Pittsburgh Sports, Opinion and Politics | Just Watch the Game Blog

My journalism professors at Point Park and Kent State would not have approved this:

http://yfrog.com/ob54lwcj

It just doesn’t get any better than the last 10 minutes of Penguins-Flyers Game 5.

But then again, the potential is there for it to get better in Game 6.

Or 7.

The pressure is turned up on the Flyers now and the intensity from both teams will be turned up another notch.

The third period last night was a perfect example of why, in hockey, it’s not about the scoring. It’s about the scoring chances. The Flyers had plenty of them and Fleury shut them down.

There just isn’t anywhere in sports where you can find that much intense non stop action. Without scoring.

Obviously Fleury was much better last night than he had been in the previous four games, but he’s been better since early in Game 4.

Since just about the same time that his team started playing better in front of him.

Goalies have a really good view of their team when it’s melting down and that has to affect their confidence.

When I asked former Penguins and Flyers goalie Ken Wregget to give me a description of a bad goal, he said, “Any time the goalie is out of position.”

Civilians judge goaltenders on the number of great saves compared to the number of apparent soft goals.

Goalies (at least Wregget does) know that if a goalie is making too many brilliant saves, it’s probably because he’s out of position too often.

When a goalie is under siege with multiple odd man breaks, power plays and 5 on 3 power plays, it’s easy to see why he would begin to get out of sync. All the flopping and flailing makes it a little hard to stop and think about positioning.

Fleury made several saves early in the game last night that were a result of being in perfect position.

The billions of people on the planet who have never played goalie in the NHL don’t see the game the same as the few who have.

When we hear that a goalie is back on his game, we tend to think that it means he’s seeing the puck better or his timing has improved.

The truth may be that a goalie is back on his game when he’s back to getting himself in position to make his job look a lot easier than it actually is.

The Penguins and Flyers in Game 5 isn’t the only game in town tonight.

Your Buccos are taking on the Cardinals at PNC Park.

Attendance is all about advance sales and I would guess that they’ve sold a good number of tickets for the game. The question is, how many ticket holders will show up.

There are still lots of people out there who either don’t get hockey or don’t like it. Sad to think that anybody would choose a regular season Pirates game over the Penguins and Flyers tonight, but thousands of people will.

I’d love to hear from you if you’ve made that choice.

(By the way, anybody think that this series has gone on too long? Would you have preferred one and done? This is exactly why seven game series are so compelling. Especially if it goes back to Philly for a Game 6.)

I’ll be joining former Penguin Peter Taglianetti at steelcitybuzz.com tonight during the Penguins-Flyers game. We’ll be doing an ongoing discussion about the game. You’re invited to join us. Check it out. We’ll be there for the drop off the puck at 7:38.

If I’m not mistaken, in the history of the NHL, MLB and the NBA, 297 teams have found themselves down 3 games to none in a seven game series and seven have gone on to win.

That should tell you what kind of an accomplishment it would be if the Penguins were to win the next three games against the Flyers.

Of course, they don’t have to win the next three games.

They just have to win Game 4 Friday night.

Their record against the Flyers gives you no reason to believe that the Penguins can beat them four times in a row but what happened last night should give you every reason to believe that they can beat the Flyers tomorrow night.

And if the Penguins win tomorrow night (I know how big the if is) I like their chances of winning the next two.

The home ice advantage is eliminated or maybe even turned into a disadvantage if the Flyers have to play a sixth game.

The negative energy that filled the building last night will come back in a hurry if the Penguins would get an early lead and the Flyers would start getting the “we can’t possibly be blowing this” feeling.

If (I know big if) the Penguins win the next two, home ice will be an advantage because the Flyers will still be the team feeling the most pressure.

They know all about blowing a three game lead. They did it to the Bruins just a couple of years ago.

It’s still a long shot for the Penguins, but I’m going to guess that most of the teams that fell behind 3 games weren’t considered the favorites to win the championship when the playoffs started.

I will not be doing my talk show on TribLive Radio today, but I will be co-hosting a Penguins-Flyers pregame show at 5:30 with Ken Laird and former Penguins (and Flyers) goalie Ken Wregget.

Guy Junker will also be on with us from Philadelphia.

Come and see us at the Red Dawg All Star Clubhouse in Belle Vernon.

We’ll be doing the show right up until game time at 7:30.

http://twitpic.com/9b3puc