More photos » by Pablo Martinez Monsivais - ASSOCIATED PRESS

Alex Ovechkin left last night's game against Columbus with an undisclosed upper-body injury and is currently listed as day-to-day.

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Injuries are just part of the game, and no one would know that better than Penguins fans.  Last season, before the first regular season game of the year, the Pens were without the likes of Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney.  If you recall, all the talk early on was focused on how the Pens would manage without them, what fans could expect from this "new guy" Alex Goligoski and whether or not the team could hold it together long enough to even squeak into the playoffs.

Without going into extreme details, we don't need a reminder on how the season ended. 

However, as noted by a few writers around the Pittsburgh media world, this season is off to a similar start.  Injuries to Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar and Tyler Kennedy leave the Pens in a position where the coaches are juggling lines yet again.

But Pittsburgh isn't the only team dealing with this problem right now.  Atlanta, Boston, Vancouver and recently Washington are just a few other teams hit by the injury bug.  Plenty of big names across the league are going down with injuries, some serious, others day-to-day.  Before you go naming Mike Rupp as the Maurice Richard Trophy winner of the year, take the jump and see what team's around the league are dealing with.  Keep in mind it's a long season and most of these guys are going to be healthy before December.

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More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

7 months ago: FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2009 file photo, Pittsburgh Penguins' Evgeni Malkin (71) of Russia celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime against the Tampa Bay Lightning in NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh. Malkin who, unless Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin finishes the season with a huge game, will become the second Russian player to win the NHL scoring title in as many seasons. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

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It's minor but still disappointing, Evgeni Malkin will be out of the lineup for the next 2-3 weeks due to a shoulder strain.

Head coach Dan Bylsma announced that forward Evgeni Malkin will miss 2-3 weeks with a shoulder strain. It is not the same injury that kept Malkin out of the lineup during the beginning of the 2006-07 season and the team is being cautious.

"Geno is going to be out of the lineup for a couple of weeks," Bylsma said. "He strained his shoulder about 10 days or so ago. I don’t know the exact day. It is precautionary for the player. We are worried about the safety of the shoulder. A couple weeks of rest and rehab will get that thing healthy so he can get back onto the ice.

Malkin, for his part, was disappointed, but his quote seems to indicate that it's better to let himself heal up now in October and November before the game's get too important in the spring.

"I can play good, but it’s the early season," Malkin said about the injury. "I feel good. It’s not a big problem, and I’m fine. I’ll be watching and supporting the team on the trip. It’ll be fine."

"It’s okay. It’s not the pain. It feels good. It’s because it doesn’t feel comfortable now."

Malkin's played 254 straight regular season games since he missed the first four games of his career in 2006-07 with an unrelated shoulder injury.

--Swine flu cases are piling up; Colorado's Peter Budaj, Edmonton's Ladislav Smid, NY Islanders' Doug Weight,  Washington's Quinton Laing have all been diagnosed in recent days.  It's probably only a matter of time before a Penguin (or one of us) catches it.  So far though it doesn't seem like a player has spread it to his teammates, so hopefully team officials can continue to keep it bottled up.

--If you were wondering, Crosby didn't hit goal #9 until November 28th last season (his 22nd game of the year).  He gets to that mark October 28th in the 12th game of the year.  Of course, to be show the whole picture, Crosby had 12 assists through his first twelve games last year, this season only 5 helpers.  Playmaking's still probably the biggest tool in the box, but Crosby's penchant to drive the net and bury the damn thing himself has carried over from the playoffs.

--Jersey fouls make the world go 'round. [Puck Daddy]

--Are the Sens gonna piss off Erik Karlsson by demoting him to the minors? [The Hockey News]

--James Mirtle talks about hot starts and sends me to a dictionary to see what the heck the word "ephemeral" means.  Worth a read, for sure.  Colorado might be in danger of falling apart like Ottawa, Montreal or Buffalo have in years' past, but you'd think the defending Stanley Cup champs have the experience (and talent) to avoid those pratfalls. [From the Rink]

--Finally, Seth from Empty Netters sums it up pretty well:

"That was easily the team's best performance of the season. And it was still far from perfect. That's how scary the Penguins are right now. They aren't even close to playing their best right now yest they're still winning games with relative ease.

Imagine the Penguins with Sergei Gonchar, Tyler Kennedy and Maxime Talbot in the lineup? Imagine the Penguins with a power play running at full efficiency. This will be a scary team if it gets everything running at 100 percent."
 

More photos » by Frank Gunn - ASSOCIATED PRESS

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CTV reports Crosby will have his chance to run with the torch next month as it makes its way through Nova Scotia and across the country towards Vancouver.  Sid will be part of a torch relay that also includes runs from Vancouver's Trevor Linden and Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash.

Quoteth Sid:

"I am honoured and thrilled to have the opportunity to carry the Olympic flame in my home province of Nova Scotia.  The torch relay will pass through so many communities and hands on the way to Vancouver and I'm privileged to be part of that special group as the Olympic Flame makes its way to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games.''

