Game 40 - Pens 0, Rangers 4
January 6, 2009 – 7:41 pm | by Bob BuskirkWell the Pens are at MSG tonight. The Rangers are not a bad team this year, much better than the teams that have been beating the pens. Therrien is mixing things up moving Kennedy to the first line and Satan down to the 4th line. The game is on Versus so expect a bad broadcast. Go Pens!!
First Period
Pens have the puck in the rangers zone, Talbot blasters Callahan into the boards, I guess that’s a penalty. Rangers on the power play, the pass it point to point then to the half boards, Dawes shoots the puck, it hits off Scuderi and goes in. 1-0 Rangers, horrible way to start the game.
Prucha high sticks Orpik, he draws blood so its a 4 minute power play for the pens. Pens on the power play, Whitney blasts one from the point off the back boards, it comes in front and Crosby has an open net, he shoots the puck but out of no where Lundqvist comes over and makes an amazing save. The Rangers give up the puck right in front of the net and Crosby shoots it off the post! He tries to run the gauntlet and gets tripped up, another penalty on the Rangers. 5 on 3 for the pens, Whitney passes over to Malkin on the point he fires a huge 1-timer off the post! Pens get a few more shots and Staal gets an interference penalty. It looked like total bs, all he did was lift someones stick. 4 on 4 now, pens kill off the rest of Staal penalty.
There is a scrum in front of the Rangers net, Cooke and a Ranger go off for roughing. 4 on 4 action. Malkin makes a nice move around a Ranger and has a 2 on 1 with Staal. He flips it over to him and Staal 1-times it wide of the net.
The Pens can’t really get anything going. It seems like they don’t have their legs or something.
Betts takes a hooking call, Pens on the power play. The Pens have great puck movement, Kennedy gets an unreal chance in front but Lundqvist makes a nice poke check. The Rangers kill off the penalty.
Voros takes a roughing call, they shoot the puck from the point as the whistle blows, it beats Fluery but is waived off.
Second Period
The Pens start the second on the power play. The have great puck movement, but they are not getting to the rebounds, the rangers kill off the power play.
Crosby takes a hooking call, Rangers on the power play. The Pens do a great job in killing off the penalty.
The puck takes a weird bounce and Malkin and Sykora gets a 2 on 0, Malkin tries a quick wrister but Lundqvist gets a piece of it.
Rozsival holds up Malkin, he gets called, pens on the power play. Right off the faceoff Crosby gets some phantom penalty, since versus is so good we don’t really get to see what the call was. 4 on 4 action, pens get some pressure but Lundqvist is strong.
The Rangers comes down on a 3 on 2, they rip one off the crossbar behind Fluery.
Cooke takes an interference penalty, Rangers back on the power play. Right off the faceoff the puck comes to Mara and the point and he blasts it past Fluery. 2-0 Rangers.
Crosby gets a pass in between the Rangers defense, he drives to the net and knocked down but still gets a shot on net, Lundqvist makes the save.
The Rangers shoot the puck over the glass in their own zone, thats a penaltly. Pens on the power play, they don’t get much going. Rangers get a short handed chance, but Fluery comes up huge.
Third Period
Pens start the with a small power play, the Rangers kill it off.
Kennedy goes to the box, Rangers on the power play. Pens do a good job and kill it off.
Once again the pens can’t get anything going. The can’t maintain the puck in the rangers zone and are making bad plays.
The Rangers come into the Pens zone, Letang falls down, Prucha takes the puck behind the net and passes to a wide open Drury, he puts it home. 3-0 Rangers.
Orr cross checks Orpik in the face, thats definitely a penalty. Pens on the power play they look alright but can’t get much going. Halfway through they call a timeout. The pull Fluery for a 6 on 4, they can’t get anything. Gomez puts it in the empty net. 5-0 Rangers.
Orr and Goddard square off, Orr gets a lot of shots in first, but Goddard comes back and gets some huge punches in late. Good scrap.
Pens get some late pressure, but nothing comes of it. Satan takes a penalty, Rangers on the power play.
Game Thoughts
Well another loss for the Pens, they came out strong in the first period and played pretty good. The first goal kind of took some of the steam, but still 1 goal is easy to come back from. The Pens had a 5 on 3 and a 6 on 4 and could not convert. The special teams really need some work, we have been saying that for almost a month now! The Pens really did not look like they had their legs in this game either, they looked like they were second guessing and not making the right plays. Lundqvist was strong in net and deserved the shutout. This is the fifth loss in a row for the pens, not sure what to say except for they need to turn things around.
