I've been reading up on some talk from Philly fans. All of it seems to center around their third and fourth lines. While the Penguins have seen some depth from guys like Laraque, Talbot, Ruutu and Roberts, Philly is apparently not so lucky with their deeper lines.
While they have the likes of Briere, Lupul, Umberger and Richards, Philly tends to lack the two-way play from most of their 'other' guys. This will hopefully give Pittsburgh the edge offensively if Philly overuses and abuses their top two lines and has to resort to three and four.
In other news, Pitt has requested a whiteout again for Friday night. You know what that means - you will be able to find the Philly fans and "I-didn't-get-the-memo" Penguins fans easier than finding the five hole on Fleury's old, yellow pads. If you're anything like me, you may actually have to adjust the brightness on your tv. I nearly lost my vision in the last whiteout.
"I think we approach it differently. If we win, we’re going to the Stanley Cup Finals. That’s the main goal we’re thinking about. Everybody looks at it as a battle for Pennsylvania and that’s great for the fans, but for us, look at what’s at stake – if we win, look where we’re going. Just that is enough. We’re so close to what we want to achieve and it’s far from over and it’s going to be really hard. It’s a big climb right now to get to where we want to be."
Georges Laraque on the playoffs
And finally, in non-relative Penguins news, but hockey news none the less - former Sean Avery fling Elisha Cuthbert is going out with Penguins hater Dion Phaneuf. It's not that she looks bad (at all), but she really has bad taste in hockey players. Pics here.
I did my best to make that not sound like a gossip site post - I hope I at the least accomplished that.
Riley Cote and Steve Downie have been scratches for most of Philly's playoff run. But given the physical foresight heading into this game; should they play, who do you think will drop the mitts with Big Georges?