Game 1 Recap: "Afterthoughts" Miroslav Satan, Philippe Boucher and MA-Fleury spear the Pens to victory, 3-2

MAF was a beast for the Pens and really won the game for you guys. The goals against Ward weren’t soft, but on his best day he could’ve stopped those. (He bit hard on Satan’s first move). The referees did Carolina no favors and despite calling 3 quick penalties right out of the gates they then called virtually nothing the rest of the game including a couple that injured some Canes players. I’d probably be a little more up in arms if Cooke’s hit was on someone like Staal, but over the past 2 series I’ve gotten used to getting no breaks from the refs.

The Pens deserved this win, all in all they outplayed the Canes. On the bright side of things though, it was the best Game 1 the Canes have played all playoffs. I don’t know if that bodes well for the Pens. ; )

Thanks for the link. For a second I thought opposing fans weren’t allowed to comment over here. As for the “new rule” I never once blamed the officials for the loss. I feel teams need to figure out how to win despite the officials. I do think a penalty or two would have justified the time both Ruutu and Cole (2 key 2nd line wingers) were not on the ice though.

I don’t want him suspended. I’d like to for the Canes to win with him on the ice. A 2 minute minor would’ve been nice though. ; )

Anywho…good play from the Pens. They’re gonna have to do better than that if they want to win the series though. If it weren’t for MAF this game could’ve easily gone the other way despite Carolina playing subpar. I hope the Pens have seen how both Carolina series’ began.

Honestly, except for the minute or two when the Pens scored #1 and #2, this game was a dud. I’m glad the Pens won, but they along with the ‘Canes and along with the officials are guilty of a subpar performance. I saw a lot of penalties go by the wayside against both teams. I may not like it when my team has to kill a penalty, but it’s a part of the game that’s intriguing. There are games when only a few penalties should be called, but tonight was a chippy game. There should have been at least 20 more penalty minutes combined for both times… give/take. In my opinion, tonight the officials seta bad precedent for the series. I hope the league agrees with me. Good goaltending, though, both ways.

If I had to give stars though: Satan(that move was sick), Boucher(because I thought he shoulda been a scratch and he scored), Fleury/Ward(we’re going to be saying, “did he really just do that?” a lot this series.

Hang in there folks. Might be another long one.

If we did lose Cooke for a game we’d miss a little bit of hitting and the chemistry of the 3rd line but Dupuis could jump in just fine. Anyone see the stick to the crotch on Kennedy’s breakaway? Not enough for the refs to call a penalty, but i’m sure it threw him off. Canes arent the roughest opponent, but they have alot of greasy veteran moves, it just our grease led to injury. I need to see a better angle on the Cooke’s knee hit, Most knee hits are North South coming up the ice this was East West.
Canes can slow Crosby to a point we can do the same or better on E.Staal(0pts), but we have a world class threat on 2 lines and a legit 3rd line cycling and a defensive stud in Jordan.
We’ll win this series, The Canes need a 2-1 game with Ward standing on his head to get wins.

The ‘Canes are no where near as good as the Caps. Maybe its just me but I just don’t think the "Canes pressured us at all during the game. Even on the the PP, Malkin skated the puck in and set it up every time, against Washington it would take us 1:30 just to get the puck in the zone and established. Maybe Carolina was just flat last night but I really didn’t see too much that caused me concern. Its game 1 but Carolina has to come with a little better than that. If they don’t have Cam Ward, last night would have been a rout.

Wow someone else finally mentioned the missed interference call on Eric Stall a second or two before the Cannes second goal (pp goal 6 on 4 EN). Isn’t this a Pens blog? Did no one else see it or are all of you that bent on Cooke’s hit on Cole. It was knee on knee but cooke wasn’t even looking to hit him, he was changing direction and turning around. Have any of you ever skated before, in order to turn and change direction in tight traffic like that you have to stick your leg out, I don’t think Cook’s knee turns 180 degrees?! I thought Eaton’s slew-foot was more disturbing but he obviously was attempting to block a shot. Lastly, Maurice said in his presser (regarding goalie interfernce call where gill and Fleury ended up in the net) that he wasn’t used to refs making calls like that. Well, there is a huge difference between this call and play the devils complained about in either game 2 or 4. In the Devils series, Brodeur moved out of his crease into open ice to cut of an angle, Jokinen was also moving to that open spot, they bumped into each other and that is not interference by any stretch of the imagination. What you cannot do is collide with a goalie in his crease. Fleury was deep in his crease when gill was pushed into him. (and regardless of how big Gill is at 250lbs, he’s also 6’7, he has a very high center of gravity, that means a lot on ice and standing flat footed, anyone with a center of gravity 12-18 inches lower can easily knock him on his bum. No miracle here!) But you gotta like Carolina’s tenacity. Pittsburgh and Carolina play very similar team games as far as aggression, forechecking, D-men pinching etc.