False Expectations and matinee game.

As soon as the words came out of Sidney Crosby's mouth, it was established. These words inadvertently gave a target date for his return even though he adamantly said there was no date planned. Simply saying no sooner than Sunday would he return, immediately the rumors went wild stating that Crosby's return would be today against the Boston Bruins. With the schedule and practice schedule as well, I thought his return would be later than today and yesterday it was announced that Crosby's return will not be today. I am sure Crosby will think twice when choosing the way he phrases things when discussing his return because he realized the way people took what he said and ran with it. Media went wild and yesterday the story was that Crosby's return was "delayed." It was not delayed, there was no date set!
Don't worry, Crosby's retun is coming and I am sure we will know when it does. Let's not pick any more dates ourselves and set false expectations.

Now, today's game against the Boston Bruins has the chance to be a good one against the Pens and the Northeast Division leaders and second in the Eastern Conference Bruins. Even with some top players out with injury, the Bruins are still capable of scoring a lot of goals. Therefore, the Pens' defense needs to be strong today. Tuukka Rask, Boston's backup is currently in recovery that could last up to 4-6 weeks and therefore, the Bruins recently signed Marty Turco to a one year deal to back up Tim Thomas. There is a chance that Turco will be in the lineup today against the Pens. It would be his first NHL action since last February. This could be good or bad for the Pens. Either way, the Pens need to have a consistent game to continue our win streak this afternoon.

Been here before.

It's not exactly news that Sidney Crosby was cleared for contact, as it was announced today. He had been on the ice for a little while now with no contact and since we have been down this road before, we knew it was a step that was coming.

Just as the last time, there is no timetable for a return to game action for Crosby and there is no real use in speculating either. He will return when he returns and the Pens have been playing pretty well without him, so the Pens are not in absolute dire need of him returning, which is a good thing for the team and Crosby.
The Pens won their sixth straight last night against the Coyotes and though it wasn't our best played game, Fleury was strong in net and the Pens managed a 2-1 win.

It's good to hear Crosby has been cleared for contact as it is the next step in his all-too familiar recovery and we know that somewhere down the road, whether it be long or short, he will return to the lineup. And we will all hope that he stays healthy and gets back to his form in which he left the game, but that will most likely take some time, or maybe it won't... who knows.

The great thing in all of this is that Crosby will not feel the pressure to return to a team that is falling as the Pens have been strong as of late and are holding on to the top half of the Eastern Conference standings. That also means that we have a very strong team without Crosby in the lineup and with Crosby back, there will be some shake-ups on some things, but we will have arguably the best player back. Seems like a win-win to me, so let's keep this winning streak going and we'll have to wait and see when Crosby comes back. We can be patient though and that is one great thing.

What a game, and now a rematch!

Last night's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs is what some people love and others hate. For me, there is nothing quite like a nail-biting, on the edge of your seat, exciting game. Now, not every minute of last night's game was like that for Pens fans. I am sure there are some moments we would like to forget. Oh, and how easy they are to forget with a finish like that. The Pens were going into the third period being down 4-1 and were able to come back and win in a shootout 5-4. Late goals by players that we love chipping in on the offense and then of course, Malkin to tie it up with less than 7 seconds left in the game. Sure enough, Malkin was the only player to score in the shootout as well, securing the Pens' 8th victory in a row. It was a nice welcoming after the All Star Break and quite a way to start off a new stretch of games.

As much fun as last night's game was and how I would love to spend more time talking about, we can not forget that the Pens have a rematch against the Maple Leafs tonight in Toronto. Now, if the Pens were on the receiving end of that loss, I know they would come back fighting tonight, so the Pens must be prepared for a Maple Leaf team that will come out strong. Who knows what tonight's game will bring. Last night's game was a perfect example of why not to change the channel when your team is down.

Toronto is a strong team and they are a team that has had some secondary scoring chip in as of late and the Pens should be prepared for a tough game tonight, not that last night wasn't.
The Pens look to continue their winning streak tonight and we all know... 9 is better than 8.


NEWS: The Pens claimed forward Cal O'Reilly off of re-entry waivers from the Phoenix Coyotes today.
The 25 year old has 5 points in 22 games this season with Phoenix.


On the Crosby front, another press conference was held yesterday and it was announced that Crosby has a soft-tissue injury of the neck, in which the symptoms are related to those of concussion symptoms. He is being treated for this injury and we will have to see what happens.
Also, Tom Brady has said he has never met Sidney Crosby. Don't believe everything you hear folks!

Now, let's focus on the important thing: We have a rematch against the Maple Leafs tonight and if it is anything like last night's game, then it should be quite entertaining.

Eventful All Star Weekend.

