It is feats like that which have helped make these two “Penguin Strangers” the “perfect” combination. And now they have their very own theme song, thanks to the people at Benstonium.

Check it out.

Hat Tip – [Benstonium]

Now we bring you a look at 16 other athletes and their interesting costume choices.

Their highlight moment came during a 4-on-4 in the first period as Sidney Crosby took advantage of an offensive zone face-off opportunity against an inexperienced Lauri Korpikoski, pushing the puck past his unsuspecting opponent before feathering a pass over to a wide open Malkin for the Penguins second goal of the game.  The team would add four more as Malkin finished with two goals and three assists, while Crosby had a goal and two assists of his own.

It was Geno’s third five-point game of his NHL career, while Crosby’s three points helped him extend his current point-streak to 21 games.  That was enough to give the Penguins their first win in three games after having their 12-game winning streak snapped.  It was also enough to earn both players a spot on our “Stat Line of the Night” for Monday, December 20, 2010.

Two of the league’s elite players made an appearance in Saturday night’s game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Columbus Blue Jackets, and they weren’t just going through the motions out there.  In what turned out to be a fight-filled affair between the two teams, the headline bout featured two of the league’s most prolific goal scorers.

Take a look.

Nash likely thought that a fight against Malkin would be a walk in the park, but unless your idea of a “walk in the park” involves being jerseyed and punched in the face a few times, that was far from the case.

Hat Tip – [Puck Daddy]

Total Pro Sports – With the start of the 2009-10 NHL Season upon us it’s time to take a look and see how each team stacks up. As per the norm, each preview will be broken down by division in order of how we think the team will finish.

Lets take a look at the Atlantic Division for the 2009-10 NHL Preview.

1. Pittsburgh Penguins

Obviously not a big surprise here. As seems to be the trend, the Penguins did loose some players to free agency during the summer but they’ve managed to keep their core together which is huge.

Sidney Crosby and Bill Guerin showed some nice chemistry playing together in last year’s playoffs and will look to continue that success for the 2009-10 season. Evgeni Malkin unfortunately lost his linemate in Petr Sykora to Minnesota, but Malkin is too good of a player to let that stop him from collecting 100+ points. Jordan Staal leads a group of players looking to provide some secondary scoring with Matt Cooke, Maxime Talbot and Michael Rupp adding some sandpaper.

Defence is probably the one weak spot for the Penguins but when looking at their blueline it’s anything but. Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski supply the offence from the back end while Mark Eaton, Jay McKee and Brooks Orpik hold things down in the defensive end.

Marc-Andre Fleury showed in the playoffs that even though he may not be one of the top goaltenders in the league, he is capable of making the key save at the right time which is all Pittsburgh needs with their fire power. Despite some injury issues, Brent Johnson had a solid season with Washington last year and is a solid back-up.

2. Philadelphia Flyers

Bit of a disappointing season for the Flyers last year after making it to the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2007-08 season. However, like the Pens, Philly has managed to keep their core players and with the addition of Chris Pronger will be one of the harder teams to play against.

The great young duo of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter will look to lead the Flyers offence yet again this season. If Daniel Briere and Simon Gagne can stay healthy for longer than 40 games and Scott Hartnell can duplicate his 2008-09 campaign Philly could challenge the likes of Pittsburgh, Washington and Detroit as the league’s highest scoring team. Claude Giroux will look to build off a successful rookie season and highly touted prospect James Van Riemsdyk looks poised to make the opening day roster and possibly compete for the Calder Trophy.

The Flyers defence looks solid with Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen and Matt Carle playing the point on the power play and also very capable in their own end. Ryan Parent, Braydon Coburn and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen are three big young defencemen that’ll bring a solid defensive presence.

As per the norm since Ron Hextall left, the Flyers goaltending is a big question mark. Ray Emery has looked good so far during preseason but it’s only preseason and a lot can happen between now and early/mid April. Brian Boucher played great for the Sharks last year but at 32-years old will probably start running into some injury problems.

3. New Jersey Devils

After a disappointing end to their 2008-09 season in the game 7 loss to Carolina, New Jersey will look to rebound with a solid 2009-10 campaign.

Zach Parise leads the Devils offence with another young player in Travis Zajac looking to improve off of a  great 2008-09 season. Brendan Shanahan, Patrik Elias Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Rolston will look to help put the puck in the net as well but with Jacques Lemiare behind the bench, don’t look for it to happen as often as it did last year.

The Devils defence doesn’t stand out as great, but they do have some solid players and should end up working well together as a unit. Paul Martin, Johnny Oduya and Cory Murphy will be looked upon to supply a majority of the scoring from the point. Players such as Colin White, Mike Mottau and Bryce Salvador will be looked upon to keep things simple and play solid in their own end.

Martin Brodeur will look to build on what will be a Hall of Fame career and Yann Danis will have a great time watching from the bench. If Marty misses a handful of games due to injury like last year things could get interesting as they don’t have a guy like Scott Clemmensen currently in their system that’d be able to help bail them out.

4. New York Rangers

Unlike some people I actually like the look of the Rangers this year and think they have enough to finish ahead of the Devils and possibly compete with the Flyers for second in the division. However, the Atlantic is a very tough division so I have them in the four spot, but I expect them to make the playoffs.

Just like the past few years, the Rangers have a solid forward group heading into the season. However, there is one big question…can Marian Gaborik stay healthy? If he can, adding him to the likes of Chris Drury, Chris Higgins, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan and Vincent Prospal New York could surprise.

The biggest question mark has to be on defence. Wade Redden needs to step it up big time and Matt Gilroy will have to show why he won the 2009 Hobey Baker Award. Daniel Girardi, Michal Rozsival and Marc Staal are all good bets to have a solid 2009-10 season.

Henrik Lundqvist is one of the top goalies in the league and should have himself another 30+ win season. Steve Valiquette played well when relied upon last season and is one of the more underrated backups in the league.

5. New York Islanders

I don’t think I’m blowing anyone’s mind here with this pick. The Islanders have some decent young players coming up, but it’ll still be another 2-3 years before you can even think about the playoffs with this team.

As it looks right now the Islanders offence will live and die by John Tavares. Josh Bailey, Jesse Joensuu, Blake Comeau, Jeff Tambellini and Kyle Okposo make up a solid but inexperienced core of young players. Doug Weight, Richard Park and Trent Hunter will try to help the young players adjust to life in the NHL with their experience and leadership while also chipping in a few goals in the process.

With Brendan Witt, Mark Streit and Bruno Gervais the Islanders defence doesn’t look terrible. It doesn’t look great, but it isn’t horrible.

Goaltending is definitely New York’s strength for the 2009-10 season. With Garth Snow unconvinced about Rick DiPietro’s health he went out and signed both Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron. Both upgrades over Yann Danis and Joey MacDonald from last year.

After receiving a congratulations from Barack Obama for becoming the youngest player to be named playoff MVP, Malkin took out his phone and snapped a pic of  the American President.  That caused a hesitation from Obama and eventually drew a laugh from the crowd, but perhaps they should be worried about who Evgeni plans on sending that snapshot to.

Obama did get the opportunity to throw in a witty remark of his own when he commented Pens’ captain Sidney Crosby‘s size, stating that he “must be fast because there is some big hockey players and he is not one of them.”

It has been just under eight months since Obama entered office, but he has already made himself familiar with the sporting world.  As a sports nut, he couldn’t resist the temptation to shoot some hoops when the Lady Huskies came to visit.  Unfortunately, he left the hockey stick on the rack this time around.

Pictures have been floating around the internet of the two, along with some friends, on the beach, by the pool, and out on the town at night.  It looks as though they have been having themselves a good time, but unfortunately there is no Stanley Cup in sight.  Surprising when you consider its swimming abilities.  Maybe it is still in bed with Sidney Crosby.

It appears as though Oksana had a bit of trouble putting on the top portion of her swimsuit properly, or maybe that’s just the way they make them in Russia, but we don’t mind.  Anything to get rid of the tan lines I guess.  Too bad she didn’t just take it all off like Joakim Noah’s woman.

Oksana

Malkin and Oksana

Malkin and Oksana

Malkin

Malkin and Oksana

Oksana and her hot friends

Malkin and Oksana

Malkin, Oksana and friends

Malkin in the pool with a shirt on?

Hat Tip – [Big League Screw]

At his unbelievable mansion in Siwickley, Pa, Lemieux threw a party for the team and judging by the pics it looks as though it was one hell of a time.  How many people can say they have swam with the Stanley Cup? The players as well as family and friends showed up at the bosses place to celebrate the victory and among the pictures which have surfaced are some with players and family in the pool with the Cup, a great view of the mansion and Mario’s wine cellar.

After winning the NHL’s coveted trophy on Friday, the Pens have since hoisted it on the bus from Detroit to Pittsburgh, show it off (among other things) at their hometown parade, and now this.  We also hear that due to Crosby’s request, there was no reception line.

Here are the pics from the party. [Deadspin]

TPS was in attendance to catch the game at the Joe Louis Arena, and what a game it was.  A tight battle throughout, Pittsburgh scored two goals in the second period, both of Maxime Talbot, and held on for a 2-1 victory.  The Red Wings put some heat on the Pens late in the game, scoring with just over six minutes remaining to cut the lead in half, then hitting a post and forcing Marc-Andre Fleury to make his best save of the game with only a couple seconds left.  Following the intense moment, it was Pittsburgh who would storm the ice, throwing their gloves and mobbing their goaltender.

As expected, Evgeni Malkin was rewarded with the Conn Smythe trophy was playoff MVP, and Sidney Crosby would hoist the Lord Stanley in front of the traveling Penguin fans in attendance to support their team.

As originally predicted by TPS, this series was a hard fought battle that resulted in a seventh game, eventually won by the Penguins.  We hope you took our advice and bet on that.

Here are some pictures we got while at the game.  Stay tuned over the next couple of days as we bring you some additional footage, which include the Penguins leaving on their bus with the cup, and some notable members of the hockey world we were fortunate to come across.

Truck with the Cups

On the way to the Joe

Pre-Game warm up

Pens Win

Malkin reveives Conn Smythe

The Cup awaits

Mario Lemieux lifts the Cup

Team pic with the Cup

Guerin and the family with the Cup

Final score

Pens fan and an octopus

Crosby takes the Cup home

Total Pro Sports – We are used to hearing stories about kids playing hockey on their backyard rinks, or having ball hockey games with their friends on the street.  Now with all the sweet moves we see guys like Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby pull off these days, more kids are inclined to practice some cool hockey tricks, rather than their basic stick handling or slap shots.

This kid is a prime example, and all those hours of practice have sure payed off.  He shows some great control with the puck in front of his house, scooping it and twirling his stick around in several directions, all while keeping the puck on his blade.  His stick control is a lot better than Tomas Surovy’s.  I guess he is the hockey equivalent of this soccer dribbler.

We may one day see this youngster in the NHL.  But as long as he continues to watch today’s great superstars like Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin score goals like this, you can be he will have no problem keeping motivated.  Someone may also want to show him their contracts once he learns enough math to calculate such large numbers.