Note Hockey Expert Thomas Boswell on Pens:
Tom Boswell: Oh, I thought Crosby missed the whole series with an injury. Wasn't he out with two broken ankles?
He played like it.
Ovechkin was good against the Habs, just not goods enough. Crosby stunk it up. Who cares if Canada won the Olympics? Hockey is their sport. They should. Big deal. (Okay, I know it's a big deal.) But, right now, I'd take Eight over Crosby.
Last night, after his stupid penalty in the first 10 seconds __the biggest play/mistake of the game since it gave the habs an instant 1-0 lead__ Crosby just disappeared. Did he and Gonchar have a plane to catch?
As for lame excuses, I've never heard Ovechkin say anything like Crosby's whine: "I don't know how that's a penalty (for boarding) in the first 10 seconds of Game Seven. Yes, I'm stunned."
They called it for the same reason it's been called in every minute of the season, dope. It wasn't even close. If Ovechkin had done it, it would have been called borderline dirty, too.
Crosby was "stunned" because they had the guts to call it on HIM in his own building.
I always hated the Igloo. Nothing but bad memories. Glad to see 'em close the barn that way.
The Pens lost even though they had been given fair warning by the Caps-Habs series that Monmtreal was good, hot and playing a system that would thwart their style. That just says to me that they were ready to be taken and that, if the Caps had beaten Molntreal, they'd have handled the Pens, too. That's what I thought all season __undefeated vs Pitts__ and I think it even more now.
When will the Caps retool __not rebuild__ their roster so it can cope better with a Montreal-type series next spring?
Bruce Boudreau's wonderful chat here yesterday, always so honest, seems to shopw that the Caps have curled up for the summer with the Hot Goalie, We're Better, We Didn't Really Choke, Don't Need To Change Much line of easiest possible excuses. There's truth in all of those points. But you don't get better by focusing on them. You need to look at one goal in each of the last three games and say, "That isn't ALL the goalie. If you let those guys get even one goal ahead, they've mastered a style that'll drive you crazy if you can't score in close and ugly."
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What tripe. Boswell is shameless. But who would expect otherwise from a WP columnist?
Anyway: The Habs played their style to perfection against the Pens. And yet, the Habs won the series 4 games to 3. The Pens dominated play for much of the series. If Halak had been merely good instead of superb, the Pens win this series 4 games to 2 if not 4 to 1. But Halak was superb in every game but the first. Hence, the outcome.
Crosby was rightly stunned about the boarding call. The call was silly. It was beyond cheap because it was unclear then and remains unclear now that Crosby had committed a boarding violation. Rule 42.1:
A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player or goalkeeper who checks an opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to be thrown violently in the boards. The severity of the penalty, based upon the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, shall be at the discretion of the Referee.
I saw nothing of the sort. I saw the Habs player hit the boards and fall to the ice. I did not see him strike the boards with such violence that Crosby earned a penalty for the check and the Refs rightly penalized for the play. This was just a really bad call. Why should Crosby refuse to point that out. It is true and apt given the circumstances.
Boswell hated the Igloo. It had bad memories. To whom was this information important besides Boswell, his mother (assuming she actually cares) and other bitter Capitals' fans?
Washington loses, but it appears that Washington was not ready to be taken, according to Boswell. Pittsburgh loses but it appears that that the Pens were ready to be taken. In other words: Washington should have won if the team had prepared for this series; the Pens rightly lost because of a lack of... What? Why does this series expose the Pens? Who knows. Boswell does not know. He would have given his readers a
credible reason if he had one. But he does not have a credible explanation. He is thus left with implying that the Habs surprised Washington but the Pens could not have been surprised by Montreal and therefore really did lose their series....
Sports journalism = an affirmative action program for fools.
