Game 5: Penguins 0 - Senators 3: GAME OVER!

*sigh*

So long, sayanora, ciao... Sidney Crosby and the Penguins fizzled out with a 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators, losing the series 4-0 and going out like a lamb...

Crosby finished the game pointless (duh) in 23:44 of ice time with 6 shots on goal.

With 5 points in 5 games, Crosby's first playoff mirrors those of past greats like Lemieux and Gretzky, although we all expected more.

His 'lack' of production was certainly not for a lack of effort, as Crosby was flying all over the ice and firing shot after shot. If Sidney's teammates showed up 1/2 as much as Sid did, this series wouldn't be over. Recchi, Malkin, Armstrong... where the hell did they go?

From Yahoo! Sports:

The Ottawa Senators brought a decisive end to Sidney Crosby's teenage years in the NHL.

Ray Emery made 20 saves for his first playoff shutout, leading Ottawa to a 3-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night to win their first-round series in five games. Dany Heatley, Antoine Vermette and Chris Kelly scored second-period goals.

The Senators scored three times in the middle period and held the 19-year-old Crosby without a point for a second straight game.

Emery helped Ottawa weather two early 5-on-3s, including one that lasted 1:14 after Dean McAmmond was given a delay of game minor for backhanding the puck over the glass with Wade Redden already in the penalty box.

Heatley scored his second goal of the series on a power play 1:08 into the second and Vermette made it 2-0 when he drove through the slot and scored on Marc-Andre Fleury.

Kelly brought the sellout crowd to its feet with a roar once again when he beat Fleury at 17:55.

Ottawa, which has never squandered a 3-1 series lead, advances to face one of the three teams in the New York area. The fourth-seeded Senators will either travel to No. 2 New Jersey, or host the sixth-seeded New York Rangers or the eighth-seeded New York Islanders when the second round begins.

NOW, the question is whether Crosby will join Team Canada at the World Championships. It would be a great way for him to get some action on the International scene.

Game 4: Penguins 1 - Senators 2

Ruh Roh!!!

The Penguins are just one loss away from hitting the links after a 2-1 defeat at the hands of those Senators last night.

Sidney, while he didn't hit the score sheet, was dangerous all night long.

So, why are the Pens losing?

Well, according to Jon Press over at The Fanhouse, the Pens' role players are sucking big time:

The Pens have had goals scored by only three different forwards -- Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal and Gary Roberts. Notably yet to light the lamp (or bulge the onion bag, as our British friends might say), are big guns Evgeni Malkin and Mark Recchi and role players Michel Ouellet, Erik Christensen, Ryan Malone and Colby Armstrong -- half a dozen players who combined to score 122 goals during the regular season.

The common thread here (with the exception of Recchi), of course, is youth. This is the first playoff experience for the other five skaters, and it shows. Malkin has four assists, but looked largely indifferent until late in Game Three. Armstrong has provided a bit of a physical presence, but no offense. Ouellet has had his moments skating mostly with Roberts and Staal, but has fired only seven shots on goal in the four games. Christensen is getting no ice time (and was scratched for Game Four), and Ryan Malone has a team-worst minus-4 rating. The list of goal-less Pens goes on and on, but you get the point.

Sidney played 22:22 and finished with 4 shots on goal. With Sidney snakebit, nobody was picking up the slack, and now the Penguins are on the brink ...

Game 3: Penguins 2 - Senators 4

Sidney Crosby has been doing a pretty good job in this series, but the rest of his team hasn't been quite up to the task of stopping the powerful Senators attack.

The Penguins mustered just 19 shots (5 of them by Sidney) on Ray Emery and couldn't capitalize on a first minute goal by Gary Roberts (who's been great for the Pens) as they lost 4-2 to the Senators.

Sidney Crosby had another good night with 1 goal, 1 assist, 5 shots on goal, and +2 in 21:44 of ice time.

From Yahoo! Sports:

The Ottawa Senators could live with giving away one game to Pittsburgh. What they were determined not to do was give away another playoff series.

Daniel Alfredsson scored twice during a second dominating Ottawa second period in as many days. The Senators made this lead stand, taking Pittsburgh's stars and its crowd out of the game for a 4-2 victory Sunday in Game 3 of their first-round series.