Sidney Crosby
CTV

As 2009 winds down it's time to look back on the decade that was. Japers Rink had a great list of the Washington Capitals all-decade team, and Puck Daddy hoped that all the SB Nation teams would follow suit.  So here's the Pittsburgh entry for the decade that was.


The Decade of the '00s saw the Pittsburgh Penguins experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  They had four 40+ loss seasons and four 40+ win seasons.  They either had very bad years or very good years.

In the beginning of the decade Mario Lemieux thrillingly returned in December 2000, a brief peak before the economic climate of the "old NHL" forced Pittsburgh into the gutter. The Pens dealt away talents the likes of Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka, Darius Kasparaitis and Robert Lang for pennies on the dollar of their hockey-worth and suffered with four straight non-playoff seasons.  During that time, they reloaded through the draft with several high picks that would be the core of the ultimate redemption: the 2009 Stanley Cup.  With a new CBA, a new arena almost open, and the two best offensive centers (and arguably players) in the game at age 23 and 22, the Penguins are poised to be competitive for the forseeable future.

It was a wild ride though, with six different head coaches (assuming Dan Bylsma is safe); starting out with the late, great Herb Brooks during the 2000 season.  With 30 games to go in the calendar year, the decade record stands at 311 wins, 306 losses, 52 OT losses and 36 ties (remember them?)

After the jump, we highlight all the individual players now named to the Pittsburgh Penguins All-Decade team, which includes: 4 scoring titles in the 9 seasons played, 2 Lester B. Pearson winners, 1 Hart Trophy, 4 first-team NHL All-Stars.

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Anytime a Penguin player puts a costume sized head on, you can expect it to be posted here.  Not enough credit can be given to penguins.nhl.com for what you're about to see after the jump.

Plus, three forwards miss practice: cause for concern?

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Tonight's game against the Devils is the first regular season matchup of the season between the two teams.  As mentioned earlier in the Devils' scouting report, New Jersey is off to a pretty strong start on the road, undefeated in fact at 4-0.  To get a better look at what the Pens may be up against tonight, I asked John from In Lou We Trust to shed a little light on the Pens' division rival.  You can check out my response to John's questions over at ILWT. 

(PS - John insisted on answering these questions in red.  I was happy to oblige.)

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More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

His name is SIDDDDDD, SID ROCK! (boo) (Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

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[Panthers vs Penguins coverage - Blues vs Penguins recap- SB Nation blog Litter Box Cats]

For a while there, in the first 100 minutes of his Penguins career, Brent Johnson must have been thinking what's going on here?  0 goals of support by the high powered team in front of him.  Luckily for Johnny, Sidney Crosby would score two goals in the third (and the only shootout goal for both sides) to lift Pittsburgh over Florida and get BJ's record up to 1-1.

• Tomas Vokoun always seems to have a great game against Pittsburgh and tonight was no different.  41 shots on 43 saves, including several awesome ones.  He should have earned Florida the win, all things considered.
• Crosby took over in the 3rd: a power-play goal to get the Pens on the board and a short-handed goal to tie it up.  Mario Lemieux says "talk to me kid when you get an even strength, penalty shot and empty netter".
• Alex Goligoski led all Penguins with 26:22 of icetime.  Kris Letang 24:19 and Mark Eaton had 22:45.  In case you were wondering who picked up the slack this night with the ice-time.
• The Penguins total team strategy extended to blocked shots and hits, as it does on most nights.  Pittsburgh racked up 23 hits (with Matt Cooke's 5 showing the way) and 24 blocked shots (with Goligoski and newcomer Martin Skoula with 4).  Florida, by comparison, only had 11 hits and 14 blocked shots.
• Steven Reinprecht was a force for Florida with two 1st period goals.  Noted Penguin killer Cory Stillman got two assists on those goals.  Luckily for Pittsburgh, the first period would be the only time Florida would beat them.
• David Booth gets the "Hard Knock" and "WTF" awards of the night.  Booth recorded a game high 8 shots on goal, including one dynamite chance.  The WTF moment of the night came when the former Michigan State player (go figure) closed his hand on the puck and tossed it all the way down the rink.
• Chris Bourque got in the lineup and got a couple chances to play with Evgeni Malkin and Crosby.  And while Bourque took 3 shots on goal (and had 2 hits), he didn't seem very dangerous.
• Skoula was decent in his first night as a Penguin.  Didn't stand out for the wrong reasons, which is probably a good thing for a guy who hasn't played a meaningful NHL game in half a year.  He was good enough to make the plays he needed to make and didn't make any obvious mistakes.  They didn't ask him for much, and more importantly he didn't disappoint.  All you can ask for in a debut for the first game.

The game was decided by the gimmick, but it's fitting that Sidney Crosby scored the only goal, and that Brent Johnson was rewarded with the victory.  The Pens push their mark to 9-1-0 and, for a moment anyways, survive a game without Sergei Gonchar.

While Florida (particularly Tomas Vokoun) played a commendable game, they didn't do enough to breakaway early in the game when they had the chance.  Pittsburgh was in the game up to the 3rd period and Sidney Crosby did the rest.  Another game, another win (even if it was a shootout).  No time to rest to the laurels as New Jersey comes into town tomorrow well rested for the next game.