Penguins Blog

The Devils really gave the Pens a break with their 1-0 home loss last night to St. Louis. With the Penguins 1 point in their overtime loss to Carolina yesterday, they still hold a 2-point lead over New Jersey, though the Devils do still hold 1 game in hand.

This will be yet another tough week for the Pens, who will face Detroit, Washington and Philly in the next 6 days.

Sorry for the absence of new posts this week. I was out of town, but am back and will have fresh content for you today following the Pens game against Carolina.

Will he be suspended or won't he? Is Alex Ovechkin a dirty player? These are questions that are burning the NHL and its followers right now.

Ovechkin likely ended the regular season of Blackhawks defenseman Brian Campbell who has a broken collarbone and ribs with a questionable boarding hit from behind. Apparently there's a rule in the NHL that if you have 2 major boarding penalties within a 41 game span (half a season) you face an automatic suspension. Ovechkin received one on November 25, 2009 against Buffalo, but yesterday's game was the 42nd from that game, so Ovechkin doesn't face an automatic suspension.

BUT, the NHL apparently is redefining what "boarding" is, which means Ovechkin could now face further punishment, and the entire league could face new rules on the fly.

We'll see what comes of this.

Update: Ovechkin was handed a 2-game suspension today, the second time this year he's been suspended.

Caps head coach Bruce Boudreau told the Washington Post, "The decision has been made. I don't agree with it. But maybe if I was [Chicago Coach] Joel Quenneville, I wouldn't think it wasn't enough."

"We have no problem with the way Alex tried to finish his check," GM George McPhee said in a statement according to the Post. "Unfortunately, an injury resulted. We are disappointed with the suspension but do not want to comment further."

X-Rays on Evgeni Malkin's injured foot/leg turned up negative according to several reports, and Malkin is listed as day-to-day. Malkin was injured yesteday in Tampa Bay when a shot off the stick of teammate Kris Letang struck him in the lower leg or foot.

 

Thanks to our viewer Hondo for passing this along. Grapes himself, Don Cherry was yet another one of us that couldn't believe Matt Cooke wasn't suspended and actually does a pretty good job showing some egregious knee-shots Cooke has taken during his career. Doens't paint a pretty picture.

If you missed it, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals was given a 5-minute boarding major and a game misconduct today for his hit on Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brian Campbell. This was Ovechkin's 3rd game misconduct this season, and he has already been suspended once.

His first major-and-a-game came in late November when a hit Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta from behind and was ejected, but not suspended.

Just 5 days later Ovechkin went knee-to-knee with Carolina's Tim Gleason and was handed down a 2-game suspension.

Will he face disciplinary action from the NHL this time around? NBC analysts Pierre Mcguire and Mike Milbury thought today's penalties were way too harsh, each calling for a double-minor at the least. But TSN's Darren Dreger called it a "wreckless play" on his Twitter blog.

Though it wasn't a shot to the head, which has become a focus in the NHL of late, Ovechkin is now a repeat offender and I think will likely face some kind of punishment. Then again I thought Matt Cooke would be suspended at least 5 games last week and we all know how that turned out.

Still, Ovechkin's resume of goonism to borrow a phrase from Milbury is rather long. There was this hit against Danny Briere back in 2006. And Ovechkin hit a former teammate of his from behind when he took out Jamie Heward.

And of course, Ovechkin went knee-to-knee with Sergei Gonchar in the Eastern Conference semi-finals last year.

Following today's game in Tampa Bay, the Penguins have quite the gauntlet coming up in the next 2 weeks. In a span of 11 days the Pens play Washington, New Jersey, Detroit, Boston (think Matt Cooke), Philadelphia and Carolina. There's not a game in the bunch in which the story line doesn't write itself. You've got all 4 of the Pens playoff opponents from last year, a team they're 0-5 against this year and a team who will be gunning to physically injure as many members of the team as they can.

But first thing's first. The 'Ning.

Tampa is coming off a win in Washington, the first regulation home loss for the Capitals in 2010.

Second year player Steven Stamkos has exploded into a star. He's 3rd in the NHL in goals with 42 behind only Sid and Alex Ovechkin. Stamkos now holds the franchise record for most consecutive games with a point at 18, a mark that is also good for the league's 2nd-longest streak this season. He held the season-long goal streak at 7 games and is just one of two players, the other being Mike Green, over the last four seasons with a goal in 7 straight. Stamkos is also the youngest player in NHL history to record a point in 18 consecutive games at the age of 20 years and 28 days, breaking the previous mark set by Sidney Crosby in November of 2007. Crosby was 20 years and 99 days old when he recorded his 18-game point streak. His record eventually ended at 19 games. Stamkos became the franchise record holder last Tuesday for most power play goals in a season with his 17th. Entering play on 3/13, Stamkos ranked 2nd in the league for most goals scored at home with 24.

