I’m not quite sure what to say about today’s Penguins/Flyers game and I re-wrote this post three times (while trying not to throw up). This game was an implosion – a disgusting, dirty, insulting excuse for a game the Penguins lost fair and square.
First off, the score. Can ANYONE be bothered to cover Danny Biere? He scored two in game one, remember? You could have landed a plane on him in the first period and the Pens defense would have wondered why it got so windy. It would explain why Fleury was flapping like a screen door in a hurricane. After this complete lapse, the Penguins had no one to blame but themselves for the score on the board. So they got angry.
No need to recap this for you, and I can’t bring myself to do it anyway.
The brawl in the first period was ugly, but it could have turned the game. Even Sid & Gingeroux put their money where their mouths were – and then some, screaming at each other from the penalty boxes. Channel your rage! There was still hope, right through James Neal’s second period goal to make it 4-3 Flyers. The Penguins were scrambling and stumbling but the score was close enough. Except the poor play and bitching kept on coming. I hate the Flyers too – today was more about the Pens sinking themselves.
Bylsma swapped out Fleury for Johnson to start the third – way too late in my opinion. Clearly a fight had not had not rallied his team, I think he should have tried something else a lot sooner. Johnson didn’t fare much better though and it was 7-4 Flyers less than thirty seconds later.
The third period of this game will make me sick to my stomach for a long time. The only guys I could even look at are the names you didn’t hear – Matt Cooke, Richard Park, uh… Geno because he was invisible today. Everyone else was already on my sh*t list and to top it all off, this:
Neal, you had two great goals. You kept the Pens on the board when they weren’t in the game. Then you laid out Coturier with a cheap shot – leaving your GD feet to do it! – when the game was out of reach. You accomplished nothing except the impossible: making this awful game worse. Now you’ll be suspended. Enjoy watching the last game of the season from the press box, dummy.
Truthfully, I’d ground this whole team. That is not how you redeem a bad start to the series or to this game. That is not how you react when your backs are to the wall. That’s not even hockey, it’s a street fight.
Game four is Wednesday. Can a team come back from 3-0 down to win a series? Of course (you’re talking to Red Sox fans, here). Can the Penguins? Dear God, I hope so. But not if they bring this team to the ice, and who knows if anyone will be left by Wednesday.
Post-game today:
Dan Bylsma [link]
“We don’t want to be involved in those situations against this team.” Too bad, jerks. You courted it today and got what you asked for.
James Neal [link]
“It is what it is.” It’s you getting suspended, hothead.
Sidney Crosby [link]
“We’re playing playoff hockey.” Am I on the wrong channel? Because I think that means helping yourselves win.
UGH. I’m exhausted and gutted from this game. My apologies for the rant if you’re a Pens fan who handled today better or felt less aggro toward them. I love the Penguins, but those were not the Penguins. I can’t blindly love a team that behaves this way. If another team came at mine like that, I’d be calling for their heads. Now it’s time for my team (and me) to be responsible for ourselves.
Tags: Pittsburgh Penguins
Awful game. Couldn’t even watch. Shameful. I hate the Flyers, but they deserved the win today. I love the Pens and I expect them to play like men.
I am so disappointed in the Penguins. Dan Bylsma always says that they dictate the physicality and they type of play. Today the Pens gave credence to idiots like Mike Milbury. They played dirty and acted like “punks”. The only way for them to come back even a little bit from this is for Disco Dan and Mario to say that type of play is unacceptable.
The only way to describe this game is a cluster****. I don’t even know who those people were playing, because that was NOT my team on the ice today. The only good thing to come out of this game is that it has let me gain some emotional distance from the series, because what happened today is not the team I cheer for. Never mistake that I don’t love my team, because I do, and I will never be embarrassed to call them my team. But there is no justifying some of the stupid choices they made today.
The Flyers have allowed 12 goals in 3 games. Alright, they’ve scored 18, but they don’t look all that well either. They look as if the Pens are a puzzle to be solved and they did it, but it really doesn’t seem to me that they’ve solved their own defensive issues of… of always.
I agree with you on everything except that I don’t love the Pens. I just love hockey and this game was quite the embarrasment.
The Pens play was unexceptable today. That is NOT the way the Penguins play. There need to be a LOT of changes before Wednesday.
(some other things)
1. I am a DIE-HARD Pens fan
2. I live in Philly (so life sucks)
3. Not to be annoying, but when Kris got in that fight and “shh”ed the flyers crowd…I cried, it was so great. (did someone get that on film?)
4. I have absolutely lost ALL respect for Max Talbot…every single bit.
Oh please, elaborate on Max Talbot!!!
The Penguins were atrocious! They were hotheaded and played like idiots today. I was watching this at my friend’s house, and I was extremely worried for his 8 year old brother because of the brawls and the things I would have said if I wasn’t with a child. The game was extremely violent, 10x more than an average hockey game! There were probably a great deal of children watching in that stadium and on TV. The players should keep in mind that they are not just athletes, but role models.
This post read my mind, Pants.
Pants, I am devastated to say that you are exactly right. Today’s game was humiliating. No one likes to lose, but you lose with dignity. That’s what the Penguins usually do…I can’t even comprehend what has happened to their play, their psyche, and their attitude in this series. The only solace I can find personally was that Geno didn’t get involved in the madness, but you’re right on that, too. He’s been invisible this whole series.
It’s going to be a long summer.
As a Pens fan, the only comment I have is what a cute little monkey at the end of your post Pants!
