theman19

no way larose leaves the canes, he's just coming into his own on that club. Not to many people on that list even make any sense,......

Without resorting to quite the language you used, i think you're spot on. This series will be determined by composure. Game 4 the pens had it, we didn't,..we lost. Game 5 the pens lost it totally, we kicked the crap out of them. Crosby is not showing his team calm, not showing them poised,..it's sad to me but right now Bill Guerin is. Malkin had always impressed me with his skill and his quiet confidence in himself, he reminded me of Sakic in that way. But after game five,..i mean,..he's just doing what Crosby is doing,....losing the cup for his team by not leading the men around him. If the penguins want a snowballs chance of winning this series they have to frustrate the wings, not become frustrated. I don't see that happening. The wings themselves learned this lesson in 95' against Jersey, evidently ya'll didn't learn that lesson last year.

here's the thing about crosby. I posted this in another thread as well my wife, who was my fiance at the time had never watched hockey a day in her life before she met me. She had no bias towards any team or any player. So imagine my shock as we watched last year's series when she interupts NBC's non stop Crosby is the bestest ever banter with "who is this crosby guy and why is he the only guy they're talking about? Your team is winning right? Why arn't they talking about any of your guys?" If someone who's never seen a hockey game in her life can pick that up, there's a least some merit to the fact that his name gets shoved down everyone's collective throats. Now i will say hatred of him is slightly fanatical on here and elsewhere, but so is defending him. As for this year, i'll again point out,....My fiance has only really watched the hurricanes (we live in raleigh) since last years finals and again this year the question was "Crosby,.....man,...again?" "That guys not even really doing anything,......"

it must really suck to be a penguins fans. Just when your team finally shows some life,....we throw in two selke winners against a team that's already had trouble scoring. If Datsyuk shuts malkin down this series is over.

That's it,..you've got to be like,...15 or so A history lesson,....one of those was executed for treason, another one managed to piss off every vietnam veteran who served. There are still people who spit on Hanoi Jane. The very fact that you could compare a hockey player to one of those two really doesn't speak well of your maturity. Next time, take a deep breath and think before you speak We have a saying around here,... It is better to remain silent and have people think you're an idiot Than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Dude you make laugh,...you've got your homer glasses on so tight you've got rims around your eyes. When he wins the cup (and i'm hoping it's on your ice) i hope he looks into the stands and smiles. He made the right choice, he wanted a cup, he got one. Less of a man,....Gah you people are insane!

My ubber pens fan friend just told me "luck runs out, talent doesn't" I texted back "you guys are f#%ked then"

i'm not going to feed the troll but i will have a hockey discussion with you. That's not my point at all. My point was that The comparrison to the 84' oilers is off because the media is trying to make it seem like Crosby and Malkin, much like Gretzky and Messier defeated the Older generation of the 80's islanders. Crosby and Malkin by themselves won't win a cup, nor did Gretzky and Messier by themselves win a cup. Also, The islanders were indeed tired and older by the time Gretz and company came along, but we've got players just coming up,..guys like ericksson helm flip etc. The islanders had nothing like that their stars were their stars. Our stars havn't produced that well, so to carry the slack we've got guys coming out of the woodwork.

yes,..i too have had this little tidbit regergitated at me so much i smell like vomit. Here's my problem with the assesment The oilers were not a two man show. Gretzky and Messier indeed were the biggest stars of that team, but to say the talent disparity between them and the pens is even is stupid. The 84' oilers won because they had depth, D, timely goaltending and two huge stars. Jari Kurri, Glenn Andersson, Paul Coffey, Kevin Lowe doesn't equal Satan, Kunitz, Guerin and Gonchar,..sorry it doesn't. Also, the stars of the Island were fading at this time period,....there wern't break out super stars coming off the bench for the 84 oilers. We've got guys scoring this year who didn't do much at all last year (cleary comes to mind)

fair by me, but if another "event" happens like it did against the ducks (see hossa's waived off goal) then all bets are off.

