Blame last night’s loss on the rain falling last night as fans funneled into the Igloo for Game 7? Nope. Blame it on the Fleury – Marc-Andre Fleury. The Penguins netminder had a game that all Pens fans and even he would sooner forget.

Sure, the Canadiens capitalized on their first shot after Sid took a terrible boarding penalty. Sure Gonchar looked like he was already making plans about where he would be playing next year. But those are the sorts of stops a goalie the caliber of Fleury is supposed to make. And that was the story of the night on three of the Canadiens first four goals as all were stops Fleury is supposed to make. But he didn’t and the Pens are off to the golf course for the summer awaiting next year and the opening of the Consol Energy Center.

Fans on hand tried their darndest to get the home team fired up but slowly and surely they fell down 4-0 half way through the second before coming to life with a goal by Chris Kunitz. The fans were loud and cheered even when the Pens were down. They cheered their hearts out. But this was not the year for another Stanley Cup.

Too many players just went through the motions after falling behind last night and when they finally got a fire lit under their asses it was too late. Too many players on the team just played like there was another chance to win the series when there was none and it will lead to one interesting off season as several players on this year’s team will almost certainly not return from Fedotenko to Ponikarovksy to most likely Gonchar as well.

Time for Shero to work his magic and get this team set for next year. And he’ll have a little bit longer than last year to do so.

There have been bad bounces a plenty for the Penguins as they now find themselves in a Game 7, winner take all match up with the Montreal Canadiens. Whether it is shots by Penguins players deflecting wide of Halak or clanging off the post, sticks missing pucks by a country mile with a yawning net waiting for the shot or pucks shot by Habs that seem to always find the net things have certainly not bounced the Penguins way. Which is why we are where we are. Forget the “mythical” Jaroslav Halak people keep talking about. The Penguins are beating themselves. Halak is not.

Halak’s weaknesses are well known by now. They are rebounds and the five hole. He is mortal. He bleeds. He can be killed. Get to the rebounds, shoot for the five hole and get a little offense from the defense and the Penguins win. Well, that is if Fleury shows up for Game 7.

Marc-Andre Fleury has played, well, good but not Fleury like in this second round matchup. Yes, most of the goals he has given up have been ones he should have stopped or have been fluke bounces but when push comes to shove tonight on the ice at the Igloo Fleury will have to find a way to end those all too frequent of occurrences. No excuses.

The defense can help by thinking about where they are throwing the puck in the defensive zone and making sure pucks get up ice onto the sticks of other Penguins. The offense can help out by not turning the puck over in the neutral zone and not pussyfooting pucks weakly around the offensive boards and ending any chance of sustained pressure. But in the end Fleury must rise to the occasion and get those flippers and his glove hand working in sync with his brain.

Fleury, and the whole team, must guard the cage he stands in front of like Spartans at the battle of Battle of Thermopylae in the movie 300. Although hopefully, I admit, with a slightly better outcome for the heroes tonight than death at the hands of the ravenous and barbaric enemy from the Great White North.

Fleury must be King Leonidas. He must hold the line. He must make the stand. He must declare that while he lives and breathes that no pucks shall pass. No one else will save this team from an all too early exit from the playoffs. Not Sid. Not Geno. Not even Mad Max Talbot. Not even the legion of 17,132 that will be sitting at the Igloo cheering the Penguins on.

Time to rise up Fleury. Time to be great. Time to become a legend.

Ok, I just got myself out of bed after a night of sound sleep resting easy knowing that the Stanley Cup was heading back here to Pittsburgh. Now that my head has cleared I am ready to give my thoughts about not just Game 7 but also the entire Stanley Cup Finals and playoffs.

