Igloo Update Monday

Yinzers,

Today marks the epic beginning of the new schedule for the MSM. Today's and every Monday and Thursday feature will be the Igloo Update with the past few days in brief of your Pittsburgh Penguins. The feature will be a summary from a brother blog of the MSM named Let Us Go Pens written and produced by Captain Kleck. His blog can be read at http://www.letusgopens.blogspot.com. Support him, for he is a friend of the show, and a friend of mine. Now, down to business:

As all of the Pittsburgh Nation knows, our boys have hit a rough patch of ice as of late, dropping 6 of their last 8. "Keep your heads up!" I say, for the Penguins had this same situation last year. In the first week of January last season, the Pens had a 5 game losing steak and guess what, we still went dancing with Lord Stanley. Don't throw in your towel like a Philthadelphia fan just yet, its a long season and the ride is only half complete.


Last week, the Pens took on the Atlanta Thrashers. The Thrashers filled the confidence glass of the Pens after the Pens "Beat them like a rented mule" 5-2. The Pens pulled in goals from across the board with Kris Letang, Ruslan Fedotenko, Luca Caputi with his second NHL goal and first this season and Jordan Staal adding 2 tallies.


After the rout of the Thrashers, the Pens took on the pre-season "best in the east" vote Philthadelphia Flyers. Though I do not agree with the "best in the east" tag, I do think that they are a better team than the fluke that got to the playoffs last year. With the addition of Pronger on defense, all they need is solid goaltender play and they could be the 3rd best team in the Atlantic division. What irked me about this game was the fact that Simon Gagne was back in action. He is to the Flyers offense what Troy Polamalu is to the Steelers defense...and it showed. The Pens simply laid an egg in this one, losing 7-4. We generated a ton of shots, but few quality scoring chances and let the Flyers skate right into the zone. Best just to put this one behind us.


The Pens got back onto the winning track when they started their northern tour. The moose march began Saturday night in Toronto. The Pens skated away with a 4-1 victory in dominating fashion, showing that the skid is only temporary. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 42 of 43 shots and maintained perfect positioning all game. Sergei "Sarge" Gonchar showed why he is one of the best goal-scoring defensemen in league history by blistering 2 slap shots past Gustavsson. Sidney Crosby and Billy "Gray Beard" Guerin tickled the twine as well.


The Pens next game is tonight at 8:00 on Versus as they take on the Minnesota Nor-sorry Wild-in Minnesota.

Don't forget to check out Captain Kleck's blog at http://www.letusgopens.blogspot.com

I'm Score,
B Brog