Pez Is Fine With Going to AHL

Where's the GOLD HELMET?!

 I was excited. You were excited. Every single Pens fan was excited about the appearance of Janne Pesonen. The thrilling yet hilarious video of Pez got fans, like me PUMPED about him. He completely dominated the Finnish League and looked ‘ready’ for the big show. Some Pens fans even pegged Pez on the first line with Crosby for OPENING NIGHT.

However, Pez realizes that he probably won’t be starting with the Pens opening night. It’s unfortunate as i would love to see Pez wear a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey on opening night instead of a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins jersey. Surprisingly (and thankfully) though, Pez is okay with that…

“Whatever it takes,” said Pesonen, who need not clear waivers to play in the AHL. “I want to win games and be at a top level. If it’s not open in the beginning of the season, maybe it’s open a little bit later.”

VERY refreshing to hear that from Pez. It’s good for not only the Pens but for Pez. As noted before, he realizes how good this Pens team is and it won’t be a while until he’s officially on the starting lineup. In a way, Pez would REALLY have to shine out a few players to make the opening night roster. He’s a natural scorer and the only way he can really show his scoring skill off is on the first or second line. Unfortunately for him, our top 6 has too many experienced and better players.

However, from camp reports, Pez is actually performing pretty good. A video I watched earlier today of him at practice, he back-checked really well and got the puck back. He’s looked very fast and on top of things. These are all encouraging things to hear and see because if a player gets injured, which will happen, Pez will have a good chance of being brought up. Sometimes you can’t let that talent and skill sit down in the minors forever.

As I think about it more, once Pesonen gets his feet wet and understands the North American game, I feel he can be more productive than Dupuis. Now I like Dupuis, he was a good complimentary player for Crosby and Hossa last year and will continue to be one with Satan and Crosby. However, the first line is all about producing and unfortunately for Dupuis, he doesn’t do enough of it. Like I said earlier, Pez is a natural scorer and he should be on the same line with top players.  Just the thought of Crosby having not only one but TWO natural scorers makes me giddy.

Satan-Crosby-Pesonen could be sick!

It’s always nice to hear that Pez isn’t letting his ego get the best of him. He’s learning a new game in a new world and isn’t acting like he’s better than anyone else because he ripped up in the Finnish League. Seems like he has a good head on his shoulders.

Methinks Pez will play and make an impact during the second half of the season which leads to Pez being on the starting lineup on opening day on 09/10.

LETS GO PENS!

Satan: ‘Simmer down folks, simmer down’

I'd like to see a lot of that with a skating penguin on the shirt

When the Penguins first acquired, I had the same thought as everyone else did…”Satan in a Pens jersey?! WHAT?!” But like the rest of you, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of having the devil on God’s wing (yeah…that’s Sidney Crosby folks…probably already knew that though). He’s a true sniper on a playmaker’s wing. For the first time in his career, Crosby will actually start the year with a true and decent sniper instead of the worst excuses for ‘wings’ as players.

So of course Pens fans get all giddy  at the thought of Sid actually having a sniper on his wing for the whole year. Then of course the expectations have been high for Satan with the visions of him producing possibly scoring 35+ goals (eh, even I expect him to score over 30 but under 35).

But in a recent SI article, Satan is uncertain about meeting our expectations..

“Hopefully, I can meet everyone’s expectations,” Satan said.

Yeah, hopefully he can as well (both for the Pens and my fantasy team). Methinks he starts out slow and of course, Pens fans will make ridiculous threads on LGP stating “WE SHOULD TRADEZ SATAN! HE SUCKZ” Then I think he gradually starts to pick it up and goes on a complete and total rampage to end the season with over 30 goals.

From camp reports on Faceoff-Factor and the Penguins official site, Satan has looked like the REAL DEAL. People are already raving about his chemistry with Crosby. Even though I expect a slow start from Satan, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least bit if him and Crosby ‘hit it off’. They both seem so natural and so…perfect for each other to be successful right away (not trying to make this like a ‘relationship’ thing…sounds a little awkward, I know).

Oh and Crosby has no problem with the devil being on the same line as him…

“He’s a shooter, he’s a goal scorer, that’s no secret,” Crosby said of Satan. “He knows where to go, so my job doesn’t change. I’m usually the one passing, so that’s fine.”

I think you’ll be seeing a lot of 87 to 81 connections this season.

Of course Satan could be a total dud like Recchi was but hey, this is a Penguins blog…Penguins bias 24/7.

LETS GO PENS!

It’s That Time of the Year Again

TRAINING CAMP STARTS TODAY!!! WOOO!!!!! LESS THAN ONE MONTH TILL HOCKEY SEASON!!!

