"we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender..."
I will be watching from work sadly. Thankfully we have big TVs here. Geno and Neal need to wake the F up and the defense better start playing like defense instead of pylons.
This is a must win. Malkin needs to show why he's the league's MVP. Fleury needs a good bounce back game and our defense needs to do the exact opposite of whatever the hell the they think there doing. Hopefully Niskanen is good to go cause i don't want to see anymore of Lovejoy. I would use Strait over Lovejoy too.
If you told me Bryz would have a .850 save % and we'd be losing 0-2, I'd call you a liar. Something has got to give. Fleury, play like it's game 5 of the 08 playoffs!!
This is a must win. Malkin needs to show why he's the league's MVP. Fleury needs a good bounce back game and our defense needs to do the exact opposite of whatever the hell the they think there doing. Hopefully Niskanen is good to go cause i don't want to see anymore of Lovejoy. I would use Strait over Lovejoy too.
When will we know if that lineup is final? You can't seriously play lovejoy after the last game.
Hopefully they got all the 1980's hockey out of their system. This game is the series because we're not coming back from 0-3 down against a team of this caliber. They have to find a way to grind this one out somehow (if they even remember how to do that).
Gotta agree with Rossi here. It's a pretty good article.
A billboard along Arlington Avenue near West Carson Street on the South Side depicts six Penguins players standing together: a nucleus of stars, including two megastars, upon whose shoulders there exists promise of great days for hockey in Pittsburgh.
They stand together as more than the Penguins' best players. They are their foundation.
Crosby is the heart. Malkin is the soul. Staal is the will. Fleury the fortitude. Orpik the conscience. Letang the talent.
They are six hockey players, each uniquely gifted, but together the core of a champion.
They also have dramatically and shockingly come up small in big spots during a first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Penguins trail, 2-0, in the best-of-7 series, and their best players have hardly resembled champions.
"You're right. This isn't us," Staal said Friday night after an 8-5 loss, another setback in what is becoming a growing list of them against the Flyers at 2-year-old Consol Energy Center. "We've got to fix this thing."
Three years ago Staal and his fellow Billboard Boys were the Penguins' best players over a magical two-month run that ended with them raising the Stanley Cup. Much has changed since June 12, 2009, when the Penguins became the first team in 25 years to win the Cup after losing in the previous Final, the first club in 38 years to win a championship Game 7 on the road.
Since that day in Detroit, the Penguins have been the annual favorites to get their hands on the Cup again. They have held that distinction because of a perceived unrivaled collection of talent, specifically Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, Orpik and Letang.
Those players combine to count $33.65 million against the $64.3 million salary cap. Or, put another way, their salaries are 67.6 percent of the league's salary floor ($49.8 million) for the Penguins.
By any measure, they are supposed to be big-money players. Today the Penguins need them to tap into their reserve funds.
Lose Game 3 at Wells Fargo Center and the Penguins' famed nucleus will face a sobering reality of failure on a most embarrassing level a potential sweep at the hands of an organization that last summer underwent a roster overhaul after reaching the Cup Final in 2010.
This is not just the 54th postseason game these six Penguins will have appeared in together since 2008.
This is not just their chance to get back into a series that opened with consecutive home losses defined by blown multiple-goal leads, catatonic defensive play, porous special teams, inconsistent goaltending and numerous mental lapses.
This is a must win, not because the high-flying Flyers look incapable of blowing a 3-0 series lead but rather because the narrative on these Penguins, especially their foundation players, is changing.
Three straight early playoff exits since the Cup win that is the pill the nucleus, not to mention general manager Ray Shero and coach Dan Bylsma, will swallow unless this series starts taking a turn in the Penguins' favor.
The previous two premature playoff departures were not without reason.
Before bowing to the Montreal Canadiens in Round 2 in 2010, the Penguins had played 44 playoff games over the previous two postseasons, or more than half an extra regular season. Also, Staal, their difference-maker from the 2009 Final and best defensive forward, missed two games against the Canadiens and played the final four contests on a surgically repaired foot.
Neither Crosby nor Malkin played in a Round 1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning last spring. The Penguins led that series 3-1, but their power play produced just one goal without their scoring-champion centers.
There are no excuses today.
The Penguins, who finished the regular season with the NHL's third-most points despite long stretches without Crosby, Staal and Letang, are not tired or banged up. They are not inexperienced, as they were upon reaching the playoffs for the first time in 2007.
