Puck Bunny Link In Honor Of The First Day Of Regular Season Play

I'm a little embarrassed to link here.

This image is totally manipulated, 'cause Staalsy (6'4"), Geno (6'3") and Flower (6'2") are all so much taller than Sid (5'11").  New guy Mike Comrie's only 5'10" so there is that.

But dayum, those boys are just so cute.

I'm Ready to Talk About the Heartache

We know how you feel, Jordan. Now come over here and let Mama make you feel better.

No, not that heartache. That one's for me and me alone.

I'm talking about the fact that my Penguins knocked themselves out of contention for another Cup in the 2nd round of the playoffs.

The Pens just didn't look like they were all there from the last handful of regular season games all the way through Rounds 1 and 2. Too many line changes, not enough chemistry between linemates (except when Geurin, Crosby, and Dupuis were matched up), Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar practically disappearing at times (hello? You guys are a couple of the highest-paid players in the League, you make a combined $14 mil a year, show up and EARN it, dammit!), Jordan Staal not getting the support on the wing that he needs and deserves, not to mention a potentially season-ending injury at the skate of PK Subban...I could go on and on, but the list is too depressing.

My friend Ed is a big Rangers fan, constantly frustrated, because in his words, "sometimes they go out and play like they're the best team in the NHL." He could have been talking about the Penguins. In fact, toward the end of the season, when I was scratching my head at the bush-league level of Pens play, he kept telling me not to lose faith. "They can lift their game at will," Ed told me. And occasionally we saw that happen. It just didn't happen often or consistently enough.

After playing over 300 games since the 2008-09 season, plus sending their 5 stars to the Olympics this year, the Penguins just didn't have enough gas left in the tank for a playoff run into the Cup final. Had they made it, it would have been on vapors, prayers, and with the assistance of angels.

Unfortunately, those things were in short supply this season in Pittsburgh, and the Penguins have packed up their lockers at Mellon Arena for the final time, to face a long summer of golf and soul-searching, to see what changes need to be made, and hopefully get enough rest for 2010-11.

Here are my thoroughly inexpert predictions for who we'll see and who we won't next season:

1) Cool your jets. Crosby, Malkin, and Staal are all staying put. They eat up a HUGE chunk of salary cap space, but c'mon, you've got a Richard trophy, a Conn Smythe trophy and a Selke finalist on your first three lines. Do you really think Ray Shero's gonna mess with them?

2) Sergei Gonchar is probably gone. He enters free agency this year, and the Pens really can't afford a $5 million dollar a year, 36-year-old defenseman who doesn't produce like he used to.

3) Bill Guerin -- gone. Billy G has been crucial to the Pens' success these past couple of seasons. But let's face it. He turns 40 in November. The old man has GOT to be plain exhausted. He can't go out and fight ALL the fights. In my fantasy, Bill puts on a tie and gets behind the bench to work on the Penguins' lame-ass Power Play. I know, it's a fantasy, but it's MY fantasy, and I can do whatever I want with it. Plus, I love Guerin in Pittsburgh. Handsome or not handsome (Bill is on that cusp of ugly-gorgeous), he raises the hotness quotient of the team immeasurably.

4) Ponikarovsky was an experiment that failed. Buh-bye.

5) I'm still on the fence about Jordan Leopold.

6) I guess I wasn't paying attention to Mike Rupp throughout the season, but then again, he might be one of those guys who steps up and shines in the playoffs. I mean, his first playoff goal, ever, won the Stanley Cup for the NJ Devils in 2003. So the kid's got something (kid! Hah! Guy's 30, which makes him a kid in my book but practically a senior citizen in the NHL.) Anyway, I loved his play in the playoffs, and for some reason I was really confused and got it in my head he was some kind of defenseman. Maybe it was because he plays without a shield on his helmet, maybe it was his broken-up face, maybe it was all the fights. Surprise! He's a working-class center. Keep him on the 4th line, I like him there.

7) Sigh. Matt Cooke. The player you hate to love. We have our own version of Sean Avery in the city of Three Rivers. Bad reputation but a more-than-competent, quick and agile playmaker. Shit! He was a real contributor to what little success the Pens managed to scrape up in these playoffs.

