Pens Moving On After Finals...Maybe

Ok, I'm back. It took a little longer than anticipated to get over the loss in the Stanley Cup Finals, but I think I'm alright now. Every time I thought I was over it, something would happen or I'd see a highlight from the series and it just prolonged the entire healing process. Anyway, the draft is over and now free agency begins on July 1.

That being said, I've read some stories in the last couple of days that have perturbed me slightly. Namely that Ryan Malone will probably not be back in Steeltown this fall.

I don't really blame Malone for looking to go elsewhere after being strung along by the Pens. I may be way off here, but what I don't get is how for the last three years he's been the target of trade rumors and the like. Every year when these rumors came up I defended him and said to anyone who would listen that he'd come around and we shouldn't deal him away. Every year the deadline passed and he was still on the team and I could breathe a little easier. Then it happened.

He finally evolved into the player we and the Penguins thought he could be. He was named an alternate captain and his production went nuts when he was put on a line with Sykora and Malkin. No one can question his will to win after playing with a broken nose during the playoffs, only to see that nose take a rocket shot from Hal Gill in the Finals. We all saw it. My heart sank when I saw Malone drop to the ice with the blood pouring out of his face. I actually said right then and there "Well that's probably it for him in this series and our chances just got even smaller." Then out of nowhere, he's back on the bench with gauze up his nose looking like he just got mugged in a dark alley somewhere. He only missed a couple of shifts and was back and ready to go for the start of the third period of the marathon Game 5 in Detroit.

You can't put a price tag on character and Ryan Malone has more intangibles than a lot of guys on the team. Now I understand that the Pens told him they wouldn't negotiate with anyone until July 1. That was code for "we're not going to negotiate with anyone until we figure out what we're going to do with Marian Hossa."

I get that, fine. It makes sense to give priority to someone who you paid a pretty penny for during the season to get. For the most part it was looking like Hossa was a lock to re-sign in Pittsburgh and would even consider taking a pay cut to return. For 24 hours I was walking around with a huge grin on my face thinking that we could possibly do what NHL 2K8 for the Xbox 360 allowed me to do and bring back the entire team and be under the cap. By no means am I saying that I'm basing this entire post about what I was able to do in a video game. Just merely stating a point of how obsessed I can get with this team.

Then the news comes out that the Pens have broken off talks with Hossa because he wants to test the free agent market. Wonderful. Oh, but wait! Hossa might still return to the Penguins afterall, but he just wants to be sure. Really? If you don't follow the logic going through his head right now let me see if I can clarify this by using a situation we've all had some encounter with. Maybe you haven't had it happen to you, but you definitely know someone in this situation.

Let's say your buddy is dating this extremely attractive woman who you all know is perfect for him and he should just settle down and marry the girl. However, your buddy was dropped on his head as a child and always has to second guess his gut feeling. He goes out one day and buys the engagement ring with all the intentions of popping the question and everyone else is all happy for him. Then as he's leaving the store, he sees another beautiful woman. Decides he just wants to be sure he's making the right move so he goes woos this woman and has a meaningless 3-4 year relationship with this other girl. All the while he knows he should have just settled down for the long haul with the girl he bought that silver ring for. The same ring he etched his name into.

The Penguins are the girl waiting for the engagement ring in this case, but if Hossa wants a ring of his own he needs to sign a deal ASAP. His delaying of the process here is why Malone is going to bail. His delaying of the process here is delaying the signing of other guys like Orpik, Ruutu, Hall, Dupuis, and oh yeah some guys named Malkin and Fleury. Whoever they are.

Something needs to happen and soon or else we're going to lose both Malone and Hossa and when that happens I can't imagine any Penguins fans being overly thrilled about it.

Season Over, Empty Feeling Inside

I have been unable to bring myself to write anything about the last couple games or anything really and even as I sit here right now, I know that I'm still not ready. My main reasoning for even doing this right now is strictly therapeutic so bear with me.

I won't stand to see or hear anyone even try and blame this loss on Marc-Andre Fleury. Does he probably want those 2 soft goals back? No question, but he's got a free pass for life as far as I'm concerned with how he played down the stretch in the regular season and how he played in the playoffs. His performance in Game 5 was nothing short of legendary. That clinic he put on will make it's way to instructional DVDs in no time.

