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Crosby’s OT goal gives Penguins much-needed 4-3 win over Sabres

by Tony on 12/22/08 at 10:35 PM ET
Comments (9)

What would hockey bloggers today do without Sidney Crosby to kick around ??  You name it, from HCMT misquotes ("It’s Sidney’s team” when he really said “We’ll see next game") to NHL double standards on his recent bruhaa vs. Atlanta, one thing’s for sure; You draft an article discussing anything Crosby-related, you’re gonna get a lot of website hits, and you’re gonna get a lot of opinions.

Well, tonight’s game vs. the Sabres at HSBC will undoubtedly give the Crosby-haters (and you know who you are) another reason to spew their hatred.

Crosby’s controversial deflection goal of an Evgeni Malkin knuckleball one-timer in overtime gave the Penguins a much-needed 4-3 win over the Sabres.  Crosby’s bunt-like deflection was periously close to the crossbar height, but after replay the officals said the puck was not deflected with a high stick, and the Penguins got the win.

What did I think of the call ??  You’ll have to click below to find out.

I try to be objective when I type these, so let me admit right up front:  I thought it was a bad call.  I thought Crosby’s stick was a good 6 inches over the crossbar.  So the Penguins got the call this time.  They’ve been on the wrong end of these plenty of times.

Anyway, as I said, it was a win the Pens needed desparately, especially at the start of a busy week.  Now they can head home to the Igloo tomorrow night vs. Tampa with some momentum.

Marc-Andre Fleury was decent in goal tonight for the Pens, stopping 32 of 35 shots.  He made some excellent saves in the first period, when the Sabres were really applying their best pressure of the game.

It didn’t start well at all for Fleury and the Pens, as the Sabres got the fortunate bounce of the puck exactly one minute into the game when Daniel Paille’s wrister from the right point deflected off the skate of a Penguins’ defenseman and past Fleury to make it 1-0 Sabres.

They doubled their lead about minutes into the second period on the first of two bad defensive lapses when Ales Kotalik grabbed a loose puck at the Pens’ blueline with Mark Eaton behind him.  Kotalik skated in on Fleury and fired a wrister past him making it 2-0 Sabres.

The Penguins got right back in the game not even a minute later when Brooks Oprik fired a nice outlet pass down to the Sabres’ blueline to Miro Satan, who made an equally nice backhanded centering pass to Pascal Dupuis.  Dupuis settled the puck down, then poked a shot to the top shelf past Sabres’ goalie Ryan Miller to make it 2-1 Sabres.

They tied the game at two when Malkin made a cross-ice pass to Alex Goligoski at the left point.  Goligoski’s wrister to the passed through both Petr Sykora’s and Ruslan Fedotenko’s stick and squirted through Miller’s five hole.  I could’ve sworn the puck his Sykora’s stick, but the goal was credited to Goligoski.

The Sabres retook the lead with about five minutes left in the second period when on the powerplay Kotalk’s slapper was stopped by Fleury, but Clarke MacArthur was there completely all alone to corral the rebound and poke it home to make it 3-2 Sabres.

It remained that was until there was about nine minutes remaining in the game when amazingly the Penguins got their first powerplay of the game.  It was about 40 seconds into the powerplay when Goligoski got the puck at center point and calmly fired a hard wrister that eluded Miller to tie the game at three.

The score remained that way until overtime, when Goligoski skated the puck into the Sabres’ zone and down the left boards.  He fired the puck cross-ice to Malkin, who didn’t get a lot on the puck but got enough to get it to the net, where Crosby was waiting to bunt the puck into the net to give the Penguins the win.

Other notes:
- The Versus production was terrible.  The cameras were missing plays left and right.
- The “fight” in the second period between Andrew Peters and Eric Godard may go down as the Lamest Fight of the Year.  Absolutely no punches thrown by either man, and ended when Peters wrestled Godard to the ground.
- Another big night for Malkin:  3 points and another +3 to pad his NHL leads.
- Matt Cooke, Max Talbot, and Jordan Staal were all -2.
- Crosby went 16-7 on faceoffs tonight.

As mentioned, the Penguins will now head home to face the Lightning in what should be the return of Ryan Whitney.

Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: Buffalo+Sabres, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,

Comments

the stick might have been over the bar 6 inches, but what about WHERE the puck hit the stick?  from the angles they had on Versus, too tough to overturn.

Posted by Derek on 12/22/08 at 10:50 PM ET

Let’s face the facts, the NHL would never over rule after all gold boy Crosby scored the goal. If anybody else but Crosby did that it’s rule no goal 100% of the time.

Posted by Crosby Sucks on 12/22/08 at 10:57 PM ET

Yeah Derek, I realize that.... It just looked high to me, but glad the Pens got the win, they needed the two points…

Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 12/22/08 at 11:06 PM ET

To me and a few others I have shown the replay to, this play is no goal. The NHL got it 100% wrong. When the puck hits Crosby’s stick, the stick is horizontal to Crosby’s shoulders. Sure it may have hit his stick lower near the blade, and his stick may have at some point, angled downward, but when the puck hits the stick, the stick is above the crossbar. That being said, I don’t think for a second the NHL gave this goal to the Penguins because it was Crosby, I think it is because the NHL is terrible at making close calls like this. Sure they make the right call most of the time, but they make the wrong call far to often, and in cases like this it is inexcusable.

Posted by Sp4r7an on 12/23/08 at 02:29 AM ET

No goal. But close enough you can’t blame the ref/review booth/Toronto for lack of trying. If it was called a goal on the ice, I’ve got no problem with them feeling like they couldn’t overturn it.

Posted by Nathan on 12/23/08 at 08:47 AM ET

You all do realize what the NHL rule states?

‘The determining factor is where the puck makes contact with the stick. If the puck makes contact with the stick below the level of the crossbar and enters the goal, this goal shall be allowed. ‘

Down near the blade where the puck made contact, it’s damn near parallel.  He MIGHT be just a bit high, but it’s not enough to over turn it.  As a referee, when in doubt you have to give the goal and if there is absolute conclusive evidence that it was not a goal, then you over-turn it.  You can dissect it 100 times, but there are absolutely ZERO camera angles that can tell exactly where the portion of the stick that struck the puck is in relationship to the crossbar.  It might be over, it might be absloutely parallel. 

Right call on the ice.  Right call on the replay.  I don’t care who scores that goal, it should be a goal every time.

Posted by Stilly from Harrisburg, PA on 12/23/08 at 09:21 AM ET

This one was too close to call so the on-ice officials call has to stand. Unfortunatley, no one knew what the official decided on the ice, it looked like he went straight to the phone. Can we at least get the official to make a call BEFORE going upstairs so that we can determine if it is going to be definitively over turned or not.

However, this wasn’ t the worst call of the night or the deciding call by the officials. How can a Sabre in possession of the puck be punched in the face with no call and then just two minutes later the Sabres be called for roughing under the same exact circumstances? That lead to the game tying goal by the Pens on the PP. It should never have gon to OT in the first place.

Posted by Hockey1919 from Montreal on 12/23/08 at 09:43 AM ET

You all do realize what the NHL rule states?

No need to patronize, I think we all understand the rule.

Like I said, if you ask me my opinion, on whether or not it is a goal, then no, I think the puck deflects off his stick above the crossbar.

If you ask me if I were an official, making the call within the rules requiring absolute conclusive evidence to overturn—then I’d let the goal stand.

Posted by Nathan on 12/23/08 at 10:04 AM ET

I hear you Nate.  That wasn’t so much directed to you as it was toward the NHL favors Crosby conspiracies.  I don’t see you wearing a tinfoil hat. haha.

Posted by Stilly from Harrisburg, PA on 12/23/08 at 10:25 AM ET

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Welcome to The Confluence, a Pittsburgh Penguins blog since 2006.  Originally at Blogspot, then at MVN, The Confluence has over 1000 articles reporting Penguins news as well as jumping on my soapbox to opine constructive Penguins criticism.  My posts are regularly linked by hockey websites such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Empty Netters and Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy, and I’ve done guest blogger spots on such websites as the New York Times.  I invite you to spend a little time and peruse the archives at all of the sites for some of my better work.  I am a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer, but don’t confuse me with my fellow Chief at A2Y.

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