Oilers shut out Flyers 2-0

[Event Summary]

[Cult of Hockey]

All was as it should have been last night in Edmonton.

Taylor Hall got the Oilers on the board and up 1-0 with a powerplay goal, his 22nd of the season. Jordan Eberle would later add his 27th in addition to an apple assist on the Hall powerplay goal. Devan Dubnyk shut out one of the highest scoring teams in the NHL. The Oilers proved that they again are a formidable opponent in Edmonton.

I have all along felt that Ales Hemsky is part of the solution in Edmonton, and he was signed to a 2-year contract extension today. 

Eric Lindros was the man when I was growing up

When I was a kid growing up playing NHL, Eric Lindros was like the super power player in all of hockey. He was big, strong as a bull, he scored like crazy. Kenner Starting Lineup made a figure of him like every year.

Steve Yzerman was doing his thing. There was Super Mario also. But if I were as into NHL back then as I was NFL and MLB, Lindros would have been my guy.

Pens lose 3-2 Opening night to Flyers

[Event Summary]

*Definitely check out Empty Netters for a full recap of Opening Night.



I watched a lot of this game on my computer hoping to see a Penguins victory; but the Penguins begin the season in an 0-1 hole with a nip and tuck loss to the rival Flyers.

-Don't forget that last night was Hockey Night in Canada's opener too.

Penguins dominated in Philly, 8-2

Six points? Six f--kin' points?

Joffrey Lupul's two quick goals got him on a fast track for the Philadelphia Flyers' first hat trick at home in two years. R.J. Umberger made the fans' wait much shorter for another one.
Lupul notched a hat trick and had six points and Umberger added three goals and five points to snap Philadelphia's five-game winless skid at home and lift the Flyers to an 8-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.

You know, after that dominating of the Canadian coastline put on by Crosby & company, I knew it had to end sometime. I knew this couldn't continue forever. The Pens were destined for this type of letdown to their rivals and hopefully it grounds them and realizes that they can't continue on a meteoric rise through the rest of the league--just yet.

Of course, Crosby notched two more assists on feeds to Ryan Whitney and Petr Sykora.

More then anything, very bad news for the Pens today in the way of their goaltender, Marc Andre Fleury. Fleury has a sprained ankle and will be out for 6-8 weeks. In hockey, that's a huge amount of time to miss. Hell it's a big amount of time to miss in any sport. When I heard that, I said to myself 'thats a serious sprained ankle. that is the cadillac of sprained ankles'. Two things to note, this means Dany Sauborin really has to step it up for this team, and I don't know if this team will be able to make a run to the Stanley Cup Finals or even Semifinals as I thought they would.

Ben Eager is a coward; Pens lose. [The Pensblog]

[Box Score]