How sweet it is!

Your Pittsburgh Penguins are the Stanley Cup Champions for the third time in franchise history, for the first time since 1992, and they are only the fourth team in NHL history to win the Cup after trailing two games to none in the Finals. Unbelievable!

All the hockey analysts and columnists can eat their words. The Penguins not only dethroned the ‘Big Red Machine’ and exacted their revenge on the Red Wings, but they did it by winning Game 7 in thrilling fashion, beating Detroit at the Joe Louis Arena in so-called ‘Hockeytown’ last night by a score of 2-1.

Sidney Crosby, who led the playoffs with 15 goals, is now the youngest captain in NHL history to lift Lord Stanley's Cup

Not even Muhammad Ali wearing a Red Wings jersey could stop this amazing, resilient Penguins team. Neither could a devastating leg injury to Sidney Crosby courtesy of a borderline cheap shot by Johan Franzen halfway in the second period.

Crosby missed basically the second half of the game last night and only played 9:59, but he did come back, so hopefully it’s not a serious injury and he’ll recover quickly so he can train on time to be ready for next season.

Sid was on the bench for the rest of the game and played only one shift in the third period. But he was healthy enough to do one final thing – lift Lord Stanley’s Cup, and in the process he became the youngest captain in NHL history to do so.

Crosby’s detractors have now been completely silenced. He led the playoffs in goals with 15 and added 16 assists. If anyone tells you that Crosby can’t score goals, remind them that in the sport’s biggest stage, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Pens’ phenom scored 15 goals in 24 games.

Evgeni Malkin won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, becoming the second Penguin ever to win perhaps the most impressive and prestigious individual award in the NHL. His 36 points led the playoffs, and he became the first Russian player to win the Smythe.

As for one Marian Hossa, who had only 3 assists and no goals in the series, he signed with Detroit because he said he thought he’d have a better chance to win the Cup there. That was the exact reason he gave when he was asked why he signed there instead of accepting the Penguins’ offer.

Hossa said after the game that he has no regrets, despite losing in the Finals for the second year in a row, but the fact of the matter is, no matter what he says, he was wrong and given the fact that winning the Cup was the reason he bolted for Detroit, it is now safe to say that he did indeed make the wrong decision. And the Penguins will continue to get better – after all, they’re still so young – so odds are on the Pens’ side on this one.

The worst part for Hossa is the fact that there is a good chance that after his subpar playoff performance, Detroit might think twice about resigning him to a long-term deal. He had only 6 goals and 9 assists in the playoffs and Red Wings fans are basically blaming him for the loss. It’s hard to disagree that he was a huge part of the reason the Wings lost the Finals, but he was one of many Detroit players who underachieved in this series, so there’s plenty of blame to go around for Red Wings fans.

To add insult to injury, it was Max Talbot who scored both goals for the Pens. He was quoted recently in a French newspaper saying that he wanted to look at Hossa in the face at the handshake line and tell him he made the wrong decision. Apparently he didn’t do that last night, but it’s hard to imagine Hossa wasn’t aware of his comments.

Anyway, the circumstances for the Penguins’ win in Detroit in Game 7 are eerily familiar to the Red Wings’ win in Game 6 at the Igloo last year. The Red Wings came close to scoring on a couple of shots in the dying seconds, just like Crosby and Hossa ended up with a couple shots at the end last year.

When you think of something like that, it makes it tough to not believe in the Hockey Gods… You couldn’t write that better.

You can stop pinching yourself – the Pens did indeed win the Cup last night, and it was a remarkable and improbable run. This was a team that was in tenth place in the East less than four months ago. Now they are the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Unreal.

We’ll have lots more on the Pens’ historic Stanley Cup victory in the coming days, including video and pictures, and we’ll continue to talk Penguins hockey throughout the offseason.

Pittsburgh Penguins - 2009 Stanley Cup Champions

Bob Grove on Penguins Hotline said that the Penguins could not have picked a worse time to play their worst game of the playoffs. True, but we also have to give the Wings and their power play some credit.

