Thursday Thibault's

Jocelyn Thibault was the backup goalie for the Pens following the '94-95 lockout, playing 38 games in two seasons for the Penguins. Thibault was actually a fairly competent goalie for the Canadiens and Blackhawks after breaking into the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques as a 19-year old way back in 1993 (10th overall pick in the '93 Entry draft; that was the year the Senators drafted Alexander Daigle over Chris Pronger, they probably want that one back). By the time he got to the Penguins, he was kind of washed up, posting a .876 SV% in Crosby's first season and Eddie Olcyzk's last season. Thibault is now the goalie coach with the Colorado Avalanche, although I will forever remember him as a Nordique thanks to NHL '94. So if anybody has an extra $250 and wants to get me a nice St. Valentine's Day present, this would look pretty sweet on my chest.

Pens won last night. Recap here, here, here, and here. It certainly was not their best game, but a wins a win. Geno was everywhere last night, and I think we can safely say his scoring slump is long gone, although I'd still like to see him focus a bit more on the defensive end. Fleury was as solid as it gets despite his shakiness with the puck around the net.

The only two things I have to add are 1) after Dwayne Roloson (only white goalie ever named Dwayne?) went after Mike Rupp during a scrum in the second period, MAF was up at his own blue line ready to pull a Ron Hextall and drop the glove and blocker. That would have been one of my favorite Pittsburgh Sports Memories of all time and something I would bring up constantly, "Well, I got to see the Flower throw down against Dwayne Roloson once." (Apparently, MAF did throw down once while in Juniors) 2) On the post-game radio show with Bob Grove and the old 29er, a caller asked an interesting trivia question that stumped everyone, "The Pens had two players go to the Olympics in '06, who were they?" The easy one was Gonchar, but who was the other? I found out, but if anybody wants to venture a guess, post your answer in the comments section. Since nobody will do this, I'll post the answer tomorrow.

Everton thoroughly outplayed Chelsea at Goodison and won 2-1. The Toffees hadn't beat the Blues of London since 2000, so it's a pretty impressive win, especially considering Chelsea are atop the tables. I didn't get to catch the game (although I am going to try and make it to a bar with Setanta Sports by 2:45 to watch the game), but everybody is lauding this as Donovan's most impressive performance in an Everton jersey. He set up the first goal on a corner kick, drew a penalty that was not converted by Saha, and was a force up the right-hand side all night.

I was a bit down after the Liverpool game, and was surprised that Moyes wasn't a little harder on his club, instead chalking it up to a tough game and basically losing on a set piece. He was right, as it looks like it was just a bad game from a team in good form. And to make it all the better, Liverpool lost to Arsenal last night as well. COYB!

Not really much else going on. Pitt plays WVU on Friday at the Pete and will be looking for revenge after that embarrassing loss in Morgantown last week. The Steelers hired a new pro scouting coordinator.

The 92-93 Pens can open up the champagne, as the Canadiens beat the Caps last night to end their winning streak.

I got nothing else right now.