Catch Up If You Can

"This town rips your bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap..."
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: "Born To Run"

Yes, I know it's been two weeks or more since the last post...everyone's allowed something of a summer holiday...:)

For this one, let's just have a quick look at the signings taking place around the EIHL...there have been a few, but we're now well and truly into the doldrums of summer where hockey is at its farthest point from the light of consciousness...as you prepare to laze in front of diamond-shining seas and on soft white sands, it's hard to believe the first game of the new season is a mere 54 days away...although I'll freely admit that while my body is roasting in the unaccustomed heat of an English summer, the leaves are already falling off the trees in my soul and the nights are lengthening again as hockey returns to British shores...the British summer is heat, greenflies and no hockey, and thus is welcome to end itself as soon as possible as far as I'm concerned...

Belfast: Brandon Benedict and Tim Cook are the latest new additions to the roster in Northern Ireland, with the former being a chippy, slightly undersized but useful centre who appears to be from the same cloth as Bruce Richardson, and the latter being...well, not. Cook is a big defenceman who will presumably be expected to take care of business in his own end way before charging forward...both played for the same team in Denmark last season, so will have to help ease each other into a new locker room. The Giants are excited about their team this year, but it'll be interesting to see just how important these two end up being...

Cardiff: Not content with simply signing Mark Smith, the Devils have also gone and ensured the return of his partner-in-crime Max Birbraer for his second spell in South Wales, as well as completing their blue-line with the services of two-way d-man Scott Romfo from the ECHL. The Devils are quietly building a pretty damn scary roster down in South Wales this time around...

Coventry: Two signings which have caused much debate to report in Coventry since the last round-up...the return of the one of the prototypical EIHL pests in Danny Stewart, returning for his fourth season, and the capture of Derek Campbell from the Vipers. Now, some are underwhelmed by these two signings, but they please me...we've had the silk in the Blaze forward line already, and now we need the sandpaper to balance it. With Stewart and Campbell, who have crossed swords more than once already during their respective tenures in the league, on the same side other teams will really not look forward to facing the Blaze-particularly those with players of a slightly...well, fiery disposition. Campbell and Stewie are both players who can put up the points as well as the penalty-minutes, though, and should add some a surprising touch of speed and guile as well as their, shall we say, "own particular appeal"....

Edinburgh: It's still slow up north, although we have seen the return of possibly the ugliest man currently playing in British hockey...Kyle Horne is a fine British defenceman but...well, I would imagine that those puck-bunnies driven by looks over personality and skill don't exactly beat a path to his door during the season...

Hull: James Hutchison steps up from the EPL to join a promising-looking Stingrays side in their only signing since the last round up, as the Humbersiders continue their rebuilding under Sylvain Cloutier...after several good seasons with Peterborough, including winning every possible EPL trophy last season, it will be interesting to see how the Tynesider develops...

Newcastle: More new blood on Tyneside, although new signing Matej Kralj will be familiar to at least a small proportion of Blaze fans after facing Coventry with his former club, Maribor, last season. The bigger news is who isn't signing for the Vipers-with Kralj being the final import forward, Andre Payette and Jeff Hutchins will need to find a new club if they want to stay in the UK...

Nottingham: The Panthers' final import forward is CHLer Marty Gascon...perhaps not quite the "superstar" East Midlands fans were hoping for, but as a playmaker, he's clearly planned as a foil to the likes of Sean McAslan and Jade Galbraith at the NIC-14+54 in the CHL last season, with three teams, appears to bear the "playmaker" tag out. We'll see if he can step into the role filled with some aplomb by Dan Tessier last season...
Meanwhile, Matt Myers has made the trip across the pond, joining Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL...an interesting move both for him and the team. British ice hockey will be watching with great interest to see if he can emulate Colin Shields and Jon Weaver and hold down a regular ECHL spot...

Sheffield: The song remains the same in Steelerland, as the roster still has no new faces on it, with the Jody Lehman replacement still eagerly awaited in net. However, Ashley Tait will leave a big hole as he follows GB team-mates Greg Owen and David Clarke and tries his luck in Europe with Ritten Renon in Italy, after being signed by his former team-mate in Nottingham, Paul Adey.