Regardless, we all know that this game tonight was a fluke – the Penguins are a lot better than this.

The worst part about it is the Pens were absolutely dominant in the first five minutes tonight. If they score a quick goal, the game could have been completely different.

Malkin was flying early and Fedotenko had two glorious chances to score. Kennedy also had a great chance. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Also, Fleury can’t really be blamed for any of the goals tonight except for maybe the Cleary goal which opened up the score. But you can’t blame him for the loss.

The Penguins were uncharacteristically undisciplined, and the penalty kill was dreadful. The Wings aren’t the only team that would have beaten the Penguins tonight.

Detroit went three for nine on the power play and scored basically four power play goals tonight to put the game away – the Filppula goal that made it 2-0 came only five seconds after Kunitz’s goalie interference penalty.

This sort of thing happens in hockey, especially on the road. But the Pens are an excellent team and they have a ton of pride. They have to turn the page and get ready for Tuesday. This game tonight is history.

Beating Detroit in three straight games is pretty much impossible, but they did beat them two games in a row – there is no reason they can’t do that again.

They will respond. They must be much more disciplined, a lot sharper, and the penalty kill has to be a lot better, obviously. But this team has proven they can beat Detroit and they will be ready to play on Tuesday night.

Keep your head up. Pens in 7.

The Pens can take a 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals tonight with a win in Game 5 at the Joe… So to get ready for the game I decided to put up some new wallpapers.

Feel free to share and post these anywhere you’d like. All of them are in widescreen format. Just choose your resolution.

And don’t forget to join us in the chat room tonight. Wallpapers after the jump…

Dark blue

2560 x 1600 | 1920 x 1200 | 1920  x 1080 | 1680 x 1050
1440 x 900 | 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 720

Light blue

2560 x 1600 | 1920 x 1200 | 1920  x 1080 | 1680 x 1050
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Tan and black with crosshatch effect

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Let’s Go Pens!

It was a game of bounces and mental mistakes. And the Detroit Red Wings normally shine in those.

But despite winning Game 1 of the first Stanley Cup Finals rematch in 25 years last night by a score of 3-1, the Wings looked very much beatable. The Pens were good, but they made too many mistakes, and they lost way too many faceoffs – 71% of them to be exact.

On top of that, Marc-Andre Fleury looked a little bit shaky and made a couple of mistakes that were costly. So even though the Pens could have won, they simply weren’t good enough, despite playing a solid road game. You can’t beat the Wings if you’re just good. It takes either a great effort by the team as a whole or a spectacular performance by a hot goalie to beat them.

But Fleury made it too tough on the Pens last night when he didn’t realize that Stuart’s point shot would carom off the backboards, and then he chose to try to play a loose puck instead of standing by the left post on the Franzen goal, on a puck that also bounced off the wall behind him.

The first goal was a real tough break, but the second one is on him. Now, we can’t forget the fact that the Penguins were pretty awful in those two shifts and Crosby lost the faceoff to Zetterberg after Bylsma took the timeout before Franzen scored, and you also can’t ignore the fact that Hal Gill turned the puck over on the opening goal.

But Fleury could and maybe should have made both of those saves.

If the team and the goalie play well, then maybe you can come out on the winning side against Detroit, especially if the Wings don’t play their best game.

So even though the Pens’ collective effort was perhaps deserving of a victory, Fleury wasn’t good enough in Game 1, and the Big Red Machine made the Pens pay for their mistakes. Good teams expose goalies sometimes, and the Red Wings definitely did that to Fleury last night.

Of course, they also exposed players like Gill, who are slow and can’t keep up with the speed and skill Detroit brings to the table. Good thing he’s really the only slow player the Pens employ right now.

Fleury must play better, but his defense can and has to play better in front of him if the Pens are going to unseat the Wings as defending Stanley Cup champions.

However, it should be noted that the Wings were outshot only for the third time in the playoffs. The Pens had 32 shots on goal, while the Wings had 30. This is a team that’s been averaging 11 more shots for than against in their run back to the Finals, so it’s definitely worth pointing out that the Penguins at least won that battle.

