Buried deep within the Penguins’ glorious Game Five victory over the Predators on Thursday night is a most disturbing pattern. One I feel compelled to write about in hopes of dispelling any bad juju or lingering negative mojo.
Go back with me eight years, if you will, to June of 2009. Led by superstar Pavel Datsyuk and perennial Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom, the powerhouse Detroit Red Wings were the kingpins of the hockey world. They’d defeated an up-and-coming but green Penguins team with relative ease in the 2008 Final to win the Stanley Cup, their second title in six years.
They seemed on the verge of capturing the crown a second year in a row. The veteran Wings, laden with a dozen players age 30 and over, beat the upstarts from the ‘Burgh by identical 3-1 scores in Games One and Two in the Motor City to get a giant leg up on the locals.
Following a power-play tally by bull-moose forward, Johan Franzen, the Wings grabbed an early 2-1 lead in Game Three. They seemed on the verge of sweeping our Pens out of the old Mellon Arena and onto Centre Avenue.
I’ll pull the needle off the vinyl and place it in the groove preceding this year’s Final. Seeking a second-straight Cup—and third in nine seasons—the Pens handily defeated Nashville at home in Games One and Two. With Preds goalie Pekka Rinne looking as rickety as an old wooden roller coaster, they grabbed the early lead in Game Three.
You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?
The 2009 Final and this spring’s Final are playing out in eerily similar fashion, only the roles are reversed. The Penguins…playing the part of then-defending champion Detroit…are hoping to add another Cup to their trophy case. The Preds…cast as the ’09 Pens…are the spoilers.
Back to ’09. The Pens rallied to win Game Three, thanks in part to a pair of goals from peppery but obscure French-Canadian forward Max Talbot. This year, the Preds rallied to win Game Three after Frederick Gaudreau—an equally unheralded French-Canadian forward—notched the go-ahead tally, his first of two game-winning goals in the series thus far.
In each instance, the underdog team won Game Four at home to even their respective series at two games apiece.
Which brings me to Game Five. With the series returning to the unfriendly confines of Joe Louis Arena, the ’09 Pens were annihilated by Detroit, 5-0. To protect his starting goalie from further abuse, then-Pens coach Dan Bylsma pulled a youthful Marc-Andre Fleury late in the second period.
Here’s an excerpt from the Associated Press recap of the game:
“After hearing how tired and beat up they were through four games of the Stanley Cup finals, the defending champions busted out with a devastating display of offense and defense and rolled to a 5-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night that put them a win away from another championship.”
Gives you the willies, doesn’t it?
The AP writer could easily have been describing our present-day Pens following their jarring 6-0 stomping of Nashville two nights ago.
Did I mention Preds coach Peter Laviolette pulled Rinne in Game Five a la Bylsma-Fleury in ‘09?
I don’t know about you. But I find the similarities between the two series absolutely chilling, right down to the talk about how tired and banged up the Wings were in ’09.
We all know how that series turned out. Thanks to some miraculous last-second shot blocking by Rob Scuderi, the Pens won Game Six at home, forcing an epic Game Seven at “The Joe.”
Inspired by a text message from owner Mario Lemieux and sparked by two huge goals from the ubiquitous Talbot, the black and gold upset the mighty Wings to snatch a Stanley Cup from almost certain defeat.
Okay Buker. That’s a great story and all. But the current batch of Predators ain’t the ’09 Pens.
True. They don’t possess the firepower that Penguins team had with budding superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Still, it was the gritty son of a construction worker from a tiny town in Quebec who ultimately made the difference.
Let’s hope we don’t make a Game Seven hero out of Gaudreau.
Well Rick, Phil we were spared. No ER trips for you or me, Rick, and no need to go to AA for you Phil.
Hang over Monday! I may be up and moving but I am moving in slo mo. Watched all of the post game stuff.
Hey Coach,
Pretty impressive on ice celebrations. Very classy move by MAF to give the cup to Murray. It was a very fitting end to a terrific career.
