SHIT

It is past midnight on a night in which I just watched my favorite sports team lose its second consecutive Game 7 on home ice in a series in which it had led. It is their fifth consecutive loss over two seasons when they have had a chance to close out an opponent, and they were 1 for 35 on the power play in this particular series. And you know what? I am goddamn proud of them. Am I disappointed that we lost? Oh yeah, more than an adult male should be quite honestly. If you frame this series loss by asking the following question it feels a little better. Would (Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Vancouver) win a 7 game playoff series playing without their top 2 offensive threats and one of their very best PK specialists and physical leaders? Not likely. And in terms of this season, none of those teams has a player that would have compared to Crosby's offensive output or leadership. Envision Vancouver without the Sedins and Burrows....the Flyers without Briere, Richards, Powe, or Washington without Ovechkin, Backstrom and Chmura. Now picture what seven games with a deep offensive team and a hot goaltender might look like for the watered down versions of those teams. Thought so.

I l ike others have some areas that bothered me about this team. I think they obviously need to do something next year about the power play. It was mediocre even with Geno and Sid, and it has been an abortion without them. There is no reason it should be this bad, but it is. I have faith that they will address this for next year. I also might have dressed Engelland and Tangradi for Niskanen and Connor the past two games. It probably would not have changed anything either. People are criticizing Bylsma for leaving 1000 career point player Alex Kovalev on the bench for the game's final power play, a 6 on 4 since Fleury was out of the net. If 1000 career points was the standard maybe Mario could have put down his Merlot to play on that power play! Bylsma sat a guy who showed no desire to get to loose pucks, or fight for the inches of ice necessary to win in favor of a group of players who would put their face in front of a piece of frozen rubber coming at them at 100 mph. Kovalev has been invisible or worse most of his stint here in Pittsburgh. Kudos to Bylsma for sitting him. Suddenly Coach Disco was outcoached? I am hearing a lot of that, and can only laugh about it. Byslma's way of doing things has worked out pretty well for the Pens. Let's remember how he handled Fleury's horrid start in a manner that kept the team afloat, AND allowed Fleury to regain his confidence, and become a Hart candidate. Let's remember how he took a team that seemed like all it was missing was locusts flying out of their asses and did not let them get down while they finished in the top 5 in the whole league despite missing half their lineup at times. The guy should win the Jack Adams hands down this year, so despite not always agreeing with everything he does, lets have faith he knows more about the Pens than we do. They will address the deficiencies as they see them, I am sure.

Instead of criticizing this team for losing a playoff series they led 3-1, praise them for the extended run they took from the beginning of January until last night where they played through a hellish collection of injuries and suspensions. Praise them for coming to the rink EVERY night for four months with most of their players being asked to fill a role that they were not quite suited for, and playing more minutes than they were used to. Instead of fading like all the hockey world predicted, taking the Divison title down to the last weekend of the season, and finishing with 106 points. Hey, you cannot blame a fan base for having its expectations raised by this wonderful, gutsy stretch of hockey played a by a bunch of men who fought for each other like few other teams I can recall. You cannot blame us. But, when you step back and look at it objectively, they simply ran out of gas, and ran into a very good and very healthy Tampa Bay Lightning team. They could have thrown in the towel after being embarrassed last Saturday 8-2, then dropping Game 6 in Tampa. They did not. Instead they outplayed Tampa, outhit Tampa, and outshot Tampa who beat them with ONE GOAL, that should have never happened if the zebras call the obvious stick to Orpik's face 10 seconds prior. But, you know what, that is hockey. They could not finish chances, and Tampa finished one last night. My point is that this team laid it all out there for themselves and for the fans, so let's not get crazy with the criticism of the core group on this team. Let's applaud them for their fortitude, thank them for their efforts, and support them going into next season. Let's not punish them for not meeting the inflated expectations they created through their excellence in the regular season. I have watched a lot of hockey over the past 30 years, and though my opinion may mean very little, I think that this core of players is one of the most special I have seen. There will be plenty to cheer about in coming seasons. Thanks for a great year Pens!