Red Wings at Penguins - First Period - 01-31-10
FIRST PERIOD
20:00: The game is delayed so Pierre McGuire can delays things with his lame interview with Sidney Crosby. The interview is actually shown on the video board, without sound, and you can hear some booing. Awesome. The Penguins will start with a line of Jordan Staal, Evgeni Malkin and Pascal Dupuis.
19:59: Jordan Staal loses the opening faceoff to Henrik Zetterberg. Imagine that, the Penguins losing a faceoff to the Red Wings.
18:55: The Penguins have a line of Crosby, Bill Guerin and Ruslan Fedotenko on the ice.
18:46: Bill Guerin picks up a puck in the neutral zone, coasts up the left wing, pulls up, gains a little space on Todd Bertuzzi and whips a wrister wide on the near side.
18:42: The third line is comprised of Tyler Kennedy, Matt Cooke and Mark Letestu.
18:08: Tyler Kennedy takes a pass on the right point from Cooke. Kennedy then centers it to Letestu who enters the offensive zone, cuts inside a defender and whips a wrister that appears to get deflected out of play. The fourthline of Nick Johnson, Craig Adams and Mike Rupp takes the ice.
17:56: Rupp chips a puck on net from the left wing. Howard fights it off into the corner.
16:59: Pavel Datsyuk dishes a pass to Niklas Kronwall at the the left point. Kronwall tees up and blasts a slapper wide of the cage.
16:29: On a delayed pnealty, Kris Letang enters the zone with speed, cuts towards the slot, falls to his knees and whips wrister on net. Howard boots it out with his left foot. Play is halted. Datsyuk is nabbed for high sticking Malkin. Crosby, Malkin, Guerin, Sergei Gonchar and Alex Goligoski take the ice.
15:49: Malkin and Guerin collide in the offensive zone. That allows the Red Wings to clear.
14:59: Staal moves up the right wing and forces a centering pass. It gets broken up and Kronwall sanaps it down ice.
14:27: Just as the Datsyuk penalty is killed, Mark Eaton picks up a loose puck at the left point. He snaps it on net. Howard is able to punchi it away with his glove. The Penguins' power play looked awfully unorganized there.
14:03: Zetterberg races up the right wing against Orpik, and flicks a backhande ron net. Gleruy fights it off.
13:40: Brett Lebda backhands a shot on net from the left wing. Fleury boots it out.
12:40: If you can't watch the game where you are click here.
12:28: Crosby steals a puck in the offensive zone and cranks a slapper on net from the left circle. Howard fights it off with a "thud."
12:20: Datsyuk works the puck up the left wing against Goligoski, tees up and blasts a slapper on net which Fleury boots out.
10:51: From the right wing, Kennedy flicks a pass to Letestu in the slot. Letestu enters the zone with speed, gets a step on a defender and snaps off a wrister which Howard appears to get a piece of.
10:44: Goligoski appears to attempt a pass from the left point. It gets deflected on net and is booted out by Howard who is scrambling outside his crease.
10:09: Off a faceoff win, Crosby whips a wrister on net. Howards boots it out.
9:55: Guerin pushes a pass to Fedotenko in the neutral zone. Fedotenko enters the offensive zone along the right wing and lifts a wrister on net. Howard eats it up.
8:08: Guerin coasts into the offesnive zone and from above the right circle, he flicks a wrster on net. Howard deflects it out foly.
8:00: Off a faceoff win, Eaton tosses a wrister on net from the corner. Howard knocks it down and hugs the puck to prevent a rebound. Fedotenko and Guerin are digging for a rebound but Howard's not giving it up.
7:45: Valtteri Filppula is nabbed for hooking Eaton. Guerin, Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar and Goligoski take the ice.
7:29: From the right halfwall, Goligoski snaps off a wrister. Howard lunges out a bit to glove it despite traffic.
