Here's something interesting - of course I Tivo-ed the Pens - Canes game last night, but in doing my setup I accidentally hit mute on my Super Space Command Remote Control for my cable. So I have picture but no sound. Which may not be a bad thing. I love 'Razor' Reaugh's color comments as much as the next hockey fan, but I get him for Stars games all year, too and I could do with a couple hours of hockey without a "Lareceny!" or a 'gargantuan rebound.'
SO, I actually picked up pen and paper and decided to totally unlive Blog the game as I watched.
1st period:
18:24 - [Eric] Staal [Carolina] stuffs one. I think this is the first time in the series [this is game 4, Pens up 3 - 0] that the Canes have outnumbered Pittsburgh below the goal line. Rob Scuderi versus three Canes and Staal on the wrap around. Malkin standing there on the boards not helping and Hal Gill nowhere near the net. Isn't the Center the Center's responsibility, Geno?
17:30 - Now the Canes are buzzing and pressing the forecheck. Not a good clear by [Pens goalie Marc-Andre] Fleury! Brind'Amour [that's not a typo] just held up the Pens rush for a good 20 seconds by himself.
14:40 - The Canes full court press keeps the Pens hurrying until Ray Whitney misses a keep in at the blue line -Fedotenko with a nice breakaway! Where's the late man? He had no passing option. Who is that # 28? [It may be my eyes are failing - 287 is Eric Goddard, but he wasn't dressed... but I looked several times to catch a number and that was not Fedotenko.]
11:39 - SCORE! Boucher to a wide open on the back door Ruslan Fedotenko. Not a red jersey, including the goalie, within ten feet of him. How many times have the Canes been burned by the back door play this series?
10:00 - TV just pointed out [Carolina's] Eric Cole has not been every effective in the playoffs - just 5 assists in his last 31 playoff games. So what? I like the way the guy plays the game. He can hit, he can shoot and he can pass. Don't blame him for Carolina's woes - NO ONE has stepped up this series. The Pens are killing penalties at 83 %. That's dedication and hard work and why I'm taking them to upset the Red Wings this year.
8:43 - Fleury just saved his own bacon on his belly and sliding the stick across the goal line. Gotta elevate those shots!
5:25 - Chippy and scrappy in the Canes end. Kennedy [Pitt] just sidestepped a Mack truck of a hit. Jordan Staal [Pitt] levels someone one the boards with a good shoulder! This year's Pens aren't afraid to hit and be hit. Good shift from the third line keeping the Canes bottled up in their end!
3:58 - Pittsburgh has a powerplay connecting 20.5 % of the time and it's only 7th in the playoffs [out of 16 teams]???
2:30 - Jordan Stall again in the corner. He is just a Ronnie Francis starter kit.
1:28 - Breakaway by Talbot, flutter puck of the top of the glove and SCORE! Oh, that's bad. That's Langenbrunner beats Osgood from just inside the red line bad. But we'll take it! hat's the game winner, too. Oh, it went up the defenseman's stick and arched up and over. Shades of Steve Smith. I saw Sergei Zubov put a pass right off his partner's skate into the Pens net when he was in Pittsburgh. That's one of those unlucky bounces.
'Tween Periods - Aw screw the NHL injury reporting process. Detroit can say Kris Draper has a groin injury, Pavel Datsyuk has foot problem, but Nicklas Lidstrom has a 'lower body injury.' Anything from a hangnail to a sprained ankle to a broken leg to a groin... PFFFFT. Can the Wings beat Pittsburgh without Lidstrom? It would be tough. He just never seems to be out of position defensively and he's so smart with the puck. Lidstrom may be the best all around defenseman of his generation. Christine Simpson. Yumm!
2nd Period
20:00 - Canes start with 1:30 [ish] of power play. Big shot block by Hal Gill. Once Gill got past taking bad penalties [for being out of position] he has become a great shut down guy. Rob Scuderi, too. Neither will get a sniff for MVP honors, but both have been fantastic all through the playoffs.
15:51 - Yeah, big obvious high stick there Seidenberg. Go sit in the box and feel shame! Eric Staal and Rod Brind'Amour just killed 20 seconds of OUR power pay and had a couple good whacks short handed. Come on guys! Wake up! Nice deflection by Jordan Staal. Kris Letang is going to be good for a long time. He's got a wicked wrister that finds the top corner. Power play over Canes rush, 5 Pens in front of their own net against 3 Canes, no shot!
