Line Ups and Wins:

Another injured Penguin:

I know you've all been wondering how PittsburghPenguins.com sets the line-ups for the night's action. Well, they all gather around a Ouija board and ask the Spirits for guidance. Then someone who may or may not have been at the morning skate wanders over, makes a guess, throws darts at a list of the available players, rolls some dice, asks his dog, and then types random names on his keyboard. (a very scientific system) and that's how they come up with the line-up, because asking Therrien is like asking your mother for condoms.... ya just don't do it. (and you wouldn't get any if you did) Now that that's all cleared up, we muddle on.

Marc Andre Fleury will (according to PP.com) be guarding the net tonight in Philthy-delphia when the Pens take on the Phlyers. Pascal Dupuis is still suffering the woes of the 'undisclosed' and couldn't skate the skate, so he won't be playing. So that boosts the Cookie Monster up to the top line (at least to start) to 'muss-up' anyone that looks cross eyed at El Capitan (Hartnell) and Paul Biz-nasty will be slugging it out on the 4th line with Jeffery and God-ling. Biznasty was called back to the Big Show (translation: Team of Tears) today for the third time. Ok Paul, go out there and earn your nickname. Tim Wallace was sent back to the Land of the Little Penguins yesterday, so at least tonight we won't have to hear the 'Polar bear eating the baby moose' story from Error again tonight. (or at least less often)

Flower Related Material: The LA Kinks played the Lightning, and for one reason that has everyone mentioning MAF. It's the first time, since the last time, that the first two picks in a draft (08- Drew Doughty and Steve Stamkos) have played each other since the last time that the Pens Played Carolina. (Fleury was picked ahead of Eric Staal in the 03 draft) This is something that actually happens a bit more often than people pay attention to, so I'm not sure this is news, exactly, but it's a Flower related trivia item. (don't think it's on Trivial Pursuit yet)

Fire and Ice: What do you do if you live in Grimsha Alta. Canadia, and your town's rink burns down? You bulldoze the remains flat and pour some water on the ground and viola', instant rink. Also, without an arena there, why would you need a parking lot? Pour some water on that bad boy too and now you have two rinks. The only problem being, that at -25 degrees it's too cold to paint the lines so the kiddie-teams still have to trek to even more outlying areas to get ice-time. I'm thinking that if there's ever an Outdoor Classic in Alberta we're gonna need hot water heaters for the ice, not chillers.

Updated Babblings:

WOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!! That win deserves a Snoopy Dance!! The Penguins, on goals by Cookie Monster, Staalsy, TK and Geno beat the Philthy Phlyers 4-2. The Tower of Flower Power stopped 27 of 29 shots. Throw in a couple of fights by God-ly and Biz-nasty and we've got ourselves a party! I was reaching for the remote when Flower missplayed the puck and it bounced in front of the net and Knuble knocked it in. Luckily I was overruled(got my hand slapped) and watched the rest of the game. And what a game it was... The team that no lead has been safe with handily kept their lead and the win. The icing on the cake? Hartnell taking a penalty to ice the win for the Pens..... Gotta love it. Did you notice that the rink announcer 'misscalled' Hart-less's diving call in the second? He announced 'roughing' instead of 'diving'. Who was whining about El Sid 'diving' to get a penalty? Who's whining now, Bitch?

Remember, with every win you should:

Good Work is Good to Find:

Diving save for a weird bounce:

There are things about the Canadiens game (they're from Canadia, remember?) that bother me. The effort and the heart of the team are not among them. Despite the 3-2 loss (my wall schedule is using entirely too much purple ink) and the fact that the Pens simply cannot win either two games in a row, or any game on a Saturday (check it yourself) there were very few times during the game where I was thinking 'What the hell are you guys doing?'. Such has not been the case in losses past. Shots were taken, most of the power plays you could see actual effort, there were some breakdowns but the defense looked like it was coming together, and despite allowing three goals Marc Andre Fleury looked pretty solid in the net. And how did Flower look at the loss? "It was not good, but I think we could see that tonight (sat) was different. We definitely played better than the last couple (of home games). We're close. We're close." I think he's right, but it's still going to drive me crazy until 'We're there. We're there'

