O Canada! What has happened? Many people thought that a Canada – Russian match up would be for a gold medal in Vancouver not in an elimination game where the loser goes home without any medal at all.

Tonight the Canucks take on the Ruskies and Sid takes on Geno … and Ovechkin … and Gonchar. With the likely starter for the Canadians being Luongo, who has never risen to the challenge of being a big time goaltender and an entire team of “potential” on the ice, the guys from the Great White North are going to need a miracle.

So far the Canadians have not played up to what people have seen as their potential. They struggled in the preliminary round and their only two easy victories have been against teams that could probably be beaten by a good college hockey squad.

Thus my prediction is a Russian victory tonight when this bloodbath ends.  The Canadians will scratch and claw with all their might to not go quietly into the night. But what we have seen to date is a team of aged talent that hasn’t been able to prove itself. Crosby is their ace in the hole by Russia holds the trump in a pair of stars named Malkin and Ovechkin.

In order for this prediction to turn out wrong Luongo would have to have the game of his life. Either that or the Canadians would have to swallow their pride and get over the fact that Fleury lost a big game and disappointed his countrymen in World Juniors. Much has changed for the Penguins net minder since then and I think a Stanley Cup should be more than enough to get the stubborn forces of Canadian hockey to give the man who should be in goal the chance he deserves and his team more than a long shot chance to win tonight.

But that will not happen. So Canada had better pray for that miracle.

Hard to believe that the Penguins have been as banged up on the blue line as they have considering that they are sitting atop the Atlantic Division. It is almost like the loss of Gonchar, Letang, Goligoski and McKee, each for several weeks and at the same time, did not matter as players like (Dr.) Ben Lovejoy, and Deryk Engelland have filled in nicely and kept the defense sound.

Well, this morning it was announced that Lovejoy and Engelland are heading back to Wilkes-Barre and that means that unless some combination of Letang, Goligoski and McKee are ready to return to the lineup the Penguins would be short handed on defense heading into tonight’s important divisional match up against the Rangers.

Each of the three injured regulars, according to reports, are cleared to play which means the Penguins should for all intents and purposes be back to full strength this evening.

Now, about that struggling power play …

It could have been Montreal’s last visit ever to the Igloo last night. Baring an always possible playoff meeting between two Eastern Conference foes, Montreal will have to deal with that potentially last visit being a loss. With last night’s 3-1 victory, thanks to lots of on the ball … uh puck … saves by Fleury, the Penguins have pretty much trounced the Canadians this season by a goal total of 9-2. They have now won four straight against the Habs.

The Penguins took advantage of a Montreal squad that had to come from behind the night before and limited them to just 17 shots on net. Had there been more, the score might have turned out differently as Fleury definitely saved the Penguins bacon with several great plays and a little bit of luck. The Penguins accomplished the low shot total on Fleury by pressing the attack in the Montreal zone for most of the night.

The Penguins received goals from Crosby (12), Guerin (6) and Gonchar (3) to stake out a 3-0 lead heading into the third period that they would not relinquish. Crosby scored on a rare shot from high at the left circle that surprised Carey Price. Guerin bashed a loose puck between Price’s pads in the second and Gonchar took a puck right up the middle and opened up Price for the Penguin’s third goal.

The win was the Penguins 17th in 25 games this season and ties a team record. The club also won 17 of its first 25 in 94-95 and 95-96.

After last night the Penguins held on to first place in the East with 24 pts just ahead of Washington who also has 24 pts but fewer wins also in 25 games. Montreal sank to 12-12-1 and are still struggling with injuries.

The Penguins however must face a back to back test this week on Friday and Saturday. On Friday the Pens have to travel to Long Island for a 2:00 PM scrum with the 9-9-7 Islanders and then return home Saturday to host the 13-10-1 Rangers.

After loosing four games in a row as the Penguins injury situation looked bleak, the Penguins have since been getting more healthy and have gone 5-1 in their last six games.

The Penguins need to look into a good exterminator because their locker room is infested with injury bugs. So far every time a Pittsburgh Penguin has gone down, the team has kept right on winning. With Gonchar out the team has hardly looked like it missed a beat. With Mr. Hockeyburgh 2009, Tyler Kennedy, out and his goal production absent from the lineup on Wednesday night the team slaughtered the Candiens. But now with Evgeni Malkin out two, perhaps three weeks, with a sore shoulder the team must overcome another hurdle.

The Penguins are perhaps lucky to be be 10-2-0 and leading the Atlantic this season early on because the odds of them going 10-2-0 in their next twelve is going to be a tall order. Games against the Kings, Sharks and Devils will be certainly offset by games against the Ducks, Panthers and the Wild. But they still are going to have to have a lot of guys play above their level to be as impressive over that stretch. Most fans would probably be happy with a .500 record but be sure the Penguins players will not be.

