Pens Tidbits

[BettisFan]

great game! Great start to the series.

[Lord Stiller]

haha that was awesome, Roberts is the man!!!!!!!!!

[HometownGal]

Originally Posted by Lord Stiller

haha that was awesome, Roberts is the man!!!!!!!!!

He certainly is. One tough, badass mo-fo!

Great game by the Pens and once again, Fleury was phenomenal in the net. The Pens sent a very strong message to Cryin' Bryan and the Sens tonight.

LETS GO PENS!

[SteelCityMan786]

Another win. 1 Down, 3 To go.

[X-Terminator]

Originally Posted by Edman

Scary Gary is the freaking man. Glad we have him.

He's gotten into the heads of the Senators.

Yes he did - tonight, anyway. The guy has killed the Sens so many times over the years that they and their fans must have nightmares about him. That's why they were so upset when the Sens didn't acquire him at the deadline last year or sign him last offseason - they wanted him on their side for a change.

And as you said, so much for them being a finesse team. Not only did they match the Sens hit for hit, several times they came to each other's defense, including Ryan Whitney taking on and beating Wade Redden in a fight () after he got into it with Sid. They've done it all year long. They have proven that they are more than capable of beating a team any way they want.

Originally Posted by HometownGal

He certainly is. One tough, badass mo-fo!

Great game by the Pens and once again, Fleury was phenomenal in the net. The Pens sent a very strong message to Cryin' Bryan and the Sens tonight.

LETS GO PENS!

The highlight of my night wasn't Fleury's performance, or Roberts getting 2 goals then dummying the Sens at the end, or the team's overall dominant performance from start to finish. No, it was the "Cryin' Bryan" chant in the 3rd period - I laughed the entire way to work The crowd was great all night long, so props to them!

Hopefully now they'll carry this performance over to Game 2 and not let the Sens steal a win in our building.

LET'S GO PENS!!!!!

[OneForTheToe]

Fluery was definately the highlight for me. His good play is the missing piece. Now, please control the rebounds .

[X-Terminator]

Originally Posted by OneForTheToe

Fluery was definately the highlight for me. His good play is the missing piece. Now, please control the rebounds .

I think he's done a good job of controlling his rebounds since coming back from the injury, sans a couple of games early in his return. As a result, he's not allowing too many second or third chances in the slot, and when he has left them out there, the D is clearing them away. Where he makes me nervous is when he tries to play the puck - Ty Conklin he ain't in that regard!

[rbryan]

Roberts missing all the time with the injury is going to turn out to be a blessing in disguise IMO. With fresh legs, the sky is the limit for him.

He looked like a grown man playing against kids last night.

[stlrtruck]

What's sad is I knew the game was on last night, my wife and son had left for the movies, and I was set to enjoy the game and then my 3 year old tells me, "I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese" actually it sounded more like, "I want to go to shuck e cheeses"

So by the time I got home, and finished some other things I was going to do immediately after dinner - the game was over. However, I was able to catch some of the highlights.

[HometownGal]

Originally Posted by X-Terminator

I think he's done a good job of controlling his rebounds since coming back from the injury, sans a couple of games early in his return. As a result, he's not allowing too many second or third chances in the slot, and when he has left them out there, the D is clearing them away. Where he makes me nervous is when he tries to play the puck - Ty Conklin he ain't in that regard!

Fleury has gotten much better on the rebounds this season. I also get nervous when he plays the puck and hopefully Meloche will work with him on that in practice.

Very good read on Roberts. He continues to amaze me at how tough he is for a 41 year old guy!

http://postgazette.com/pg/08101/872091-87.stm

Roberts tortures Senators again

Thursday, April 10, 2008
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Everybody in the old building knew what was up, from Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux in the owners' box to Michel Therrien behind the bench to Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury on the ice. It was absolutely critical that the Penguins start fast last night against the Ottawa Senators in Game 1 of their playoff series at Mellon Arena. The Senators are a reeling hockey club, desperately trying to find their way without top injured players Daniel Alfredsson and Mike Fisher. If only they could take the Penguins' best shot early, if only they could find a way to steal the first game, if only they could find a reason to believe they have a chance against a much better, much deeper team in a series that has sweep written all over it ...

The Penguins didn't let it happen.

The game started exactly according to plan.

Well, almost.

It's safe to say few in the Penguins' dressing room predicted Gary Roberts would score the first goal just 68 seconds in to show the way to a 4-0 win. Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, maybe. Marian Hossa or Petr Sykora, who did get the killer second goal at 12:28 of the first period. But Roberts? Only Brooks Orpik seemed like a longer shot.

But there Roberts was, playing just his second game since Dec. 29 after missing 43 because of a broken left leg and bad high ankle sprain, injuries that -- let's be serious -- should have been too much for an old man to overcome. He looked as if he had Crosby's energy when he did a little man-to-man combat with Ottawa defenseman Wade Redden behind the Senators' net, nudging the puck to linemate Georges Laraque, who threw it toward the front of the net. He looked every bit as young as Malkin when he hurried to jump on that loose puck and flip a backhander past goaltender Martin Gerber.

"He didn't look like a man 41, that's for sure," Therrien would say afterward.

At that moment, as Gerber was fishing the puck out of his net, there probably were happier people in America than Roberts, but, please, don't ask me to name one.

"It sure is fun to contribute again," Roberts said.

The man had to have doubts that he would play last night let alone have such an impact, getting not just the first goal but also the fourth on the power play in the final two minutes. "Sure, I had doubts," he said. In late-February, not long after he skated to test his ankle and crumpled to the ice, he spoke openly of facing a tough battle to make it back. Crosby, not even half his age, came back from his high ankle sprain and had a setback. The same thing happened to Max Talbot.

How was an elderly gent supposed to do it? Even one who works out as maniacally as Roberts?

"He works so hard that you hope good things happen to him," Therrien said. "All of us are very, very happy for him."

Happy?

How about delirious at the thought of the damage Roberts might do once he gets his legs under him?

"He's got that thing in his eyes," Talbot said. "I don't know what it is, but it's pretty scary."

Roberts had hoped to play in the final five regular-season games but made it back for just the final one against the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday. Although his ankle held up after 12 minutes, 31 seconds of ice time, there was no guarantee that Therrien would use him in the playoffs.

Not that it was a tough decision to scratch young Jeff Taffe instead.

"It wasn't tough at all," Therrien said, "because Gary Roberts knows the importance of the playoffs."

In no particular order, Therrien loves the toughness that Roberts brings to the Penguins, his playoff experience -- this was his 120th postseason match -- and the fact he tortures the Senators.

Earlier in the decade, Roberts played with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was huge in eliminating the Senators in three different series with 10 goals and seven assists in 17 games. A year ago, when the Senators took the Penguins out of the playoffs in five games, Roberts was the prime reason the Penguins won Game 2 with a goal and an assist.

Now, Roberts has the Senators running scared again.

"It's still going to be a process for me. It's not going to happen overnight," Roberts said.

"I need to get my conditioning to the point where I can contribute on a consistent basis. I didn't have a lot of jump in my legs tonight. I was just fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

"I'm just hoping I feel as good tomorrow as I do right now."

The Senators are hoping otherwise.

They paid Roberts the ultimate hockey compliment by trying to beat the heck out of him in the final few seconds.

You know, sending a message to Roberts before Game 2 tomorrow night.

"I was at the bottom of the pile, so I don't know who was punching me," he said. "I just knew I was getting hit a lot."

Roberts' puffy right eyelid showed it.

It looked as if it were about to explode.

Roberts clearly loved it.

How good it must have felt to have battle scars again.