Matt Cooke threw and elbow to the head of the Rangers Ryan McDonagh. He deserved a suspension for the hit. He deserved it because:
1) It was a dirty hit
2) Cooke is a repeat offender

He also knew it was coming because:
1) He knew Mario pissed off Gary Bettman by calling the NHL on the carpet over head shots
2) The league had just wrapped up its winter meetings where head shots were a hot topic

But the suspension he got was silly. It was, at the time because the Penguins were not a lock for the playoffs, a minimum of 10 games (if they had missed the playoffs) and a maximum of 17 games (if they played a seven game opening round having made the playoffs). Now the suspension, with the Penguins having made the playoffs is a minimum of 14 games.

It was a silly suspension because, I bring this up again, Gillies of the Islanders … sorry I mean the New York Goons … chased down a man across the ice, knocked him down and then continued to beat on him while he was on the ice and got just 9 games. Then Gillies came back from suspension and in his first game back threw a blatant elbow and promptly got a 10 game suspension. At least Cooke waited a few games between coming off his last suspension and his latest infraction for crying out loud!

There was little doubt at the time of the Cooke suspension that the league was sending Mario a message to sit down, shut up, and stop making them look so bad. There is even less doubt now.

Last night, repeat offender, and Red Wings thumper, Todd Bertuzzi proved that. You might remember Mr. Bertuzzi. He is the schlub that punched Steve Moore from behind on March 8th, 2004. Moore suffered a concussion, facial lacerations and several broken vertebrae. That incident got Bertuzzi suspended indefinitely by the league and he wound up missing 20 games (13 regular season and 7 in the playoffs).

Bertuzzi has not seriously cleaned up his act since. He regularly finds any excuse he can to hit players late. In 2003-04 he amassed 122 PIMs in just 69 games. In 2005-06 he massed 120 PIMs in 82 games. In 2006-2007 he netted only 13 PIMs but also only played in 15 games. In 2007-08 Bertuzi had 97 PIMs in just 68 games. In 2008-2009 he got sent to the sin bin for 74 minutes in just 66 games. Last year he had a respectable year of just 80 minutes in 82 games. This year the aging winger has been able to get just 61 penalty minutes. This however is due mostly to the fact that he can no longer chase down players the way he used to. Make no mistake he would love to! But he just cannot.

And he was up to his old tricks again last night as he found an excuse to throw a purposeful elbow into the head of Ryan Johnson. Of course Red Wings fans, who as we here in the ‘Burgh have learned are some of the most ignorant and ill-educated hockey fans, around are defending the hit calling it unintentional. I have read numerous praises for Bertuzzi as being a “gentleman” for immediately seeking out Johnson and apologizing for the hit that got him a 5 minute major as well as ejected from the game. Coming from a Detroit fan ok, I can see why a thug who apologizes would be a “gentleman” in their eyes considering most of the thugs on Detroit’s streets have no such courtesy. I mean, could you imagine? It would be laughable to see a gangsta thug rob a woman at gun point and then tell her how sorry he was!

I have even seen comments from Johnson claiming that he does not think the hit was intentional. Ok, so because Johnson is too stupid to know what Bertuzzi was trying to do to him that makes it ok?

The video says it all and here it is. My commentary follows:

You can clearly see at around 0:39 of this clip (during the replay) that Bertuzzi sees that Johnson’s head is down as he tries to clear the puck. Bertuzzi lifts his elbow, rides it up Johnson’s arm and straight into his head. His right elbow is more than halfway up and Bertuzzi, seeing that he was going to miss Johnson, threw that elbow out there on purpose. There is no doubt about this. That is except to the NHL brass, Red Wings fans and other assorted people who know little to nothing about hockey.

Today the league announced Bertuzzi’s punishment. That punishment? Zero games suspension. Oh yeah, the NHL is really serious about hits to the head and cracking down on repeat offenders. Nope. What the league is really about is making sure Mario knows his place. Bettman cannot stand that Lemieux knows more about what’s up that he does and he certainly cannot stand that Lemieux gets more respect than him. I mean honestly, if you walk into a room and on one end is Mario and the other is Bugsy Bettman, who do you think is going to have the bigger crowd. I mean of legitimate hockey fans, not brown-nosing yes men. Of course it is going to be Mario.

So Bettman acts like a thug to get even. He slaps Cooke hard, lets Gillies off with a relatively comparable love tap and lets Todd Bertuzzi get off scott free.

The joke that is the NHL just keeps running.

A week after a tough overtime loss to Philadelphia, the Power returned to action and dominated the Iowa Barnstormers in front of just over 9,000 fans. The lower attendance, I have no doubt, was probably due to Pitt playing Butler in the NCAA tournament at the same time. However, those that decided to watch Pitt lose to Butler in the last seconds were no doubt wishing that they had gone to the Consol Energy Center instead last night.