The Pens had three players attending the festivitites and partaking in the All Star game this past weekend, James Neal, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin. Though, it was not any of these three players who sparked the most questions and attention this weekend. That honor went to our captain, Sidney Crosby.

It was announced this weekend that Crosby had a neck injury that went undiagnosed along with his concussion. When Crosby was in Los Angeles and seeing Dr. Robert Bray, a neurological spine specialist, he was diagnosed with a neck injury and concussion. Dr. Bray reported the neck is fully healed, however. Now, Crosby will be evaluated and the latest findings will be evaluated further by independent specialists taking place this week.

Some blame and disbelief have been cast towards the Pens' doctors for missing the injury with all the tests Crosby had gone through, but I will not speculate on the details of the story or cast blame because I am not close enough to the situation nor do I know all the details. Also, it was reported that Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, was talking to Crosby on the phone when Brady's wife, Gisele Bundchen, also got on the phone to recommend a doctor of Brady's in Utah that Crosby should visit. What a strange thing, at least in my mind. I had no idea the two were friends, but again, who knows what the whole story is.
As long as Crosby is on the way to better health, then that is all that matters. No use really specualting on anything else.


Now, on to the All Star Game festivities from this past weekend. It's not necessarily must-watch tv for hockey fans, but it can be somewhat entertaining to watch. I always find something to laugh about and there's usually always a record being made with Zdeno Chara in attendance. He keeps breaking his own record for fastest shot and this year he had an amazing 108.8 mph shot. Wow.
As for me, I was a fan of Corey Perry's shootout antics over Patrick Kane's, but the fans voted Kane as the winner.
Team Chara won the All Star game with a score of 12-9 over Team Alfreddson, making our Malkin the victor of the game and Marion Gaborik of the New York Rangers won MVP title with his hat trick and assist.

And as for Alexander Ovechkin not being in attendance... I didn't even notice his absence.

Perhaps some good news.

Everyone loves good news. With all the bad news the Pens have had lately, Pens fans especially love good news these days. Frankly, this is not really news. It was expected to come sooner or later, but the Pens needed to throw some good news out there.

Today it was announced that Sidney Crosby will be traveling with the team to Florida and will begin skating on his own. This is the next step in his recovery, as we all know. We have been in this position before and we are all too aware of the next steps and what followed the last time.

It was also announced that Crosby will be addressing the media some time in the near future as well. Now, I am not expecting anything too new from this; it will probably be very standard and give no exact details on his recovery because no one knows for sure what will happen.

In the midst of a losing streak, it does serve the team well to have some good news, but Crosby's return still could be a distant occurrence, if it even happens this season at all. It will be good to see Crosby on the ice again and maybe that news will be all the team needs to bring their A game tonight.

Concussion prevention getting a new look.

Upon receiving my latest Hockey News magazine today, and actually having some time to read it, I came across an article talking about a new way concussions could possibly be prevented. It seems every team has been hit with the concussion curse in some way or another this season and the Pens are a major one, so the league should be looking into various ways concussions can be prevented. That includes the way the game is played with some hits as well as certain measures the players can take to protect themselves as well. An article by Ken Campbell takes a look into a new invention that may help to lessen the chance of a concussion.


One of the biggest topics this year around the league has been about concussions. They have been on a rise it seems lately and when one of the league's best players misses nearly a year of action due to a concussion, you better believe they'll be looking into ways to limit or prevent concussions.

There has been discussion about helmets with extra padding in them to help reduce concussions, but when a concussion is caused by the brain moving around in your head, unless that padding is inside the skull, there's not much that padding in the helmet can do to prevent a concussion. That is why several researchers started looking into ways to help blood flow to the skull and keep brain movement to a minimum. They came up with a collar.

"This collar pinches off the outlet vein that directs blood out of the brain, which would allow the inlet vein to fill up the extra space with blood, which would give the brain less room to slosh around" (Ken Campbell).

This collar could be designed on the current neck guard used in the NHL. While this product is still far off from being used, it does show promise in some tests. When testing using a design of the collar on rats, the results showed that the rats with the collar were 85% less likely to suffer an injury rather than the rats without a collar.

The collar may be a little tight, but if we ask the players who have missed a lengthy time of playing due to a concussion if they would have minded wearing a tighter collar if it meant that their concussion may not have happened, I believe a lot of them would not have cared that their collar was a tad tighter.

With further testing, I hope that this product continues to show great results and can one day be marketed and worn. Once that's done though, can someone create a time machine to have it complete and ready before January 1st of 2011 and make sure that Sidney Crosby wears it? I would really like to see what that season would turn out like for him, he was putting up some great numbers!