• “That’s life” – Yes, it certainly is isn’t it Mr. Hossa. When asked about how it felt loosing the cup again after bolting from the Penguins to the team he felt had a better chance at securing Hockey’s ultimate prize this is what he had to say about it. Karma sucks huh?
• Hockey is an odd sport. Sure Penguins booed the Hossa every chance we had after he spurned the Penguins for Detroit, but we respect him because we know how good of a player he is. It was like when Jagr left the team. He was booed constantly on the ice but when they showed video highlights of him and tributes to his successes even while he was on the visiting team we cheered him … then we went right back to booing him. We all wish Hossa success in the future … just not against the Penguins.
• Hossa not only did not get the Stanley Cup he so desperately wanted, but he was for all intents and purposes a complete non-factor in the Finals. You think Pittsburgh Fans were hard on him? Wait until Detroit gets through tearing him a new @**hole. He won’t be able to get out of Detroit fast enough.
• Who would have thought that Maxime Talbot would be this year’s Fedotenko and score both the Penguins goals in the final game? And who would have thought that Mad Max would be the series leader in goals with four?
• During the Penguin’s first Stanley Cup run in 1990-1991 Frank Pietrangelo made what became known as “The Save” subbing for the legendary Tom Barrasso in Game 6 of the first round against New Jersey and robbed Petr Stastny of an easy goal. This year I think we have The Save II and The Save III and The Save IV. The Save II was when Fleury robbed Ovechkin in Game 7 of the second round in Washington to suck the air out of the Capitals. The Save III was by Rob Scudderi in Game 6 as he prevented the tying goal with Fleury out of position in the final moments. The Save IV was Fleury leaping like superman from the far post with the final two seconds ticking away, lept into the air to stop an elevated puck shot by Lindstrom and saving the game from going into extra frames.
• No Crosby? No Problem. Sidney Crosby was knocked out of the game for all intents and purposes by a fairly clean check by Johan Franzen. It was a tense moment for the Penguins as Crosby would return to play only one shift in the third. But the team rallied and played hard even if they did D-up too much in the third and gave Detroit far too many opportunities.
• 6:07 – that’s when I started to get really worried after Fluery let in another soft goal to allow the Wings to cut the lead to in half and be within one.
• Thank God for the posts. The posts were in play all series long. Early on in the series the Penguins were the victims of every bad bounce off of them. In Game 7, late, it was the crossbar that made one of the biggest saves against the Red Wings to keep me from being even more anxious than I already was.
• Penguins evolved when they needed to in this series. The Red Wings made it clear that they were not going to allow the Penguins to play their brand of up and down the ice high octane hockey. So they adapted, turned into a checking monster and hit like most Pens fans have never seen before.

My Three Stars of the Game:

3rd star: The crossbar

Hey, it made a great save in the waining moments!

2nd star: Max Talbot

With the only two goals of the game Max unquestionably deserves this honor.

1st star: Marc-Andre Fleury

I don’t care what you say, despite the vast amount of improvement Fleury still needs to make in the coming years (he needs to get much better handling the puck and with his glove hand on the high side) Fleury blossomed and saved this series with performances in Games 6 and 7 that make him worthy of the 1st star.

Series MVP:

I’m giving this honor to our two best goal tenders – Fleury and Scuderi. Without Fleury’s glove and without Scuderi sacrificing his body constantly, the Penguins would never have won this series.

Player I am happiest for:

Bill Guerin. I love this guy. He plays hockey the way it should be played and was a great addition to this team at the trade deadline.

What I hope for most:

Well, other than another Stanley Cup, I hope the Penguins and many of the pieces of this team can come to agreeable terms to keep the Champs mostly in tact moving forward. Scuderi, Fedotenko and Guerin are all free agents and are key parts to this team. They are not irreplaceable and I have not seen a list of free agents yet, but keeping all of them would be a boost. But Scuderi put on a clinic in the playoffs and will have teams falling all over themselves to sign him. I hope that Fed and Billy will decide to stay on for next year. Miro Satan and Petr Sykora are also players I would like to see come back, but honestly I do not see the Penguins paying Miro the kind of money they currently are to play on the fourth line – a role I think he blossomed at this year once put into it.

And just for good measure I want to say it once more …

THE STANLEY CUP CHAMPION PITTSBURGH PENGUINS!

This is it. We are down to Game 7 and it is for all the marbles. On Friday night the Penguins will march into Mordor … I mean Detroit and attempt to defeat Sauron … I mean the Red Wings.

For the Penguins this will be uncharted territory. This team has not had to endure the pressure of a single game to crown the NHL champion having lost last year in six to Detroit where there were no last minute heroics to be had. This year it was Detroit who could not find the net as game six wound down.

Forget pressure. Both teams are under it. Detroit needs the Cup to show that they still have what it takes to be champions and prove wrong those that say they are too old. Pittsburgh needs the Cup to prove that they are not doomed to be the bridesmaid and never the bride. Plus getting back to the finals three years in a row for the Penguins is a bet I will not even make.

Forget age versus youth. Sure the Red Wings are older but older warriors are wiser. Pittsburgh is younger for sure but so far the speed of their youthful legs has been pretty much held in check.

