.
They are the five most memorable goals of the 2000s.
Go Pens.
The 20 Most Memorable Penguin Goals of the Decade: Part One
As we all know, this has been an up-and-down decade for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Things looked okay at the beginning.
We saw a line-up that boasted Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka and Mario Lemieux reach the 2001 Eastern Conference Final.
And things turned out pretty well in the end.
In 2009 we watched Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury raise the Stanley Cup.
In between we experienced a painful fall to the bottom of the standings and a dramatic rise back up them.
To end the decade, we've put together a list of the 20 most memorable Penguin goals of the decade.
They're not necessarily the best goals or the most important goals.
These are 20 goals that you will remember when you sit back and think of the 2000s.
Chances are there is at least one goal here that you will be telling your grandchildren about.
In fact, these are the kinds of goals that the players themselves may be telling their grandchildren about.
The 2000s were a shaky decade for the Pens, but adversity and drama creates memories.
Here we go!
Christmas Sucked. PENS LOSE.
PENSION PLAN PUPPETS [LEAFS BLOG]
Some factoids about 1967:
Average Cost of new house: $14,250.00
Average Income per year: $7,300.00
Average Monthly Rent: $125.00
Gas per Gallon: 33 cents
Average Cost of a new car: $2,750.00
Movie Ticket: $1.25
Minimum wage: $1.40
And, yeah, it was the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Cup.
These 1967 references are as lame as the Crosby whiner/diver stuff.
But we only see Toronto four times a season.
As for the game, shit.
You could say the Penguins were Turnover Central.
Or was it that the Leafs were Takeaway City?
Regardless, MAF was Sieveblog on goals 3 and 4. In his -- what do you call it, oh, yeah -- Stanley Cup Championship Parade speech at the podium last June, he said something along the lines of, "I let in some soft ones sometimes."
But he stood on his head to even keep the Pens in the game. So really not his fault.
There's absolutely no reason to get all bent out of shape about Ian White scoring some late goal.
It was a fun game to watch. Jason Blake sucks.
And why do people yell shit at games? The players can't hear them. Nothing more annoying than some moron getting on Malkin's case because he's trying to make things happen in a 1-1 game and turns the puck over. Jesus Christ. Shut up.
