GAME SEVEN RECAP (Penguins 6, Capitals 2)

I'm sure the fact that Game Seven wasn't close disappointed a lot of people, and I'm sure that I don't mind not being one of them. Sure, the series had been exceedingly close by most relevant measures to that point-- both teams had won three games, the Penguins had scored one more cumulative goal and Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby had scored roughly the same number of points-- but there were two very telling areas in which the series hadn't been close. Going into Game Seven, the Penguins had taken 226 shots to the Capitals' 159. That imbalance wasn't an anomaly; the Penguins had generated more, and longer, offensive chances through the first six games. But it didn't mean anything because of the second imbalance: Simeon Varlamov had played out of his mind and turned away those scoring chances at a rate that was better than what Marc-Andre Fleury had managed. The buzz going into Game Seven was whether Fleury might show up to steal a game in the series, as he had at least once in the preceding series.

The post-series handshake line continues to be the best tradition in professional sports. A mere moment or two after the final horn sounded, the teams lined up and the drama of conciliation played out. Ovechkin and Sergei Gonchar spoke for a moment and seemed to bury the hatchet. A day earlier, Gonchar tersely refused to disclose his opinion on the cleanliness of Ovechkin's knee-shot on him in Game Four, and thereby disclosed his opinion. I'm sure it helped a lot to brighten Gonchar's disposition toward his countryman that he was able to play in Game Seven and that his team will live to play another day, but the two mended fences in an encouraging way. Everyone was anticipating the handshake between Ovechkin and Crosby, of course, and that they exchanged a few words beyond a perfunctory handshake suggests that while they'll always be rivals, they're not contemptuous of each other. After Crosby shook Ovechkin's hand, next in line for the Penguins was Matt Cooke, who greeted his former teammate in a moment of mutually-toothless warmth. Next up was Marc-Andre Fleury, and Ovechkin and he shook hands and exchanged some words that were pretty easy to guess. Ovechkin tormented Fleury for six full games, then Fleury came to life when it counted the most.

At the three-minute mark of a scoreless first period, Ovechkin took a lead pass along the left wing boards. Rob Scuderi was widely thought to have done a great job containing Ovechkin, in spite of the fact that he scored eight goals and six assists in the series. I'd hate to see, statistically, what a subpar defensive job against Ovechkin would have looked like. Anyway, on this occasion, Ovechkin snuck behind Scuderi, took the lead pass and broke in alone on Fleury. The moment of anticipation for a crowd when a guy on the home team is swooping in on a breakaway is pretty neat-- there's a collective holding of breath, and people might stand, or at least half-stand. Just look at the expressions on the faces in the second picture. If Ovechkin scores, the crowd detonates with enthusiasm and can probably keep it up a good, long while. Ovechkin cuts across the crease and shoots glove hand-side, right into where Fleury had set up. Yeah, the Penguins still had to score their goals, but in all other respects, the game was over.

And so it goes on. Penguins-Capitals: same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. There aren't any players on either team who played the last time the teams met in the playoffs in 2001, but it's the same as it ever was. I saw myself in a montage of my life set against the backdrop of Penguin beatdowns of the Capitals, set to that stupid Time of Your Life song. 1991 and 1992, I'm a college student watching the series in dormitory lounges at IUP. In 1995 I'm a law student watching the pivotal game at my sister's first apartment, a dreary first-floor place in State College. In 1996 I'm watching the 4-OT marathon alone during finals week in my third year of law school, yelling out at 2:30 in the morning in the apartment Ali and I rented after we got married. In 2000 and 2001 I'm watching the series in our first house in Churchill, with a baby or toddler on my lap. And now my kids are big enough to watch this annual rite of spring with me.