If it wasn't for the boards, the Penguins would have taken it to overtime. Shame.
We are proud of the boys and the way they played, they really did well. If only...
Random notes we took while throwing shoes at the television screen
- If the Conn Smythe was given out after this game, NBC would have called in a favor to give it to Darren Helm. Has a player ever been so over-hyped than him? He's really good but come on, enough is enough.
- We want to ask Cappy what Zetterberg's cologne smells like because he got a good whiff of it all night as Zetterberg sat on Cappy's shoulders.
- Maybe it could have been given to Marian Hossa though. NBC talked about him like he mattered in the game. What a non-factor.
- Ed Olczyk might be the craziest color commentator ever. "I DON'T KNOW DOC, I DON'T KNOW IF THAT PUCK WAS COVERED BY ZETTERBERG OR NOT. I COULD NOT TELL." Really, Eddie O? Really? That's just lame. It's all a conspiracy.
- Game One was extremely physical. Both teams were taking penalties and getting away with it. "Let them play" was taken to new heights last night.
- After Orpik laid out the other Marian, our uncle called us and said, "Did you hear all of Pittsburgh scream?" We sure as hell did.
- Speaking of the other Hossa, when he missed the wide open, gaping net we laughed. "Oh, that's so like him."
- The love tap Cappy gave Maltby was ridiculous. Thanks to Eddie O for highlighting it at the end of the game and making it a bigger deal than normal. Shit happens all the time, get over it.
- Game Two is in about ten seconds. Hold onto your butts.
Watching the Media Day on NHL Network was one of our highlights today. And we decided to recap them for you ladies.
Gary Green and Brian Duff talk about the Penguins being more mature. Maybe they want the Wings to be the underdog? We just don't understand how that is even possible.
Interviews start out with Uncle Mike. Okay, we can understand that. The Red Wings are first because they are superior to the Penguins in every way (end sarcasm). The way he talks might actually give us hives in private places.
We want to know what commercials Uncle Mike is watching. He said that he has to check who won the Cup last season when he sees the commercials on television because judging by them, the Penguins won. We can't understand him through the whine.
What we think of this whine.
Uncle Mike is also in love with the other Marian.
Then the Perfect Human Lidstrom and Marian Gaborik's girlfriend are at the press conference. They insinuate that they are the underdogs. Whatever, everyone wants to be the underdog.
Nick talks about his injury with the vaguest terms ever. "I felt something and it was lower body and I didn't feel good." Gay. "I feel good."
The other Marian sounds like he is already out of Detroit. He sounds very depressed and mellow. He doesn't think that the Pens will care that he left. He's kind of right. He wants to have fun, haha.
The media talks to him like he played with the Penguins for years. We obviously do not remember this time.
Cameras and focus shifts to Chris Osgood. We didn't listen but he didn't make us want to kill ourselves. And Pittsburgh's "big-shooters" gave him heart palpitations as evidenced by that face he made.
Marian Gaborik's girlfriend might have pick-pocketed a priest for his outfit. Creepy, morbid preacher-man. (We secretly still have a thing for him but you didn't hear it from us.)
Commercials! Maybe these are what Uncle Mike was talking about.
Hmm, maybe not.
Oooh Penguins!
Cappy and Fleur. They both make so much money yet can't even buy suits that are actually nice. We are ashamed.
Wow, Cappy is in love with Grandpa Guerin. He said leadership and that he's someone Cappy can lean on. Sounds like looooove. Is it odd that we can totally pick out voices when they ask Cappy and Fleur questions? Like, we totally knew Rob Rossi asked a question and so did Gary Green. We are creepy.
Daddy Shero! Oh wow, his hair is so grey. What happened? And can we blame Marian Hossa? He talks about "the core group of guys." Please adopt us.
Danny B! You've got the swagger of a champion. We like the play off beard, very festive.
Then they switch to Gary Green and Kunie. He has possibly the second gayest voice in the NHL. Of course our gay friend Mikey takes the number one spot. Chemistry between him, Cappy and Grandpa is brought up. They're like triplets, it's disgusting. Leadership is mentioned again.
What a beard, Kunie. Love it.
Feds! Has the man aged at all? We swear that he looks twelve. And he doesn't commit to an answer when asked who calms the room down after a good/bad period. Maybe he just didn't understand the question.
Gary Green and Brian Duff recap it themselves. They look like they're rooting for the Wings. We don't like them.
Some things for you to chew on before the game tomorrow...