The Senators seized back home-ice advantage -- they have as many as two home games remaining in the series -- by slowing Pittsburgh's stars and getting two key goals from one of their own in Alfredsson.

Ottawa, rebounding from a 4-3 loss at home barely 24 hours before in which it twice squandered third-period leads, takes a 2-1 lead into Game 4 on Tuesday night. Game 5 follows in Ottawa on Thursday.

"We can't afford to get down 3-1," the Penguins' Gary Roberts said. "We know that. We've got to come out with a much better effort Tuesday."

"Teams are focusing on capitalizing when they get their chances and we have to do a better job of not making mistakes," Crosby said.

It would help if M-A Fleury would play much better. He's had 2 bad games and 1 good game. At this rate, the Penguins will lose the series in 6.

Game 1: Senators 6 - Penguins 3

So, Sidney and the boys got a good schoolin' from the Senators in Game 1 of the series.

Marc-Andre Fleury was the suck, Sidney had a goal called off, and the Sens offense just had their way with the Penguins all night long like Lionel Ritchie.

Sidney did score a goal in 22:43 of ice time. He also finished -1 with 3 shots on goal. Obviously, Sidney should have had two goals, but the video goal judges were heavily biased and did their jobs poorly.

From Yahoo!:

Sidney Crosby found little to celebrate after his first NHL playoff game.

Andrej Meszaros and Chris Kelly scored 5:01 apart early in the first period and the Ottawa Senators ruined Crosby's postseason debut with a 6-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night in the opening game of the Eastern Conference first-round series.

Tom Preissing made it 3-0 with a power-play goal 14:38 into second after Ottawa scored twice on Marc-Andre Fleury in the opening period when the Senators had a 16-4 shots advantage.

Crosby scored one goal and had another disallowed.

"Instead of going out there and trying to set the tone ourselves, I think we tried go out there and feel things out," Crosby said. "When you do that, you get caught watching sometimes and unfortunately they were able to get a lead on us."

The 19-year-old Crosby, who led the NHL with 120 points, scored the game's final goal at 19:11 for his first playoff point. He also had a goal waved off 37 seconds into the third after Dany Heatley put Ottawa up 4-1 with a power-play goal 28 seconds earlier.

"That actually helped us bear down and focus a little more," Preissing said. "When we did restore that three-goal lead, maybe we let up a little bit, and I think that non-goal helped restore our focus."

Penguins 2 - Rangers 1: Here we come, Ottawa!

Sidney Crosby and the boys won the game, but missed out on a division championship as the evil Devils captured that title (again).

Sidney was great with assists on both goals, and moved his point total to 120!

From Yahoo! Sports:

The Pittsburgh Penguins won, yet felt like losers if only for one night. The New York Rangers lost, yet came out of their final regular-season game feeling like winners.

Gary Roberts and Mark Recchi, the oldest players on a Pittsburgh team led by teenage scoring champion Sidney Crosby, scored goals and the Penguins completed one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in NHL history by beating the New York Rangers 2-1 Saturday night.

Despite losing, the Rangers secured sixth place in the Eastern Conference and avoided a first-round rematch against New Jersey when Tampa Bay lost a 3-2 shootout decision to Atlanta. The Rangers, who ended with 94 points to seventh-place Tampa Bay's 93, will play the Thrashers in a first-round series while the Lightning take on the Devils.

"The higher the seed, the bigger the accomplishment," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "Beyond that, we're going to prepare for Atlanta. We want to play anybody, we don't care who it is. Now that we've got that determined, away we go."

The same goes for the Penguins -- away they go, and to Ottawa for the first round.

Crosby was a big part of that at age 19, accumulating 120 points in his sophomore season to become the youngest scoring champion in NHL history. He ended with six points more than San Jose's Joe Thornton, who had three points in his final game to finish with 114.

Crosby assisted on goals by the 41-year-old Roberts and the 39-year-old Recchi, even though he is less than half the age of both.

"I'm proud of it, but it's not why I play the game," Crosby said of his scoring championship. "Maybe I'll have more time to reflect on it when the season's over."

