Connection:

Other than a Staal and a few Eastern European players (Geno, Sarge, and Feds) the home-town boys held the day. Luckily for us those 'homies' were Mad Maximus, Super Duper, Le-tank and the Tower of Flower Power, Marc Andre Fleury. The Pen's 'French Connection' all grew up somewhere around Montreal, but we don't hold that against them. Btw, Carey Price has been sentenced 5-10 years for the goals he robbed the Pens of during the game. MAF was really sharp for the most part during the game stopping 29 of 30 and made some jaw-dropping saves on the ever sneaky Alexei Kovalev. But he did his best work in the third period when the guys seemed a bit sluggish and had some trouble getting the puck out of their own end. Flower stopped about 15 shots in 2.3 seconds and kept the tie going so his buddies could score two amazing shorties a few minutes later. Here's the TFP showing everyone just how good a pointy-lipped Frenchman can play the game:
The only goal for the Great White North's actually bounced of the Sequoia and went in, so we won't count that one against him. Flower's got a good run going into the Play-offs and that only says good things about the Pens chances to advance into the later rounds. (We won't talk about that last round yet... superstitious? Moi? Not a chance!) Also I'd like to already nominate Jordan Staal for Tough Guy of the Play-Offs for taking a puck in the face and returning later in the period with his new stitching. I just hope his face doesn't end up as screwed up as Bugsy did last year. Wow! Did that guy end up 'Uglied Up' or what?

Really Good Stuff: How amazing is two short-handed goals for the Pens during the same PK? How often does that happen? The only thing better than that was the fact that our eyes weren't assaulted by the third jerseys the Habs obviously stole from some gay penitentiary somewhere. I mean, c'mon! The team's been around for 100 years and that's the best 'Old Tyme' jersey they could come up with? They look like some sort of strange 4th of July hockey candy.

Mrs. Malkin is going to have one more thing to dust when she visits her son's new house. The Art Ross Trophy Geno won tonight. Malkin scored a goal and that was too much ground for O'retchkin to make up. The Ugly One had a goal and an assist to climb to 110 but couldn't touch the 113 mark set by Geno. Evgeni joined Le Magnifique (6) Jammer Jags (5) and El Sid (1) to boost the Pens Scoring Title number to 13. That's just a sick number of ART'S in the last 20 years. As a side note, for 21 years (80-'01) if your name wasn't Lemieux, Jagr or Gretzky you just didn't get your name on the thing. That hardware's got to give him an inside track for the MVP for the Leage to go along with his Team MVP. Not to take anything away from O'retch, who scored an amazing 56 goals this season, but can you pass over a guy who leads the League in Points, Assists, and Take-aways? I think not. In my humble, yet all knowing opinion Mamma Geno should have another piece of bric-a-brac to dust off next year and that would be the hardware named after Dr. David Hart.

Play Off Preview, Sort of: Ok, show of hands... how many of you thought 2 months ago that we would be sitting here talking about who we were going to face in the Play-Offs? I gotta admit, my hand would not be among the elevated. HCMT had just been fired after a nightmare inducing loss to the Laffs, causing jaws to drop all over Pensland, and they bring in this guy with a name that sounds like a gastric disease, Bylsma. Now just about 2 full moons later and the talk isn't who do we want to face in the SCPO's it's how most teams don't want to face the Pens. Coach Dan comes in, does a little tweaking, and then the Easter Bunny brings them 2, 100+ point players, an Art Ross trophy, an 18-3-4 record, and at least a 5th place in the Play-Offs. (if the Phlyers lose in regulation the Pens will be in 4th and get home-ice for the first round) So Coach Dan gets the First Annual Kick-Ass Coach of the Year Award. I know he'll treasure it forever. I'm already casting my vote for Coach Dan to return next season to see what he can do with 82 games in his pocket. Also, I'd like to have every kid in Pensburgh go to Coach Dan's hockey camp. It's obvious this guy knows something about the game.

We of the Pensaddict persuasion would also like to take this opprotunity to thank Uncle Daddy and the Debbils for beating the Hurricanes and taking them completely out of contention for the 4/5th spot in the Eastern Conference. Even if the only reason you guys showed up to that game at all was because you didn't want to face the Pens in the Play Offs.