And the fact that the won only 16 of 55 faceoffs makes that stat even more surprising. Just imagine what can happen if the Pens do better at faceoffs and at clearing the puck the rest of the series.

Game 2 preview

The series resumes tonight at 8 pm on NBC, the first set of back-to-back games in the Finals since 1993. Some in the Wings’ organization have complained about the unusual scheduling, and they have Conan O’Brien to thank.

The late night host kicks off his stint on The Tonight Show starting Monday night, and since NBC had the rights to Games 1 and 2, they chose to schedule the games on weekends, not just because they didn’t want to have any of Conan’s shows delayed because of overtime, but also because they’d rather not have the NHL on during weeknights.

So to Wings fans – well, your conspiracy theories about the NHL helping out the Penguins are pretty much just that, silly conspiracy theories.

As for NBC, what else can you expect. The NHL basically is at their mercy. They push hockey down to 12:30 pm games on Sundays in favor of golf during the regular season, and of course, they’re also known for moving playoff games that go to overtime to Versus because of a four-hour prerace show for the Kentucky Derby.

And oh yeah, there’s that whole thing about their greedy execs not wanting to make an exception and allowing the screen outside of Mellon Arena. So if you haven’t followed the Pensblog’s lead, ‘do it’ now and contact their greedy execs.

Anyway, for the Pens to tie the series tonight, they won’t just need better goaltending and a better effort defensively. If they’re not going to win at least 50% of the draws, then they should at least concentrate on winning  some of the key faceoffs.

Also, their power play was dreadful on their two chances at the beginning of the first period in Game 1, and they’re not gonna get many chances against Detroit. So if they do get power plays, they have to win the key faceoffs deep in Detroit’s zone, move the puck quickly and keep it simple. That means not passing up shots, not forcing the puck to the big boys, and making life difficult for Osgood by crashing the net.

Notes and video

• Pavel Datsyuk and Kris Draper will once again be scratched tonight, as Red Wings coach Mike Babcock has decided to keep his lineup intact for Game 2. Given the fact that they won Game 1 and that Game 3 is coming up on Tuesday, this is probably a good decision for the Wings.
• There’s no doubt that the Penguins already knew about the lively boards at Joe Louis Arena and Marc-Andre Fleury was aware of how much the Wings use them to their advantage. However, one must wonder if once they dropped the puck, he forgot all about it. The Pens should take a hint and use the boards to their advantage as well.
• YouTube highlights from last night courtesy of AGreatDayForHockey87.
• Full post-game interviews from last night with Fedotenko, Talbot, Fleury, Letang and Gill from FSN, courtesy of GhostWalker40.
• And here’s Crosby’s post-game press conference.
• Pens TV as always has more interviews, and they should have new ones today.

And finally… Super Mario

The big guy has decided to finally start doing interviews, and like Gary Thorne would say, you gotta love it.

Let’s Go Pens! Join us in the chat room tonight.

Bring on Detroit! (Or Chicago).

The Penguins beat the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 on Saturday night by a score of 6-2 and they are ready to return to the Stanley Cup Finals to battle the Red Wings or Blackhawks. They still have one more game against Carolina on Tuesday night, but Game 4 is probably a technicality at this point.

Whether they can sweep them or not, it’s hard to imagine that this series will go longer than five games. The Penguins have dominated offensively, and Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby have been absolutely sensational.

Malkin followed a hat trick and four-point night in Game 2 with another splendid performance, this time notching two goals and an assist. In the process, he broke a franchise record with his sixth consecutive game with multiple points. Mario Lemieux had five straight multi-point playoff games, doing that on two separate occasions.

Malkin has an amazing 16 points in his last six games. The Pens’ Russian centerman also became the first player with six straight multi-point games in the playoffs since Dale Hawerchuk did it in 1993 for Buffalo.

Crosby continued his own torrid pace, picking up a goal and an assist. He has a five-game point streak and has 10 points during that span.

