Matt

Nothing much from what I saw. Just said that the NHL has "good referees, they do the best they can..." (interesting coming from the coach of team that lost two goals to phantom calls). Kind of glossed over the meeting with NHL officials today, some of it concerning head shots. Babcock said he didn't talk, just listened. No lineup changes tonight.

God, what a difference between the head coaches... Night and day.

He's like the Rain Man of whining... Just had to add that.

He's in denial. I think he's just having an incredibly difficult time coming to grips with the fact that he's playing a team that WROTE THE BOOK on how to play puck-possession hockey in the NHL, is faster than his team and makes all of the smart, efficient plays and few -- if any -- mistakes. If this keeps up the schmuck will be in a straight jacket drooling out the side of his mouth muttering "red wiiiings... obstuctiiiioooon.... red wiiiiings...."

Bah, screw it... why not:

I didn't ultimately do it on the "I'm Thinking Arby's" one, but I was seriously considering having everyone be Arby's logos except for Therrien -- would would have a My Little Pony above his head.

You know, the more I think about it I wonder if this is going to backfire on him. Besides the fact that I don't see the obstruction out there that he swears he sees, he's now whined so much I wonder how willing the referees for tonight's game would be to appease the the whine-fest. He's showing up the referees now with three days of this slop.

"Dee obstucktion is der... we puck possession team, dey a puck possession team... dis da firt time we cant get dee puck... i hope dee refs call dee obstruction, it's der... we need to git our power-play out der..." Pathetic. This guys a a Grade A 100% ass-clown. I'd be embarassed to be a Penguins fan with this crybaby behind the bench.

Jesus, can this guy whine and campaign for calls any harder? I'm beginning to think that's a rhetorical question.

Reviewing this thread and what I posted almost two weeks ago and I realize I scare myself sometimes, lol. It does look like they've forgotten their notebooks, though. Shucks.

That was Terry Murray.

nhl.tv also has it... though it appears it hasn't started yet. Just select "NHL Livewire"

It bears repeating (from the Photoshop thread): The best part of the whole press conference was the start. He sighs, puts his head down and you can just hear him thinking to himself... "Man... down 2-0... can't score a goal... should I be a whiny ***** right now?... no, I'm above that.... no.... ah, well... f*** it, why not..."

It was blatant. Once things got out of hand the Penguins -- no surprise -- went cheap. Both of the blows (Roberts and Whitney) were clearly intentional. The most amusing thing about all of this is that the Penguins may actually believe the after-the-whistle, cheap plays actually make a difference or "get under the skin" of this Red Wings team. Newsflash: It doesn't.

Looked like they started to sit back a little bit in the 2nd. The same aggressiveness wasn't there. Getting that 3rd goal is absolutely huge.

Although he's been very injury prone of late (groin and pneumonia in just this playoff run alone), Roberts is a wily vet and he'll definitely a positive influence in front of the net... and that's where he'll try to be a often as possible. Penguins lost a LOT of battles along the boards and the Red Wings did a fantastic job of tying up sticks and clearing loose pucks in front of Osgood in Game 1. Roberts -- when he does see the ice -- will be tasked in helping improve the Penguins' fortunes in those situations. I'm not sure how much of an impact Roberts would have on a 4th line like that. To me, even though he's north of 40, that his skill set would be best utilized on a scoring line where he can clean up on some plays by the skilled players he shares the line with. If the Penguins are just looking for him to cycle the puck in the corner to bide time until one of the top two lines can get back on the ice it seems like a waste.

Huh? They're putting Roberts in there because he's a veteran presence and Laraque, against this Red Wings team, is a glorified pylon and a waste of spot in the lineup. He played all of 4:43 in Game 1. If the Penguins are going to match up fourth lines with the Red Wings I'm loving having three forwards that can skate -- especially a burner like Helm -- on that fourth line.

Hopefully Franzen can get right back into the mix and we're not going to see a repeat of his struggles when he had a blazing preseason only to be saddled with the MCL strain that untracked the first half of his season. I'm not expecting that at all, but it doesn't seem realistic to think he'll mantain his goal-per-game pace since he's been sidelined for two weeks. The biggest boost here is that he's another guy that plays in ALL situations -- so a monstrous boost to the special teams units tonight.

When your lineup has Darren McCarty on it -- yes. A million times YES. Will not happen. I wouldn't be surprised to see Franzen back at the No. 2 center spot flanked by Filppula and Samuelsson. If Franzen can go I expect him to do a lot of shadowing on Malkin with Filppula dogging him up the ice occasionally as well. Sameulsson would move back up and get the lines back to what they were against Colorado -- though I could just as easily see Cleary taking up that spot on the wing, too. Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Filppula-Franzen-Samuelsson Drake-Draper-Cleary Maltby-Helm-Hudler

Babcock was going to bite that reporter's head off.

I love the reaction by the ice attendants....

Franzen's going to be huge because he's the guy that's going to be shadowing Malkin the rest of the series.

Bulls***. The Lidstrom call was weak -- those plays going into the boards happens 50 times a game. How about the no-call when Drake (?) was tripped at center ice? That led to a Pittsburgh rush. How about the rough in the near corner in the offensive zone?