First Period
Pens got an early power play as Marty Reasoner went to the box for holding Craig Adams. They wasted no time. Sid lost the draw, but held in the clearing attempt. He found Neal. See ya. 1-0
Neal quietly has 6 goals on the season. Sid gets his 10 assist and is only 5 points behind Vanek, who has been lighting the world on fire, for the league lead in points.
A couple minutes later, Sid made the Isles look stupid, drove to the net and had a nice little backhander that slipped through Nabokov. Andy MacDonald threw himself into the crease and swept the puck off of the goal line and away to safety.
A little later on, Boychuk entered the zone with Malkin and Neal. Instead of forcing a pass to either of them, he dropped it off to Bortuzzo coming late. Bobby B just rang a wicked shot off the post.
Isles would get their first of 7 power plays just shortly after as Adams got called for interference. MAF would answer the call by robbing Tavares.
After the kill, Sid threw Colin McDonald with one hand, then Despres tripped up Casey Cizikis. Back to work.
MAF was huge again. Made a save on Moulson, whistle blew, and Tavares put the puck in. Things started getting chippy after that.
After that kill, Pens had an offensive zone faceoff. Tanner Glass was talking to Colin McDonald, mostly because McDonald got suspended for boarding Ben Lovejoy. Puck dropped and so did the gloves, except Matt Martin stepped in for McDonald instead.
Solid scrap with only 14 seconds left in the period. Period over, right? Wrong. Neal took a roughing with 5 seconds left.
Second Period
Islanders would start the second up a man with a fresh sheet of ice. But again, the killers and MAF would stand tall. Grabner had the best chance because he's too damn fast. He found a seam, split the D, got the pass, and was in for a mini-breakaway. MAF'd.
Neal got out of the box and immediately drew a penalty as Hamonic interfered with him. On the power play, this happened:
Puck deflected up off Brian Strait's stick and caught Sid right in the nose.
And of course, the always classy Islander fans cheered for Sid being down and started chanting "Crosby sucks!" The kid would come back about 4 minutes later.
Not too much else happened after that, then Despres would take his 2nd penalty of the night, this time for interference. Pens killed it.
Right after that kill, Kunitz would head to the box for tripping. Bad penalty to take. It was kind of a slew foot. On the delayed penalty, well, we have no words. Just watch:
Flower would stop Grabner from point blank on that kill.
Another minute passed after that kill and Neal would head to the box for hooking. Tavares found a hole in the box and slid it across to Nielsen, but Fleury got across the make the great save. Huge save.
After that kill, Despres would have the best shift of his life. He laid a big hit on Jokeposo down low, Pens got the puck, Letang found Kunitz. Kunitz dropped it off to Despres coming late, who just wired one from the high slot. Goal time. 2-0
Errey saying "shit and relish." Yeesh. Despres probably only scored that because he's more French than Canadian.
"Give me a chance in the slot and I'll bury it." - Simon Despres - 7/14/10
Period would end with the Pens on the PP for about a minute.
Third Period
Nothing happened on the power play because the Pens had scored their one PPG of the game. Didn't matter because 44 seconds after the penalty to Brian Strait expired, Cooke and Sutter would come down on a 2 on 1. Cooke found Sutter, who found the back of the net. 3-0. Sutter: 2. Jordan Staal: 1
A minute and a half later, you had that "oh fuck" moment. Somehow the Isles scored. Despres made 2 great plays on Okposo, but somehow he got the puck to Grabner. 3-1.
Then, just like that, Boyes scored 30 seconds later. 3-2. Aaaaaand we have ourselves a game. Only mistake the Pens D really made all game, too. MAF made the save, but Orpik and Martin just couldn't clear the rebound.
Bylsma called his timeout right after that. Good call.
Pens had a few decent chances, Errey called Cooke "Kook," and Sutter had a huge play in the slot.
Then Letang got pissed because Grabner is faster than him and smashed him along the boards and may have punched him in the mouth.
Isles got their 7th PP of the game midway through the period as Kunitz would get called for interference. We all had that feeling in our stomachs that this would be the one and the shitty Islanders would be coming back from 3-0 down.
Isles pulled Nabby with under a minute to go. Somewhere right before that, Sid made Hamonic look stupid behind the net. Martin made a great play on Tavares 1 on 1 and found Dupuis for the ENG. 4-2. Game.
Highlights are here.
Notes:
1) Letang and Martin led the Pens in ice time with 25 plus minutes each. Tyler Kennedy led the team in time not on the ice, so that's kind of sweet.
2) Martin and Orpik still have yet to take a penalty this season.
3) Pens were very physical tonight. That needs to happen against speedy teams like the Islanders.
4) Despres reminds us of Ben Lovejoy, except the exact opposite. Derps made some mistakes, but those are just growing pains. Just a delight to watch him grow in front of our eyes. His shift that he scored on was so €€€€€€€€€€.
5) Another solid defensive effort all around too. We could really get used to this. And when Nisky comes back? Look out.
6) A pile of dog shit is more useful than TK. It's got to be time for Dustin Jeffrey to be back in the line up. DJ can play on any of the top 3 lines. He played well with Malkin and Neal. Maybe give Boychuk a look on the top line with Sid and Kunitz and let Dupuis play with Sutter and Cooke. Who cares, just get TK off the ice, unless he's only playing to get his trade value up. No clue. Just rambling at this point.
7) This team is going to be scary once Geno starts playing like Geno again. Not going to open that can of worms, but he's just looked kind of flat so far. Give it time.
8) Watch the Chicago Blackhawks if you get a chance. Pens/Hawks in the Cup Finals could be the most entertaining 7 games ever. Ever.
Pens host the Caps Thursday at 7. Go Pens.
No comments:
Post a Comment