One word: AWESOME!

For those not in the know (though you probably already do know), that ball of an arena is where the Sens and Pens (I can rhyme) will meet up for their two game series in Stockholm, Sweden. Going to be a MAGNIFIENCT site and I hope the Swedish fans are just as pumped as we are.

Might as well make a post about this season then eh?

Top 5 things I’m most looking forward to this hockey season…

1. Jordan Staal – Anxious to see if he can come back from his sophomore slump just a year ago. Something tells me he does.

2. Marc-Andre Fleury – Will he be the same elite goalie we saw in the playoffs? Or will he return to his old form? I’m excited to find out.

3. Janne Pesonen – C’mon, who ISN’T excited to see this guy?

4. The new guys – Should be interesting to see if Satan and Feds can return to their old form with Crosby and Malkin because if they do…watch out.

5. Minor League players – Looking forward to watch Goligoski, Stone, Filewich improve and possibly an appearance or two by Luca Caputi.

With that said…

LETS GO PENS!

Just Keep Re-Stocking ‘Em Baby…

Caputi = Greatest last name EVER!

So as we all know the Penguins ‘core’ is consisted of top first round draft picks who are Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Staal. With the recent success, not many Pens fans have taken a look down at the Pens minor league system in WBS.

That brings in Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review who recently wrote a pretty good article actually prasising the Pens drafting and development. In the article, Rossi made a good point that the Pens don’t need their minor league players to become major impact/star type players. They don’t have to depend on them to make any major replacements. Now of course in the future players like Alex Goligoski might have to actually become effective and make the team when Gonchar retires/leaves. 

However, all the Pens need to depend on players like Goligoski, Ryan Stone, Jonathan Filewich and Luca Caputi (even maybe Janne Pesonen as well) is for them to be useful role players. Possibly playing in the 3rd or 4th line when other players depature or get injured. Add the fact that only one or two of the Pens top prospects might be more than role players in the near future is another reason to believe that they’ll just be role players.

Right now, the Pens are in a great situation. They have so much top-end talent and skill they can depend on to win them games. They don’t have one or two ’saviors’ on their team to step up, they have three or four.

Which brings me to my next point. Is it possible that the Pens are possibly creating a system like the Devils and the Red Wings have?

“They’re in a position every NHL franchise wants to be in, but few have the luxury of being in,” Oke said. “The rapid development of their best prospects has allowed them to start building a ‘Penguins System,’ and that’s the true measure of success for any franchise.

“Only a few franchises — New Jersey and Detroit — have done it. Pittsburgh is going in that direction.”

I never really thought of that ’till now because it takes A LOT of years to build up a system that New Jersey and Detroit has. You need exceptional management and that starts at the top with the GM. Both the Devils and Red Wings have great GM’s in Lou Lamoriello as the Devils GM and Ken Holland as the Red Wings GM. Do I think Ray Shero can be as good as both Lamoriello and Holland? I don’t know, I doubt that. However, I do believe that Shero can and has become a very good GM with most of his deals working out in the Pens favor.

It’d be awesome for the Pens to turn into what the Devils and Red Wings have and have a “Penguins System” but I’m skeptical now.

In other news…

PENGUINS OPEN UP TRAINING CAMP TOMORROW!

I’m pretty damn pumped.

That is all.

LETS GO PENS!

Is Optimism Finally In The Air?

Do you REALLY think he'll let his team struggle?

Yeah, it gets real old after a while. We keep hearing time and time and time again that the Penguins will be taking a big step back like the Senators took last season and so many before them took. We hear this…”HOSSAZ IS GONE THAT MEANS YOU SUCKZZ!!” Well we didn’t suck before him and we won’t suck after him. Yeah, we’re not big fans of suckers which is why we’re Pens fans and not Flyers fans.

Thankfully though the Penguins official website has posted an article that gives us Pens fans the good stuff about our team and not the crap that gets shoved down our throats from the haters. Now of course the Pens official site will post a positive article instead of a negative article because their next negative one they do post will be the first.

However, it does bring up a good point and that is the ‘expierence factor’. In any playoffs in any sport, expierence is essential espically in hockey. Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, and Staal (the core) are all one year better and have something that’s going be extremely important - Stanley Cup expierence.

They know how to get there, they know how to do it. So instead of facing the impossible task of ‘getting there’, it’s more of a ‘ehh been there, done that’. It’ll obviously still be very hard to get back there since the East is getting stronger with the younger teams that are starting to emerge as ‘elite teams’. But what the Pens can say and what the Pens have that the Canadiens, Capitals, Flyers, etc. don’t is the valueable expierence. I’d even have to say the expierence of being smacked by the Wings should help as well. They pretty much know they have to step up their game A LOT in the Stanley Cup Finals and play much better.

