Penguins at Flyers - 10-16-10
PREGAME
{youtube width="480" height="295"}l1wZ05sD6yw{/youtube}
-Apologies for being late with this. We've had some computer issues and pretty much missed the first period.
-Surprisingly, Brent Johnson gets the start in net.
-The Penguins' other starters are Matt Cooke, Maxime Talbot, Tyler Kennedy at forward, Alex Goligoski and Deryk Engelland on defense.
-Their scratches are Zbynek Michalek, Craig Adams and Brook Orpik.
-The Flyers' starters are Daniel Briere, Scott Hartnell, Ville Leino at forward, Andrej Meszaros, Sean O'Donnell on defense and Sergei Bobrovsky in goal.
-Their scratches are Oskars Bartulis, Matt Walker and Daniel Carcillo.
FIRST PERIOD
13:17: Daniel Briere scores off assists from Jeff Carter and Mike Richards. Flyers 1-0.
{youtube width="480" height="385"}Dk7veyXEsLY{/youtube}
8:29: Chris Kunitz ties it off an assist from Sidney Crosby. Flyers 1, Penguin 1.
4:00: At some point, Bob Errey references Maxime Talbot's first career goal:
{youtube height="385"}BaJpm8OUv-Y{/youtube}
0:00: End of period. Flyers 1, Penguins 1.
FIRST INTERMISSION
-The Penguins lead in shots, 11-8.
-Kunitz leads the game with three shots.
-Matt Carle and Ville Leino each lead the Flyers with two.
-Paul Martin leads the game with 8:11 of ice time.
-Braydon Coburn leads the Flyers with 7:36.
-The Flyers lead in faceoffs, 10-7 (59 percent).
-Talbot and Blair Betts is 3 for 4 (75 percent).
-Coburn lead the game with two blocked shots.
-EN reader Mike Salvio is on hand and sends in a few pictures. The Wells Fargo Center:
Coming back from commercial, we can hear "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour:
{youtube width="480" height="385"}7xxgRUyzgs0{/youtube}
SECOND PERIOD
17:36: Off a three-on-two, James van Riemsdyk rips a wrister off the left wing wide to the far side.
16:16: Jody Shelley is called for interference against Kunitz. Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Kunitz and Alex Goligoski take the ice.
15:26: Goligoski backhands a shot on net. Bobrovsky knocks it down and covers.
15:01: The Penguins get a break as Cooke is dumped by Timonen in front of Bobrovsky. That's two minutes for crosschecking. The Penguins will have two-man advantage for 45 seconds. Mike Comrie, Goligoski, Malkin, Crosby and Kunitz take the ice.
14:16: The Shelley penalty is killed.
13:56: Crosby guns a slapper off the right half wall. It misses on the near side.
13:15: After Johnson mishandles a puck behind his net, Carle blasts a one-timer from the top of the slot. Johnson recovers and gets a piece of it.
13:01: The Timonen minor is killed. The Penguins didn't offer much of a threat with the man advantage.
11:53: Tyler Kennedy puts a slapper from the right wing circle off the far post.
10:55: Hartnell drives a slapper on net from outside the blue line. Johnson fights it off.
10:29: Crosby dumps Timonen in the left wing corner int he Flyers' zone. That's two minutes for tripping. Talbot, Eaton, Dupuis and Letang take the ice.
9:38: Timonen chips the puck into the offensive zone. Johnson skates out of his crease, gloves it, drops it and whips it down ice with his stick. Really nice play.
8:37: Pronger blasts a one-timer from the right point. johnson fights it off. The puck bounces around. Johnson fishes it out and covers.
8:29: The Crosby minor is killed.
8:13: Derek Engelland's KO of Toronto's Colton Orr is replayed:
{youtube width="480" height="295"}Wc1szOLDTgM{/youtube}
6:32: Andrew Hutchinson gains the offensive zone with speed and chips a little pass to Kennedy in the right circle. Kennedy snaps off a wrister. Bobrovsky gets a piece of it.
