GAMEDAY 63 - SABRES
7:30 PM
Mellon Arena
Listen to the game at [WXDX]
We'll get this out of the way first:
There will be no wet dream Olympic rematch between Crosby & Miller tonight, unless something goes terribly wrong for Buffalo.
Patrick Lalime is starting for the Sabres.
Brent Johnson will be in net for the Penguins.
Marc-Andre Fleury is probably resting after all of the action he saw in team Canada's net during the Olympics.
Max Talbot should be back in the line up.
A Legend Lost
If you live in the South Hills of the Greater Pittsburgh area...
If you've ever had a girlfriend, a mom, or celebrated Easter...
If you ever bought a pack of pretzels from a cheerleader in high school just so she'd talk to you...
you know what Sarris Candies is.
The Earth got a little less sweet today, as we've heard the news that Frank Sarris has passed away.
The Sarris Stanley Cup, a staple at Sarris Candies for the last two Cup runs.
R.I.P.
Frank Sarris
What Jordan Leopold Can Do For You
At about 9:43 this morning, news first broke about the Pens trading for Jordan Leopold.
At about 10:05, the thought started to creep into the minds of thousands of Penguin fans.
"Pens get, Leopold? Oh man, that is setting up a move. Go-Go or Letang is gone."
We're not exempt from this thought, either.
But then you start to think about it.
In the last 48 hours, Ray Shero was in Vancouver watching a team he was asked to help architect almost win a gold medal.
He got back to Pittsburgh, checked his e-mail after beating SNOOD for the 40th time, and then pried Jordan Leopold from the Florida Panthers. Then he probably drove his kids to school, made pancakes, and cleaned his Stanley Cup ring.
This all happened when you were asleep. So, chances are not one single person has any fucking idea what Ray Shero is doing, expect Ray Fucking Shero.
But we can say this. Amidst all the speculation about trades, people have already looked past what Jordan Leopold brings to the table.
We asked Donny Rivette, the managing editor of Litter Box Cats, a Florida Panthers blog, about Leopold:
The guy's invisible. Not ineffective, just invisible. You don't notice him until he makes a rush into the offensive zone or a sweet pass out of his own end. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but there's simply no flash or flair. Goes about his work, is well liked in the room, and consistently described as a consummate pro. He'll make a terrific addition to the Pens.
To us, that is such a great description. Why? Because we used to say the same things about a guy named Rob Scuderi...and we still say that about Mark Eaton.
But it is not over there.
The more you dig about this move, the more telling it becomes.
Two quotes caught our eye from a solid article on PENS.COM
From Dan Bylsma:
“Jordan Leopold played against Alex Ovechkin every shift last time Florida played Washington,” head coach Dan Bylsma noted. “When his coaches decided who plays against the other team's top line, it was Jordan. That may not be the case for us. ... I think we're getting a guy that will help us defend against the other teams' good players. He's proven that and has been counted on to be that for his team this year."
And from Shero:
"This is a guy that's played against good players, whether it's Ovechkin or other guys,” Shero said. “That's what he's done. When you're playing 22 minutes a game, as he was in Florida, you're going to get those assignments. They've got a few other guys that did that. Leopold was one of the guys
Bingo.
That is all you need about this trade right there. The lasting image of the Penguins season before the Olympic break was A.O. nailing home that hat trick. Especially the one goal where he turned Jay Mckee into a flagpole. They did some homework and then went out and got someone who has the ability to maybe contain A.O.
See, we're not like Caps fans. To beat your enemy, you have to respect what they can do. A.O. has reached the point where he can beat the Pens. And we are lucky that the organization we root for isn't as moronic as the Capitals management. They would never think about shutting Crosby down, because they think Joel Erskine can handle that.
Some jerkoffs have been asking why we talk about A-hole so much, and we'll lay it out right now.
The Caps are the only team that we are worried about in the East.
As Mark Madden pointed out in his column yesterday, and as Ray Shero has been quoted, the Penguin forwards are almost exactly the same as last spring. What can you even say to that? Sorry, as much as Tenk has done dick this season, how many Stanley Cup Finals goals does Alexi Ponivjokesky have?
Defense was the number one priority going into this trading deadline, and pretty sure Shero has taken care of that.
A winger would be great, but don't count on Shero just making the trade because he thinks he has to.
Oh and real quick, top five reasons why the Pens aren't trading Gonch:
5.
4.
3.
2. Yeah you know where this going, so whatev.
1. We'd rather risk losing Gonch in free agency than not having him in the playoffs.
We'll put our blog on the line saying Gonchar isn't going anywhere.
If he is traded, you'll never hear from us again ,we promise.
Go Pens.
Also, fuck Rick Nash.
Hacking Through The Bullshit
Zero hour is rapidly approaching.
