JESUS CHRIST!

The LEAST about this the better. Bylsman should have gone into the locker room after the "game" and torn it to pieces, told Fleury he was out for the rest of the series (playoffs) and informed the rest of those humps that only the ones with balls should show up in Philadelphia if he had to take people from Wilkes-Barre to complete the team.


THAT IS ALL!

CAN I GO BACK ON THAT PREDICTION?

After losing at least twice to the Flyers this season after taking 2-0 leads the Penguins blow a THREE-to-nothing lead and lose in OT. It's kind of like when the Steelers score 20 points in the first five minutes and then get only a field goal the rest of the game. Even if you win, that's no way to win. You can't build up any momentum that way. Even if the Flyers had LOST,  they still would have had the momentum after coming back from a 3-goal deficit.


Fortunately I didn't see ANY of the Flyers' goals. My wife wanted to watch something else and we missed the whole second period. And when I saw what the score was at the end of two periods I decided not to watch it as recorded. I also fast-forwarded through the Flyers PP and didn't "see" that goal. THEN, somehow we got off onto another NBC channel or something (with the Detroit-Nashville game) while waiting for the OT intermission to end and suddenly my phone goes off with an ESPN update and, shit, they lost.


Not really a surprise. You could see the momentum slipping away. The Flyers had WAY too many opportunities in the Penguins' zone in the third period. The other factor was the Flyers were hitting EVERYBODY. They did not pass up one check while the Penguins took the night off in that category except for a few notable exceptions. I know the "Hits" totals were similar but you could see the Flyers were making theirs count.

Actually, the Pens were lucky they made it to OT. If not for scoring that late goal in the first period it would have been over 2:23 sooner. 


I don't know HOW you recover from this. The Flyers were hitting AND interfering AND holding AND throwing LATE hits and only received three penalties. In Philadelphia they'll do EVEN MORE of that and probably not have anything called. Another problem was the Flyers scored on their lone PP and the Penguins screwed up three chances. Yeah, they screwed them up. Too many passes that didn't hit their mark, too few shots, not enough hustle. When Philadelphia out HUSTLES you, you're in for a LONG (short) series. I know the Pens lost the first TWO games of every series in 2009 winning the Stanley Cup but that had NEVER been don before and probably WON'T be done again. Speaking of done... Have you all got your drivers tuned up? You may want to start.


Sorry, I don't want to spend any more time on this than necessary so NO PICTURES EITHER.

FROM BLEACHER REPORT

  Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

The quality of the NFL's TV product is slipping

High velocity, high impact and high definition. Pro football is a perfect match for today's dazzling LCD and plasma displays. The breakneck speed, the bone-crunching hits and the roaring crowds captivate like a Hollywood action flick. Meanwhile, the breaks between plays give time for reaction, analysis and checking Twitter for everything that's happening in the background.

However, the NFL is becoming a victim of its own success. How many of you have screamed at the TV after a sequence like this:

Extra point.

Three-minute commercial break.

Kickoff.

Three-minute commercial break.

One play. Timeout called.

One-minute commercial break.

Two failed plays, punt.

Three-minute commercial break.

When a half-hour of real time is almost 50 percent commercials, and most of the rest is crowd shots, coach spittle and "dramatic" close-ups of the quarterback's eyes, the excitement of the breakneck speed and bone-crunching hits dissipates.

That all presumes you can watch the game.

The NFL's success is partly because of its regular Sunday afternoon time slot. Unlike baseball, basketball and hockey's nearly endless slew of regular-season games, even the busiest American family can carve four hours out of 16 Sundays a year to watch their favorite team.

But with Thursday Night Football on NFL Network, the regular Sunday slate on CBS and FOX, Sunday Night Football on NBC and Monday Night Football on ESPN, games are all over the calendar and all over the digital dial.

Worse, each of those networks has pre-game shows, commentator teams, sideline reporters, post-game highlight crews and weekday breakdown shows. Unlike the tight, focused shows of the '80s and '90s, modern football TV coverage is saturated with former players and coaches with questionable broadcasting skills. With the wealth of quality football information available online, listening to a baker's dozen worth of guys in suits shouting over each other just isn't worth the time.

Worse, as much as football benefits from HD, you're not seeing the whole game. As the Wall Street Journal explained, the NFL prevents fans from seeing camera angles that show all the players on the field at the same time. Goodell and the league say this prevents fans and analysts from wrongly criticizing coaches, but who are they kidding? Coaches have been wrongly (and rightly) criticized by football fans since long before television.

Meanwhile sports like basketball, hockey and soccer all benefit greatly from HD aspect ratios and clarity. The NFL's biggest advantage over competing sports leagues—how it looks on TV—has shrunk dramatically.

NHL PLAYOFFS--MY FEARLESS PREDICTIONS

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Detroit

Nashville

NASHVILLE in 7 Games

         Chicago

         Phoenix

PHOENIX in 7 Games

      

        San Jose

       St. Louis

ST. LOUIS in 5 GAMES

      Los Angeles

         Vancouver

LOS ANGELES in 7 Games

EASTERN CONFERENCE

  

       New Jersey

           Florida

NEW JERSEY in 6 Games

       Washington

           Boston

   

BOSTON IN 6 Games

          Ottawa

New York

NEW YORK in 5 Games

AND THE ONE YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR...