I can't remember the last time I was this jacked up about this team. That triple overtime win, despite the circumstances of staving off elimination may have been the pinnacle of my fanhood this season. I sat alone at work, hands shaking, stomach turning. I've never been that nervous in my life and then it happened. Max Talbot saves the day to send it to overtime and Petr Sykora calls his shot to send me into a state of euphoria. It was amazing is all I can say. Fleury was brilliant between the pipes and I really thought we would be sending it back to Detroit for a Game 7 at that point. Obviously that didn't happen and an immense sense of sadness and an empty feeling has crept over me.

For the last two weeks, I've been having dreams of hearing "The Penguins are Stanley Cup Champions!" I woke up with a smile every day. There will be no smile tomorrow morning, not yet. I'm always sad to see the hockey season end, but to see it end with my boys hanging their heads and seeing the opposition hoist the Cup on our home ice will take a few days to get over.

By no means am I trying to take anything away from the Red Wings. They are a phenomenal squad and deserved very much to win the Cup. For as much as I wanted the Pens to win, I never really expected to win like I had for previous series. What I wanted was if we didn't win, to at least make Detroit earn it. It is my firm belief that we accomplished that. We may not have shown up much or were just not ready for what the Finals brought in Games 1 and 2, but for the last 4 games of the series, we gave Detroit everything we had and the better team prevailed in the end. Simple as that. There was even a small glimmer of hope at the very end that Hossa had tied it with under a second left in the third period only to see that hope squashed by the oncoming rush of Red Wings players from the bench.

Eventually I will get over this and so will the guys on the team and realize the bigger picture. Five years prior this team was in shambles and going nowhere. Last in the league in standings, major stars heading for the hills and it all started to turn around last year. I didn't expect them to even make the playoffs last season and they surprised me and did exactly what I expected against Ottawa. Nothing, but we gained the experience needed to make a strong Cup run.

Flash ahead to this season. Crosby and Fleury go down and the hopes of Pens nation rested squarely on the once shaky shoulders of Ty Conklin. Out of nowhere he has a career resurgence and Evgeni Malkin goes on a tear and suddenly we're fighting for the conference lead in the standings without 2 key components.

We then get healthy and get Marian Hossa and the pieces for a championship run began to fall into place. They rip Ottawa a new one in the first round, dispatch the Rangers quickly, send our hated cross-state rivals home in 5 games and all of a sudden I'm sitting on top of the world. All the suffering over the past few years was actually worth it to get to this point. We sat just 4 wins from immortality and just got flat out beat by a much more experienced team who nobody was going to beat this year.

Eventually I'll be ok with what just transpired over the last few days. Maybe I'll feel better later this week when I've had a few days to digest this and realize how great the accomplishments these kids attained this season really are. Maybe I'll feel better knowing that we have an excellent chance to get back here again very soon and actually win it, now that we know what it feels like to be on the losing end. Maybe I'll feel better when I see this team back on the ice next season with a new attitude. Not a cocky one, but a confident one that expects nothing less than to win it all. You could see it in their eyes this season that it was going to be different this time around. Maybe I'll feel better when we figure out what to do with Hossa and Ryan Malone and establish our roster for next season. By then the sting will have worn off and the excited giddy side of me will return. Until then I'm going to go shave off my playoff beard.

Gary Roberts Is The NHL Version Of Chuck Norris

Let me explain this. Before Game 3 I was talking to Gopher. During the intro of the NBC coverage they showed a group of Pens fans standing outside the igloo waving signs that simply read "WWGRD."

I immediately started cracking up. Gary Roberts is by far one of my favorite players on the team. How can you not get excited about a 42-year-old guy totally destroying opposing defenders? It got me to thinking about other older guys who can still bring the pain and the first guy that popped into mind was Chuck Norris. I made the comment to Gopher "Gary Roberts is the NHL version of Chuck Norris," at that time.

It seemed innocent enough and we shared a chuckle. Then it happened. There was a commercial featuring Mr. Norris during one of the commercial breaks. In my severely altered state of consciousness it started to make sense. As if I needed even further evidence of the above title, Roberts delivered.

In the third period with a 2-1 lead, Tyler Kennedy got smoked in the corner making an outlet pass. The Pens dump the puck into the corner and who else but Roberts comes flying into the play out of nowhere and absolutely kills Andreas Lilja. I start freaking out and yelling "GO CHUCK NORRIS!" Then, Adam Hall picks up the loose puck and banks it into the net from behind the goalline to give us a 3-1 lead. I went nuts and now I want one of those WWGRD signs for my basement collection of Penguins stuff.

For further proof of this idea taking off and becoming something bigger, go to youtube and search for "WWGRD," kick back and enjoy what you see. There's even one of a few Roberts fights with the "Walker Texas Ranger" theme playing in the background and a video description saying exactly the title of this post.

