Bonjour Canada!

As the Penguins ready their passports for the northward trip across the border they find themselves a bit healthier for the journey. Sergei Gonchar has been practicing without the protection of the dreaded red jersey for the last week and tonight appears to be his likely return to the Pittsburgh lineup. Despite finally scoring some goals with the infusion of Evgeni Malkin back into the rotation, the Pens have still had a difficult time getting anything going with the man advantage minus four of their top defensemen including their three most potent offensively in Gonchar, Kris Letang, and Alex Goligoski. After reaching down deep into the farm system for guys like Ben Lovejoy and Deryk Engelland to fill the void, Pittsburgh will be thrilled to welcome back their point man on the man advantage. His 12 games missed due to injury thus far in 2009-10 is nothing compared to last year’s 56 games with a dislocated left shoulder that hampered the Pens for a large portion of the season. Another welcome face is back out on the ice tonight as Maxime Talbot suits up for the first time since his offseason shoulder surgery. This will also be the first time Talbot skates with his mates since his two clutch tallies in game seven against the Red Wings this summer to clinch the Stanley Cup.

On his first shift back from injury Sergei Gonchar begins the game by ringing a shot off of the post next to Ottawa goalkeeper Pascal LeClaire. After the line change, Jordan Staal comes storming down the middle of the ice and buries a pass on the tape from Pascal DuPuis into the back of the net to open the scoring for Pittsburgh with a 1-0 lead. On his first shift back on the ice Maxime Talbot takes a tripping penalty in the neutral zone to put the Senators on the power play here in the early going. The Pens kill off the Ottawa man advantage with some top notch positioning by Marc-Andre Fleury in net as he appears to be in top form tonight back in his native land. Some more fluid end to end hockey is beginning to break out here midway into the 1st period as there is plenty of open ice out there for five on five hockey. Both teams have been getting through the neutral zone uncontested freely exiting their own zone and entering the opponent’s. The Senators maintain some quality possession in the Pittsburgh zone and finally pay it off as a cross ice pass from Mike Fisher finds Matt Carkner who blisters the biscuit by the stick of Fleury to square this one up at 1-1. A breakout from their own end by Ottawa produces a quality two on one chance and a shot from Daniel Alfredsson that Fleury robs with his glove hand. Period one ends with the Penguins drawing a penalty on the goal scorer for Ottawa Matt Carkner for hooking as the Pens were outshot 9 to 4 in the first twenty minutes.

The transition game was huge in the opening frame with end to end hockey becoming a bit of a theme as both teams generated some good scoring chances with speed through the neutral zone. Pittsburgh will have the opportunity to start the 2nd period with a bang as they begin with the man advantage for the first minute until Bill Guerin evens things up with an interference call in front of the Senators net. The four on four passes and the Senators cash in on their abbreviated power play to follow as a shot by Alfredsson hits the body of Milan Michalek in front of Fleury before it finds the twine of the Pittsburgh net to give Ottawa a 2-1 lead. The elegance of Gonchar’s skating is something amazing to watch as he looks to be one hundred percent gliding around the ice effortlessly. An uneventful power play for Pittsburgh as Nick Foligno serves a penalty for too many man on the ice and the kill was routine for the Senators. A great open ice move from Sidney Crosby frees him up on a bit of a pick play by Ruslan Fedotenko and he fires a nice shot that is stopped by LeClaire in the Ottawa goal. An interference call is the result of some hard work by the Pens in the Ottawa zone as Chris Phillips heads off for a hooking penalty and Pittsburgh will try to capitalize with the extra man. The Pens come up empty on the power play and the Senators have denied all three Pittsburgh power play opportunities on the night. For the Penguins, they have been doing more retreating tonight than attacking for the most part as their backcheck has been vital in keeping this game within reach as the Sens have outplayed the Pens for the most part over the first two periods of play.

As the 3rd period gets started with Ottawa up 2-1, the Penguins again will start with a carryover power play chance after a tripping call on Chris Kelly late in period two. Pittsburgh needs to cycle the puck and find some open lanes to the net as Ottawa has been doing a phenomenal job of taking away the alleys blocking 19 shots through the first two periods of play. Pittsburgh is unable to get any pucks to the net on the power play and immediately following the end of the penalty Kelly comes out of the box and breaks in on Fleury beating him top shelf to increase the Sens lead to 3-1. The Pens really need to show some urgency here in the 3rd period after a tough start to the frame and get themselves back into this game by getting some pucks on the pads of LeClaire to generate some scoring chances. Instead, the Pens are stuck in their own zone chasing the puck around and a really soft goal gets by Fleury on a sharp angle from Chris Phillips to push the Senators lead to 4-1. The Pittsburgh defense has been caught in bad positions all night and another tally from Phillips on a similarly sharp angle beats Fleury up high and that 5-1 lead will mark the end of the evening for Fleury as Brent Johnson is brought in to relieve the Penguins starter who allowed 5 goals on 24 shots tonight. This is the second time in three road games that Fleury has been yanked in favor of Johnson which is a disturbing trend for Penguins fans to hear regarding their franchise netminder. A miscommunication between Gonchar and Johnson on who is going to play the puck leads to the Senators sixth goal of the night scored by Jonathan Cheechoo on that sloppy turnover. The game gets a bit chippy in the latter stages as Matt Cooke mixes it up with a number of Senators and Alexandre Picard is sent off for slashing in the exchange. A sick shot from Evgeni Malkin as he emerges from behind the net goes over the right shoulder of LeClaire to put up another goal for the Pens at 6-2 Ottawa. Eric Goddard ends the game on a violent note as he and Chris Neil go toe to toe and pummel one another with some smashing left hands by Goddard opening up the cheek of Neil. Check it out!

If this 6-2 defeat suggests anything negative about the Penguins, it says that more positionally sound play by the defense will be necessary for the Penguins to clean up this mess of giving up far too many goals. Maintaining gap responsibility and flowing with the puck rather than chasing and guessing will keep the puck from getting to the net as often and allow the goalie to see the shots that are coming his direction. This loss is only the Pens second loss of the season when scoring the first goal, but truth be told it was all downhill after that first tally as Pittsburgh squandered a number of opportunities to beat LeClaire and went on to pay for it in the end. The Pens will be on the road for two more games as they visit Atlanta to take on a much improved Thrashers team on Saturday night. The power play and the discipline of the defense will both have to improve to see some results out on the ice for the Penguins.

Tags: Alex Goligoski, Atlanta Thrashers, Bill Guerin, Brent Johnson, Chris Kelly, Chris Neil, Chris Phillips, Daniel Alfredsson, Deryk Engelland, Detroit Red Wings, Eric Goddard, Evgeni Malkin, Jonathan Cheechoo, Jordan Staal, Kris Letang, Marc Andre Fleury, Matt Carkney, Maxime Talbot, Mike Fisher, Milan Michalek, Ottawa Senators, Pascal DuPuis, Pascal LeClaire, Sergei Gonchar, Sidney Crosby