Ever since both teams lined up and advanced, i've heard nothing but how "this year will be different" "This is the PENS year" "This is history, it's fate, like the 84' oilers." The reasoning is kinda sound,....kinda,.... The penguins are in fact a different club than the one that got steamrolled by Detroit last year (about freaking time someone admitted that, I was beginning to wonder if we beat them at all) But so then are the wings. This years club is hurting and tired. A retarted schedual and physical series against a big Chicago team made that possible. But we're not goign down without a fight. And you're crazy if you think the pens have the "clear" advantage as so many pundits would like to think. A. We have hossa. I know everyone is tired of hearing this, but I honestly get the sense from some people that the "demise of the traitor Hossa" is already in the past. It seems the fans, the media, everyone is saying,.."now hossa gets his just reward." This isn't a comic book people, sometimes the bad guy wins. Sometimes the Joker stands over the corpse of Batman and laughs. In the minds of everyone not wearing red and white, Hossa is the traitor and should be destroyed for "daring to change teams" (see Bucci's article on ESPN to really feel the venom. ) But this could all go very very wrong for the pens. Last year Hossa exuded effort nearly tying the game in the dying seconds. This year he still wants that cup, but now he also doesn't want to see an entire city point their finger and laugh. A question for Pens fans "ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?" B. You arn't the only team with emerging stars. Another thing everyone is saying? "The dynamic duo of the pens is another year older and more experienced. It was inexperience that lead to their defeat a year ago." Be that as it may, guess who else is another year older? Darren Helm, Flip, Mule These guys had flashes of brilliance against the pens last year, mule being injured for most of it. Now these guys are coming into their own. Who do you cover if your the pens? Z? Hossa? The hawks did that, and darren helm scored, Flip scored, Kronner ate a few guys etc etc. C. Our D is nothing like you've faced all playoffs long. Lets be perfectly clear, this isn't going to be like the wide open style the pens excel at. This won't be the washington Carolina slug fest, the pens stars won't get 20 quality chances a night, they may get ten,....or less if Dats comes back. Also no other D can hit like ours of the teams youve played. Crosby and Malkin wern't scared to death of Joni Freaking Pitkanan levling one of them. It's been said of Malkin that after Richards laid him out against the flyers last year, he was never the same. Crosby and Malkin are one Kronwall freight train (or stuart) from being out of this series. Im aware Orpik could do the same, but do you have the depth after those two? Cause we do. D. Our Goalie isn't rattled, ever. The rookie for the caps (not going to murder the spelling of his name) and Cam Ward both played incredibly for the their respective teams during the playoffs. However, when the pens came to town and the offense was cranked up to eleven those repective tenders couldn't respond. The thing with Osgood is that he's completly unshakeable. If you score 8 on him and he's pulled game one. Game two it's a strong probability that he could shut you out. There will be no max talbit "floaters" elluding our goalie E. Depth Depth Depth,....oh and D. A lot (maybe more than anything) has been said about the fact that crosby and malkin play on a team that allows them to be double shifted and they run with seven D men. That works perfectly well against one line clubs like Washington or Carolina, where if you shut down the Eric STaals and AO's there's not enough depth to make up the loss. We don't have that problem. Our fourth line has more cups than your entire team does and are very adapt at scoring big goals,.....not mention our 3rd line is on a point per game. Go ahead double shift the blue hell out of those guys,......it won't be strength against weakness if they're matched up against our third lines and if they have to play a two way game....they'll be tired. I respect the pens, i think they're a great orginzation. That said, i'm glad we play them. We'll beat them in six games and prove to the world again, that Depth and D wins championships....isn't that right Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, Glenn Andersson and Kevin Lowe? (all 84' oilers btw)

another thing i i'll point out in regards to the pens, is what happened in the Carolina series. Way to many media personalites are making mountains of mole hills in Pitts beating carolina to the dust. Game one was a very close fought game, the rest not so much. Key reason for me as both a fan of the canes and the wings, was the loss of Rutuu. Rutuu was key for all three series of locking down the other teams big player. When he went down, suddenly malkin went crazy. I'm not saying anything as dumb as "OMG IF RUTUU WOULD HAVE BEEN HEALTHY,...." That's stupid, penguins would have beaten carolina either way. But i'll point out that we have several players like that on the wings side. A lot of people are thinking that with the loss of Datsyuk that the two way game from detroit is gone, and make no mistake it's not going to be perfect But while last years series was the Datsyuk and Zetterberg show, Expect this series to be won and lost by the depth of cleary, helm and ericksson throwing their weight around.

excellent post top to bottom. You forget the hossa factor though. In my opinion he holds the red wings fates. If he shows up and dominates, this series is over. If he's totally quiet and completly ineffective the pens have better than good chances.

