Are the Whiners in Pittsburgh Talking about Scuderi’s Violation of Rule 67.4? I doubt it.

The folks in Pittsburgh have been whining all series about why their “beloved” Penguins haven’t won the Stanley Cup Finals.  (I put beloved in quotations because let’s face it, they don’t really give a crap about the Pens except when they go deep into the playoffs.  The few people I know from Pittsburgh admit whole-heartedly that most people in Pittsburgh know very little about the Penguins.)  One thing I’ve read from Pittsburgh whiners is how Henrik Zetterberg supposedly violated rule 67.4 in game 1 and cost the Pens the game when he piled in between Osgood and the net.   Now, first of all, they showed every angle of that scramble in front of the net on NBC, and you could not see Zetterberg actually making direct contact with the puck in any of them.  Secondly, even if he did, you have to “gather the puck into your body”, grab the puck with your glove, or smother the puck to violate rule 67.4.  Zetterberg clearly did none of these things.  Finally, even if he HAD done one of these things, the Penguins still would have needed to make the penalty shot, and even then the goal only would have tied the game.  So I’m sick of hearing about how Zetterberg’s “cheating” cost the Pens the game.  The main offendor was smilinlikeabutchersdog.blogspot.com, which by the way, completely stole their entire post from the yahoo blog puckdaddy.  (Come on people, giving credit to the other blog for “the vid finds and the quotes” doesn’t give you the right to plagiarize.  That’s unoriginal and sad.)

In any case, I would love to hear the blogs out of Steel Town talk about how Pens defenseman Rob Scuderi lived in the crease in the third period of Game 6.  Scuderi made more saves than Fleury in the third period.  Most of them were legit, but the last one where he was splayed out in the crease, reaches for the puck not once but twice with an open glove, and makes a kick save followed by hitting the puck with his left glove, was much worse than anything Zetterberg did.  I wouldn’t even have brought it up if it weren’t for the Pittsburgh people whining so pathetically about Zetterberg’s actions.

A legendary Game 7 goes down on Friday at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. It’s the first Stanley Cup Final Game 7 in Detroit since 1955. 

Go Wings!