7:13: Goligoski snaps off a wrster from the left point. Guerin is moving through the slot on a screen and re-directs the puck. It hops up in the air. Crosby gloves it, puts it on the ice and swats it wide.
6:27: Malkin has a shot deflected and clears down ice by Drew Miller. Miller and Malkin both go the bench and exchange some shoves. Kirk Maltby gets in on the action. Nothing comes of it.
6:05: Eaton snaps off a wrister from the left point. It gets deflected wide on it's way to the net.
5:45: Filppula's penalty is killed. The Penguins looked a lot better that power play but couldn't beat Howard.
5:35: Letang tees off and blasts a slapper from the left half wall. Howard fights it off despite traffic.
5:03: Dupuis chases down a loosep uck in the corner on the left wing. He turns and whips it on net. Howard boots it out.
4:13: The Red Wings move the puck to Jonathan Ericsson at the right point. He uncorks a slapper. Fleury eats it up despite a screen in front.
4:01: Gonchar is nabbed for tripping Datsyuk. Legit call. He had his stick between Datsyuk's legs. Staal,Cooke, Eaton and Jay McKee take the ice.
3:51: Staal intercepts a pass and whips it down ice.
3:23: Off a give and go with Datsyuk, Zetterberg lifts a backhander on net from the right circle. Fleury fights it off. There's a scramble for the rebound which is covered up by one of the 2,932 people in front of the net.
2:53: Letang picks up aloosepuck in the corner, turns and whips it down ice.
2:37: Kronwall pounds a slapper on net from the right point. Fleury eats it up.
2:13: Staal steals another puck, pushes it up the righ twing against Lidstrom and kills time.
2:01: Gonchar's penalty is killed. The Red Wings created a few nice chances there but couldn't solve Fleury.
1:12: What in the world was that?!? The Red WIngs come in off sides. The puck is sliding back towards the Penguins' net. Gonchar and Darren Helm just kind of stare at it like dopes. If Gonchar touches it, Helm can attack him. If Helm touches it, play is halted. Gonchar finally loses the "staring" contest, plays the puck and rushes himself into whipping it off the side of the cage. Fleury and just about everyone else in the building has their hearts skip a beat.
0:29: Kennedy spins in the right circle and whips a soft wrister on net. Howard boots it out with ease.
0:19: Kennedy come from behidn the net, emerges to the left of it, turns and whips a wrister into a few bodies in front. It deflects into the crease and nearly comes to a rest before Brett Lebda clears it into the corner. Good job by Lebda cleaning that up.
0:02: Letestu grabs a loose puck in the right circle, spins and whips it on net. Jason Williams blocks it into the corner.
0:00: End of period. Penguins 0, Red Wings 0.
FIRST INTERMISSION
-Remember how this was hyped as the re-match to end all re-matches. And how this repeat of Stanely Cup finalists would determine the fate of the free world!!!!!
-Hmmm... not quite:
(An EN reader asked us to use their bundle of joy as the "official" EN yawn baby.)
-It wasn't an absolutely dreadful period by any means, it just wasn't what we're used to between these two teams.
-Jimmy Howard was the star of that period. If not for him, the Penguins have a lead.
-To review, these are the new line combinations:
Fedotenko-Crosby-Guerin
Dupuis-Malkin-Staal
Cooke-Letestu-Kennedy
Rupp-Adams-Johnson
-The funny thing was, the third line, even without Staal, was still the best line for the Penguins.
-Fleury was hardly tested.
-It's pretty obvious this isn't the same Red Wings team we're used to.
-The Penguins have a 16-6 lead in shots.
-Letang leads the game with four.
-Zetterberg leads the Red Wings with two.
-Gonchar leads the game with 8:48 of ice time.
-Rafalski leads the Red Wings with 8:22.
-The Red Wings have a 12-8 lead in faceoffs (60 percent).
-Crosby is 6 for 8 (75 percent).
-Helm is 4 for 6 (67 percent).
-Malkin leads the game with two blocked shots.