It's still too close to call in the Elite League with rosters still to complete...but at least now, both you and the Breakaway are all up to date...

Picture Perfect...

Just because it's a slow Tuesday, a few EIHL-related pictures that are currently floating round the web...

Firstly, thanks to a mole within the Panthers dressing-room, we have breakfast-time at Jade Galbraith's...

Following that is a sign specially designed for Andre Payette...

...and another which I can't apply to anyone in the EIHL's morals, simply because I'd probably (and justifiably) be sued for libel, but may be proof that someone in the EIHL hierarchy moonlights by being a sign-placer in the off season...plus, the unfortunate juxtaposition amused me (the bottom bit is a "no parking" sign, apparently)

The EIHL have also released a pictorial representation in answer to the question "can we break the wage-cap?"

...and the NIC's new crowd-control policy may cause a problem or two...

as, in the interests of balance, will the planned escalators to make access easier at the Hallam Arena...

And finally in this journey of randomness, we have proof that Andre Payette's new contract may be heavily incentive-laden...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...

Thought For The Day: The Hardest Part of Going, Is Coming Back...

"Home, now that I'm coming home

Will you be the same as when I saw you last?

Tell me how much time has passed..."

Funeral For A Friend: "Into Oblivion (Reunion)"

We're back in the UK, finally...and it's been a week or two. Given that there's been a fair bit happen in the world of the EIHL, we'll simply have a look team-by-team rather than signing-by-signing...

Belfast: The Giants roster has seen only one new addition in the past week or two after a spate of early-season signings, but in Pierre-Luc Faubert they not only have only the second double-barrelled first name to appear in the EIHL (Jean-Francois Perras being the other) but a very, very, VERY quick forward indeed, who can also put up a point or two, it seems...The Giants fans are already getting very excited about him having a better pedigree than Paul Deniset (who was fairly useful last season himself)...however, Dan Carlson has better ECHL stats then both of them, so the claims of "top forward in the league" may be a little premature...

Cardiff: The Devils have been a little quiet recently, after having most of their roster already re-signed as returnees early in the summer. However, despite losing Mike Prpich after the speedy centre and one of Devils' stars last year got himself into a bit of bother off-ice that saw him released they've covered the spectrum with their last three signings, with Ben Davies taking the "young Brit and potential star" mantle as a reward for his coming on in leaps and bounds last season and Phil Hill returning as a power forward. However, their third signing, announced today, is the one that really raises eyebrows-as Mark Smith returns from Italy for his second stint as a Devil. The immensely talented centre and one of my favourite opposition players of the EIHL scored 80 points in 06/07 as a Devil, and will be one of, if not the top centre in the league-the Devils have suddenly leapt from "maybe a trophy" to "one of the title hopefuls" in one fell swoop-that's how good the 5'10 native of Kelowna, BC is...

Coventry: The revolution continues apace at the Skydome. Leigh Jamieson is gone to MK Lightning (in the eyes of some, not a moment too soon), as well as another player who we'll consider below, but arrivals have been busier than departures thus far in the West Midlands. As well as the returning Matty Soderstrom, the Blaze have two new faces in the big American Brian Lee, a team-mate of fellow new signing Greg Owen at Briancon in France last year, and one of the unsung heroes of the EIHL in Luke Fulghum from Manchester. Lee is a big lad, who appears to have been brought in as a d-man who can go both ways with equal ability on the ice, although if you believe the rumours he's intended as more of a defensive d-man then a points-scorer...something of a Steve Munn, if you will. The Breakaway will be trying to get an interview with his team-mate Greg Owen next week, after the Peter Hirsch interview was well received, and so perhaps we'll be able to gain a few more ideas then.
Fulghum, meanwhile, is one of the signings of the summer. The plaudits went to Tony Hand and David Beauregard for Manchester's heroics last season, but the American winger who shared the ice with them (earning himself 34 goals in the process) was the one that made that line tick and could well be the perfect foil for Adam Calder and Dan Carlson on the Blaze's top line with his combination of speed and physical play. Certainly, those in Manchester have been fulsome in their praise of him...

