The Streak Has Ended

The Pittsburgh Penguins coveted winning streak has ended with 12 games. We all knew that the streak was going to end at some point, but it just leaves a bad taste in Penguin fan's mouths when it happened against the Flyers.

Pens fans need to keep their chins up though and not worry about this one loss. The Stanley Cup has never been won in December! Actually in the last five year the winner of the President's Cup has only gone on to win the Stanley Cup ONCE!!!!

Some fans are acting like this is the end of the world and that we should throw Fleury and Geno under the bus. Dear haters, Fleury kept us in that game and Geno scored our only 2 goals!!!

On a lighter note Sidney Crosby kept his points streak alive to 19 game! He still has quite a long way to go to catch up to Wayne Gret

zky (51 games).

Let's just hope the Pens recover quickly (which I'm sure they will.)

Let's go Pens

What are the Pens to do?

The Pens have really picked it up the last few games and there have been major contributions from players who have come up from the Baby Pens. On offense Letestu and Tangradi have been brought up. On defense Hutch, Engelland, and Lovejoy. All of these players have made huge contributions to our team, but what is going to happen when our team gets healthy?

We have 2 players out on defense and offense right now. Staal and Asham on offense, and Orpik and Michalek on defense. Asham will probably come back before Staal so Tangradi will be gone, but when Staal comes back I have no idea who's going to leave. Letestu has been a huge asset to our team scoring 4 goals so far this season, so we really don't want to get rid of him. But at the same time not getting rid of him will make us lose Craig Adams, which would be deeply depressing for Penguin fans!

And in our defense when Orpik and Michalek come back Hutch will be back with the Baby Pens. Which leaves us with 7 defensemen. This will probably mean that someone will be sitting out each game.

All in all these are good problems to have on a team! Since everyone is playing well our team is now very well rounded and has great depth in case of injury!

The Season So Far

This new NHL season has definitely shook up fans from all teams. The teams expected to do well haven't and the 29th and 30th place teams are towards the top! CRAZY!

The Toronto Maple Leafs are at the top of the East and have NO LOSSES!!! This is nuts, because they were riding down towards the bottom the whole season last year! They beat and out played the Penguins on the 13th and have one of the top scorers in MacArthur. If he keeps on going at the pace he is he'll have over 100 goals this season (Ha!). Toronto will probably not hold on to this dominance for long. All of the other teams in the East will find their stride and knock Toronto to the bottom (where they should be).

The Western Conference in a whole is very shook up towards the top with the Stars and Preds at the top. I think there might be a power shift coming!

Equally as surprising is the Oilers. They were the top in the West in the 1st week and have slipped a little bit, but are still going pretty strong. I'm guessing that they will keep falling down the standings an eventually claim the spot hey held for most of the season last year (30th overall). Might seem a bit harsh...but it's true.

Another surprise is the Canucks! They're down about 13th in the West and show no signs of pulling up at all. The Sedin twins have been scoring most of their goal so far, so they probably won't improve if other players don't step it up.

The Devils have also been a surprise this year because they are currently at the very bottom of the East right now. Brodeur looks to be in playoff form, letting in 18 goals so far in 6 games. I'm sure uncle-daddy will possibly get out of his rut and put the Devils back on top. But it would be pretty hilarious if the Devils did not make it to the playoffs this year.

So what's up with the Islanders being at the top of the Atlantic Division?! They have really stepped it up this year and seem to actually be getting some defense! I'm pretty sure the acquisition of Mark Eaton helped out a lot with that. If DiPietro can stay healthy and not suck, the Islanders will go far.

The Penguins have recently been picking it up after their 0-2 start. There were speculations about their new arena, the CEC, being cursed, but that has recently been proven untrue by their win over the Islanders. Crosby has also got his first few goals under his belt now, so he'll probably start to crank out goals left and right now. Geno still is looking for his first goal this season. Fleury has not look good at all and actually has not won a game yet. The backup goalie Johnny has looked terrific in all the Pens's 3 wins! There is rumor that Fleury is hurt and that's why he's not performing well and not starting as of late. Hopefully the Pens won't be plagued by injuries this year, even though a few defensemen have already started to drop off the roster because of injury, plus Jordan Staal still does not have a timeline to come back. If the Pens can stay healthy and their top liners can produce with some help from their 3rd and 4th lines they'll be fine.



