Check out my newest Bleacher Report article on the crazy Pens vs. Flyers series. It was featured on the Pens page of B/R last night (see below pic and link)!
Tag Archives: staal
Penguins vs. Flyers, Game 3: Penalty Count Embarrassing
Not much to say about this other than it is embarrassing.
This wasn’t playoff hockey, it was a wrestling match.
NHL ’13 Cover Vote
6Brace yourselves hockey fans. A bracket is heating up. No, I am not talking about March Madness, I am talking about EA Sports’ fan vote for the NHL ’13 cover. This is the first year fans will be able to vote for who they think should be on the cover of the much awaited game. In the past, cover-players have been announced
as a surprise to NHL fans. Previous cover-players include: Alexander Ovechkin (’07), Eric Staal (’08), Dion Phaneuf (’09), Pat Kane (’10), Jonathan Toews (’11), and Steven Stamkos (’12). At http://www.nhl.com/covervote, fans are able to choose between two candidates given for each team. The two candidates from each team are pre-selected. Fans are allowed to vote up to 10 times a day for either every teams’ players or just one player if they so choose. After April 11th, players will re-enter a new bracket of choices based on who ‘won’ their category. Most of the selections of players seem fairly obvious, highlighting the key players from this year’s season.
Here are photos of the first round choices:
Twitter is taking a big role in the NHL ’13 cover discussion. Using the hashtag #NHL13Cover, the NHL is maintaining an active conversation about who should win. Players are tweeting and asking fans and followers to vote for them. Some of the players are joking around about making the decision about which teammate to vote for. See NY Rangers’ Brad Prust’s tweets from this morning: 
Is there anyone you think deserves the cover the most? Any teams that have the wrong players as choices? Do you think players tweets that ask for votes will actually make a difference?
A 2nd Period to Remember, Spotlight Pens vs. Flyers, 2/18/12
2Today’s Pens vs. Flyers game was a great spectacle. The teams have an awesome rivalry that has just grown over time. Recently adding to the rivalry was Max Talbot’s trade to the Flyers and Jagr’s decision to pursue the end of his career in Philly rather than in Pittsburgh. Fans have also learned to love each team through their up-close actions shown on HBO’s 24/7. Both teams have hosted the Winter Classic, both have made it to the Stanley Cup final in the last 3 years and this season they are both contenders despite being plagued with major injuries to some of their star players.
The game today was close with goals continuously being traded back and forth throughout the game. The first goal came from Penguins’ forward Matt Cooke only 3 minutes into the game. His goal was overshadowed by the pair of goals from Jagr that finished out the 1st period. Yeah, you can imagine how bitter Pittsburgh fans must have been about that.
With the Pens down 2-1 after the first, they fought back in the 2nd period. The first goal of the second was an impressive short-handed goal by Pens’ center Jordan Staal. About a minute after Staal’s shorty goal, Cooke managed to do the impossible. He scored on a breakaway while the Pens were down 2 men! The Cookie Monster really came out to play!
Flyers players were visibly furious on the ice. If the 2nd period wasn’t exciting enough after two short-handed goals, the Flyers ended up getting a major break from Pens’ defenseman Deryk Engelland. Engelland tripped on the ice and let Wellwood get off a quick shot near the end of the 2nd period. Wellwood ended up scoring off Engelland’s major mistake. After Wellwood’s goal the 2nd period ended at 3-3.
After the excitement of the 2nd period, the 3rd turned out to be pretty lack-luster in thrill-factor (especially if you are a Flyers fan). The Pens scored 3 goals and left the Flyers goal-less until the last minute of regulation. Pretty exciting game overall and definitely a rivalry that is worthwhile in the NHL.
I will upload the individual play videos when they go public on YouTube, but if you want to see the game recap and the goals I am talking about here is a link where you can watch it! —> http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hlg=20112012,2,865
FiveForBoarding 