Yeah, yeah yeah.......I heard about how excited this team was to get the playoffs going, and they were going to "flip the switch" and be the Pens we have come to know and love over the past two postseasons...........someone forgot to flip that switch I guess.............Yes, I am certain that if someone told you that Adams would score his first goal since last years playoffs, Goligoski would score a goal, and that both Malkin and Crosby would wind up with threee points, you would assume that the Penguins would win right? Four goals in a playoff game should be enough to win said game for sure........but that would be under the assumption that your goaltender would play at least an average game in the net.................but as I have come to expect this season, average is too often a bit more than we can expect from Marc Andre Fluery.............Every time the Penguins would get back in the game, Fleury would let in a VERY SOFT soul crushing goal to allow the Senators to regain a two goal lead.........The fifth goal he let in against Ruutu was heinous, and took all the momentum from the first goal team and fan favorite Craig Adams scored in a year..........When Adams scored to close the gap to one goal, my whole section was SURE the Pens would tie the game............but we forgot about our goaltender.......Yes, to say Fleury sucked tonite and let the Pens down would be an understatement, but he was far from alone......as many rebounds as Fleury gave up, it might have been nice to see a defenseman occasionally DEFEND against the opponent who was around the net waiting to put those rebounds in the cage.......The Penguins third line, which is supposed to be the deal breaker for most teams was nonexistent tonite.............Ponikarovsky stinks so bad I truly cannot look at him, and I am afraid that Ray Shero maybe finally made a horrible trade..........I dont blame him, as it looked good on paper, but the site of Poni makes me wanna gag a bit......the only one who bothers me more is Fedostinko.......The Penguins defense allowed Ottawa far too much room in the neutral zone tonite, and they paid for it.....they also tried too many cute plays at both blue lines instead of making simple plays and working for the dirty goals...the Penguins left an opposing goaltender who was shaky himself off the hook, at one point getting only 1 shot in a twenty minute time frame....the disturbing thing about this is the number of times I had to type all of this during the season, but that was because this team was waiting for the playoffs to unleash hell....Giving this game away means its all over, right? Not at all....It is one game, that is all....hopefully it is a wake up call for the Pens.....they did score four goals, and their normally ineffective power play scored two of them.........Evgeni Malkin looked like the beast he was in last seasons playoffs with two goals and an assist, Adams and Goligoski chipped in goals as well. The Pens say that they respond when their backs are to the wall, and they kind of are, as dropping the first two games of a series is not good, dropping them at home is usually the beginning of golf season. The Pens will win Friday and go to Ottawa with a new best of 5 series.
On a personal note it has been a big week for this family of Pens fans........the Post Gazette features our Pens nest in the paper Saturday......we continue to be harrassed by a very OLD piece of white trash.............due to said article....also due to said article, KDKA's Dave Crawley came out and did a great piece aired on the 6 pm news right before the game tonite.....and on a warm and fuzzy note, two different ushers who work the visitors tunnel told me that Scott Hartnell inquired as the whereabouts of his buddy when we had to miss the last Flyers game on 3/27.........awwwwwwwwwwwwww.......how nice! His Flyers kept up their winning ways tonite against the Devils.......
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