Battle Between the Young Guns

Young Guns do it all

Last night's game was a fierce battle between two former Stanley Cup winning teams. Don’t forget when Anaheim won the cup back in 2006-07, they were with Chris Kunitz and without Ryan Whitney. However, when the Penguins won the cup in 2008-09 season, they did it with, again, Christ Kunitz and without Ryan Whitney. I suppose you could say, “That’s how the cookies crumble Ryan”. If you remember anything about the Sidney Crosby Sweet-stake, you will know that it came down to the two teams who played tonight. Well, the Penguins got Crosby and the Ducks got the Cup a year later. Also, in last night’s game, we got to a lot of young talent, a lot of players that went in the first round of their respective draft. Players like Ryan Whitney, Joffrey Lupul, Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Getzalf, Corey Perry, Sidney Crosby, Bobby Ryan, and Jordan Staal.

The game started off to a slow pace as there was only a combined 16 total shots from both teams. Anaheim’s Corey Perry was able to net one of those in past Marc-Andre early. Even thought it was a slow pace of a first period, Anaheim took 4 penalties almost back to back to back to back. However, with the absence of Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin to man the point on the Power Play, they could not get anything past the young Jonas Hiller. So the Penguins had to try a different tactic to get a goal, and that happened pretty early in the second period. Tyler Kennedy, who finally came back from being injured for undisclosed reasons, streamed down the ice with the puck, cut back to the inside and took a shot, with the puck ending up wide to Hillers right. Then, with strong presences of mind, the Penguins grinded hard and Kennedy was able to regain the puck and set up Rupp at the top of the face-off circle for his fourth goal of the season which, by the way, already ties him for what he got last season, and the game was tied one-a-piece. Eight minutes after that, the Penguins were on a delay penalty. Realizing this, Marc-Andre got off the ice and was able to get that extra attacker on, in the form of Sidney Crosby. With the extra attacker on, the Penguins were able to set up their two main men at the point. The puck got over to Letang and he was able to rip one past Hiller.

However, Anaheim would not be outdone by the Pens' young squad. They would respond by scoring a goal with their own "young talent" star, Corey Perry, his second of the night. Assisting on this play was Getzalf. Worth mentioning is that in the second period, the Penguins took three penalties, their only three of the game. The game's pace started to pick up once the puck dropped for the 3rd period. The Penguins started to work the trap effectively, and Anaheim started to get the puck in deep. It didn’t help that Saku Koivu was running interference every chance he got. He alone got 2 penalties, and should have been given at least 2 more for his aggressive interference on Brooks Orpik on two separate occasions. Penguins got another goal from the point from Alex Goligoski. Tyler Kennedy racked up his second assist of the night after missing a few games on Goligoski's goal. However, Anaheim was not going to go quietly as they recieved a goal from Koivu, who wasn’t spending time in the box for once. Just a minute after Koivu goal, Pascal Dupuis scored his 2nd goal in two games. This goal was the result of an Anaheim player not having a stick for about a minute. Five minutes later, the Ducks were able to get the puck in deep and kept throwing the puck at Fleury. Fleury made some amazing saves, as did Sidney Crosby. Yes I said it. Sidney Crosby not only made a save, but he stacked the pads as he did when he was played goalie during his trip home with the Cup this summer. Now not only did Sidney save goal, but so did Jordan Staal earlier in the game, when Bobby Ryan had a wide open net, went to shoot it and caught Staal’s stick instead.

To recap, Pens got goals from Rupp, Letang, Go-Go, and Dupuis. Anaheim got two goals from Perry and one from Koivu. Anaheim spent 14 total minuets in the box while Pens only took 6. Marc-Andre stopped 26 of 29 shots while at the other end Hiller stopped 23 of 27 shots. The three stars go out to Jordon Staal, who didn’t even make it on the score sheet except for one assist (go figure), Kris Letang, and number one star was Corey Perry with two goals. Again, Pens winning by a final score 4-3.

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If you ask me, even though Dupuis got his 2nd goal in two games, I think he still is playing a sloppy game and needs to be replaced by a young kid named Chris Conner. Also Chris Bourque needs to spend a little more time in the minors so that he can develop some skills to play with the top guns. It looked like Chris Kunitz was enjoying himself out there against his old team. Billy Guerin needs to stop just skating around and figure out position so that Crosby can set up like old times. Also, like last year with the Staal milk cartons which had Staal’s picture they should replace them with the Tenk's picture. Now I am not going lie, I love the Pens, I’ve been watching them even when we were losing back in 2000, but if they except to repeat, or even make it back to the finals, they need to learn how to play a complete game without their two Russian Guns. Being 0-13 on the Power Play without Malkin is not going to work. Also besides the fight on Saturday, where has Sidney Crosby been? I mean, we have seen how Malkin stepped up when Crosby was gone, now its Crosby’s turn. I suppose you can stay up and watch the Pens game 10:30 on Thursday as the Penguins face off against “the Piece” and the rest of the LA. Kings, on FSN Pittsburgh.