Down 3-0 in the series. A miracle season gone by the wayside. All at the hands of their bitter rivals.
It sucks, everything about this sucks. Penguins Flyers Game 3 was right there. Pittsburgh came out and took it to them, cashed in on the power play, and had the lead after one. Then the refs decided to be part of the game. Now the Penguins are down 3-0 and a miracle season is one loss away from being over.
The refs were swayed by the crowd in that heroin filled city and fueled their coke induced fans to go ballistic. Crosby got called for his first embellishment call of his career in the first period. He was hit near the eye by noted rat, Garnett Hathaway (who’s been fined for embellishment before), and yet after a lengthy discussion they sent Sid to the box. If it’s diving, they wouldn’t have needed to hear the crowd roar, they would’ve immediately have made the call. The ref shows only got worse from there. Not only did it get worse, but it also ruined the Penguins chances in this series. After a whistle in play, another noted rat, Travis Konecny, elbowed Bryan Rust in the face. Rust responded by smushing the little dork to the ice. They EACH threw punches. Then Konecny not once, but twice, tried to KICK Rust with his skate blades. Now, typically if you elbow someone’s, and kick at them, you would imagine you would receive extra penalties… not yesterday! Yesterday, Rust received the extra minor. Completely absurd officiating. Oh, and Konecny also threw his gloves off and instigated a fight. Even more absurdly, the refs put every single player on the ice in the box. Of those players were several penalty killers for Pittsburgh, no power-play players for Philly, and Erik Karlsson who would be in the box for the next Penguins power-play due to this ordeal. Just complete bush league stuff from the refs. Of course, Philadelphia scored on the Rust penalty and from there, they and their fans, completely took control of the game. Crosby, and the rest of the team, were irate at the officiating in the game.
And just to be clear, here is the NHL rule on any attempt at kicking…
Gary Bettman was in attendance for this game, and he should fire every single official into the sun. Porter Martone also took his gloves off and threw punches at Ben Kindel well after the final horn, this is supposed to be an automatic one game suspension, but it won’t be. Just bush-league stuff from a bush league.
I am a broken man. Yes, the officiating was terrible, but you have to find a way to play through it. You kill the Rust penalty, and you take control of the game. The Penguins couldn’t do that, and now they are looking at getting swept on Saturday. It sucks this season has ultimately gone this way, but the six months of the regular season really delivered a lot of hope for not only this year but the future too. The scariest part is, that future may no longer include Evgeni Malkin. Malkin has been the best offensive player for Pittsburgh in this series but given his already murky contract situation I really don’t know if Dubas will care to resign him after the entire team flamed out in the playoffs. It’s unfortunate because Geno doesn’t deserve to go out this way. Hell, this team doesn’t deserve to go out this way, but also, they haven’t played like they deserve anything differently. The only old head on this team that needs to go is Letang. I love Tanger, but he is completely shot. He will play hockey until someone physically stops him and there in-lies the problem. I don’t see Dubas buying our Letang and not resigning Malkin, those decisions would all but guarantee Crosby is wearing a different jersey come March of next season. The ramifications of these playoffs could spawn the end of the greatest trio in sports history and it just really, really, sucks.
Another guy who definitely won’t come back is Anthony Mantha. The Penguin’s leading goalscorer has been terrible, and quiet, all series. He put the nail in his Penguins coffin last night when he flipped a puck over the glass leading to Philly’s insurance goal. The Penguins were only down one at the time, they were gaining momentum, and Mantha threw it all over the glass with a dumb, yet obviously unintentional, penalty. His play in this series will certainly make Dubas balk at the idea of giving him any sort of term that he is going to ask for and I can’t blame him.
I am eternally optimistic when it comes to the Pittsburgh Penguins. I never count them out. They have delivered for this city for so long that it’s not right of any diehard fan to give up on them now. While it’s nearly impossible for them to win this series maybe they have one last rabbit to pull out of the hat. Imagine if they are able to pull off that sort of magic. I am a dead and broken man today, but I will be back screaming at my television on Saturday night praying for at least one more game in Pittsburgh this season. If that doesn’t happen, it might be the end of the Penguins as we know them and that would just be a damn shame.
Pens in 7.