All in all, the NHL season is definitely not what I expected so far this season. it's going to be an interesting year.

Today's the Day!

Hockey season has finally arrived! Tonight 10 teams will be playing in 5 games from coast to coast.

The Carolina Hurricanes will be kicking off the season overseas in Finland vs the Minnesota Wild at noon. Carolina looks to have the stronger team this season, but we'll see if they make a run this year or fizzle out early in the season like they did last year.

The next game being played tonight is the Toronto Maple Leafs vs the Montreal Canadiens @ 7. This original 6 matchup is sure to be good between these two Canadian teams. The team that will have the advantage at the Air Canada Center tonight will be the Leafs since they are home and Kessel was looking hot in the preseason. Hopefully the Leafs can break out of their slump that they are in.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers will also be playing at 7 and will open up their season in the Penguin's new Consol Energy Center. This is a huge rivalry in the Eastern Conference and blood will be shed. The Penguins won 5 of the 6 head to head matches last season and will look to open strong this season. The Penguins have the edge in this game because of the acquisitions they made this summer and because of their number of players coming back who make up the core of the team. They have also been chosen the most to win the cup this year.

The Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks will take on the Colorado Avalanche at 10pm in Colorado. The Blackhawks took a huge hit to their roster in the off-season and many people are worried if they can keep up. So, the Avalanche are looking to strike! The advantage still goes to Chicago because they looked pretty hot in the preseason and Hossa definitely looks to be in great form again.

The last game will be played on the very west coast. The Calgary Flames and Edminton Oilers will also be beginning at 10pm. Neither team made it to the playoffs last year and the Oilers have been horrible since they lost the Cup to the Hurricanes in '06. So, I give the advantage to the Flames just because the Oilers are an awful team.

This is definitely going to be an AWESOME night and I can't wait to watch the game tonight and cheer on my Pittsburgh Penguins! Let's Go Pens!

Two New "A's" named on Pens

When the news release came out today about the captains named for the Penguins this season everyone knew that Sidney Crosby would be the C and that Evgeni Malkin would be one of the A's. The other two A's are not shockers at all, but I am surprised that they have 3 A's in the traditional 2 for most teams.

The other 2 A's for this season are Brooks Orpik and Jordan Staal. They both have had experience wearing the A in earlier seasons for injured players. Brooks is the player who has been on the team for the longest and he definitely has proven himself over the years as a leader on defense. It's also very convenient to have an A on defense. Jordan, on the other hand, is one of the youngest players on the team, but he has definitely stepped into leadership positions before. Bylsma and Shero want to have a strong core of younger players so the Penguins can stay strong for years to come.

Both Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma were involved in this decision. And these decisions will definitely make our team stronger for years to come.

Countdown: 17 Days

Just a little re minder: 17 days until the first regular season game!!!! Pens vs Flyers (VS) 7:00

Start of the Season

So this weekend was the start of the hockey season! Training camps started for everyone of 30 teams across the country and there are only 17 days left until the regular season starts. Every team is trying to decide which players are going to make the cut.

The Penguins have their fair share of troubles deciding who is going to be on their team. With the loss of Jordan Staal for the first few weeks of the season the Pens need to look for a new player to take his spot. Mark Letestu and Eric Tangradi seem to be the ones battling it out for it. It looks like right now that Letestu is ahead of Tangradi.

The line ups so far that have gone down are for the offense (for sure):

Dupuis Crosby Kunitz

Malkin Comrie Tangradi

Some of the combos that are possible for the last 2 lines are:

Cooke Talbot Asham (This line could be interesting because of the Cooke/Asham biting Situation that took place while Ahsam was on the Flyers. And apparently they've "hugged" it out)

Rupp Adams Letestu (But Letestu really could go anywhere. Possibly switch with Max)

We just need to buckle up for this season. It's going to get interesting.

To read more about the second day of training go to http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=537945&navid=DL|PIT|home