Penguins 3 - Senators 2: A Playoff Preview?

The Sens and Pens could very well meet each other in the first round of the playoffs or later, so tonight's game was a good preview.

Sid and the boys did a solid job, coming out on top with a 3-2 victory.

Sidney had a decent night with 1 assist and 3 shots on goal in 19:56 of ice time.

The real star of the night was Marc-Andre Fleury, who made 35 stops in his bid to win back the #1 goaltending job.

From NHL.com:

The Pittsburgh Penguins gave themselves a chance to get home-ice advantage in their first playoff series in six years.

Maxime Talbot scored with 9.8 seconds remaining to lift the Penguins to a 3-2 win over Ottawa on Thursday night and preserve an opportunity to claim home-ice advantage in their first-round playoff matchup against the Senators.

Talbot put a shot past Ray Emery into the top of the net during a 4-on-4 situation in the dying moments of the third, moving Pittsburgh into a tie with Ottawa for fourth place in the Eastern Conference with 103 points.

"It was a pretty exciting game," Talbot said. "It was a playoff atmosphere and a playoff-type of game. It's going to be an interesting series."

Maxim Ouellet and Gary Roberts both scored power-play goals during a five-minute elbowing major against Ottawa's Jason Spezza in the first.

Roberts, acquired in a Feb. 27 trade with Florida, helped Toronto eliminate the Senators from the playoffs three times in his four seasons with the Maple Leafs.

"They're a real character team," Roberts said. "They battle hard every night. I know we had some success against them in Toronto but not because we outplayed them. Fortunately our goalie was better than their goalie but if you look at the games in all those series, Ottawa outchanced us on numerous occasions. They're a great club and it's going to be a heck of a series."

Sidney Swears He's a Good Boy

Oh, man.

From the 'Much Ado About Nothing' Files comes Ottawa coach Bryan Murray, whining about the fact that Sidney Crosby said a few nasty words in his direction.

From the Ottawa Sun:

Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby admitted to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he swore at Senators coach Bryan Murray during Sunday's game at Mellon Arena, but he didn't mean any disrespect.

"I might have said, 'What (expletive) are you looking at?' Maybe, I don't remember the exact (wording)," said Crosby. "I'm sure I use the odd swear word when I'm on the ice ... But by no means was I targeting Bryan Murray to try to start something."

Crosby disputed Murray's claim that the Senators coach was yelling at referee Don Koharski, not Crosby. Crosby said he couldn't hear what Murray said, but he was screaming at the Penguins player "for sure."

The incident occurred after Murray accused Crosby of taking a dive in what resulted in an interference call on Mike Comrie.

"There's absolutely nothing for me to gain by yelling at another team's coach,'' Crosby said. ''You can ask other coaches. I don't yell at coaches unless I'm being yelled at by the coach.

''(Murray) doesn't mind talking on the bench, let's put it that way. It's not the first time (Murray has said something to Crosby). That's just the way it is. If he wants to say that I'm disrespectful to him -- if he feels he wants to do that -- that's fine, but if he wants to do that, so be it.

"I didn't speak to him until he started making gestures. But what I was saying was, 'Why are you looking at me?' There was absolutely no reason for him to be yelling at me."

Given how hockey players swear every 5-6 words on the ice, this is really a non-story.

It looks like Bryan Murray wanted to get some spotlight, or put Sidney in some negative light, so he made much ado about nothing.

I can't wait until the next Sens/Pens match. Maybe Sidney will come up with a real zinger next time.

Penguins 4 - Senators 3: Motion Defeated!

First the Devils, and now the Senators. It's nice to know Sid and the boys can beat some good teams as they prepare for Sidney's first playoff run.

Sidney was the game's first start with 1 goal, 1 assist, -1, and 4 shots on goal in 19:26 of ice time.

The Penguins continue to get little efforts from the role players, as Jarkko Ruutu has turned himself into a go-to guy in shootouts.

From Yahoo!:

Jarkko Ruutu is the Pittsburgh Penguins' fourth-line winger, a player with 30 career goals in parts of seven seasons.

