Battle of the Blog: Game Three

For me, last night was:

Oh sorry, wrong photo.

Double OT loss.  Hell of a game to put the Penguins down 3-0 in the series.

You saw it though, right?  The moment?  Crosby with no helmet, sweaty curls and bangs whipping, busted jaw set in sheer determination, battling around the net with the puck on his stick in double overtime and you thought:

“I’m in a movie.  I’m in a gut-wrenching, war-whooping sports comeback movie written and directed by Pants.”

That’s what I was thinking.  If it had worked… well, I would be watching the replay instead of writing this.

In case you’re wondering what has happened to Chuck – I haven’t done anything to her!  She Tweeted yesterday that she wants to write about the Bruins, but is trying to be nice.  She doesn’t want to make Pens fans feel worse.

If we were speaking, I would tell her: you can’t.

Game 1 was worse.  Pens fans all looked from the TV to each other and we said, “Who the hell were those guys? Obviously that will never happen again.”

Game 2 was worse.  By the end, we were in a disaster movie, waving our arms for desperate rescue from certain annihilation by a force we could neither see nor comprehend.  We knew only that we had unleashed it on ourselves.

Game 3 was worse.  And better.  And every emotion in between.  At the end I was face down on my living room floor.  I assume most Pens fans were in a similar state of mute rictus, enacted by their nervous systems to lockdown the body and prevent the destruction of property and self.  Mr. Pants eyed me from a distance with genuine concern.

Dramatic reenactment.

That was (for the most part) my team last night.  Hello boys.  Far from perfect, it was at least an 87% improvement on everything.  But even when you play your heart out, you don’t always win.  Game 3 was the very reason that Games 1 and 2 cannot be allowed to happen – you can’t play like last night and still be so close to sunk.  It’s not fair.  It’s not how my movie is supposed to go.

While I appreciate Chuck’s kindness, I have watched (lived? endured?) every moment of this series in real time.  Nothing anyone says can make it worse.  Her hockey team is playing marvelous hockey and her hockey blog says nothing about it?  That is crazy, and no favor to anyone.  She should be enjoying this here as much as I’m sure she’s enjoying it at home.  I’m not asking to have it rubbed in, but the score is the score.

Give us a little credit, Chuck – we’re hockey fans.  We’re tougher than that. Rejoice in your team.  The Bruins fans around here would love to read it and, honestly, Pens fans won’t read it anyway.

You know why?

I still think we can win.

Crazy, yes, but I’ve seen historic comebacks.  Chuck has too.  Winning a series after trailing 3-0 has only happened 4 times in major pro sports history – and three of those times were in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (including 2010 Flyers over Bruins).  The only non-hockey occurrence?  2004 Red Sox over Yankees.  Chuck and I made that one happen with our Jedi mind power.

I can’t give up now.  After last night, I actually believe!  Before I was just saying it!  If the Pens can improve that drastically between Games 2 and 3, imagine how good they could be Friday.  That’s all I really ask – one (or 2 or 3 or 4) more games that we can be proud of.  Take all the overtimes you need.  I can handle it.

And if you can’t come back to win this, Penguins, at least go down swinging.

So come on, Friday.  We might finally have an A game to bring you.

Tags: Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby