Holy Goalie!

                                 photo by Lisa Ovens (from Mesh Galleria)

by Jan Snyder

This NHL season there are plenty of goalie stories out there, both good and bad.

After watching the Pens again get shellacked by Halak this season, I’m more than willing to believe he is the real deal. The opposite of Halak is Marty Brodeur, who hasn’t looked anything like the Hall of Fame goalie we know he is so far this year.

Pens’ goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, has gotten off to a slow start to say the least, while Sergie Bobrovsky of the Flyers is one of four goalies in the league with eight wins already.

No doubt, goalies are the divas of the teams, just like starting pitchers in baseball and quarterbacks in football. As they go, their teams go. Goalies have been known to act a little crazy with rituals and superstitions. Fleury himself runs onto the ice and that proved to be embarrassing during a playoff game when he fell flat on his face as he entered the arena!

Marty Biron, back up to King Henrik Lundqvist in New York, has worn the same skates for 12 years!

Jocelyn Thibault, now retired, had a habit of pouring water over his head exactly six and a half minutes before the game started.

My personal favorite goalie, Patrick Roy, talked to his goalposts every game. When asked why he did that, he replied, “Because they are my friends.” Roy also made it a point to never step on the red or blue lines.

                                 net photo by Andrew Lavigne

Okay, they are a little quirky, these goalies, but we have to love that about them, don’t we? Whatever works for them. So maybe Fleury’s teammates need to come up with some new superstition for him. Maybe he should kiss the first puck before they drop it. How about if he tiptoes out to his goal? Could he meditate for ten minutes before the game begins? We’ve got to think of something to get him out of his funk.

In the meantime, it’s no fluke that the goalies whose teams are in first place in the divisions are the ones who are producing. In the East, Montreal leads the Northeast Division with Carey Price in goal. They don’t seem to miss Halak much, do they?

The Atlantic Division leader, much to my chagrin, is the Philadephia Flyers with our old buddy, Bob (Sergei Bobrovsky) in goal. He is personally responsible for ruining the Pens first game at the Consol.

The Southeast Division leader is the Caps with Michal Neuvirth in goal. He’s already amassed eight wins this season – but he has quite the fire power in front of him with the Great 8, Semin, etc. to score plenty of goals for him. Last year’s hot goalie, Semyon Varlamov, has won only two games for Washington so far.

Out west, in the Central Division, Halak is in control for the Blues stopping just about every puck that comes his way, while in the Pacific Division the quick Jonathon Quick has totaled up eight wins on a team that is thriving – and looks good with mullets! In case you didn’t see it, the whole team wore mullet wigs in practice the other day in honor of Ryan Smyth’s 1,000 game.

In the Northwest, Roberto Luongo is producing admirably for Vancouver with assists from the Sedins and Ryan Kesler helping him out.

Another goalie of note is the steady Tim Thomas in Boston. He’s led his team to seven victories and sits in first place in goals against. He and Halak lead the NHL in shutouts with three in this young season.

I can’t leave out Brent Johnson in Pittsburgh and the way he has stepped in and stepped up while Fleury finds his way. He’s made some amazing saves and kept the Pens in a few games. Can Johnson keep winning for the Pens? Can Fleury find the quirk, superstition, sports psychologist, whatever, to get him back to the Fleury we know and love? Only time and more games on the schedule will tell.

Pens/ Habs Game Seven:There’s No Crying in Hockey

by Jan Snyder


Pens Lose Game 7
Montreal wins series


However, there is room for a tear or two for the old Arena. Somehow this loss bookends Mellon Arena’s many years. The Pens lost the first game played there and now have lost the last ever. Lots of memories over those many years. I’ll always remember going to games with my Dad, my Mom, my brothers, my sister, my daughter, my son, my son-in-law, and with all my friends, especially Karen and Pat, and all the fun we always had, win or lose. I will treasure those memories of watching #66 work his magic, #68 and his flowing locks, and of course enjoying the current crop of Penguins.

As this wacky playoff season goes on, the number eight seed advances in the east. Pittsburgh starts their offseason after powerhouse teams like New Jersey, Washington and Buffalo started theirs. Odd turn of events all the way around.

But let’s hand it to Montreal and especially to Halak. He’s proved now that he’s the real deal stopping the best players on Washington and Pittsburgh. P.K. Subban will be fun to watch for years to come and we know how good Hal Gill can be, but we prefer seeing him do what he does when he’s on our team. I agree with the announcers who said Pittsburgh didn’t lose, Montreal won. Very true as they played a team game and did what they had to do all the way through the series. How many times did I jump off the couch, thinking Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Gonchar, etc. had scored a “sure” goal, only to watch Halak gobble up the puck?

Losing possession of the Stanley Cup is hard, but makes us appreciate how lucky we were to have it for one season. The Pens will come back strong next year in their new home and will want to start with a win and a winning season – maybe another Stanley Cup season?

This may sound strange, but I am jumping on the Montreal bandwagon. I am, as Lisa will attest, a proponent of having as many Canadian teams in the playoffs as possible. After all, it’s their game, so they should be participating. Since they are the only team from Canada left, I will now be their fan. I can’t root for Boston or Philly (that would be impossible, not to mention sacrilegious), so if I want an eastern team to win the Cup, it may as well be the one that knocked out my team from the tournament. Congrats, Montreal!