Goaltending? Both Fleury and Osgood have proven to be mortal at times and both have been spectacular at others. But I will give this obvious conclusion … which ever plays better in Game 7 wins.

Big names and big guns? So far this series has belonged more to the role players than that stars who have consistently canceled each other out.

Matchups? So far it is has been a series of picking your poison on both sides of the ice. Put Zetterberg out there against Crosby and you negate Crosby but also Zetterberg as Crosby has fallen into the counter role of his constant shadow.

Trends of history? Who cares! Sure the Penguins have been unbeatable in Game 7s but those players are for the most part long gone from this roster except those that played in the Washington series this year. Sure Detroit has been pretty much invincible on home ice but the Penguins have shown that they can win there in both the regular season and the playoffs … just not this postseason so far. They are either due or just incapable of doing it.

So considering all this I tried to think about what I would say to the Penguins team if I were coach Bylsma prior to game seven. What follows are my extemporaneous remarks written without edit as if I were speaking to the team and continuing with the Lord of the Rings theme I opened with …

The Lord of the Rings is a heroic tale of men, and hobbits, who had to go to war for their very survival and they found out a lot about themselves as they fought each battle. They learned that even when they thought that they had nothing left to give there was more that they could bring forth to fight the next battle. Along the way they suffered losses and felt the sting of defeat. But they also experienced great victories as well.

We have done the same. We have taken to the field of battle and both lost and won along the way. We are beaten and bloodied. Our bodies ache. But there is one last battle that must be fought before this is over and that battle will determine who is the hero and who is the villain. Everything up until this point is meaningless.

One game to rule them all … that is what this season has come down to. It probably never should have come to this considering Detroit stormed out to another 2-0 series lead this year on us. But while the first three games played out with the same results as last year, the last three games have each seen a different winner from the previous season proving that nothing is certain. The future is not written nor is it based on the past. There was no Game 7 last year so everything from here on out is all brand new and all bets are off.

One game to find yourself … to find yourselves as either champions or as nothing but a footnote that is to be surely forgotten except to be cursed in the sports bar by disgruntled Pittsburghers or mocked by joyous Red Wings fans. Well Sid, how badly do you NOT want to be in that photograph of the losers again as Detroit parades around with the Cup in triumph? The time to decide is at hand. The time to find yourself and rise to the occasion is now. There is no tomorrow.

One game to bring it … and bring it while leaving nothing on the ice and no doubt at all. When this game ends the looser goes home empty handed with only the hope that they could potentially return to this precipice again next year and a trinket of a trophy from the Conference Championship to show for their efforts. The time is now for the future contains no guarantees. If you want the Cup you must win tonight and never think about future opportunities that may never arise to claim it.

Are you frightened Sid? How about you Geno? Marc-Andre? Jordan? I do not believe that you are nearly frightened enough! It is time to pledge to each your life (or death) to protect one another and stand as one. It is time to draw a line that Detroit will not be allowed to cross. It is time to pledge your stick, your mind and every inch of your body to this task at hand. It is time to proclaim to your foes facing you that if they want the prize before you both that they must claim it from you for it is in your hands which victory rests! Do not allow them to take it without a fight! They tell you that there can be no victory. But there is always hope.

When Frodo took the One Ring to Mordor he did so believing that he would not come back alive. But he did what he needed to do. He was willing to sacrifice everything for his friends and strangers who were counting on him. And in the end he found out that death was not so certain after all although pain certainly was.

The gates of Mordor are opened and are challenging each of you to dare to enter and face down your nemesis; to face a foe that is menacing and wields unimaginable power. You must not fear pain. For you will feel pain. You must not fear death. For you must expect that you will surely feel as if you are dying as you expend every last ounce of energy over the course of this final and deciding game no matter how long it takes be it sixty minutes or six hundred. You must face death without fear in order to cast your demons into the fire and destroy them. To defeat the Red Wings you must know this and be willing to make every sacrifice that is required of you.

Then and maybe, just maybe, you will survive and be heroes.

The time is chosen and it is at hand. The field of final battle is chosen and you are about to go forth up on it. We are in enemy territory from this moment on. If it moves, has the puck and wears a red sweater you will hit it. If the puck is headed towards your own net you will block it. If the puck is loose you will race for it. If you are in the offensive zone with the puck on your own stick, you will shoot it. If you are in a scrum for the puck in front of their goalie you will bury it.

Why? Because you are not just penguins, but Pittsburgh Penguins – the only one of the species that can soar to the greatest of heights.