8) Fleury ain't going nowhere. Flower won the Stanley Cup. Had a so-so season and dismal playoffs, but he won us a Cup. That counts for something. Plus, he's just so purty.

Well, here's where I bid adieu to the Penguins for the season.

And let's hope for a Blackhawks-Canadiens Final. I'd love to see two Original Six teams battling down to the wire. And secretly, even though they destroyed the Washington Capitols and the Pittsburgh Penguins, I'm quietly rooting for the Habs.

They're scrappy.

And you know Jane loves her some scrappy.

Flower Power - Round 2, Game 3, Pens 2- Habs 0

(Image: AP) Can you do that?

The Montreal Canadiens, who in Round 1 eliminated the Washington Capitols through sheer cussedness, have decided they aren't going to make this easy for the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Last night was a battle of the defenses and goalies, with playoff (and Stanley Cup-winner) veteran Marc-Andre Fleury and surprise-star Montreal goaltender Jaroslav Halak both performing brilliantly in the net for their teams. Fleury came up aces for the Pens, winning a hard-fought shutout against an extremely determined Montreal squad, 2-0. While it wasn't a shooting game (Fleury stopped just 18 shots, but some of those saves were definitely highlight-reel material), sometimes a great defensive game can be as entertaining as the 50-shot nights.

Both netminders held their opponents scoreless through 2 periods, until Sidney Crosby scrapped with former NY Ranger Scott Gomez near the close of the 2nd. Former Penguin Hal Gill got involved, and the ref sat him down. Pittsburgh would start the 3rd period on a power play.

Gill is possibly the slowest player in the NHL, but he is a tremendously effective shutdown defenseman, and he has shown in the last few games that he knows better than anyone how to hold off Crosby around the net. No superstar during regulation play, Gill is a steady go-to presence on the ice at playoff time. Not to mention, the guy is a monster. Standing 6-7 in his bare feet, Gill has the clear bulk advantage over the relatively small (5-11) Crosby, but what Crosby lacks in size, he more than makes up for with agility, speed, and skill.

During these playoffs, we haven't seen much of last year's Conn Smythe winner, Evgeni Malkin. Sometimes it seems to me that Malkin's like that kid in the Little League who's out in center field, woolgathering and blowing dandelion puffs into the wind. Sometimes he just doesn't seem all that engaged, either in the game or with his linemates, seemingly drifting in circles in the neutral zone. Then all of a sudden, a puck will skitter in his direction and you'll realize that Malkin's been there all along, biding his time. He'll seize the puck and galoomph down the ice with it, with his frankly ugly skating style (Malkin's all elbows and assholes when he's going end to end, I swear he looks like he's doing the Charleston) that makes you overlook the things that he's doing with his stick to control the puck. Seventy-six seconds into the 3rd period, off a pass from his compatriot Sergei Gonchar, Malkin sneaked a one-timer past a screening Crosby at Halak's net, scoring the first, and winning, goal of the game.

"First two power plays, we played not very good," Malkin said. "After second period, we talked a lot and we just moved the puck. Quick move of puck opened net and just shoot. Not too hard. Just move puck." His English exhausted, Malkin then resumed pointing and grunting.

The rest of the period was merely a waiting game. The Penguins just had to hold off the Habs for the rest of regulation, which they did, playing blue-collar defense to win the shutout for Fleury. There were a few confusing moments at the end of the period, as Jacques Martin couldn't seem to decide whether to pull Halak to put the sixth man on, or keep him in net. We saw a lot of Halak gliding back and forth between the Habs' bench and the goal crease, until he was pulled for good. Pittsburgh took the opportunity to steal the puck one last time, and Pascal Dupuis tapped in an empty-netter to close out the game.

If the rest of the series continues as it's started, with the team's marquee players being ground down by the opposition's defense, Round 3 will seem like a cakewalk to whichever team wins.

Still keeping an eye on PK Subban. Kid's really good.

Pens 2-Montreal 0

Pens lead the series 2-1.

Next game: Thursday at Montreal, 7pm on Versus