During Friday’s pre-game skate at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, they could be playing a song “Why can’t we be friends.” The teams involved the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders will look each other in the eyes and tell each other to F-OFF. “We don’t like them and they don’t like us,” Penguins forward Pascal Dupuis said after their last game Feb. 11th “It shows on the ice.”
Why such hard feelings you ask? It all goes back to January 25th to be exact, Matt Cooke & Maxim Talbot were at their best being s**t disturbers. Cooke ran into Islanders goaltender Rick Dipetro on more than one occasion. Talbot also nailed Islanders forward Blake Comeau, the Penguins claim it was clean the Islanders think otherwise. Comeau was injured and substained a concussion. It was also not the first questionable hit that Comeau took playing Pittsburgh this season. In the series opener defenseman Kris Letang was kicked out the game for a head shot hit on Comeau.
The next matchup was Feburary 2, in Pittsburgh again. Everything was fine up until 19:43 mark of the third period, the Penguins up 3-0 dumped the puck in, Dipetro came out to play the puck, Cooke coming directly at him. The goalkeeper did not move and got his blocker up to defend himself. A linebrawl started, which seen both teams goaltenders fight, end result was Dipetro breaking his orbitable bone.
Then there was Febuary 11th, the Islanders had a clear mindset. Enough is enough, the Penguins will not come into our barn and push us around. When the dust settled the Islanders crushed the Pens both physicaly and on the scoreboard. in total over 8 fights, 360+ penalty minutes, and a 9-3 win.
The two main targets were Talbot, and Brent Johnson, the Penguin goalie who fought Dipertro. Some called it a circus, a joke while others refered to it as old time hockey. Whether it was Josh Bailey, Kyle Okposo, Zenon Konopka or Michael Haley, all the Islanders had 1 sole misson come as a team leave as a team. "I thought we all stuck together," said Islanders forward Moulson. "It was one of those nights. A lot of guys stepped up."
What next? Are the Penguins seeking revenge , what about the Isles?
Tonight at 7 pm eastern 4 pm pacific, the newest chapter will be writen. But, what will it intail, will the Penguins dress enforcer Eric Godard, who has not played since serving a 10 game suspension for his role Feb. 11th. What about Deryk Englland, another tough guy who had been a healthy scratch the last 4 games. The Pens would not be wrong for looking for payback, Haley beat up Johnson that night, while Isles Trevor Gilles concussed Pens forward Eric Tangradi with an elbow.
The Isles have nothing to lose, more to gain if anything. Be spoilers in beating Pittsburgh, and preventing them from getting home ice during the first round. They might have Talbot, Letang, and Tyler Kennedy in their sites, all 3 Penguins players threw dozens of cross-checks, slashes to Islanders players that night. The next game after a gong show is very quite, league officials looking on, giving out very clear
warnings. But, if its becomes a blow out either way, the league might have another gong show on their hands. This is why I suspect the Penguins will be caustious with who they dress, then again they could take a risk and dress their full lineup.
To give you an idea of how nasty things have gotten in the last 2 games, 19 fighting majors, 14 game misconducts, (12) 10 minute misconducts. Who knows maybe one of the play by play guys before the game will say "There's a carnival-like atmosphere here" similiar to the anouncer in Slapshot. While the Pens will not be bringing Ogie Ogilthorpe, Clarence "Screaming Buffalo" Swamptown or Andre "Poodle" Lussier out of retirement, I suspect the Penguins will be caustious with who they dress. Then again they could take a risk and dress their full lineup with no Godard or Englland. The Isles will dress Haley, Gilles, Konopka and Matt Martin there is no question about it. The Penguins have to decide where it goes from here.
No comments:
Post a Comment