The Confluence
Next entry: ‘Will to win’ drove Penguins fan’s recovery
Previous entry: Penguins’ Goligoski out 2-3 weeks with lower-body injury
Penguins down Ducks 5-2: Talbot returns Thursday ?
by Tony on 11/16/09 at 10:38 PM ET
Comments (4)
The Penguins are down four of their starting six defensemen, but their replacements performed just about as well as could be expected in a 5-2 win over a sloppy Anaheim squad at the Igloo.
Matt Cooke had two goals for the Pens, while Jordan Staal notched his 9th career short-handed goal. Marc-Andre Fleury saved 23 of 25 shots on net.
In addition to the win, the Pens may receive an extra boost Thursday night in Ottawa, as Max Talbot told PensTV’s Sam Kasan tonight that he is hoping to return to the lineup in time for the Senators’ game.
As previously mentioned, not the best played game of all time by any stretch of the imagination. The official scorer awarded 12 total giveaways (7 for the Ducks, 5 for the Pens), but I believe that’s a pretty conservative number.
The Pens took advantage of the Ducks’ sloppiness early in the game when Ryan Getzlaf made a bad turnover in his own zone. Matt Cooke grabbed the loose puck in the slot and fired a backhanded wrister that appeared to glance off Getzlaf and past Jean-Sebastien Giguere to give the Pens a 1-0 lead at the 1:31 mark.
The biggest play of the night ?? My money’s on the Penguins’ powerplay, who scored with the man advantage for the first time since the Harding administration (OK, 30 powerplays). To make it even sweeter, they scored on a play that they’ve rarely been able to score on, a one-time slapper in the slot by Bill Guerin, off a feed from Sidney Crosby. That made it 2-0 Penguins only 5:13 into the game.
Give the Ducks credit, they hung in there despite their poor play, and even took advantage of a terrible Pens’ line change when Todd Marchant was able to beat Marc-Andre Fleury short-handed to cut the Pens’ lead to 2-1.
It remained that way until the Ducks were on a powerplay of their own, before Jordan Staal took a feed from Deryk Engelland after another Ducks turnover and beat Giguere short-handed, making it 3-1 Pens.
The Pens’ lead increased to 4-1 early in the third period when Martin Skoula used a nice screen from Mike Rupp and fired a slapper from the left point that Giguere didn’t see until it was too late and into the net.
Teemu Selanne scored on a one-timer that actually bounced then went over Fleury’s shoulder to cut the lead to 4-2, but Matt Cooke empty netter in the waning seconds gave the Pens the final score of 5-2 and the win.
Notes:
- Did I actually hear Penguins fans booing Ryan Whitney ?? Come on people. I was as big a Whitney critic as anyone, but he certainly didn’t deserve boos.
- I think a lot of people underestimate the offensive skills of Mark Eaton. Sergei Gonchar will be back soon, but in the meantime Eaton certainly held his own on the 1st powerplay unit.
- Chris Bourque, who is currently under the wrath of the Pensblog, had about 37 prime scoring chances tonight, but couldn’t light the lamp. [ Maybe a bit of an exaggeration.]
- Staal, Eaton and Engelland were all +3.
- The Pens’ powerplay did finally score, but overall still went 1-for-7.
- Nice game in the faceoff circle for Mark Letestu, who went 6-for-8.
- Hey guess what: Jay McKee led the Pens in blocked shots with five.
- Six hits for Cooke.
- Eaton easily led the Pens in icetime with 27:09.
As previously mentioned, the Penguins will now head to Ottawa for a matchup on Thursday night.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: Anaheim+Ducks, NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
Comments
Is our defense really that deep or did we get lucky? Cus that was a great game with our 7th defenseman and 4 AHLers playing.
Posted by Kstewy16 on 11/17/09 at 09:40 AM ET
Well, it’s only one game, but I didn’t see any horrendous mistakes…. Seems as though they play good positional defense…. Remember that both Engelland and Guenin were in the running for 7th defenseman until they signed Skoula…
Posted by Tony from Virginia Beach, VA on 11/17/09 at 09:49 AM ET
I’m not sure if that was a good team win, or if they was just beat a very tired. underachieving bad Ducks team.
Either way , a win is a win is a win. Oh yeah it’s also 2 points. 
Posted by Lindas1st from New England on 11/17/09 at 02:41 PM ET
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
Most Recent Blog Posts
Turn Out The Lights, The Party’s Over: I’m Stepping Down
Bill Cowher’s Daughter to Marry Kevin Westgarth
Penguins Sign Forward Steve MacIntyre
Penguins Re-Sign Forward Dustin Jeffrey to Two-Year Deal
Crosby Donation Leads To Renovation at Children’s Hospital
About Kukla’s Korner
Kukla’s Korner is updated around the clock with the work of our own talented bloggers, plus links to the best hockey writing around the internet. We strive to bring you all the breaking hockey news as it happens.
The home page allows you to see the latest postings from every blog on the site. Subscribe here. For general inquiries and more, please contact us anytime.
Get the top online sports betting bonuses available to sports betters!
When learning from experts it’s best to learn personally from them, or from their blog. We can provide that with poker lessons blog, your home to learn poker personally.
Do you get shocked from the luck in the game of poker? Stop getting shocked and start being a Poker Shoker.
As well as reading about hockey games, you can also find info about poker like which poker sites accept American Express or which are the best Canadian poker sites and also find the top rakeback sites at rakeback.net.
Kukla’s Korner is always a free service for readers, but it costs some money to maintain. If you’re ever in a position to donate a few dollars to help out, we’d be very appreciative.
It’s good to see Eaton coming into his own. I guess when you’re a defensive defenseman you fly under the radar. This is the same situation as with Therrien’s success (before dismissal)...a lot of the guys shipped up from Wilkes Barre were coached by Bylsma so it’s more or less just replacing a cog in the machine. It’s good that they get nhl ice time and it’s good that they contribute to help the team win but it’s bad that the injuries keep rotating in the roster especially the defense and strong defensive forwards (Kunitz).
It wouldn’t be THAT bad to lose Fleury to injury as most nights Johnston plays well and the Pens aren’t giving up Atlanta-esque shot totals with all the blocking. In retrospect…it’s probably the shot blocking that’s causing all these injuries.
Posted by stoneman from vegas on 11/16/09 at 11:44 PM ET