      Philadelphia

        Pittsburgh

PENGUINS in 6 Games

Kovacevic: Say it: Penguins will win Cup

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, April 11, 2012

It`s been three years since Marc-Andre Fleury slid across to stone Nicklas Lidstrom and Sidney Crosby raised the Stanley Cup on that joyous June 12, 2009, at Joe Louis Arena.

Three long, lousy years.

Or, to put that in more painfully precise terms, it`s been 101 games lost by Crosby to concussions and other stuff, 61 games lost by Evgeni Malkin to knee injuries and other stuff, and 60 games lost by Jordan Staal to two foot surgeries, three related procedures, an infection, a broken hand, a strained knee and … am I missing something?

Oh, yeah: Two Game 7 losses to inferior opponents on home ice.

Those might have hurt the most.

Anyone ready for a change?

Anyone ready for all that misfortune to take a hard Pittsburgh left?

I can name at least 20 individuals — notably the 10 who were in uniform that defining night in Detroit — who sure sound ready to generate that change, beginning with Game 1 against the Flyers on this great Wednesday for hockey at Consol Energy Center.

"The fire is there, for sure," Crosby said Tuesday after practice.

"This team`s really hungry," right winger Craig Adams said.

"We`ve wanted it all along," defenseman Brooks Orpik said. "The desire was there even last year when we were playing without Sid and Geno. This year, it`s just a little more realistic."

Sure is.

Everyone around town has been sharing their first-round predictions in recent days. Here`s mine: These Penguins are going to win the Stanley Cup.

And when they do, few of us will even remember how they took out the Flyers.

I`m not suggesting it`ll be easy. Clearly, it won`t, based on the rivals` heated, mostly even back-and-forth this season. But I am saying there isn`t another NHL team — not the Flyers, Canucks, Blues, Predators, Rangers or anyone else — that can match the Penguins` total package.

Scoring?

That was No. 1 in the league, led by the game`s preeminent players in Crosby and Malkin and suddenly one of its preeminent wingers in James Neal.

Depth?

No other team can claim seven players with 17 or more goals, and bear in mind that Crosby isn`t among them. He had eight. Chris Kunitz (26), Pascal Dupuis (25) and Matt Cooke (19) all had career-high outputs in supporting roles.

Special teams?

The power play ranked fifth, the penalty-killing third. If your biggest problem on special teams is how to utilize the best player on the planet with the man-advantage, you have no problems.

Defense?

It`s got a star in Kris Letang, it`s got good mobility and, while it`s hardly rambunctious, I wouldn`t cross the blue line with my head down against Letang, Deryk Engelland or Orpik. That`s half the corps right there.

Toughness?

This is as tough as any roster, top to bottom, in franchise history. And I`m not talking about fights, which are rare in the playoffs. I`m talking Adams tough, Arron Asham tough, in-your-face tough.

Discipline?

OK, we`ll see on this one. Suffice it to say facing the Flyers first should help.

Goaltending?

Of the current top performers at the game`s most important position, Fleury is the only one with a ring. That counts.

Add all this up, look at the rest of the field, and don`t be afraid to say it: This team is built to win the Cup.

Not to take a round or two.

Not to reach the final.

To win it all.

The way most in this locker room see it, they should have challenged for the Cup every year since 2009. They should have reaped so much more from this blessed well of talent, and they would have had it not been for the curse of injury.

"I think now comes the realization, with these last couple years, that you don`t know when you`ll get the opportunity again," Cooke said. "You don`t know when you`re going to have a full lineup like this. You don`t know when you`re going to have all this potential like we have. You want to make the most of it."

He`s right.

Now, dump the Flyers in five or six and get on with it. There`s bigger business at hand.

PENGUINS END REGULAR SEASON WITH WIN OVER FLYERS

If it weren't for the Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist and injuries to key players (Staal, Letang, Crosby) the Penguins would have had a record year. As it is they amassed two more points than last season (108 with 51 wins) second only to the 1992-93 campaign's total of 119 (with 56 wins). Since the 2006-2007 season the Penguins have average 103.5 points per year and 47.7 wins. 

FINAL NHL STANDINGS


Strangely the Penguins finished with the same number of wins as the Rangers and they finished both fourth in the Eastern Conference and fourth in the league overall.  In fact, four teams from the Penguins' Atlantic Division finished in the top 9 in the league overall. But interestingly enough the Penguins all-time win-loss record is still under .500, 1631-1639.

With the game basically meaningless in the standing it was about letting the Flyers know the Penguins can beat them and goaltender Serge Bobrovsky (or as I like to call him just Bob Rovsky) at The Consol. The Pens had been 0-5 over the past two season in the new arena against them.

There were two other matters that required settleing. Eyvgeni Malin needed a goal to reach 50 for the season. And he did while winning the season scoring title with 109 points.


MALKIN SCORES 50th

Joe Vitale would probably have to fight someone to protect his honor after his hit Tuesday night on Daniel Brierre. And he did, dispatching Jakub Voracek in short order. Guess the Flyers will have to send someone tougher next time.


VITALE FIGHT

Now it's onward into the Commonwealth Cold War with the Flyers beginning later this week (TBD). But I guarantee it will be anything but COLD.

Excuse me for almost forgetting but Pascal Dupuis extended his scoring streak to 17 games. Congrats, Duper.