Tuesday, November 11, 2008

That's how you live up to hype


If you missed tonight's Pittsburgh - Detroit 7-6 OT game, go ahead and cut yourself.

The Pittsburgh Penguins seemed dead at least three times, but a timely 5-on-3 goal by Evgeni Malkin started a crazy swing in momentum that was like a 10-minute version of Talbot's huge goal in last year's SCF.

The big story of the game, obviously, was the unreal play of Jordan Staal. If Brooks Orpik had the "$1 million shift" when he knocked over 1,000 Red Wings in the span of 30 seconds, could this be Staal's million-dollar game? He had three goals and masterfully set up Ruslan Fedetenko Tank Johnson for the OT GWG.

It's not every day when Sidney Crosby is your third best center, but tonight that was the truth. Staal is a big, lanky player with great defensive instincts and he's shown flashes of that 29-goal rookie season every now and then this season. Alex Goligo(GO! GO!)ski looked solid out there and Kris Letang looked REALLY good at times. Surely it couldn't hurt those two young players to get to play in a borderline playoff atmosphere like tonight's game.

The NHL should use this game as a marketing chip for the game. The Red Wings showed why they are a dominant team and the Penguins showed that anything can happen in the (is it still New?) NHL.

Aside from Gary Bettman getting decapitated by an errant puck, you cannot really ask for much more.

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