Canadiens at Penguins - Game 1 - 04-30-10

PREGAME

-Greetings from a wonderful, amazing day in Pittsburgh. Its in the 70s, kind of muggy and there's not a cloud in the sky. A wonderful day to watch non-NBC programming on a large public screen.

-Consol Energy Center:

-Mellon Arena:

-The grill is fired up:

-So is the big screen:

-Beach balls are being knocked around:

-Stanley Cups are out and about:

-Chair foul:

-Some brave Habs fans:

-PK Subban and Mike Cammalleri each have at least one fan here:

-In case you're wondering, that's a blue trowback Canadiens jersey:

-EN readers Dave and Lu Coutts sends in a photo left Milwaukee at 6:30 a.m. and found a cozy little spot to watch the game:

-Some sights around the arena. A Ron Francis fan:

-Brian Gionta:

-Guy Carbonneau:

-Guy Lafleur:

-Alex Kovalev:

-Lots and lots of red here:

-An Evgeni Malkin All-Star Game jersey from 2009, when they held the game in MONTREAL!?!?

-If you're going to wear an all-star jersey, make sure it's not from the city of that night's opponent.

-And don't wear a player's national team jersey when that night's opponents are quite literally, named after that country:

-Mario Lemieux Wilkes-Barre/Scranton:

-Wilkes-Barre/Scranton St. Patrick's Day jersey:

-Matt Cooke:

-We're a little confused here:

-More people showed up outside:

-Warm ups:

-Surprisingly, Ruslan Fedotenko is in the lineup.

-The Penguins' scratches are Jordan Leopold, Deryk Engelland, Ben Lovejoy, Dustin Jeffrey, Chris Conner, Steve Wagner, Tim Wallace, Eric Godard, Mark Letestu, Nick Johnson, Tyler Kennedy, Eric Tangradi, John Curry and Brad Thiessen.

-The Canadiens' scratches are Jaroslav Spacek, Georges Laraque (He's essentially been banished from the team), Mathieu Darche, Ben Maxwell and Sergei Kostitsyn.

-Marc-Andre Fleury and Jaroslav Halak are your starters in net.

-Jeff Jimerson handles the anthem duties. It sounded like he lost his breath once or twice. Perhaps two years of handling anthems so late into June have worn him out:

FIRST PERIOD

18:59: Pascal Dupuis mashes xxx into the boards in the left wing corner of Montreal's zone.

18:35: Jordan Staal c hallenges Andre Markov on therigh wing and flicks a backahnder on net from the circle. Halak makes the save. Cooke jumps on the rebound but can't punche it by Halak.

17:11: Fedotenko races up the right wing and directs a backhander on net. O'Byrne blocks it with his stick.

16:32: Travis Moen mashes his former Ducks teammate, Chris Kunitz into the the right wing corne rin the Penguins' zoen. 

16:17: Kris Letang tees up a half slapper from the right point. It hits a leg and deflects to the right corner.

15:45: Roman Hamrlik chucks a wrister on net from the left wing. Fleury fights it off.

15:28: The Canadiens win a faceoff in the right circle in the Penguins' zone. PK Subban controls the puck at the right point. He just snaps off a wrister. Mark Eaton is right in front hoping for a block but appears to accidently re-direct it. He beats Fleury low to his right. Fleury had not chance. Staal was also screening him on that. The goal is unassisted. You could make a case for Eaton or Staal to get one. Canadiens 1-0.

14:46: Malkin and former teammate Dominic Moore mix it up along the boards in the Canadiens' zone. Moore appeared to take out Malkin. No call.

14:31: As both teams change lines, Malkin loses his cool and takes out Moore in front of the benches.That's two minutes for interference. That was really stupid by Malkin.  Staal, Craig Adams, Sergei Gonchar and Brooks Orpik take the ice.

12:31: The Penguins kill off Malkin's penalty. Montreal did next to nothing with that chance.

11: 53: On a delayed penalty, Alex Goligoski chops a slapper from the right point wide on the near side.

11:48: Gionta is nabbed for tripping Malkin. As Malkin tried to gain the offensive zone on the right wing, Gionta just hacked his legs out. That's two minutes. Gonchar, Goligoski, Malkin, Crosby and Guerin take the ice.

11:34: Gonchar cranks a one-timer from the top of the slot wide to the left of the net.

11:22: With Gonchar at the top of the slot and Letang and Malkin on the left and right half walls respectively, those three pass the puck around until it comes to Gonchar. He cranks a one-timer. It hits off the stick of a Montreal defender and beats Halak five hole. Tom Pyatt broke his stick on the kill and the Penguins did a good job of taking advantage. Malkin and Letang get assists. The "Hey Song" is played. Canadens 1, Penguins 1.

     

10:38: Guerin snaps off a wrister from the right point. Halak steers it away.

10:19: Letang gains the offensive zone with speed and snap off a wrister from the right circle which is deflects out of play .

10:12: Fedotenko swoops around the net and from the left of the cage, he puts a backhander on net. Halak fights it off.

8:14: Andrei Makrov plays the puck out of the corner on the left wing in his zone. Matt Cooke absolutely drops him with a clean but rough hit. Markov is down and rolling on the ice in pain. Scott Gomez and Gill each jump Cooke at the Montreal blue line. The nine remaining skaters all gater at center ice. Mark Eaton ends up trying to fight Moen, a very tough dude, but they end up just wrestling. Officials break everything up. Markov is helpd off the ice by a teammate and a trainer. The replay appeared to show him landing with most of his weight on his left shoulder ouch. He's a big loss for Montreal. He's just as valuable to them as Sergei Gonchar is to the Penguins. Perhaps even more so. Gomez, Moen and Eaton each get roughing minors. The Penguins have a power play. Crosby, Guerin, Malkin, Letang and Gonchar take the ice.

6:33: With the power play winding down, Ponikarovsky retrieves a loose puck along the right wing boards, turns and dishes a nice little pass to Staal trailing. Staal moves off the boards, toys with Gionta a little bit and releases a high wrister from the slot. it clinks off the cross bar and into the net by Halak's glove hand. What a pretty goal. What a nice little pass by Ponikarovsky. Ponikarovsky and Goligoski get assists. The "Hey Song" is a nice little song. Penguins 2-1.

 

5:11: Sidney Crosby runs over Josh Gorges on the right wing wall.

5:03: The Penguins are just taking it to the Habs physically. Fedotenko drops Gorges in the corner.

3:02: Cooke and Dupuis do a nice job of cycling the puck deep in Montreal's zone. Cooke is able to tap a pass to the slot. Malkin is step slow and fans a bit on the puck. That was a nice little play the Penguins had set up.

1:55: On a force check for a puck in the right wing corner, Chris Kunitz drops big Hal Gill.

1:03: With the Penguins just battering the Habs in their own zone, "Search and Destroy" by Iggy Pop and the Stooges is fittingly played:

0:34: Goligoski chops a slapper on net from the right point. Cooke is in front battling a defender. Halak makes the save but has trouble with the rebound Cooke is there but can't get a handle on it.

0:03: Fleury fights off an innocent wrister from the slot by Gionta.

0:00: End of period. Penguins 2, Canadiens 1.