Pens beat Devils 5-0

Nice game to finish up the road trip. What could have been a very very good trip was merely ok. Finishing 2-2 is fine, but when you blow 2 2-0 leads and lose and not get a single point out of either of them, that leaves a sour taste. If they could have earned even one more point, it would have been a successful trip. Now it leaves them even and preparing for their first showdown vs the new Flyers.

There are a couple of interesting lineup questions that will be answered on Wednesday:
-Sabourin or Fleury vs the Flyers? Hard not to go back to Sabo after a shutout win. But hard to ignore one guy who is clearly in The Flower's camp.

-Will Armstrong get back in the lineup? Laraque played really well and Christiansen had a goal. Who sits?

Also, Mark Recchi looks soooo much better on a third or fourth line than on the first. On the first line you expect him to score, need him to score, and when he doesn't it's glaring. On lower lines, he doesn't need to score, which is good because he hasn't, but he can do other things that contribute to a win and he is doing them whether he is playing on the Crazy 8's line or with Staal and Roberts.

14,032 and almost 80% full at the Rock in Newark last night? Who came up with that number?!?! Hard to believe the Devils deserve a new arena. Now I understand arenas, particularly hockey and basketball arenas, hold other events that benefit the area, but the Devils in Newark just doesn't seem like a great long term answer. Last night was their third or fourth home game in the new arena and it was at least half empty.

What was your favorite goal of the night? All of them were pretty sweet, with possibly Sid's first goal the ugliest. Hall's deflection was one of the best I've seen, if only because the shot was going so wide. Geno's pass from his knees was spectacular. Talbot and Christiansen's 2-1 off a sweet touch pass from Laraque was beautiful. And Orpik's blind pass to Sid was right on the tape. Tough to choose.

What was nice about last night's game was that DirecTV offered both TV feeds for the game. So I had to choose between Steiggy and Bibs or Doc Emrick and Chico Resch. Normally I would choose Steiggy and Bibs, but I like Emrick and think Chico is a good analyst, so I chose to watch them and get a little out of town perspective on the Pens. Also, to be honest, I do not like Steiggy as a play by play guy at all. Maybe I got spoiled with Mike Lange, but can we please do something about replacing Steiggy with Mike again? Having grown up with the Pens in the late 70s and early 80s, I know the history between to two; Mike basically brought Steiggy up in the broadcasting world and then Steiggy goes and takes his job. That's not good, and it's worse because Steiggy is not a good play by play guy. This could and should and will be a whole column because it's borderline criminal that Steiggy is now the TV play by play guy for the Pens while Mike Lange is only on radio.

That said, Doc and Chico last night commented that Geno was having a better game than Sid last night and that he will steal a lot of #1 stars from Sid this year. Which is true and often he is better than Sid. But last night, except for his pass from his knees, I didn't think Geno was spectacular. He has had better games. Last night he tried too many cute moves that led to turnovers that are ok when you're up 4 or 5-0, but would have been horrendous if they were made in the playoffs. I only hope Therrien let him know about that.