Eastern Conference Championship morning link round up

Dang! I just don’t understand why the Pens don’t simply forfeit the last 3 series? I understand the need to claim the (losing) team had things tough, but were they the only ones? Paul Maurice and a number of the Canes talked about their two 7 game series and how tough they were. (Insert crying towel here!)

‘From Paul Maurice,

“I don’t think we had a lot left in the tank, to be honest. We went to the well a lot of times, spent a lot to earn the right to be here; but in reading faces when they were coming back to the bench … we’d spent an awful lot.”’

Correct me if I’m wrong but the canes played ONE more game than the Pens. Yeah it may be tough going 7 and 7 but the Pens/Caps series was more on the order of 1 and one half series, no to mention the physical side of the Pens/ Philly series (I guess those don’t count!). The Canes won a game with .2 seconds left otherwise… they’d have started their golf weeks earlier.

So the reason the Canes lost was because their two 7 and 7’s left them drained? Right!

‘From Alan Muir, SI, Inside Hockey

To be fair, his defense almost seemed to be conspiring against him. Boucher’s pass/shot would have been blocked if Dennis Seidenberg hadn’t inexplicably lifted his skate at the last moment. Talbot’s wrister would have resulted in a routine save if Babchuk hadn’t deflected it. And Bill Guerin might never have buried the easy tip-in that made it 3-1 in the second — if Tim Gleason succeeds at either tying up Sidney Crosby or disrupting the pass.’

Call the Whaaambulance! If the dog hadn’t stopped to take a…

This is also typical Pierre McGuire shtick, and even Don Cherry. When the Pens scored, it was because of a breakdown by the _______(fill in the opposing team’s name) defense. When the _________( fill in the opposing team’s name) scored, it was a hard earned, well executed, borderline miraculous play. To be fair, there were some times when the Pens scored that even Pierre’s bias couldn’t deny. For the most part, those roughly 40 Pen’s shots per game, many of which hit the pipes but didn’t go in, don’t count as much as examples such as Muir and others refer to that might have made a monumental, if not one-sided, difference.
It’s just amazing that the Pens never did anything like that.
I mean, to listen to these guys, using that kind of one-sided logic (and bias), that those poor Canes screwed up defensively and the poor Caps only were allowed to let Ovie shoot at the net and the poor (Ph)liars coulda, shoulda, woulda (but didn’t) win because their defense didn’t play right (not the Pen’s offense playing better), the Pens should do the gentlemanly thing and forfeit those games!
Too bad McGuire didn’t get the Minnesota job. He could have taken some sportscasters with him.
I’ll be calling Gary first thing in the morning…or maybe next week…or next October.