Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Around the League.

 

Before we get too hung up on the Capitals, lets take a minute to review what the hell is going on with the standings these days…

Eastern Conference

ec331 copy

  • The Devils have lost 5-straight games. As soon as I post about them…they start losing. Wonder what’ll happen to the Caps.
  • Carolina’s been hot. 6 straight wins?! Look out.
  • Florida is still in the hunt sitting in 9th place. They trail Montreal by 1 point, although the Habs have 1 game-in-hand.
  • It would appear that Buffalo has succumb to the pressure, and has given up.  According to sportsclubstats.com the Sabres now have a 14.3% chance of making the playoffs.
  • The Penguins are currently at 98.1% for anyone who’s still worrying. Philly, New Jersey, or Washington. These are the Penguins’ potential first round matchups. (barring catastrophe).

Western Conference

wc331 copy

  • Remember when St. Louis was last in the West? They’re currently in the 8 spot, and they’ve won 5 straight. Do yourself a favor while you’re at SportsClubStats, check out the St. Louis Blues page. For them, every game is paramount.
  • Looks like the Blue Jackets are going to the Playoffs for the first time in franchise history. But they’re not in yet.
  • San Jose has 50 wins. Fifty. 50. Ulysses S. Grant.
    • How much will those 50 wins mean when Thorton chokes in the 1st round?

Quick Stuff:

Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting Pummeler. These guys are so creative, they wrote a hate-anthem for Sidney Crosby.

Now they’ve been jobbed already…So I’m going to leave that to those who are good at it.

ALITP Pt. 3 coming up…The Caps.


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Monday, March 30, 2009

2:25 AM

This post isn’t going to be long…

Or have much (if anything) about the Penguins.

But there’s some new stuff on here.

And more on the way.

Pensomniac has email. Use it.

See the Photoshops? Been Learnin’

I’m proud of the banner. (and Zach Caprese)

There’s also a Pensomniac feed.

I don’t get much traffic…

But I’d like to post some links.

Blogs I like…Stuff like that.

A “blogroll” if you will. (joke)

But Seriously. If you want to have a link on here, just holler.

More Playoff Stuff Soon.

Go Pens.


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Saturday, March 28, 2009

ALITP Pt. 2 The New Jersey Devils

The New Jersey Devils have found their way to the top of the Atlantic Division this season, boasting a record of 47-23-4 for 98pts.

As of this post, they are seated 3rd in the Eastern Conference, although they have 2 games-in-hand on the Washington Capitals (2nd Place/seed).

Just like with the Bruins, Lets take a good look at what New Jersey brings to the table…

Offense

zachcaprese 

Earlier this season there was a lot of talk about Zach Parise being the first Devil to reach 50 goals and 100 points. That talk has quieted down considerably, although the team, and Parise, has been anything but quiet this season.

Parise leads the Devils in points with 42g-47a-89pts

Elias has 30 goals. Langenbrunner 25. Zajac 20. Gionta 18.

gionta 

222 goals for the Devils this season through 74 games. Not only a respectable stat, but they’ll finish with a higher goal total this year than any since the 1999-2000 season when they finished with 251.

Defense

Paul Martin leads New Jersey defensemen in Points with 30. He’s trailed pretty closely by John Oduya(28pts).

Paul Martin +23, John Oduya +23, Mike Mottau +26, and Colin White+23.

Devils Defensemen are playing pretty responsible hockey, managing to chalk up some impressive +/- ratings.

The team has given up 182 goals.

Goaltending

beachbrodeur copy 

With Martin Brodeur in net, [insert team name] has a chance to win the Stanley Cup.

Brodeur has played 23 games going 15-5-3 with 5 shutouts, meanwhile recording a .922 Sv%, 2.18 GAA

He also broke the NHL’s career wins record (Brodeur has 553) and will inevitably break Terry Sawchuk’s shutout record(103)…still a possibility this season with Brodeur only needing 2 shutouts to take it.

Not too shabby, but the real hero in New Jersey is Scott Clemmensen.

25-13-1. 2 Shutouts.

Losing Martin Brodeur early in the season prompted a lot of hockey fans and followers to write-off the Devils. Big Mistake. Clemmensen was no walk in the park to play against. He’ll be an Unrestricted Free Agent this summer; perhaps his stellar play will merit him a starting job elsewhere in the NHL.

Special Teams

The Devils have the 9th lowest PIM/game at 12.9

They’ve taken a total of 318PIM(6th) including 55 major penalties(23rd).