And in the west – no Pens fan wants to watch Marion Hossa hoist the Cup, so we’ll be pulling for the Sharks.

The boys had a great year and gave us many more exciting memories. Watching Sid fight until the final game for the scoring championship was one. Now they can get some rest and be back in the fall, on a really fresh sheet of ice, ready to rock us again!

Thanks, Pens, it was a great run!

Game Seven, Smoke Monster and Bobbleheads

Pens Lose Game 6 in Montreal
series tied 3-3

by Jan Snyder




Things were looking up. Hal Gill couldn’t play, Spacek hadn’t played in awhile. The Pens were up by a game in the series – just needed that one more win in Montreal.

Turned out to be easier said than done. The crowd, which more and more reminds me of the smoke monster on Lost, upped their decibal level (which I didn’t think was possible) and it wound its way around the Bell Centre creating so much cachophony that we could barely hear the announcers.

Cammelleri got the scoring started quickly in the first and brought the fans an encore in the second, scoring his second of the night. Sid finally broke through with a goal and Letang rang up another power play goal.

At just about the time we thought Spacek would fold, he scored instead to end the second period. The third featured two power plays for Montreal and one for the Pens but neither team was able to connect. Lapierre scored a nice goal putting Montreal up 4-2, but the Pens never go easily.

Guerin scored to make it 4-3 with a couple of minutes left, but although the Pens gave it the old college try, they couldn’t get another puck past Halak to tie it up.

Lisa talked about how she hoped the Canucks used up all their bad luck. Tonight was a similar deal for the Pens, as they hit three, ding, dong, ding, three posts in one period! A quick whistle in the first caused a goal by Geno to be called back and all our bounces tonight were bad ones.

Sooooo, back to Pittsburgh for a Game Seven! Such drama – who would have expected it in the second round? But Pittsburgh fans can be loud too, especially in a huge game like this one will be. They remember the celebrations last year, they remember walking down the streets after these big wins honking car horns and screaming, Let’s Go, Pens! They remember that sunny parade day as Sid hoisted the Cup for everyone to see. And so does the team. Game Sevens are fun, nerve-wracking, but fun! We can do it!

Let’s Go, Pens!

Random thoughts

• The other Eastern semi- final is just as crazy. After Boston went up 3-0, they now let the Flyers creep back into the series and it now stands at 3-2. Boucher, the Flyer goalie, went out in this game. We’ll have to see if he can come back for the next game.

• The beardless Canucks pulled out a big win at United Center on Sunday but will need to do the same on Tuesday, but like the Pens, they will be back at home to do it.

• This afternoon on NHL Live, E. J. Hradek was talking to Joe Thornton’s bobblehead. The whole thing was hysterical as E. J. shook “Joe” to make it look like he was answering his questions. Maybe I’m just easily amused, but I was laughing out loud!

• Wow, at the World Championships in Germany, they are playing hockey in soccer stadiums that hold 77,000. Team USA isn’t doing too well, but we’ll have to see how it goes.

The Defense Never Rests

by Jan Snyder


Pens Win at Home, 2-1
Pens lead series 3-2


Game Five in Pittsburgh! Billy Guerin is back in and Letestu is too. Fedotenko and Ponikarovsky are out; would those personnel moves make a difference?

Starting much like they left off the other night, the Pens and Canadiens battled right from the drop of the puck. Mike Rupp slapped a puck that hit Halak on the side of the head and left him a little groggy. The Pens tried to take advantage of that and kept firing shots at the goal, but with no luck.

With just a little over two minutes left in the first period, the Pens went on the power play. Making up for what happened in the last game, Kris Letang scored, assisted by Geno and Gonch. The Pens decided to then play a little game amongst themselves called “Let’s See Who Can Check their Guy the Hardest”. Bodies were flying!

Montreal then got its own power play but couldn’t score. In one great sequence, first Halak made an impossible save, and then Fleury did the same at the other side just as the period was ending.

In the second period, the defense went into action, as Gonchar scored assisted by Orpik. Geno was on a mission and although he didn’t score, he did everything but. He was everywhere, even at one point, imitating Sid’s dance behind the net. Seeing his parents in Mellon Arena again was a nice treat and having them there seemed to give Geno some extra jump in his step!

Then the real nerve-wracking part of the game started. With just a couple of minutes left, Montreal went on the power play and threw everything they had at Fleury. After he stopped several bouncing pucks, one got through him and the score was 2-1. Could the Pens hold them off? They tried to score again, but struck out on three attempts at empty net goals! But even with that, they were able to successfully defend and wrap up game five with a big win.

Again the goalies were the story, but Pittsburgh’s defense got a big assist in the win. Sid worked and worked, but still couldn’t score and in fact, was one of the ones who missed an empty net! Since Hal Gill was injured in the game, we’ll see if Sid can come out firing (and less impeded) on Monday back in Montreal. Guerin again made a better door than window in front of Halak and Letsetu had an assist.

The Pens need just one more game in the second race to four…

LET’S GO, PENS!


Random Thoughts:

• Sorry those guys dressed up like green beans (instead of human bein’s) in Vancouver have got to go! They are adding nothing.

• Quite a comeback last night for the Flyers. They live to play another day.