Lots of stories about a game don’t develop until the next day. My job now is to scoop up that delicious hockey news afterbirth and force feed it to you.

• Mike Green received a “treatment” for whatever is ailing him.  Seeing the flopsweat and grim pallor during his post-practice interview, I have a feeling Mike is under the weather, not injured.  The treatment could be  Z-pak (an antibiotic course) that can make you feel pretty crummy.  Then again, it could be Cipro to cure whatever diseases he caught spending that stack of singles he carries with him on road games.
• Tarik El-Bashir asked coach Bruce Boudreau about Semyon Varlamov‘s status.  The wunderkind hasn’t practiced in days,  and he dusted up a kerfuffle this week when his Olympic prospects were shifted to a presumptive no.  Bruce reports that Varly is expected to practice on Monday, but we’re not holding our breath.
• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a delightful write-up of last night’s hockey game.  Their diagnosis doesn’t cite a dysfunctional Pittsburgh team, but rather gives credit for the win to the Caps, who are surging right now.  This is a savvy analysis.   I bet the Pens are going to be cautious on February 7th and reticent to give up penalties.
• Rock the Red was forced to watch last night’s game on FSN Pittsburgh.  In their write-up, they disembowel the coverage.  I know only Joe B and Locker’s play-by-play, so it’s hard for me to detect bias; but those guys will call out the home team they’re out of line.  The CSN-DC team is great, although I can think of one pick-up they should look into….
• Corey Masisak (formerly of the Washington Times) hosted a great chat for CSN Washington last night.  Most of the talk circled around trade speculation and D.C.’s desire for another top-tier defenseman.   Corey was a gracious host, and CSN would be wise to snatch him up before someone else does.
• Jose Theodore on his goal:  “I kinda screwed up.”  Well, yeah.
• Bryan Pothier and John Erskine are back, so John Carlson is headed back to Hershey.  The kid is bad-ass, and I’m certain we’ll see him again!  In the meantime, it’ll be novel to have a full compliment of blueliners.
• We actually got some more Anti Pens artwork after we posted yesterday, and figured it was worth sharing. This is from Savannah Morrissey who is one of many who believes Crosby and Malkin are potentially hiding something. Here are her series of photos:
  Part I: They’re Caught | Part II: Sidney Speaks | Part III: Evgeni Speaks!!
• Raised-in-a-blog-cabin Ian Oland called me after the game to report on the Japers Rink/Puck Daddy viewing party.  He was particularly excited to have met TheHornGuy.  I would be, too.  The man is a living legend.  He promised to follow us on Twitter, and we will hold him to it.
• If you haven’t checked out the comments thread on our Artwork post, go ahead and do it now.  The whole thread will soon be wrapped in police tape, filed as evidence for crimes against the English language.  All kidding aside, cheers to the good people behind Pensblog.  They run a great site and have the distinct misfortune of serving an audience of adolescent chimpanzees.  We do not envy them this.

Have a great Friday, everyone!