Edinburgh, as usual, are hard to read because, as is traditional north of the border, signings are once again slower in coming than a tantric-sex-loving eunuch.
However, they have snapped up Ben O'Connor from Coventry, in a move which saw a very catty press-release from the Blaze about his manner of going...obviously I have very little idea of how frenzied the negotiations were or the exact circumstances, and I fully appreciate the need to stay within a budget and not throw money at those who aren't worth it...however, releasing a press release trashing him by basically saying "this player's a greedy young sod who held us to ransom, so we let him go" is a little over the top. After all, isn't what happens in the coach's office supposed to stay in the coach's office-would not something along the lines of "Ben and I couldn't agree terms, so we wish him the best of luck wherever he goes", like that released for Russ Cowley before he U-turned last season, have sufficed to give reasons?
Aside from that, any Blaze fan (or indeed any Caps fan) who thinks that the Scots are paying him more money may need a quick dose of reality juice...O'Connor will certainly take a more prominent role in Edinburgh than that he would have had in Coventry, but surely he can't be on what the EIHL would call "big money"...if he is, then clearly the credit crunch hasn't yet reached Scotland.

On the plus side, any players they do sign will be able to take on two AHL teams in the Toronto Marlies and Hamilton Bulldogs, who along with Belfast will be taking part in the special Ice Hockey Homecoming tournament in Edinburgh and Belfast for the Gardiner Cup in September-more info here...

Hull are making a wave or two of their own on Humberside, building themselves a solid-looking roster, although it's fair to say that recent signings have addressed the "work and grind" aspect of the team rather than the "score as many goals as possible" area, as you'd expect from a Sylvain Cloutier-coached side. Adam Knight, joining from New Mexico in the CHL provides the physical presence on D (his stats of 2 goals, 3 assists and 153 PiM's last season should give you a clue as to where his role lies), while Shaun Thompson and Lee Esders give some hard-working British presence up front.

Newcastle have once again signalled their "new direction" by signing the skilful Ryan Mahrle from the ECHL, as they look for a more mobile defence. Along with Mike Berry, the returning Todd Griffith, Jason Tejchma and a new import to be announced tomorrow, the North-East could be seeing a very different team to that they're used to on the ice next season...

Nottingham have been quiet recently, although that's to be expected when most of your squad has already joined. Mark Hartley makes the step up from Coventry ENL to be the Panthers back-up, which is an interesting move for both him and the Panthers...doubtless many will be praying Kevin St Pierre stays very healthy indeed...however, Jade Galbraith will once again be easing a Panthers shirt over his (not-inconsiderable) torso this season...

Sheffield, meanwhile, have contented themselves with simply re-signing some of the top players in the league, with top-scorer Joey Talbot the latest to return...great for Sheffield, not so much for opposition goalies.

And there you go-now, we're up to date on the EIHL...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...

Game Seven: Seven Ways to Scream and Shout.

"You make me laugh, you make me cry
I don't know which side to buy...
But the 7th thing, I like the most about you
You make me love you"
Miley Cyrus: "Seven Things"

Yes, I just used a Miley Cyrus song to open a post about game seven...but what the hell. It sums up my feelings about hockey as a sport to perfection. Be warned, this may switch into and out of lyricism, Falla-esque writing, and be fairly video-heavy....they will be referred to, so watching them would be an advantage...

Let's just get this out of the way early, because it feels so damn pleasing to see it in print.

Pittsburgh Penguins. Stanley Cup Champions, 2009.

Now, on to the game itself. I tried to do a running diary for post afterward, but it descended into complete anarchy after about ten minutes, when there was a very real possibility, at least in my mind, that I wouldn't survive the game.

Pens v Red Wings-the beginning...

Little did we know, watching this way back at the end of May (and this video may just about surpass the HNIC intro for Game 7 of Pens-Caps back in the Conference semis), that the series would go to seven, and little did I know that it'd age me ten years. Especially with the Pens down 2-0 after the opening two games in Detroit.

Then came Game 3, which meant that once again, there was a little hope...at this point I'm thinking "well, there's no sweep, and even if the Wings win now, we've gone down fighting".

Game 4 came and went, and suddenly it was two-two.