It is Henrik's 93rd birthday and we are going to celebrate it like the Penguins made it to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second year in a row.
Yeah, we're excited. Now we shall write a little love letter to one of our founding mothers...
Dear Henrik,
This Blingee shows just how much we love you. You are the funniest person we know, even when you call Ryan Whitney fat and whine about the Rangers not appreciating Lundqvist.
We know that you would totally ditch us for a Penguins game but we love you anyway. We understand that you have priorities and we are under the Penguins. It's okay.
We didn't need him anyway. We like who we got. A lot.
When Detroit won, we took a solemn blood oath to never mention this Hossa unless he scores or something. And we are not linking to any articles that are about the free agency fiasco of last summer involving him. It's all too stupid.
Like a commenter said in the last post, we hope that the game on Saturday doesn't go through triple overtime. What a stupid scheduling scheme by NBC. Don't they know anything? How did they get this big and not even know how to create a schedule properly? Idiots.
Red Wings win series 4-1 and game 2-1 in overtime.
Olczyk was practically crying over the "beautiful" deflection by Cleary. It was good but not that good.
What a goal. He showed up but it was too little, too late.
When he was lying in the net (one of the many, many times) we were screaming "WIGGLE WIGGLE DIVE DIVE" at him.
Those sideburns tried their best to win.
Yay, Uncle Mike and our weird cousins.
Darren Helm should enjoy this goal now because that is the most meaningful goal he will ever score. And he had twelve hits? Talk about padding stats.
We don't even want to think about this as it pertains to the Penguins. There's gonna be a lot of bullshit written about this. Like Sid said, it's gonna be fun for the media.
At least the Blackhawks tried. It was a valiant effort by Huet, he deserved better. We think that he will be an okay goaltender for the Hawks next season.
And what a brilliant save by Huet in the dying minutes of the game.
Chicago will be back. We know that, it's only a matter of time.
And at the end of the game, Versus cameras caught this very artistic and beautiful sign. We wish we would have thought of that. Not.
Jonathan Toews hears his ringtone and answer the special Captain phone.
It is Sidney Crosby. "Mr. Toews, I have someone who wants to speak to the team. Please put this on speakerphone."
Jonny does what the voice says.
The line crackles as the voice clears the throat. "Hello, it's Bill Guerin. I just have something to say to you guys before the game tonight. Boys, this is it, this is where we draw the line. Tonight is where we put the myth of the Red Wings to rest. They are not Swedish robots from IKEA, they are in fact human. They can be beat. Their time is over. To be the best you have to beat the best and right now, the Wings are the best. And you, I mean, we can totally beat them. They're so used to winning on talent and skill but they don't have heart. We have heart, we battle for the man next to us. We know what it means to be down but not out. Use it, channel that frustration and that disappointment. Use it to beat them in the score because the referees are looking for physicality. We know that. But this is the Blackhawks time to take over the Western Conference. You can do it.
It's already on the interwebs. Talk about instant gratification.
Penguins win series 4-0 after a 4-1 win in Raleigh.
Were you as shocked as we were when Cappy touched the Prince of Wales?
But hey, change the karma. We are all about karma here.
If the Pens are winning during a game, we aren't allowed to leave our seats until commercial breaks and if the Pens are losing we have to change it up.
Sometimes, Henrik even puts on her Jeff Carter t-shirt. Yes, it has come down to that.
We know that Cappy would appreciate our superstitious ways.
During this series, we picked up some lessons that only a sweep could teach.
Life lessons learned from this game...
-Eric Staal scored but the Canes lost. Miracles do happen.
-Cam Ward has finally lost a play off series.
-We have it on good authority that Danny B and Tommy make the boys have dance-offs during intermissions to get them pumped up for the next period. And because they just really like to dance it out. Apparently, Max is not a fan.
-The Penguins were fighting for a play off spot as early as January just like the Canes were but it was almost like the Versus folks didn't know this fact.
-Paul Alexander is a douchebag. How dare he tell Pens fans to root for the Wings? What a fucking stupid thing to say. The Hawks will win.
-Max Talbot's fluky. fluttering goal was a thing of talent. Or at least that's what he told DJPo in the post-game interview.
-Grandpa Guerin's still got it.
-Trade Cam Ward because Paul Maurice said so.
-Ruslan Fedotenko, please don't leave us. Your goals are always scored when the team needs it most. You're the definition of clutch.