As for the game, who called Darryl Sydor being inserted into the lineup? Me. I wish Hal Gill was the one taken out of the lineup instead of Kris Letang, but I'll live for now. Once again Gill was atrocious, taking 2 stupid penalties and getting away with two other stupid ones.

For the most part I was happy with how we played. The first 15 minutes were nothing to write home about and i think both the Pens and the fans were very tentative to see how it would play out. Then Brad Stuart makes an awful turnover that led to Sid the Kid scoring the first Pens goal of the series and all of a sudden you could see something change. The Pens had life, the fans had life and they started to play their game.

Pucks got deep, we used our cycle to generate the best chances we've had all series. If it wasn't for the horrible sound of iron I wouldn't have had to chew my nails down to the cuticle in the third period. Now we have a chance on Saturday to tie this series up and make it a best of three. Detroit has blown a 2-0 lead once already in the playoffs against Nashville and almost blew a 3-0 lead against Dallas. It would not be surprising to see the Penguins head back to Detroit tied 2-2. The only way that happens is to play with confidence like they did in Game 3. If they come out hitting and playing their game, they will get their chances and have a shot to tie it up. If they allow Detroit to dictate the play and pace of the game as they did in Games 1 and 2, this series is all but over. Simple as that.

One final note: The only good thing that may have come out of Gill's stupidity is that it appeared as if Tomas Holmstrom re-aggravated a nagging back injury. He did not play another shift after the incident late in the third. Time will tell if he's good to go for Game 4. My guess is that he will suit up because the man is a warrior. I have a couple words of advice for Holmstrom should he come across this post. Ask yourself this Mr. Holmstrom, "What Would Gary Roberts Do?"

Could This Get Any Worse? I Don't Think So

I haven't felt up to posting anything on this series so far because there's not enough space on this entire site for me to write about everything that has annoyed me in this series.

Basically it boils down to this. The Wings are getting all the bounces and the Pens are simply not.

Let's go back to Game 1 in the first period. The Pens had 2 pucks lying in the crease behind Osgood and just couldn't slam it home. Another puck took a nice hop off the endboards, hit Crosby in the chest and bounced behind Osgood who had to reach back quickly to keep it out of the net. By my count, that would have made it 3-0 if we were catching bounces and there's no way we lose after that.

Plus, let me bring this back up again because I'm feeling vindictive. Back at the trade deadline I spoke out about the Hal Gill trade. For the most part he's actually been very good and a pleasant surprise. It seemed too good to be true and guess what? It was.

Have you seen how pathetic he's looked against the lightning quick Detroit forwards? It's sickening. Not to mention, how does he get rocked by Samuelsson which led to the Wings 2nd goal in Game 1?

Are you kidding me?

Big, bad, giant Hal Gill gets taken out of the play by a midget by comparison and the puck ends up in the net. I knew this was a bad deal and that it would come back to bite us eventually and it completely has. Here's what you do with him now. BENCH HIM. We have Darryl Sydor who we're paying a disgusting amount of money to be a professional bench warmer by my last check. Was he awful during the season for us? Yes, but can it possibly get any worse than Gill? At least Sydor has experience against these Wings and being in the Finals.

Let's also look at something so fundamental it's disgusting that I am sitting here typing this.

PUT THE PUCK ON NET!!!!!!!

For the first 14 games of the playoffs the Pens had no trouble dumping and chasing and crashing the net. They also threw everything on net all the time. All of a sudden they get into the Finals and continually try to make cute and fancy passes through the neutral zone. I'm fairly certain you could count on one hand the number of times the Pens have dumped the puck in and gone in after it. Just like you can count on one hand how many shots on goal they've gotten while playing 5 on 5.

Did I expect Pittsburgh to win this series. Not really. Did I hope they would? Of course, so why am I so angered by how they've played thus far? Simple. I expected them to compete and at least give the Wings a run for it. They still could I suppose, but it's going to take a lot of changes and some bounces to start going our way for that to happen.

Side note: what was the NHL thinking having a 3 day gap between Games 3 and 4? Really? Why is Game 3 on Wednesday and not Thursday? Give the teams an extra travel day. Now if the Penguins do win Game 3, any momentum they generated will be dead by the time Game 4 gets underway. Way to go Gary Bettman, just another folly for a list that's already a mile long.

I haven't totally given up hope, but I'm on the brink. Like I have said before. I'm a Red Sox fan, so I've seen worse situations turn into glory. The only good thing is that we head home for the next two games. If we somehow win the next two games, I may have cause to start believing once again, but we need to put a puck in the net.