I am sure you watched NBC/Roots/ Pen’s TV feed. I watched my local HNIC / Sports Net feed. In the MAF interview he said he was not sure what was going to happen in the next few weeks, but he was honored to play an important role this year in winning the Cup. Especially the Washington Series.Very classy guy.
Take care of the head my friend.
Cheers
oooo Wow I was a mess this morning. Didn’t have much in the way of dinner yesterday and probably nervous drank the whole game. Then the wife cracked a couple of bottles of champagne. I guess after that me and friends drank until 3:30 am. Ouch
fodbold træningstøj
Excellent article. I’m going through a few of these issues as well..
We are the champions..we are the Champions. …..
Well done guys!!
You are a special group. ☺☺☺☺
I guess we can finally let Rick out of his room and feed him some dinner! (Aren’t superstitions great?!?!)
Congratulations, PENS – Back2Back!
Jayelene
Hi Jayelene
Yes they are. Great to be a fan.
Are you going to the parade.?
Last night during the on ice celebrations HNIC reports that the City of Pittsburgh now has .
1. 5 NFL Championship teams
2. 6 MLB Championship teams
And now
3. 5 NHL Championship teams !!!
Truly a City of Champions. ☺
I don’t think they’ve announced the details yet, Jim, so I don’t know for sure. I do know you have to savor these moments when they come along, though – you never know if or when there’ll be another one! Thanks to the Pens for an unforgettable hockey season!
You are absolutely right Jay.
Almost 20 years since this feat of back to back
Championships has happened. When you stop and
think about what just occurred you realize just how
incredible this 2017 Cup win was. One for the history
books. Thank you for sharing your thoughts,ideas, and
concerns this past season. You and all our other friends
have made this a memorable journey and one I will never forget.
Cheers
Hey Everyone!
We all know it won’t be easy to win in Nashville, but one certain thing we all should be happy about is we only have to listen to one more dreadful rendition of the National Anthem.
Beyond that, shoot the puck, go to the net, avoid as much as possible getting bogged down on the boards, puck management and support, be smarter than the other guy, and get in Subban’s belfry.
— 55
Hey Rick,
Sitting here on my deck,bright hot sunny day, anxiously waiting for the game to start and a crazy idea pops in my head. MAF… The season may be all over tonight and from all the various national media and more importantly local Quebec media sources, are all saying this will be MAF last game in a Pen’s jersey when we win tonight.
From the economics of the salary Cap I know this to be true as well.
I have been one of his biggest critics for the past 14 month’s, not because he is a bad Goalie, heck no I think he is an incredible talent and this play off run has shown that. It is all due to the salary cap and the fact we can not have almost 9 million dollars tied up in to 2 net keepers when we have so many other people to resign or acquire new players to improve our club.
But now we are almost done for the season, I want to do something special to recognize MAF and all his incredible seasons with the Pen’s.
My idea is to start Murray and play him for the first 2 periods to 50 minutes max. If we are a head and have a comfortable lead, say 5-2, I would like to see Sully put MAF into the nets for the final 10- 20 minutes and be in goal when we hoist the Cup. Crosby takes the cup and hands it to MAF first…
I think that is the least the Pen’s can do for MAF and the fan base.
Murray will not care because he is a team player and he knows he is the future. * ( Only do it if we a comfortable lead).
Crazy thought Rick….
Hey Jim,
Interesting thought. Like you my only complaint against MAF is that the Pens don’t need his salary moving forward. I may prefer a better positional goalie like Murray, but MAF is one of the best reaction/athletic goalies and he has meant a lot to the Penguins for many, many years. It really wasn’t that long ago that he was the MVP of this team when its offense was foundering and he was stellar in the CBJ series and though he started to wear down against the Caps onslaught he did get the Pens through that series too.
Speaking of MAF, I have heard that although he is too classy of a guy to show it publicly, he hasn’t taken this current demotion well. The source wasn’t exactly unimpeachable but I can believe it. Can’t say how I would react but I doubt I would be taking it that well either (if he isn’t). Particualarly after the was he played against CBJ. He should have proven to everyone but the most hard core haters that he still is a force to be reckoned with.
Should he be trade or otherwise find himself playing elsewhere, I hope it is in the west, I would rather not face him that many times a season. I would think his pride, if nothing else would have him on his game in every match-up.
