Best Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament

For the third year in a row, Sean over at Sean's Ramblings has selected this blog to be part of the Best Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament.

Two years ago, I was seeded 8th against PSAMP. Needless to say, those Mini-Ponies trampled me.

Last year I was seeded 7th against Pitt Blather. Somehow, this blog pulled the big upset, getting onto Round 2, only to lose to One For the Other Thumb.

This year, I'm conflicted. I'm seeded 7th, but my opponent is my all-time favorite Pittsburgh sports blog - Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke (WHYGAVS). Pat's blog was the one that really inspired me to start Igloo Dreams back in 2005. Plus, he has a cool name.

So, I'm not going to shill for your votes - I'll just tell you to go and vote - this tournament is all about fun.

You can vote for the second part of Round One over here.

New post at Hockey Independent

I have a new post up over at Hockey Independent. It's called "Garth Snow - Comedian of the Year". In it, I used both dictionary.com and quoted The Princess Bride. Can't say I've ever done both of those in an article about the NHL before. Go have a look!

Two Islanders suspended - Gillies gets 9, Martin gets 4

Godard, as expected, got the automatic 10 games.

The best part about this for me as a fan is that the suspensions will hit Gillies and Martin in the pocketbook. It will cost Martin about $41,000 and Gillies about $24,000.

The Islanders were also fined $100,000 as an organization.

Both Gillies and Martin were ruled as deliberate attempts to injure. Here's the quote from Colin Campbell:

"The actions by the Islanders' Gillies and Martin were deliberate attempts to injure by delivering blows to the head of players who were unsuspecting and unable to defend themselves. The message should be clear to all players: targeting the head of an opponent by whatever means will be dealt with by suspension."

If the NHL really wants to get rid of the nonsense, these suspensions need to be longer.

Pens running Wilkes-Barre shuffle

Some interesting roster developments this afternoon in the wake of Matt Cooke's four game suspension:

• Eric Tangradi and Tim Wallace were sent to Wilkes-Barre.
• Four players were called up from the Baby Pens (which has be be some kind of record) - Joe Vitale, Nick Johnson, Ryan Craig and Brett Sterling.

Of the four players coming to Pittsburgh, Craig has the most NHL experience with parts of 5 seasons and 184 games under his belt. He plays center.

Sterling is a winger and he has put up some BIG goal totals in the AHL. The knock against him, however, is his height. He's listed at 5'7".

Vitale is a center in his third professional season. He kill penalties and plays a good two-way game.

Johnson is the best prospect of the four. He has some size (6'1") and has produced at a respectable level the last few seasons. He's played well this year, leading Wilkes-Barre with 20 goals.

The Pens now have the Baby Pens two best players up here (in terms of point production) - Dustin Jeffrey and Nick Johnson. Let's see if they can make some noise.

Want to meet Mark Letestu?

Go to Ross Park Mall today, Wednesday, February 9th!

He'll be at Steel City Collectibles from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

You'll have to purchase an autograph ticket, from what I understand. Nothing was provided in the email I received that indicated how much said ticket would cost, which makes me slightly wary. Contact Steel City Collectibles if you want specifics.

This blog does not do advertising, and I received nothing for posting this notice. In fact, I normally ignore most of these types of things. In this case, Mark is one of my favorite Penguins, and anyone that just had surgery could use some cheer.

Evgeni Malkin has torn ACL and MCL

Per Dan Bylsma, via the Pens website.

This certainly changes the outlook for the Pens at the trade deadline. You'd think they'll certainly go after a scoring forward if they're able to reclaim the cap space that Geno was using at least for the remainder of this season.

That would limit the alternatives to guys in the final year of their contracts, since they don't have the ability to add bigger salaries over more than one season.

Here are the direct quotes from Bylsma on Malkin:

Evgeni Malkin had an MRI this morning. The results show that he has a torn MCL and a torn ACL. At this point in time we are discussing options with the doctors on what to do next.

This is a difficult injury for him. It was kind of a fluke situation going into the boards with a guy. That's a tough injury for Geno. We have dealt with games without him. We've managed to find our way without him. That's what we're going to have to look at now.

We're discussing options with our doctor. Surgery is a possibility. I'm not sure if there are rehab possibilities. But right now I just got the news on the MRI.

New article at Hockey Indepenent

I have a new article up over at Hockey Independent called "The Kids Are Alright". It's about the four rookies in the lineup and the impact they've had on the team.

Give it a look!

Winter Classic Moved to 8:00 pm EST

Given the seeming weather situation, the NHL has moved the Winter Classic to a start time of 8:00 p.m. EST.

I like the move - I think the game will look great under the lights and the temperatures will be much more along the lines of what the players are used to for outdoor hockey.

It should be a great game. Preview will be up later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Tangradi and Hutchinson sent down

According to the official website, both Eric Tangradi and Andrew Hutchinson were sent to Wilkes-Barre.

This isn't a surprise for either player. Tangradi was playing the fewest minutes of the forwards, and Hutchinson was the most recent call-up from Wilkes-Barre.

I think Tangradi has a future with the Pens in a top 6 role. He has the size and strength they desperately need. You want him playing tons of minutes in Wilkes-Barre instead of barely cracking 10 minutes per night in Pittsburgh. He'll be back.

This means that one of the injured forwards, most likely Jordan Staal, will return on Wednesday in Tampa.

What are they doing with Eric Tangradi?

First off, I believe 100% that Ray Shero knows what he is doing FAR better than any of us do. There's clearly a reason that Tangradi was sent to Wheeling.

There are two questions in my mind, however:

1. If it was a salary cap issue, why recall Killeen? Tangradi is above the NHL minimum (by about $300K) so the team saves a tiny bit of cap space by having Killeen instead of Tangradi. You know what would have saved more cap space? Not recalling Killeen.
2. Are the Pens looking to make a move? According to everything I've read so far, they're not going to add a veteran defenseman right away (TIOPS), so you'd have to think if they're looking at a move, it would involve a forward. There's still a logjam on the third and fourth lines (once Asham is healthy), and Tyler Kennedy seems to be the odd man out right now. Would the Pens be shopping him rather than have him play on the fourth line? Maybe even Max Talbot, who if healthy, would have been expected to take over that third line center spot that seems to have been won by Letestu.

I think the only thing we can say for sure is that Tangradi won't play in Wheeling. He should open the season tomorrow night with the Pens, as expected, on the second line with Malkin and Comrie.