Write this down. If the Pens get a quick goal in the first period tomorrow and lead after the first, we're at least going back to Detroit for a Game 5.

Stanley Cup Finals Analysis

The day of reckoning is upon us. It's time for one team to become immortalized in silver and for the other team to go home wondering what might have been.

That thought alone is what kept me up most of the evening last night and why I'm sitting here typing through bloodshot eyes.

I would have gotten this up sooner, but I was trying to fully wrap my head around what the Penguins have done this season. I still haven't done it fully, but Game 1 starts in a few hours so I need to get this done.

I've read a lot of trash talking from Red Wings fans on various message boards about how this is going to be a four or five game series and that the Cup is all but won already. I chuckle at this and wonder how these people are allowed outside their homes legally. In most cases ignorance is not bliss.

Let's take a closer look at this series shall we?

The Pittsburgh Penguins have proven throughout the playoffs that they can win tight, low scoring, one goal games. They're also shown they can win in shootouts like Game 1 against the Rangers. (Sorry Gopher...keep razzing me about rooting for Detroit and this is what you get.)

When I look at Detroit, I see a team that looks to be virtually impenetrable, but since I saw Indiana Jones last night I have a keen eye and notice the two small chinks in the armor.

First, aside from Game 5 against Dallas in which they played scared and lost as a result, the other three losses have one thing in common. The opposition got out and skated and took the game to Detroit.

The Predators' wins in Game 3 and 4 on home ice are where the Penguins need to look for how to beat this team. Those two games were some of the most exciting hockey I'd seen all season. The pace was ridiculous and Detroit's older d-men couldn't keep up and were caught out of position leaving their even older (not counting Chelios here) goaltender to try and make insane saves.

Pittsburgh can easily take advantage of this and has a much better defensive system than the Preds did.

Flaw number two is simply this. Osgood has been good, he hasn't had to be great. Don't get me wrong, he's played well in these playoffs and may have swung the tide in one or two games, but for the most part he has not been tested. Was he tested in Games 5 and 6 against Nashville? No. Was he tested at all against Colorado? No. His first test was Game 4 and 5 against Dallas, both losses.

The Penguins will need to play how they did in Game 5 against Philly to take advantage of this. Game 5 was the first time I was actually not yelling at the screen for them to put the puck on net. You have to get pucks to the net at this time of year. Pretty plays don't work often as is and certainly the success rate drops even more in the playoffs. Guys are going to need to crash the net like crazy, get in Osgood's face, rattle him.

I'm not saying Pittsburgh is the perfect machine here at all, just pointing out what they need to do to win.

What sticks out in my mind that could hurt them is if Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi are paired up together. Compound that with the realistic possibility that they will at some point be on the ice against the Zetterberg/Datsyuk line and it could pose a very serious problem for Pittsburgh.

The stars are going to have to step up in this series as they have during this run, but the guy who's probably been the most underappreciated guy this postseason is Jordan Staal. This kid continues to impress me every day. It's not often that you see someone this young and know he's going to be an elite two-way player in a couple years.

Staal does everything and never takes a shift off.

Now I'm not going to make a prediction as to who is going to win this and here's why. If you go back and check out the full predictions I made before the playoffs started, I said the Pens would lose to the Sharks in the Finals. I was half right in that Pittsburgh would make it this far. However, every time I've picked against Detroit they've won and I don't want to jinx this thing because I'm already shaking and there's six hours to puck drop.

Here's what I will predict. This series is going seven games and should be a showcase of just how good hockey can be. These are two highly talented teams and should be a lot of fun to watch for those of you who aren't a fan of either side. For me, this is going to be torture and if it goes seven games check your local newspapers or online for the headline "24-year-old Pens Fans Dies From Heart Attack During Game 7."

Pens Head To The Cup Finals

OK, let me explain why there was no immediate post yesterday after we blew out Philly 6-0 and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1991-92.

It's pretty simple really. I nearly broke down in disbelief. That's about it. I was sitting at my desk at work watching the final seconds tick down when the enormity of the situation hit me. All of the suffering over the last few years has finally culminated in a Stanley Cup berth. Several hours after the game when I got into the car with my girlfriend to drive home, I was still shaking and laughing like an idiot.

She must have asked me about 30 times on the ride home about what I was laughing at. No I'm not joking.

I was forced to listen to the first period in the car on the ride into work and was able to hear the first goal scored by Ryan Malone on a slap pass from Sidney Crosby. I should seriously get in my car and drive around while the Pens are playing more often. At last count, the Pens had scored seven goals in the three or four periods I've been in the car during these playoffs.

