Penguins vs. Capitals. Crosby vs. Ovechkin. Yay! Yay!

This recap will suck mightily, but only because I have it on good information that the Penguins will beat the Caps. Why? Because the Penguins always beat the Caps.

The Caps do have better uniforms then they used to have. The red, white, and blue. Good stuff.

This is the matchup that the NHL will hype for the next 20 years, as both players will reign dominant, injuries aside.

Conklin is starting in goal again. That’s good. Conklin has played very well so far, and has more NHL experience than Dany Sabourin. What the Pens need right now is consistency in the net. Well, no crap. Every NHL team needs consistency in net.

Mark Eaton is out, probably for the rest of the year. That’s bad. Eaton is a solid defensive force who is a shot blocking machine. Yet, given that the Penguins PK is mud, and the Penguins defensive depth, I think the Pens will be OK. What they need is for Malone to come back. They need to get Max Talbot back. They need to fire their coach, eventually.

That leads me to the discussion swirling in the inner Gegick circle about what the Penguins should do about their coaching situation.

After the way the team performed last year under Coach Michel Therrien, GM Ray Shero had no choice but to bring him back, despite the fact that Shero was stuck with Therrien as head coach when he took the job in the summer of 2006.

I do not want the Penguins to fire Therrien right now. Give him the rest of the season, and make a change in the off season. Shero needs to find the right guy to coach this team, who is able to get the absolute most out of the star power that he will be afforded.

That’s the problem with Therrien. Last year aside, Therrien does not know how to use his star player. Everything he touched last season turned to gold. The way he brought Jordan Staal along, the way he used Crosby and Malkin. It all worked.

This year, I think, Therrien is not using Crosby in enough situations. Crosby, being the best player in the game, needs to get ice time that is reflective of his importance to the team. Therrien does not. Therrien said they were going to use Crosby more in penalty killing situations, but aside from a few choice shifts, Crosby is not used like he should be. Malkin too, for that matter. Crosby is not on the ice enough on the power play. He can and should play all two minutes.

Therrien, as has been reported in several different media outlets, has somehow split the locker room that was so very tight last year. By benching locker room favorites like Brooks Orpik and Colby Armstrong, he’s lost respect of the players.

I believe that a coaching change is in order, yet I don’t think that it should happen within the season. The one thing that was great about Craig Patrick was that he could step in as an interim coach and do a good job. Can we raise Herb Brooks from the dead?

It was seven years ago today…

Super Mario taught the Pens to play.

December 27th, 2000. The day that the great Mario Lemieux came out of retirement. It was the best Christmas present that Penguins fans could have ever received.

I can’t believe that it was seven years ago. I remember coming home from school when the news broke and my dad told me. We both screamed with excitement.

When he came back, there was some reserve about his age, but 30 odd seconds into the game, he set up Jaromir Jagr for a goal.

Mario was back, and back with a vengence. He netted 76 points in 43 games. 35 goals. He led them to the playoffs, and an excited second round Buffalo series, as well as an Eastern Conference Final.

After that season, the magic was over. The injury bug that had bitten him during his first stint in the league bit once more.  Jagr was traded. Kovalev, Lang, and Straka were traded or signed elsewhere soon after.

For that one half of a season, Mario as we all remembered him, was back.