Penguins vs. Ducks - Recap

PREGAME:

Hmmm... What do I wear?

I personally like the "Pennsylvania State Champs"

t-shirt, but I'm gonna have to go with the vintage

Lemieux sweater. I also like the red, "Class of 1967"

hat. The "2009 Champions" hat has a terrible fit.

I think I'll go with the blue, mesh with circle logo.

I am attending the game tonight with my brother (Penguins fan and former season ticket holder) and fiancee (converted Penguins fan). I'm psyched that the Penguins are playing in Southern California this year.

The Anaheim Ducks are currently in last place in the Pacific Division. The Pittsburgh Penguins are currently in first place... in the NHL.

Both teams lost their last game. Fleury and Hiller are expected to start in goal. Scratches for the Penguins are Gonchar, Malkin and Talbot. Kennedy will be a game-time decision but Dan Bylsma says that it's likely he'll play.

The Ducks will be without blueliner James Wisniewski. He was suspended for whacking Shane Doan in the head with his forearm (I guess if it was his elbow, there would have been a penalty on the play). Jean-Sebastien Giguere isn't expected to backstop the Ducks with his groin injury.

Former Penguin Ryan Whitney will have to get used to a new defensive partner with Wisniewski out. Erik Christensen, who was traded from the Pens to Atlanta who traded him to Anaheim, was placed on waivers.

Dan Bylsma played for the Ducks, and Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle played for the Penguins.

The puck drops at 10:08pm E.S.T. (did you remember to change your clocks?), give or take a few minutes.

The Game

This is going to be much more like a blog than a recap... It's tough to remember everything since I decided not to take notes and enjoy the experience of the game. I took a bunch of pictures and sent them to Empty Netters. Thanks Seth for posting the shots! Also, thanks to my brother Keith for spotting a bunch of the people and thanks Leyla for taking the shot of me in the Lemieux Yellow.

That's me

Wales Conference

Doesn't the guy in the home

sweater look like TK? It must

be a coincidence that he's

wearing #48...

The first thing I notice when we take our seats is how many Penguins fans there are! We sat in corner seats and were to Hiller's right for two periods. When the players take the ice, a chant rises up from the crowd... "Let's go Pens!" That's right - you read me - let's go Pens!

Crosby's line starts and Staal is centering the second line with Fedotenko and Dupuis. I had hoped he'd be with Cooke and Kennedy since TK is in the lineup.

The first period isn't too exciting. The Ducks score about four minutes into the game. I could actually feel it coming. The Pens were back on their heels and had trouble getting control of the puck and clearing the zone. I didn't get a good look at the goal. All I saw were Penguins' heads watching as Perry wheeled around and fired the puck past Fleury. MAF wasn't screened, he should have had that one.

I got a great look at Pittsburgh's horrible powerplay. Was it really four goose-eggs in the first? Crosby didn't shoot, Goligoski didn't shoot, Letang didn't shoot, Kunitz didn't get in front of the net, Guerin didn't get in front of the net and made some bad passes. Ugh. Crosby had so much room and kept passing to Go-go when he could have skated in on goal and created some garbage opportunity.

I would like to add that the Pens should have had two 5-on-3's. Guerin and Crosby had their sticks broken by slashes on two separate occasions. I'm not complaining about the officiating, I'm just sayin'.

The second was more fun to watch. Cooke and Kennedy got dirty and created a lot of havoc near the net. That created a great chance by Goligoski that had me out of my seat. Then, a few seconds later, Rupp gets a pass from the corner and fires it on net. Hiller got a piece of it but I had an unobstructed view of the puck landing dead center on the ice just behind the goal line. The Pens tie it up!

We get a little action in our end with a Ducks powerplay. After a few gasps, the Penguins kill it off. Then, I thought for sure Crosby had one. He made a nice fake and it looked like the Ducks D and Goalie bought it, but Sid couldn't cash in.

