Mad Max: Beyond Igloo Dome - Pittsburgh 4, De-Twat 2
Hi, my name is Maxime Talbot, and you might remember me from such films as: Scoring with the Goalie Pulled (I'm no Karl Hungus, but it's funnier when you consider my almost porn-star like name), and Being Treated like a Superstar When Your Car is in the Garage (see the first parenthetical comment)
The Good for Pittsburgh: They won. The difference between being down 2-1 in a series and down 3-0 in a series is measured in terms that only Trekkies and members of the '04 Boston Red Sox know. With another win on home ice, the series becomes a best-of-three, which is the best the Penguins can hope for at this point. While Crosby and Malkin didn't get goals, they each got assists, setting up big goals, and both players were a lot more visible offensively. The Penguins also got secondary scoring, bookended bysuperstar pornstar Maxime Talbot's goals.
The Powerplay went 2-3. There was a point in the 3rd period when I turned to a friend and said "the next powerplay wins," which was the case. The Penguins also set a Stanley Cup (and maybe even NHL) record for the longest consecutive time played with too many men on the ice and not having taken a penalty. Their good luck underscores how bad the officiating has been this series, but at least it's now going bad both ways. I'm not sure that equals two missed penalty shots, but I'll pretend that it does. For now.
The bad for Pittsburgh: The middle 30 mintues of the game. Detroit owned the last half of the first period, save the two minutes Pittsburgh was on a power play. More importantly, Detroit owned the entire second period and were a post and a few great saves from Marc-Andre Fleurry away from running away with the game. The Penguins need to find a way to make better changes with the long change and generate offense in the second period if they're to even the series.
The good for Detroit: They scored by generating traffic in front of Fleurry and by generating offense over the entire span of a power play. They also owned half of the hockey game, which against Pittsburgh, on Pittsburgh's ice, is an accomplishment off of which to build.
The bad for Detroit: Osgood wasn't nearly as sharp tonight, allowing two slapshots from long range to beat him, one through the five hole and without traffic (Letang's). The defense turned the puck over a lot in its own end, and the penalty kill looked like the 14th ranked penalty kill in these playoffs. If Pittsburgh wins game 4, they will have a freight train worth of momentum going into Game 5 at the Joe, and that's a game they won last year.
The ugly: Pittsburgh playing a good 20 seconds or so with 6 guys on the ice. This isn't pee-wee hockey, where you can politely call a kid back to the bench. Something like that isn't supposed to happen, but then again, players aren't supposed to be able to cover the puck while in their defensive crease.
The last word: If Pittsburgh wins Game 4, one has to wonder if their seven game series against Washington was the adversity the team needed to face, to build the confidence to come back and win this series—adversity that last year's team did not face.
Tonight, I star in: Mad Max, Beyond Igloo Dome.
The Good for Pittsburgh: They won. The difference between being down 2-1 in a series and down 3-0 in a series is measured in terms that only Trekkies and members of the '04 Boston Red Sox know. With another win on home ice, the series becomes a best-of-three, which is the best the Penguins can hope for at this point. While Crosby and Malkin didn't get goals, they each got assists, setting up big goals, and both players were a lot more visible offensively. The Penguins also got secondary scoring, bookended by
The Powerplay went 2-3. There was a point in the 3rd period when I turned to a friend and said "the next powerplay wins," which was the case. The Penguins also set a Stanley Cup (and maybe even NHL) record for the longest consecutive time played with too many men on the ice and not having taken a penalty. Their good luck underscores how bad the officiating has been this series, but at least it's now going bad both ways. I'm not sure that equals two missed penalty shots, but I'll pretend that it does. For now.
The bad for Pittsburgh: The middle 30 mintues of the game. Detroit owned the last half of the first period, save the two minutes Pittsburgh was on a power play. More importantly, Detroit owned the entire second period and were a post and a few great saves from Marc-Andre Fleurry away from running away with the game. The Penguins need to find a way to make better changes with the long change and generate offense in the second period if they're to even the series.
The good for Detroit: They scored by generating traffic in front of Fleurry and by generating offense over the entire span of a power play. They also owned half of the hockey game, which against Pittsburgh, on Pittsburgh's ice, is an accomplishment off of which to build.
The bad for Detroit: Osgood wasn't nearly as sharp tonight, allowing two slapshots from long range to beat him, one through the five hole and without traffic (Letang's). The defense turned the puck over a lot in its own end, and the penalty kill looked like the 14th ranked penalty kill in these playoffs. If Pittsburgh wins game 4, they will have a freight train worth of momentum going into Game 5 at the Joe, and that's a game they won last year.
The ugly: Pittsburgh playing a good 20 seconds or so with 6 guys on the ice. This isn't pee-wee hockey, where you can politely call a kid back to the bench. Something like that isn't supposed to happen, but then again, players aren't supposed to be able to cover the puck while in their defensive crease.
The last word: If Pittsburgh wins Game 4, one has to wonder if their seven game series against Washington was the adversity the team needed to face, to build the confidence to come back and win this series—adversity that last year's team did not face.
Let the Zetterberg calls go. The shitty refereeing is not team-specific.
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