What I thought was going to be a different blog, a celebration of a career milestone of one of the classier NHL players, but it was suddenly scrapped for the underlining storyline that Sidney Crosby once again did the right thing for a teammate. When bloggers and writers rushed to churn out an article proclaiming Crosby the first to 50 goals during the year, it was quickly trashed when video evidence suggested that Bill Guerrin had tipped in the Crosby shot. The last regular season game in Mellon Arena for the Penguins was started by the pageantry of seeing all of the franchise players from the 1967 expansion teams as well as the newer franchise players. Even "the folk hero" Gary Roberts was heralded as a returning player.
The game itself was shaping up to be a real one-sided stat padding event. Crosby was working his way through the Islanders lineup, scrambling for each lose puck, and kept a sharp eye out for his teammates. Even though his 50th goal was retroactively awarded to Guerin, he was able to get credit for an assist making him the third youngest player to reach 500 points in a career.
Brooks Orpik scored 23 seconds into the game and defensive teammate Goligoski was able to tally a just as rare goal. But some of the young Islanders got into scoring as former Pens prospect Matt Moulson scored along with Okposo and Baily.
The final note of the evening was the brutal boarding penalty that newly acquired Ponikarovsky committed on young star Josh Baily. Alex chose to sweep in against Baily and flatten him upper-body first. It caused Alex to miss the rest of the game with a match penalty game misconduct and possibly a later suspension by the league.
[Via: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
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