Game 11 - Pens vs. Coyotes

Pre-game:
Sweet interview by Danny Potash with Mr. Kennedy

1st Period:
Steigy: "He's built like a fire plug!"

Errey: "Who taught him that? We know who taught him that. It was the MASTER! Ulf Samuellsson."

Errey: "He waited almost a week to make that shot." (Was he referring to Bryzgalov's absence from the lineup or the Penguins' seeming complete unwillingness to shoot the puck?)

Recap: Terrible period. No energy, no passion, no puck support, no forecheck. 15 shots in 5 periods now. That's 3 a period. When you're having as much trouble generating offense as the Pens have been, you can't pass up shots. On the plus side, the Pens are playing excellent team defense. They give up a lot of shots, but not a lot of good scoring chances. The good scoring chances they do give up are shut down by incredible play from both goaltenders. The offense will come. What's impressive to me is playing such incredible D without the two best defenders.

2nd Period:
Why are the Coyotes playing the Ghostbusters theme song over the arena PA?

Errey: "I know he didn't play much baseball growing up!...at least, I don't think so."

Errey: "We talked about his groin."

Errey: "There's Gretzky wearing his...cancer...tie."

Recap: That was a much better period in everything but the goal count (unfortunately, that's all that counts). The Pens played like you would expect them to against a weaker opponent like the Coyotes. Unfortunately, lackadaisacal clearing attempts during the first PP and a bad bounce on the second PP cost the Pens. I wasn't particularly fond of either call that put the Pens on the PK, but they'll just have to get it back. You have the feeling right now that if they can keep their level of play up, they will ultimately win out. The Pens had more shots that period than they did in the 5 periods of hockey before that. Intermission quote from Errey: "The Penguins, Steiggy, gotta put the pumpkin in the basket!"

3rd Period:
Errey: "Get well, Mrs. Steiggy!"

Errey: "If he doesn't go up the butt of Talbot..."

Errey: [about Kurt Sauer] Wow, he's sour now!"
Steigy: "Ha! Ahh, that's beautiful."

Errey: "When I say 'hilarious', it really isn't THAT funny."

Game. 4-1 Yotes
Recap: All-around a pretty miserable road trip for the Pens. They need to try to get a point in St. Louis on Saturday night and then just get home and regroup. There's not much to say about tonight. Pretty miserable to watch Phoenix thoroughly beat your favorite team, but they simply outworked the Penguins. The officiating was lacking, but the Pens didn't deserve to win anyway, so there's nothing to complain about. Goligoski's having a tough stretch, but he's learning through trial by fire right now. He'll cost you now, but be better for it later on. Any possible injury to Sid is a big loss (obviously). I'm not sure they're in a position right now to carry on without him as they did last season. To keep it in perspective though, the Pens hovered around .500 all the way through to Thanksgiving last season, before turning the season around. Even Detroit lost 7 in a row last season. On the plus side, Satan scored an amazing goal (and is on pace for 30-40 goals), Letang had a brilliant defensive play against Boedker, and Malkin tried to singlehandedly win the game for the Pens, offensively and defensively. Unfortunately for the Pens right now, Letang and Malkin aren't enough to carry them to victory.