Another big reason why many are suggesting the Pens will struggle this year is that the losers of the previous Stanley Cup have a history of taking a big step backwards the next year. But the difference between this year’s Pens team and the past Stanley Cup runners-up is that Stanley Cup runner-ups keep the same roster while the Pens are a completely different team with new additions.

Now that could be a positive or a negative. I’m in a good mood tonight so we’ll start off with the positives.

Good: New players could change the complexity of the team and bring in a new mood that wasn’t there last season. The rest of the team forgets about the players that left and knows they need to form a bond with the new guys. Also, new players are more hungrier to fight out for positions and impress not only the coaches but the entire team. Which then makes the rest of the team up their level of play and make them better. Hungry team = Yikes (espically this one).

Bad: Chemistry is huge in hockey and none of the new guys will have it with the rest of the team. It can screw up timing and potential scoring chances in big games. The team last year was so used to playing and being on each other lines and now it’s a completely new system to work with. Therrian will probably switch lines up every night because of the newbies which will probably cause frustration among the team which will then turn out to be a bigger problem than what it should be. Not this Therrien, please, not this year.

However, in this case, I think I’ll bank on the hope that Satan and Feds will thrive on playing with two of the best player’s in the world. Crosby can make ANYONE look good and Malkin’s getting to the point where he can too. Add that Satan and Feds aren’t as far beyond on their primes as everyone thinks they are and I see the additions becoming plusses for us.

Speaking of ‘87′, I loved this quote from the article…

“I don’t think you can really worry about it,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby told NHL.com. “You have to look at things short-term. When you go that far, you start the next season thinking we have to get back there. That’s where everyone wants to be. But the process of the season doesn’t change because you were there the year before. You have to have a good start. There are different points of the season, whether it be longer road trips or a stretch of divisional games, there are certain points that are big. You have to realize and recognize what they are, the same as you would the year before. If anything, you have to use the experience you’ve gained to your advantage.”

I love it. Absolutely have fallen in love this quote.

First off, it shows that Crosby’s maturing. He realizes that every part of the season is important and you have to worry about what’s happening now instead of the future. The ’expierence factor’ taught him that. Second off, does anyone really think Crosby will let this team struggle? I mean honestly, the kid (no pun intended) is so driven and so hungry that I doubt he’ll let HIS team slip into mediocrocity. After last season’s dissapointment, I bet he’s foaming at the mouth to get back to the SCF.

I’m not predicting the Pens to go back to the SCF. In fact, I got the Pens being upset in the second round. However, this whole crap about them possibly not making the playoffs and finishing in 7th or 8th place and barely making it in is bogus. When you have Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury, all still maturing and growing, you’re not going to barely make the playoffs.

Can’t wait till the season starts and have us prove the haters wrong…again.

LETS GO PENS!

Marian Who?

Bandwagon jumper

Marian Hossa finally has given his reason on to why he left the Pens…

”Obviously, Pittsburgh is going to have a great team still but like I said, at the end of the day I decided to go to Detroit. I just felt there’s a little bit better chance.”

I hate to say it but he IS right. I mean other than Pittsburgh, Detroit truly is the best place to go right now if you want to win the Stanley Cup.

Oh well, I’ve been over him for a while now. You should be too.

Hossa’s a traitor and a tool.

LETS GO PENS!

How’s ‘Geno’s Summer Going You Ask?

In Soviet Russia, offseason PLAYS YOU!!!

*A little change with the way I’ll run things here at TPP. I’ll be doing TPP’s Friday Night ‘Guins every two Fridays instead of every Friday.

A Russian website posted an article a few days ago about our very own, Evgeni Malkin. The article’s in Russian but thankfully someone over at LGP decided to use the translator website to see what the article had in store…

On the chances of him coming back to Russia…

“It’s clear that a lot of money has been invested in KHL. If that continues, it will be a very strong league in a couple of years….. I don’t want to look into the future, not more than a couple of years. I just signed a contract, and you want me to run again? {laughs} But nothing is impossible; Radulov, for example, returned to Russia. If the league is strong, and players keep returning, why not? It’s always more pleasant to play at home, where you have your relatives and fans. But NHL is my choice now.”

Sounds like he wants to stay in the NHL NOW and in the near future. However, as he starts getting to the end of his career he’ll most likely go to Russia. I’m just assuming by the quote above but I wouldn’t be surprised at all and I wouldn’t blame him. Ya know he probably wants to play in his old country some day.

