Stanley Cup: Penguins Take the Smash Outta Nashville
There's just something mojorific about Pittsburgh skating at the Igloo in Playoff Games 5.
To wit, the only Game 5 those dudes have lost this spring was to the Capitals in Washington.
Other than that:
- First round ... Penguins 5 Blue Jackets 2
- Eastern finals ... Penguins 7 Senators 0
If you combined this trend with the fact that home cookin's been 100% in these Stanley Cup finals and then hit the chalk hard at Bovada/Bodog, dinner and drinks are on you tonight:
Gotta think those diehards in the streets of Nashville are fight fans.
They were rewarded for their patience late in the third period.
Roman Josi (18 PiM regular; 12 PiM playoffs) and Patric Hornqvist (28 and 18) ?
Yeah, right.
HGTV must've had a heavy ratings bump right about then. Or something.
At least some Swedish players are flashing their Viking DNA and getting good at this.
Hej då, Viktor Arvidsson å Carl Hagelin!
|
Those were the undercard, after the main event, such as it was.
Sidney Crosby's never had the luxury of skating in a Gretzky-like ice halo -- ask him about the Ottawa series -- so he'll occasionally put his purse down to do stuff like spear opponents or dribble with PK Subban's head.
That's not when he's taking the lessons he learned from A League of Their Own to toss water bottles on the ice.
Nice form, dude:
The swing factor in this series, though, is Pekka Rinne.
He's a wall in Smashville and an 0-6 sieve all-time in Pittsburgh.
To be fair, the Predators' vaunted defensemen didn't show up for that one, and backhanders can be hard to read, but what else what Bryan Rust gonna do at that point? Why was Rinne back so far?
Dude doesn't do that in Tennessee, where Smashville will be counting on him to stave off elimination.
If they do, and Game 7 rolls around at the Igloo, who would Peter Laviolette put betwen the pipes?
But that's for later, if ever. At the moment, the Preds have some noodlin' to do.