At the Pens game tonight to once again watch the walking wounded. Good news though is that James Neal is gritting through the pain of a bruise to a bone in his foot originally thought to be broken. He’s a trooper!

Let’s go Pens!

A lot is being made about Asham’s actions following his fight with Beagle during the Capital’s game.  Beagle had roughed fellow Penguins Kris Letang a few moments earlier.  Asham did not go looking fora a fight.  But Beagle pushed the issues when Asham was near him on the ice and decided to drop the gloves.  Asham’s responded.

What happened next was that Beagle started wailing on Asham.  After a few wild blows Asham got his hands free.  He punched Beagle once and then landed a blow under his visor, square on his jaw and put Beagle down like a sick dog.  Asham held on to Beagle as he fell rather than letting him flop directly to the ice.  Asham then skated promptly away to let the medical personnel attend to the downed Capital.

Then the stupid controversy began.  As he skated away, Asham made two gestures.  The first was to put his hands together and then pull them apart like a boxing referee would signaling a knockout.  The next gesture was him putting his hands together and laying his head down on them signifying sleep.

Nothing he did was unwarranted considering how the situation unfolded.  After all, Beagle was the one who started the fight.

But Ove-rated barked as Asham.  After the game the Capital’s man-child of a captain called Asham’s acts unsporting.  Please, give me a break.  This coming from a man who for years has taken marginally legal hits at players all over the ice?  This coming from Mr. Where Is A Player’s Knee A Can Try And Take Out?  Spare me the faux outrage.

Asham himself even got in on the act quickly apologizing for what he did after the game.  He said it wasn’t right.

I say grow a pair!  The man came after you.  You defended yourself and did what was right.  Afterwards you made sure that anyone watching knew that you had bested the little punk.  No apology was warranted.  None should have been given.  When you drop the gloves, you take your chances.

Asham did not disrespect Beagle.  He did not stand over him and keep hitting him like some people in the NHL have done.  He did not run off and find someone else to beat on, again as some others in the NHL have done.  Asham merely celebrated his successful bout with a punk who should have looked before he leapt.

If that is so wrong then the NHL is going to go down hill fast.

James Neal (3, 4) scored two goals, one with time running down in he third to tie the game, but in the end the Penguins lost last nights match against the Washington Capitals 3-2 in overtime.  Neal has been proving that last year’s poor numbers after being obtained by the Penguins in a trade were perhaps just a fluke.  Neal had been a 20 goal scorer for Dallas but put up only 2 goal in over 20 games for the Penguins last year.  He has four goals in five games to start the 2011-12 campaign.

The Penguins avoided taking a penalty that lead to a Capital’s power play until the overtime frame.  At that time it was Jordan Staal who got caught for tripping which lead to the winning goal for Washington.  The Penguins with 41 shots on net for the game could not get any more than two pucks behind Vokoun.  Then Penguins held the Capitals to just 19 shots and Brent Johnson made 16 saves.

The OT loss pushes the Penguins to 3-0-2 on the season headed into Saturday’s matchup with Buffalo.

The Penguins have announced their 2011-12 schedule. As a full season ticket holder I have already started looking at which games I will be attending.

But I noticed something odd. When I went to the page on the Penguin’s website about ticket info for next season they state that half season plan holders will get their normal ticket to one preseason game. But it also says that they are only getting tickets to only 19 regular season games.

If I remember correctly, when I was a half season ticket holder we got 20 games and I am pretty sure that last year my buddy who sits next to me got 20 regular season games too.

This year the Penguins are cutting back? That seams a little cheap to me. This now gives the Penguins a bunch of tickets to three home games to sell since half season holders only account for 38 of the 41 home games to be played.

Their choice to do this of course. Just seems sort of scummy to me though. Unless I am mistaken about the number of home games half season packages got in the past.

No Sid.  No Geno.  How well can the Penguins fare?

Thursday night they put up a spirited effort against a Devils team that seems to have finally figured out how to win.  But they came up short and shut down by the one thing that hasn’t changed in New Jersey this year.  That would be Martin Brodeur.  Oh, they had their chances.  They just could not finish.