So, what bothers me about the game, you might ask? Our stalwart FSN reporters are roaming ever so much further from the game actually being played on the ice every time they show up in my living room. Error seems to develop a new man-crush every game or so. Saturday Whitney was the target of his man-lust, describing his body as 'thick' before rambling into a series of unintelligible grunting sounds that I assume were complimentary. He also seems to be something of a man-slut as he hasn't yet given up his crush on Tim Wallace, of the polar bear eating the baby moose fame, mentioning him, his hockey-body and polar bear story several times during one period. Stogie gets my 'Class-less Son Award'.(trademark pending) While I understand his pride in having a mother who both didn't drown him at birth, and has reached a truly honorable age, it's kind of tacky to admit the extent of your mother's time on the planet to the entire viewing public while admiting she told you not to. (I hope she beats him with her cane). Hasn't this woman suffered enough just living with the shame of being Mama Stogie?

On a side-note, Tim Wallace should just never unpack when he's sent back to WBS. He's just getting there when he's called back to da'Burgh because of Godard's bruised leg, or Maximum's hurt tootsies, or Therrien's hangnail or something. Ok, enough of my ranting, let's get on to some news-type stuff.

News Type Stuff: Hal Gill, the human Sequoia, is projecting his return to the line-up for Tues. night's game against the Beantown Bears. I'm not sure as I can believe this, as none of the current line-up as come down with an 'undisclosed' or the Black Plague, or anything. Isn't there some rule this year that there can't be an extra blue liner on the bench?

Scoring Race: El Capitan hasn't quite surrendered the scoring title to Geno yet (after all there are 46 games left in the season) but I don't think it would bother him much if Malkin did beat him out for the title. When asked about The Malk's chances to win Crosby chuckled and said, "They're looking pretty good right now." I would just like someone with a Skating Bird on his chest to win. Selfish of me, I know, but.... so what?

Snow Game?: While I agree that last year's Winter Classic was an absolutely wonderful game, I find myself wondering why someone (Joe Starkey of the Trib) is starting speculation that a Pittsburgh Winter Classic is even a possibility this soon. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool idea. And if the Hockey Gods would smile with the correct weather (cold, but not too cold, and a bit of snow, but never in the eyes), it would be a game to make for Pensaddict stories for ages to come. The NHL (Bettman) hasn't finished riding the wave of last year's WC. It seems highly unlikely that they would even consider giving another outdoor game to Pittsburgh with 26 other teams still looking for their first sniff of the action. But it's still a cool idea, right?

Just Shut Up: Hopefully soon to be mute Cheap Wallpaper Poster-child, Don Cherry, who knows so much about what it takes to win hockey games that he can't get a job actually coaching a team, once again has the perfect answer to any hockey question. The 'Walking Tacky Couch' has deemed that the only thing Sidney Crosby needs to get out of his scoring slump is to quit doing anything else. Evidently he should just give up all his media and fan commitments and that will fix everything. I'm sure Bettman wanted to reach through the screen and strangle him. I know he must be right, because just after he finished speaking El Sid scored a goal and an assist and racked up shot after shot against the Canadiens. I think all that bad dye is going to his brain.

Until next time....

Starving Penguins and Holiday Cheer:

Penguins starved for a goal:

We all know what the holidays are about.... getting presents and stuffing ourselves full of heavy food. Or, maybe that's just my family. Most people use this time of year to reconnect with their families and review the year for things to be thankful that they have. (kind of a 'it could be worse' review) After losing to the TB Sparks the only 2 things Pensaddicts have to be thankful for are that Marc Andre Fleury had a good game and continues to improve, and no one else got hurt. That's about it. The only reason I'm not ranting about the bad officiating in the last couple of games is because the PP isn't all that effective anyway. Even the ever ebullient Tower of Flower Power was really down after the game:

Oh well, holidays are supposed to be a happy time, so let's move on to other things.