WOW!! Back to the future!!
Well I don’t think that Nashville is really a up and coming team, they are good but we are better and we will prove all the media cheering for the Preds that we deserve to be there and repeat!!!
Hey Pen’s 4ever,
Good observations about the Preds.
I hope we can win it in Game Six. I’d gladly forgo a Game Seven to watch the Pens celebrate in Music City … 🙂
Hopefully, none of the yokels throws a catfish into the Cup.
Rick
The media and the league really have treated the Pens like the second coming of Rodney Dangerfield. I am really hoping for an outburst like game 5 to make a statement against all of this absolute bias!
Hey Rick
Great memory. ..
You are a walking history machine.
After watching NHL rewind of game 5, I want to make two observations.
1. In game 5 the Preds looked disoriented and bit tired.
Could it be that they are the ones who are waneing.
They were 8th seed and have played 4 great teams.
No easy feat. Just a suggestion.
2.Mario wins no matter what happens. He has had 13 play off games and all the revenues associated out of a possible 14 games to date and is guaranteed a 14 th game out of a possible 15 games.
Incredible for the bottom line.Keeps the bankers happy.
Let’s go Pen’s. 😀
Hey Jim,
My worrisome observation from Game Five?
After the Pens took a 2-0 lead with an all-out blitz, the ice began to tilt in Nashville’s favor for the last 10-12 minutes of the first period.
While you could hardly expect our guys to keep up their early pace, they had trouble getting to loose pucks in the offensive zone and maintaining any possession time. Then Malkin scores like a bolt from the blue and completely resets the table.
Still, the inability to establish and maintain a consistent forecheck is an underlying and recurring concern.
Rick
In our shared interest in dispelling bad juju, Rick, I feel compelled to warn you again – STOP FUSSING OR YOU’RE GOING TO YOUR ROOM! (I’m ridiculously superstitious at this point, so thanks for indulging me.)
Jayelene
PS – Actually, its a very interesting piece, and a scary parallel. Let’s hope the juju’s long gone now. 😉
Hey Jayelene,
Actually, I am in my room … it’s where I do all my writing … 🙂
Call it a foreboding. In stark contrast to last spring, when I just knew the Penguins were going to win the Cup, I’ve been uneasy about this series (and us) from the get-go.
You just never know which Pens team is going to show up. And if the Bridgestone Arena ice is a slush pond the way it was for Games Three and Four (Icegate?) when the puck kept rolling and rolling and rolling …
Okay, I’ll stop now … 🙂
Rick
Hey Rick,
I understand about not feeling that confident in the Pens compared to last, neither am I. I still am not sold on this D, even though I grudgingly admit Domoulin and Maatta have looked much better lately. However, one more thing to consider, if Nashville has to resort to gamesmanship like slushing out their ice to slow the Pens down or out and out poor sportsmanship to try and throw Sid off his game, they are a defeated team, “deadmen skating”. A confident team just goes out and plays.
Hey Jayelene
Is there not a saying ” girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice “… ☺
Your timing is perfect.I could not stop laughing the first time you said it, and now is just as funny.
Thank you so much for your posts…You were right last game and you will be tommorrow as well.
Cheers
Thanks Jayelene,
We need an adult here to keep Rick in line
Don’t wait, send him to his room without supper for trying to mess up the mojo!
🙂
Oaky Rick,
Also consider this, yes Fleury may have been pulled in game 5 but Fleury was still pretty much a kid, 24yrs old and it was the only game in which he was chased. Pekka Rinne is a veteran 34yrs old and has been chased 3 times so far this series and does no have a strong career split with the Pens.
Furthermore the Pens had already faced 1 elimination game in the play-offs that year, this year Nsh hasn’t really been challenged.
To be sure, it ain’t over ’til it is over, so until the final buzzer anything can happen, but I for one am not allowing ghost’s of the past to do any haunting. There are similarities but there are also a lot of differences.
Thanks for the reassurance, Other Rick.
It’s good to have a Ghostbuster on board … 🙂
Rick