On his summer…

“Resting turned out to be very short. I went to Maldives with my girlfriend, had a great time there, then I went home for a short while, and then to St. Petersburg. There, we trained rather well – Semenov, Gonchar, Kozlov, several young kids. Then back again to Magnitogorsk. A short summer.”

Nice to see he’s training a bit this offseason (of course everyone does but it’s a nice refresher).

Weren’t you tempted to prolong it? Back in your hometown, a lot of entertainment all around…

“There are always temptations. Honestly speaking, I haven’t run completely according to the program. I played tennis with my trainer, but it’s necessary to hit the gym now. I have been strolling around a little, and have been coming back home a little later. Now and then, it’s a little tough to keep myself withing the limits, but training is crucial now, one has to understand that.”

At the same time though, Malkin has a life and of course he’s gonna spend some extra ’sexy time’ with his woman. Though he’s probably hitting the gym HARD now, he has a party side to him. That man cracks me up.

In what mood you will return back to Pittsburgh? You have already signed a new big contract with the Penguins – how will this influence your emotions in the upcoming season?

“The main thing now is not to weaken. My future is set, money will not disappear , but it is necessary to prove that the club doesn’t pay me for nothing.”

AWESOME quote right there saying he has to prove himself to the franchise. Shows he’s going to keep on trying to get better and work harder and make the team around him better. That’s what builds a Stanley Cup team. Guys like that, that have the type of passion and strive for the game to be champions.

CAN’T WAIT to see ‘Geno this year. Amazing year last year, it’ll be interesting to see how he performs next year.

LETS GO PENS!

Just Some Whoa’s and Some Aww’s

I got a hunch about Goski...

Every season, every team expierences certain players that come out of nowhere and play beyond what they were expected to. Then certian players do exactly what they weren’t expected to and aren’t as good as they once were.

In this situtation, the Penguins were obviously no different than anyone else as they had some surprises (POOTIE TANG, Tyler Kennedy) and some dissapointments (Jordan Staal, Ryan Whitney).

My predictions on the surprises and dissapointments for the 08/09 year…

Surprises:

Alex Goligoski – I like the kid. Saw a few of his highlights and I think he’ll make a POOTIE TANG type impact this year. He should be able to fit right into the Pens system as an offensive d-man and work on the powerplays a bit.

Miroslav Satan – Satan having a solid season on Crosby’s line probably wouldn’t surprise me or any other Penguins fans but it’d definitely shock non-Penguins fans. Satan’s has been averaging 28 goals per season in his whole career and he’ll have the best linemate/center he’s ever got/has had in Crosby yet many are doubting him. He’s had a very good career so far but he just didn’t play well the past two seasons which makes people believe he’s not the same player he used to be (even though he played with some putrid players like Mike Sillinger). I expect really good numbers out of Satan this year…

Dissapointments:

Ruslan Fedotenko – Of course, Feds, like Satan didn’t have his usual breakout seasons like he usually does with the Islanders. Even though I don’t neccessarily think he’ll be ‘bad’, I just don’t think he’ll be as good as people excpect him to be. I can see him getting shuffled up between the second and third line and living up to expectations.

Janne Pesonen – I know he’s the ‘fan favorite’ right now and everyone’s excited to see him and hey, so am I but on Crosby’s line to start the season? I don’t think so. He first needs expierence and right now he has none of it. Then he has to actually MAKE the team let alone playing on the first line and instead getting sent down to WBS. I think he’ll be a solid bottom-6 guy by the end of the year but I doubt he gets on Crosby’s line unless he plays UNREAL this year.

I only picked two which I know there could be more on both sides.

Lets hope for more surprises than dissapointments though!

LETS GO PENS!

All You Need Is Love…

Sid's ole' trained chimpanzee

A few days ago I made a post ripping Mike Toth for his article stating that the ‘Pens would struggle to make the playoffs’. Then just a couple days ago, USA Today sports writer Kevin Allen posted his 16 top teams where the Pens come in third in the entire NHL.

Now I’m not going praise this article just because he has the Pens third. Like I’ve said before, if you have solid reasons on to why the Pens will struggle to make the playoffs, I’ll understand and hear them out. However, as we all know I ripped Toth’s article for the reasons he so idiotically stated and not his opinion on why the Pens will struggle to make the playoffs.

3. Pittsburgh Penguins: I’m not sure I believe Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko can make up for the loss of Hossa and Ryan Malone. But I do believe that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin can be among the scoring leaders even if they had a trained chimpanzee on their wing. The Penguins will be in the Stanley Cup mix as long as Crosby is captain.

“But I do believe that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin can be among the scoring leaders even if they had a trained chimpanzee on their wing”…HA! Scary thing is…it’s true.

