The Penguins beat the Bruins 4-2, but they lost Mark Eaton to a knee injury.
PREGAME
-After interviewing Darryl Sydor, Dan Potash says, "Thanks for the time dude." Awesome.
-Is it us or does Darryl Sydor kind of look like comedian Jeffrey Ross?
-Jeff Jimerson. What more can we say about the best anthem singer in the solar system?
-Ryan Malone and Brooks Orpik (again?) are scratched for the Penguins.
-The Bruins scratched Brandon Bochenski and Bobby Allen.
-Ty Conklin gets the start in net for the Penguins.
FIRST PERIOD
16:12: Zdeno Chara throws a puck on net. Ty Conklin saves it high but gives up a pretty nice rebound. P.J. Axelsson jumps on it and pounds it by Conklin. Bruins 1-0.
14:11: Tyler Kennedy slams Matt Hunwick into the door leading to the Penguins bench. The glass at the top of the door falls out into the runway and hits Post-Gazette photographer Peter Diana in the head. Play still goes on.
13:10: We're not quite sure if we should be disgusted by the greed or impressed by the resourcefulness, but FSN Pittsburgh actually has a sponsor for the glass repair.
11:36: Alex Auld is still wearing a Phoenix Coyotes helmet. Weak.
10:43: Already on a penalty kill, Dennis Wideman slashes Evgeni Malkin's stick breaking it. He gets two minutes and the Penguins get a two-man advantage.
8:43: Both penalties expire with the Penguins only getting one shot on net. It's always a complete failure in our book if you fail to score on a two-man advantage.
0:37: Kennedy centers a pass from the corner to Petr Sykora. He kicks it to his blade and snaps a quick wrister that Auld makes a fine leg save on.
0:00: End of a pretty flat period. Bruins 1, Penguins 0.
FIRST INTERMISSON
-Boston owned an 11-10 advantage in shots.
-One of the advantages of our seats in D-7 is there's a luxury suite behind us with a pretty big flat screen on the wall. We were able to watch the final moments of the Bengals 19-14 win against the Browns on it.
-The sight of Evgeni Malkin and Colby Armstrong sharing an ammonia tablet for whatever reason makes us laugh.
SECOND PERIOD
19:17: Public address announcer John Barbero announces today's game is the 800th of Sykora's career.
17:44: Erik Christensen swoops behind the Bruins' net and drops a pass for Georges Laraque. Laraque spots Roberts in the entering the crease and snaps a quick pass to Roberts who bangs it past Auld. Fantastic pass by Laraque. Song 2 by Blur. Bruins 1, Penguins 1.
17:08: The Bruins try to get it back as Vladimir Sobotka tries to sneak in a back-handed wrap-around. It dinks off the far post and is cleared out however.
15:15: The Bengals-Browns score is flashed on the video board. Cheers.
13:51: Sykora grabs a loose puck, spins and fires a low shot. Auld alertly gloves it to stop play.
8:07: Racing for a loose puck along the boards, Chuck Kobasew leaves his feet and sticks an elbow into Sydor's face. A whistle is blown. Armstrong shoves Kobasew who gets two minutes.
6:56: Jordan Staal grabs a loose puck and skates into traffic with it. He slides a pass over Malkin in the left faceoff circle and Malkin unleashes a disgusting shot that beats Auld on the near side top shelf. No goaltender is stopping that shot. Sergei Gonchar gets the 400th assist of his career. Penguins 2-1.
6:26: Break them out. Roberts bring the puck into Bruins zone along the left side. He moves in towards the net and sends a pass to the other side of the crease where Laraque is able to get his stick down and re-direct it past Auld. It is his 50th career goal and he jumps into the boards celebrating as if Bruce Willis just saved the world from an asteroid:
(What an awful movie, even in Spanish.)
6:08: Marco Sturm slew-foots Mark Eaton behind the Penguins net. Eaton limps to his feet. Sturm should be kicked out of the game for that one. That's a match penalty by the book.
5:55: With Eaton still hobbling, Marc Savard drives to the net and shoots low. Conklin stacks the pads and denies him. Axelsson jumps on the rebound but can't beat Conklin.
5:40: Eaton is finally able to get to the bench.
3:36: With a television time-out, Eaton leaves the bench and goes to the locker room.
1:08: Christensen and Roberts come down on a two-on-one against Wideman. Christensen elects to pass and Wideman swats it away. Christensen needs to shoot that. He's got the best shot on the team.
0:56: Roberts takes a tripping penalty.
0:00: End of period. Penguins 3, Bruins 1.
SECOND INTERMISSON
-The Bruins will have 1:03 of power play time on clean ice to start the third period.
-Cotton candy heeeee!!!! Cotton candy heeee!!!
-Mike Yeo is interviewed before the third period. World peace is surely around the corner.
THIRD PERIOD
18:50: Paul Steigerwald tells us Mark Eaton will miss the remainder of the contest with a knee injury. He labels the play he was injured on as "dirty." We'd call it wreckless more than dirty. We're not sure Sturm intentionally took Eaton's leg out from him. Either way, the NHL should address it.
