Where's the Eug?

Everyone is saying that Malkin disappeared. But I'm not really sure if "disappeared" is the correct word. Malkin is there, that part is obvious. It's especially so when he's coughing the puck up to the other team, making poor passing decisions, and floating around, putting him at a -3 this series.

I speak of this today because I found myself literally yelling at Malkin. Well... I was yelling at the television, but that makes me sound crazy. It's literally unbelievable that this guy is an MVP candidate, after watching him meander through the Stanley Cup Finals playing like the Malkin of the pre-high ankle sprain days. It appears to me now that the only way to wake Malkin up is for Georges Laraque to take Sid Crosby out back and bust up his foot (Tonya Harding style).

I came into work this morning and a friend of mine said watching the game last night was "like watching the last two seasons of Miami Vice." I don't know what that means, but it sounds like a bad thing.

"The first two games weren't the best games our team played, and especially me" ... let's extend that quote a few more games shall we?

Eastern Conference Champions

Sit. Down. Flyers.
If anyone had any doubts about whether the Pittsburgh Penguins would win this series, they were silenced today.

Whilst Canada was getting their ass handed to them by the Russians at least something was right in the hockey world. Before I could even switch the television over to CBC after almost throwing something at it, the game was 2-0. Ryan Malone (a player rumoured to be hitting the Free Agent highway this summer) scored first and opened the floodgates that was Martin Biron's net. The opposite could be said for Marc-Andre Fleury, who made a few timely saves early in the game, and one huge one late to preserve his shut-out.

The entire team was running on what seemed to be all cylinders, getting points from ten different players. Marian Hossa (4), Ryan Malone (3), Sidney Crosby (2), Maxime Talbot (2), Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Jordan Staal, Adam Hall, Pascal Dupuis, Brooks Orpik.

And it was almost like Sidney Crosby said a big 'NO, YOU SUCK' to the fans that rode him all of game four. Sit down. Flyers. and double sit down, flyers fans.

The Penguins now await the winner of the Dallas and Detroit final in the west. And by the way the last game went, it appears the momentum is in Dallas's hands. Game six of that series goes Monday night in Dallas.




The Memorial Cup game is currently in progress. Apparently instead of showing the Kitchener-Spokane game, the main Sportsnet network decided to go with random programming while the Bluejays game was in rain delay (see earlier post on Baseball). So you can only get the Memorial Cup game if you've got digital cable, where you can pick up one of the regional channels. Dear Sportsnet, You suck.

Malkin defies physics.

The Pittsburgh Penguins continued their dismantling of opponents during game one of the Eastern Conference final against the Philadelphia Flyers mostly thanks to MVP candidate Gino (Evgeni) Malkin (although Captain Crosby and Peter Sykora each contributed goals).

Both of Malkin's goals were absolute rockets that appeared to go physically through goaltender Martin Biron. And maybe they did. The first one was a slapper from the side of the net. And the second one was definitely memorable. Malkin had just been crushed by a check behind the Philadelphia net, the puck was taken up ice into the Penguins zone and Malkin was having a bit of trouble getting going. He managed to drag himself up to the Flyers blueline when the puck came up to him via a beautiful two-line pass and there was no Flyers players in sight (except Biron). Malkin went in on a breakaway with a ton of time to work with, instead of going in for a dangle he stopped in front of the net and blasted a slapshot. And it went in. Ridiculous. I swear it looked like it went directly through Biron. It must have. Those aren't supposed to go in.

"It was really a last-second decision," said Malkin through a translator. "I just decided to shoot that puck as hard as I can. I didn't think about it, where to shoot, and to make any moves. Just as hard as I can"

"If i had his shot i'd probably have done the same thing," Crosby said with a smile in a post game interview. "He was probably pretty tired, whatever works."