Don't even get me started,....I have a friend who's a massive pens fan. When the wings were playing the stars and were on the cusp of advancing he remarked somethinge: "yeah, good luck with the pens your ass is going to get swept." I bet him 50 bucks not only would the wings not get swept, but we'd beat the pens rather convincingly. I didn't hear from him for three months after last june. This year he's a bit more tempered, he hasn't talked any trash, just optomistic his boys will win. Time will what will happen if the pens win this if he's as graceful as i was.

huge news, a collective "sh#$$$$$####tttttttttt" just went up around pittsburgh.

yup,....I live in Raleigh,...i'll be watching it on the interweb.

I am SOOOO sick of hearing how this is history repeating itself, that this is the 84' oilers all over again. No it's not people, not even close. The wings aren't on the tail end of their dynasty we have just as many young legs as the pens do. I completly agree with whatifsports. Hossa will be the conn smyth winner. He shot on MAF everyday for like five months. He knows his weaknesses. Just like past wings seems to kill us when we play them, they knows how we play and how to beat us. Hossa knows the pens system, yes i know they have a new coach but that doesn't change how they play the game across the board. Believe it or not, he's goign to be the key to winning this series for us.

I'll respectfully disagree as the pens havn't faced a D like ours the entire time they've played this playoffs. And when i mean D i mean forward D and Defensmen D. They can pull that kinda stuff against a team with suspect depth like Wash, Carolina but when they're out there double shifted against our 3rd and fourth lines they'll play guys who can creat scoring chances every shift. This isn't goign to be them skating through pylons like it was last series for them. It's just a fact, the more players play the more tired they are. Even if they've handled it so far, doesn't mean playing our style of hockey is goign to make it easy for them. Carolina played there style, loose D, shootout the lights hockey, that's not us, and that's the key.

What this says to me is that by game three they're both going to be worn out. We absoutly have the depth to people cover them every time they step on the ice. If he wants to put those two on the third line against guys like flip and cleary and also against dats and Z be my guess. Last year we frustrated crosby and domninated malkin, we're going to do the same this series. If lids and pavel are back they're going to be pulling out their hair by game 5.

Raleigh,....RALEIGH? AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH. I live in Raleigh you complete moron and that's the stupidest thing anyone has ever said on this forum and believe me there are some winners on here. Raleigh has more passionate fans,....oh my gosh,..sorry,..give me a minute here,...okay,....now i will commense with the smackdown. Raleigh is a hockey town like nearly every american city is a hockey town, IF there hockey team is better than the other teams in the area. Raleigh is a great place for hockey don't get me wrong, but when the canes suck the RBC center is a ghost town. I'm not going to call canes fans bandwagon fans because i respect that franchiese alot. But to compare them to teams like montreal and Toronto is moronic to a degree i can't fathom. The maple leafs for all the hell we give them, are sold out year after year, KNOWING full well the team isn't going to win a damn thing. Even your own fans don't need to be next to the habs and the leafs. When your team was in the toliet, no one cared,......ironically there are quite a few transplanted pens fans down here in Raleigh. When the pens wern't doing that great, but the steelers were poised to be champs again,..my gosh every die hard "pens fan" i know was telling me, "oh i'm a football fan." Now magically that the pens are in it, i'm hearing "oh i've followed this team since mario was the star." Well guess what sparky, you've followed this team since the day they drafted crosby i bet,.....most of the city of pittsburgh is the same way. The city of Detroit Michigan has had a love affair with this team that spans nearly a century. We have eleven cups,....4 since 97' forgive us if at times we appear bored. But when we do kick the crap out of your lover, and we will. 500k won't turn up for the parade. A city of millions will.

Most teams we've played have figured out a way to compete with those two senaros. They lock down both lines as best as they can,..then just when they think they've got it helm, cleary, hudler dominate a game. Seriously folks, this teams depth is stupid. Everyone in the hockey world knows that if you lock down malkin and crosby the pens are sunk. Heck, if Washingtons goalie and D hadn't crapped the bed in game 7 we'd probably be playing them.

This, Historically there's only been a few stratigies that have seemed to beat the wings A. Your team goons it up B. We're to injured to compete C. Your goalie plays out of his mind. So far the top two havn't worked for either the ducks or the hawks. Ergo, wings in 6. Fleury hasn't been strong, he also has a serious case of "can'twinthebigone" Going all the way back to the world juniors. Fleury doesn't scare me at all.

