Of Course It Did

Well…

Screw you, Day Eight.

Screw you, Day Eight.

Last night I was very PANIC! AT THE DISCO.  I feel a little better this morning , so allow me to re-edit my thoughts.

Blue Jackets: 4; Penguins: 3 [Series tied 2-2]

Listen, Fleury has been the Penguins’ best player all series.  Sometimes he is their only player actually playing.  So much has been said over the years about his fragile confidence that I want to sucker punch a sportscaster in the junk.  Last night the Penguins played a  great 20 minutes, followed by what felt like a 40 minute penalty kill.  So after an endless amount of this:

save

There was a single, slow motion, crash zoom moment of this:

flower

With 24 seconds left in the game and a 1 goal lead.  And then overtime.  And then the Penguins lost.  Series tied.

expletiveexpletiveexpletiveexpletiveexpletiveexpletiveexpletive

There is no reason, no why.  But if I had a dollar for every time I yelled, “STAYINYOURNETFLOWER!” I’d be blogging from a private island where Chris Evans brings me cake between rounds of shirtless push-ups.  So there is also no surprise.  It’s a flabbergasting and inexplicable mistake, I don’t think Flower himself would argue against that.

tyra

Yet it was made by the man who’s been holding everyone else’s crap together for nearly four games.  I hate that this happened to Flower – it’s like a bad rumor making itself true.  His job is to make saves, not carry the team.  If those things are one and the same sometimes, so be it.  Blame falls far and wide for how the Penguins even ended up in this situation.  In that way, Fleury is lucky.  If Scuderi had made a mistake this costly?  Riots.  Letang?  WAR.

paper

That it’s Flower is both the best and worst thing for a team that has no choice but to rebound Saturday night.  Fleury will get a chance to prove, in real time, that he is not the fall apart mess people say.  He’s a great goalie.  The damage is done.  We’re asking him to forget it and move on so let’s do the same, yeah?  Let’s have faith, and please don’t let it be the delusionally misguided playoff kind.  If these guys need their backs against the wall to win battles and outplay their opponent, well they’ve got their chance.  (#PensInSix)

Stars: 4; Ducks: 2 [Series tied 2-2]

On a night when Ryan Getzlaf was out with an upper-body injury and Teemu Selanne was a healthy scratch, Game 4 in Dallas promised to be exciting.  Like final whistle line brawl exciting.

 

The Ducks were unhappy after Game 3, where they felt the Stars were running Ryan Getzlaf because of his injured face. [link]  Dallas’ Ryan Garbutt broke the leg of Anaheim’s Stephane Robidas in a play for the puck [Garbutt apologized, Robidas accepted: link].  There’s history now and bad blood.  The Stars scored four unanswered goals and the Ducks are in a bit of a panic after being ousted in the first round last year.  Regardless, all fights should have streamers.

save

Jamie Benn had another goal.  That’s all you really wanted to know, right?

benn hair

Blackhawks: 4; Blues: 3 [Series tied 2-2]

It wouldn’t the Blackhawks if it didn’t take overtime.  They blew a two goal lead in the first.  The Blues had plenty of chances to extend their lead but could not convert.  Brian Bickell tied the game with under four minutes left in regulation.  Then in overtime, which they’ve needed three of the four games in this series, Patrick Kane:

 

Because Jess is a good person who loves the Blackhawks, she wanted to be sure you didn’t miss Captain I’m Fun Now doing post-game press in his booty shorts [video].

toews

Now all of these series are new again.  They’ve done the homework, there are no surprises left.  Chicago and Dallas are on the upswing while Pittsburgh could certainly use a fresh start.  Everyone knows exactly what it will take to win a Best of Three.  Give yourself a day (two if you’re the Penguins, whose practice this morning was cancelled) and when this resumes we will fight not to the death.  No no, our losers have to watch someone else steal their dream.  As always we fight:

westley

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  1. Holy shit, Jamie Benn. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Anaheim lost this series?

    • Benn is kinda underrated, no?
      As Cousin Tom pointed out to me, if Jamie Benn played in Toronto, they’d be building statues of him.

      • Pants Reply

        As Jamie’s recent haircut has done wonders for him, he’s be quite the foil/inspiration for our Presenting Phil Kessel makeover project.

  2. Jamie Benn – your Superman bang is working for me.

    And also your face.

    • FULL BOYFRIEND STATUS.

    • jana Reply

      YES!! I don’t wanna know you or be friends with you if Jamie’s falling bang didn’t just melt you melt into a puddle on the floor.

      • Pants Reply

        You guys just like saying “bang” a lot in this context.

        • Kate Reply

          Full boyfriend status, indeed. My eyes have been opened.

  3. meggz8 Reply

    This is the first game where we actually can point our fingers at Flower and go “YOU!” with judgmental looks on our faces. Within that last 50 seconds I actually thought the Pens could walk away with the win, and then that goal happened. I sighed and made a mental note that the series would return to Pittsburgh tied 2-2. The emotional roller coaster of this series will actually be the death of me, one way or the other.

    • I did notice the audio! Ron MacLean, (almost) always the voice of wisdom.

      Also – THAT GIF YO. Bless. *saves to favourites*

      • Kate Reply

        Ahh Tazer. You and your shorts are like sunshine on a cloudy day. I love that if there’s a post-game interview happening, odd’s are Tazer’s in the background, walking around in his undies.

        • Yeah, he does that a lot. I’ve got at least 5 videos bookmarked of him walking behind interviews wearing almost nothing. Never change Tazer, never change.

  4. Kate Reply

    I’m going to be traumatized by 4-3/3-4 scores for the rest of my life. Flower ABSOLUTELY needs to stay in his net, but I agree completely with what you said: he’s holding the team together and he/they/we all need to remain calm and be positive. (I’m mostly addressing that little pep talk to myself.)

  5. Lynn Reply

    I’ve also had it with all the media always coming down so hard on Fleury. I feel sooo bad for Fleury because if the Pens lose, it’s all his fault. Yeah, he should not be out of the net. What was he thinking? TSN analyst Jamie McLennan figures Fleury was feeling confident having been playing pretty well during the game so he had the confidence to go clear it for his guys but he had the most unfortunate luck of a bouncing puck. BUT all the Pens skaters were puck watching and not in position defensively. Ugh! Even Aaron Ward who has been the hardest on Fleury admitted he can’t fault Fleury too much on the last two goals. I just really hope he can put that aside and play solid like he has been so far. Bottom line is that all the Pens need to step it up. Crosby, Malkin, I am waiting… #pensinsix

  6. Claire Reply

    Fleury’s job last night:

  7. Merideth Leigh Reply

    Honestly, I think it’s okay that the Pens are going into the 5th game 2-2. Look at what has happened in this series every time a team has had a 3-1 lead: Boom! The other team wins 4-3. Who knows… the same thing may have held true for games won, not just goals. The way I see it, Fleury just saved them. Yep, I’m just going to go with that theory…

  8. Cassy Reply

    I’ve had two hockey themed conversations today; one with the sister (who doesn’t get it) and the other with Canadian Surgeon about flinging octopus (we had to explain that at length to the confused mob in the room) and why he may never forgive TBL for going out against the f-ing Habs. He questioned Stamkos’ play and I had to remind him about the broken leg (sorry everyone).

    This, considering we are in Scotland, that well known hockey heartland!