Although I am not surprised Hossa did not resign with the Pittsburgh Penguins, I am really shocked and disgusted with who he chose to sign with, the Detroit Red Wings. I mean you just played six intense leave everything on the ice games against this team and one month later you sign a contract to play for them? Come on now. Plus as a player stand point, he signed for only one year. One injury and his career could be over. A little bit of a risk he's taking this year.
Here is the face of the NHL playing for the greatest trophy in all of sports. He is out on the ice with a bum ankle still pulling almost 20 minutes a game. His teammates who did so well while he was out decide not to show up in the finals. Any time he touches the puck and pulls a move on the defense, he gets obstructed. The media asks him stupid questions like whether his team is playing catch up.
So what should Crosby do? Show some emotion. Let his teammates know that he is jacked. Here he is playing for what proves you are one of the best players ever. Quit being nice to the media for this series. Tell your teammates that you are not satisfied with their efforts. Do something! Show your teammates how bad you want this Cup. No one is going to blame you for not acting professional in front of the media. It will be understandable. If anything, your teammates and fans will rally around it.
I have had some discussions with people on TD's in the past couple of months about Sergei Gonchar's defensive ability. Now I'm not one to gloat, but yea he's a great all around player. For those TD's I lost, the people who voted for my opponents were obviously not watching the same hockey. Hopefully now though, everyone can see the intensity and skills he brings to this Penguins team from his postseason play.
Not only has he helped produce on an All Star powerplay unit (Crosby, Malkin, Hossa, Malone, and Gonchar, this line gives me shivers just typing it), but Gonchar has also been playing amazing defense this entire season. Probably one of the best examples was the last game against the Flyers when Gonchar caught up to Richards who should have had a breakaway, and Gonchar dove, knocked the puck away and did not trip Richards so that he was not called for a penalty. He had over 120 blocked shots during the regular season and many more during the play offs. Teams are bringing the puck down the other side of the goal so as to avoid him (if you have been watching he has also been checking and hitting his opponents, something he has rarely done).
Unfortunately, I was unable to watch any hockey last night but did follow it on the live scoreboards from nhl.com and espn.com. As I'm sitting there, I saw the Flyers were up 2-0 through the first period and was like sweet they might pull this off. After the 2nd period and saw the score was tied 2-2, I was hesitant and thought that Montreal was getting the win. However seeing the Flyers up with like thee minutes, I thought there was no way they'd blow it.
This Friday starts one of the best match ups of the second round besides the Red Wings and Avalanche (hello 1990's). The Pittsburgh Penguins versus the New York Rangers should be a great match up which I'll bet the team who wins this series will win the Eastern Conference.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are starting up this second round with the memories of a sweep playing through their heads. This could seriously hurt them going into Game 1 on Friday. Do I think it will play a part? Yes without a doubt. Will the Rangers also be affected by this? Yea, I would like to think so too.
© 2008 STATS LLC
Revisiting the '98 NBA Lockout