Game 5 was horrific. At that point, I thought the Cup was headed back to Detroit, and the best the Pens could hope for was to take it to seven. The jokes from the Red Wings of "history repeating" echoed long and loud, and the prospect of seeing the Pens lose the Cup on my birthday was not a great one, either.

But then fate took a hand.

Superstition is a weird thing. Certain rituals become imbued with their own magic power, and fans buy into this primitive form of sports voodoo in much the same way as the players do. As Game Six began, Pens fans were looking for some sign, any sign, that the race for the Cup wasn't already in its final stretch. And CBC, inadvertently, provided it by using a song that is almost like a modern-day spell of its own...

Step forward, "In the Air Tonight"

This song, I'm convinced, is either cursed or blessed with some sort of mystic power. Used before a sporting event, it makes extraordinary things happen.

And once again, it worked its magic.

And so we go to Game Seven.

The first period saw me regressing back to the primal consolations of superstition (I refused to sit in the same seat as that I'd sat in for game five), fear (when Valteri Filppula had a shot cleared off the Pens line, I uttered a sound containing fear, pain and hope never likely to be heard on this earth again), and jealousy (somehow, every bounce in the Joe seemed to go Osgood's way, or at least that's how my haunted eyes saw it).

Then came the Mad Max Redemption, otherwise known as the second period. First Maxime Talbot banged home his own rebound after hard work behind the net for one-nothing. The Wings came back furiously...but this night, Marc-Andre Fleury's pads had been stitched together by the angels themselves...they were truly blessed in stopping shots that, at the other end, could (and should) have gone in. Ten minutes gone, and 30 minutes at least from the Stanley Cup, Talbot went away again down the left side and aimed. His stick rose, lined up and fired, and puck left blade on a trajectory so perfect that Chris Osgood will never be able to tell you anything about where the shot came from, or indeed where it went past him, becuase he simply didn't see it rocket into the top corner.

And so, period three. Twenty minutes to realise a dream for the players, twenty nerve-wracking minutes for those watching. The period itself seemed fairly run-of-the-mill, though...right up until Jonathan Ericsson wound up and pulled the trigger on a howitzer from the point that "Flower" in his turn never even saw...and it was two one with eight minutes to play.

Two minutes later, with the Wings pressing, we saw the hand of the hockey gods reach down and pass the Cup to Pittsburgh. Nicklas Kronwall wound up from the point for another blast, and put every single last ounce of his 189lbs of muscle into swinging his stick, which sent the puck away on a path that scientists will tell you was ordained by physics and gravity, but Pens fans will say was influenced by the breath of angels. It rises slightly more steeply-than planned on a stray air-current somewhere in the course of its otherwise-dead-straight 70-feet-long journey, which takes it an inch or so higher than it perhaps would have gone on any other night, This inch means that it thumps into Fleury's crossbar, rather than the twine...and Flower himself rubs the bar better when its work is done...

There was still time for one more moment of magic...the Wings pile forward with the clock ticking down from ten to zero, and the puck finds Nick Lidstrom's stick tenths of a second before the buzzer-he fires, and Fleury stops it.

Game over.

And four months of celebrations in Pittsburgh have begun...

Gordie Howe, Chris Chelios, Steve Yzerman, Henry Ford, Alice Cooper, Tom Selleck, Kid Rock, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Madonna, Mitch Albom...

Your boys took a hell of a beating...

Now, hockey is officially over until August...so we'll come back to the UK and by Wednesday, I'll finally have a summary of events in the EIHL while we've been focused across the pond...

Agony and Ecstasy: Game Seven

"Don't wait, Don't wait
The lights will flash and fade away
The days will pass you by
Don't wait"
Dashboard Confessional: "Don't Wait".

Game. Seven. Two words, three syllables, eleven innocuous letters.

But, at the same time, one of the greatest phrases in all of sports.


Game Sevens are, truly, like nothing else. Every bounce could make twenty players' dreams come true, every shot could be one that echoes down through the ages, and every pass could be the last building block in a dream...

There are few other sporting events on the planet which inspire such emotions, and such extremes. Few which have produced so many iconic images, so many iconic sounds. And few whose rarity only adds to their value (there have only been eight game sevens in the Stanley Cup Final in forty years).

And now the Pens are in one.