Despite losing starting quarterback Bernard Morris to a shoulder injury, the Power kept their foot on the accelerator in the second half. Backup QB Kevin McCabe through for three touchdowns in a 58-28 stomping of Iowa. The big man, Joshua Rue had three touchdowns. Despite only rushing six times for six yards, Rue found the end zone twice with the power game. He added a third when he stretched out to haul in a pass over his head.

Mathis, and “Joystick” Washington each added offensive touchdown catches on the night as well.

The defense came up big all night too. It wasn’t just the offense. Smith, Herbert and Dewalt all added interceptions. DeWalt’s was retuned for a touchdown.

Before leaving the game at halftime, starting QB Bernard Morris had two touchdown passes and 114 yards passing to post a 28-14 lead heading into the locker room.

The Power’s next game is Monday, March 28th versus the Milwaukee Mustangs (in Milwaukee) who are 0-2 on the season. They lost to the 2-0 Arizona Rattlers on Saturday.

Billy Guerin officially announced his retirement today after am 18 year stint in the NHL. Having played with eight different teams, Guerin’s last official home was in Pittsburgh where he helped the team win the Stanley Cup in 2008-2009. He remained with the team for the 2009-2010 season but was not tendered a new contract for this year. He tried out for the Philadelphia Flyers this year but was released before the season began.

Bill Guerin will be honored by the Penguins in a ceremony before tonight’s home game versus the New Jersey Devils. “We were only here a short time, but my family and I developed such a deep connection to the city, the team and the fans,” said Guerin.

It was obvious how much the fans in Pittsburgh appreciated Guerin’s presence. Despite being a veteran, the fans regularly cheered for Guerin on the ice and applauded when his kids were shown on the old Igloo’s scoreboard.

Guerin was no doubt thankful that the Penguins acquired him from the New York Islanders for literally a song. He was struggling on a team that showed little penchant for winning and that was obviously frustrating to a player of Guerin’s caliber.

Guerin made his reputation as a player that could both finish and set up his teammates and also as a no-nonsense player on the ice who was not adverse to getting down and dirty. He often exceeded 100 penalty minutes by year’s end.

Considering the success he had at the tail end of his career here in Pittsburgh and how much the fans and the players loved him on the ice and in the locker-room I do not think it is any surprise that tonight, bad boy Billy Guerin retires a Penguin. Billy, I salute you. And with your announcement of a well deserved retirement after a long and productive career I am proud to see that you will now forever be a Pittsburgh Penguin.

Carolina plays an up tempo game. Vancouver prefers that style too, but the Penguins newly found commitment to defense shut them down. Last night was another test for that new found respect for focusing on the blueliners.

However, Pittsburgh struggled. However, so did Carolina.

Both teams found the net four times during regulation and overtime and Fleury looked stronger than that record as his defense let him down a couple times. Fleury stopped 30 of 34 shots and kept the Penguins in the game despite a teamwide collapse that let the Hurricanes tie the game with just 0:52 left in regulation. Pens fans no doubt had visions of the game against the New York Rangers dancing in their heads. In that game the Penguins down 0-1 late scored twice to take a 2-1 lead only to give up a late goal in regulation and then lost in overtime.

But not last night. After goals in regulation by Chris Kunitz (6, 7), Tyler (Mr.) Kennedy (4) and Sidney Crosby (14) the Penguins shut the door in overtime despite playing much of it in their own end. Then came the shootout.

In the shootout it was not even a contest. Kris Letang scored on the Penguins first shot. Fleury stones Jeff Skinner. Crosby scored on the Penguins second shot. Then Fleury flipped out his pad and stopped Jussi Jokinen. Game over. Two points.

The win in the shootout moves the Penguins to 11-8-2 on the season and they have won four of their last five and have a point in each of those games.

Pittsburgh produced consistent offense all night tallying 36 shots in regulation and overtime. 10 shots in the first, 12 in the second, 11 in the third and 3 in the five minute overtime show that the Penguins never let off the gas. His Sidness paced the Penguins with four points (1 G and 3 A) while Malkin added three quality assists. Jussi Jokinen had four point for the Hurricanes (2 G and 2 A) and menaced the Penguins all night.

Pittsburgh is now off until Monday night until they face the 8-9-0 Florida Panthers on the road.

It wasn’t the Stanley Cup Finals but the Penguins and Red Wings engaged in a classic battle that was entertaining if not nail biting. Both teams staked out there game plans and each countered the others best laid plans. For the Penguins it was find Wings netminder Jimmy Howard and throw frozen rubber at him early and often. For the Red Wings, depleted by injuries all season, it was weather the storm and be opportunistic.

