Jinxes, no....Arrogance, yes

Popular website Kuklaskorner had this post to say:

I’m not into the jinx thing. I believe the Wings are so dominant that no amount of stupidity on my part can possibly stop them tonite [sic]. Because I believe that, I bring you this.

"The Pittsburgh Penguins are 11-1 in the playoffs, and I’ll be surprised if they win three more games. That’s how well the Detroit Red Wings are playing."

Read more from Orland Kurtenblog. Find out why this thing’s over tonite [sic], and the next one won’t take too damn long either.

To an extent about his opening, we agree. We're not much on thinking fans words, thoughts or actions really have any outcome on a game. The Penguins would have won last night had we worn or not worn our lucky shirt. They lost to the Rangers when we did wear it.

But there is a difference in superstitions and being conceited. Red Wings' fans, generally speaking, are acting pretty arrogant and pompous. It's not hard to, given the unmatched success their team has had over the past 15 years or so. And immediately in winning nine straight games. Hell, someone could look over this blog in the past couple weeks and probably see no shortage over-confident statements bordering on arrogance. To this point, neither the Wings nor the Pens have let their big mouth fans down yet. Soon enough, it seems, the immovable object will meet the irresistible force.

It'll be fun to watch what their large presence in Blogfrica will churn out. Sure it's not going to jinx the players on the ice, but it sure is going to be fun to re-hash if the outcome isn't what they're so certain about.

All of a sudden hockey becomes just a game again

Wow.

Rangers bad boy Sean Avery was rushed to a Manhattan hospital Wednesday with a lacerated spleen just hours after his team's playoff loss.

There were early reports he was in cardiac arrest upon arriving to the hospital but that has been edited out of this article so we're not sure if true or not.

Regardless this is shocking and unfortunate; even if we did call (and mean) that he is the biggest a-hole in the NHL, no one deserves this.

Best wishes for a full recovery.

Game 3 Preview: Going for the stranglehold

Will Gary Roberts be back tonight? It looks like it, but they’ll make that decision after the morning skate. Goals aside, Adam Hall is a good 4th line player, so even if Mr. Gary’s groin can’t go, the Pens will still have a good 4th line. It’d be nice to get Roberts back if only for his presence and maybe have him slam a defenseman or two on the forecheck.

Speaking of people needing to be slammed, Sean Avery was called a coward by Joe Starkey for a slash on Sidney Crosby. We don’t condone whacking a player who doesn’t have the puck, but in a sense NHL players constantly have to fight through random slashes and cross-checks. No harm, no foul here. But, to be sure Avery needs to know that he can’t just be slashing Crosby at-will. Maybe the pounding that the USS Hal Gill and Georges Laraque laid on him might reinforce that.

In today’s Ron Cook column, he advocates replacing Marian Hossa with Petr Sykora on the team’s top powerplay, repeating “if it’s aint broke, fix it anyways”. Cook accurately points out all the chances and shots that Hossa is generating but thinks a guy like Sykora may help the Penguins convert more. There’d be nothing positive to come out of making that change right now, Hossa’s doing everything well in all facets of his game, he’s just not scoring goals at the moment. Sykora’s been great too, but Hossa is more skilled and brings more to the table.

If you haven’t yet seen it, here’s a pretty good article from ESPN’s Scott Burnside about coach Michel Therrien. As we’ve mentioned before, it hits on how Therrien’s in a pretty thankless position; when he wins it’s to be expected (and credit to the players) but when the team is not winning it’s his fault and he deserves to be fired. Hell, even when he is winning and the powerplay is clicking along he’s got people like Ron Cook calling for him to change things up.

Around the league some crazy stuff too as the Canadien fans descerated the Rocky statue in Philadelphia with a Habs jersey and the Canadian national anthem was subsquently boo'd last night in return. Things are heating up there, surprisingly to us the Flyers are hanging right in there, as Martin Biron has been playing out of his mind lately.

Closer to the homefront Game 3 is tonight and the Rangers will have the benefit of being at home and definitely have the chance to get back on their feet a little bit. As we all know a 3-0 series is basically over but a 2-1 advantage shift the momentum back to the Rangers. NYR will be looking to play another tight checking, low scoring game but watch for the Pens (particularly the lower lines) to try to setup up puck possession in their zone and generate a lot of shots and scoring chances that way. If guys like Jordan Staal, Max Talbot and Tyler Kennedy can keep this up and establish the Pens early in the game, we like the chances of a 3-0 advantage.