But now he has become a go-to guy in the shootout.

Ruutu's backhand move got the puck past goalie Ray Emery and Pittsburgh tied the Ottawa Senators for fourth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race with a 4-3 win Sunday night.

"He'll get another shot, that's for sure," said Penguins coach Michel Therrien of Ruutu, who is 3-for-6 in his career in the shootout. "I asked him before how he felt, and he said, 'I feel pretty good about it."'

Pittsburgh's victory gives each team 92 points, with Ottawa having one more victory and the Penguins holding a game in hand.

Sidney Crosby and Ryan Whitney had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who have won five in a row, are 7-0-1 in their past eight and moved within two points of the New Jersey Devils for the Atlantic Division lead.

Daniel Alfredsson and Antoine Vermette also scored for the Senators, who are 4-0-4 in their past eight and 12-1-5 in their past 18.

Ruutu was used in the shootout for only the second time this season since replacing Evgeni Malkin in that role last week. Malkin is the team's leading goal scorer who has more goals in his rookie season, then Ruutu does in his career.

"I'm confident in (shootouts), and it's great when the coach trusts you," said Ruutu.

Five of the past eight Penguins games have been decided in a shootout -- including a 5-4 Pittsburgh win in Ottawa 12 days ago.

This game was decided by a move so slow and calculated by Ruutu that Therrien was compelled to say with a smile, "He took his time, let's put it that way."

"It was weird, man," said Emery. "He came down really slow, a guy like that who doesn't get many minutes coming down in the shootout, you know he's got something coming up. It was a funny move. I didn't know what to expect."

Hmm, so Jarkko Ruutu may have a use, after all??

BTW, Recchi with 0 goals in 13 games. Sidney better start dishing him the puck a bit more.

Penguins 5 - Senators 4(SO): Deja Vu!

Oops, Sid did it again.

No points during regulation, but the shootout winner. Thanks to Sid's sudden shootout skill, the Pens won a tough battle over the Ottawa Senators 5-4.

Maybe we ought to stop talking about the slump. It doesn't seem to be helping :(

On the bright side, check out Jordan Staal with yet ANOTHER shorthanded goal. When is the last time a rookie has led the league in SH goals? Has it happened?


From NHL.com:

Sidney Crosby is making crucial contributions to the Pittsburgh Penguins' offense despite enduring one of the worst scoring slumps of his young career.

Crosby scored his third shootout goal in four games and Pittsburgh overcame a three-goal deficit for a 5-4 win against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.

Despite being held without a point for the fourth time in five games, Crosby scored on Pittsburgh's third shot against Ray Emery, who made a glove save off Evgeni Malkin after Eric Christensen beat him on the Penguins' first shootout attempt.

"I'm trying to (contribute) any way I can," Crosby said. "Obviously that's the easier way but you get a chance where basically, you score, you win, kind of thing. So I've had that opportunity a couple of times and I've tried to take advantage of it.

"Hopefully the time will come when I'll be able to do it 5-on-5 and in regulation, and obviously in the shootouts, when I need it."

Jocelyn Thibault stopped Dany Heatley and Antoine Vermette before Dean McAmmond scored on Ottawa's third attempt, forcing Crosby's decisive attempt.

"You just kind of wait to see what he does, try to be as patient as you can," Emery said. "I wasn't patient enough."

Crosby scored the winner in Thursday's 4-3 shootout win over the New York Rangers. He also scored in the shootout Sunday as Christensen got the winner in a 4-3 victory over Philadelphia.

"I know before Christmas he was having a hard time scoring in the shootout but we stuck with it and he practiced a lot," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "When the game's on the line those are the type of players you want to see performing and there's no doubt he's performing really well in the shootout."

Crosby, who leads the NHL with 98 points, was held without a point for the second straight game. The 19-year-old phenom has one assist - his 200th career point - in five games, matching the worst slump of his career.

"It's different when you're not getting chances or you're not able to create things, that's probably the most frustrating, but I think the chances have been there," said Crosby, who had eight shots in the game, including six in the first period. "It's just a matter of you're not getting breaks and getting some bad bounces. You go through those times and hope they'll last as short as possible."