Their Penalty Kill ranks 21st in the League at 80%.

On the Power Play…New Jersey is clicking at a rate of 19.7%, good for 13th in the league.

efliashSo What?

So the New Jersey Devils have an improved offense over recent years, with a potent scorer in Zach Parise, and solid secondary scoring.

How important is Martin Brodeur? Can anyone really know?

He appears to have not missed a step. If he can maintain his health down the stretch…New Jersey is a contender.

Can the Penguins beat the Devils in a best-of-7 series?

The Devils are 3-2 against the Pens, but the Pens are 2-1-2 against the Devils this season. The Pens lost twice in overtime…not the shootout.

This is a dangerous team, but they haven’t seen the Penguins since late January.

The Devils won’t see the Penguins again this season unless the two meet during the playoffs.


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Friday, March 27, 2009

A Look into the Playoffs Pt. 1

 

The Boston Bruins.

They sit atop the heap.  they were the first Eastern Conference team to secure a playoff spot.

Lets take a good look at the Boston Bruins and what they have going on…Want to save yourself some reading? This team has it all. Done.

Offense:

Points: #91 Marc Savard 23g,55a,78p

Goals: #81 Phil Kessel 31g,23a

Second in points is #46 David Krejci(21g,43a), making him not only the 3rd Bruin to be mentioned, but also the third center to be mentioned.

Look for Patrice Bergeron to rediscover himself.

RW Michael Ryder has 25 goals. Remember him? Faceoff BANG goal.

Milan Lucic goes to the net hard and doesn’t take shit from anybody. He also feels the need to prove the latter… frequently.

Along with those guys is a mix of veterans and promising youngsters in Axelsson, Kobasew, Wheeler, and the newly added Recchi.

Defense

The Boston Bruins defense is led by #6 Dennis Wideman. His supporting cast includes Former Penguin Andrew Ference, Steve Montador (newcomer), Aaron Ward, Matt Hunwick,Marc Stuart, and Shane Hnidy. They also have this guy named Zdeno or something.

The Boston Bruins are #1 in Team GGA with 2.26

For real…Wideman’s having a great year. He and Chara can produce points from the blue line.

Goaltending

Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez.

Both of them are having good years. Manny Fernandez hasn’t played in a while and it would appear that Boston is looking for Tim Thomas to carry them through their playoff run.

Special Teams

Boston has the #5 Power Play, 28.0%

Their Penalty Kill is #3, 84.5%

Watched some of the game on Sunday against the Devils…Impressive powerplay.

So What?

The Bruins are 2-1-1 against the Penguins this season.

The cumulative score: 14-12 Bruins.

The Penguins have been able to score on Boston, despite their impressive tandem in goal and tough defense.

It’s also important to note that the 2 wins Boston picked up over Pittsburgh were during the Pens’ midseason slide.

The Pens can beat the Bruins in a 7 game series.

 

 

I need to put pictures in posts. It’s not that I haven’t figured out how to do it, I just haven’t figured out how I’d like to do it.

Took me way too long just to make a banner. Photoshop has changed a lot since 10th grade journalism class.

 

Next: New Jersey Devils

 

Hit the Comments.


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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Coming soon…Photoshops

We’re playing with photoshop right now.

There’ll be plenty of them soon.

 

Moustaches.


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Peaking at the Right Time.

It doesn’t really take more than common sense to understand what is meant by “peak” in terms of a sports team.

Obviously teams have highs and lows throughout the 82-game NHL season, but how important is it to be on a high right before the playoffs?

Let’s take a look at the past 2 seasons and what it’s meant in the recent past to be peaking upon the start of the playoffs.

chBLAOW!

2006/2007

Team Record Last 10 GF Average GA Average Playoff Result
Anaheim 5-3-2    12pts 2.5 2.1 Cup
Buffalo 7-3-0    14pts 3.7 2.8 ECF
Detroit 5-1-4    14pts 2.6 1.4 WCF
Ottawa 6-2-2    14pts 3.9 2.3 Runner Up
Pittsburgh 6-3-1    13pts 2.7 2.3 First Round Exit(FRE)

Shoddy chart right? Through the last 10 games in 06/07; these teams were all decent. The Penguins didn’t fair too well once the Playoffs were underway though…you remember.

Lets move to…

2007/2008

At this point, I began to figure out what I was really looking for. The teams that I found stats for the 2006/7 season, aside from the Pens, were all arguably contenders.