12:00 - Another shot off the blocker of [Canes goalie Cam] Ward. He's not playing playing well, not making good clean saves. It looks like he's lunging at the puck. Of course a few years back the knock on Fleury was he can't catch, cover, play the puck, kick rebounds into the corners, cover the five hole or skate. But other than that he's a good goalie. Ward has a Conn Smythe and a Cup ring all ready.
10:17 - What's Bill Cowher doing at the game? Wish I could hear what he has to say. Dumb trip Seidenberg, go sit again. What is this short handed break on our power play again? Gonchar pushed his shoulder at the last second. Why is Bill Geurin in the box?
9:02 - Mark Eaton on a 4 on 4 rush. This guy hasn't scored 4 goals in 2 seasons, but he comes out of nowhere to wire 4 this playoff. Nice. Must be a contract year.
7:50 -Crosby to afresh from the box Guerin, flip to the far post and score! Pitkanen HAS to stop that pass. Bill Guerin with playoff beard looks a lot like Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek: Next Generation.
6:20 - E Staal on the wrap around and stuff try again. He's playing very well tonight. Too Bad the Carolina D isn't. Or most of this series. Where's Frank Kaberle and Joe Corvo? I see Corvo's 77 flashing around once in a while here. [Kaberle was scratched for Anton Babchuck who only played 10:41 of the game, Carolina going with a 5 D rotation?]
1:48 - Well Carolina just played 2 minutes of keep away in our zone. But nothing to show for it. I see Tim Gleason for Carolina. And Nick Wallin.
3rd Period
17:00 - Seems the plan this period is to get the Carolina D active shooting and try to have someone about 10 - 20 feet out tipping shots. Couple of good chances all ready. Matt Cullen on the shake 'n' bake, Craig Adams [former Cane] lifting the stick and hooking and he still gets a shot off! Crosby tries a short handed split the defense rush - he need Mario to show him how to lower that shoulder and plow through. The Pens have killed 11 of 12 power plays this series.
12:00 - great poke check and pick the pocket by Malkin, great pass to Talbot for the one time. Eric Cole got a knee to the head behinds the play. He's a hockey player, he'll be back.
10:00 - the Jordan Staal line again cycling off to the goalie's left. Boy that line has been great tonight.
9:00 - Carolina just win the faceoff to their goalie. Saturday night was the first time I've ever seen a team in an offensive zone faceoff right into their own empty net.
5:45 - Eric Staal on the toe drag short handed breakout, 3 white sweaters converge. Pens in a 1 - 1 - 3 to clog up the blue line. Ron Francis is on the Carolina bench [coaching now], they need him to go lace 'em up!
4:15 - Look at Crosby forecheck. Wow! Canes outnumbered 4 - 3 below the dots in our end.
2:23 - Fleury flip flopping like the Fleury of old. He's been good, not great.
1:10 - Crosby to Adams into the empty net. That does it. Assist to Talbot. It's always great when grinder get points.
Handshakes. Oh, the "Don't Touch It Trophy" presentation. The superstition is you don't touch the Prince of Wales [Eastern Conference championship] trophy or the Clarence Campbell [Western Conference championship] bowl because you only want to touch the Stanley Cup. And it's weird superstition - Jordan Staal did not touch the Cup when Eric brought it home after the 2006 win because you only want to touch the Cup when you win it. [I will not win win it, so I touched it at the Hockey Hall of Fame.] The only person I saw make a deal out of it was Scott Stevens with the '03 Devils. He skated it and had a team photo with it. OH! Crosby touched it! And took a picture with his alternate captains Malkin and Gonchar! And he's taking it to the locker room!
Note: I heard on Sportscenter last night and read today that Crosby touched it this year because he didn't last year and the Pens lost - so he's trying a new superstition.
LET'S GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Out Of Date - Shout Outs
Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted.
So it's Memorial Day - nothing special to me because I have every Monday off, but now most of you are competing for my space in stores and on the road. So fine, I'll just stay in and have a nice Denver omelet with some salsa [maybe a Santa Fe omelet?] and flip between baseball and the NASCAR race. Besides, I have a nasty sinus headache.