Staal is getting a promotion, basically by default, to the second line because any line he centers in the absence of Malkin is the Pen’s #2 unit. Players like Rupp and Adams are going to be called upon to do even more.

And it all starts tonight as the Pens visit the so-so Columbus Bluejackets. A win tonight helps set them off the next part of this year’s journey on the right foot. A loss probably makes them wonder what they will need to do to succeed for a couple weeks until Malkin returns.

Legend has it that it is the Phoenix, not the Penguin, that rises from its own ashes. Perhaps it is time to rewrite that legend since teams that advance to the Stanley Cup Finals and lose do not often return any time soon.

That is not so unbelievable after all. Say all you want about the NFL, MLB and the NBA, there is no more grueling playoff than the quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup. Sure football is a physical game – but in the NFL you only play once a week and your body has time to heal between match up. Baseball? Pish posh. Sure they play best seven game series but the most physicality you get on the diamond is a bean ball or a crash into the outfield fence maybe once every couple games or a collision at first base once in a blue moon. The NBA? Again, sure they have a seven game series format but you are not constantly getting checked into the boards on every trip down the ice nor are you really even allowed to hit other players.

Nope, the NHL is hands down the toughest championship to win. You can hit the opponent; in fact it is encouraged. There are boards to contend with. And let’s not forget that everyone on the ice carries a formidable weapon in their hands which can and does get used inappropriately at times. Couple that with the inevitable free agents that flee teams each year in search of big bucks after great seasons (usually more due to who a player played with than the actual player himself) and it is amazing that anyone can repeat as division champs or even Stanley Cup Champions.

Last year, the Penguins raced through the playoffs only to crash and burn early in games one and two of the finals against Detroit. They turned things around after that but splitting the next four games still meant that they lost the series 4-2. Their ashes were on the ice after they flared out.

Early this season they looked ready to at least make a good showing in the playoffs. Hossa left for Detroit claiming that he had the best chance for a championship there and other players were let go including Malone, Laraque and Roberts. In came Satan, Fedotenko and Zigomanis. Somehow the Penguins actually looked stronger than last year top to bottom all of a sudden. But then the wheels started falling off during the winter. In February the team looked down and out. They started to turn things around but a, what I will contend was a fluke, loss to Toronto cost Therrien his job and in comes Dan Bylsma. The team responds to this and there is a smoldering among the ashes perhaps as the team sensed that they had cost one coach his job because of their own poor performance on the ice and were not about to let it happen to another.

Then out goes Whitney, a cornerstone of last year’s success, and in comes Chris Kunitz with a gritty, hard hitting persona. Then the Penguins get the New York Islanders to give up Bill Guerin for a song; a conditional draft pick. And let’s not forget Craig Adams. Then the sparks began to intensify and above the ashes a Penguin once again skated.

Into the playoffs the team stormed after climbing from 10th place to 4th in the East. They crushed the orange of Philadelphia, rocked the red of Washington and now have just completed downgrading the Hurricanes of Carolina. Now it is on to the Stanley Cup Finals – again.

Do the Penguins have something to prove? Yep. Will they prove it? Yes. Either they will prove they are Stanley Cup Champion caliber or they will prove that they are just second best again. Which it will be will be up to men named Sidney, Geno, Marc-Andre, Billy, Jordan, Tyler, Max, Craig, Ruslan, Miroslav, Chris, Rob, Brooks, Sergei, Philippe, Kris, Hal, and Mark.

Hopefully the Penguins will prove that they are champions this time around. Because getting back to the finals a third year in a row is not something that I would put money on – ever. But the Penguins should make a better show of it this time around. As the old saying goes, and which is familiar to all true Pittsburgh hockey fans, if you think Penguins can’t fly then you’ve never been in Pittsburgh during the playoffs.

Fly high Pens. Make us proud!

With Sergei Gonchar out of the lineup for Game 5 against the Capitals, the Penguins opted to recall Alex Goligoski from Wilkes-Barre and play with seven defensemen. The reasoning for this was clear. First, the Penguins needed someone to help run the power play with Gonchar out and currently the Pens do not have anyone on the roster with Goligoski’s skills with regard to that. Second, the Penguins played most of game four with five defensemen and everyone had extra minutes added to their menu. So seven D made sense for game five and to be perfectly honest the team played just as well one forward short as they had all series.

The Capitals played a much more disciplined game than any previous one of the series. They allowed the Penguins only 3:59 of power play time and took only two non-coincidental penalties all game. Of that 3:59 of PP time, Goligoski skated for 3:14 of it (81%). He also skated for 6:18 at even strength where as Boucher played for 12:05 at even strength and just 0:46 on the power play.

Boucher can certainly play with the man advantage but it seems clear that in Gonchar’s absence it will be Goligoski helping to run the offense.