34.7 damn seconds...
Detroit was only 34.7 God damn seconds away from winning the Stanley Cup. 34.7! Now there's a game 6 back in Pittsburgh. Unbelievable.
This was your typical Red Wings playoff loss. Out shoot, out hit and out play the opposition, dominate in almost every damn phase of the game, save for one. On the scoreboard. Oh yeah, some acrobat named Fleury should get some credit as well. Hell, give Fleury all the credit. Without him in net, the Wings are drinking from the Stanley Cup 2 hours ago.
The players were getting sloppier and the ice was getting worse by the OT, so you knew a game going this long would end on someone's mistake. I was just hoping the killer mistake wouldn't be made by someone on the Red Wings.
Unfortunately it was, one Jiri Hudler.
His silly, accidental double minor high stick early in the 3rd OT was the game right there. No way could you expect the Wings to kill 4 minutes... Hell, they could only kill a few seconds.
Kudos to the Penguins for their herculean effort. They live to skate another day. But before we lose all perspective after a tough loss, let's remember, the Pens have to come up with that sort of effort 2 more times.
Realistically, the Penguins have only a punchers chance to win this series, and actually managed to land one. A haymaker, to say the very least. But they have to land knockout punches twice more, and against a team as driven and talented as the Red Wings, it's likely too tall an order.
In the end, I'm disappointed, but not worried. If there is one team that will bounce back from a night like this is the Red Wings. They are up 3-2 in this series for a reason. That reason being the Red Wings are obviously the deeper, better team. If the Wings continue to play their game, play like they have all series long, I honestly believe all the the Pens accomplished was delaying the inevitable for a couple of days.
But still, 34.7 fucking seconds.
God damn it.
I didn't turn the game on until OT, and was rather upset to see the Yahoo game clock go under a minute... and then see 34 seconds left, and the score suddenly pop up 3-3.
ReplyDeleteAs to the OT, I had a roller coaster ride: On the one hand, I kept thinking that with a 2-1 margin in shots, something was bound to go in eventually. On the other hand, when you outshoot the other team by that margin and still have a tie game, their goalie is on fire. Yours, not so much.
Glad to see that the penalty that ended it wasn't another "looking at the other team's goalie" infraction.
But when the call was made, I thought real hard about walking out of the room. I knew what was coming, and commented "I have a bad feeling about this."
Guess we'll see what happens next.