Evgeni Malkin (28) and Matt Cooke (9) scored a goal each and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28 of 29 shots to secure a 2-1 victory over the second seeded Bruins this after noon.  Orpik added punctuation to a physical game by sending Bruin Daniel Paille flying some 20 feet across center ice with a crushing check late in the second period.  The Penguins simply out physicalled a strugling Boston squad which coming into the game was just 5-4-1 in their last 10 matches.

Pittsburgh did not register the kinds of shot totals they have been, putting just 28 shots on net for the game and Fleury was strong down the stretch with several key saves on scoring chances with the Briuns looking to tie the game late.  James Neal led the way for the Penguins with six shots.  Newcommer Cal O’Reilly had just one shot and a prime scoring chance that he failed to convert on.  Pittsburgh has to do a quick turnaround and face off against New Jersey at 1:00 PM tomorrow.

Thank God for sanity! An arbitrator ruled this week that the NHL was right to void the recently penned obscene contract between the Devils and Kovalchuk which would have been for 17 years and $102 million.
Hey, I am all for players getting what they can but when you sign a contract in bad faith, which is what the Devils and Kovalchuk did make no mistake about that, to try and circumvent a league’s salary cap I am sorry but you need to be smacked down. The deal would have had Kovalchuk playing until he was 44 years old. While not unheard of for players to play into their 40’s it is rare and quite frankly players who play at that age are almost always hardly worth the spot on the bench they occupy.

During the final five years of the contract Kovalchuk would have earned $550,000 each year. The structure of the contract in its entirety however was clearly designed to circumvent the cap and lock up Kovalchuk for a smaller hit each year than he would normally have counted for. This whole situation was made difficult because for years the NHL has sat by and allowed other players to flirt with similar contracts in terms of length and salary without much of a peep if any. Kovalchuk and the Devils were probably right to assume that they would be able to get away with this latest bizarre contract. But they did not.

Now it is back to the drawing board and it will be interesting to see what these two parties have up their sleeves as “Plan B.” There will probably be another long term deal hashed out but not as obscene as 17 years. But it will still, most likely, be a deal that is designed to circumvent the cap as best as both parties think they can get away with. They have other long term deals already accepted by the league to draw on and can always use the excuse that the league accepted those.

I honestly do not care if Kovalchuk ends up with the Devils or not when this all shakes out. In his stint with the team last year he proved a pretty ineffective part of the team and for the Devils to use him effectively they would have to reword their tried and true strategy for winning. I do not think that Kovalchuk makes the perennially dangerous Devils any more dangerous. He might make them dangerous in a different way but nothing more than that.

Canadians fully expect their Olympic Team to accomplish nothing less than gold in Vancouver. Things could not have gone much further askew from plans so far. After needing a shootout to beat a Swiss team that could not win in regulation, it was time to take on the good old U.S. of A. in a game that if you asked any Canuck what the outcome would be they would have predicted a home team blowout.

When the dust cleared however it was the United States men’s team that put some hurt on the Canadians posting a victory by the final score of 5-3 thanks to an empty net and superb net minding by Ryan Miller who repeatedly stoned a relentless, but mostly ineffectual, Canadian attack. At the other end of the rink Martin Brodeur was pretty much off his game and could not hold down the fort.

Miller stopped 42 of 45 shots. Brodeur had trouble stopping 18 of the 22 he faced.

Sidney Crosby scored late to bring the keepers of the Great White North to within one but it was Ryan Kesler that iced the game in the final minute when the Canadians scrambled desperately for the tie.

The win gave the USA a perfect preliminary round in which they gained a full nine of a potential nine points. The only other team to do such was Sweeden. With tie breakers however the USA earned the top spot in the finals and a first round bye while Canada nestles into sixth and prepares to face Germany in the first round.

The Canadians want a rematch. And all they have to do to earn one is win. And of course so does the United States.

Just three days after winning their third Stanley Cup, and denying Marion Hossa his perceived better shot at winning it in Detroit, the team took to the streets today and were met by the cheers of hundreds of thousands of fans. Official estimates have the total attendance somewhere between 375,000 and 400,000 fans, people in attendance claim many many more with fans hanging out of parking garages to cheer on the victors.

Of course some of us have to work and keep this country going so we could not attend but I did make sure to wear my Brooks Orpik power blue jersey while on my motorcycle today to show my support. Yahoo has an entire slide show of AP pics from the event here.

The Penguins players will have some time to enjoy their summer with each member of the team getting their traditional day with the cup. Just keep it away from any swimming pools guys.

The Penguins and the City of Pittsburgh have announced the time and date for the Stanley Cup victory celebration parade. The date will be Monday, June 15th. The time Noon.

The parade will start at intersection of Grant Street and Seventh Avenue and follow the same route as the … oh that’s right … the Steelers Super Bowl victory parade!

The parade’s route will be as follows: It will proceed through Grant Street, loop to the Boulevard of the Allies and end at Stanwix Street. A stage celebration will be set-up along Stanwix.

Of course, people will be calling off work to attend and fight to get down town on a weekday. Which of course is a pet peeve of mine with this city. Nothing like making it difficult for people to attend and show their appreciation to the Penguins eh? I know their excuses about overtime, etc, but come on.

Have to see if I will be able to get some time to head down and if I decide to fight the inevitable traffic nightmare.

Just in case I don’t make it though, congrats Pens!

Say what you want about Detroit, San Jose is the best team in the West and built for a playoff run. And say what you want about the Penguins losing 3-0 to Detroit, they played a good game only to collapse in the end and showed real signs of improvement which they continued to show against a San Jose Sharks squad that came out and wanted to put the Penguins away early.

The first period of last night’s game was all about goal tending as Fleury stopped 15 shots and Brian Boucher for the Sharks stopped 11. The second period saw the Penguins get on the board thanks to Thomas (1) who scored his first goal for the Penguins on a sloppy puck just thrown to the net while shutting down the quick moving sharks. The third period was back and forth with the Sharks finally punching in a goal with more bodies in front of the net than the Penguins could account for. Each team managed 14 shots in the final frame and the Penguins could have won it but missed opportunity after opportunity.

In overtime the Penguins had another power play that they could not convert on and the game progressed to a shootout. Fluery stymied the sharks shooters while Boucher did the same to the first two Penguins to take a shot. But Sidney Crosby went five hole on their third attempt to get the Penguins a badly needed two points.

What the Penguins did last night was put together what was undoubtedly their best performance of the season in beating the Sharks who are easily favored to go deep into the playoffs. The win also gave the Penguins three wins in their last four games and three of five for the month of February playing tough games and tough teams.

This is a team that looks to finally have overcome but has still had some bumps since the All Star Break that have to leave a little doubt in the minds of fans as to whether or not they can recover well enough to make the playoffs. The Penguins now rest in 10th place in the East at 27-24-5 (59 pts) and has a lot of work to do because many of the teams ahead of them have games in hand.

On a final note, superstar defenseman Sergei Gonchar has been cleared to play by team doctors. His return is long in coming and the team appears ready to add him into the lineup and make a push.