Other Things: The Pens have posted on PP.com a new Holiday Greeting with Sid, Geno, MAF, Maximum, Sarge, and others. Other than the 'Happy Holidays from the Penguins' interruptions between each player, it's kind of nice. ( time to tone down the cynicism, a little too much 'Bah! Humbug! in this post) Vid spoiler: Malkin is his adorably goofy self, Maximus tries to be serious but grins at the end of his spot, and Flower gently mangles the English language (it's not actually his language, so he can do that) about 1:43 in.

There, that should get some Holiday Cheer going.
Ex Penguin Stuff: I know that Ryan Malone was a big deal for this team, and this town last year. (no cynicism here) First Burgh born Penguin, home town boy makes good kind of a thing. I know it must be weird for him to play as an opponent in the Arena that he basically grew up watching his dad and Mario and Jags play in. But I think like the absent-minded farmer we've plowed this field before. It should be no surprise that feelings about his return would be mixed, they were. Of course they got a little less mixed when he got into a shoving match with Geno. Two different papers thought we wanted to know more about it (and hey, what do I know? Maybe we do) The Trib, and PPG.com both have stories about Bugsy's return to the Igloo. Tocchet must feel old, hardly anyone mentioned his being a former Penguin at all during the game.
Scrooge News: In the spirit of Christmas giving (cynicism again) Jeff Taffe and Tim Wallace were given plane tickets back to WBS. Unless this is a Waiver avoidance thing, I'm not sure I understand. Wallace has been playing well, and Taffe, while not spectacular, has been filling in some 4th line time adequately. Well, if Ray Scrooge... uh Shero, has any explination he hasn't let it out of his Christmas bag.
Personal Note: I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday, and that includes: Stuffing yourselves, getting good presents and not getting too annoyed by family members you won't see again until next year. Take Care Yinz Guys.

Put Me In Coach! :

The Tower of Flower Power was interviewed for ESPN.com's Peirre LeBrun's blog. It's a small interview, and MAF basically says being injured is frustrating and he's glad to be back in his goalie-suit and the Team's goal: "We came close last season. We got a taste of it. Our goal this year is to finish it." I like the way this guy thinks....

Well, we all know that Marc Andre Fleury didn't play against the Philthy Phlyers on Saturday. Strangely enough quite a few of the Pens that did skate didn't much play either. Let's face it, when Eric Godard is part of your offensive juggernaut you've got some problems. No smackdown on God-ish, that's just not what he does. He's out there to mash apposing players into teeny-tiny little bits, if he scores the occasional goal, all to the good. But let's not dwell on the past (unless it's a win) On with the Shop.

Jeff Taffe and Connor James have been Yo-Yo'ed back to the Baby Pens. (James was only up for two whole days, talk about yo-yo) That says good things about Ziggy and Maximus and leaves Tim Wallace as the lone WBS representative on the offensive front.

Geno remains the League leader in points (49) and is on pace to put up Lemieux-like numbers by the end of the season. El Capitan is right behind his sometimes linemate (44) but still leads him in the All Star Game standings.

Other Penguin Stuff: The Cookie Monster has been embarrassingly nailed by NHL.com and forced to answer silly questions from Dan Rosen on their 'Chillin With.... ' segment. The most interesting things? His favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption and he loves to cook, like from scratch. (so do I) The side-bar story has some recycled comments about how he's one of three players to have played with Crosby and Ovechkin.

Put Me In Coach: I'm sure you've seen the goofy movie reference. There's a guy up in the stands, or selling popcorn, or whatever. A player goes down, and the coach points to him and says, " Suit up." Hokey Hollywood reference? Strange Seinfeld excerpt? No. Brett Leonhardt, website producer for the Washington Crapitals, signed a try-out contract to back up Brent Johnson when Jose' Theodor went down with a hip-flexor injury. Simeon Varlamov was called up from Hershey but since the Bears were on the road, and the plane wouldn't land until game-time, they used Brett as an emergency back-up. (Psst, Therrien! I've got my goalie-gear in my bag if you guys ever need a hand. At the very least I'd have a good seat for the game.) In another strange note: At 6'7" (Sequoia height) if Leonhardt had played he would have tied for the tallest goalie ever to play in the NHL.