The Hurricanes came out strong in the first five minutes on Saturday night and were rewarded for it, as Matt Cullen picked up his fourth of the playoffs on a quick play in front of the net.

But Malkin scored on the power play three minutes later, taking advantage of a giveaway by defenseman Tim Gleason to make it 1-1. The Pens have now scored power play goals in eight of their last nine games.

That gave the Pens plenty of energy, and then the top line struck with a beautiful goal with 43 seconds left in the opening frame to put the Pens in front to stay.

Chris Kunitz intercepted an errant pass in his own zone, then fed Guerin in the neutral zone. Guerin proceeded to gain the zone by letting the puck go between his legs, and then he backhanded the puck to Crosby, who was streaking to the net.

The Pens’ captain made no mistake, redirecting the puck over the pad of Cam Ward with a quick backhander. It was his league-leading 14th goal of the playoffs.

Things went from bad to worse for the Hurricanes real quick. They gave up another goal in the last minute of the first, as Malkin scored his second of the night, picking up a loose puck in the corner, making a beeline towards the net, and sliding the puck under Ward to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead.

After a scoreless second period, the Canes got back in it and made it 3-2, as Sergei Samsonov picked up his fifth of the playoffs on a rebound of a shot by Erik Cole.

But as has been the case throughout the entire playoffs, the Penguins never panicked. They continued to get great goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury, and even though they were outshot 19-8 in the third period, they once again found a way to put the Canes away.

Malkin dropped off a pass to Ruslan Fedotenko, who picked up an insurance goal midway through the third and made it 4-2 Pittsburgh with a quick wrist shot from the slot.

Then the Pens would seal it with an odd empty net goal with less than two minutes left. Instead of trying to win the faceoff, Craig Adams shot the puck from the neutral zone and scored right off the faceoff from 120 feet out.

Guerin would add insult to injury by scoring his seventh goal with a nifty backhand shot from the slot, as Canes fans were pouring out of the building.

Slap shots

• The Pens have outscored the Hurricanes 13-6 in the last couple of games, and a whopping 25 goals have been scored so far in this series.
• To put this in perspective, consider the fact that only 10 goals were scored in the four games between Anaheim and Minnesota in the 2003 Western Conference Finals.
• Crosby and Malkin are carrying a Penguins offense that has scored at least three goals in all but two of their 16 playoff games. The Penguins have scored 61 goals in 16 games for an average of 3.81 goals per game.
• The Pens outshot Carolina 40-34. They’ve outshot their opponents in 14 of the 16 games they’ve played. Only Philadelphia has managed to outshoot the Penguins – they did it in Games 3 and 4.
• Marc-Andre Fleury rebounded from his average performance in Game 2 and stopped 32 of 34 shots.
• Carolina coach Paul Maurice after the game: “Our challenge will be to find a way to beat them once, and then we’ll try to revisit that. But we’re not looking at beating Pittsburgh four times. We need one game.”
• On top of Malkin and Crosby, five other Penguins had multiple points. Guerin, Fetodenko and Adams each had a goal and an assist, and Kunitz and Sergei Gonchar each had two assists.

Game highlights

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin

Dan Bylsma

Evgeni Malkin was due for a game like this. Sidney Crosby had been scoring most of the goals for the Penguins, and Malkin was behind him in the NHL playoff scoring race by just a few points.

Not anymore. Malkin scored his first career playoff hat trick and added an assist as the Pens overcame some spotty defense and the furious attack of the Carolina Hurricanes to win Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals in thrilling fashion by a score of 7-4. The Penguins now lead the Canes 2-0 in the series.

Chad LaRose got involved with Malkin midway through the second period and both players went off for roughing. You could say that LaRose woke up a sleeping giant, even though Malkin already had a goal and an assist at that point. When he exited the penalty box, Malkin was on fire, doing what he does best – stealing and protecting the puck and finding open teammates.

The Penguins did not score on that shift, but Malkin kept going. With the score tied at four in the third period, he would not be denied, as he scored on a rebound of a shot by Chris Kunitz to give the Penguins their fourth lead of the game.

