Well, this sucks. We have another chance to put a team away and we let them run all over us. The good news about this whole event is that we can win the series at home where we are a franchise-record 7-0. Our fans make the Mellon Arena incredibly hard to play at. One other aspect of this game I loved was the possessed play of Jordan Staal. Unfortunately it took two periods to get anyone rolling. If he is playing for his Granpa, his Granpa should be extremely proud. Let's hope he keeps this rolling into next game! Read above at what my cousin had to say... he is right on about it all!Here are the game stats for the Pens:
So, they said that we were going to lose in Philly just because of the fans, eh? Looks like they underestimated our talent and will to win. They came out in all the orange you can stand. They came out and made as much noise as humanly possible until...BAM! BAM! down 2-0 shortly after 7:40 of the first period. They managed to get their only goal on a lucky shot by Umberger. After that, that was all she wrote. They tried everything. They even tried Downie and...OOPS! Another giveaway, another game down the tubes for the Flyers. Now they are down three games to none. Only two teams have ever came back from a 3-0 series record. Granted, one was the Islanders (Thanks Chris for the correction!) against the Penguins, but I don't see this happening this year. Look at our record for God's sake! At 11-1, we are one of five teams in history to accomplish this playoff record. Unfortunately, two of the other four did not win the cup. Hopefully we don't fall into that scheme. Although, the Red Wings are playing pretty good right now too. That is going to be one heck of a series!
Well...the same score, but a different way. I thought we were flat for quite a bit during this game, but we turned it on when it counted. We had a goal disallowed, which I will address in a few seconds, we had some questionable things that I thought were negative that we did and some positive as well. As far as the goal disallowed... I don't think the judges took into the fact that the best camera angle from inside the net was at a different angle proving that this goal was in. Oh well. I guess it doesn't matter now. They probably knew that we would more than likely score enough to overcome this non-goal. Now, the negatives...we were flat in the second. It looked like we had no fire. We had no desire. Luckily we must have heard an earful in the intermission. They came out flying in the third. None other than Mad Max scored the winner. It makes the move to replace Hall with Talbot look genius. He gave us the spark we needed. As far as the positives, I already mentioned one, Max Talbot, but the other thing I loved to see was none other than Sidney Crosby on fire once again. He scored the opener and assisted on the final empty net goal. He is now tied with Evgeni Malkin for the playoff league lead. I am loving this. We might have a chance to see Sid and Geno clicking on all cylinders in the same game...finally! Here are the Pens game stats for this game. They are improved from last game. Oh, one final note, Jordan Staal is looking like a genius on key faceoffs. I know eveyone has complained about his non-scoring, but he is perfect for this team and a vital part of it.
I forgot to add this...Hell Yeah!
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Well...convincing win. Honestly, that was pretty ridiculous. I thought the Flyers were going to dress for the whole game, but they apparently sent their wives out for the last two periods. I mean we were holding back for 30 minutes of the game and still grabbed four. We made their defense look like Swiss cheese and Biron look like Price. I am going to assume that the Flyers will try to come back more organized for game two, but I am not guaranteeing anything. I think they were trying to figure out what they were going to do with Timmonen out, but never finished their thought. I am not entirely sure when they will either. I think if the Flyers don't show up on Sunday and make it a close loss, they don't have a prayer of getting back in the series. They need a split. I am going to say that the Flyers will not be able to pull it together for game two and the Pens will win easily again. I think the only major different statswise will be PIM and hits. I think the Flyers will rack them up and we will rack up the PP goals.
I will throw some stats out now:
Faceoffs:
Staal: 11 for 20 = 55%
Malone: 1 for 1 = 100%
Malkin: 4 for 9 = 44%
Hall: 2 for 6 = 33%
Crosby: 9 for 18 = 50%
As you can tell from these, we were under 50% in the faceoff circle. I believe we would have a much easier time winning if we could tip this over 50% more often. I love how we can win without faceoff wins, but it might come out to bite us in the ass later on. I don't like this idea. I will finish this off by showing more numbers. I am all about the numbers because it tells the story of the game...well, somewhat.
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