Ok, I can’t help myself. The first period scrums, I’ll admit got me fired up. Especially seeing Sid fight Gingeroux! Then the Tanger fight! OMG he can fight and the hair was a-flyin’, but as much as I love him, I was sooooo mad at him for getting the match penalty when the Pens need him soooo badly! (Stating the obvious) They’re frustration is palpable, but they’ve got to CONTROL it or you’re right, they’re going to get swept. and they’ll have no one to blame, but themselves! I just can’t figure out what the problem is besides the D. My biggest concern is Geno. He seems to have mentally checked out of the whole series and Sid seems to have undergone a personality change since his absence:(
I will apologize in advance because this might turn into a bit of a rant:
I love the Pens with all my heart, and by default I don’t like the Flyers. I knew the series was going to be ugly before it even started, just like everyone else did. I had no idea it would get THAT ugly. Listen guys, I get it. You were getting spanked in the series so you’re pissed off and frustrated. I feel you. However, after that first brawl, which I’m sure was meant to be a momentum changer, the game became less about playing a good game against a rival and more about pounding the face of your most hated enemy into the ground. Again, I GET IT! WE ALL GET IT! You hate each other, yeah yeah, okay. But wouldn’t the best way to wipe those smug grins off of their faces be to play an amazing, CLEAN game, and beat them into the ground on the scoreboard?
Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good hockey fight as much as the next girl. And when Kris Letang shhh’d the crowd, at first I was fist pumping in the air and thinking about the good ol’ days. But then, when the smoke cleared, I as a fan could not have been more embarrassed. When Max Talbot Shhh’d the Flyers it went down in history as the pivotal moment that changed EVERYTHING. Letang, god love him, just looked like he was making a petty jab and trying to relive the glory days. Those days have long since come and gone. We’ve made our bed and now we have to lay in it.
So now we’re faced with the question of how do we fix it? How do we come back from a 3-0 deficit? 1) Stop fighting and for the love of god STOP TAKING PENALTIES! Excuse me James Neal/Sidney Crosby, how in the hell do you plan to score when you’re in the box?! 2) Somebody find Malkin and shake him! Give him a fist full of five-hour energies and a bag of pixie stix and send him out onto the ice with enough energy to mow down the army of 5 year olds that make up the Flyers. The “
I AM SCORE” attitude just needs a little jolt, that’s all. (fingers crossed). 3) Bylsma, honey… WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?! Giroux, Briere, Schenn,… if anything they need to be double-teamed not left alone out there with completely open lanes to just score on us when they please. And waiting to pull Fleury until the third period… I had a big ol’ face palm with your name on it. Granted, it wasn’t Flower’s fault entirely. He was making saves he shouldn’t have had to make if the d-men were all on the same page. But unfortunately Fluery’s head has been compromised, they got to him, they shook his confidence and Johnson just wasn’t (and probably never will be) ready.
I will light a candle, do a dance, poke pins in my Laviolette voodoo doll, whatever it takes to keep this team alive.
I turned it off at the beginning of the 3rd. It was too much to take. I had to apologize to my husband because I never understood how he could get angry at his favourite football team to the point where the t.v gets turned off and he goes into the garage to cool down…Now I understand.
I will say this though, my 9 year old plays hockey 3 days a week, sometimes 4, year round. On the 4th game he can be a bit cranky and really wants to just play xbox. But he goes out on the ice and gives it all he’s got and he’s not getting paid millions of dollars and his biggest fans changed his diapers. Maybe Malkin needs a talkin’ to by my kid.
Congratulations to the Flyers for successfully turning the Pens into crazy idiots. I never thought I’d type those words.
Standing in line in the hell that is Wal-Mart on a Sunday was better than watching this game.
THANK YOU for this post. Well done.
BOTH TEAMS should have been penalized AN ENTIRE GAME. Serious! This “game” didn’t count because it was shite. Plain and simple. Nobody played anything. When teams “play” like this, they should be penalized in a language they understand: Games. Make them play as many games as it takes before they get that they have to play by the rules or not at all. When they’re exhausted on Game 12 and they haven’t yet made it out of the first round – while their semi-final opponent has been waiting around for a week+ for them finish up – maybe they’ll understand how fricking stupid they are. Fines and suspensions are a farce, and making it even worse is the League’s inconsistent/baffling criteria for discipline. Shanny did an overall good job during the regular season, but the whole system has fallen apart terribly during these playoffs. Could it be any more obvious that the GMs have made it clear to the League that 1) these series need to go 7 games, to maximize arena and advertising revenue; and 2) that their stars need to be protected from suspension even if they are deserving of same? Do they really think we’re this stupid? It’s shameful.
Before I boycotted the web this weekend, I commented elsewhere that perhaps if players and fans didn’t twist the SCF into some sort of “war” or “battle”, maybe they wouldn’t take things so far and somehow think that the rules/parameters are different for playoffs. This isn’t life or death. Losing the Cup will suck, but it’s ultimately not a life-or-death battle. A serious perspective-check is called for, here. When coaches like Laviolette comment “Guys will do anything to win,” they should be reminded that IT’S NOT OKAY TO DO ANYTHING TO WIN. I never thought hockey players would need to be reminded of this, but I guess that’s where we’re at right now. Maybe it’s too many rounds of Call of Duty on road trips. Who knows? But yes – it’s turning my stomach, too. I don’t get how anybody enjoys watching their favorite teams collectively behave like 12-year old psychopaths, or future Hall of Famers individually snap and morph into serial killers after the whistle/game horn blows. Not. Fun. Sure hope it stops soon…
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