Underwhelmed to put it mildly with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin at the tank. Thornton and Marleau turned in a dominant performance defensively as well as offensively, and Marleau and Setoguchi were really exploding on the back check to chase down plays. More photos and notes from the game here. Detroit returns tonight.
Kopitar is a pretty awesome dude, but how awesome is he? To be honest, I don't have a well-formulated opinion on the matter. I'm inclined to believe Kopitar is the fifth best young player in the league, behind Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, and Evgeni Malkin. (There is no fourth because those three are way above everyone else.) Kopitar's great and I think he'd get a lot more dap if we wasn't the same age as those above three. I think most people think Jonathan Toews will be better than Kopitar because he's... Canadian, but I don't agree. I'm biased though, so let's hear what you guys think. Here's a list of 10 players:
Jonathan Toews
Steve Stamkos
Sidney Crosby
Alexander Ovechkin
Evgeni Malkin
Anze Kopitar
Nicklas Backstrom
Patrick Kane
Kyle Turris
Jordan Staal (teehee)
Put them in order. Help me get an idea where Kopitar stands.*
*Please try to refrain from pointing out that I obviously forgot about (x) and how I'm a complete idiot for doing so. And if we keep one NHL argument from devolving into a Crosby v. Ovechkin donnybrook that'd be great.
Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo!'s Puck Daddy blog passes along the rumor that the Pittsburgh Penguins offered the Kings Evgeni Malkin for the #2 pick and Mike Cammalleri. There's no way that happens, right? I mean, it's from Bruce Garrioch from the Ottawa Sun, who I guess is retarded, and plus where do the Penguins benefit from that trade? If the Kings were going to trade for Malkin, I would have thought have thought they would have to add a few more picks or Oscar Moller or something. And the Kings... well, the Kings would have Frolov-Malkin and Kopitar-Brown as their top 2 lines... no, it's not going to happen.
You know why I would love this trade though? Because the Pensblog would blow the fuck up and it would be awesome. Too bad this trade isn't happening.
But still, it'd be pretty cool... no, dammit, not happening. But I mean...
Update: And now Helene Elliot has an article with Lombardi where he says he's probably not going to trade the pick. I haven't been this confused since Mulholland Drive.
Detroit Free Press art director Rick Nease sent this Stanley Cup box office poster parody to the Sports Designer blog. "Extinction is just a goal away", a truely inspired tagline.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette designer Ben Howard was responsible for this Indiana Jones-Sidney Crosby takeoff. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is one of the most bizarre sequels ever to come out of Hollywood. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted to make a sequel to the X-Files and National Treasure, but with Harrison Ford and the Indiana Jones franchise they made Crystal Skull instead. 124 minutes of my life I will never get back.
Movie equivalent for the Sharks failed Stanley Cup run this season: Aguirre, the Wrath of God. The 1972 film written and directed by eccentric filmmaker Werner Herzog featured Spanish conquistadores in a brutal and grueling quest down the untamed Amazon river in search of the legendary city of gold. The quest does not turn out well, and many of the soliders end up on a raft floating aimlessly towards nowhere.
Nominate your films for the Ducks and Kings seasons in the comments.
[Update] We Bleed Teal noted earlier that Ryane Clowe was a "monster" in front of the net against Calgary. A Cloweverfield monster.
Whoo boy, tonight's pun-based headline was brought to you by Chris Berman's intern-destroying rant.
Anyway, I hate to admit this (since I write about the Stars and the Pacific Division), but the Penguins have always been my favorite team. That's right. I grew up in East Rutherford, NJ (where the Devils used to play before Barry Melrose insulted Newark) but wasn't about to root for those trap-happy-soul-sucking Devils. So I latched onto Lemieux, Jagr and Co. and the rest is history you don't care about.
So, like I was saying...the Penguins beat the Kings tonight, 4-2 (including a goal by Jordan Staal, otherwise known as Rudy Kelly's BFF) and it was all-Malkin. He had 2 goals and an assist, and barely missed a hat trick at the end of the game.
