Hawks draw first blood.
A beautiful heads-up pass from Hossa in front of the net to Kane.
And Wings looking whole a whole different team today. They are shooting 
But can they close it out? They’ve had trouble with that lately.
Agreed!
WOW! Detroit is looking Great!
What do you mean? The Pens allowed only 22 shots. Who knows what the next game holds, but considering Vokoun’s save percentage was around 86% I’d much sooner say they won despite him last night than because of him.
Go Wings! 
Feeling a lot better about their chances with the Hawks now.
Anyone see game 2 Sharks/Kings? That game was awesome.
Really? That’s all he faced? I’m surprised… Maybe it felt like the Sens were putting more shots on the net since they scored 3, but wow was I off.. I must have been zoning, or confused the game with something else in my head. Weird. I just checked and you are correct. 22 shots. That’s a good defensive game from the Pens. Clearly, my head was up my ass when I posted that. Thanks for clearing it up.
I agree with you, though, about them winning despite him. It was easily the worst game of the four he has played thus far. However, he is still 4-0., so I dont see him being pulled anytime soon unless its just for a game here and there (like if the Pens go up 3-0 in this series).
If the Pens don’t pull him and ride him the rest of the way, it will be a strange off-season in Pittsburgh. Still, I’ll worry about that when I have to. For now, I want to see the Pens win this year’s cup, and Vokoun gives them the best chance.
I honestly have no idea what your post said. And I read it. Twice.
Cake?
Wings looked great today. They really looked strong against the Hawks.
This could be a great seven game series… and I hope so, because the games are fun to watch.
The Bruins and Rangers should be more exciting to watch, but I can’t get into the series yet. Same with LA and the Sharks. Don’t know why, as there is some great hockey being played.
Jesus Christ but I am sick of playing the Penguins in the playoffs. Ridiculously one-sided refereeing every goddamned time.
It really was terribly one-sided officiating; in particular, why wasn’t Orpik called for boarding or cross checking? Neil didn’t have the puck and was helpless.
Nonetheless, they pulled out a miracle win.
On day, teams will learn not to sit on a lead in the third period against Ottawa. Pittsburgh was attacking Ottawa constantly throughout game two and as a result Ottawa didn’t get anything going really. Tonight they backed off – laughably so while on a power play that should have ended the game – and they paid for it.
And they say Pens fan whine too much! That’s all I’ve heard the last three days, but the refing sucks on both sides, as it has all playoffs. I only got to watch the first 2 periods, so I could be wrong, but there were weak and mysterious calls everywhere - remember when Glass put his hands on Spezza’s back right outside the crease and Spezza “fell” and they called it a slash? And yea, that “roughing” on Malkin was idiotic, I think most Pittsburgh fans agree. But I also saw, in two periods, slashes that broke sticks for both teams that weren’t called - I remember it happened to Letang, but can’t remember the Sens player’s name who had his broken.
Or do you honestly believe that there’s a conspiracy by the NHL to tilt the game in favor of the Penguins?
By the way, this is why Vokoun is amazing for the Pens right now. Goalies usually have a weakness (Ben Bishop and the five-hole, Nabokov on the high glove side, etc) and you set your defense to compensate for that weakness. Basic hockey. Since Fleury is so inconsistent - he can struggle with knuckle shots off the boards, floated shots from the point, whatever, he has no fundamentals - nobody has any idea how to design a defense for him, so when he’s in net it looks like defensive chaos and poor coaching. But with Vokoun - who isn’t as athletic or fast reflexively anymore - you can allow the other team to take as many shots as they want from the perimeter, since you know Vokoun will stop 99% of them. From the chart, that’s what they did all game - push the shots to the outside. The two goals were up close, one on a redirect, stuff that’s nearly impossible for him at his age.
It also goes to show how elite Anderson can be when he’s on his game - Pittsburgh shot from everywhere, and he stopped practically everything. Of course Senators D was also really good at preventing shots up close.