6:10: Johnson boots out a wrister by Sean O'Donnell on the left wing.
5:40: Coming back from commercial, Johnson's father, former Penguins goaltender Bob Johnson, is referenced:
5:32: A one-timer by Carle from the right point gets deflected juuuust wide on the far side.
3:13: Briere comes up the right wing with Hartnell on a two-on-one against Letang. Letang slides down and blocks a piece of Briere's shot. Nice play.
1:39: Off the right wing, Carter challenges Martin one-on-one but Martin makes a nice play to strip him of the puck.
1:19: Play is halted as Matt Cooke and Mike Richards discuss the 1998 Daytona 500. We think. They get offsetting roughing minors. It's still four-on-four.
0:44: Wow was that weird. Letang rips a wrister from the slot. It hops up and hits Carle in the face. Chris Pronger, van Riemsdyk and Carle are all standing in the slot and don't seem to know where the puck is. But Mark Letestu does. He jumps on it and rips a wrister by Bobrovsky's left leg. What an effort by Letestu. Letang and Malkin get assists. Penguins 2-1.
0:18: Carter gains the offensive rips a wrister from the left wing which hits the far post. Briere collects the puck in the right circle and put that shot off the far post. Yeeesh.
0:10: Coburn rips a shot on net from the left point. Johnson knocks it down and covers. As that happens, Carter gets his stick up into the face of Goligoski and draws blood. That's a "four minuter." Crosby, Malkin, Kunitz and Letang take the ice.
0:00: End of period. Penguins 2, Flyers 1.
SECOND INTERMISSION
-Letestu is just a hockey player. Period. He's a guy who had to battle in order to get to the NHL and in the process, made himself a pretty complete player. There's not a situation on the ice where he can't contribute.
-Johnson, as usual, has given his team a chance to win. That said, he's gotten a little lucky with a few posts.
-Like the opening night game, this has been pretty tame so far.
-The Flyers have a 25-23 lead in shots.
-Malkin leads the game with four shots.
-Carter, Hartnell and Carle each lead the Flyers with three.
-Letang leads the game with 18:52 of ice time.
-Coburn leads the Flyers with 14:55.
-The Flyers lead in faceoffs, 20-16 (56 percent).
-Richards is 5 for 6 (83 percent).
-Crosby is 8 for 19 (47 percent).
-Pronger leads the game with five blocked shots.
-Martin leads the Penguins with three.
-Martin was awarded the secondary assist on Letestu's goal.
-Dan Potash interviews actor Jason Lee:
THIRD PERIOD
20:00: Malkin, Crosby, Kunitz and Goligoski take the ice for the power play.
19:19: Carter and Cooke have their minors expire. Five on four.
18:40: On a shorthanded two-on-one, Richards lifts a wrister from the left circle high on the far side.
17:21: Malkin guns a slapper on net from just inside the Flyers blue line. Bobrovsky punches it away.
17:20: Claude Giroux is nabbed for tripping Goligoski in the neutral zone. The Penguins will have a five-on-three for 1:10.
17:00: malkin has a slapper from the left point blocked by Pronger.
16:47: Malkin and Crosby pass it back and forth. From the right circle, Crosby whacks a one-timer under the left leg of Bobrovsky. The Penguins still have a power play for 1:27. Malkin and Comrie get assists. It's Comrie's first point as a Penguin. Penguins 3-1.
15:23: Welcome to the Penguins' power play to the 2010-11 season. From the left point, Letang moves the puck to Crosby at the top of the slot. Crosby smacks a one-timer. Kunitz is right in front of Bobrovsky who can't find the puck which beats him on the stick side. He had no chance on that one. Letang and Goligoski get assists. The power play is awesome all of a sudden. Penguins 4-1.
15:06: Richards jabs Ben Lovejoy in a sensitive area for a male. That's two minutes for slashing.