-Halbert doesn't got it (sometimes).
-The Staals are in fact related.
We are still surprised that the Penguins made it into the play offs because of their tumultuous season. If we would have predicted that the Penguins would beat the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes to get there we would have booked a room in the nearest mental institution. And just predicting that the Hurricanes would have made the Conference Finals would have sent us there.
Honestly, we should be ashamed for saying that we didn't think they would make it but we are always trying to be rational. Some people will preach to you how awesome and perfect the Penguins are but they're wrong. The Penguins aren't perfect, they have flaws and they definitely make mistakes. But that doesn't make them a bad team because ever good team has bad days. We like to see the whole picture and stay calm and rational about every series.
But that's just how we roll.
We're glad that Captain touched the trophy. Curses be damned, let's change the karma. We hope that they made out with it in the locker room because that's what we would have done.
If Mario touched it and won then why not touch it as well?
The multitude of articles praising the Red Wings is disgusting. Noodles refuses to even click on NHL.com because of it. It's everywhere.
And if we didn't go through this last season during the Stanley Cup Finals then maybe we would be a little more tolerant. How many articles can talk about the supremacy of the Wings? There are about twenty on each hockey site that we visit just from yesterday. We already know thanks to the unoriginal writers on NHL.com.
And it figures that Captain would score.
We have nothing to watch tonight. The Memorial Cup is over, Windsor Spitfires won. So we really have nothing to watch. If you have any suggestions, let us know.
Penguins lead series 3-0 after a 6-2 win in Raleigh.
Are you shocked? Because we are. It's a pleasant shocked but still, it's shocked nonetheless.
We knew that the Canes would score first, it was bound to happen. The crowd was actually behind them for the first period.
And we were just wondering where this version of the Malkin came from. It's like Malkin2.0. This Malkin is one that we would love to see every game.
Another thing that we love is the Penguins top line. If you would have told us in September that Cappy would be centering Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz in the play offs, we would have totally laughed in your face.
Seriously, Grandpa Guerin and a former Anaheim Duck? Now, we don't want it any other way.
Grandpa Guerin is probably still shocked that Cappy scored on that pass in the first. Ten out of ten players miss that pass but Cappy ain't any other player and we bet that Grandpa still thanks his lucky stars to be with the Pens.
By the end, we believed that someone was going to die. But only Jordan Staal got elbowed in the face and Scott Walker threw himself into the boards.
So it wasn't that bad.
Game Four will be intense, insane, crazy and nail-biting. We can't wait.
Yes, sometimes we are anti-Wings but this won't be. Quite a few of us here at the Hockey Junkies like several of the Wings (mostly because of their looks) so this isn't such a bad date for us.
And we figure that a few readers of this blog will appreciate this selection.
-&-
Name Henrik Zetterberg
Nicknames Hank, Zets, Zata, that other Swede
Number 40
Team Detroit Red Wings
Age/DOB 28/October 9, 1980
Birthplace Njurunda, Sweden
Interests interference, making tiny meatballs, thin ties/cardigans and Pavel Datsyuk
Random Fact His #20 worn while playing for the Swedish Elite league was retired in April 2002 and also has a fan blog ran about him...Zetterberg Fan.
What Happens On The Date Henrik decides not to pick you up so you have to drive to his house. He shows you inside and takes you to his basement. (By this time, you are kinda scared that he might cut you up and wear your skin). But then he shows you around the finished basement where all his various awards and medals are stored. It is quite a display. Then he takes you back upstairs where you sit at his counter while he speaks to you ins Swedish and makes dinner. Henrik sets out two plates of Swedish meatballs, gravy and ligonberry sauce. You are incredibly pumped. After dinner, the two of you snuggle up on the couch and watch The Strangers. Halfway through the movie, you are sitting on top of him in fear and find comfort in his beard. He raises an eyebrow and kisses you.
Was It A Satisfactory Date?
Do you kiss him back? Do you find that beard attractive? Do you go on another date with him? It's up to you, ladies so let us know.
Wings lead series 2-1 after a 4-3 overtime win by the Hawks
A. What were the Hawks doing in the second period? Blowing a three goal lead? that's something that the Pens do. We just hope that Khabby isn't injured or sick.
B. That hit on Havlat by Kronwall, wow. How is he alive?
3. Jordan Staal would have missed the open net that Patty Sharp scored on. Just saying...
We have been waiting for the Blackhawks to win and we couldn't be happier (even if it is short lived).