I posted this in another thread about the mckeon post. My opinion still stands. I follow the pens pretty closely (i have to, one of my best friends is an obnoxious pens fan) and I gotta say i'm not worried, nor am I overly impressed. Right now the pens are flying because they're two best players; Crosby and Malkin are playing the hockey of their lives. That was enough for Washington and Carolina but it won't be enough for us. Here's my opinion on why; 1. The hossa factor. We all know he's been kinda quiet during the playoffs, except when he's motivated. When he's properly motivated (see pissed off super hossa after game three in quakckland) he's a force of nature. This guy is going to be boo'd ridiculed and otherwise lampooned every time he touches the puck. I hope they do too, I hope they give him such hell, because he knows that if the wings lose to the pens, he'll never hear the end of it his entire career. He won't let that happen. 2. One line does not a champion make The Wings have beaten this team so many times in the past. 97 with the legion of doom line, 98 bondra oates juneau 02 BBC line of Battaglia-Brindamour-Cole,....most recently we did it again we beat malkin-Crosby-Hossa. Every year we win the cup, we do so because our D locks down their best line and our depth takes over. If we're healthy the pens won't be able to keep up. 3. They say they're better than last year, so are we. Last year we could not have survived a playoff series with Datsyuk injured and not producing, in 07 we couldn't hang out when one of our top four D men was out and yet we did both this year. Ozzie I think at times has matched if not exceeded his play of last year stealing games at times against the ducks. Lastly, this years team is one of the most physical in recent memory. It's not like we're the same team as last year 4. They're a year older and wiser, so? Another thing i keep hearing over and over again is how Crosby and Malkin are another year older, yada yada yada, Islanders vs. Oilers Gretzky had to lose in order to learn to win etc. etc. Sorry i don't buy it. You know who else is a year older? Darren Helm, Flip, Hudler, Franzen it's not like we're a team of Old guys anymore, we've got our own young guns, granted they're not on the level of crosby of malkin, but as opposed to two super players, we've got guys just as good, but also a team full of budding youth. Do give me the line that the wings are old and slow, if that was the case the hawks should dominate us. It's not the same, the pens are a completly differenent team for the most part, but i'll say this, were it counts; the match ups have largley favored us and remained unchanged. Crosby's still gonna have to solve Zetterberg, Malkin is gonna have to figure out our D (remember that he was on fire last year heading in too) and Fleury is going to have to dramatically outplay ozzie which i don't think he can do. Wings in Six.

I follow the pens pretty closely (i have to, one of my best friends is an obnoxious pens fan) and I gotta say i'm not worried, nor am I overly impressed. Right now the pens are flying because they're two best players; Crosby and Malkin are playing the hockey of their lives. That was enough for Washington and Carolina but it won't be enough for us. Here's my opinion on why; 1. The hossa factor. We all know he's been kinda quiet during the playoffs, except when he's motivated. When he's properly motivated (see pissed off super hossa after game three in quakckland) he's a force of nature. This guy is going to be boo'd ridiculed and otherwise lampooned every time he touches the puck. I hope they do too, I hope they give him such hell, because he knows that if the wings lose to the pens, he'll never hear the end of it his entire career. He won't let that happen. 2. One line does not a champion make The Wings have beaten this team so many times in the past. 97 with the legion of doom line, 98 bondra oates juneau 02 BBC line of Battaglia-Brindamour-Cole,....most recently we did it again we beat malkin-Crosby-Hossa. Every year we win the cup, we do so because our D locks down their best line and our depth takes over. If we're healthy the pens won't be able to keep up. 3. They say they're better than last year, so are we. Last year we could not have survived a playoff series with Datsyuk injured and not producing, in 07 we couldn't hang out when one of our top four D men was out and yet we did both this year. Ozzie I think at times has matched if not exceeded his play of last year stealing games at times against the ducks. Lastly, this years team is one of the most physical in recent memory. It's not like we're the same team as last year 4. They're a year older and wiser, so? Another thing i keep hearing over and over again is how Crosby and Malkin are another year older, yada yada yada, Islanders vs. Oilers Gretzky had to lose in order to learn to win etc. etc. Sorry i don't buy it. You know who else is a year older? Darren Helm, Flip, Hudler, Franzen it's not like we're a team of Old guys anymore, we've got our own young guns, granted they're not on the level of crosby of malkin, but as opposed to two super players, we've got guys just as good, but also a team full of budding youth. Do give me the line that the wings are old and slow, if that was the case the hawks should dominate us. It's not the same, the pens are a completly differenent team for the most part, but i'll say this, were it counts; the match ups have largley favored us and remained unchanged. Crosby's still gonna have to solve Zetterberg, Malkin is gonna have to figure out our D (remember that he was on fire last year heading in too) and Fleury is going to have to dramatically outplay ozzie which i don't think he can do. Wings in Six.

War Canes!