And only four minutes later, Malkin made sure that unlike the previous three times, they would not relinquish that lead. He scored his third goal of the game on an amazing play, roofing a backhander with his back against the goal as he came out from behind the net.

It was a stunning highlight-reel goal and a moment only superstars can provide. It was also a display of pure skill and determination, and it was too much for the Hurricanes, who must now find a way to slow down Malkin and company in Game 3 on Saturday night if they’re going to make this a series.

The Penguins outshot Carolina 42-28 and got scoring from both of their superstars, as Crosby got the Pens off to a good start with his 13th goal less than two minutes after the drop of the puck, tying the NHL record with his sixth first goal of the playoffs.

It was a wild first period, and the resilient Hurricanes would tie the game just over a minute later, as LaRose found a loose puck after a scrum in front of the net for his second of the series.

Then Malkin got his first of the game, swatting a loose puck into the net right as he came off the bench to replace Jordan Staal. The goal was a result of some great work by the Penguins’ third line.

Once again, the Canes stunned the crowd at the Igloo, and just as public address announcer John Barbaro was almost done announcing Malkin’s goal, the Canes crashed the net and Jussi Jokinen tied the game at two.

Only four minutes later, Kris Letang made a poor clearing attempt, and defenseman Dennis Seidenberg made it 3-2 for Carolina with a point shot, their first lead of the series.

Then Max Talbot, known as a role player who steps up when his team needs it, scored a key goal on a slap shot off the rush three minutes into the second period to even up the score.

Things settled down for a while, and then with only eight seconds left in the middle frame, Chris Kunitz gave the Penguins the lead again as he snapped a 19-game goal drought with his first of the playoffs.

The Canes would once again tie it, as fourth line winger Patrick Eaves notched his first of the playoffs at the beginning of the third period.

But then Malkin took over the game, scoring his second and third goals to give Pittsburgh its first multi-goal lead of the game, and Tyler Kennedy added an empty net goal to seal it.

Three stars

• 3rd star: Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist and now has 13 goals and 11 assists in 15 playoff games, trailing Malkin by one point.
• 2nd star: Chris Kunitz finally got off the schnide with his first goal of the playoffs, snapping a 19-game goalless streak. He also had 2 assists.
• 1st star: Evgeni Malkin. Well, what else can we say that we haven’t already? Yes, he had his first ever playoff HT and his first ever four-point playoff game, but let this be a message to the NHL. The way Crosby has played in these playoffs, it’s tough to say he’s not the best player in the game… But Malkin is making it very close.

Slap shots

• Canes RW Ryan Bayda was assessed a 10-minute match penalty for deliberately trying to injure Kris Letang with a vicious cross check to the face at the end of the game. The incident will be reviewed by the league.
• That cross check led to a couple of fights. Letang fought Bayda and Miro Satan fought Patrick Eaves. According to hockeyfights.com, it was only Satan’s second fight. Apparently he also fought current teammate Petr Sykora last year while with the Islanders.
• The Penguins were 0 for 4 on the power play. They had scored at least one power play goal in the last 7 games (10 total) and failed to break a team record by scoring a power play goal in 8 straight playoff games.
• The Pens are now 4-0 in the playoffs when both Malkin and Crosby score a goal.

Random thought

The Pens and the Detroit Red Wings are up 2-0 in their series, and they seem destined to battle in a Stanley Cup Finals rematch for the ages. Both of these teams are on fire. And even though the Canes and Chicago Blackhawks are both very good teams, it’s hard to imagine either of them coming back.

I can definitely see Chicago making it a series, but unless the Hurricanes can win the next couple games, it seems like the ‘Guins will be the East Champs once more. Carolina’s defense just can’t handle Malkin and Crosby, Jordan Staal’s line continues to play great hockey, and Cam Ward has run out of steam.

Game highlights

Click on HQ to watch in high quality. Thanks to AGreatDayForHockey87 on YouTube for the highlights.

Dan Bylsma

Paul Maurice

Evgeni Malkin

Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz

For more interviews, check out Pens TV.

