PITTSBURGH VS NASHVILLE
PPG PAINTS ARENA – PITTSBURGH, PA
8:00 PM EST. NBC
SERIES TIED 0-0
For the 2nd season in a row the Pens have returned to the Stanley Cup Final and sit only 4 wins away from climbing to the highest peak in hockey once again.
It’s been an unlikely, if not miraculous run. Coming off the cup win last year, adding on the mileage from the World Cup of Hockey that many Pens players accrued, and not getting a single playoff shift from their all-world defenseman Kris Letang. This isn’t the best Pens team ever, but it’s arguably the toughest, and without a doubt the most resilient.
Standing between the Pens and the Cup is another first timer to the big dance and current NHL media darling Nashville Predators.
Now, I’ve got a lot of feelings about the Preds, first of all there will be no PK Subban slander from me or these gameday posts. Second, country music sucks. Third, their fans act like high school kids who just did a couple pulls of Burnett’s before going to watch a basketball game (I have no idea if this is a burn or a compliment.)
There are, however, two pretty significant elephant’s in the room that we gotta address before this series gets rolling.
The first is, the return of James Neal. Neal probably had more salacious rumors surround him during his tenure in Pittsburgh of any Pens player since Kevin Stevens. It also didn’t help that he played with the composure and maturity of a young Sean Avery.
Rutherford on Hornqvist trade: "1st move I made. Looking for diff type of player. Had enough scorers. Looking for a passionate player" -SK
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 28, 2017
This quote is some A1 shade. That trade was really an underrated, shrewd move by GMJR. Rutherford basically showed up in Pittsburgh and was like, nah I’m not fucking with this guy, then turned that guy into Patric Hornqvist and a sack of potatoes.
James Neal says he intentionally watched less of 16 SCF than he normally would. Said it was hard watching Pens win
— Will Graves (@WillGravesAP) May 28, 2017
Neal is going to be crazy motivated to win this series and you can trust he’s gonna be running around like a dickhead the entire time (I wish there was a way to bet on players most involved in scrums because Neal is a fucking lock). If the Preds somehow clinch on Pens ice there’s an 80% chance he drops his pants and lets double birds fly. Pens should probably not let that happen in my opinion.
2nd elephant after the jump.
Lines: Sullivan head games alert! Guentzel was a “practice scratch” sharing time with Hagelin on the 4th line during practice Sunday. Sully then turned around and said a bunch of nice stuff about Jake at media day so who knows. If Guentzel does drop down it’s an interesting idea to try and get scorers out against the Irwin-Weber pairing so don’t freak out.
Sure seems like Hornqvist is gonna play. Same for Carrie Underwood’s husband and Craig Smith.
Pittsburgh:
Kunitz-Crosby-Sheary
Wilson-Malkin-Kessel
Rust-Bonino-Rowney
Guentzel/Hagelin-Cullen-Hornqvist
Dumoulin-Hainsey
Maatta-Daley
Cole-Schultz
Murray-Fleury
Nashville:
Forsberg-Sissons-Aberg
Arvidsson-Fisher-Neal
Wilson-Jarnkrok-Smith
Gaudreau-Fiddler-Watson
Ekholm-Subban
Josi-Ellis
Irwin-Weber
Rinne-Saros
Usually this is where I do my best to try and say something smart about hockey but Jesse did that way better than I ever could already so just read that instead.
No, I need to talk about this fucking video.
Nashville deserves to lose for this shit I just watched https://t.co/EC9vpI0vq4
— Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) May 24, 2017
This is some of the most embarrassing shit I’ve ever seen – the most, please like my team, mickey-mouse inane bullshit of all time.
Imagine how cool these guys thought they were while they were making this video. You can practically see it in the eyes of the guy on the left – that this will make up for the time he didn’t get the lead in his high school’s production of Oklahoma. The guy on the right honestly just looks dead inside.
Couple things about this guys dab, he definitely has no idea who Migos are and he’s also wearing a button-down under this jersey. The whatthefuckness in this video is truly staggering.
Had to throw this in as well because it’s really disorienting. Also, there’s like a 75% chance this girl is racist.
The Pens may be the villain in the series but thankfully they’ve already won the series off the ice. Truly embarrassing for the Music City, but I guess that’s what happens when you hold up Trisha Yearwood as a beacon of family values.
Let’s do this thing.
Pens in 6
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