GameDay Poop: Game 4 – Pittsburgh Penguins vs Carolina Hurricanes preview

The Penguins have taken their game to a level that hasn’t been seen in Pittsburgh since the early nineties when Lemieux and company used to torment the opposition. Desire to prove themselves is deep seated in these youths and unfortunately for the Carolina Hurricanes they’re all that’s standing in the way of the Penguins returning to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Carolina has already said all the wrong things:  “It would be a tough, tough day for me to sit here and think that we couldn’t play better.” Said Paul Maurice Carolina’s coach. “We’ve turned too many pucks over. We’re late on a lot of our back checks”. Pittsburgh is ready to pounce on them using Brooks Orpik’s game plan: “If we can have a good start, we can really crush a lot of the hope that they do have, Get it in their heads early that maybe they don’t have a chance.”

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby are planning to continue to use Orpik’s game plan. If Malkin gets one more point this playoff season he will have scored more playoff points than any person has in 13 years, and Sidney Crosby is right behind him. “They’re unbelievable,” “To me, they’re 1 and 1A, and I don’t know which one is which. Just so competitive, so talented.” Craig Adams said. “They just want to play in these big games and score the goals, and they’re doing it.”

Moving on up!  Malkin & Crosby are #1 & #2 in scoring so far this playoff season, here is where they rank on the all-time Penguin list: Most Points by a Penguin player in a playoff season

Mario Lemieux       1991     44
Mark Recchi           1991     34
Mario Lemieux       1992     34
Kevin Stevens       1991     33
Evgeni Malkin      2009    28
Kevin Stevens       1992     28
Ron Francis           1992     27
Mario Lemieux       1996     27
Sidney Crosby       2008     27
Sidney Crosby     2009    26
Marian Hossa        2008     26
Jaromir Jagr          1992     24
Larry Murphy        1991     23
Jaromir Jagr          1996     23
Evgeni Malkin        2008     22

Here’s good news. The NHL is working with NBC in secret to try to up the dates of the NHL Stanley Cup finals games because they believe that Pittsburgh and Detroit may close their series out soon. The first game was scheduled to be June 5, if both teams close their series out early, the finals would start with back to back games in Detroit on Saturday and Sunday May 30th and 31st. They are being secretive so as not to embarrass the Carolina and Chicago clubs.

I’ve heard that Carolina fans make a lot of noise at their arena. Wow.

Staal vs. Staal. Jordan Staal main priority and to shut down his brother Eric. This task is a very important one for the sole fact that the Canes have won every game (7-0) this post season when Eric has scored a goal and are only 1-9 when he has not. In the three games against the Penguins Eric Staal has register only one assist and his plus/minus is -6.

Bill Laird Cowher is supposed to ding the siren tonight, if he does then he will officially be the biggest idiot in all professional sports.  Take a  second and think of all the idiots he has to pass up to become that.

Max Talbot: “They are going to want to bring it, I don’t think they’re going to go out there and stop playing.”

Puck drops at 7:38PM and can be seen in high definition at the RBC Center or on VERSUS, CBC & RDS