He shot that into his own net!!!

---Thanks to Flyer Hater over at Pensblog for sharing this video on C-blog---

With the game tied at 2 and less than 1 minute left, what happens? Sidney Crosby scores the game winner (his second of the night) after Nicklas Backstrom shoots it into his own net accidentally-on purpose. A teeny little piece of me feels bad for Backstrom because he is a rookie and made a mistake that may have cost his team a playoff spot. It's just not quite the same as the McCabe goal last fall.

I am really happy to see Crosby back on track after that injury. He really seemed to be flying out there this afternoon. I'm also glad to see that MAF played a solid game. He faced 38 shots (including 22 in the second), and only allowed 2 power play goals. He has been criticized endlessly, and has been in the shadow of Conklin. I hope that Fleury and the entire team takes something positive from this game and goes on a nice, long winning streak leading into the playoffs.

Go Pens!

I am a liar...for an hour, at least

Eh, hiatus schmiatus. I'm bored and there's too much interesting stuff happening to not write anything.

So, here's a quick recap of this week in the NHL:

- Wearing black apparently means you're a thief. Tuomo Ruutu of the Blackhawks was arrested earlier this week after he was spotted jogging a mile away from the scene of an armed robbery, and he fit the description of the criminal. No worries though, as the Chicago PD realized they had their wrong man when they started questioning him. Kinda hard to miss that Finnish accent...Luckily, Ruutu thinks the whole ordeal is hilarious.

- The NHL's superstar goalies began the season on a sour note (think Brodeur and Luongo), but now they are playing like superstars again. Luongo has three shutouts in three games (whaaa??) and Brodeur's Devils are on a roll, blanking the Habs tonight. I guess they call these guys franchise goalies because they always rebound from a shaky game - or a shaky stretch of games.

- Speaking of Brodeur, his shutout against the Canadiens was his 94th career shutout and, when added to his 22 shutouts in playoff games, he is the all-time record holder for shutouts. Sweet.

- Pens win tonight, beating the Stars 4-1. I guess their little break did them good. Three-game winning streak, back at .500, Leafs game tomorrow night on HNIC...good times.

- Speaking of the Leafs - JFJ is still kickin' in Toronto. I'm a little surprised, as I thought Peddie's comments, although unprofessional, signaled a change to come. Sure, that change could come tomorrow, but I figured it would come earlier in the week.

- Ottawa's in a free fall. Five-game losing streak, Alfie out with a groin injury, and now Volchenkov is out for a month with a broken finger. Nothing like losing one of your top D-men to make a bad situation worse. The Sens better hope that Alfredsson's groin heals itself quickly.
Update (01 Dec): Ottawa lost to the Rangers. Alfie came back, but was the invisible man - except for a couple of secondary assists. That would be 6 straight losses, my friends...bad times.

- Party's over in Phoenix. The Coyotes had a great stretch of games when they got their hands on Bryzgalov, but the Russian goalie showed his human side tonight when he allowed 5 goals on 7 shots in the first ten minutes in a game against the 'Hawks. Chicago went on to win 6-1.

- Caps are still the worst team in the NHL. Twenty-five games, 8-15-2 = 18 points. Their closest 'rivals' for basement dwellers are the Kings and the Oilers, with 21 points a piece. I shouldn't bash them too much, though, since the Pens aren't all that far ahead..

- Gary Bettman, commish extraordinaire of the NHL, announced this week that the League may not allow players to play in the 2014 Olympic Games. His reason? Those Games are in Sochi, Russia, so it won't really benefit the NHL (like the Vancouver-Whistler Games), and the time change might be too rough on the players...funny, isn't this the professional sports league that is starting to play regular season games in Europe and is thinking of expanding across the pond?

I know a lot of people don't like seeing professional athletes compete at the Games, but I like to see the best of the best compete for the gold - if they happen to be pro, so be it.

- In probably the only 'real' change in the NHL this year, the League has decided to change the schedule for next season. Now, each team will play every other team. Here's the breakdown: 6 games against division teams (24 games total), 4 games against conference rivals (40 games), 15 games against the 15 teams in the other conference, and three 'wildcard' games. I am dubbing this the 'Sidney Crosby Schedule Change,' because Western teams have been complaining about only seeing Crosby in their respective cities only once every three years, and I agree with their reasoning and actually think that the schedule could divided so that each team plays in every other city. Oh well...

Enough from me...hiatus, continue.

Pre-Season Predictions: Southeast Division

Of the three divisions in the Eastern Conference, I think that the Southeast will be the weakest. We may see just one team of the bunch get to the playoffs.

The Atlanta Thrashers were definitely humiliated by the Rangers during the playoffs this spring, and it will be interesting how they bounce back after that embarrassing debut. They seem to be good in goal, they have a pair of really nice looking players up front in Hossa and Kovalchuk, and they have a pretty good team overall. They’ll be in a race with Tampa for the top spot in the Southeast.

The Tampa Bay Lightning just changed ownership, but I’m not sure that they’re going to be a much better club this season than they were last year. Granted, they have the “Big 3” in Lecavalier, St. Louis, and Richards, who will all continue to play hard and carry the team. They also have underrated defenseman Dan Boyle and pretty good goaltending, so I think that they have a chance to make the playoffs if their star players remain healthy. But another run for the Stanley Cup? Nope.

The Carolina Hurricanes captured the Stanley Cup in 2006, and then fell out of the playoffs in 2007. The big question is whether they will turn their luck around and make another run at it. I’m not inclined to think so. They have a number of players who look pretty good on the ice (Staal, Williams, Commodore, Brind’Amour, Ward), but I’m not sold on the team as a whole. About half of the team is in their 30’s, with 4 being 35 and older. It’s not necessarily bad to have older players on the team, since they bring experience and leadership to the mix, but there’s always the question of whether they can keep pace and not show the signs of age.

The team as a whole will have to get their act together this season and fight for one of the last playoff spots, but I'm not sure they'll make it.

The Florida Panthers are a team that has some really good players (hello Horton, Jokinen, and Bouwmeester), but they are a disaster as a whole. They did make an upgrade in net this season with Vokoun, but I think everybody would agree that they should have kept Luongo (well, everybody but Mike Keenan). Noah Welch and Cory Murphy are the new guys on D, and they should do pretty well. I really liked the look of Murphy at Worlds, and he’ll probably become a power play specialist in the NHL. But will the Panthers be golfing in April? Yep.

The Washington Capitals is a team that is a bit of a question mark. You have a feeling that they are going to break out of their shell soon and really stir things up, but will that happen this year? Eh, probably not, but don’t count them out of the running for a playoff spot. Ovechkin was very ticked off last season because his team missed the playoffs and his own stats were not as impressive as they were the year before – look for him to pound his way back. Semin is also a really good player, but since he doesn’t speak English and seems to be a quiet guy in general, he has really been under the radar (I bet a lot of people haven’t even heard of this other Alex). Michael Nylander and Nicklas Backstrom should also add some offensive punch to the lineup. I expect that hockey people will be talking about the Capitals a little bit more this year, but they are still years away from being a Cup-contending team.