To be truthfully honest, I don’t believe the Pens are a top 3 team in the NHL. I think they lost too much with top-shelf players like Hossa and Malone and lost too much grit and toughness in Ruutu and Laraque. The Pens are a top 5 team though. Any team with the caliber of Crosby and Malkin, plus a near (and improving) elite goalie in Fleury are a sure fire bet to be a top 5 team.

Along with his Penguins ranking, I do disagree with him about some other teams/rankings…

I do not believe that the Habs are the second best team in the league. Like the Pens, they ARE a top 5 team and have the potential to be the second best team, but I don’t think they’re there yet. First in the East? Well that’s obviously maintainable as they won it last year but I’m not buying the Habs as the number two yet.

Sharks and Stars should move up one spot.

I REALLY disagree with the Devils as the seventh best team in the league. Brodeur can only take them so far and last time I checked you need to score more goals than the other team to win which is something that the Devils struggle at. Sure the addition of Rolston will definitely help but I don’t think he’s enough. Add that Paul Martin is NOT a number one defenseman and don’t expect Colin White or Bryce Salvador to be either.

Though every year I say this and they end up winning the Atlantic…damn Devils.

I got a funny feeling about the Senators this year, I don’t know why but I think they should be a couple spots ahead. They experienced a lot injuries last year and a lot of adversity as well. If that team can stay healthy, they have a real shot at beating out the Habs in the Northeast. Don’t be surprised to see the Sens shock a few people and maybe even win their own division. Remember this team still has the three headed monster in Alfredsson, Heatley, and Spezza.

The Lightning are getting overrated so incredibly much this off-season. Sure they added a bunch of offense but the thing is…that wasn’t their problem last year. Their problems were at defense and goaltending and they did nothing to improve on that. Sure they should rack up a bunch of goals but I honestly believe the 08/09 Bolts = 05/06 Penguins. Bunch of hype of how good they CAN be but end up faltering because they didn’t sure up their weaknesses.

Other than that, it was a pretty good list (though I knocked him for his rankings a good bit). Of course though I’ll look at this at the end of the season and nothing that he or anyone else predicted became true (okay maybe the Wings predictions…they’re loaded…ugh).

LETS GO PENS!

Line Combo Predictions

Staal will center the third line...for now.

As I’ve been pondering about what to write for TPP, I realized I never made my predictions for opening night lines…

Dupuis-Crosby-Satan

Fedotenko-Malkin-Sykora

Pesonen-Staal-Talbot

Kennedy-Taffe-Cooke

Probably the most obvious line combos but this is honestly the way I see it being played out.

On the first line, Satan on Crosby’s line is a no-brainer, it’s why we signed him. I like Dupuis on Crosby’s line because he was actually solid with Crosby and Hossa last season during the playoffs. I sort of like having a guy like Dupuis on a line with two goal scorers (well Crosby is more of a playmaker but you know what I mean). He’s not a typical first liner but what I like about Dupuis is that he takes advantage of the opportunity to be on Crosby’s line. Plus he has experience/chemistry with him already.

The second line will probably won’t surprise you at all either. Sykora should be on Malkin’s line the whole year as the both of them really started to produce towards the end of the year and during the playoffs. Even though I have Feds starting out on the second line to begin the year, I have a feeling he’ll be soon replaced by Staal who many have pegged as Malkin’s wing-man. However for right now, I see Feds on the second line to see if he can return to his old form when he was with Tampa a couple years ago.

On the third line, I obviously have Staal as the center (though like I said, I expect that to change). I like Talbot on the third line because I think he’s too good to be buried on the fourth line as the natural center. Plus his energy is too good for him to be on the fourth line. Then you have the man that everyone has been raving about…Janne Pesonen. Right now, I like Pez as a third liner because I feel he needs more experience to be on Crosby’s line (where a lot are predicting him to be). So for him to start out on the third line would be perfect. He has some good speed to be on the energy line and can chip in a few (but not enough to be on the first two lines…yet).

I don’t know why but I like Jeff Taffe. He’s a perfect fourth line player and is a big body (though he needs to throw it around more). I have Tyler Kennedy as a fourth liner but he’ll probably get bumped up and down from the fourth line to the third line. Kennedy is a great third/fourth liner as he’s like the Energizer Bunny, he never ever stops going and going and going. I also feel Cooke will make the lineup over Godard. Cooke is pretty decent agitator that can score every once in a while while Godard is good for fighting. I think Cooke too will be moved from the fourth line to the third line like Kennedy.

On opening day of course, you’ll see something similar to this but then Therrien, as well all know, will change up the lineups every other game.

LETS GO PENS!