East Elites

There is an assortment of storylines to choose from heading into tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres in HSBC Arena as intrigue is beginning to build among the Eastern Conference’s elite. Pittsburgh enters this contest in a dead heat with the New Jersey Devils at 49 points each and those totals not only lead the Atlantic division and the Eastern Conference, they are tops in the NHL as whole to this point in the year. Not far behind the Pens and Devils however are the guys in the navy sweaters tonight as the Buffalo Sabres boast the fourth highest point total in the East with 44. After the Penguins triumph in the shootout of the Flyers on Thursday the team improves to 5-0 in shootouts on the year thanks in large part to their automatic tally in Sidney Crosby. Sid offered this reflection on the game against Philly saying: “This is always a building where we always have to be ready to play in. Tonight was a really tough game, both teams competed well. I think the ending was fitting, that it came down to a shootout.” Tonight’s opponent will be playing there second of a back to back stretch after claiming a 5-2 win over the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs last night. Buffalo relied heavily on their netminder Ryan Miller who has been the best in the business this year as he made 40 saves last night in Toronto. Fortunately for the Pens it appears that former Penguin Patrick Lalime will get the nod tonight between the pipes giving Miller a much needed night’s rest in this back to back situation for the Sabres.

These two teams split their season series year ago and this contest should be a barnburner as well. Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said of facing the Sabres: “We always have high-flying, tight games up there so that is what we expect on Saturday.” Let’s hope that the action is as intense as Fleury anticipates as the puck is out of the official’s hand and an early whistle is sounded and an interference called issues to Patrick Kaleta. The Penguins will go to work on the power play which has to be feeling good after their performance in Philadelphia the other night when they went two for four. Buffalo kills off the Kaleta penalty and Maxime Talbot sees the ice for his first shift of the night as Eric Godard will take his place as tonight’s healthy scratch for Dan Bylsma’s Penguins. For Buffalo, the offensive presence of Thomas Vanek will be missed tonight as he is scratched with an upper body injury for this contest. Brooks Orpik warrants the game’s second penalty call as he is sent to the box for interference. The Sabres enter the Pittsburgh zone with a lot of speed and a second penalty is called as Kris Letang joins Orpik in the box giving Buffalo five on three advantage for the next minute. Pittsburgh’s penalty killers display tremendous discipline and maintain their spacing to kill off the first penalty before Derek Roy storms the net forcing Fleury to make his first big save of the evening with his pads. The Pens kill off the second infraction and things are back to five on five as Letang leaves the box. Perhaps the most noticeable player on the ice tonight is number 57 Tyler Myers for the Sabres who at 6’8” is in the running for the Calder Trophy given to the league’s best first year player. Myers has been a presence on the point for Buffalo this year and despite his size is remarkably agile on his skates causing many analysts to compare him to Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins. Some great work chasing the puck by Ruslan Fedoenko as he wins the battle along the boards and slides the puck to Mike Rupp who feeds Tyler Kennedy on the doorstep as his attempt is stopped by the right pad of Lalime. Some pressure in the Penguins zone for Buffalo as a pass in fed through the slot for Toni Lydman and his shot is denied by Fleury but a juicy rebound provides a prime chance for Jason Pominville who capitalizes and gives the Sabres a 1-0 lead. Crosby takes a puck away on the forecheck and fed a pass to Chris Kunitz who cashed in by throwing the puck by a sprawling Lalime before he can right himself from the initial Crosby chance and this game is knotted at 1-1 with yet another goal in the final minute a period for the Penguins this season.

Pittsburgh was only credited with one scoring chance in that 1st period and they certainly didn’t accumulate much in the way of zone time, but the scoreboard is even heading to the middle frame. That has to be somewhat demoralizing for Buffalo who played arguably a flawless period aside from the one mistake by Lalime in goal. Nonetheless, the 2nd period will be vital in determining the outcome of this game as evidenced by the Penguins 14-2 record when leading after two periods and Buffalo’s sparkling 15-0 when ahead after 40 minutes of action. A big collision in the early going of the 2nd period as Rupp is chasing a puck into the Buffalo zone with Drew Stafford and Lalime leaves his cage to play the puck and gets run over by his own man in the process. Matt Cooke comes skating down the left wing boards with Letang opposite him on the right side two on one and Cooke feeds Letang but Lalime slides across the crease to make a nice stop on the Penguins rush. A penalty is called on Craig Rivet for tripping and Pittsburgh has the puck on a string in the Sabres zone running Lalime from left to right in the net, but despite the pressure they are held without a goal on the man advantage. After being crushed into the boards by Kaleta in the Penguins end, Jay McKee retaliates and is caught by the official who whistles him for a roughing penalty. The penalty produces nice chances at both ends as Jordan Staal again makes some noise shorthanded but neither team gets one into the twine before the penalty expires. Fleury is standing on his head in goal as he nearly tears my groin from watching his pad save on a great chance for Tim Kennedy before he is penalized for tripping as he hauls down Rupp in the neutral zone. Shots are being fired from everywhere as the penalty expires and Tim Connolly storms in on Fleury who makes a nice shoulder save before a counter from Pittsburgh as Staal hits the post at the other end of the ice.