As we were entering a tunnel we lost the radio feed for about 10 minutes. Gotta love traffic, but her mother called and didn't even ask to speak to her. Instead she wanted to update me that Malkin had just stuffed one behind Martin Biron and we had a 2-0 lead. I went nuts. The walk up to work is a blur and everything since the final horn went off and the players met at center ice to shake hands is a blur.



I still cannot believe how well the Penguins are playing right now and just how excited I am about seeing them back in the Finals. I was about 8 years old the last time the Pens made it this far. I was still too young to fully comprehend anything that was going on or get this into the playoffs. Ahh the innocence of youth.

I remember going to bed not knowing the results of the games, waking up and putting on SportsCenter to find out if the Pens won or not. Do you seriously think I could do that ever again? I sure don't. I have a hard enough time trying to fall asleep without the thought of a Penguins game being played.

I know I'm rambling and it's with good reason I think. When I woke up this morning I checked the usual suspects online to just confirm that the Penguins had actually won the Eastern Conference. I still don't really believe it, but I'm very pumped to get this thing going and take a shot at the Stanley Cup. Heard a rumor that Game 1 is on Saturday and if that's the case, I'm going to be home for it. I'll actually get to see Game 1 of a series for the first time in these playoffs and I'll be at home for the entire game. This is turning out to be a good Spring. Let's just hope the success continues.

Once I stop shaking, I'll look at this series a little more in depth and come up with some predictions like I have for every other series so far. Until next time, GO PENS!

Pens Put Flyers On Brink Of Elimination

When the game ended tonight, I was talking with Gopher and a very strange feeling came over me. I was happy and very excited obviously, but there was something very different about tonight and I'm not entirely sure why.

I was nervous as usual for the entire third period until Ryan Malone scored to put us up 3-1 and then I started to breathe just a little easier. I couldn't get too excited though since I was at work listening on a 2 minute delay over the web and was tied up with a bunch of stuff relating to the West Virginia Primary tonight.

As I was posting the story about the Penguins to our sites the feeling hit me. The nerves were mysteriously gone in quick fashion for the first time in months.

I was numb.

That's about as best I can describe it. As I wrote the headline "Pens Take Commanding 3-0 Lead Over Flyers" the magnitude of it all hit me.

We're one win away from being in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 91-92 when I was still parading around the house in my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pajamas. Yeah, I had them, what of it? You know you did too.

Now by no means am I saying this series is over, but for the third time in this postseason we have a 3-0 lead. I'll repeat that because even I don't believe I even just typed that and it's true.

The Penguins have a 3-0 lead for the third time this postseason.

I asked for a split and I've at least gotten it. I would much rather have won Game 3 to go up 3-0 like we did than give Philly fans an added edge to get riled up for Game 4 with a chance to tie the series on home ice. You could almost hear the air get sucked out of the building when Malone tucked the puck behind Martin Biron to put the Pens up 3-1. It was almost like when Marian Hossa skated up the middle of the ice and made about 3 guys look stupid and caught Biron off-guard to put us up 2-0 early in the first.



Of course like a little kid, I'm greedy and now want to see us break out the brooms and get rid of Philadelphia quickly. I never thought that I'd see the Pens ever go on a run like they are on right now.

This is like watching the results of my latest Stanley Cup run in NHL 2K8 coming to life. After tonight's game, we are now 11-1 in the playoffs. That doesn't even look right and my head is starting to hurt from trying to wrap my brain around that thought.

Also, Sid the Kid is now the league leader in points for the playoffs. Let's not forget how impressive that is seeing as how he's played in fewer games than any of the other guys near the top of the leader-board. If you'll also notice that Malkin is only one point behind Sid.

Pavel Datsyuk (17) and Henrik Zetterberg (18) are close to Sid who's got 19, but they have both played in 1 more game so far.

Like I said, I'm just numb right now. I don't want to get too excited about being one game from the Stanley Cup Finals since I've been on the good end of a 3-0 series lead being blown. (Thanks Yankees for giving us Sox fans the ultimate bragging rights for all eternity until you guys do the same to us.)

Game 4 is on Thursday and by then we may know who the Western Conference representative will be since Dallas has been awful against Detroit who also leads 3-0.

It's kind of funny how the best series of the playoffs were in the first round when the seeding was much more lopsided. We had three Game 7s in the first round and since then we've had one Game 6 and might not even see a Game 5 in the conference finals. Didn't think that would be the case, but yet here we are.