Last night the Hurricanes came to town.  A mediocre team this year, the Penguins built a 3-0 lead on an even strength goal by Dustin Jeffrey (2), a power play goal by Mark Letestu (10) and a short handed goal by Pascal Dupuis (10).  Good thing too because Carolina scored twice in the final five minutes to make the game look respectable.

This may be the way the Penguins have to cope until the two headed monster returns.  Without those two they are as good, still, as your average team sitting at 8th or 9th in the Eastern Conference and they are better than teams like the Islanders who they will play to end things out before the All Star Break and to start things up afterwards.

Win the games against the bottom feeders.  Pull out a couple among the better teams.  Then when the team gets healthy make the final run for the playoffs.

So I just got done today watching the Steelers versus the Raiders. The Steelers got the raw end of two calls in particular which I want to discuss. One was a hit by James Harrison where he leveled the Raiders’ QB a split second after he released the ball. It wasn’t a late hit but he went through him and to the ground. Out came the most idiotic flag for unnecessary roughness I have seen in a while. The ref called it because he claimed Harrison landed on the quarterback with all his weight. If it wasn’t a late hit what is wrong here?

Harrison’s hit was not only legal due to the timing but honestly, how else is he supposed to tackle a quarterback? Is he supposed to tap him gently and hope and pray that the QB goes down? People say that the league is targeting the Steelers after it got egg on its face over the Big Ben flap where no charges were filed and the league essentially banned a player for not breaking the law. Meanwhile Brett Favre was never suspended for his off the field antics with a female reporter. Instead they have decided to pick on James Harrison it seems? I guess it is just easier than dealing with other issues with other players that the league doesn’t want to deal with.

Earlier in the game however there was another bogus call. Ryan Clark tackled a receiver, landing a helmet square in the opposing player’s back. There was a flag and he was tagged for 15 yard for a “helmet to helmet” hit that never happened. Flash back a few weeks. Hines Ward was reaching for a ball in the end zone and the opposing player’s helmet clearly hit the back of his helmet. No call, and no fine that I am aware of for that one.

It seem to me the league has a big problem with helmet to helmet hits. That big problem is consistency in calling them. And often when they are called it seems that they are being called when a defensive player already in the act of tackling winds up making contact with the helmet of another player who is falling down and whose helmet crosses his helmet’s path.

In the NHL, high sticking is called when a player brings his stick up and clips an opposing player in the face. However, if the player is falling down and contacts a stick there is no penalty. To me it seems like the answer to helmet to helmet hit in the NFL could be well dealt with in the same way.

If you want to clarify the rule for everyone and start making offensive players taking at least some responsibility for their own safety then you can simply define the penalty of helmet to helmet hit as when a player raises his helmet to above the level of another player’s helmet where the player being contacted is upright. In this case you have a penalty. However, if the defensive player is in the process of tackling and the offensive player by his own volition lowers his helmet below what would be normal shoulder level, for any reason, then he takes the risk of getting hit helmet to helmet. In this instance there is no penalty.

“Volition” is to make a conscious choice to do something. We hear complaints about defenseless receivers, for example, and they get hit helmet to helmet often times when falling after attempting to make an acrobatic catch and are unable to fully control themselves. The league wants to protect these players. But they are putting themselves in that helpless position. Instead of telling the defensive players that they must be the one’s responsible for the safety of all players who choose to put themselves into a vulnerable position, perhaps we need to tell all players that they are responsible for their own actions? Hey, you want to stretch out for a grab, you take your chances. That’s football.

Let’s take the skirts off the offensive players and realize that football is a full contact sport. Punish the blatant intents to injure such as where a blitzing backer launches his helmet into the helmet of a standing quarterback. But let’s at least make all players accountable for their own decisions and that means applying equal scrutiny to the actions of offensive players that might result in helmet to helmet hits.

I doubt this will happen though. Seems to me we have a man in charge of the league that doesn’t have two functioning neurons in his brain. And when that is the case, all you can expect is lunacy.