A brief look back

[pressure=9Pa]

My newborn daughter decided neither of us should sleep last night, so I popped in Game 5 from the 2008 Finals. A few observations below:

*Of players who dressed in that game for the Penguins, only Sid, Geno, Dupuis, Fleury, TK, and Orpik remain.

*Gary Roberts started on a line with Crosby and Hossa, just to get things off to a good start.

*I thought this game was the game where Ruutu told Maltby to "Sit down, Shut up and retire," but that was earlier in the series.

*Sid always knew where Hossa was on the ice. It was remarkable how well those two were in synch despite not playing that many games together. It made the "Winger for Sid" feelings come back.

*MAF was amazing. Gave up 3 goals in just over 109 minutes. Only the third was even remotely savable, and that wasn't on him either. The first two were point blank deflections. Probably a dozen highlight saves in that game.

*It's wierd to see a powerplay start somewhere outside the offensive zone. It seems like that rule change was 100 years ago.

*Whitney played over 50 minutes, and looked competant in the defensive end. I have evidently blocked that from my memory bank, because I swore that had never happened.

*Malone coming back after his face exploded is the reason playoff hockey is the most intense sporting genre.

*I had forgotten how terrible MAF used to be handling the puck. His journey from that attrociousness to today's adequacy was a huge leap.

*I had also discounted that Sid used to struggle on faceoffs. He won 14 of 33, and was beaten cleanly a few times.

*Watching a game without a lot of emotional bias since it was over 4 years ago, and Pierre's Red Wing love is still very annoying. Yes, it's a team that any hockey man would love to coach, but enough is enough.

*Max scored 3 of the biggest 30 goals in Pens history - only 2 will be remembered.

*I miss hockey.

[penny lane]

Flower's save on mikail samuelsson was by the tip of his skate!

Spoiler:

Sergei Gonchar, left the game, took off his equipment. But, put it back on in the OT periods, returned for the 4 minutes PP.

Spoiler:

Sometimes, I miss the ryans' from these penguin teams. Nobody has replaced Malone's spot with hands in front of the net.

If Evgeni and Sid played together; their chemistry would be off of the charts. Hossa was that close in game six ...something special like 08 and 09; rematch in the finals. You can have all the skills and talent, but without good fortune; you can be easily derailed.

[pressure=9Pa]

Malone is the player I would love to return to Pittsburgh someday. He got an offer that he couldn't refuse and RS couldn't match, but he'd fit in immediately upon arrival.

[duke66]

nice post. i was at that game in detroit with my future wife. i think i aged 10 years watching that game. the cup was in the building and was seconds away from being presented. remember some drunk wings fan threatening me after the pens won. we stayed in our seat until the building cleared out to avoid a homocide!!

[pressure=9Pa]

The Cup being taken out of it case and put back in was another bullet point I missed.

[Ben Klingston]

Flower's save on mikail samuelsson was by the tip of his skate!

Spoiler:

I like that one, but I think there is another shot of that save where you can see the momentum he was moving back and right to left because his helmet is actually forced behind him faster than his face is moving. Can't find it on a quick Google Image search.

[Nizzy]

Penguins, only Sid, Geno, Dupuis, Fleury, TK, and Orpik remain.

Wow, so shocking. Letang was the 7th defenseman still? Really sad how many players lost from those cup runs. Would be so awesome if Malone, Scuderi, & Talbot were still Pens. I thought for sure Adams was there but then I remember it was Hall. Adding Cooke & Kunitz type players helped us so much grinding down the Wings.

[NeddieVedder]

Letang started all playoffs but Sydor replaced him a couple games into the Finals after Luc Bourdon died.