Researchers: Dr. Joseph Fisher - University of Toronto; Dr. David Smith - University of West Virginia; Dr. Julian Bailes - brain injuries expert with the NFL Players' Association.

Crosby out of lineup again.

When the "Crosby Update" was announced today, we knew it wouldn't be a good one. And I knew exactly what was going to happen when he missed the past two games, I knew it would be longer. I wished it wasn't true but it is. Also, I don't want to be so pessimistic, but we know that this will plague Crosby for quite some time; and no, I am not talking a little bit more this season, more likely for many seasons to come, if not his whole career. We know that Crosby did not just have a minor concussion, he had a pretty serious one. We are all well aware of that because of the 10 months he has already spent recovering from his concussion.

Crosby said in his "update" today that he just didn't feel right after the game against Boston, though he did well on his ImPact test and he says he does not feel as badly as he did when suffering from his concussion last January. Sure, these are all good signs, but that does not deny the fact that Crosby will miss a number of games while getting back to 100% and that the risk of this happening again is quite high.

Needless to say, I am a huge fan of the Pens and that means that I am a fan of Crosby's, how could a Pens fan not be? However, I did see some things that I rather would not have seen when Crosby returned. The first couple games back for Crosby, it was evident that most opposing players were respectful of Crosby's situation and were doing their best to try and not hit him too hard. However, to gain respect, you have to earn it and by being Crosby, he earned some, but he quickly lost it when he went out there throwing hits and sticking up for teammates by giving hits out. Don't get me wrong, I am all for a strong, close team and sticking up for one another, but not in dicey ways that put the team and player's health at risk. That is what Crosby did. By going out and playing the way he did at times gave other teams a reason to hit him when they may not have due to his situation. I know that some hits are going to happen and I also know that sometimes you just can not avoid things and your emotions get the best of you, but let the people on the team that are there to give the hits and throw some punches take care of sticking up for players.

Crosby is a great player and the way he plays: emotions, intensity, skill and focus all included are wonderful, but it would be in his best interest and the best interest of this team if he were a little more careful and tried to control the hits he gives out. To get respect, you have to show respect for others.

Without Crosby, the Pens are still strong and we are a fine team without him, so we will just have to come together again and show the other teams what we are still capable of!

He's Back!

That's right, he is back in the lineup, the moment we have all been waiting for... Zbynek Michalek is back in the lineup for tonight's game when the Pens host the New York Islanders. Oh and Sidney Crosby is also returning to the lineup tonight as well. Now, I am just as excited as the next person to have Sid back in the lineup tonight but I believe some people may be getting a tad too excited. We knew the day was coming, sooner or later, and yes, at moments the later part seemed to be the most true, but he has been taking contact and reported no side effects, so we all knew the day was coming. Except for those people who chose to believe that Sid was retiring or he would take this whole season off. However, some people out there are treating this like Easter, one would think Jesus has risen from the dead and not that Sidney was coming back from his concussion.
I understand some of the excitement and of course the attention, he has been out for so long and he is one of the best players, if not the best, player in the league. Just like everyone else, I am excited to see what the Pens can do with Sid back in the lineup since we have been doing fairly well with him out of the lineup, but let's take this slow. Though, it would not be unlike Sid to come back to his original form and just tear into scoring, I'll still give him a break and let him get acclimated to the game action that he has missed for so long. Who knows what will happen tonight, but some people are acting as if they thought he would never play again. Most of those people though could probably not name many other members of the team.

So here we are, Monday, November 21, 2011- the date of Sid's comeback and Michalek's too. We'll see what happens and I am excited to see the fresh goaltender the Islanders will have in net, Nilsson. It will be his first NHL start. Wow, first game in the NHL and it just so happens to be the game Sidney Crosby is returning after a long recovery from a concussion, talk about pressure.

Yes, I am excited to have Sid back in the lineup, thrilled even, and can't wait to see what tonight's game will bring, but for more reasons than just Sid returning to the lineup!

Crosby not playing this weekend.

Looks like tomorrow's date will just be a special date on the calendar and not for Sidney Crosby's return. Coach Dan Bylsma said today that the Pens are not keeping a secret and when they know Sidney Crosby will be playing, they'll let us know. He let us know that Crosby will not be playing this weekend. That means at least 2 more games without Crosby.

