More Penguins Stuff

The NFL Draft content is percolating. Trust me. It's going to be a beast and I've been working on it in shifts.

A few thoughts on the Penguins:

• I'm upset that the Flyers won for two reasons: 1. The Flyers won. 2. The Capitals didn't. I wanted Gary Bettman to blow a huge load in his dress slacks at the thought of Ovechkin, Crosby, and Malkin on the same ice together. Plus which, if the Capitals won, they'd have to travel to Pittsburgh, then play their 8th game (including one Game 7) in 15 days. The Pens will have played 4 games in the last 16 days and zero games in the last 9 by the time Friday rolls around.
• From what I understand, the football and baseball playoffs are about getting hot at the right time, the basketball and hockey playoffs are about talent and survival. Both post-season tournaments are so long and basketball and hockey are more individual-focused sports, so any chance that you have to rest your talent, you take it as a blessing. And, in a seven game series, it's okay if you come out rusty for the first and second period of the first game. There are plenty more games to come.
• The Rangers seem really thuggish and a lot like the Flyers. So that's not good.
• They also have Jagr. Jagr might be looking at his last playoff series as a US player. He might be looking to prove something before he goes back to Russia. That's also not good.
• The Rangers beat the Devil in a five game series and, pretty much exactly like the Penguins, they sat around, waiting and resting, ready to pounce on their next opponent.
• As much as I hope that we sweep these fuckers, I'm almost more hopeful that it goes to six or seven games so I don't have to wait a week until I find out who the next opponent is. This post-season has already been taxing on my psyche. I can't imagine how the players feel.
• Scott Burnside, who writes about hockey for ESPN.com is a really good analyst. Okay, well, I think he's a really good analyst because I don't know much about hockey and I like the way he breaks everything down in simple, easy to understand terms. His prediction is Penguins over Rangers. That sounds good to me.
• I'm still learning this wacky hockey thing, but I watched the Caps-Flyers game and the Flames-Sharks game (until it got out of hand) last night. I think I'm starting to catch on. The big issue is that I don't know anything about any team other than the Penguins. And I don't know much about the Penguins...