PITTSBURGH VS OTTAWA
PPG PAINTS ARENA – PITTSBURGH, PA
8:00 PM EST. NBCSN
SERIES TIED 3-3
After stumbling to bed after the game Monday (Edit: god damn it, I mean Tuesday) I woke up sweating my balls off. Somehow the thermostat had gotten turned up in my house so rolled out of bed to go and turn it back down. Now, this is a walk I’ve taken, in the dark, roughly 7,000 times. There’s nothing extraordinary about it. Roll out of bed, bang a left into the hallway, head back to bed.
The first leg of the trip went off without a hitch. With the thermostat restored to a normal temperature, I turned and headed back to bed.
Only this time I somehow went sideways and banged right into the side of my bedroom door frame thoroughly fucking up both my lower lip and three toes on my left foot. A seemingly innocuous trip that started out going fine, ended with me hobbling back to my bed wondering what in the shit just happened.
This really happened, but it’s also a really good metaphor for what happened to the Pens in Ottawa Monday night. Sometimes shit goes wrong when you’ve done it the same way a million times before and always had success. Life isn’t always fair. Thermostats and short-series were brought to this world to piss people off.
The Pens spent two and half periods exclusively racking up scoring chances while the Sens had to resort to DDTing guys in the corner and praying they didn’t get called. The Pens finished the game with 15 high-danger scoring chances to Ottawa’s 4. Stay the course, trust the process, and bring hell to Anderson’s doorstep.
All that’s left to do is for the Pens to listen to Geno again.
Lines: Sullivan, ever parsing his words, said on Tuesday that it was “reasonable” to think Schultz and Hornqvist could return to the lineup for game 7. In reality though who freaking knows. Sullivan loves those lineup head games.
I am so over this god damn Ottawa team.
Pittsburgh:
Kunitz-Crosby-Guentzel
Wilson-Malkin-Kessel
Rust-Bonino-Rowney
Hagelin-Cullen-Archibald
Dumoulin-Hainsey
Maatta-Daley
Kasparaitis-Cole
Murray-Fleury
Ottawa:
MacArthur-Turris-Booby
Brassard-Smith-Stone
Hoffman-Pageau-Pyatt
Stalburg-Wingels-Harpur
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Wideman
Anderson-Condom
For the second series in a row, and for the second year in a row during the ECF the Pens have been pushed to brink. A final ride for this group of players that will most assuredly be seeing some major roster turnover this off-season.
It’s hard to not look at this group and feel sentimental. So many good memories, a group full of contributors, over-achievers, and yeah a couple superstars. I like this team and if you’re reading this I’m guessing you do too and I bet we are both really not ready to be done watching them play hockey.
Another test for a team that has answered the bell every time an injury took down a star player, every time a pundit called their mettle into question, every time we thought they couldn’t anymore, whether because they’re too tired, or injured, or shit maybe just not good enough – they do.
In the immortal words of a Pittsburgh blogging legend:
guys, the senators cannot beat the pens twice in a row. and the game is at home. get real if you're literally stressing this.
— nicholas. (@psamp) May 24, 2017
In the end, Game 7 comes for us all. Time to find out just how far this team can go. Until then, Fuck these guys.
Godspeed and I’ll see you all on the other side.
#Pensin7 DO IT
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