Staal Falls

You can now find us here: http://community.livejournal.com/staalfalls/.

So last week slick and I got to go to the Pens vs. Canes game in Raleight. We were lucky enough to get front row seats on the side that the pens shot twice. It was a great game and unfortunately the canes won with an OT goal. Here are some of the pics that we took during the game, they're mostly Crosby/Malkin/Staal with some Eric Staal thrown in for my little sis.

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Just...wow. What a game. I know it's been almost a week. Plus Riz and I were a bit disappointed that Canada didn't get to go against Russia for the final. But we were still super excited by the outcome. Not only did Canada come out on top, but the game winning OT goal was scored by none other than Sidney Crosby.

We have to give props to Zach Parise for scoring a final USA goal to tie up the game with about 5 seconds left in the third. Well, I'll give him props. I'm pretty sure the phrase "Fuck you, Parise" came out of Riz's mouth more than once. And Ryan Miller fully deserved his tournament MVP recognition, as his play was awesome the entire time.

Before Vancouver, Canada had never won a gold medal on their home turf. So it seemed kind of fitting that they'd come out of these Games with more gold medals than anyone else, including crucial wins in both men's and women's hockey. In recognition of this honor, we've made our own representation of the victory...a gold medal for Sidney Crosby Penguin:

Ok, so my craft efforts will probably never land on Etsy. But at least Sidney Crosby Penguin got to keep his stick...which is more than can be said for the real Sid.

Now that the Olympics are over, the Pens are back together and on the road for the next couple of weeks. So far, this road trip has been pretty good for them, with narrow victories over the Sabres and the Rangers. Let's hope it holds up for the weekend!

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Originally Slick and I had planned to split up the Olympic games so she would cover the Canadians and I would cover the Russians, but as she has apparently she has decided to defect and cheer for the US (wtf, you traitor!), I guess it's my job to cover both teams.  So here goes my sort of recap (mostly Russian centered as that's what I prepared):

+Ovechkin is only an 'A'?  He was clearly robbed.  

+Ilya stole Malkin's 71.  Poor Malkin is now 11, which seems to be confusing for both the spectators and occasionally the commentators.  

+Yay for seeing Feds again.  We missed him since he moved to the KHL.

+Another yay for Sasha and Ovie still playing on the same line, and doing a spectacular job at it.  

+I'm sad to see that Ovie's shoes had to be replaced after only a game and a half.  Here's a picture for those of you who missed them:

Photo Credit

As far as Canada goes:

+Brodeur seems to be less impressive in the Olympics than he is during the regular season

+We're very excited to see Toews as he's usually hiding in the Western conference and we rarely get to see him in action

+It's also good to see that even though they're on opposite teams, Malkin and Crosby are still friends (as evidenced by the first picture)

All in all, it just fun to be able to see our boys play for shiny shiny medals.  Go Russia and Canada!    

-Riz

++Staal falls: 1

++People involved in a Staal fall: just him

++Staal goals: 2 (so close, again!)

++Malkin in the box: 0

++Fights: 3...that we counted; they really couldn't manage to stop play without some sort of skirmish around the net

Jordan Staal came super close to scoring 3 goals in this game, and Sid scored twice as well. I was happy to see it, though Riz wanted to give Jordan grief for screwing up Sidney Crosby's (potential) natural hat trick...again. Ultimately, it didn't matter as neither of the guys put another goal up. A rally by the Caps in the second put a freeze on the Pens' scoring abilities, and it was Ovechkin who landed a hat trick for this game. His efforts helped bring the Caps a 5-4 overtime victory, and dragged their winning streak up to 14. Maybe Ovechkin will be able to sell out to Geico, just like Mike Green.

Or maybe not.

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Today's game against the Montreal Canadiens started on a sour note, and didn't get much better for our Pens. Maybe they were a little off balance after four days off. Maybe they were distracted by thoughts of taking on the Capitals tomorrow, and got overconfident. But the 5-3 loss of this game was sad. The Canadiens have barely scrabbled their way into the top half of the NHL rankings, and they were missing several key players this afternoon due to injury. Our recap:

++Staal falls: 3

++People involved in a Staal fall: 2

++Falls resulting in successful goal: 0

++Malkin in the box: 1 (though it was Billy Guerin's penalty)

++Fights: 2

I was expecting a fight a bit earlier in the game. Less than 30 seconds in, Fleury moved behind the goal to redirect a puck and was shoved over by the Canadiens' Mathieu Darche. Before Flower could move back into the crease, they had scored on the empty net. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that a penalty should have been called for goaltender interference...but it wasn't. And said goaltender was pissed. The Pens coaches were reported as saying that the refs later apologized for screwing up that call, but the tone was set. I had thought the Pens would lay the smackdown on Darche for the cheap shot, but it then occurred to me that I may have watched too many Capitals games this week. Team Ovechkin would have been all over that.

I'm sure I'm biased, but I thought the Canadiens (and their fans) showed a real lack of sportsmanship through this game. From Darche's goaltender hit to the fans repeated rendition of "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" for most of the last TEN MINUTES of the game...it was not attractive. And it's sad because they were in Quebec, and I wanted to like the French Canadians. Their accents are so cute. Anyway...we'll see who's on top, come playoff season. In the meantime, the Pens are scheduled to take on the Caps tomorrow. I would worry about how today's play will affect them, but given the 2.5 feet of snow dumped on DC today I think they'll have bigger problems. Hopefully the game will go on, and our Pens will manage a good showing after the bus ride (ew) from Newark.

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En garde! We approve of Sidney Crosby's fencing stance. Riz and I have a college-level education in fencing, so we would know. It's a pretty slow week in the Penguins' world; they had a game against the Sabres on Monday and won't play again until tomorrow. Monday's game started out a little rough for the Pens, but they picked things up in the second period. Our recap:

++Staal falls: 2

++Most people involved in a Staal fall: 0

++Malkin in the box: 0

++Fights: nothing of note

We were so happy to see that Jordan Staal finally scored. He must have had a dozen attempts between the Red Wings and Sabres games. But of course, he was ultimately showed up by Sidney Crosby, who got his fifth career hat trick (third this season). He was very smiley. The Jordan Staal Award is hereby bestowed upon Pascal Dupuis for this game. He was in the crease following Crosby's second goal, in case of a rebound. While watching over his shoulder, he tripped over the skates of Sabres goalie Ryan Miller and landed on his ass.