They are just a club seemingly wilting in the spotlight or under their own Cup-or-bust expectations. If that continues, their stature will be altered to the point that only another Cup win will restore it.
Lose today, and they inch closer toward tracing a path similar to that of the 1990s Atlanta Braves a star-studded club remembered more for the championships it did not win than the one it did.
The rest of the NHL views the Penguins' roster as an embarrassment of riches, and rivals view the franchise as arrogant.
Still, as Orpik said before the playoffs, a lot of the resentment is likely jealousy because they have maintained a dazzling nucleus during the post-lockout era of parity and salary-cap constraints.
There is evidence the Penguins are respected, if not feared.
Opposing coaches offer phrases such as "nightmare matchup" regarding the Crosby-Malkin-Staal center dynamic. Fleury is the lead candidate to start for Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Letang was viewed as the top defenseman before head injuries derailed him near midseason. Orpik is considered by peers as one of the more intimidating physical presences at his position.
Those reasons were enough for Sports Illustrated's NHL playoff preview cover to feature the question, "Who will stop the Penguins?"
The team's ownership surely was not expecting any opponent to halt the club in Round 1 though, because of a quirk in playoff formatting, the Penguins-Flyers series features teams that finished with the fourth- and sixth-best overall records during the regular season.
Led by majority co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, the Penguins are spending to the NHL's salary cap for a fifth consecutive season. Team investors should expect more than a handful of home playoff games reportedly worth more than $1 million each from a roster that includes 11 players from the 2009 Cup squad.
The Penguins' nucleus, average age now 25.7 years, hinted before the playoffs that its window to win another title might be closing.
"This body isn't getting any younger," said Orpik, the eldest of the six at 31.
Young was a word associated with the Penguins only a few years ago.
If they meekly depart the playoffs in Round 1, another word will become attached, one that begins with a C and doesn't stand for captain.
It is the most damning word in professional sports and Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, Orpik and Letang will wear it like The Scarlet Letter.
More than a series is on the line today in Philadelphia.
That's a good article by Rossi, and he's spot on. Everyone seems to think this team will be together for the next decade, and winning 3 or 4 cups is a given. We've seen the last few years that injuries can derail seasons. Eventually Shero won't be able to resign everyone. This team now, for all it's flaws, may be the best we can hope for with the salary cap. Seriously, maybe we bring in a winger. Maybe replace Martin. But this core needs to be winning cups NOW. They cannot be getting bounced out in the 1st or 2nd round of the playoffs. If they do this year, Bylsma needs to go. He may not be the major problem, but Mario can't risk wasting any more of these prime years.
Is anybody else 100% percent confident of a Penguins win today? I know it seems silly given the fact they've played like ass defensively, but I'm not even the slightest bit nervous. I'm actually kind of excited and expecting to see Crosby just go off and dominate the game...
If I were a penguin: What the heck I have to lose today, we have already been written off by all means, no fear, no stepping back, get it all out and whatever happens happens,
Remember: Flyers need two more wins, two more wins. and aLL WITH CRIPPLED DEFENSE,
and a bunch of rookies, I just don't see how could Penguins not win this. Just play 12 mre periods each one as it is a new game. 20 minutes games. Win most of them and that's it. Do not fear, do not pedal back and get all lost and panic in front of our net.
Is anybody else 100% percent confident of a Penguins win today? I know it seems silly given the fact they've played like ass defensively, but I'm not even the slightest bit nervous. I'm actually kind of excited and expecting to see Crosby just go off and dominate the game...
I'm not nervous, but maybe that's because I kinda lost hope of winning the series. I don't think the Pens will get swept, so they should win one of these two games. Like I said earlier though, I just don't see how. If they come out flying and get up early, everyone, including the Pens, knows they haven't been able to hold it. If the Flyers get up early, will the Pens mail it in? Will they really open up to get back in the game? We see how that works out. So how do they win?
Rossi channeling his inner Edgar Allan Poe on this one.
I've been listening a lot of local Pens media, and your Rossi has been the first one to tell the emperor that he doesn't have clothes (not including HF Boards), all others are always repeating whatever prevailing mantra is at that point (we are playing great, MAF is playing great, Orpik is great, etc...)
Terrible
), all others are always repeating whatever prevailing mantra is at that point (we are playing great, MAF is playing great, Orpik is great, etc...)