Even if the Penguins are playing phenomenal hockey right now (and they are), they aren’t looking at a top seed. So lets look from a little further away…

Team (seed) Record Last 10 GF Average GA Average Playoff Result
Boston (8) 4-2-4    12pts 2.4 1.9 round 1
Calgary (7) 5-5-0    10pts 2.4 2.6 round 1
Colorado (6) 5-4-1    11pts 3.0 2.9 round 2
Dallas (5) 3-5-2    8pts 3.0 3.0 WCF
Detroit (1) 7-2-1    15pts 3.1 2.3 Cup
Nashville (8) 6-3-1    13pts 2.1 2.1 round 1
NYR (5) 5-1-4    14pts 2.4 1.9 round 2
Ottawa (7) 3-6-1    7pts 3.1 3.6 round 1
Philly (6) 7-2-1    15pts 2.7 2.5 ECF
Pittsburgh (2) 6-3-1    14pts 2.7 2.0 SCF
Washington (3) 9-1-0    18pts 3.0 1.9 round 1

Whoa. So what can be made of this? if anything…

  • Washington was the hottest team (of those listed, at least) through their last 10 regular season games. How’d that go for them? Ovechkin was able to push them past the Canes in  the last week of the regular season last year.
  • Philly peaked at the right time last year. Then the Pens happened to them.
  • Detroit’s entire season looked similar to those numbers.
  • Teams that peak late may earn underserved spots. Washington was able to “sneak” into the third seed last spring because they were the SE division champs…

 

The Penguins are hot now. Can their heat carry them to the cup?

Dupuis-Crosby-Hossa < Kunitz-Crosby-Guerin

Will Malkin vanish in the Playoffs?

Fleury and Garon > Conklin and Osgood?

Pittsburgh vs. Detroit Pt. 2

Count on it.


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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Late Post. 3/18

 

Martin Brodeur officially passed Patrick Roy as the NHL’s all time Wins leader.

Now all he needs is a bitchin’ moustache. (Maybe)

The Devils beat Chicago 3-2. That doesn’t hurt us.

The Rags and Habs drew at 3. douches. Rags in the SO. FU. Neither team winning was particularly good for the Pens, but the worst case scenario went down and both teams got something.

Buffalo and the SENS. Buffalo isn’t out of it yet…but are they? Is Vanek back? what about Miller? they have 12 games left, and are sitting in the 10slot with 76pts. If they were to win out…they’d have 100pts. Unrealistic. 9-3 though. That’s what gets them to 94. If they get healthy and are strong through their remaining games, it’s still to early to tell. They’re quickly finding themselves less and less relevant. F the sens and their jerseys.

Toronto and Tampa are still playing games as well. one of them won. who cares.

Washington took care of biz and shut Florida down for a 3-0 win. Florida is in contention for a spot with the Penguins. I do really like Jay Bouwmeester though; but Crosby likes to burn him like a White Owl behind a Taco Bell. Is Jaybo overrated? I can’t say. Just haven’t seen enough of him to give him a fair assessment.

Philly lost to Detroit. F Detroit. Big time. but still…they were the team we needed to win if we’re still living the pipe dream that we’ll overtake the Flyers in the standings. They have 3 games in hand. They could give us this one, but they’re a good team. Good teams don’t do that. Martin Biron does though, regardless of the team he’s on. It’s possible. but those 3 games could be HUGE for them.

Later today…

Devils vs. Canes. Go Marty! With Brodeur at the helm, the Devils can make a push to challenge the Bruins for tops of the pops. Something about Boston I just don’t like. If the Penguins aren’t #1, it’s a shame someone else has to be.

That game is the eastern conference action tomorrow. Nice. Was hoping it’d be nationally televised…no dice.

 

Coming Soon 

  • Peaking at the Right Time
  • Moustaches (Maybe)

Hit the Comments.

Go Pens.


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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

(3x3)(4x2) Atlanta

Atlanta comes into Pittsburgh tonight in the midst of a franchise record win streak, 6 games, 3 of which they’ve played without Ilya Kovalchuk, one of the best snipers in the game. They’ll be without him for a 4th game…

No Lehtonen tonight either.

This guy has never finished a season below .900 save percentage in his professional career. Jokerit(familiar?)-Present. Solid.

So I attempted to do a game blog before and it was horrendous. This time we’re going to do something a little different.

Intermissions. That’s when I’ll do most of my writing for game.

Is that pathetic? Yeah. Like you were the first few times you rode a bike.

Cut me a break. Jeez.