Bush League

Are the Penguins a cure for what ails Ottawa?

A couple of weeks/months ago a potential Pittsburgh/Ottawa first round meeting would seem like a repeat of their 4/5 matchup from last season. However the Sens have fallen and fallen hard from a team that started the season on 15-2 note and aren’t even assured a playoff berth going into the final weekend.

This means if they do make it in, they could very well be the #7 or even a #8 seed and a potential opponent for the Pens who will either be the #1 or #2 seed. This would probably not be the ideal matchup for the Penguins, considering Ottawa’s performance against them. Ottawa was mired in a 3-7-3 slump a couple months ago but two of those wins were over the Pens. In the four regular season matchups the Senators averaged 4.5 goals per game against Pittsburgh. Surely they remember last season’s playoff outcome and have noted that Ottawa post-season krytonite Gary Roberts isn't going to be in full form.

Even with Ottawa in free-fall desperation mode, if they win an early game or two their experience will kick in and some of the self doubts will settle (as it did when the regrouped themselves in the first round last year and went all the way to the Cup finals). It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Here at TST we’re hoping not to see Ottawa in the first round because they matchup and challenge the Pens better than any other likely first round opponent would. Ottawa finishes up their season tonight, in an extremely important game against Boston—a team that’s clawing to stay in the top 8 themselves.

Ottawa right now is in 6th place with 94 points, but if they were to lose this game Boston would jump them and Washington would too if Alex and the boys beat the Panthers. Further if the Flyers were to win their last two games, Dany Heatley can hit the road a little early this off-season, the Sens are going home. There are a lot of scenarios that could work themselves out and like we said it will be quite interesting watching it unravel.

Being in first place with a playoff positioned secured, it’s just a lot nicer watching the gladiators slug it out from the emperor’s chair then it is to actually be down in the pit.

Pain in the (Gl)ass

Another cool TSN feature: who's the #1 pest in the league?

All are on there for good reason, but surprisingly Jarkko Ruutu didn't make the list. Wow.

Sweater Ted Top 3:

3. Steve Downie (Young but given time I'm sure he'll be moving up in these rankings, not down)

2. Daniel Carcillo (Hey, he missed 15 games and is still #1 in the league in PIMs. No one racks up misconducts like the former Penguin prospect)

1. Sean Avery (He's pretty hateable.)

(thanks to kuklaskorner for the image)

Laraque boards Downie

If you haven't seen it for yourself, take a look first:



Flyers coach John Stevens looked this as "a vicious incident" and "a very, very dangerous play."

We'd half agree. To be sure, it was a dangerous play and Georges Laraque deserved the boarding call and probably the game misconduct he received. To call it vicious though is a little extreme, especially for a coach who's players are usually the ones laying opponent's out..

Steve Downie commented with a little more reasonable outlook like "stuff like that happens," and "we were both going in the corner for the puck".

True enough, both were racing to a puck down in the corner, a play that happens many times over in a game. Downie put himself in a worse position by cutting face towards the boards. He didn't deserve to be knocked into them, but as he mentioned, stuff like that just happens in hockey.

Laraque, for his part, says "he got up and [got in a fight] in the third, so I'm not worried about it at all. He was fine. He was laughing. He did that job perfectly. He drew a five-minute power play. That was his job, and it worked."

He then added something we totally believe:

"If I want to hit somebody from behind, he's not going to get up."

Certainly if BGL intended to lay a check on Downie, who've we established as putting himself in a bad situation, he could have driven him damn near through the boards and Downie wouldn't have gotten up. Laraque did, it seemed, pull up a little. Almost all of the force Downie had going into the boards was generated not by contact but his own footspeed.

Regardless Laraque did board him and deserved the 5 minute penalty and probably the game misconduct. But he did not intend to injure, it was just a common play in hockey gone wrong, but not horribly wrong; as Downie wasn't injured. So, to us, no suspension seems warranted.


(Quotes reported by the PG)