Postgame - Penguins 0 :: Bruins 3

    0          3
1st Period
Free Candy slammed up against the board on his first shift and took a LONG time getting to his feet, he got to the front of the net and the immediately left the ice.  Versus is terrible they didn't even notice while the Pens Dmen started a double shifting cycle.
Powerplay looks good but fails to get shots to the net and doesn't
Versus Announcers say Bourque 20 more times than Orpik who they didn't mentiuon for the rest of the period.
Rossi confirmed Free Candy went to the locker room on Twitter.
Pens outshot 10-2 in the first score was 0-0. 

2nd Period
Rossi tweeted that Free Candy is done for the night and will be evulated Wednesday.  5 Dmen rest of the way 
Goal waived off but it was in off of the upper mesh.  I've lost track of how many straight that is where we've failed to score first.  SO all that play after was extra time, including the trip that Tim Thomas got away with on Cookie.  Game just went to effed up land. 
Newonetwo made a nice block as he hugged the post for Clover
Pepper needs to get his mind right, he made a 2-1 look like the night he lost his virginity.
Pens getting looks, just no finish. 
Period ends 1-0 Bad guys though the Pens got 12 shots and got the difference closed a little.

3rd Period
According to Ray Bourque, Eric Stall is our third line center
Pens get a blocked shot turns into a Bruins breakaway and goal for Paille 2-0 early 3rd
Chris Connor is failing to impress me with his tentativeness.  Engelland's debut has been "eh"
Hit the Tweet limit at 12:10 to go in the 3rd
Pens are just playing bad,  bad passes, not effort to set up in the offensive zone
Clover is in the game, made a big big glove save in the late 3rd. 
ENG - shoot me

7 Straight Periods without a goal.

Update2 - Pregame: Penguins vs Bruins 11/10/09

    at      Pittsburgh Penguins at Boston Bruins
TD Garden, Boston Massachusetts . 6:00pm CST (Versus)
Penguins 1st in Atlantic Division/Eastern Conference Radio Feed: Penguins HD Radio StreamConfused? - Read the Glossary Update 2 - Confirming Lines
To confirm the lines from yesterday at today's morning skate.  HCDB does intend to shake up the fwd line and has paired Engelland with Brooks Orpik:

Cooke-Crosby-Fedotenko
Kunitz-Staal-Guerin
Conner-Adams-Dupuis
Bourque-Rupp-Godard

Orpik-Engelland
Skoula-Eaton
Goligoski-McKee

The Bruins will start Tim Thomas (2.44 GAA / .916Sv%) tonight against the Penguins

Update 1 - New Lines Tonight:
At yesterday's practice at Boston university Bing skated with new linemates and is expected to have them tonight when the game starts.  HCDB indicated it was time to shake a few things up after 2 straight losses.
Line1:  Cookie-Bing-Tenks
Line2:  Pepper-Gronk-Edison

Maybe Cookie Monster can start taking some of those bad penalties for Bing, I hope that's the plan anyway.
__________________________________________________________
The Penguins come into the last game of this road trip limping and losers of two straight.  Boston has been unimpressive early this year with most of their own first line out.  Something has to give in this game.  Either the Pens wake up and score some goals with their uninjured 1st line or the Bruins take advantage of a Pens team searching for the switch.  The Penguins have been stuck in neutral for the most part since a dominant performance against the Montreal Canadiens at home and Boston has flown way under expectations early.  Both teams are hurting from the injury bug which the Pens will tell you, repeatedly, several days in a row since the 5-0 whopping in the Shark Tank, is not an excuse

This is an Eastern Conference game and as such are points we cannot afford to give up.  Losing 2 of 3 to Western Conference teams won't hurt as bad as losing 2 points to an Eastern foe.  This is a guy check game for the Penguins.  Either the find the swagger again and start putting the puck in the net, or it may be a long road back from all of the injuries, which are affecting the team's play.  The first line has to get goals and Goal-tending must be solid tonight.  Solid from the first shot. 

I'm not naming names or purpose.  After the last two games, no one gets individual praise or highlighting.  Win as a team tonight boys.  Look for lines and updates as they come from the skate and interviews during the day.

The Penguins did announce yesterday that Defenseman Kris Letang will miss two weeks with a shoulder contusion suffered Saturday vs the Sharks.  This means the Penguins will have no choice but to put recent Wilkes-Barre Scranton call-up Deryk Engelland into service against the Bruins.  The Penguins are now effectively playing with 1/4 of their starting roster on the injury shelf.  

Letang Injury Update

Kris Letang was injured in the early first period of the Saturday night loss to the San Jose Sharks.  Letang is being listed with an upper body injury.  He was flow back to Pittsburgh Sunday for evaluation by Penguins medical staff today and is highly doubtful for Tuesday night contest against the Bruins.  Those are the known facts right now.

The rumors that are circulating is that this injury is serious and will take weeks to heal from.  That is speculation until it is confirmed by a member of the Penguins organization. 

Perfect Storm includes Bing Slump at the Wrong Time

One hell of a time for a slump.  If you take the newspaper/media type tour this morning there is a lot of talk about the Penguins and their recent woes on the injury list.  How the injury bug has hit them and diminished their play.  You know who isn't injured?  Not one player on the Penguins top line of forwards, that's who. 

Chris Kunitz, Bill Guerin, and Captain Sidney Crosby are not injured.  Bing is on a four game pointless streak. He hasn't assisted or potted a point since the Columbus game, and that was an assist.  For his last goal you have to go all the way back to the hat trick against Montreal.  Sure the team has been bitten badly by the injury bug, but not on their top line.  Not on the line that has to be counted on for two points/one goal a game. 

The play of the team has been fundamentally bad going back to that Montreal game.  Outplaying a Minnesota team on Halloween the Pens still lost.  The game before it, there had to be an improbable comeback against the Bluejackets who are known for 3rd period collapses.  Everyone knows we were lucky to get out of Anaheim with two points from the Ducks who are in the basement in the West.  We won that game 4 -3 with goals from Mike Rupp, Kris Letang, Alex Goligoski, and Pascal Dupis who are not the people you count on to score goals on a nightly basis.

(a lot more after the jump)

Allan Walsh, Twitter, Freedom & Business

I am a very active Twitter participant with the Penguins organization, it's fans, the National Hockey League, and many media outlets that cover hockey.  One of the more interesting sources I follow on Twitter is Allan Walsh, a sports agent representing many NHL players on behalf of Octagon Sports (Hockey). I have cited his Twitter account many times before in writing as a source for information I provide to my the SLBD readers.  During the Saturday night Penguins/Sharks calamity a tweet came out of @walsha that would spark a debate worth some comment.

“Interesting stat of the night....Price is 10W, 32L in last 42 starts. Hmm.”

He’s talking about Montreal Canadiens starting goalie Carey Price. Walsh doesn't represent Price, but he is the agent for Jaroslav Halak, Price's backup.  Halak has contended for the starting job this season and at times has seemed like the solution for the Habs in net.  Hockey Night in Canada commentator and former NHL netminder Kelly Hrudey would comment on Walsh's tweet saying “It makes me sick”.  Hrudey would elaborate during the HNIC intermission report on the Walsh tweet: (after the jump)