Luckily, they have players who have "form", as the British cops say. People who've been there before. More of them than the Red Wings, because in all their wins, the Wings haven't been pushed to a game seven of the final.

Ruslan Fedotenko scored both goals, including the Cup winner, last time he was here with Tampa Bay, as well as giving inspiration for Gary Thorne to produce an awesome bit of commentary...

"..Score!...HE'S GOT ANOTHER ONE! FED-O-TEN-KOOOO!"

Search it on youtube..."Fedotenko game 7"...:)

Craig Adams has won the cup with Carolina in a game 7 too...so history is (just) on the Pens' side...

By this time tomorrow, new legends will be born, and many tears of joy or celebration will have been cried in either Detroit or Pittsburgh. But either way, tonight is a moment in hockey history that comes along all too rarely. Savour it. Whoever wins.

That said...

GO PENS, GO!

Reaction to come tomorrow, either way...and then we might get back to events in the UK hockey scene sometime on Sunday or Monday...:)

(Not) Enjoying the Silence

Yes, I know that with the Cup Finals I really haven't said anything about events/signings back in Britain...I'm putting together a summary of these which will hopefully be up in time for tomorrow. As will a musing on the appeal, by way of a preview, on the sports version of Beauty and the Beast, and possibly one of the greatest recurring occasions in world sport-the mix of joy, pain and blinding fear that is Game Seven of a Stanley Cup Final...

Check back tomorrow morning...and keep keeping your eye on the puck..

Game Six: If No-One Speaks Of Remarkable Things...

"Just one more breath, I beg you please
Just one more step, my knees are weak
My heart is sturdy but it needs you to survive"
Dashboard Confessional: "Reason to Believe"

Sweet Jesus Christ. I can't take any more. If you don't hear from me after Friday night for more than a day or two, whatever the result, then worry a little. There is at least a five percent chance the Pens have killed me.

I swore not to watch last night-mainly because I didn't want to ruin my birthday with a vision of the Wings once again lifting the cup, which, after Saturday's shower of faeces from the Pens, particularly in the second period, looked something of a formality. Then Jordan Staal scored, and hope returned. Then Tyler Kennedy made a play out of nothing, and just briefly, I and every other Pens fan began to hope that just maybe, there was a Game Seven in this thing after all.

Then Kris Draper (Kris....bloody...Draper!) scored to make it two-one, and suddenly the fear returned in all its vomit-inducing, dry-mouthed, weak-kneed fury. Shot after shot rained in on Fleury, and shot after shot got turned away. Even before the equaliser, Zetterberg tinged one off the post and for half-a-second I knew despair as I thought it had gone in, because I was as certain as of anything in my life that, if this game went to overtime, the cup was going to Detroit.

But still the Pens hung on. Until two minutes that, I swear by the hockey gods, came as close to causing my death from a heart attack as anything ever will, and nearly killed me on the same day as I'd been born twenty-five years before.

First came Pavel Datsyuk's gorgeous, made-in-hockey-heaven pass to Dan Cleary, which I couldn't help but admire even as I watched the big Newfoundlander attempt to destroy the dreams of the black-and-white half of Pennsylvania. In the second or two of his approach, I promised anything to the hockey deities, up to and including my firstborn, if Fleury stopped it. He did, and the thump of puck hitting left pad was like the hammer of the hockey gods crashing down. Surely that was it.

But no. The Wings kept coming, the clock in the corner of the screen moved like a sloth through treacle, and with twenty seconds to go, all hell broke loose.

With Fleury out of position and the puck sitting on the stick of Johan Franzen, my eyes widened in horror-this was it. The final, vital break through the Pens defence, and the spirit-crusher which would win the Wings the Cup in OT. As the Swede shot, my heart stopped...and didn't beat again for fifteen long, even eternal seconds, even as Rob Scuderi somehow got in the way with one of the greatest pieces of desperation defending you or I will ever see. It only started again at the final hooter.

God, I'm dreading game seven...

But even so, there is a fierce hope. We saw the hockey gods manifest themselves in all their cruel, heartless yet glorious beauty through Rob Scuderi last night. Next game, as is customary at this time of year, they'll pick someone else to do their work, and the Cup will be won.