Now, none of us are General Managers. If we were, Jagr would be on the Pens as an overpaid winger, Nic Cage would be training and conditioning coach, and we would've swung some trade for Teemu Selanne by now.
As idiotic as those moves would be (Cage being overqualified for the job), we aren't serious.
They're just wet dreams.
But some of the trade rumors and trade proposals circulating right now can leave you speechless.
Case in point, the stream of piss coming from BLEACHER REPORT.
Click these to go to the respective articles:
Both of those articles start with a disclaimer of some sorts to the effect of "Now, now, wait a minute. Hear me out. I'm a Pens fan, man." If you have to start out a column with that kind of disclaimer, it's already destined to failure.
Apparently there's rumors "whirling" that Malkin's getting tired of the Pens being Crosby's team?
But hang on. That blue text means the writer is linking to proof of Malkin's discontent, right?
Oh, never mind. That link takes you nowhere. Man.
Gotta love ambiguous statements placed into an article just to push the reader along.
Whew. Now we're making sense.
The only goal is to have Crosby win the Art Ross.
Why hasn't anyone else realized this? The Cup is just a bonus after the Art Ross.
If this isn't what the writer means, it shouldn't have been in the article at all.
There's just ridiculous shit being talked about right now.
The core of this roster is still 5 years FROM HITTING THEIR PRIME.
And they have already won a Stanley Cup.
Shero has already proven that the core is a winning formula.
Oh, God.
How many productive games did Crosby and Nash have together? One? Against Norway?
Looks like that chemistry is "rare."
There's no stopping people.
There's no reason to link to these clowns.
But we haven't put our thoughts down for about two weeks.
Had to get back in the game.
Can't believe we're making it a point to watch COL-DET tonight on Versus.
F'in Olympics.
Get To Know A Penguin: Jordan Leopold
The news broke early Monday morning.
Shero trades a second-round pick for Jordan Leopold.
We have no idea what Leopold will bring to the table.
And we sure as hell aren't gonna act like we do.
Jordan Leopold won the 2001-2002 Hobey Baker Award.
So, at one time or another, Jordan Leopold was considered the real deal.
He's missed his fair share of playing time in his career:
-- Hernia surgery
-- Groin injury
-- Something with his hip
-- Pneumonia
-- And a concussion
The general sentiment is that this is a Mark Eaton type player.
But Mark Eaton never won no Hobey Baker.
This move creates a logjam on the Pens' blue line.
Gonchar
Orpik
Letang
Goligoski
McKee
Eaton
Leopold
and Martin Skoula is still sniffing around.
But, still, this is an impressive move on a couple of fronts.
--- Firstly...
The Pens are averaging 3.03 goals scored per game, ranked 5th in the league.
That's a beautiful place to be.
But the Pens are giving up 2.87 goals per game, which is 9th WORST in the league.
The only teams below them in G.A.A. are Dallas, Anaheim, Islanders, Columbus, Carolina, Atlanta, Toronto, and Edmonton -- not exactly powerhouses of the league.
The Pens' offense is not the issue. At all.
(Just imagine if the PP wasn't fecal for 95% of the season thus far.)
But the team defense needed a look-see.
On the other hand, Leopold is a career minus player. So we don't know.
--- And Secondly...
How do you keep the defending Cup champs hungry to repeat?
Bring in some guys who are hungry for their first one.
Other than aging veterans that you can beat off about, no one would want the Cup more than a player like Leopold, who made it all the way to Game 7 of the SCF with Calgary in 2004 before losing to Tampa Bay.
If he's not hungry because of that experience, we don't want him on the Pens.
BREAKING : Pens trade for Jordan Leopold [UPDATED]
The trade deadline madness is starting.
The Penguins have traded their 2010 second round pick to the Florida Panthers for defenseman Jordan Leopold. [TSN]
Leopold makes $1.75 million this season and is a UFA in the summer. [NHL Numbers]
Stats from Hockey DB:
Will more happen with the Pens defense?
Some video from Leopold's page on [NHL.com]
March Of The Penguins
Just wanted to be the first blog to use that.
What is the over/under on how many times we're going to see that title?
Potentionally life altering road trip from 11th through the 18th
God help us all.
Trading deadline in like eight minutes.
Go Pennnnnnsssss
...Disney Would've Thought Too Improbable To Tell.
"I didn't see it go in the net. I just heard everyone scream," said Crosby.
"I saw [Iginla] get a step on the guy and steal his puck. I just tried to let him know where I was and throw it at the net. He had his back turned towards me. I didn't think he'd know I was there. I just threw it at the net. I wasn't really aiming for anything."
No words.
Still don't respect Luongo. Probably because we never will.
You're The Best...Around...
JJMARKEY
2nd place -- RAPENN
3rd place -- ABIZZLE03
4th place -- MARSHMAN
5th place -- LEGAME58