GAME

First Period

  • Fleury and Moose = starters
  • Malkin isn’t that sick. (illness)
  • Crosby has JUMP tonight.

-About 30 seconds into the game, Gill hits Malkin with a pass to the skates, in traffic. Love it. Atlanta sucks, but they’re still a professional hockey team, with professional players. Come on.

-Crosby makes an incredibly athletic maneuver to slide on his knees, snag the puck, and make a sweet pass, all in one motion. Nobody else is on board the good ship crosby. Guerin misses on the backhand. Not as easy as it looked. Good Call Errey.

-5v3? no. 5v4? for like a second. Holy Gonch. Nice screen Mr. Kunitz. 1-1

-Then Kunitz goes and gets his own. 2-1

SideNoteski:

How good is Bob Errey these days? Can pens fans really want anything more of him? Don’t get me wrong, I was a big fan of Mike Lange, but Bob’s doing more than just getting it done. He’s dominating

.

Second Period

-Kennedy hits Staal in the slot. Staal strikes oil. If this is the staal we can come to expect on a nightly basis? He’s a steal at 4 mil. 3-1

-Dupuis on Hedberg, shorthanded. Good work from the penalty killers. Hedberg is all effort.

-Yet another tripping penalty, Malkin takes his toll. TWICE. As I’m writing this, Malkin burns them a second time. First goal was 4v4. Second one was a PPG. 4-1,5-1.

“We are so blessed with the names on that graphic,” Steigy.

If there wasn’t a Malkin, would you create him?

-It’s 5-2. I must have missed Atlanta’s second goal. My bad. If Atlanta comes back (knocking on wood) I’ll look up when i missed it. otherwise…

-Eaton has a wonderful opportunity…and he’s a defensive defenseman. I love his effort, but his skills…not the right skills.

-one on one all over the place. Entertaining. Staal, Cooke, Staal. nice.

Third Period

-Mark Eaton from Sergei Gonchar. If you picked this before it happened…James Randi wants you. Eaton’s been playing 2-way hockey as of late. good stuff. 6-2

-Malkin on a breakaway…penalty shot. Still 6-2.

-Not much news from this period. I could have added alot, but i chose not to type while eating cheesecake.

Malkin gets the puck, 1 second to go, looking for the HT…passes to Kunitz. That is your MVP ladies and gents. Incredible.

Final: 6-2 Penguins

  • It would appear that we’re seeing the Jordan Staal we’ve been waiting for.
  • Crosby = 100%
  • Kunitz > Hossa
  • Evgeni Malkin gives a good interview. His english…not so good. But it keeps him genuine and candid. I’m not a Crosby hater or anything…but his interviews suck.
  • Did Gonchar have a bad game this weekend? I remember hearing something about that but for some reason I seem to have forgotten.

Seriously though. Atlanta. We needed these points, not because we’re in bad shape points-wise, but rather because it’s Atlanta, and they’re just simply not a very good team, for now.

It’s echoed in every sport, at nearly every level: A good team beats the teams it should.

Sounds like a no-brainer, but we’d be at the top looking down if we’d picked up a few more points against weaker teams.

But that didn’t happen and frankly, it’s not worth dwelling upon. For the time being, the Penguins find themselves in the 5-slot. Not too shabby. Besides that, as Bob Errey noted during tonight’s game, the penguins appear to be peaking at the right time. That’s sure how it seems.

More tomorrow!

Go Pens.


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Missing an Empty Net.

Well…

As I alone know, this has taken entirely too long to get this blog off the ground.

Lots of reasons as to why Pensomniac is today what it was yesterday…nothing…but I’m not going to make excuses.

Had I been ready, there’d be one more Penguins blog to read for those who don’t have enough of them to read already.

Now?

Who knows when I’ll be able to crack the scene.

Tomorrow? Next Season? Never?

Woof.

So here’s what’s going to happen now:

I need to find all my shit. Then get it together.

Go Pens.


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Monday, March 2, 2009

4-1 Penguins over Stars. Not so live edition.

It’s 2:00 in the AM; freshness after a big win.

Perhaps it’s worth mentioning…if the playoffs ended today…

The Pens are in 8th place.

Back to the game.

As far as a recap goes…this is my first one…and a pathetic failure it truly is. As was mentioned last post; this was not going to be a big deal even if I had reached my intended goal.

During the pregame, we were honored to witness a display of technical mastery second only to that of a monkey-shit-fight at the zoo. When i was in middle school, we had a public access news channel. The difference between that and FSN? The 12-year-olds’ channel never cut out. ever.

