Pens 1 Atl 4

Lehtonen was lights out last night.

Ryan Whitney scored in the third period to prevent the shutout. Christensen and Talbot assisted on the goal.

The Pens seemed tired after playing two away games in two nights, when the Smith goal was disallowed, that was all she wrote.  That would have made it 2-1 at the end of the second, but it was waved off after a lengthy review. If the Penguins were on the receiving end of a similar play,  I would have wanted the goal disallowed, but obviously I thought it should have counted. The Penguin’s forward was trying to redirect the puck to his stick with his skate but was unable to get any wood on it before it went behind Lehtonen.  How does one differentiate between a ‘definite kicking motion’ and an attempt to deflect the puck to one’s stick. Is it a kicking motion when the player in question merely changes the angle of his skate?

The Ruutu situation was ridiculous. I know Ruutu has earned his reputation, but I don’t see how that hit was conceived as an intent to injure Ilya Kovalchuk. Ruutu had him lined up, and as Ilya side stepped the hit, their knees collided, then some goon from ATL punched Ruutu in the face ten times, and somehow, the Pens ended up short handed and the already depleted Pens were down a guy when Ruutu was ejected for kneeing.  

 There is clearly a conspiracy by Bettman to keep the Thrashers, part of his wacky Expand Below the Mason-Dixon Line Project, in the playoff hunt.

My policy on the Thrashers, as I’ve said before, combine them with Nashville, and relocate them to Canada, where they would play as the Hamilton Terminators.