Revised 5/09 10:00 p.m.
As much as I love hoops — and you know I do — there’s little as exciting in May as Stanley Cup playoff hockey.
Especially with a couple of offensive juggernauts like Pittsburgh and Washington battling on the ice.
(Okay, before I go further, let me admit this. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, an expert on hockey. There are things about the game I still don’t understand, like line changes and when teams can make them, etc.) That said, if you give it a chance, it is truly exciting. Especially when every goal of every game counts.
And the Pens and Caps are back at it tonight. The scored is tied 3-3 at the end of regulation as I write.
Pittsburgh scored first in the 2d after neither team tallied in the 1st. (No team that’s scored first in this series has won the game yet.) Then the Caps tallied twice to take a 2-1 lead at the end of the 2d period. Then the Penguins scored twice in the first six and a half minutes of the 3d to take a 3-2 lead. Not good for the Caps in a series tied at two apiece. They are 0-5 all-time in Game 5s against the Penguins. Game 5 winners win the series 80% of the time.
Then superstar Alex Ovechkin tallied — his second goal of the game — with 4:00 to play to knot it up, 3-3.
Which is to say it’s back and forth and back and forth again. Lead changes. Lots of hockey. Not a lot of penalties. Less goonsmanship.
So, yet again, a game in this series is going to — affect your best Dan Patrick here — Ooooooovertime!!!
Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin just scored with :01 left in a power play. Pittsburgh wins 4-3. The Caps are now 0-6 all-time in Game Fives against the Penguins. More important, they’re now down 2-3 in the series and play the next one in Steeltown. The penalty was on Milan Jurcina for tripping. Had he not taken it, there would have a breakaway for the Pens. Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. Adding to the Washington misery is that Malkin’s goal deflected off a Caps player, redirecting Malkin’s shot under the Caps goalie’s pads for the winning tally.
As for why I’m home on a beautiful spring Saturday night watching hoops and hockey, well, there’s an explanation, but, uh, it’s none of your beeswax. I’ll just say this — the Film Babe is totally cool with it. Besides there’s a peaches and cream bread pudding cooling on the stove, just minutes away from consumption.
– Seedy K
4 Comments
Seedy, you have never been more right! Hockey, especially play-off hockey, is the greatest game in the world. I like football, a lot, and baseball, some, and basketball once upon a time, but I guarentee that if you give hockey a chance, you’ll love it.
In the ten years or so that I’ve followed hockey closely, I’ve yet to understand how NHL teams can play an eighty-two game schedule while NFL teams play sixteen games. There’s more hittinng in hockey, with less padding, on a harder playing surface. Each round of the playoffs is a best of seven, so the top two teams are going to tack on at least sixteen more games. Plus, hockey players are paid about as much as college football players!
I’ll take hockey over the NFL anytime.
One guy’s opinion. Hockey players have to be the toughest and most fit of any pro athlete. Few who don’t understand the game realize that even the best players are on the ice for not much much that a third of the 60 minutes.
When the outside temperature reaches 55 degrees the hockey season should be over.