Martin St. Louis is one of just 4 players with an active streak of 6 straight seasons of 20+ goals joining Ilya Kovalchuk, Jarome Iginla and Mike Knuble.

CAREER MILESTONES WATCH:

- Craig Adams needs 2 points to reach 100

- Chris Kunitz needs 2 goals for 100

4 games against the Devils so far this year: 2 goals, 4 losses. Not good. But there's been some recent trending to make you think there could be a different outcome tonight.

The Pens have gone 14-8-4 since the two teams last met December 30th. New Jersey has gone 11-14-2 in the same span.

Special teams. The Penguins penalty killing units have killed off 67 of their last 79 times shorthanded (84.8 percent), including a stretch of 20 straight kills. The power play has scored a goal in six of the last seven games, going 7 for 19 (36.8 percent) in that stretch.

March is Marc-Andre Fleury's time to shine. From the game notes:

March has been historically the strongest month for goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. He has already posted back-to-back wins to start 2-0 on the month. From 2006-07 to last year, Fleury posted a 27-3-5 record with a 2.03 goals-against average, .926 save percentage and four shutouts in the month of March (2007 –9-1-2, 2.69 GAA, .910 SVP; 2008 –9-1-1, 1.44 GAA, .951 SVP; 2009 –9-1-2, 1.87 GAA, .930 SVP).

I alluded to this several times yesterday, so I thought I'd post everything Bill Guerin had to say yesterday about headshots in the NHL. Keep in mind, this was before the NHL came down with a lengthy zero game suspension for Matt Cooke, but it's pretty interesting and at times powerful speech.

"Technically sometimes players don't do anything wrong by the rules. If you look at the rules and what they say, technically a guy doesn't do anything wrong. But guys are still getting hit in the head, guys are still getting injured and somewhere along the line I think the league's gotta crack down. Whether it's within the rules or not. If a guy gets hurt like that with a shot to the head there's got to be something. Accidents happen, guys don't mean to hurt each other but they do and you know what? You gotta pay a price for it."

Asked about proposed improvements to equipment to reduce the damage from headshots:

"It's not the equipment. That's the biggest joke I've heard. That they're gonna change pads and this and that -- it doesn't matter. That's not gonna change anything. It's the direct hits to the head, It's the mentalitiy of the players -- just a responsibility. And I think it's the response of the league to crack down and make sure guys are doing it, and if not, it's gonna keep going."

Asked if it's hard to speak so harshly about this topic when it's a teammate under question:

"We're all under the same umbrella here. Whether the guy's on my team, I'm sitting right next to him, or is he's playing in California somewhere. it doesn't matter. We're all playing in the same league, and we all want the same safety. We all want to be looked after the same way. That's it. I understand Cookie's on my team... but you know what? That's tough. He's in a tough spot."

So should all headshots be eliminated?

"I think especially if a guy's in a vulnerable position like that, and he's not looking at you, there's got to be some response by the player. And there's got to be response by the league to crack down on that stuff."

Do you have any ideas on what the league should do to change the rules?

"If i had the ideas I'd be sitting in an office in New York somewhere. They're gonna figure it out. They've got a lot of guys who've been around the game a long time. I'm pretty confident because I know they're taking it seriously. But they're gonna have to do it soon."

Hear that? That's the Boston Bruins exploding in outrage. In quite a shocker, Matt Cooke will not be suspended for his hit on Marc Savard that left the Bruins winger with a Grade-2 concussion and may end his season.

Update: As expected, the city of Boston has blown it's collective lid. I tend to agree. In his explanation Colin Campbell cited the precedence of Mike Richards' hit on David Booth that did not earn a suspension. But how about the precedence of Cooke himself who was suspended 2 games earlier this season for a hit that looks nearly identical to Sundays against Boston.

Checking out some of the Boston websites reaction began to pour in almost instantly. Some of my faves from NESN.com:

"What a joke. One of the best offensive players in the game is seriously injured by a goon and the NHL says that no discipline is "...a matter of consistency." Consistently inconsistent and utterly lame. If a major star like Ovechkin had absorbed that hit then Gary Bettman would have personally taken Cooke out and shot him."

"It was a HEADHUNTING shot! Pure and simple. Who will play Colin blow Campbell in the movie??? Stieve Wonder??? The game on the 18th should be sponsored by the RED CROSS!"

"I have a question, If we bring a guy up from the minors to take Savy's place on the 18th and he takes out Cooke or Crosby, doesnt that mean we wont loose a regular player to suspension or repracusion?"