Pens Off Day Notes

Turning from one disappointment to another (so far):

• Colby 1-goal Armstrong and Mark 2-goal Recchi appear to be fighting to get in the lineup. Why either might play on the second line, only Therrien knows: The second line had center Evgeni Malkin with Erik Christensen on one side and Colby Armstrong and Mark Recchi alternating on the other, raising the question of whether Therrien might choose between Armstrong and Recchi to be in the lineup tomorrow.
• Tomorrow's game is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving game. As I've written in the past, it used to be THE game of the year to attend. It no longer is: the Pens have taken to playing on the road or not at all on the day and nowadays it seems like the night before Turkey crowd has already ingested their turkey, often sitting on their hands.
• Perusing the league leaders:

POINTS
1. Lecavalier 14/20 34 +10
2. Zetterberg 14/16 30 +9
3. Crosby 11/19 30 0
4. Kovalchuk 17/12 29 +3
5. Sundin 10/17 27 +8
6. St. Louis 8/19 27 +8
7. Malkin 7/20 27 -1

Nice, but the only two guys not over 0 +/- are Pens.

• The NHL Network is on the air and it is great. For those who don't have it, run to get it, no better time filler exists; just Tivo some of their shows and you can entertain yourself endlessly. A couple of things I picked up watching it:
• "Classic Series" reviews the ups and downs of great playoff series of the past. Many of these shows have aired series from the 90s and featured the Pens. Watching the Pens at their high flying best is stunning and maybe best of all, watching Ronnie Francis take over the 92 Ranger series is something special and shouldn't be forgotten. That said, Kevin Stevens, wow, you forget how good and dominating he was, even on his own without 66.
• After watching winning series, I put myself through the 93 loss to the Isles. What is stunning is how different the game was played: goalies standing up, not tight checking, giveaways aplenty. Made for some wild games. Despite all that went on in that series, watching Benoit Hogue beat Barrasso from the blue line to give the Isles a 3-1 lead in the third period of game 7 was shocking, a goal that should never have gone in (unlike Volek's OT goal).
  
• Earlier in the series, Tom Fitzgerald (now Pens Director of Player Development) beat Barrasso twice shorthanded on the same Pens PP with slappers high to the glove side leading to an Isles win. Surely he remembered those shots three years later when he put a blue line slapper past Barrasso in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to win it for the Panthers (probably the most disappointing Pens game I've ever attended).
• Do yourself a favor and watch some of 99's early 80s games and compare the style of play to today and even to the early 90s. Not even close, Gretzky is a great player, but some of what he was able to pull would never go down today. Still, it is exciting what he and those Oilers could do.

• The Toronto Globe and Mail does a nice summary of the shootout that has now been around for several years and how GMs are still clueless about their value. A couple of thoughts:
• The Pens a middling at SOs: 18th overall at 12-13.
• The Moose has been the 2nd best Goalie at stopping shootouts
• Contrary to popular beliefs, Marc-Andre Fleury is not among the worst goalies

• I have a hard time agreeing with him about anything else, but Madden does have some sense about hockey. He thinks Recchi and Roberts should be gone.
• Canadian Idol. In case we forget how big 87 is in the Great White North.
• I queried Dave Molinari this week about the Pens blue line needs. I think they can upgrade everywhere but need someone to get the puck out of their end and up to their forwards, Dave thinks they need a big bruiser to go with Orpik. Here is a summary of our exchange:
  Dave,
  What's your take on Brooks Orpik's play so far? To me, he's been by far their best defenseman, not only maintaining his physical play, but also looking very smooth skating wise, he may be the quickest blueliner on the roster (not saying too much I know). While Orpik continues to improve, others have not. Any mention of Whitney and Norris in the same sentence should be forever forbidden - he is good offensively but much closer to Gonchar in his own end than to Lidstrom. Gonchar remains Gonchar. Sydor admittedly started slowly, Eaton looks lost at times and Scuderi just looks slow and indecisive. More than a physical d-man, I'd love to see them pick up a guy who can move the puck up to the forwards in a spot where they can press the attack instead of just slamming it off the boards.
  DM:
  1) Orpik is having a better year than many people realize, and he's their only physical presence on the blue line.
  2) I don't know of anyone who has spoken of Whitney as a Norris candidate this season. Down the road, maybe.
  3) A defenseman's primary job is to play defense, so having somebody who's willing to clear people from the front of the net is more important to me at this point than getting another guy capable of throwing a good breakout pass. Not that having one of those would hurt, obviously.