Thoughts:
- 17K in the building seemed to completely flummox the parking and traffic crews. They were routing traffic in ways I have NEVER seen in 18 years of attending games at the arena. God help us all if attendance actually picks up.
- Ryan's goaltender interference call was fair. He got a piece of Jarry's head prior to the defenseman's contact with him, and I would have been angry if the Canes hadn't gotten the call had the situations been reversed. Of course, the Canes have been screwed out of so many legit interference calls over the last two years that I think our crowd is a bit jaded. It's yet another rule ... like icing and slashing ... that the NHL simply doesn't enforce with any consistency.
- Great to get the win and further confuse Pens fans who are clearly reeling with the thought that they aren't very good right now. All the swagger, half the points. It's the Diet Pens.
- I'm hearing a lot of "great game" comments, but ... I mean, OK. The third period had some flow to it, but the rest was choppy as heck with both teams struggling to maintain possession.
- Carolina HAS to do something to change things up on the power play. HAS to.
- Both Malkin and Crosby seemed reluctant to engage physically, which isn't like them at all. Both of them generally get in the crease and mix it up but both were content to try and make plays from the edges of the fray and to snipe from distance. I think that's a big chunk of Pittsburgh's problem right now. The rest of their scorers rely on the chaos that those two create when they get into the mix and put the defense under real pressure. As good as Slavin was in checking Crosby last night, he mostly just shut him down using a simple sweep check with his stick ... you know, the one that Hanifin thinks he's good enough to get away with but isn't. I don't recall Crosby driving into his body more than once or twice in the whole game. But whatever ... those guys can, as always, suck it.
- 17K in the building seemed to completely flummox the parking and traffic crews. They were routing traffic in ways I have NEVER seen in 18 years of attending games at the arena. God help us all if attendance actually picks up.
- Ryan's goaltender interference call was fair. He got a piece of Jarry's head prior to the defenseman's contact with him, and I would have been angry if the Canes hadn't gotten the call had the situations been reversed. Of course, the Canes have been screwed out of so many legit interference calls over the last two years that I think our crowd is a bit jaded. It's yet another rule ... like icing and slashing ... that the NHL simply doesn't enforce with any consistency.
- Great to get the win and further confuse Pens fans who are clearly reeling with the thought that they aren't very good right now. All the swagger, half the points. It's the Diet Pens.
- I'm hearing a lot of "great game" comments, but ... I mean, OK. The third period had some flow to it, but the rest was choppy as heck with both teams struggling to maintain possession.
- Carolina HAS to do something to change things up on the power play. HAS to.
- Both Malkin and Crosby seemed reluctant to engage physically, which isn't like them at all. Both of them generally get in the crease and mix it up but both were content to try and make plays from the edges of the fray and to snipe from distance. I think that's a big chunk of Pittsburgh's problem right now. The rest of their scorers rely on the chaos that those two create when they get into the mix and put the defense under real pressure. As good as Slavin was in checking Crosby last night, he mostly just shut him down using a simple sweep check with his stick ... you know, the one that Hanifin thinks he's good enough to get away with but isn't. I don't recall Crosby driving into his body more than once or twice in the whole game. But whatever ... those guys can, as always, suck it.