Period two comes to a close with the game still tied at 1-1 and some bad news for the remainder of the game as the Pens will be without Mark Eaton who was injured early in the game and that injury will leave Pittsburgh with only five defensemen to rotate in the final period of play. The Penguins get the first chance of the 3rd as Cooke flies in on Lalime and is dismissed by the pads of the veteran goaltender. A blatant tripping penalty is handed out as the recently penalty prone Malkin takes down Andrej Sekera at the Penguins blue line and gives Buffalo a chance with the extra man. Saves aplenty in the early half of the Sabres power play as a shorthanded breakaway for Staal is denied by Lalime which is followed by Fleury flashing the leather at the other end with a brilliant glove save. Pittsburgh kills the penalty and Malkin makes an immediate return trip to the box for interference by reaching out of the box to play the puck before getting his skates back onto the ice surface. No harm, no foul as Pittsburgh eradicates the second Malkin penalty and on an ensuing rush Fedotenko is denied by a phenomenal Lalime save and in the process a penalty call is made on Jochen Hecht for holding giving the Pens their own chance with the man advantage. The Penguins power play gets a quality chance with a Malkin shot from the point that Kunitz takes a few whacks at before it’s frozen by Lalime and the penalty runs out. Some extended pressure from Buffalo following the kill forces Fleury to make a spectacular save on his back as the Sabres throw everything at him before Orpik takes an undisciplined holding penalty in the corner giving Buffalo another power play chance. Fleury continues to be the Penguins best penalty killer as the guys in front of him are blocking shots all over the place while he turns away the few that get by their wall assembly. The Penguins will be given yet another chance with the extra attacker in the final five minutes of this game as Cooke takes a high stick from Clark MacArthur and is sent to the box. The Pens are unable to get anything on the net and shortly after the kill Connelly is crushed by Cooke illegally as he was interfered with and the Pens will play most of the remainder of regulation on the penalty kill.

Fleury stands tall on the kill and the second consecutive contest will take extra work from the Penguins as overtime will begin shortly. Some fantastic puck movement by the Pens early in extra time as Kunitz carries into the zone and passes cross ice to Alex Goligoski who touches one on to Malkin that just misses the net. Goligoski gets a stick up into the face of Stafford and heads to the box giving Buffalo two minutes of four on three here in OT. Craig Adams acts as a second goalie on the penalty kill blocking a handful of Sabres shots as Pittsburgh kills the penalty to Goligoski off. Despite a great deflection chance courtesy of Crosby on a Malkin shot in the closing seconds, the second straight game for the Pens heads to a shootout for the extra point. Fleury will be up first as he is approached by Pominville and makes the save with his arm. Lalime faces Letang who goes forehand backhand top shelf on Lalime who is beaten like a rented mule. The Flower poke checks the second shooter Roy to maintain the Pens lead in the shootout. Crosby has a chance to ice things up but Lalime comes up huge lying down on the puck to keep it out of the net. Never fear, the Flower is here as Fleury comes up clutch again in the shootout stuffing Stafford to seal the victory and maintain the Penguins perfect shootout record this season running it to 6-0.

In addition to tonight’s game, Penguins fans were given quite high praise from Forbes magazine this week as they were given the honor of being the number one fans in the NHL overtaking Toronto for the top spot. According to Forbes’ website: “For the 2008-09 season, we ranked teams based on average regular-season home game attendance as a percentage of arena capacity, regular-season local television ratings as a percentage of the team’s metro area population and team merchandise sales. Pens fans emerged the most fanatical.” Even though Pens fans didn’t need this affirmation that they were indeed the best fans in hockey, it doesn’t hurt to know that the rest of the country acknowledges the allegiance shown by Pittsburgh’s diehards. With the Consol Energy Arena coming for the 2010-2011 season, Pittsburgh is cementing its place in hockey history as an elite franchise.

Tags: Alex Goligoski, Andrej Sekera, Boston Bruins, Brooks Orpik, Buffalo Sabres, Chris Kunitz, Clark MacArthur, Consol Energy Arena, Craig Adams, Dan Bylsma, Drew Stafford, Eric Godard, Forbes magazine, HSBC Arena, Jason Pominville, Jochen Hecht, Jordan Staal, Marc Andre Fleury, Mark Eaton, Matt Cooke, Maxime Talbot, New Jersey Devils, Patrick Kaleta, Patrick Lalime, Ryan Miller, Sidney Crosby, Thomas Vanek, Tim Connolly, Toni Lydman, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tyler Kennedy, Tyler Myers, Zdeno Chara