7:09: Jarkko Ruutu picks up a loose puck in the neutral zone and enters the offensive zone. He fake a shot then fires a soft wrister on net. Auld made the save and Ruutu goes for the rebound. Wideman trips Ruutu and his skate kicks Auld in the face. Auld falls to the ice and is stunned for several minutes. It's a scary scene but thankfully Auld's mask saved him. Jacques Plante, the inventor of the goaltender mask, is smiling in heaven. Auld gets to his feet and is given a polite applause.
6:32: Gonchar fires a slapper on net and Auld makes the save. Malkin grabs the rebound and tries to backhand it high but it flies completely over the crease.
5:41: Despite Cotton-Eyed Joe being busted out several "fans" leave the arena. Inexcusable.
1:25: Auld leaves the net for an extra attacker.
0:53: With the puck bouncing around the slot, Peter Schaefer hacks at it and it deflects off Rob Scuderi and goes under Conklin's pads. Penguins 3, Bruins 2.
0:44: Auld leaves the ice again for an extra attacker.
0:09: Crosby and Kobasew race for a loose puck in the neutral zone. Kobasew falls over and the puck goes into the corner. Crosby dives trying to score the empty net goal and it hits the post. The puck deflects out to the slot where Gary Roberts slams it home for one of us. Penguins 4-2.
0:00: End of game. Penguins 4, Bruins 2.
POSTGAME
-Best Jerseys we saw: Phil Bourque, Shawn McEachern, Martin Straka, Zigmund Palffy, Johan Hedberg, Tim Thomas (The jersey itself wasn't all that impressive, but the fact that someone had a Tim Thomas jersey was), Ron Francis.
-Tyler Kennedy played like he was playing in his last game. You'd think Kennedy was in Michel's Therrien's dog house given the effort he put out.
-Was it us or did Malki have a rough game (aside from the sick goal of course). He had a few turnovers and just looked sloppy in general.
-Gary Roberts' last two-goal game came on Dec. 19, 2006 as a member of the Florida Panthers in a 7-3 win at Toronto.
-He actually already had two career three-point games as a Penguin before last night. Both occurred last season. He had a goal and two assists in a 5-0 win against Boston March 25 and in a 4-3 win against the Flyers March 4.
-Laraque's last two-point game came as a member of the Coyotes in a 3-2 win against the Predators, Dec. 4, 2006.
-You don't really get a grasp of how big Chara is until you see him in person dwarfing guys like Jordan Staal who is 6-foot-4.
-The "big three" had the most time on the ice among the Penguins' forwards: Crosby (21:41), Malkin (20:36) and Staal (21:30).
-Conklin quietly shut the Bruins down for the most part by making 28 saves.
-Claude Julien's head never fails to captivate us.
-The Penguins had their 31st consecutive sell out.
EMPTY NETTER ASSISTS
Penguins
-The Penguins' power play is as messy as it seems.
-Why has Brooks Oprik been sitting?
-The Confluence of the Three Rivers takes a look at Ray Shero's body of work.
Atlantic Division
-An overtime goal by Patrik Elias gave the Devils a 1-0 win at Calgary. Martin Brodeur made 30 saves to record his 95th career shutout and broke a tie for second place all-time with George Hainsworth for shutouts. Only Terry Sawchuk (103) has more than Brodeur.
Northeast Division
-Martin Gerber made 34 saves for the Senators in a 3-1 road win against the Rangers.
-Mike Ribeiro had a goal and two assist for the Canadiens in a 4-1 win against his former team, the Canadiens.
-Senators coach John Paddock said some less than peachy things about his team recently.
-The Senators recalled forward Lawrence Nycholat from Binghamton of the AHL.
Southeast Division
-Marian Hossa's overtime goal gave the Thrashers a 3-2 win at St. Louis. Former Penguin Mark Recchi had a goal and an assist. He has eight points in seven games with Atlanta. Hmm...
Central Division
-Brent Seabrook had two goals for the Blackhawks who edged the Oilers, 3-2.
-Check out this cheap shot Chicago's Martin Lapointe laid out on Edmtonon's Ales Hemsky:
-Disgusting. Lapointe deserves a suspension. This is why the NHL is still a joke in many ways. Hemsky is one of the league's most entertaining players. Lapointe is a mucker and grinder and he could've ended Hemsky's season with that hit. As a fan, who would you rather see on the ice?
-Chris Mason made 30 saves for the Predators in a 3-1 win at Columbus.
Northwest Division
-Marek Svatos (one of our favorite names) had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche in a 3-1 defeat of the rival Canucks.
Campbell Conference
-Is the NHL doing enough concerning concussions?
-ESPN's David Amber lists the top ten oddities in NHL history.
-We haven't linked to this site in a while so we're due. The wonderful NHL Tournament of Logos will be staging a polling tournament for the worst logo in the NHL.
First Published: December 24, 2007, 3:45 p.m.
