The Pensblog

The Pittsburgh Penguins franchise may have a received a resounding kick in the jewels tonight as Evgeni Malkin left the game in the second period following a collision with John Leclair. (Video below)
Mark Recchi also went to the hospital, after taking a stick to the eye.
Update: Pens GM Ray Shero is calling it an upper-body injury and refuses to speculate on it anymore.

Oh yea, there was a game, too. Malkin assisted on an early Sergei Gonchar goal and the Pens led 2-1 after the first period. The second period saw Malkin go down and the Pens jump out to a 3-1 lead before the Flyers came back and tied it.
As expected, the Flyers scored first in the third to take a 4-3 lead. However, 18 seconds later, Crosby went coast to coast and banked a shot off of Flyers goalie Martin Houle that found its way into the net. A little bit later, Crosby fed a no-look pass to Colby who buried it into an open net and that was it.




Stats

• Sidney Crosby - 1 G, 2 A
• Sergei Gonchar - 2 G, 2 A
• Evgeni Malkin - 0 G, 1 A, 1 upper-body injury
• Kyle Calder (PHI) - 3 A
• PowerPlay: Pens (4 for 11) - Philadelphia (1 for 7)
• Jocelyn Thibault - 23 saves
  

Miscellaneous

• Jordan Staal looked out of sorts.
• Malkin looked slick.
  
• Dominick Moore looks pretty solid.
• Sergei Gonchar is hitting the net this year.
• Fleury last night, Thibault tonight: Both poke-checked a puck to the opposing team for an easy goal.
  
• Bob Errey compared Malkin's trip to a Canadian hospital to an American "falling down the stairs in Russia, in the middle of nowhere, and trying to go to a hospital".
  

Things We Learned Tonight

• Dan Marino oozed leadership during his days at Central Catholic High School.
• The Phil Bourque commercials WILL last all year.
• Billco is the better buy.
• McCrackin Ford Auto Cruise puts the fun back in buying a car.