Tale of the Tape and TFP:

Cookie's advice on his former team-mate's shoot out proclivities must have paid off at least a little bit. The Tower of Flower Power stoned all three of the Crapitals efforts in the SO. That meant that we didn't even have to find out who Coach Dan had in mind for the third Pen (in my humble, yet all knowing opinion: Geno). Marc Andre Fleury actually set up Sid's goal by re-directing the puck to Brooksie who then racked it down the boards. Flower made some excellent saves, but a bad pass by Le-tank led to the first goal by Semin (I still think that's a male body fluid) and a bad change later led to a break-away goal by Laich (how is that 'like'?) that tied the game. O'retchkin's goal was just a rocket shot that I still say bounced off Sarge's back to get behind MAF. But the Flower stopped 29-32 to get the SO win even though the Pen's shot total (22) was a bit down from the last few games.

We Win, You Lose, Pthththth: El Capitan, Sidney Crosby scored the first goal of the game, and had the only goal in the shoot out as the Penguins beat O'retchkin and the Capitals for the only time this year. Billy Guerin (my new favorite former Islander, sorry Satan) had a beautiful toe-drag goal and 2 assists and Sarge gave his new daughter a PP goal as a birthday present. Despite some shaky (shady?) officiating in the first period and a couple of mental errors the Pens played their own game for the most part and especially for the first two periods dictated the game to the Craps. BIG momentum shift in the third with Washington scoring 2 in the first 1:18, but the guys held on, weathered the storm, plugged the dyke,(uhh... nevermind) whatever you want to call it, and Flower blocked the other 10 shots to keep them going.

Tale of the Tape: Firstly, I believe this year that watching the standings day-to-day is going to drive me crazy. The Pens started out the day in 9th in the Conference and at the end of regulation tied the 'Canes for 8th but with the win jumped to 7th (or a 3-way tie for 5th depending on how you look at it), but if the Habs win they'll jump to 5th and drop the Pens to 8th. Right now, someone sneezing at the wrong time could decide who's in or out. The Incredible Malk is still tops in scoring (94) and in assists (65) and is always in the conversation when talking about League MVP. Croz is 2 points out of 2nd in scoring (92) and second in assists (57). These stats don't seem to move around as quickly as the Play-off race, so I'm going to start checking them instead.