Cooke's new mindset.

Well, last night's loss to the Rangers was a tough one. We started catching up, but just couldn't quite reach them as the Rangers went on to win 4-3. The Pens took too many penalties and their penalty kill was not as stellar and consistent as it can be and the Rangers capitalized on some opportunities. Things to address and correct before tomorrow night's game against the Washington Capitals.

Though, after a tough loss, I would now like to direct attention to something positive for the Pens and that would be the play of Matt Cooke so far this season. Matt Cooke has been a player I loved to have on our team in the past, but I will admit, also in the past, there have been times when I wished that Matt Cooke was not a member of the Pens. Some of his hits in the past were dirty and I was tired of the antics and the suspensions and the way it refelcted on the Pens. However, Matt Cooke has made a change to the way he approaches playing and the results so far are pretty great.


NHL.com staff writer Dave Lozo recently wrote an article about how Cooke is a changed player and the link is available above by clicking on the title of the post.

It was last season's elbow hit to the head of Ryan McDonagh, a Rangers defenseman, and the suspension that ended up lasting 17 games that made Cooke truly evaluate his style of play and change his ways. He spent that suspension and the summer watching video of himself and vowing that he would be a different player. So far, Cooke has delivered. He only has four minor penalties so far this season and his scoring output is on track for a career high. He is leading the team for blocked shots among forwards and only has 32 hits.

Now, this is a change that needs to be carried through because one wrong move or hit and we know that the suspension that would follow would be a monumental one this season. Whether he had a good start to the season or not. He'll have the label of his dirty hits for quite a while.

I am happy to see Cooke acknowledge that his style of game needed to change as he saw the risk in his appraoch and now has made some changes for the better. I would love to see hits to the head completely eliminated, but things happen in such a fast-paced game. Until that happens, I'm just glad that Cooke is consciously doing his best to try and avoid from delivering those hits.

Pens face Rangers tonight.

First off, the Penguins have recalled two defensemen, Alex Picard and Robert Bortuzzo. This is due to the fact that Kris Letang and Zbynek Michalek are coming back to Pittsburgh to be further evaluated.


Tonight's game will be a good test for the Pens. The Rangers have won six straight at home and have won 9 of their past 11 games. The Rangers are behind the Pens in the Atlantic Division creeping up on us. Brad Richards, newly acquired this offseason, has been finding his rhythm lately and now has 8 goals for the season and presents that offensive threat. The Rangers have been a hot team lately and tonight's game should be a good one between the Pens and Rangers.

Sid's comeback was great and all, but...

Tom Thompson of The Hockey News wrote a column about Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux returning to hockey and it's a story you should check out. The link is available above. (Just click on the title of this blog post.)

It was over a week ago that Sidney Crosby returned to the lineup and most eyes were on that return. The media coverage was closer to the coverage deep in the NHL playoffs and the speculation before and after the game could only be reserved for Sidney Crosby. I don't believe that any other player would garner that much attention. Though, it wasn't the biggest return we have seen. Not just as NHL fans, but Pens fans have had a memorable return in the past. Mario Lemieux's return to the game coming out of retirement was the biggest return Pens fans have witnessed.

Not only did it bring a bigger rating on tv locally than Crosby's recent return, Lemieux's return to the game of hockey was more of a surprise than Crosby's eventual return. Sidney had press conferences, updates, clearing for contact, practices and the questioning was relentless leading up to the announcement that Crosby would play last Monday night.
On the other hand, Lemieux had retired and therefore did not have daily access to the media and the constant questioning. Lemieux had kept his return quiet and when he was seen skating with Jay Caufield, there was some questioning but no one knew for sure and who would guess that after so much in his career and surgeries and pain that Lemieux would be returning. Therefore, Lemieux's return was a surprise. It was one of the greatest players in NHL history, in my opinion the best player, returning to the game of hockey. Gone for a few years and returning to marvel us all again was truly one of the best things to happen to the game of hockey and I don't know that anything could reach Lemieux's return to hockey again.

What a busy day!