Orpik barely touched the guy! Like it or not, it was a clean hit. Orpik’s a physical player – he’s a hard hitter, but he’s not dirty. Neil, on the other hand…
Actually, that was a pretty textbook boarding - a push on a defenseless player that results in them slamming into the boards. I wouldn’t say it was dirty, though, just one of those split-second “should I or shouldn’t I?” things that ended awkwardly. Hope Neil’s back soon.
Wish I had access to the full game, because there’s a ton of stuff I’d like to see again. I was actually happy they called one of those sneaky things Crosby does ever so often - agitations that aren’t vicious, but also aren’t necessary, and I’d rather they not be part of his game - with that high sticking to Cowen. But a Senators blog said that Cowen was the one that pulled his stick upwards? Really? Didn’t see it on the replay.
And, that was a total dive by Karlsson. You know, FTR.
…
My point being, the refs suck, but they’re not in a Bettman lead conspiracy to hand Pittsburgh the cup. What we really should be talking about is how AMAZING that game was - a good old fashion goalie duel (with the Penguins?!) with great play from both sides. And, all told, was a pretty clean game, not much after the whistle stuff. How the hell did Anderson stop all those Malkin-gone-bonkers plays?
Spearing players in the testicles is really fucking dirty, and Orpik did it twice last night.
does nobody realize the nhl is fixed, I just wish I could figure out who it is so I can make some money. no Canadian team has a chance, after betman was bood in Vancouver after game 7, he wont let that happen again. for those people who think its exciting to watch fixed games, your team must be one of the favs. I wouldn’t watch this garbage league if my life depended on it.
What’s fascinating about this is that the announcers and talking heads seem to have no clue about it. Their advice to the Senators since the series started has been “just put a lot of shots on net” as if Vokoun is some clown who doesn’t know how to position himself.
But the “put the shot on net” philosophy simply leads to taking a zillion point shots without the front-of-the-net traffic needed to make those work. It is, in other words, precisely the wrong way to attack a veteran goalie, while it would be a reasonably good approach against Fleury if you were struggling to get the puck down low.
Of course, many of the same talking heads said Anderson shouldn’t start for the Senators last night. How do these people get jobs?
That’s why I hate sports coverage in general, it’s so inane and pointless and self congratulatory, I think only the most casual of fans get anything from it, like Pierre’s encyclopedic knowledge of where players played when they were 18 years old. Do people really not want to know strategy, tactics, that kind of thing? Like the Pens powerplay - it went from 40% to 0%, what changed? What adjustments did the Senators make on the PK? Or, you know, “Crosby had an off night” - what about Turris? Both Bylsma and MacLean wanted him matched up with Crosby, so what adjustments did Turris make to force Crosby into an “off night”?
Instead it’s all empty gibber jabber about quasi-actual emotional storylines. On NHL.com right now are the following headlines: “Penguins ‘have to regroup’ after stunning loss”, “Red Wings clicking after season of figuring identity”, “Sens’ PK comes up huge” - which all sounds promising. But the articles themselves are empty pieces of puff pastry journalism, interviews with players and coaches (outside of Torts and the Paulrus, when is that ever interesting?) and a bunch of lorem ipsum filler text. If you make the argument that there’s not enough time for intellectualism during intermission reports, why can’t NHL.com throw up some articles ever so often on strategy and X’s/O’s? Aren’t they trying to promote the sport of hockey? I’m sure there’s some pee-wee hockey coach in Manitoba that’s got nothing better to do on Sundays, why not ask him to contribute?
And this goes for all sports, like football and basketball. I don’t like basketball that much but I find strategy, in all sports, fascinating. The other day I came across a blog that broke down how the Indiana Pacers were smothering some other team in the playoffs with a perfectly executed defensive system and it was interesting as hell, reminded me a lot of hockey. But if I watched the Pacers highlights from ESPN I’d probably get something like “Some Other Team Struggles with Offensive Identity.”
Stupid anti-intellectualism everywhere…
The “Boarding” Penalties need a review. It Seems like all you have to brace yourself when someone is coming up behind, then when they get close drop your arms and make a big scene of your head bouncing off the boards.