Pens Points Friday: Pens, Flower Show Power

Good morning everyone,

Just as I came to work this morning, my friend Pete (who is from Pittsburgh and a huge Pens fan) walked by my office and started doing a happy dance outside. He's a huge Flower fan. I think it's safe to say we all pulled for Marc-Andre to get a shutout last night. Here's the Dave Molinari story in the PG. And how about that behind-the-back-save? For more reactions on the game, here are thoughts from the PensNation.

For a recap of all the other games, SBN has you covered. Both Torts and Vigneault lost their coaching debuts with their new teams. The Panthers won too, and Aleksander Barkov became the youngest player to score an NHL goal since 1944. Ovi and Grabo are on fire. Both sit atop the scoring race with 5 points apiece. Ovi added two goals, an assist and a shootout winner last night.

Rumors about the Peter Laviolette firing have been going on forever. In Philadelphia, literally on day 2 of a coach's tenure something makes someone unhappy and things then just pick up momentum until the inevitable happens. The concept of rebuild does not exist here. This year it's do or die for both Holmgren and Lavy.

In the Hockey News rumor round-up, you'll find all the latest in contract talks and trade rumors. Is Dion Phaneuf worth $6.5M?

The Pens are off tonight but the Avs are playing, and this is now officially must-see TV. 24 hours into his head-coaching job, Patrick Roy was fined $10,000 for the epic explosion of rage on Wednesday night, triggered by a late and needless hit on Nathan MacKinnon by Ben Lovejoy. The hit wasn't penalized, but everyone including Lovejoy thinks it should have been. We know the person that Lovejoy is, and he was very apologetic about the hit after the game.

Last night was Sidney Crosby's 666th career point, and it comes against the Devils. Watch as Sid goes high-glove on Cory Schneider.

Happy Friday everyone!