He has been taking contact in practices and has had no problems, that have been reported at least, but we still have to wait to see Crosby play his first game this season and his first since January 5th.
As Pens fans, we are spoiled. We have had some of the greatest players to ever play the game of hockey on our team throughout the years. Now, our team consists of some of the greatest talent the NHL has to offer. Therefore, we tend to be a little greedy and impatient. We have a strong team without Crosby in the lineup, as is shown by our strong start to the season, however, we also know how scary we can be with all of our players healthy and in the lineup. That knowledge itself is what is making the waiting game for Crosby's return that much more difficult.
We were patient last season and knew he wouldn't return and even knew that he would not start this season but with the anticipation of being cleared to practice with the team and then being cleared for contact, Pens fans have seen the light at the end of the tunnel become brighter and brighter. Now, it is so close, we just all want to reach it so badly. And we will, soon enough. He is returning soon, that's the important thing to focus on. We have to be patient a tad longer, and you know what they say... Good things happen to those who wait.

When will Crosby play?

Most Pens fans have been wondering this week, ok really for months now, when Sidney Crosby would return to the lineup. Suspicion has grown recently because the Pens have had long breaks between games recently and that meant full practices with opportunity for Crosby to take contact. Well, those practices have been taking place and Crosby has taken contact. However, we still don’t know when Crosby will be back in uniform for a game.
Many fans and media outlets have had this Friday’s home game against the Dallas Stars circled on their calendars for Crosby’s likely return. The reasons… first, he’s had those practices with contact and no setbacks or side effects have been reported. For us, that would most likely indicate that he is ready to go. Though, one should not rush recovery from a concussion. Some also believe that this Friday’s date, 11-11-11, would make a great return date and the fact that the game is home is even more of a sign to point to Crosby returning.
While I was thinking Crosby would return this Friday also for some time, now I am not so sure. Every time he has been asked this week, Crosby has been spreading skepticism about playing Friday night. He has been saying he had not planned on it and that he has no date that his is looking at to return. (Also, the significance of the date will not factor into his decision of playing or not he says). The coaches and Pens’ reps have not led anyone to believe of a Friday return either.
That leaves us with two options: Crosby plays Friday night or he doesn’t. I am sure Crosby has not been lying in all those answers he has been giving all week. A concussion is not like other injuries and one never can be sure when one of those symptoms can present itself once again. So, Crosby most likely does not have a date in his mind to return and if he does, he would not share it with the media. A return is likely sooner rather than later though and it is this reason alone that could point to Crosby playing Friday. Surely, no one, not Crosby or the Pens, want anyone looking forward to a designated game that Crosby will play if there is still a chance he will not be able to. Therefore, they may have to dissuade people looking at a certain game on the calendar to not get everyone’s hopes up and have them crashing down. One thing is certain though, in order for Crosby to play Friday he would have to taken off the Injured Reserve list by 5:00p.m. this Friday. So, that date is still circled on everyone’s calendar, but who knows if it will be Crosby’s return or just a date that doesn’t come around too often, 11-11-11.

Since it's Halloween...

Happy Halloween everyone!

It was a more happy Halloween for me because I saw a picture of Geno and Sid at the Pens Halloween party and got a good laugh. If you haven't seen the picture, I am sure you can find it online pretty much anywhere by this point in time, but I am not going to post it due to various reasons. Not quite sure what Geno is from his costume, could be a few options. Sid, though, dressed as a gladiator. Good to see that he had head gear as part of the costume. We want to make sure that he is taking precautions when it comes to his concussion and we don't want any setbacks coming from a Halloween party.

As for Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy, they dressed as Dumb and Dumber with the blue and orange suits that are iconic from the movie. I just wonder which one was dumb and who was dumber?

Now that is a Halloween party I would really love to attend. Maybe I can work on that for next year's party. Happy Halloween!

Crosby not far from returning.

Crosby was cleared for contact a little while ago and it was exciting news for all us Pens fans because we know that that is one step closer to being ready for some game action. Though, with the Pens busy schedule, the captain has not been able to experience much contact since he was cleared because most of the practices have been game-day skates. I would like to think that when our schedule slows down a bit and the Pens are home more, the contact will be coming steadily and practice will become the routine practices and the captain will return soon.
I am not one to jinx anything dealing with the Pens. I don't make predictions on outocmes of Pens games or stats simply because I would think I jinxed the team. I'm the type of person that if a goalie hasn't let a goal in and it's the third period, I don't even dare think about a shutout and as the third period winds down, if someone I am with watching the game mutters anything about a shutout, I give them a glare. I just don't want to take any chances. That being said, I am hesitant to say anything, but I have a feeling Sid will be back soon. Not much of a prediction, I realize that, but I am just anticipating his return and hopefully his gradual process of being the same player he was when he was taken out last January.
When asked about an upcoming break in November from so many steady games and the chance at more practices, Sidney said, "I'm anxious for that for sure but, that being said, there needs to be times and situations and we haven't gotten a lot of those lately with our schedule," Crosby said. "As things go on, we'll get more and more time and hopefully get a better feel for where I'm at as far as contact is concerned." -thn.com

He's not the only one who's anxious.