For the sake of my bleeding and bruised soul, I hope it's a Penguin.

Let's go Pens...

Game Five: The Sound Of Silence

Ouch. It's been three days now, and I still haven't quite processed the sheer nightmarishly bad-ness of the Pens game 5 collapse, particularly in the second period.

However, it has been done, and there will be an epic post tomorrow morning ranging from NHL to EPL as we look at hockey happenings both in the UK and in the "big league", including game six...check back around midday...

Game Four: Power and the Glory

"I'll fight forever, I won't surrender,
And I will always...
Hunt...you...down!"
Saliva: "Hunt You Down"

Oh, hell, yeah.

One quick goal (from Geno Malkin, who else?) and a three-goal second period, with the third of those (Tyler Kennedy's) looking so beautiful that if it were possible, you'd make love to it until next July, and suddenly, with the Wings reeling on the ropes, we have a best of three.

Not only that, but the "best team in hockey" look shaky, especially on the penalty-kill-of the eight goals scored by the Pens in games 3 and 4, three of them, or nearly half, came on the powerplay. If you include Jordan Staal's shortie, the Wings special teams have been on the ice for half of the Pens goals in the past two games, and four of the ten Pens goals in the series have been scored with the man advantage.

By contrast, the Wings have scored only one powerplay goal in the series, despite getting ten themselves...

Special teams win games, and winning games wins championships. If you'd asked me after game two whether I thought the Pens could be returning to the Mellon on June 9th with a chance to lift the Stanley Cup, I'd have said "no way-they'll be trying to take it to a game 7 for sure". Now, I genuinely think a game 5 win is not only possible, but probable...Chris Osgood has been proven to be vulnerable, the vaunted hitting of the Red Wings defence (particularly Nicklas Kronwall) is failing spectacularly to intimidate (watch Malkin's goal from last night-the powerplay comes from a Kronwall hit that goes slightly wrong, on Geno himself...he hops up, stays on the ice and bangs home a rebound off the boards...a rebound which, by the way, makes up for the horrific Brad Stuart goal in game 1...

Oh yes, and there is the small matter of Sidney Crosby finally appearing to catch fire in the goalscoring department, too.

On Tuesday morning, the hope was just that the Pens could avoid falling into a deep hole. Now, as the series heads back to the Joe Louis, there's a real possibility that, far from just climbing out, they can go on and chuck the Wings into that same hole before they come back on Tuesday.

Watch out, Hockeytown. This summer, you have serious competition...

Game 3: Hope Reborn

"Raise a bright hope, that there is a brilliant tomorrow"
Small Towns Burn a Little Slower: "A Tune of Panic"

Ladies, gentlemen and Red Wings fans, we got ourselves a series again. And this despite Sid still being held to one point, and Geno not scoring this time round (although he did once again step forward as "the" Pens player of the series so far, assisting on three of the four goals). How's that "two players scoring on the team" schtick smell now?

It's all about Mad Max Talbot, be-yatch, scoring two goals-the opener and the dagger-to-the-heart empty netter. Although you wouldn't put him among the top offensive stars in the series, Max can finish when he needs to...


Or Chris Kunitz, throwing only two less hits by himself in the first two periods (10) than the entire Wings team (12)...by far the leader on a Pens team that out-hit their opponents by over three-to-one. Crash-and-bang playoff hockey at its best...


Or maybe Kris Letang and Sergei Gonchar, blasting home a pair of bullet slapshots after the Wings looked like they'd weathered the storm to go 2-1 up, thanks to the Swedish tandem of Zetterberg and Franzen deciding that they'd do their bit to reclaim the superstar mantle after being shown up a little in the scoring stakes by the AHL line.


Whisper this...but maybe the Wings have a weakness-three penalties taken, two powerplay goals conceded. If you're looking for the ideal way to lose a game, then taking a 2-1 lead and throwing it away by failing to kill penalties must be up there somewhere.


Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader, where art thou? The Wings everyone have been talking about in this series appeared to be a little off their games for a change...pride comes before a fall, and all that...