In case you've been living under a rock/ignoring Gary Bettman's squeals of terror, Sidney Crosby injured his ankle and has missed 9 games already. Many people panicked and a few experts said that it could be a blessing in disguise for his teammates to develop without a Hart trophy winner.
And that's just what happened with Malkin, who is absolutely on fire. While fellow Russian/the guy who was picked before him Alex Ovechkin is being bathed in David Amber Q & A's and franchise-crippling contracts, Malkin is matching his countrymen stride for stride.
He's still a few points behind Ovechkin, but Malkin scored a dizzying 28 points in his last 16 games. Even better, he's kept the Pens afloat while Crosby is rehabbing and Ty freakin' Conklin is in net. In 9 games without Crosby, Malkin's scored 17 points including 7 goals and the Pens have gone a respectable 5-2-2. Sure, Alex O has the Caps fighting for the top spot in his division too, but I'd venture to say the Atlantic is a touch better than the Southeast.
It's enough to at least give Malkin a piece of that Ovechkin hype.
(Coming up tomorrow: ANOTHER really bad pun, this time involving the Stars and Olli Jokinen! Plus I might add a little meat to some of the Malkin analysis in the next couple days. Maybe)
Pittsburgh Penguins (7-4-0, 8th in East) at Anaheim Ducks (10-0-4, 1st in West)
Ladies, make sure you leave a can of pepper spray in the shower, ‘cause Sidney Crosby’s comin’ to town, and he has lost all sense of personal space. He and the rest of Pittsburgh’s baby geniuses and their 4-1 road record are comin’ to Honda Center to try to take two points from stingy Anaheim.
Key stat: This will be Anaheim’s 11th game out of 15 playing against an opponent who missed last year’s playoffs. Thus far the Ducks are 8-0-2 in this scenario, outscoring opponents 32-20.
Crazily enough, this is Pittsburgh’s first [edit: second] game against Anaheim since December 15, 2002, in a game that featured four current Ducks and zero current Penguins. J.S. Giguere stopped 19 shots and Andy McDonald had two goals in a 5-0 win. Stan Chistov played for Anaheim and Ian Moran played for Pittsburgh (though neither of them has suited up for Anaheim yet this year).
As such, Anaheim and Pittsburgh don’t have too much history to draw on, except on the matter of the 2005 draft, where down to the wire Pittsburgh won the Crosby-lottery-ball pick ahead of Anaheim. At any rate, the team’s leading scorers and probably its featured matchup:
Sidney Crosby (18 pts. in 11 games) and Evgeni Malkin (11 pts. in 7 games).
Chris Pronger (13 pts. in 14 games) and Scott Niedermayer (12 pts. in 14 games).
Prediction: 4-2 Anaheim. Penner, Perry, Pronger, and Pahlsson put pucks past the Pittsburgh Penguins’ poor phenom.
Evgeni Malkin's disappearance from his Russian team's training camp was quite the espionage story, but few are reporting on how it was discovered that the Pittsburgh phenom was hiding out in Los Angeles.
Per an unreliable source, Malkin's agents were hoping to keep the kid's location under wraps for another week or so. Unfortunately, those plans were foiled when this photo was leaked to the general media:
Something about those kids, they all think they're superstars, I guess.
Our friend Earl Sleek has allowed us this forum (as fellow Vishnevski fans) to help settle a grievance.
One of our key promising assets, Evgeni Malkin, has mysteriously disappeared from his team's training camp in Finland.
This only a week after signing a one-year deal to play for our dear Metallurg Magnitogorsk team!
Here is a photograph of the defector with what we believe to be four of his accomplices.
We do not have much information on these four suspects, but the big guy on the right kept grumbling about "How did I get to Finland, sucka?!"
Should you spot any of these men, or have any helpful information, please leave a note for us in the comments.
Peace out,
The Russian Mafia
