“The Cup was our goal all year and unfortunately we didn’t (make it)”.
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Perhaps three-time Stanley Cup victor Justin Williams had the best take when explaining why Ovechkin should not take any heat. “He has good poise for a young player”.
Though it wasn’t enough to get Washington past the Penguins, the Colorado Avalanche still need to take this to heart.
The Blues, who finished only two points behind Dallas in the regular-season standings for the Western Conference’s top seed, are 4-2 on the road this postseason and have beat Chicago in a seven-game series in the first round.
His teams are 7-0 in Game 7s. They just took too many damn penalties (more on that later).
Both teams traded stretches of three unanswered goals.
Phil Kessel was stuck in Toronto, where his undeniable talent but occasionally questionable commitment made the three-time All-Star an easy scapegoat for a organization in freefall. There was blood on the play and the Penguins received a four minute power play. I still maintain that the blood rule is foolish and chance driven and shouldn’t still be the standard for the penalty but it is and it was last night.
Each sport has that one team that seemingly can not get it done in the primetime or in the postseason (Bengals-NFL, Clippers-NBA, Cubs-MLB).
His first goal was a classic Phil Kessel snipe off of a wrist shot. Somebody thinks Matt Cullen is a fourth-line center, but he’s got lots of goals, he’s played pretty well. Phil had himself a night with two goals and one assist. He played two shifts and sat the rest without returning for the third period. “This is a very good Pittsburgh team that’s moving on to a conference final”. Maatta was with D Trevor Daley rather than D Kris Letang, who was with D Brian Dumoulin on the No. 1 pairing.
The highly anticipated matchup between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin will be in full force for Tuesday’s Game 6.
“The Hagelin line, Bonino line, they seemed to be the group that scored all the time”, Capitals coach Barry Trotz said.
Kessel went to the corner to retrieve the puck and passed it to Hagelin in the slot.
Hagelin shot. Bonino scored on the rebound. Simple hockey and nothing fancy about it.
Then they started to do the one thing they could not do.
Matt Murray will remain in net for the Penguins in Game 6. Everyone thought this would be a blowout by Washington but that has not been the case. “The puck always ends up there and I was able to get a stick on it”. It happens at all levels of hockey, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Having a lead shouldn’t change the standard but as we all know it does. It was the eighth time Ovechkin’s fallen short of the conference final in eight playoff appearances.
The fact of the matter is that the two deepest playoff runs the Penguins have had since 2009 did not see Marc-Andre Fleury as the primary starting goalie.
Giving Pittsburgh’s lethargic power play – which came in 1 for 16 in the series – the jolt it needed to seemingly send the Capitals home once again.
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“Every year, lots of expectations, lots of great players, but something missing”, Ovechkin said after another disappointing season came to an end, according to CBS Sports. Seven seconds into a Washington powerplay, Ovi did what he does best and teed up a one-timer from the left circle. The time to strike is the draft and even if it is a hard decision it is the logical one. Evgeni Malkin had one goal and one assist with no points in the last four games. In years past this was a death sentence for the Penguins.