Middle School Shop Teacher>FSN

FIRST PERIOD

I intend on making some graphics for things like the periods and shit like that. You get to things when you do.

17:00- Nothing to talk about from opening face off until now when the only thing I can really say is that there’s nothing to say.

16:14- Staal and Modano collide in the Pens’ zone. Modano breaks his hip. He wouldn’t be out long.

15:52- 2 on 1, Malkin shoots off of Tobias Stephan’s pads, Staal collects the rebound and buries it. 17th this year.

11:50- F1, F2, F3. When is this going to stop? These are the times that I wish I was connected in the Blogging world enough to ask bloggers elsewhere whether or not they EVER hear their announcers talking about that and the center drive.

Jayvee Broadcasting Crew.  WEATHER

This is where it starts to go downhill for me. The broadcast cuts out and I’m lost. It took a few minutes for it to dawn on me that there’s probably a stream somewhere. Thanks for the link Pensblog. These are the times that i feel like in spite of being a fan my entire life, I’m really out of touch with how to be a good fan.

So I watched online, like I’m sure many others did, during our little blackout.

So you follow that I’m watching the game while it’s not on fsn…Doesn’t mean I’m actually writing anything. FAILURE! What am I to do…get better at this I guess.

So a few more notes…no more recap.

  • Letang’s goal. Where’s that been?! Seen him skate, seen him shoot, seen him hit. Good Player. Haven’t seen that until today. Could Ryan Whitney do that? I can’t say that I think he could.
  • Satan’s goal. Everyone knows that Miro Satan is having a…slightly lackluster season. He’s been hot as of late, but at some point other teams will realize that even as bad as he’s been, you can’t just give him goals.
  • Malkin’s goal. That’s what it looks like when a bad bounce is favorable to the Penguins. Seems like we only ever remember the bad things. Good things come to Penguins sometimes too.
  • Jordan Staal has been phenomenal the past 2 games. It’s a real shame he can’t figure out how to play the wing. He needs to keep this up though…fetch us a nice return Mr. Staal.
  • Kunitz. He’ll do.

So I know nobody’s reading …but I’m going to do what I do.

There’s nothing worth reading yet…but there will be.

Someday? soon.

If you happen to see this…Hit the Comments.

Go Pens.


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Sunday, March 1, 2009

Pens vs Stars...Live and not so live.

Watching the game now...will jot some notes. Nothing big.

Not going to update during the game past this. 13:38 left in the first. Just got back from commercial break. So much for live.

Not so live later.

Go Pens.
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3-1-09 Pens vs Stars

FSN @ 3PM

Love it.

The Stars are 29-25-7 for 65pts and a tie for 10th place in the Western Conference.

Turco is generally having an off-year. He's coming off of 4 straight losses and 2 nights that certainly didn't help his save percentage, with a .778 and a .864, (not too) respectfully.

The Stars' leading scorer is Mike Ribeiro with 15g 41a and 56p. Haven't seen too much of Mike Ribeiro. That said, decent numbers for a setup guy...

Might have something to do with Loui Eriksson and his 27g. It's worth adding that his 27g this season so far are a career high for him.

He's 23. Imagine him in 5 years...




Well I guess that didn't really pertain to anything.



But today's game is big. I know that we're all aware of the Pen's situation and their dire need for points...

At some point, the Pens have to actually leapfrog a few teams if they want to keep their Playoff hopes kicking. Today would be a FINE day for that. Dallas is in the same boat as the Penguins in terms of the playoff picture so you know they'll be desperate coming off 4 losses.



Let's Go Pens!



Note: So I was checking out the Stars' Website... There are things that other NHL teams have that the Pens do not....and probably for good reason.

Planet Tan Ice Girls? Pass.
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Guerin to be Traded from the Isles

TSN reports that the Isles are awaiting Guerin's approval.

So far there's speculation that he's definitely headed to an east coast team, Washington being the most likely destination.

The man has 16g and 20a in 61 games this season.

He's 38 years old.

He's a power forward with a pedigree. Guerin was drafted in 1989, 1st round, 5th overall. In 2001-2002 he scored 41 goals with Boston and has scored 20 or more goals in 11 of his 17 seasons in the NHL.

Could Guerin help the Penguins? Probably...for now.

But let recent history be a lesson to us: Be VERY cautious of signing Isles wingers.

There are all sorts of reasons as to why the Islanders are a few games out of first.

If you made a list of those reasons... and personnel wasn't on it...

Trippin'.
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