Don't Call it a Comeback: With respect to the LL Cool J-inspired headline, it was actually quite the comeback last night in the Penguins' 3-2 win at Edmonton.Jordan Staal assisted on three third period goals as the Pens overcame a 2-0 hole with goals from Tyler Kennedy, Matt Cooke, and Pascal Dupuis. The win moved the Pens to 3-1 on their nearly-completed five game road trip.
In the "concern areas", the Penguin power play was 1-for-2 and Evgeni Malkin once again failed to find the stat sheet, but did have seven shots and an effort worthy of the game's third star honor.
The game was preceded by an Olympic ceremony that included a guest appearance by the torch and loud ovations for Canadian team members Fleury and Sidney Crosby.
The Pens are back in action tomorrow night at Vancouver, with a 10 PM start. [ESPN]
Reese > Khan? It's looking like former Tennessee GM Floyd Reese is the favorite to land the vacant Seattle GM job, which means Omar Khan may stick around with the Steelers after all- at least for the near future.
Can Reese find the next Pacman Jones for Pete Carroll? We'll just have to wait and see. [NFL.com]
Pirates closing in on Dotel: The Buccos are on the verge of signing the 36-year-old to be their closer, a deal that has been discussed for weeks.
Dotel has 83 career saves and 39 career blown saves, so he probably won't cost the Pirates as much as, say, Mariano Rivera. Dotel made $6 million in 2009 with the White Sox, although the Pirates deal is expected to be much less. [Yahoo!]
Cowher waiting for Giants' job, says Bus: Jerome Bettis, a certified expert in all things Cowherian, says that the former Steeler coach is waiting for Tom Coughlin to figuratively slip on a banana peel with the Giants.
Cowher is reportedly close with the Mara family, which is as close to the Rooney family as you'll find among NFL owners. Aside from the obvious Carolina rumors, this sounds like the most realistic scenario for Cowher's post-Steeler coaching career to resume. [PFT]
LaRoche a LaDiamondback: The other half of the Flying LaRoche Brothers has reportedly found his home for 2010. Adam LaRoche will be suiting up for the Arizona Diamondbacks on a one-year deal, with terms not yet disclosed. It took a long time finding a team that was willing to go more than a half-year with the notoriously late slow starter. [Yahoo Sports]
Another story from the Russ Grimm archive: Nothing screams class like eating your own puked-up hot dog off the field. [Shutdown Corner]
Can Reese find the next Pacman Jones for Pete Carroll? We'll just have to wait and see. [NFL.com]
Pirates closing in on Dotel: The Buccos are on the verge of signing the 36-year-old to be their closer, a deal that has been discussed for weeks.
Dotel has 83 career saves and 39 career blown saves, so he probably won't cost the Pirates as much as, say, Mariano Rivera. Dotel made $6 million in 2009 with the White Sox, although the Pirates deal is expected to be much less. [Yahoo!]
Cowher waiting for Giants' job, says Bus: Jerome Bettis, a certified expert in all things Cowherian, says that the former Steeler coach is waiting for Tom Coughlin to figuratively slip on a banana peel with the Giants.
Cowher is reportedly close with the Mara family, which is as close to the Rooney family as you'll find among NFL owners. Aside from the obvious Carolina rumors, this sounds like the most realistic scenario for Cowher's post-Steeler coaching career to resume. [PFT]
LaRoche a LaDiamondback: The other half of the Flying LaRoche Brothers has reportedly found his home for 2010. Adam LaRoche will be suiting up for the Arizona Diamondbacks on a one-year deal, with terms not yet disclosed. It took a long time finding a team that was willing to go more than a half-year with the notoriously late slow starter. [Yahoo Sports]
Another story from the Russ Grimm archive: Nothing screams class like eating your own puked-up hot dog off the field. [Shutdown Corner]
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4 comments:
Looks like they may be turning things around. Fleury stealing two games in a row is something he and this team can build on from a confidence standpoint. Goals on the PP in consecutive games might be a first this season too. It would be nice to see the scoring distributed more evenly from game to game, instead of either this line or that one and Geno still needs to find his game (and the net) but I'm more optimistic going into this last game of the road trip than I was at the start.
I could be getting ahead of myself here, but looking at the NHL standings, why have the Pens played 3-4 more games than the rest of the Conference, esp the Atlantic Division? I'm not sure if this will be a good or bad thing. Good: It means the other teams will have an even more condensed post-Olympic schedule. Bad: Could open the door for everyone else to snatch some points and playoff seeding with those end of season games in hand. Just a thought, but all in all, the games played differential just makes the Pens' point total/ cushion in the conference standings/ ground to gain on the 1 seed seem a bit misleading.
Staal and Gonchar have been unreal lately and that Crosby fellow isn't terrible, even when he's held off the stat sheet for a night.
Malkin looks like he is getting close to busting loose and when he does, look out.
Also, I wonder if the Rooneys made any promises to Keith Butler to dissuade him from taking the Miami DC job?
I was also very happy with the win last night, though. MAF looked like the stud that I think he still is. Also, for a while now, my confidence in the team's ability to come from behind had been very low. Whether they are down late, or they mount a furious comeback to tie it late, I find myself expecting the worst (dumb penalty, wasted powerplay opportunity, backbreaking GW goal by the opponent) whereas last year/ early this season I KNEW we would pull it out. It was good to see them revert to last year's clutch form, and hopegully we continue to see that this year. This team is too good for losses to teams they should beat, a 5-6 seed, and a second round playoff exit.
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