There was no doubt that Howard kept the Wings in the game. He faced a withering assault and assortment of scoring attempts of all types from slap shots to wristers to banging in garbage from the doorstep and stopped all but one of the 47 shots he faced in regulation and overtime. That one that he missed was on a Sidney Crosby (34) backhand late in the first. However with the help of some posts and what as at times utter chaos in the Detroit zone that was all the Penguins could muster.

The Red Wings however hung in there and after managing just 11 shots through the first two periods came to life for about five minutes in the third and scored the game tying goal midway through. That is the way the game ended after sixty minutes and despite having to kill a penalty in overtime, the Penguins and Wings moved on to the shootout.

Fleury had already been strong all game long, although he too had a couple fortunate bounces save his bacon, despite nursing a still broken finger on his glove hand stood tall in the one on one session forcing Pavel Datsyuk to miss the net on his shot and making a save on Jason Williams.

In the end it was the dynamic duo for the Penguins that made sure the game went on no longer once Fleury stood tall between the pipes. Kris Letang could not beat Williams but Crosby and Malkin both scored on their chances and it was Malkin’s shot, a soft push into the net after Williams was down and out that brought the crowd at the Igloo to its feet as the final score officially read 2-1 Penguins.

The win was important for the Penguins who are sitting in fourth place in the East and being challenged by surging Ottawa (31-21-4, 66 pts), who just beat the Penguins at the Igloo on Thursday night. The win against the Wings gives the Penguins (34-21-1, 69 pts) a three point lead over the Senators and keeps them just three points behind the New Jersey Devils (35-17-2, 72 pts) who are leading the Atlantic Division but also have two games in hand over Pittsburgh.

Tonight the Penguins though have to turn around again and do it all over as the Buffalo Sabres come into town. Buffalo is leading their division and third in the east at 32-14-7 and 71 points.

Last night’s game against the New York Islanders was something the Penguins needed. At least going in and on paper and through the first half of the game anyway. The Islanders were 8th in the Eastern Conference heading into the game but only because they have been surging as of late with a 7-2-1 record in their last ten games. The Islanders are still not a major threat to the top teams in the East. Yeah, they may finish with a respectable or even good record at the end of the season. They might even finish above some of what are considered the elite teams in the Atlantic. But it will be through a sheer force of will and over achievement.

Coming off an up and down road trip where they lost two but won three, the Penguins were no doubt looking forward to coming home to the Igloo for a game against the Islanders before taking on the much more elite Washington Capitals on Thursday night.

And everything started off well enough. For a period and a half the Penguins dominated staking out a 3-0 lead and even scored twice on the power play which featured some wrinkles that were not there two weeks ago. Sidney Crosby (31) opened the scoring late in the first period picking up a rebound and burying it into a yawning cage. Early in the second Evgeni Malkin (15) lit the lamp on a 5 on 3 power play to bring the crowd to its feet. Bill Guerin (16) scored on another power play three and a half minutes later and no doubt stunned the Islanders who were wondering what was going on considering the Penguins never seem able to accomplish such feats and my running joke is that the Penguins should decline all penalties because they have been that bad with the man advantage.

Andy Sutton (4), who was later ejected from the game for launching Pasqual Dupuis into the boards from behind and injuring him, scored midway through the second to cut the score to 3-1. Less than a minute and a half later though Sidney Crosby (32) scored again to reestablish a three goal lead.

Then the wheels started coming off. Brent Johnson, who had played spectacularly in relief of the injured Marc-Andre Fleury, couldn’t stop a puck to save his life. Half a minute after Sid scored, Freddy Meyer (1) answered for the Islanders.

The bleeding continued in the third period. 0:48 in Trent Hunter (9) scored to make the score 4-3. Then at 7:11 of the third Richard Park (4) knotted the whole game up at 4-4.

It took a power play goal by Malkin (16) at 11:09 to put the Penguins up 5-4 and the completion of the hat trick by Malkin (17) at 19:30 to seal the deal. The Islanders presenting the Penguins with an net empty and on the Penguins on the power play again thanks to a major penalty on Sutton’s boarding penalty and Malkin walked in and buried it for the 6-4 win.

Brent Johnson finished with 31 saves on 35 shots and recovered towards the end to salvage what could have been an ugly loss had he not. The win moves the Penguins more securely into 4th place in the East at 31-19-1 with 63 points.

Malkin’s hat trick will no doubt spark talk about the Penguins super star finally getting out of his long funk but one game does not a slump end. Time will tell and the Penguins have a much bigger test on their hands tomorrow night than the Islanders.