Three goals on 20 shots, including two on seven in the first period alone? Not that Chris Osgood is cracking (he's far too much of a professional for that) but the aura of flawless invincibility he was slowly building over the first two games has, if not shattered (after all, this is just one game), at least now got a few blemishes on it. If the Pens out-duel him in game 4, suddenly the Wings will have to come to Pittsburgh at least once more...and with the ground-shaking noise produced by 17,000+ Pens fanatics plus the massive crowd outside, it is not a friendly place for anyone wearing the winged wheel, but Ozzie will be the one under the gun most of all...

Game Four is now the Pens' to lose. They can keep Sid and/or Geno away from Zetterberg and/or Lidstrom, Datsyuk ain't fit yet, and 17,216 roaring voices are a hell of a sixth man. But if they do lose, the Wings are not only in the driving seat but have the key in the ignition and the handbrake released in their drive towards victory. For so many reasons, the season for Sid and friends has now reached the point where losing with dignity and pride, as they did last time out, is simply not an option any more.

After the first two, many were saying that the Winged Wheel was rolling toward another Stanley Cup. After Game Three, the Penguins are preparing to march again.

Thursday is D-day.

We need a repeat of Tuesday night on Thursday, Kunitz to crash and bang like a demented destruction-derby racer again, Malkin to play like a demon playmaker again, and Sid to channel the spirit of Mario through himself to his team-mates, many of whom will need no telling of how important a win is. Nothing else will do.

All 82 regular season games and the 20 playoff games thus far are history now. Grounding the hated Flyers, storming the Capitals and blowing away the Hurricanes were great fun, great achievements and would be enough for many other teams. But not this Pens squad. Not now.

We know the Cup will be won, but we don't know who by. Thursday's game will have a massive say in deciding that question...

Let's go Pens...

Game Two: Between the Hammer and the Anvil

"She said
"Some races can't be won"
And so we fade with the setting of the sun"
This Day And Age:"Slideshow"

Now the Pens are in a hole. With Detroit going 2-0 up in the series after winning game two 3-1 last night, with their backs broken thanks to another goal from Justin Abdelkader just as they looked like equalising Valteri Filppulla's go-ahead strike (indeed, Sidney Crosby had missed a gilt-edged chance seconds before. Twice.), and with Crosby pointless and Chris Osgood sneaking into Malkin's head by stopping him twice in two nights on breakaways, the Pens now have to win four in five, while the Wings can lose all their games away from the Joe and still win the Cup.


If one of your top scorers is being relied upon to tie for the lead in hits in the game (Malkin had three) then you have problems...although at least someone finally nailed the "float like a turd, sting like a butterfly" Zetterberg (Malkin again, with less than twenty seconds to go in the third and the game all but gone).

For Detroit's first, though, I'd love to know why Darren Helm was allowed to stand completely unmolested in front of Fleury for several seconds-enough time for Jonathan Ericsson's bullet of a shot to be aimed, fired and travel past him and leave the Pens nettie no chance of seeing it in time to react...surely, come playoff time, that guy gets moved, if not flattened (and curse the new NHL rules for making bruising battles in front of the net almost a thing of the past).

On the plus side...there are moments where the Wings look suspect. If they keep presenting Geno with presents of breakaways then one day, Osgood will not save them. The longer Crosby's held scoreless, the more motivated he'll be. Although obviously every Pens fan hopes that this streak will end (much) sooner rather than later.

More positives-Pepper Osgood and the puck will go by-particularly if players such as Guerin (although some sources say he's carrying an injury-oh, good) Talbot, Staal, Adams and the like are willing to get involved in the brutal trench-warfare in front of him (what I'd give for Tomas Holmstrom to be on the opposite side to the one he's on-he's the epitome of what the Pens need right now)-indeed, the only Pens goal in game two came after seemingly every player on the ice bar Geno thought "sod it, we're crashing the net..." and we saw a proper playoff hockey goal-uglier than the thought of this lady sitting on your face while performing her party piece, but oh so needed...

The Pens need a few more of those in games 3 and 4...it's going to the Mellon now...and if the Wings can win one of two there, followed by one at home (or, God forbid, earn a sweep with two) then they've well and truly have earned the Cup. Pens win both and suddenly, it's a whole different series...

First, though, they have to get some offence...



Sid and Malkin have to start firing sometime...please god, let it be Tuesday...