NHL Playoff Blog

We'll be moving soon....

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:10:03 -0400

We'll be moving soon....:

this will be our season long diatribe.

Keep checking back, we’ll be launching soon.

I don’t even understand the English on his...

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:08:54 -0400

I don’t even understand the English on his t-shirts.

slapshot:

Malkin had a good time at Mario’s pool party.

Nice moment that really shows the excitement of actually being...

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:36:22 -0400

Nice moment that really shows the excitement of actually being handed the cup but even more impressive is how loudly Bettman was booed.

IT WEIGHS 35 POUNDS EXCEPT WHEN YOU’RE NOT LIFTING IT.

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:21:43 -0400

IT WEIGHS 35 POUNDS EXCEPT WHEN YOU’RE NOT LIFTING IT.

"As the Penguins owner, he has tried hard not to interfere with the team. But this was a special..."

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:19:38 -0400

“

As the Penguins owner, he has tried hard not to interfere with the team. But this was a special case. Just one more win would mean the precious Cup. Lemieux wanted to make sure he did all he could. Of course, Bylsma told him, send the text. So on Friday morning, each of the Penguins awoke to find this on their cell phone:

“This is a chance of a lifetime to realize your childhood dream to win a Stanley Cup. Play without fear and you will be successful! See you at center ice.”

”

- http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09166/977528-87.stm

Let's Celebrate 5 Months "Without Inside the Glass"

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:18:00 -0400

It’s all finally over and only one week shy of the summer solstice. God bless playoff hockey! Pittsburgh took the Cup last night with a tightly fought 2-1 victory in Detroit to be only the third team to win the series in a game 7 on the road. It was a series FULL of story lines, almost too many to keep track of, for example Dan Bylsma had shirts made for his team with the masturbatory encouragement “The Pen’s In Your Hands” to wear beneath their uniform. The most memorable, though, will probably go down as the Marian Hossa saga who ended being on the wrong end of the hand shake line in back to back years but, less famously, Ty Conklin seems to be the one who’s REALLY snake-bit. NHL Fanhouse has a great article today recapping his “luck”.

After spending several days looking forward to the ultimate showdown I nearly had to turn it off before it started thanks to NBC’s schlocky pre-game “speeches” from Mike Milbury and Paul Schaeffer to their respective “teams” (read: empty locker rooms). Milbury gave me chills when he appealed to the Wings to turn in one more night of hard work for all the Detroit residents who don’t have any work to go to, and not in a good way. More in a WTF kind of pandering is this? Dudes there’s a reason neither of you are coaches in the NHL and if you need an explanation just watch this performance on your DVR. Herb Brooks you ain’t.

Last night’s game started out fast and furious despite some tentative play on both sides. The Penguins ended up with a slight edge offensive at the end of the first but the best scoring chance of the period went to Cleary and the Wings.

There was a lot of talk after game 5’s drubbing about how the Pens were still immature and didn’t know how to do what it would take to win the series. After watching games 6 and 7 you really have to hand it to them as they really changed their entire style of play from top to bottom. Everyone from Sykora to Scuderi to Crosby and Malkin were willing to make the sacrifices and play the kind of grinding, unglamorous game to pull it out, precisely the type of game the Caps did not play. The 2nd period which has typically been the bane of the Pens playoff existence became the bright spot for them. Max don’t call me -ine Talbot recovered a perfect rebound off a Malkin forecheck that is exactly the type of play I was talking about and slipped it home to give the Pens a 1-0 lead early in the period. The Pens blocked a lot of shots throughout the period and after Crosby got sent to the locker room early by a questionable hit by Mikael Samuelsson to his vagina they killed off a Wings power play which had briefly come alive only a few games ago. A 2 on 1 just after the halfway point of the period found Max Talbot on the left wing with the puck on his stick and supreme confidence as he wristed a shot up where mom hides the cookies for his 8th goal of the playoffs only 4 shy of his goal total for the entire season. To be honest I thought Osgood looked like he wasn’t far enough out of the net to cut the angle and I can’t tell if it was shaken confidence or if he was cheating the pass across to the other winger. In any even the Joe seemed a little stunned that someone not name Malkin or Crosby could be putting them away. Detroit kept their pressure up though but in an almost desperate frenzy. They seemed to be looking to get pucks on the net from anywhere even though there was still nearly 30 minutes of the game remaining. They also, uncharacteristically, taking off-sides calls—another sign of loss of composure.

The Wings snuck one through from the point with just over 6 minutes left in the third and clamped down on the Pens even harder but a cross bar by Kronwall with 3 minutes left and some stellar saves by the Flower down the stretch, including a magnificent one on Lidstrom just before the buzzer, dispelled any memory of the troubles he seemed to have in Detroit.

Comissioner and public enemy number one Gary Bettman was roundly booed as he presented the Conn Smyth trophy for MVP to Evegeni Malkin. Malkin ended up with 36 points in the playoffs, the most since Gretzky scored 40 in 93, and elevated his physical and defensive play in the Finals. A deserving award and the first time the Art Ross winner for most points has won the Smyth since Mario Lemieux in 1992. The crowd then proceeded to treat the comissioner like a war criminal as he presented the cup to the youngest captain in history to win it Sidney Crosby.

