Playoff Gameday: Pittsburgh Penguins & Ottawa Senators - Round Two, Game One
Ottawa Senators @ Pittsburgh Penguins
Series Tied 0-0
NBCSN, CBC, RDS - 7:30 pm/et
Consol Energy Center - Pittsburgh, PA
Here it is: the series that the media and Eugene Melnyk so desperately wanted. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Matt Cooke, the man who absolutely-on-purpose-injured-Erik-Karlsson-and-forensic-evidence-will-prove-it-and-also-he-likes-to-talk-about-reporter-penises, will face off against the Ottawa Senators. The media sideshow is fun and all, but it's not going to win hockey games. Also, it's not fun.
The Ottawa Senators allowed nine goals in five games against the Montreal Canadiens, and three of those goals were in game two. Craig Anderson has a .950 save percentage. He's not Evgeni Nabokov. The Pittsburgh Penguins will need to be better than they were against the New York Islanders if they want to win. Much better.
Add a commentWhy the Pittsburgh Penguins are "Canada's Team"
Every year around this time, the Canadian media starts to push the idea of "Canada's Team." The theory is that Canadians should rally around the remaining Canadian team in the playoffs in hopes of bringing the Stanley Cup back to Canada. This year, that team is the Ottawa Senators.
Silver Seven Sens does a good job explaining how ridiculous this tradition is:
In Canada, the bandwagon experience takes on a strange distortion. Instead of picking a team because of a certain player, coach or back-story, Canadians on social media and throughout the mainstream media are encouraged to jump on the trolley and cheer for the only Canadian team left. All of a sudden, Canadian hockey fans are expected to support the 2011 Canucks, 2010 Canadiens, 2007 Senators and so forth. It's a curious reflex, a forced and awkward call-to-arms in favour of a sense of national pride and a need to stamp the Canadian flag (hopefully not just the Maple Leaf) on the Stanley Cup and, in turn, the sport of hockey. It's also something I could do without.
None of this matters anyway, because the Pittsburgh Penguins are "Canada's Team."
Add a commentTomas Vokoun in Net & Likely Pittsburgh Penguins Lines for Tonight
Via the Pens:
There are no changes from the line rushes from Monday.
Dupuis-Crosby-Iginla
Kunitz-Malkin-Neal
Morrow-Sutter-Cooke
Adams-Vitale-Kennedy
Glass-Jokinen-Bennett
(Jeffrey)
Orpik-Martin
Letang-Niskanen
Engelland-Murray
Eaton-Despres
(Bortuzzo)
1st PP unit: Iginla, Letang, Kunitz, Crosby, Malkin
2nd PP unit: Niskanen, Martin, Kennedy, Neal, Morrow
And via Josh Yohe:
Add a commentVokoun will start tonight
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_Trib) May 14, 2013
Sidney Crosby is a Finalist for the Masterton
Another award nomination for Sid and for a member of the Penguins. From the NHL:
Crosby, 25, missed most of the previous two seasons dealing with concussion issues, and then the first half of the 2012-13 season -- along with the rest of the League -- during the lockout. Questions were asked if Crosby ever could be the same player he was prior to his injuries. Instead, he returned better than ever this season.
Crosby entered with a career average of 1.40 points per game, but in 2012-13 he had 56 points in 36 games, an average of 1.55. He also played every game for the Penguins until sustaining a broken jaw March 30 that ended his regular season. Despite sitting out the final month, he remained the League's leading scorer until the final week of the season, and he finished tied for third. Crosby also continued to evolve his game, posting a career-best plus-26 rating. He is a finalist for the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award as well.
If Crosby wins the Masterton, he would be the third member of the Penguins, joining Mario Lemieux (1993) and Lowell MacDonald (1973).
The other nominees are Josh Harding of the Minnesota Wild and Adam McQuaid of the Boston Bruins. We'd give it to Harding.
Add a commentSERIES PREVIEW: 2013 Pens-Sens
Down the homestretch of the regular season, it was looking more and more likely that the Senators were gonna find themselves in the 8 seed on a collision course with the Pens. Instead, the Sens got up to the 7 seed and have dispatched of the 2nd-seeded Canadiens easily -- very easily. And that's because the Senators weren't as advertised coming in the playoffs. They aren't your typical 7 seed, just like the Islanders weren't your typical 8 seed.
And that all boils down to Erik Karlsson. He's the game-changer for the Senators, and Ottawa coach Paul MacLean probably has the Jack Adams Award on lockdown for keeping the Senators above water long enough to sneak into the playoffs without Karlsson. But now they're in the playoffs, Erik Karlsson is back, and his presence alone makes that "7 seed" title meaningless. If he's the game-changer he's advertised to be, he's probably good for a couple of wins. Those extra wins for the Senators while Karlsson was rehabbing his Achilles injury could've jumped the Senators all the way up to the 2 seed.
There's a lot of chatter about the Senators being a better matchup for the Pens than the Islanders were. That's all poop talk. By definition, having a surefire Jack Adams nominee behind your bench means your team is well-coached. If the Pens are routinely careless with the puck and make the same mistakes they did in the first round against the Isles, the Senators will capitalize.
We aren't predicting the outcome of this series, but here's some more info:
Top Five Moments In Penguins-Senators Playoff History
For whatever reason, the Penguins and Senators have met an unrealistic amount of times in the playoffs. This year's series does mark the first time they haven't met in the first round.
The matchups have delivered some great moments.
First, some honorable mentions.
-- 2008, Gary Roberts scoring the first goal of the series then basically fighting the entire Senators team.
-- And then there was Andy Sutton and his "Are You An Expert?"
So odd.
Our top five moments:
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The Penguins should be all-in on Vokoun. For now.
We just can't imagine a universe that will have Marc-Andre Fleury starting Game One of the Senators series. "We" in the sentence represents Derek and Adam. Rick, on the other hand, is all about Fleury.
Our preference for Vokoun boils down to some simple facts.
-- The man just won a series for you. He came in, settled everything down, stopped routine shots, and did exactly what was anticipated of him when he was signed last summer.
-- If Fleury starts and melts down, what have you accomplished? At some point in this run the Pens will need Fleury again. Why force it?
-- There is a precedent for this scenario. Something has stuck with us ever since we uncovered it five years ago. Read on as we repost something from our old Blogspot days.
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