At Last

Well, the kids did it. I held off on writing about it because I needed it all to soak in. Even now, it's hard for me to coherently write everything I'm thinking. I'll be brief: what a series. Seriously. Momentum swung back and forth; just when you thought one team had it, things shifted. For myself, it went kind of like this:

Games 1&2: Not again.
Games 3&4: New series. We got this.
Game 5: FML.
Game 6: I can barely watch the second half of this game.
Game 7: S:EIG@%!%$&A! YES.

How do you not love that though? Yes, obviously I would have liked to just win it in four games and avoid all the nerves. But it's much sweeter when you've battled for it.

This was my first Stanley Cup; I say that because the last time Pittsburgh won I was only around four years-old. It is awesome, and I want some more ASAP.

Other than that, just some thoughts:

+ How great is Dan Bylsma's story? He went from assistant in the AHL last season to head coach of the Stanley Cup champs a year later. I'll admit I was wrong about him. I wasn't the biggest supporter of his move to the NHL (although I do stand by the fact that his success was also because of the players making a 'motivation' adjustment). I always liked the guy, I just didn't think he'd be able to do what he did. But it worked out just fine.

+ Marian Hossa. No, I don't really feel bad for you. Maybe a little, but that's about it. I also don't really believe that you have 'no regrets.' I know I'd be kicking myself. Try again next time.

+ Naturally you have to give props to the Red Wings. They're pretty much a model for what a team should be like in the NHL. They're a hard team to beat, and it's something to say you did so.

+ I'd happily like to point out, Game 7 was all about the WBS alums: Maxy Talbot, Marc-Andre Fleury and Dan Bylsma. Represent.

+ Say what you want about Sid; he deserves this. Sure, he whines. But he is unreal. And he (along with Malkin and Ovechkin) helped revive the NHL. I think all hockey fans can respect that.



Love you Stanley. xoxo

Game Five Awful

Game Five was so bad I had to give myself time before I wrote about it. Seriously. Thinking about it now still makes me cringe. I wish Game Six were being played in five minutes just so we can move on.

Yeah, so Detroit chewed up the Pens and spit them out on Saturday night. The 5-0 score pretty much says it all, but there are a few things I want to touch on:

+ Marc-Andre Fleury. He just wasn't good. I'm not placing all the blame on him because the entire team was just ridiculously bad, but it definitely wasn't his best showing. Bylsma made the right move by pulling him; I might have done it one goal earlier. I'm not worried about the kid though. He's a different kind of 'mental' than most goalies I've met. He'll be fine. One this is certain: he needs to have the game of his life on Tuesday, and should the Pens force it to seven, he needs to have an even bigger one then. If all else fails, put John Curry in. Simeon Varlamov anyone?? ;-)

+ There's been talk about how Detroit is a bunch of old guys who get tired, blah blah. Well, Pittsburgh certainly showed its age by acting like babies on Saturday. They completely lost their heads and took stupid, selfish penalties out of pure frustration. It was like they were looking for the fastest way to dig their own grave. The Pens have my heart, but to see them act like they did is embarrassing. Lock it up boys. No one is going to feel sorry for you if you behave like that.

+ Just a quick comment on the Hossa situation. I'm not angry with him because he took less money to play for Detroit. The big reason this whole saga pisses me off is how he went about it. For one thing, he told Pittsburgh he wanted big money to stick around. So Pittsburgh offered him big money. Oh - then he decides he doesn't want that anymore. But above all, he publicly came out and slapped his former team in the face by literally saying he had a better chance on Detroit. It's like, "Hey, good times guys, but you're not going to win the Cup next year. You're not good enough for me. Okay, thanks. Bye." Maybe he got confused and still thought he was in Atlanta. I mean as you can see, Pittsburgh is a pretty legit team. OH - and then there's that whole loyalty thing that I'm pretty big on. So in any case, it's not that he took less money to go to Detroit. Yes, that's cute. It's just the way he went about it.

So yeah, Saturday night was bad. Really bad. How Pittsburgh responds will be key. They can either use Game 5 as motivation or they can use it as discouragement and watch the Cup slip from their fingers. Going home will give them a big jump, and anything can happen in a Game 7. They need to get their confidence back to where it was in Game 4 -- when you could see that they realized they could beat these guys. And (fingers crossed) if they make it to seven, they will need it more than ever at the Joe. Because believe it or not Pens, you CAN win in Detroit.

Do it.

Photo.

The Beginning of the End

Game 1 of the deja-vu Stanley Cup Finals begins tonight. This time I think my boys just might end up on the winning side. They look different than they did going into the Final last year. But Detroit is Detroit. We can't forget that.

We all know what's at stake here. The Red Wings either add another Cup to their dynasty and surprise no one, or two of the top three players in the NHL finally get their first.

But one huge elephant in the room is this guy:


We all know that everyone except for Red Wings fans are hoping this d-bag gambled wrong. How great would it be to see him lose after saying he was leaving the Pens for the Wings because he felt he had a 'better chance of winning' the Stanley Cup with them?

GO PENS. DO IT.

Good Intentions Gone Bad

Way back when Ray Shero traded a handful of good potential for Marian Hossa, everyone was like, 'Well hey, why the hell not?' I was iffy about it from the beginning, but I gave it a chance. A few months and no Stanley Cup later, I'm back to feeling iffy about it, if not completely disagreeing with the move. Sure, Hossa helped Pittsburgh get to the finals, but for what? For nothing. And no, no. Don't BS me with 'Well they DID make it to the Finals' or 'They got experience!' I don't buy into that. I believe they could have made it to the finals without Hossa. Now he's stepped on their feet and signed with Detroit for less money than he was offered with Pitt because he feels he has a 'better chance of winning the Cup with Detroit.' Um, okay. Winning back-to-back Cups is statistically shown to be almost impossible (although Detroit is one of the teams that has done it), and I'm not so sure that Detroit has THAT much of an edge over Pittsburgh. I'd love to see another Pitt/Detroit final, and watch Pittsburgh destroy Detroit to catch a glimpse of Hossa's face then. Maybe I'm feeling bitter because Pittsburgh is one of my faves, but come on. You can't undo the past, but after trading away two first rounders, Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen only to have the guy not win you a Cup and then run for the exit as soon as he could ... I don't know. Maybe next time Ray.