But I'm standing in my kitchen flipping the omelet and burning some CDs to my drive and thinking what a lucky guy I am. So shout out to Uncle Rich for indirectly teaching me to cook an omelet [yes, he has a real omelet pan] and enjoying a relaxing day. Shout to to Mom for my musical taste, without which I would have just looked over the Philly Soul of Teddy Pendergrass in the used CD bin. Some days life is indeed a song worth singing. Mom is very proud that I came around on the soul music; for many years I said I didn't like it, but it began turning around when I found her James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone... suddenly, I feel the need for Earth End & Fire's After the Love... weird.
The NHL Playoffs
For those who don't know, my beloved and offensively gifted Pittsburgh Penguins are in the Eastern conference finals and up 3 - 0 on the Carolina Hurricanes. I said the Pens would take this in 6, but Carolina just looks whipped. I was nervous about Pittsburgh and Washington's game 7 because that Ovechkin guy in D.C. - he's pretty good. But the Pens kept forcing a defense that looked like Swiss cheese to try and stop them and they didn't. And it wasn't even close.
This is Pens team on the cusp - they took everything they learned from going to the finals last year and losing to the very committed Detroit Red Wings and applied it. They are blocking shots like the 98-99 Dallas Stars. They are taking the body in the corners - not just the grinders, but Crosby and Malkin, too. Crosby is just shining as a leader. He just seems determined to win. Malkin looked unsure in the first couple of series - not anymore. Whether Crosby told him something or scoring late in the Caps series kind of lifted the pressure on him, he's been on fire in the Canes series and leads the league in scoring now in the playoffs after leading them in scoring in the regular season.
And I would be remiss if I didn't choke down a forkful of crow here. The moves made by GM Ray Shero appear to have paid off in spades. I didn't think the move to get Chris Kunitz for big defenseman Ryan Whitney was a smart move at all. But Kunitz has become the digger on Crosby's line, going into the corners and coming out with the puck and is able to make the passes to allow Crosby to score. Bill Guerin [for a 2nd rounder] has also had a great post season with Crosby. Ruslan Fedotenko has also chipped in in a timely manner and has shown more sandpaper to his game than I thought he had. AND [gulp] Miroslav Satan has been speedy and dangerous - probably playing his best since he was with Buffalo. I said to a lot of people whem the Pens sent him down in March that he was done. But when Peter Sykora proved ineffective in the playoffs Satan stepped in and has contributed. Sorry, Miro.
If things hold as the appear, Pittsburgh will get their rematch with the Red Wings late this week. This is a much more determined and tested Pittsburgh team and I think this group has a much better shot to unseat the Wings than last year's group. With Detroit having some injury issues and the bonus of denying the Cup to Marian Hossa [whom we all recall spurned a hundred point season playing with Crosby all year and took less money than Pittsburgh offered to go to Detroit because "they have a better chance of winning the Cup."], I can see a motivated Pens team knocking off the champs in 6.
By the way, this would be the first rematch in the Cup finals since Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers met the NY Islanders in 1983 and 1984. Edmonton lost the first year, but took notice of what it took for the Isles to win and came back in 1984 and knocked off the 4 time Cup champs to begin their own run at the top of the pile. Detroit [and to a lesser extent New Jersey] have been the top of the heap ever since they met in the 1995 finals - Detroit's 4 Cups in 11 seasons, NJ has 3 sandwiched in there. This could be Pittsburgh's announcement that there is a new king of the hill in the NHL.
Another great story was the run of the kids in Chicago - Patrick Kane, Cam Barker, Brent Seabrook, Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews have played some of the most exciting firewagon hockey that we've seen in a while and surprised everyone by upsetting the Calgary Flames [leading to Mike Keenan's firing] and the fantastic goaltending of the Vancouver Canucks Roberto Luongo... only to run into the many toothed machine that is those pesky Red Wings. But give them couple more years and they will be competing deep into the post season again and challenging for a Cup - first in Chicago since 1961. Wouldn't it be fitting if they won it in 2011?
Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted.
