Alright, I admit it: I was wrong. I never thought Mark Andre Fleury could be a solid, play-off caliber goalie. At least not this season: he's still too young and inexperienced, in my humblest of opinions. Last night, however, he stood on his head and kept the Penguins' playoff hopes alive, while Malkin continued to cough up the puck in the neutral zone.
I'm not going to drone on about how the 3-OT game was a thriller, and how it was the highest rated Game 5 since 2002 (there's a solid statistic that doesn't really mean anything). I'll give it you straight here in the pages of the Vavenby Daily News. There's no way Pittsburgh deserved to win that game. Sure, they took an early 2 goal lead, but against a team like the Wings, that's not going to be enough. You need to play with intensity and heart for the full 60 (or 109:57) minutes.
Pittsburgh was out-shot in every one of the 6 periods played, except for OT #2, in which they managed 1 more shot than Detroit. Compare this to OT #1, in which the Wings outshot the Pens 13-2. Overall shot total was 58-32 in favor of the boys from the Motor City.
All this being said, I feel that Pittsburgh can win the next game and force a game 7. They're so good at home, and coming of the high of this win, I expect big things. The key factors are for MAF to continue to play well, and for Malkin to pull his head out of his ass and start playing like the superstar he's supposed to be.
Final score: Pittsburgh 4, Detroit 3
3 Stars: #1 - MAF (55 saves);
#2 - Petr Sykora (GWG @ 09:57 of 3rd OT; 2PIM)
#3 - Hank Zetterberg (2 assists; 2PIM)
Showing posts with label Stanley Cup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stanley Cup. Show all posts
5.30.2008
Guess who's back?
The title is kind of redundant ... since I'm the only one posting, I'm the only one who's going to be back. But you get the point. My analytics tell me that page views are dropping, so it's time to get back into business! Actually, the main reason I'm increasing the frequency of blog posts is that I suddenly have some more time on my hands. I have 1 week left in my practicum, at which point I'm officially done another degree. The difference between this degree and the last one, however, is that I also have a job ... nay, a career lined up post-graduation. Which is always promising. So while the next 3 weeks may be somewhat hectic (with packing/moving/finding a place to live/starting a new job), the future will have more posts about more interesting topics. Or un-interesting topics, depending on the state of the world.
I think my last post was about the start of the NHL playoffs. How wonderfully serendipitous than, that we're now heading into game 4 of the 2008 finals. Ever since Ottawa shit the bed in round 1, I've been quietly rooting for the Penguins. Maybe not so quietly, even. It's not that I'm a huge fan of Sidney Christ™ (though I don't hold anything against the kid, and I do think that he's what the league needs right now), I've just been a closet Penguins fan since the early 1990's, when my mullet was approximately the same length as that belonging to Jaromir Jagr. I even rocked out a Jofa helmet playing Pee Wee, just like the cool guys on the Pens. So while they're not my favourite team ever, I certainly like them more than the Red Wings (who have won enough Stanley Cups already .... let somebody else have a turn!)
So with the series at 2-1, where do I see it going? All the way to 7 games, of course. There's no way Chris Osgood is good enough to keep the high-flying Penguins at bay. 2 shutouts in the first 2 games was pretty amazing, but I wouldn't expect that kind of thing to be an ongoing trend. He's older than brontosaurus shit (36 in November), and he's bound to break a hip if he starts trying anything too acrobatic. That being said, I don't hold much faith in the goaltending of the Penguins, either. So it's really a toss-up as to who will take game 7. But yes, it will go the distance.
Game 4 goes tomorrow in Pittsburgh, 8pm EST, and can be seen on CBC, NBC and RDS (all in HD), or listened to on XM channels 204, 205 and 206. Also, various other sports-carrying radio channels (I would assume).
I think my last post was about the start of the NHL playoffs. How wonderfully serendipitous than, that we're now heading into game 4 of the 2008 finals. Ever since Ottawa shit the bed in round 1, I've been quietly rooting for the Penguins. Maybe not so quietly, even. It's not that I'm a huge fan of Sidney Christ™ (though I don't hold anything against the kid, and I do think that he's what the league needs right now), I've just been a closet Penguins fan since the early 1990's, when my mullet was approximately the same length as that belonging to Jaromir Jagr. I even rocked out a Jofa helmet playing Pee Wee, just like the cool guys on the Pens. So while they're not my favourite team ever, I certainly like them more than the Red Wings (who have won enough Stanley Cups already .... let somebody else have a turn!)
So with the series at 2-1, where do I see it going? All the way to 7 games, of course. There's no way Chris Osgood is good enough to keep the high-flying Penguins at bay. 2 shutouts in the first 2 games was pretty amazing, but I wouldn't expect that kind of thing to be an ongoing trend. He's older than brontosaurus shit (36 in November), and he's bound to break a hip if he starts trying anything too acrobatic. That being said, I don't hold much faith in the goaltending of the Penguins, either. So it's really a toss-up as to who will take game 7. But yes, it will go the distance.
Game 4 goes tomorrow in Pittsburgh, 8pm EST, and can be seen on CBC, NBC and RDS (all in HD), or listened to on XM channels 204, 205 and 206. Also, various other sports-carrying radio channels (I would assume).
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