Wooo Hoooo!
In my last game summary, I stated that Fleury had to have a big game for the Pens to win. He only had to make one save to have the kind of big game that Penguins needed. His save on Ovechkin’s breakaway attempt set the tone for the entire game. Whooo Hooooo! Sorry, I can’t stop.
There is a lot to be said for tense, hard fought battles that go down to the wire, but once in a while I need my team to crush someone. Tonight was a great time to do just that. Finally, the Pens dominant play translated into scoring. Tonight the boys were able to finish those plays they have been unable to finish thusly.
Notes:
- How about the Penguins with no penalties in this game. I am sure that Capital players, coaches, fans and owners will whine about this, but I think it was a result of two things: (1) I still believe the Pens coaching staff has pulled the reins in on the physical play. (2) The time of possession. The Pens, once again, controlled the game. When a team controls the game, the other team will take penalties while the controlling team is not in a position to take penalties.
- How did the Caps keep Mark Eaton off the board while giving up six goals?
- Whoooooo Hoooooo!
- After seeing Letang’s goal, I have to ask again, why does this kid not shoot everytime he can?
- How awesome was it to see Gonchar in the lineup. This had to be a tremendous uplift for everyone on the team. He looked decent.
- I was kind of surprised that Kunitz did not score. It seemed everyone I talked to thought he would break out tonight.
- Satan, once again, showing he can play. He has four assists in four games.
- Ovechkin played 21 minutes, but outside of a denied breakaway and a goal on a bad play by Fleury, he was seemingly invisible.
- It was good to see Varlamov finally yanked from a game. Let’s give this kid credit, he was awesome.
- The Capitals played a great series, but the better team won in the end. I somehow think we will see this series again and again.
- Sidney Crosby is THE MAN!
Okay, now it is on to the next round. Here is to our boys doing it again; earning an opportunity to prove themselves in the Stanley Cup Finals.
[By RBuckle, May 14, 2009 @ 10:05 am
Stealth – good jawin’ with ya (at ya) the whole series. I’d do that winking smiley thing you do, but I don’t know how you do it.
Other than last night’s debacle (my perspective, I know), it’s been fun…
As for the ;-), that’s easy:
Semi-colon, dash, and close parentheses… 😉
[By KULT SKATER, May 14, 2009 @ 10:58 am
If Ovechkin would have scored a goal to make it 6 – 1 favor of the Capitals he jumps the glass and walks like he’s doing a Captain Morgan Rum commerical. Take for example his jumping into group when they got the second goal. That IMHO is the biggest difference between the two other than the fact one is advancing and the other is done for the season.]
They are players with different personalities… That in itself doesn’t make one better than the other… Just different… And other than A.O.’s lame and stupid hot stick routine, his celebrations don’t hurt anyone and are not aimed at embarassing anyone… The man thrives on energy, emotion, and excitement…
[To many the Washington Capital media bloggers and posters who also play up the “whiny” – “Crysby” – “Cindy” – “Girlie” image I’d suggest those bloggers, posters, and Washington Capital marketing department think of something new to promote because it really does look foolish to have someone you think of as a whiny girl beats the living snot of you.]
I don’t know where that comes from or why it’s perpetuated… I,for one, don’t agree with it… Crosby is a stud of a player… I just don’t like the jersey he wears… It’s not personal… As for beating the snot out of anyone, where are you getting that? He had a great series, but the Pens only won it 4 to 3… And other than the last game, most of those other games could have gone either way… That’s no beat down IMHO… If you’re talking head to head with Ovechkin, well, that’s about as even as it can get… Crosby has 21 points (12G/9A) and so does Ovechkin (11G/10A)… Crosby is +6… Ovechkin is +10… That’s about as even as you can get… And keep in mind, A.O. was playing against the better Pens defense and didn’t get nearly the amount of power play opportunities that Crosby did… It was a Helluva effort by both players, but I don’t think anyone suffered a snot losing beating here… 😉
[By PENZRGR8, May 14, 2009 @ 8:22 am
Stealth,
I was talking about the next series, not this one. I have already moved on. Sorry you took offense. However, you seem a bit touchy today.]
My bad… I thought you were rubbing salt in my wounds…
This is from just observing: Sidney Crosby scores a goal and makes it 6 – 1. No celebration, no show-boating, all we got was a fist pump and normal goal congrats from those on the ice. If Ovechkin would have scored a goal to make it 6 – 1 favor of the Capitals he jumps the glass and walks like he’s doing a Captain Morgan Rum commerical. Take for example his jumping into group when they got the second goal. That IMHO is the biggest difference between the two other than the fact one is advancing and the other is done for the season. To many the Washington Capital media bloggers and posters who also play up the “whiny” – “Crysby” – “Cindy” – “Girlie” image I’d suggest those bloggers, posters, and Washington Capital marketing department think of something new to promote because it really does look foolish to have someone you think of as a whiny girl beats the living snot of you.
This is a little bit in regard to those now saying that Crosby is the better player than Ovechkin… to which I happen to agree… but, it all comes down to Ovechkin had little support from anyone other than his goalie and a few (too few) contributions from 3rd and 4th line players during this series. When you go after a series win with your best defense being Erskine who is as slow as Gill and playing right wingers such as Kozlov, Fehr, Fleishmann, they have some problems a lot deeper than their organization will admit.
We all see the injury excuses starting to surface but bottom-line they’re key players very simply didn’t produce. Possibly, if some of these guys were indeed injured so badly why in the hell were they playing them and not inserting others, who were not injured. We are going to read a lot about how they are but a few years behind the Penguins… I’m thinking light years behind and the biggest difference is Shero and Lemieux/Burkle compared to McPhee and Leonsis. It’s a major factor… we have a management team that doesn’t talk down to people.
Great Game! Finally a clean win where I wasn’t stessed the whole game. My two favorite parts were the hit Ovechkin put on Backstrom and Crosby stealing the puck from Ovechkin for the breakaway game sealer.
It was nice to see Ovechkin and Crosby seem to talk nice after the game. I’m hoping with age, this becomes more of a Lakers – Celtics rivalry and maybe the teams will stop the cheap stuff.
Stealth – good jawin’ with ya (at ya) the whole series. I’d do that winking smiley thing you do, but I don’t know how you do it.
Stealth,
I was talking about the next series, not this one. I have already moved on. Sorry you took offense. However, you seem a bit touchy today.
GO PENZ!
[PENZRGR8 says: Scuderi did an awesome job stopping Ovechkin and hopefully, can continue that play with the next “superstar” (I use that term loosely) on the next team we play.]
In other words, you don’t think Ovechkin is a superstar? LMAO!!!! Well, you may be the only one on the planet then…
Scuderi is a good defensemen, but Ovechkin is among the playoff leaders in scoring… I don’t know how well he was stopped…
The bottom line in this series is that the Pens offense is a lot better than the CAPS defense… The better team won game seven when Varlamov couldn’t stand on his head any longer, and the CAPS couldn’t get any secondary scoring…
It was a great series… Very fun and entertaining (albeit stressful at times) to watch… I’m kind of bummed the CAPS couldn’t put out a better effort last night, but I tip my cap to the Pens… They played very well, especially on the road…
Good luck in the conference finals…
Great series and great ending.
Fleury did step up and unfortunately for the Capitals Varlamov was starting to crack. Lets face it, he was what kept him in the series.
Scuderi did an awesome job stopping Ovechkin and hopefully, can continue that play with the next “superstar” (I use that term loosely) on the next team we play.
Great all around play last night and I am sure it will give us a big lift going into the next series.
GO PENZ!