2011 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Game Seven: Lightning 1, Penguins 0

And so it ends.

2011 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Game Four: Penguins 3, Lightning 2 (2OT)

The trend continued last night, by which I mean that a night meeting kept me from seeing most of the game. When I left Beaver County, the Penguins were up by 2, and about a mile and a half from home, the Lightning scored to send it into overtime. So I saw overtime and double-overtime.
There are a bunch of great storylines with this year's Penguins. For example: (1) Will Sidney Crosby ever be the same. If so, will it be in time for this playoff season? (2) In the balance sheet of leaguewide headshot reduction efforts, are the Penguins victims or victimizers? (3) Is there any gas left in the tank of the Alex Kovalev Retro-reunion Tour? and (4) Did the Penguins get fleeced when they traded for James Neal? Prior to last night, Neal had scored one goal in more than twenty games with the Penguins, a four-goal season pace that's, uh, a little off the twentysomething goals he's been scoring for Dallas each of the past couple of seasons. We'll know in a year whether his double-overtime winner last night got him on the road to recovering his scoring touch.
And now for the videoblog:

This commercial was out today, with aged footage. Instant nostalgia! For last night!

This is catnip to me. I love these kinds of away-from-the-microphone interactions. And the squad of cheerleaders is tough to beat. In the suit is the guy with the concussion who's the best hockey player in the world. The guy in the track suit doing all the backslapping was the playoff MVP two short years ago and is in the top five when he's on his game.

2011 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Game Three: Penguins 3, Lightning 2

I had a meeting and was able to catch only the last half of the game, so this will be another partial-game reaction. Here are some bizarre numbers: Through three games, the Penguins hold a 2-1 lead and both teams have scored 7 goals. The Penguins have scored 6 at even-strength and 1 into an empty net. The Lightning have scored 2 at even-strength, 4 on the power play and 1 into an empty net. Overall, the Lightning are 4 for 11 on the man-ad, while the Penguins are an unsurprisingly-abysmal 0 for 15. The special teams disparity explains why all but one of the Penguins' skaters are plus or even, while 13 of the 18 Lightning skaters are minus players. Weird.
Tyler Kennedy's goal a few minutes into the third was a backbreaker, as it came less than a minute after the Lightning finally got back to even with the Penguins after trailing since the four-minute mark. The goal marked Kennedy's first playoff goal since the '09 Finals, which seem a lot longer than two years ago.

2011 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Game Two: Lightning 5, Penguins 1

Circumstances permitted me to miss every second of this debacle. Ginger's soccer practice ran late, then I had to stop to fill the car with gas, then we had a taco picnic. The girls wanted to play Wii, and I had the DVR running, so I agreed. Daisy fussed and I took her upstairs for the bed and bath rituals. When I had her dressed and began cradling her for a few lullabies, I sat down and checked the score online. A 3-0 deficit halfway through made it an easy choice to watch TANGLED with the girls.

2011 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Game One: Penguins 3, Lightning 0

Sports fans are slaves to superstitition. Why is that? I believe it's because the rational mind resists getting wrapped up so thoroughly in something over which one has no control. The repetition of successful actions creates the illusion of control and reassures us that we aren't wasting our zeal on something random and absurd. Anyway, I spent the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup Playoff seasons recounting to an audience of one the game-by-game exploits of my favorite bunch of skaters. The first year of my labors the Penguins fell a mere two wins short of the Cup. The second year they pulled off the first game seven road win in a championship round since the '79 Pirates. I took last year off and the team slouched to a second-round exit. So here we are.

Game One was only the second game I've watched end-to-end since the Winter Classic. I've caught periods here and there and highlights, but for reasons that will be later explained, I let the second half of the regular season slide by in my peripheral vision. I might come to regret that; there's so much to like about this team and the way they've responded to adversity. Game One reminded me quickly why playoff hockey does it for me so thoroughly, random or not. Game was scoreless for the first forty-six minutes until a missed slash-trip, a failed breakout, a turnover and a shot-pass led to Alex Kovalev one-timing a shot for the year's first playoff goal, and the first game-winner. I'd love to see Kovalev become this year's Bill Guerin. On the ice, anyway. I don't think he makes much noise in the locker room. He's the link, though, between the Crosby-Malkin-Fleury-Staal Penguins and the Lemieux-Jagr-Straka Penguins, and seeing him get on the board so early in the series, with a fantastic assist by James Neal, bodes well.

March, 2011 Film Viewings

3/3 IRINA PALM (Garbarski, 2007)
3/11 THE SORCEROR'S APPRENTICE (Turteltaub, 2010)
3/18 PSYCHO (Hitchcock, 1960)
3/19 THE PILGRIM (Chaplin, 1923)
3/23 STRANGER THAN PARADISE (Jarmusch, 1984)