Wednesday’s storylines — 1.7.08
Well if you didn’t know yet, Jarkko Ruutu is crazy.
Peters
The former Penguin decided to use the only thing he had left to work with when he got involved in a scrum with Andrew Peters of the Buffalo Sabres: his teeth. Peters got Ruutu with a facewash and he responded by biting Peters’ thumb hard enough he broke the skin.
The reaction around Buffalo is here and the video is here.
He was surely a pest while he was in Pittsburgh, but I never thought he’d do something like that. You better believe he’ll be punished. But here’s what I wonder … will he get a worse penalty than Sean Avery?
If not, you can’t bet Avery will be up in arms and I think he rightfully should be. Whatever one says can’t be worse than biting. And both have had troubled pasts as far an nonsense goes within the league. By no means am I an Avery supporter, but I think it would be an injustice to him.
Gooooooooooaaaaaal! Pens win 3-1
It wasn’t a complete win by any stretch, but it might be enough to get this team out of its losing funk.
Thrashers 1 — Penguins 3
The Pens got on the board first and protected the lead. They scored not one power play goal, but two. Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby finally got back to adding points to their resumes. And most importantly, the Penguins got the win.
How far will this go for the team? Well, last time the Pens got a convincing win was Dec. 26 — a 1-0 win over New Jersey. Since then the Pens had lost five straight games until last night.
That has no reflection on where the Pens are to be going, but hopefully it serves as a reminder to the team about the importance of stringing together multiple positive performances.
Team Info
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Regular Season Stats:
Points: Sidney Crosby — 43 pts. (22 goals, 21 assists)
Goals: Sidney Crosby — 22
Assists: Evgeni Malkin — 24
PIM: Matt Cooke/Mike Rupp — 54
+/-: Sidney Crosby — plus-14
GAA: Marc-Andre Fleury — 2.31
SV%: Marc-Andre Fleury — .911
Atlantic Division Standings:
1. New Jersey Devils: 25-8-1 (51 pts.)
2. Pittsburgh Penguins: 25-10-1 (51 pts.)
3. New York Rangers: 16-16-3 (35 pts.)
4. New York Islanders: 13-16-7 (33 pts.)
5. Philadelphia Flyers: 15-17-2 (32 pts.)
