Now that I've got your attention, I am referring to the New Jersey Devils.  Those pesky New Jersey Devils have created major issues this year for the Pittsburgh Penguins.  The completed games are below:

Penguins 5       Devils 1

Devils 3             Penguins 1

Devils 3            Penguins 1

The Devils have been officially eliminated from playoff contention; however, the statistics remain almost identical.

Expect a low scoring game tonight with the Devils conquering the Penguins by the unlucky score of 3-1.  The Penguins will complete their regular season at home against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.

Scoring at Will

Penguins versus Maple Leafs?  Didn’t I just write about this on Saturday?  LOL!  Anyway, the Pittsburgh Penguins lead the NHL in scoring boasting 3.6 goals per game.  The Maple Leafs aren’t “shabby” either registering 3.0 goals per game.  If you saw the Bruins game the other night, you saw the game of the year.  Tonight’s game will live up to all the hype as well, and be a scoring fiasco. Do not expect to see Evgeni Malkin back tonight.  Do expect to see Marc-Andre Fleury in goal against James Reimer.  Since Fleury tends to give up a soft goal or two, expect a high scoring game.  See the particulars below courtesy of ESPN:

Prediction: The Penguins will win their 7^th in a row as winning streak still continues. Are the penguins trying to catch the Miami Heat?  Doubtful! Take the Penguins to win and over 6 total goals.  The Penguins will reign in Air Canada.  Penguins 5 Leafs 3.

HILARIOUS - PENGUINS VIDEO - PERFECT STRANGERS PARRODY

Pittsburgh Penguins

SCHEDULE FOR THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
DATE OPPONENT TIME DATE OPPONENT TIME
1/10/2013 Sat. Jan. 19 At Philadelphia 3:00PM 
Sun. Jan. 20 At N.Y. Rangers 7:00PM 
Wed. Jan. 23 Toronto 7:00PM 
Fri. Jan. 25 At Winnipeg 7:00PM 
Sun. Jan. 27 At Ottawa 6:00PM 
Tue. Jan. 29 N.Y. Islanders 7:30PM 
Thu. Jan. 31 At N.Y. Rangers 7:00PM
Sat. Feb. 02 New Jersey 1:00PM
Sun. Feb. 03 At Washington 12:30PM
Tue. Feb. 05 At N.Y. Islanders 7:00PM
Thu. Feb. 07 Washington 7:00PM
Sat. Feb. 09 At New Jersey 1:00PM
Sun. Feb. 10 New Jersey 7:30PM
Wed. Feb. 13 Ottawa 7:00PM
Fri. Feb. 15 At Winnipeg 6:00PM
Sun. Feb. 17 At Buffalo 12:30PM
Wed. Feb. 20 Philadelphia 7:30PM
Fri. Feb. 22 Florida 7:00PM
Sun. Feb. 24 Tampa Bay 7:30PM
Tue. Feb. 26 At Florida 7:30PM
Thu. Feb. 28 At Carolina 7:00PM
Sat. Mar. 02 At Montreal 7:00PM
Mon. Mar. 04 Tampa Bay 7:30PM
Thu. Mar. 07 At Philadelphia 7:00PM
Sat. Mar. 09 At Toronto 7:00PM
Sun. Mar. 10 N.Y. Islanders 7:00PM
Tue. Mar. 12 Boston 7:30PM
Thu. Mar. 14 At Toronto 3:00PM
Sat. Mar. 16 N.Y. Rangers 1:00PM
Sun. Mar. 17 Boston 12:30PM
Tue. Mar. 19 Washington 7:30PM
Thu. Mar. 21 At Ottawa 7:30PM
Fri. Mar. 22 At N.Y. Islanders 7:00PM
Sun. Mar. 24 Philadelphia 7:00PM
Tue. Mar. 26 Montreal 7:00PM
Thu. Mar. 28 Winnipeg 7:00PM
Sat. Mar. 30 N.Y. Islanders 1:00PM
Tue. Apr. 02 Buffalo 7:30PM
Wed. Apr. 03 At N.Y. Rangers 7:30PM
Fri. Apr. 05 N.Y. Rangers 7:00PM
Tue. Apr. 09 At Carolina 7:00PM
Thu. Apr. 11 At Tampa Bay 7:30PM
Sat. Apr. 13 At Florida 7:30PM
Wed. Apr. 17 Montreal 7:30PM
Fri. Apr. 19 At Boston 7:00PM
Sat. Apr. 20 Buffalo 7:00PM
Thu. Apr. 25 At New Jersey 7:30PM
Sat. Apr. 27 Carolina 7:00PM

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Life isn't fair and neither is the current way that they NHL seeds its playoff participants. If your team wins it division, it earns either a 1, 2 or 3 seed. This, even if it has earned a dozen or more less points than a 2nd, 3rd or even 4th place team in another division. Obviously, a divisional championship is a worthy achievement. It becomes tarnished a bit if the rest of the teams in their division are the bottom feeders of the league. A comparison could be made with the recently completed NCAA college basketball March Madness tournament. Just because Robert Morris University won the Northeast Conference, they would earn a top 2 seed over the University of North Carolina, who happened to finish 3rd in the competitive Atlantic Coast Conference. This would rankle the feathers of every university Athletic Director in the country.  The Penguins Atlantic Division, with the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils all qualified for the playoffs with 8 to 12  points over the Southeast Division winner Florida Panthers.. The Panthers, instead of earning the #3 seed, should earn the  6th to  8th seed and be satisfied with it. The only way to absolutely resolve this seeding inequity is either quickly do away with the division setup and just list all 15 teams in the conference and the top 8 teams would then make the playoffs. The sad part in that scenario is that some point in time, a divisional winner would earn less points than the 8th seed and bump them out of the playoffs.

Some say that having home ice advantage is not crucial to winning a playoff series.  Should the home team fall behind in the score, their own fans sometimes turn against them.  This adds to the pressure that the team is already feeling.  Truth be told, for all of the playoff success that the Penguins have attained recently, in the past 22 years, they have only clinched one game #7 playoff victory at home.  Conversely, they are undefeated when playing a road playoff game #7.  They feast on ruining opposing fans joy when placed in that pressure packed predicament.  Having said that, there is something in the home cooking that a home based series brings.  Less travel, more money in their franchise's coffers from ticket and apparel sales, concessions, hotel, restaurants, etc., all are positive byproducts of ensuring an extra home game should it be necessary to win the series.  Now if we could only convince the executives at the NHL headquarters to see things our way.

I shot this video at today's parade. Canon HG 20, 17mbps, 1920x1080 Programmed Aperture. Exported as Quicktime Movie - h.264 codec. Created on Mac Pro (2x2.8 eight-core) Final Cut Pro 6.0.5. OSX 10.5.7

Penguins win in overtime against Los Angeles Kings
The Penguins snapped a two-game losing streak with a 2-1 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings tonight at Consol Energy Center.

Read more on Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Part 3 of my tribute to the Pens. This concludes the regular season. The Pens played great during this part of the year and managed to secure home ice in the first round. I show a few clips from the new additions to the team at the trade deadline, as well as a few from the undefeated road trip they went on. The rest is how they dominated the remainder of the season. The songs are both from ES Posthumus, and both of them are epic. They are Unstoppable and Arise. The Pens have used Unstoppable before games started during the regular season on the jumbotron, that is why I picked it, and that it's an awesome song.

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