Go WINGS! 1-0!
Leafs force game 7.
They can win this! Reimer has been outstanding!
Justin Abdelkader with the shorty to put the Wings back ahead 2-1!
This is gonna be a great game.
Nice work by the Leafs! Looking forward to game 7.
3-1 end of two. Just 20 minutes to keep it up for.
I like Fleury too. But they need to make a decision and soon. Because Crosby is a once in a lifetime talent, and with a very good goalie with confidence, the Pens could be working right now on their third if not fourth cup. The reality is, with so much talent on the offensive side, they are in every game. I don’t want to see Fleury kill chances for the cup every year because his head isn’t dealing with the pressure.
But they could have won the first final against Detroit. They win the second. Last year, they had a wide open run to the finals but couldn’t get past the Flyers? The single biggest reason was Floppin’ Fleury. He doesn’t need a coach. He needs a psycho-therapist. He has all the skill in the world. A million dollar talent with a ten-cent head.
I don’t believe the pens beat the islanders in game six with Fleury in goal, and game five would have been closer if not a loss with Fleury. He wasn’t shutting them out. The Islanders got inside his head and he was toast.
THANK YOU for posting that clip of Ovechkin! That view actually made it look better than it was. If you can find a clip from the center line camera or from behind the caps goalie camer, you can see how truly pathetic the effort was. He takes one stride behind the red line (I believe close to the farther blue line) and literally glides into the Caps zone like a spectator on ice, Its a Strange play. If I coached the Caps, I would have benched him for the first period of game 6. Screw him. He gets paid a ton of money. Make the frakin’ effort!
I don’t honestly understand how. This guy is a total mental case right now. The last goal he gave up in game 4 was pathetic. He had no idea what he was doing, and it almost looked like someone was using a controller from the stands to move his body around. It’s as if his brain is firing off instructions to his body, and they don’t get to his muscles correctly. I don’t think you will see him again in these playoffs unless the Pens have back-to-back games and Volkoun needs a breather, or he falls down and breaks his ankle.
I can see a Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding type scene outside the rink after practice one night with Volkoun gripping his knee crying “Why? Why?” and the camera turning to see Fleury running down the hall with a pipe in his hand.
The Senators are just as if not faster than the Islanders, so the Pens, unless the tighten up on defense, will need their goalie to stand tall. That’s not our floppy fish Fleury.
Wings Win ! Woohoo! and Whew!!!
Hell yeah! 
Lets go Pens!
Seriously?
Howard was in Perry’s head, plain and simple…no dagger-shaped meteorites needed.
As soon as Abdelcader scored the short-hander, I knew the Ducks were finished…they looked uninspired in the first half and desperate in the second half when Howard was shutting them down…that was great goaltending on Howard’s part. Grats, Wings.
Good Luck with the Blackhawks.
At least the two western semi-finals will be easier travel times for the four teams. Looking forward to both matchups. Kings and Sharks will start tomorrow night!
GoKingsGo!!!
Indeed.
The single biggest thing that killed the Islanders was that 6th goal they scored in game 4. Fleury was so pathetic on that goal, he made it easy for The Pens to change goalies without much of a controversy.
Remember, Fleury is popular on the team and he did win a cup a few years back against the Red Wings. But he was so bad, and that last goal especially, that pulling him was what probably the entire team (including Fleury himself) wanted to happen. The guy has simply been a mental case in the playoffs the last few years.
Volkoun was signed this year for this exact reason. Last year’s Fleury collapse against a Flyers team that was not expected to beat the Pens in the first round forced the organization to get a starting quality backup. It was one of the best moves they made in last years off season.
I doubt we will see Fleury again in the playoffs, unless Volkoun has a similar meltdown or needs a rest. He is not the long-term answer because of his age, but right now, the Pens have to play the hot hand. That’s Volkoun.
For some of us Penguin fans that have been around since literally the beginning of the franchise, this win was also important for the following reason. The Penguins had NEVER beaten the Islanders in the post-season. EVER. Even in the Lemieux years.
Islander, Penguin, and hockey fans in general will remember Pittsburgh’s famous collapse in 1974, after being up 3-0 against the Islanders, they came back to beat the Pens 4-3 and sent both organizations to the opposite ends of the hockey world. The Islanders won 4 straight cups, the Pens never recovered. They stunk until they drafted Lemieux, the only thing they did right in their history… Sucking majorly the year that Lemieux was draft-eligible.
The Pens also were on their way to winning their third straight cup during Lemieux’s run in the early 90’s when the Islanders bounced them from the playoffs in 7 again that year. This was the year the Penguins finished the season on a 17-0-0 run, which is still the longest winning streak in NHL history. Against the Islanders, Keven Stevens was kit, knocked unconscious, and landed face first on the ice, crushing his face. He was never the same, his career was ruined, the Penguins lost the series, and they never won another cup with Lemieux.