14:50: Goligoski chips a bckhander on net from the slot. Bobrovsky fights it off. Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Kunitz and Goligoski.
13:05: The Richards minor is killed. FSN Pittsburgh has been pretty disappointing tonight so far. They haven't had a running clock for the power plays at all.
11:48: The Flyers have yet to get a shot on net this period according to Paul Steigerwald.
11:28: The Flyers get a little bit of life as Rupp gives Briere a little slash on the hands. He has to be smarter than that. The officials aren't going to cut the Penguins any breaks at this point.
11:21: After a turnover by Martin in his own zone, Johnson robs Carter on a backhander in the slot.
9:28: Rupp's minor is killed.
9:17: Meszaros cranks a one-timer from the right point. Johnson fights it off.
6:20: Nikolay Zherdev cross checks Eric Godard from behind in the neutral zone. Godard gets up and punches Zherdev in the face. Both get roughing minors. That was probably the least likely combination of offsetting minors in NHL history.
5:31: Dupuis takes advantage of a bad line change by the Flyers and creates a mini breakaway. He moves in and lifts a backhander wide on the near side.
4:26: Goligoski is called for hooking Giroux. Talbot, Cooke, Martin and Letang take the ice.
4:03: Pronger cranks a one-timer from the left point. Johnson knocks it away with his blocker.
3:46: The Flyers pull their goaltender really early for an extra attacker.
3:24: Cooke picks up a loose puck in the netural zone, skates it towards the Flyers' blue line, cuts inside Pronger and chips it down ice into the empty cage for:
-Dupuis gets the only assist. Penguins 5-1.
2:09: Briere collects a puck behind the Penguins' net, skates inside Letang and tries to lift a puck on Johnson. Johnson's left leg is able to hold the puck out on two shots. Tough saves.
0:14: Zherdev gains the offensive zone with speed and lifts a wrister from the left wing. Johnson gloves it.
0:00: End of game. Penguins 5, Flyers 1.
POSTGAME
-So uh... where has that been? Where has this power play been all season? It wasn't an obstacle for once this season. It was an actual, legit asset.
-How about Brent Johnson? We say it all the time, but he just gives his team a chance to win every game. Despite playing on less than 24 hours of rest, he did it again.
-As far as Marc-Andre Fleury goes, this isn't unprecedented. Michel Therrien treated him with some tough love back in 2008-09 and gave Dany Sabourin a bunch of starts early in the season. Eventually, Fleury got his act together and led the team to the Stanley Cup.
-How can you not be a fan of Mark Letestu? He faced some long odds in even getting to the NHL. He battled to get to this level and right now, he's the team's most consistent forward.
-Nice to see Sidney Crosby get on track. He just hasn't seemed very comfortable at all this season. It's amazing how he always seems to be comfortable against the Flyers.
-He only had one assist, but Goligoski had another solid all-around game tonight. He was strong in all three zones and created some scoring chances for the Penguins.
-Amazing how Sergei Bobrovsky looked rather ordinary tonight.
-Kunitz is always going to get grief for not being a "real" top line winger, but he's pretty much the Penguins' only option right now. He played like a legit top-six forward tonight.
-The Penguins ended up with a 32-30 edge in shots.
-Crosby led the game with eight shots.
-Carter led the Flyers with four.
-Letang led the game with 27:29 of ice time.
-Coburn led the Flyers with 23:10.
-The Flyers had a 30-27 edge in faceoffs (53 percent).
-Richards was 6 for 9 (67 percent).
-Crosby was 15 for 24 (58 percent).
-Pronger led the game with six blocked shots.
-Martin led the Penguins with four.
-In 34 career regular season games against the Flyers, Crosby now has 59 points (26 goals, 33 assists). That's a point per game average of 1.74.
-Letang moved past Darius Kasparaitis for 91st place on team's all-time scoring list. Both place have 83 points, but Letang (21) has more goals than Kasparaitis (15).
-Goligoski maintains his point per game average. He has six points just as many games.