On Letang's go-ahead goal, I heard the crowd moaning before I saw the ref's arm. Fleury goes to the bench and with a 6th attacker, the Pens take the lead. My view was blocked and the red light in the Honda Center is slooooooooow. I knew they scored by half the crowd behind the goal jumping up and cheering.

My brother complains about the seats - all the goals are being scored at the other end of the rink.

When the Ducks tied it up, I thought that the ref's should have blown the whistle. It looked like he had it frozen. I felt like all those players on the ice who are shown on TV looking up at the Jumbotron watching the replay. Perry scores number two by banging in the loose puck. Fleury almost got his left toe on it.

My brother complains about the seats - the Ducks just scored right in front of us.

End of two and the score is 2-2. Jordan Staal is a big guy. So is Ryan Whitney. It's so much fun to go to a Pens game!

Beginning of the third and I tell my brother that if the Penguins win, at least we'll get to see the game winning goal. He says, "that's true, unless they go to overtime."

There seemed like a lot of back and forth there for a while. I notice that Staal is reunited with Cooke and Kennedy. The two kids under 8 behind us won't stop screaming.

The Arena does a great picture game during the TV timeouts. They take a blurry picture of a player and you have to guess who it is. Tonight's winning answer was (B) Joffrey Lupul. They did something similar at Mellon Arena with a silhouette of a player or a shot of them in high school... anyway, the answer that night was Pascal Dupuis - a couple weeks after the trade with Atlanta. I have a feeling that clubs do this to introduce new players to the fans, because the fans can't remember what these guys look like.

Sid lines up for a faceoff.

(Thanks Leyla for taking this pic)

Okay, back to the game...

The Penguins goal is exciting! Cooke, Staal and Kennedy are doing their thing on the cycle. They are just banging away and won't give up on the puck. They keep it moving and keep it in the zone. Kennedy pokes the puck toward the point just before Teemu Selanne got to it. The puck drifts back to Goligoski who wires it over Hiller's blocker.

Just as the announcer says, "Penguin goal," Koivu digs the puck out of a crowd behind the net and jams it past Fleury. I didn't even see it. The crowd erupts in tumultuous applause and cheering. Where did all these Ducks fans come from? They haven't made that much noise yet tonight. Oh well, I sit down and take it.

Not much time passes and the Pens have the puck in the offensive zone. I see a stick lying out there and I say, "someone doesn't have a stick." It's an Anaheim player and it looks like a powerplay out there, but the Pens have a lot more energy. The puck gets out to the point again and Dupuis rifles a shot past Hiller. (It's reminding me of the success the Pens had against Varlamov late in the Pens-Caps series in the spring.)

3 goals in less than 90 seconds? It seemed like less than a minute. Wow! Talk about secondary scoring. Rupp, Letang, Goligoski and Dupuis - gettin' it done.

I was on my feet for the save of the game. Fleury is totally beat and waaaay out of his crease, Crosby in goal for the Pens and stacks the pads to deny Anaheim the tying goal!

There was a lot of action late in the game. The Pens charged up the ice a lot, getting the puck deep. The Ducks had their share of opportunities and made the crowd gasp and groan on several opportunities. When Hiller skated off with :58 to go, I got a little nervous. The Pens held on and it was worth it to the last .6 seconds.

Pens WIN 4-3!!!

The Penguins improve their record to 12-3-0 and tie four other teams for the record by starting the season 7-0 on the road. One of those teams handed Pittsburgh a loss on October 24th, 2009 - the New Jersey Devils. The Devils play their next away game on November 7th, but the Penguins only have to wait until Thursday when they take on the Los Angeles Kings.

I'll be attending that game, too so come back to read my blog that night. It's a lot closer for me too so I'll be able to post my recap earlier. (It took a little over 90 minutes to get home after the Ducks game.)

A shout out to Caitlin and Aaron who tracked me down when they heard someone was taking pictures for Empty Netters. Caitlin writes the SoCal Black and Gold blog. Great meeting you both and see you at the Kings game!

Eric