Miroslav Satan and Philippe Boucher were not supposed to be here.

The Penguins assigned Satan to the AHL on March 4th to make salary cap room for Bill Guerin, whom the Penguins acquired at the trade deadline. With Petr Sykora in the lineup and Guerin and Chris Kunitz in the mix, Satan was the odd man out, and it was unlikely that the winger would play in a Penguins uniform ever again.

Boucher, who missed 25 games this season due to surgery on his left foot, also seemed like the odd man out on the blueline once Sergei Gonchar returned to the lineup in February.

But Satan and Boucher were the ones who provided the Pittsburgh Penguins with two thirds of the offense as they beat the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 by a score of 3-2 and took a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.

It was an amazing night at the Igloo, and goalies Cam Ward and Marc-Andre Fleury were spectacular, as the game quickly turned into a goalie duel. If this is what this series is gonna look like, then it might be even better than the Capitals and Penguins in the 2nd round, and that’s saying something.

Both goalies made spectacular highlight-reel stops throughout the night, and none of them were more important than the one Fleury made on Eric Staal with 30 seconds left in the game.

With the Penguins leading 3-2, Staal, who was left all alone in front of Fleury, tried to redirect a hard pass into the net. Instead, the puck caromed off of Fleury’s right pad and towards the goal, and Fleury ended up making a huge desperation save, as he reached back with his stick to keep the puck out.

It was hardly the only desperation save he or Ward had to make, as the two teams exchanged chances throughout the game at a furious pace. Shots on goal were 31 to 25 for the Pens, but at times it seemed like both teams had at least 20 shots per period.

Satan opened up the scoring with a breakaway goal halfway though the first period. The Pens had failed on 2 power plays already, and Fleury made a pair of great saves while they were killing a penalty to Satan to keep the game scoreless.

Then right after the penalty had expired, Cooke cleared the zone and Satan was waiting all alone. He took the puck, skated towards the net, deked Ward out, and lifted a backhand shot to give the Pens a 1-0 lead.

Evgeni Malkin scored his 7th goal of the playoffs only a minute and 24 seconds later. After skating the puck into the zone, Boucher found Malkin in the slot, and then the Pens’ MVP candidate beat Ward with a backhander of his own to make it 2-0.

They were down by two goals, but the Cardiac Canes did not let up. They outshot the Penguins 12-9 in the first period but were unable to beat Fleury until Chad Larose scored his third goal of the playoffs 13 minutes into the second, to cut the Penguins’ lead in half.

The Pens’ defense stepped up in the third period, as they allowed only 7 shots on goal, and then Boucher added a necessary insurance marker on the power play to make it 3-1. This was the kind of power play goal that the Penguins usually did not score for most of the regular season – a timely one.

Boucher and Malkin celebrate the Pens' 3rd goal (Credit: Getty Images)

Boucher took a feed from Sidney Crosby on the second wave of the power play and wristed a quick shot that slipped under the pad of Ward to make it 3-1.

Once again, the Canes answered. This time, they took advantage of an elbowing penalty to Brooks Orpik and scored a questionable power play goal with a minute and 26 seconds to go.

That set the stage for a wild finish. The Canes would knock on the door a couple times, but they never got closer than they did when Staal nearly tied the game. Both teams had to be thankful for their goalies’ effort, but perhaps the Penguins should have been a bit more thankful to Fleury.

3 stars

• 3rd star: Marc-Andre Fleury. He stopped 23 of the 25 shots the Canes threw at him and made several amazing saves.
• 2nd star: Chad Larose. His tally brought the Canes back in the game in the 2nd, and he led the Canes with 4 shots on goal.
• 1st star: Philippe Boucher. The Pens’ defenseman scored the game winning goal on the power play and added an assist.