Well, it's been a busy first week back for Sidney Crosby and it was a busy day in the NHL today for coaches, and not the good kind of busy for some coaches.
First of all though, let's talk about Sidney Crosby. He has been back for 4 games now and has been doing a pretty great job after missing such a long time. Such a great job in fact, that he was named the first star of the week in the NHL. He has put up 9 points in those first four games and specualtion has already begun on whether he can take over the points column. It's a tad too early for that in my opinion, but I would be happy to see him try his best at it. Though, you never expect anything but Crosby's best when he is playing. Why do you think he had such a long recovery? He wanted to be sure he could play at his best upon his return.

The Pens are off to a great start, leading the NHL currently and with the addition of Crosby back in the lineup, I am sure the Pens are not a team a lot of other teams want to face. Which means that Dan Bylsma is doing a great job as coach, but that's not the case for two other Eastern Conference teams today. Bruce Boudreau, the Washington Capitals coach and Paul Maurice, the coach of the Carolina Hurricanes were both fired today. Boudreau was replaced by Dale Hunter and Maurice was replaced by Kirk Muller. Both teams have not been performing as well as some would expect and stars on those teams have also been suffering so far this season with mediocre starts. We'll have to wait and see what these coaching changes do for these teams.



To change subject, I read a great feature on Marc Andre Fleury last week on thn.com by Ryan Kennedy that was a great read. Here's a link to the article for you to check it out. http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/43125-Kennedy-Can-Fleury-catch-Brodeurs-win-total.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=thn_daily_20111126

The column is about whether or not Fleury can catch Martin Brodeur's records and gives a good case as to why our top netminder is capable of doing just that!

Crosby returns and does fairly well in first game.

Obviously, Sidney Crosby did better than just fairly well in his return to the Pens lineup. Someone I know called that he was going to get 4 points and this same person also predicted that Steve Sullivan would score last night. Good predictions.
Crosby scored two goals and earned two assists in last night's 5-0 win against the Islanders. In fact, his first shot of the night turned into his first goal. I'd say that is a pretty good return, pretty decent. Of course, I am being sarcastic. Only Sidney Crosby would come back from missing ten months of hockey and have such a spectacular night. Just how lucky are we as Pens fans? Well, last night's game showed us just how lucky we are.
Though, I can't wait to see the Pens against a bit of a better team than the Islanders since they are having their struggles this season.
We'll get a chance to see the team against the St. Louis Blues tomorrow night.

There was a topic brought up on several occasions, once in Crosby's press conference last night and I heard some chatter on the radio as well about the topic also. The topic was about Sidney Crosby's reaction after his first goal in last night's game. Not just the excitement but for a certain word Crosby said after scoring. Crosby said he hoped people at home were not lip reading because he happened to say a bad word, but why are people so surprised? It was good to see him happy, that's for sure and I could not care less what he muttered after that goal. People are acting as if they have never heard him say the word or in this case, see him say the word. That's how you know a lot of occasional Pens fans were watching took note. I've read that word from Crosby's mouth too many times to count. I think he earned the right to say the word after scoring last night and a lot of other times too.

It's exciting to see Crosby back and to see him do so well in his first game. The talk of the scoring race and Sid's potential of winning it is already taking place just after last night's game. Well, I don't make predictions and I tend not to think so prematurely on such things. We will just have to wait and see what happens, but I am just happy to watch Pens games like last night's game and hope they keep coming.

Pens host Islanders tonight.

The Pens have Sidney Crosby coming back and the Islanders have a player making their NHL debut tonight. It is their goalie, Nilsson. The Islanders have been plagued with some injured goaltenders quite a bit over the past few seasons and that is due in large part to Rick Dipietro pretty much always being injured and I don't need to remind any of you what happened to him last season after Brent Johnson landed a punch. Dipietro and the Islanders signed a 15 year deal years ago and that has got to be one of the biggest mistakes, he has barely even played with all he has been through.

Well, anyways, with Michalek returning as well to the lineup tonight, the defense pairings are different and Picard will be sitting tonight's game out and here are the matchups:
Martin-Michalek
Orpik-Letang
Niskanen-Engelland

Crosby will be joining his former line along with Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz. Here are the lines from today's morning skate:
Sullivan-Malkin-Neal
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Asham-Park-Adams

All in all, there are a few things that have me excited for tonight's game and this game has the potential to be a good one and I hope it is. Don't want to disappoint all the people watching just for Crosby's return. Let's give them a show!

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!