I know.. TMI. but for this Penguin fan, getting rid of the Islanders was a very big deal. And they were lucky to do it.
I for one hope to see Fleury back in a playoff game really soon.
I agree with all of this, which was another reason the Islanders were a “nightmare” first round matchup. It seems like every 20 years, once Pittsburgh seems to have gotten itself together, the Islanders show up to curb-stomp us back into the hockey basement. By the way, the three teams I didn’t want to face these playoffs, in order? Islanders, Sens, and Capitals - and it looks possible they could meet all three.
Now, what to do about Fleury? Do we do a rotation thing, like Detroit used in two of their recent cup runs? The FO are all about loyalty, so I imagine they give him one more shot - he plays amazing after getting pulled, for one or two games. But if (or, you know, when) he collapses against the Sens, that has to be it for the playoffs. And if your starting goalie doesn’t start in the playoffs, then that has to be it for him, right?
So then what? He has two years left on his contract with only a $5 million cap hit - trade him? Do teams even want him?
The thing is, the FO has been pretty active in looking for a “backup” the past few years, but so far the prospects have all fizzled out, as goalie prospects usually do. Right now the Baby Pens starter is Jeff Zatkoff, LA King’s #3 that we signed last year, and he had the lowest GAA and one of the lowest SV% in the AHL this season - but projects as a solid, reliable backup, not really a starter. His backup is Thiessen, who was the starter a season ago, but got bounced for being far too inconsistent. Then there’s Hartzell, the crazy good QU netminder that was the best in the NCAA this year (as was Thiessen when he was signed) and lead them to a championship - where, incidentally, he lost the game by letting in two soft goals. He has the prototypical size, all the right tools, but there’s no telling if he can translate to the AHL, let alone the NHL. So he’s atleast 2 years away, at best, from even being an NHL level backup, let alone starter.
This summer, the best UFA goalies are Mike Smith, Ray Emery, and Backstrom, but I don’t see any of them as (realistic) possibilities. Chicago has their own post-season Fleury problem in Crawford and I except their grooming Ray Emery as the future starter. I love Mike Smith, but he’ll want too much money, and only had that one really good year. Fleury, for all his faults, puts up consistent slightly-above-average regular season numbers year after year.
Who else is out there? It’s just a bad situation, Fleury sucks in the postseason, but it’s not like they can go out and get a Lundkvist. The one I really want is Lehtonen - yea, he just signed a 5 year deal in 2012 with the Stars, but Shero has pretty much used Dallas as a farm team the past 3 years, why stop now?
HOLY COW, to the finish of regulation in TOR-BOS.
Man, it’s gotta suck to be a Leafs fan. It’s almost like I imagine it would be if Cleveland had an NHL team…
I’d be pissed if I was a Toronto fan in how that game was refed. Boston was playing some filthy hockey - and not ticky tacky, “but it’s Game 7” questionable plays. Marchand slew footing Reimer behind the net, Kelly elbowing JVR to the face (drawing blood), Rask sucker punching… JVR?.. with his blocker pad, some really hard boarding, slashing, tons of knock downs behind the play - they definitely “let them play” today.
Still, poor Toronto - they picked the worst time of season to collapse.
You have no idea.
And I don’t blame the refereeing one bit.
I don’t remember a collapse so profound.
It’s depressing. It really is depressing, and I mean that from clinical definition. I’m … in disbelief.
Well, as an admittedly biased BOS fan, Kelly elbowed JBR after he got tackled in open ice without the puck and JBR was holding him down. Rask whacked… whomever (also don’t remember!) after he took the opportunity of a slight nudge in the goalie’s direction to run him over for about the third time in the game and fifth or sixth in the last two games, this time hard enough to knock his mask off. The Marchand play was iffier, I’m not sure he really hit him with a slew foot (didn’t see a good replay angle) but I’m big on protecting goalies and that was a bit beyond what I’d like to see even if it turns out he barely clipped his skate. Probably should have been about ten more penalties than there were, and several penalties (including the “tripping” on Lupul late in the 2nd, which was a terrible call in BOS’s favor) that were called might not have been.
I also always find it really hard to believe in games like this when there are 0 penalties called in the third period and overtime. Basketball has the same issue, with referees refusing to do their job late in games. I get the reasons why it happens but it’s still really frustrating to watch.
As someone who watched the brutal collapse against the Flyers a few years ago (blowing the 3-0 both in the series and then in game 7), I actually feel really bad for the Leafs. I know I’m supposed to hate them as an original six division rival and all that, but they’ve sucked for the decade or so that I’ve been seriously following hockey, so they’re not up in that super-hatred class for me yet.
As mentioned above: “And I don’t blame the refereeing one bit.”
This game was lost by the Leafs, was won by the Bruins and had absolutely nothing to do with the refereeing.
I’m still pretty upset though. WTF was that?
I would think you’d be used to it by now.
Yep.