Slap shots

• Canes right wings Erik Cole and Tuomo Ruutu both left the game with what Carolina head coach Paul Maurice described as lower body injuries.
• The NHL will probably review a questionable knee on knee hit by Matt Cooke. Cooke was the one who knocked Cole out of the game.
• Both teams won 28 faceoffs. The Penguins were dominant in the faceoff circle in the first round against Philadelphia but then struggled against Washington. It’ll be interesting to see who wins the faceoff battle in this series, especially when Jordan and Eric Staal are up against each other.
• Evgeni Malkin and Tyler Kennedy each had 6 shots on goal to lead the Pens. Both of them also missed on breakaways, when the Canes might have gotten away with holding and hooking penalties.
• Sergei Gonchar apparently fell good enough to play 21:42. The Penguins still went with 7 defensemen, and it’s a good thing that they did, because that 7th guy was Boucher. It’s safe to say at this point that he and the other 6 guys will continue to play.

Game highlights

Click on HQ to watch in high quality.

Thanks to AGreatDayForHockey87 on YouTube for the highlights.

Dan Bylsma

Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury

For more interviews, check out Pens TV.

Alright… Sorry about the lack of updates on the blog after Game 7. But hey, we had so much fun in the chatroom.

We found this on HFBoards. Dan Bylsma has done a terrific job for this team.

Click the image for a full-sized version

Anyway, after the jump is all the video you could ever dream of from the Pens’ blowout win over the Caps.

We’ll kick things off with the amazing introduction that CBC put together for last night’s game. I bet Versus did not have anything that even came close to this. Remember to click on HQ to watch highlights in high quality.

More video

• NHL Network highlights courtesy of Ghostwalker40 on YouTube.
• CBC.ca’s video player has tons of coverage, analysis, and Coach’s Corner  with Don Cherry from last night
• As usual, Pens TV and Caps 365 have post-game interviews from last night, and interviews from today.
• Check out TSN’s coverage, which includes an interview with Sidney Crosby and lots of analysis from their studio panel.
• If you have or know of any other video that should be listed here, let us know in the comments!
• The Toronto Maple Leafs apparently are the best team in the NHL.
  

A couple things. That was perhaps the best Yinz Luv Da Guins episode EVER followed by the best China Jack video yet. We are so blessed. And that intro by CBC was just amazing. To Jim Shearer, Gavin and China Jack, and all the great Penguin YouTubers… We salute you!

Thanks to MrScottBrown for his work, putting together all the audio clips of Mike Lange and sync’ing them up with the video. And of course, Mikey. What can I say? He was on his game last night and then some. We all know he should have been calling the game on TV, but at least we still have him on the radio.

Chat

Join us in the chat room for the Bruins and Canes!

Plugs

Subscribe to all these awesome people on YouTube

• Yinz Luv Da Guins
• Gavin in China (China Jack vids)
• MrScottBrown
• AGreatDayForHockey87
• Ghostwalker40

You may be asking yourself, why is there a post about the Toronto Maple Leafs on a Penguins blog only a few days before the start of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals? Well, just watch it. You’ll see why.

This is a video the Maple Leafs made in the early 90’s, featuring the likes of Doug Gilmour and Pat Burns. Watch it and click on HQ to watch in high quality. The fun starts around  2 or 3 minutes into it.

Four words: The Hockey Rick Roll. Absolutely amazing. Credit: faceoffboards.com.

1991. 1992. 1995. 1996. 2000. 2001. 2009? We’re 20 minutes away from:

• Gonchar getting his revenge on the dirty hitting machine.
• Crosby silencing all his critics ( *cough* Puck Daddy and his Philly/D.C. fan club *cough*)
• A 7th playoff series win over Washington in 8 tries.
• Another trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.
• Beating Philly and Washington, our 2 biggest rivals, in the same year.

Hey hockey world, who’s the best player in the world again?

Isn’t it poetic justice that Ovechkin’s reckless hitting turned into a body check on his own linemate? Backstrom could easily have gotten hurt on that play. OV went after Malkin, and Backstrom got just about everything.

That Ovechkin goal at the end is a gift. Fleury has to stop making mistakes behind the net!

What an absolute LASER by Kris Letang. LEGAME!

You deserve this, Caps fans.