So it's Memorial Day - nothing special to me because I have every Monday off, but now most of you are competing for my space in stores and on the road. So fine, I'll just stay in and have a nice Denver omelet with some salsa [maybe a Santa Fe omelet?] and flip between baseball and the NASCAR race. Besides, I have a nasty sinus headache.
But I'm standing in my kitchen flipping the omelet and burning some CDs to my drive and thinking what a lucky guy I am. So shout out to Uncle Rich for indirectly teaching me to cook an omelet [yes, he has a real omelet pan] and enjoying a relaxing day. Shout to to Mom for my musical taste, without which I would have just looked over the Philly Soul of Teddy Pendergrass in the used CD bin. Some days life is indeed a song worth singing. Mom is very proud that I came around on the soul music; for many years I said I didn't like it, but it began turning around when I found her James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone... suddenly, I feel the need for Earth End & Fire's After the Love... weird.
The NHL Playoffs
For those who don't know, my beloved and offensively gifted Pittsburgh Penguins are in the Eastern conference finals and up 3 - 0 on the Carolina Hurricanes. I said the Pens would take this in 6, but Carolina just looks whipped. I was nervous about Pittsburgh and Washington's game 7 because that Ovechkin guy in D.C. - he's pretty good. But the Pens kept forcing a defense that looked like Swiss cheese to try and stop them and they didn't. And it wasn't even close.
This is Pens team on the cusp - they took everything they learned from going to the finals last year and losing to the very committed Detroit Red Wings and applied it. They are blocking shots like the 98-99 Dallas Stars. They are taking the body in the corners - not just the grinders, but Crosby and Malkin, too. Crosby is just shining as a leader. He just seems determined to win. Malkin looked unsure in the first couple of series - not anymore. Whether Crosby told him something or scoring late in the Caps series kind of lifted the pressure on him, he's been on fire in the Canes series and leads the league in scoring now in the playoffs after leading them in scoring in the regular season.
And I would be remiss if I didn't choke down a forkful of crow here. The moves made by GM Ray Shero appear to have paid off in spades. I didn't think the move to get Chris Kunitz for big defenseman Ryan Whitney was a smart move at all. But Kunitz has become the digger on Crosby's line, going into the corners and coming out with the puck and is able to make the passes to allow Crosby to score. Bill Guerin [for a 2nd rounder] has also had a great post season with Crosby. Ruslan Fedotenko has also chipped in in a timely manner and has shown more sandpaper to his game than I thought he had. AND [gulp] Miroslav Satan has been speedy and dangerous - probably playing his best since he was with Buffalo. I said to a lot of people whem the Pens sent him down in March that he was done. But when Peter Sykora proved ineffective in the playoffs Satan stepped in and has contributed. Sorry, Miro.
If things hold as the appear, Pittsburgh will get their rematch with the Red Wings late this week. This is a much more determined and tested Pittsburgh team and I think this group has a much better shot to unseat the Wings than last year's group. With Detroit having some injury issues and the bonus of denying the Cup to Marian Hossa [whom we all recall spurned a hundred point season playing with Crosby all year and took less money than Pittsburgh offered to go to Detroit because "they have a better chance of winning the Cup."], I can see a motivated Pens team knocking off the champs in 6.
By the way, this would be the first rematch in the Cup finals since Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers met the NY Islanders in 1983 and 1984. Edmonton lost the first year, but took notice of what it took for the Isles to win and came back in 1984 and knocked off the 4 time Cup champs to begin their own run at the top of the pile. Detroit [and to a lesser extent New Jersey] have been the top of the heap ever since they met in the 1995 finals - Detroit's 4 Cups in 11 seasons, NJ has 3 sandwiched in there. This could be Pittsburgh's announcement that there is a new king of the hill in the NHL.
Another great story was the run of the kids in Chicago - Patrick Kane, Cam Barker, Brent Seabrook, Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews have played some of the most exciting firewagon hockey that we've seen in a while and surprised everyone by upsetting the Calgary Flames [leading to Mike Keenan's firing] and the fantastic goaltending of the Vancouver Canucks Roberto Luongo... only to run into the many toothed machine that is those pesky Red Wings. But give them couple more years and they will be competing deep into the post season again and challenging for a Cup - first in Chicago since 1961. Wouldn't it be fitting if they won it in 2011?
