Saturday, May 23, 2009

Malkin Has Pens Thinking Sweep





Malkin Leads Pens to Brink of Cup Finals.

Domination. That is what the Pens are doing to the Hurricanes. The Pens are so much more talented than the Bruins and Devils and the Canes are finding out in a rude way. The Pens took a 3-1 lead at the end of the First Period with 2 goals by Malkin and the other by Sidney Crosby. The Pens outshot the Canes 16-8 at the end of the period. The game did start well for Carolina when Matt Cullen took at nice pass from Partick Eaves and beat Marc-Andre Fleury to make it 1-0 Canes. That was the last lead of the night for the Canes. The Penguins got a power play when Patrick Eaves took a dumb slashing penalty. The Canes must be more disciplined on Tuesday Night if they do not want to get swept in this Series. Malkin scored on the power play on a Sidney Crosby setup to make it 1-0. Malkin has been a man possessed in this Series and to me DESERVES to win the Conn Smythe if the Penguins win the Stanley Cup this year. Malkin has 9 points on 6 goals and 3 assists in this series. The game was even for most of the first until the last minute of the period. That is when the Pens struck and really took complete control of this game. Bill Guerin fed a nice pass from the left wing boards that Sidney Crosby deposited into a basically empty net to make it 2-1. 30 seconds later Malkin took the puck from the right wing and cut right out in front to beat Ward to make it 3-1 Penguins. If Ward was not on his game earlier in this period it could have been 5-1 Pens.

The Second Period had no scoring in it but had more Pens domination with them outshooting the Canes 15-8. Ward stopped Max Talbot on two different occasions in this period. Ward was scrambling when the Canes seemed to be fixated on the puck and did not cover the open late guy. This Pens team is so good with puck possession and it really showed tonight. The Canes were able to settle the game down for the second part of the period and did have a couple of good chances. Nick Wallin shot from the right wing on a penalty kill and it deflected off of Fleurys glove and trickled just outside of the right post. Chad Larose also had another good chance that Fleury cut across to stop with his pad. Ward did keep the Canes within striking distance going into the third period. Would they show some fight?

What do you think happened. The Canes did cut the lead to 3-2 when Samsonov scored off of an Eric Cole rebound on Fleury. Samsonov spun away from Craig Adams to put the puck just inside the right post. The Canes did have a nice momentum serge for awhile after this goal and Samsonov did get another chance that he backhanded just wide of Fleury. Fleury did not seem to see the puck on this backhander but was fortunate it did not end up in his net. Malkin then fed the ever gritty Max Talbot from with a pass from behind his own red line to Talbot just at center ice. Talbot had another breakaway for Pitt and was denied by Ward with his right pad. Ward did his job for most of this game even though the final score was very lopsided. You just cant give Pitt tap in type goals or let Malkin come out in front uncontested for shots on net. These are the most talented forwards in the NHL led by Malkin and Crosby. The Canes pressed on for a bit more but the next goal which was the back breakerrr was set up but guess who, Malkin who dropped a nice pass to Ruslan Fedetenko who beat Ward glove side to make it 4-2. The Canes pulled Ward and to add insult to injury, Jussi Jokinen won a face-off so cleanly that it ended up in the empty net to make it 5-2. Just for the gas on the fire, Bill Guerin finished the scoring to make it 6-2 on a backhand goal.

To put it mildly, the Canes are outclassed by this Penguin team that seems to be poised to possibly win a Stanley Cup for the first time since the Mario Lemieux days of 1992. They might even get a rematch of that 92 Series if the Blackhawks win vs Det. I hope so. Yes Chicago has work to do being down 2-1 to Det but they have a young fast talented team and it would be pure fun hockey to see them battle the Pens. I will still root hard for my Canes on Tuesday Night but there is an elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. Yes the 1975 NY Islanders came back from 3-0 vs the Penguins and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs did beat the Red Wings when down 0-3 in that Final. But lets be realistic the Canes besides a small part of game 1 and for the first period of game 2, have been so outclassed but this Pens team it is not even funny. I don't care how gritty you are, when you meet your match that is gritty and talented, you have very little chance to win. What also must be said is this Penguins team is not as bad defensively as they were last season. Their improvement in this part of their game bodes well for them in the Finals. They can beat both Det and Chicago if they play a smart disciplined game and Malkin still acts like a man possessed. He beat Mario Lemieux's postseason record of 5 straight multi point games with his sixth tonight. He is truly an awesome talent who is also a great all around player as well. The Canes are gassed. I just hope for one win on Tuesday night for their great fans who have supported them all season long. Thanks for reading. I hope to have at least two more of these entries before the Stanley Cup Finals begin. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it, even though the outcome was not what I wanted. Oh well credit to a great Pens team who deserved to win again tonight in Raleigh.

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