Battle of the backups...preseason Ice Bowl; call it what you will. I'll just call it another pre-season loss for the Pens.
In a close but not close enough score of 6-5, the Pens fell to the Buffalo Sabres in front of the home crowd in Pittsburgh. Each team benched their starting netminders and gave the nod to the regular season second stringers. As irony would have it, last season's Penguins' second stringer Jocelyn Thibault was in net for the Sabres. He stopped only 16 of the 21 shots faced. The other five landed in the net, with two coming from Crosby and one each from Malone, Christensen and Staal. Crosby also tallied an assist on the night. Evgeni Malkin dished off two that found their way between the pipes.
Danny Sabourin got the start for the Pens, facing 23 shots and stopping 17. The game was even at 5 and heading towards what looked like the third preseason overtime, until Derek Roy of the Sabres netted the game winner with 28 seconds remaining.
Despite prior faults of the powerplay unit in earlier games this pre-season, the Pens were a stellar 3-6 with the man advantage. On the other side of the advantage, the Pens PK unit held the Sabres to six scoreless powerplay attempts.
Coach Therrion wasn't kidding when he said the team would be working on their powerplay work in camp this week. It's more than obvious that they have honed in even more, converting at 50% in just this game alone.
Regardless, despite a loss the Pens were a much better team this game around. Hopefully we will witness them deliver a loss to the Sabres in front of their fans tonight in Buffalo.
In other relative news around the league, the NHL has taken action on the recent controversial hit between Steve Downie of the Flyers and Dean McAmmond of the Senators. Downie, a favorable prospect in the Flyers circuit but a notoriously dirty player, was given a 20 game suspension by the powers that be for the skate fleeting hit that rendered McAmmond unconcious. McAmmond, upon recovery, mentioned Downie will get what's coming to him. In the immortal words of Shakespere, "Blood will follow blood." If McAmmond knows what's best for him, he must consider the unspoken words presented in actions by the NHL - "Suspensions will follow dirty hits."
I'm happy to see the NHL gave this manner the proper attention it deserved. It's sad to see someone get severely injured, but from it came a fair warning to all players this season. If you leave your skates or head-hunt you'll be reclining your feet at home as you watch the next 3 weeks under suspension.
With that said, the season kicks off for the Pens Friday night in Carolina. Listen here. The official NHL season starts tomorrow, with the Ducks and Kings starting things off in jolly ol England. Catch the action on versus. The puck drops at 12pm eastern time.