The Hockey Gods punished you for this.

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:43:54 -0400

The Hockey Gods punished you for this.

"Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom was up front, followed by alternate captain Kris Draper,..."

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:39:00 -0400

“

Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom was up front, followed by alternate captain Kris Draper, congratulating many of the new champions while waiting for Pittsburgh’s captain.

“Nick was waiting and waiting, and Crosby didn’t come over to shake his hand,” Draper told an Associated Press reporter a couple hours later as he was leaving Joe Louis Arena. “That’s ridiculous, especially as their captain, and make sure you write that I said that!”

”

- http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/31344177/ns/sports-nhl/

2009 Stanley Cup Champions.

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:07:58 -0400

2009 Stanley Cup Champions.

I’m Pour 71!

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:02:12 -0400

I’m Pour 71!

I changed my mind THIS was the most important save in the...

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:00:05 -0400

I changed my mind THIS was the most important save in the Playoffs.

Samantha Miceli hearts Sidney Crosby. acewepeel: I never knew...

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:02:00 -0400

Samantha Miceli hearts Sidney Crosby.

acewepeel:

I never knew Alyssa Milano was a Pens fan.

The Last Thing I'll Say

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:58:16 -0400

Mike Babcock coached the 2003 Ducks team that went 7 games in the final against the Devils and lost. It was the last time the home team won every game. Playing for Babcock’s Ducks: Dan Bylsma. No word what he ate before that game.

I’ve put the stats out there, the history, etc but when it...

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:39:09 -0400

I’ve put the stats out there, the history, etc but when it comes down to it it is game 7 and anything can happen. A bad call, a bad bounce off the boards, a bad period by a goalie, these variables can all impact the outcome of the game so I am not even going to try to predict the outcome because I am too much of a realist. The one thing I will say is that the MVP trophy has definitely not yet been won. We know who most likely is in the running Malkin, Osgood, Zetterberg, and Crosby have to be the front runners but the winner will have a remarkable game tonight and be the difference maker. It should come down to the player who gave the ultimate edge to such an evenly matched series. That being said The Flower has a real chance to steal this one. Can’t wait!

"Chad Brooks, the owner of that Qdoba franchise, informed us last night: “Coach Bylsma came in..."

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:38:00 -0400

“

Chad Brooks, the owner of that Qdoba franchise, informed us last night:
“Coach Bylsma came in today and had us pack a burrito to go for him for Detroit tomorrow. Record now stands at 21-1 while following this ritual. I think we have a solid chance. To be the champ, you gotta beat the champ. That is the task in front of us and I feel good about our guys. We need a good early stop by Fleury, like in Game 7 against the Caps, and we should be good to go from there.” According to a woman at the restaurant, Bylsma stopped in sometime between 12:45 p.m. and 1 p.m. Thursday and ordered a burrito — which was put on ice — and then headed out the door as the team prepared to travel to Detroit.

Detroit you are now deliciously F’d!

”

- http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Bylsma-brings-lucky-burrito-to-Detroit-Pens-pre?urn=nhl,169828

GAERIN HAZ MESSAGEZ!1!

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:52:33 -0400

GAERIN HAZ MESSAGEZ!1!

Buy the shirt here!

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:36:50 -0400

Buy the shirt here!

Further More:

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:48:13 -0400

thebozz:

Taken from the Official Pittsburgh Penguins Message Board:

“Tuesday night could be the last Stanley Cup final game of Sidney Crosby’s career. I don’t sense that level of understanding. It is easy to be fooled into believing the finals are a rite of spring. If I would have been told on June 1, 1992 that the Penguins wouldn’t play for a championship for 16 years I wouldn’t have believed it. It was true. They were a team with the best player in the game, a handful of other superstars, and many other big-game winning players. Two chances and done. That was it. Lemieux was 26. He never got another chance. Jagr was a 20 year old, two-time Stanley Cup champion. He never played in another finals game.”

As sports fans, we tend to forget just how seldom we get to see our favorite teams play for a championship. Again, who would have thought that Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr would NEVER play in another Finals game after winning that second Cup?

YES!

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:36:01 -0400

YES!

Food For Thought

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:24:09 -0400

14 Stanley Cup finals have come down to a 7th game.

No NHL team has played more Game 7s than the Wings, who are 3-3 in their history.

The home teams are 12-2 in Stanley Cup game 7 history.

The last time a home team lost a Game 7 in the Finals was 1971 (3rd seed Montreal at 2nd seed Chicago).

The 2003 Ducks/Devils 7 game series was the last in which the home team won every game (Devils won the cup).

Only three Finals, 1955, 1965, and 2003, were all games in a best-of-seven series were won by the host team.

Pittsburgh’s last win at Joe Louis Arena came on November 11, a 7-6 win in which Jordan Staal netted a hat trick.

Detroit has not lost at home this playoff season since the Western Conference Semi-Finals against the Ducks in 3OT on May 3rd.

In game 7’s this playoff season the home team is 2-3.