Stanley Cup Playoffs begin tonight.

How fitting it is that the sun is shining and the temperature is rather nice. (At least in Pittsburgh.) Today is the beginning of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs and this beautiful weather reflects my wonderful excitement for the start of the playoffs. Months ago the thought of not having a season or playoffs at all was a frequent one. Now here we are, after a shortened season, welcoming the beginning of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Pens do not play until tomorrow night, but any playoff hockey, even for teams you may despise or couldn't care less about, offers excitement and a story.

Every series has a story. Whether it is large or small, unknown or well known, the underdog or the clear favorite, whatever the story line might be, every series will offer some great hockey. Even if one of the teams completely dominates the other and sweeps the series. It might not be what I think of when I think of thrilling playoff hockey, but it is exciting.

What I imagine when thinking of great playoff hockey and what I want to see for the team I root for are rather different though. When I think of great playoff hockey, I imagine a series so close, picking a winner is nearly impossible. I imagine tight goaltending and great goal-scoring. I imagine tough, physical games, but games not riddled with penalties. I imagine games where the scoring is close and games when every second, every shot can be the difference maker. I imagine those game 7s where the final seconds tick away and it's tied 2-2. The game goes into overtime and it may be one overtime period or it may take 3 or 4, but you see the desperation, you see the sacrifices the players are making to ensure their season doesn't end that night. That is playoff hockey to me and that's what I love to see when watching playoff hockey. Maybe not in my favorite team's series perhaps, but any other series.
Ok, if I'm being truly honest, I love to see my favorite team involved in those kind of games as well. I just might be on the edge of my seat, standing, or even rocking. I will be a nervous wreck, but I still love those games. Just as long as we win, because you may not want to be around me when we lose.

Playoff hockey is when everything is on the line and either teams know and have what it takes, or they don't. The battle to the Stanley Cup is unlike any other sport's playoffs (in my opinion). That journey begins tonight. Here's to those close series, close games, unbelievable performances and to those triple overtime game 7s. Here's to the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs!

One story ends. A more thrilling one is set to begin.

Saturday brings us to the end of the regular season for the Pittsburgh Penguins. We end the regular season at home with a game against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Pens go into the game losing the past two with some poorly played hockey and will look to end the regular season on a winning note. Though, it was a short time ago that the Pens clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference, so these losses have meant nothing to our position in the standings. However, it might not be the best thing to come into the playoffs with a losing streak with games featuring some mistakes. Therefore, the Pens will look to correct their mistakes and will look for a boost in the return of James Neal and Paul Martin this Saturday.

Win or lose Saturday though and the Pens are still in the playoffs. That is a nice feeling to have and one Pens' fans as of late are used to. We haven't had to battle for the 8th spot in the Conference for some time, but that does not mean that we have had smooth sailing once in the playoffs. As we all surely know. Last year's first round loss to the Philadelphia Flyers was extremely disappointing. A first round loss, no matter the opponent, this year would be even more disappointing. A first round loss again would surely mean some changes in the organization. This team is expected to perform well and a mediocre or dismal playoff season just will not do. Making the playoffs for some teams is an accomplishment all in itself (Congratulations Toronto!). But not the Pens. For the Pens, it's just a beginning.

While some teams will pack their things this weekend and go their seperate ways, the Pens will join 15 other teams in closing the book of the regular season and begin to prepare for the story of NHL playoff hockey. Every team begins a season with the sole purpose to begin this second story, one that each team hopes will end with another book chronicling what each team member did with the Stanely Cup on their day with the sacred trophy. Only one team will prove to be the best, the toughest, the most skilled, the hardest working, the most complete, the Stanley Cup winners. It most certainly is not an easy task. Upsets will happen, good teams will fall, better teams will prevail, series sweeps will occur, overtime hockey means much more, and perhaps a game 7 or a few will go into overtime where everything will be on the line. History will be made.
Playoff hockey is another level of hockey. Teams know what they have to do to accomplish their dream of raising the Stanely Cup. Next week each of these 16 teams will begin this journey. Each of the 16 teams will be just 16 wins away from their goal. Only one team will make it through though. We won't know until June who succeeds. Of course, we have our expectations and hopes and wishes. But that's the thing about playoff hockey: It is usually impossible to predict. Playoff hockey is meant for surprises; it is meant for exciting hockey. Playoff hockey is meant to bring fans to the edge of their seat or to their feet. Playoff hockey is meant to bring tears of disappointment or tears of pure joy. Playoff hockey is meant to make you nervous, excited, sad, happy, angry and just about any other emotion one can have. Playoff hockey is like nothing else. Therefore, each story will be unique, but only one team will be able to end their story how they want: by raising the most prestigious trophy in sports, the one and only (sort of) Stanley Cup.

So, while the Pens hope to end the season on a winning note, either way the story will end and a new one will begin. One that is much more important, one that has a possibility of a much more meaningful end.

Are you ready for some playoff hockey?

Pens vs. Rangers tonight.

Ok, while trying to forget about superstitions, I also realized that recently I have not been visiting Pinterest like I had been. I mean, the past few weeks, there have been days when I did not pin one thing or even visit the site. Therefore, just in case, I made sure to vistit Pinterest.com and pin a number of things today. Just in case.

Well, silly superstitions aside, it is time to get down to business. The Pens are hosting the New York Rangers tonight. The Pens will be looking to redeem themselves against the Rangers, coming off the 6-1 loss we suffered a few days ago to the same team. Tonight there will be some new line combinations with Jussi Jokinen centering Kunitz and Dupuis. The rest of the lines are: Neal-Malkin-Iginla; Morrow-Sutter-Cooke;
Glass-Adams-Kennedy.
The second power play unit had a different look in practice today: Jokinen, Kennedy and Morrow were down low and on the points the Pens used Dupuis and a rotation of Orpik and Eaton.

We hope that the Pens will pull things together tonight and see the newest additions to the team fitting into their roles. We understand it takes time, but the past two games were just bad. Hopefully we see a much better Pens team tonight against the Rangers. If they don't improve tonight they have a longer break to figure things out before the Pens head to Carolina to face the Hurricanes on Tuesday.
Though, after an entire month of wins, 15 in a row, and now two tough losses, I'd say we are all ready to see a much better game tonight.

Time to get back on track.

I have to apologize. It has been a little while since I have written a post. However, I have a good excuse. Shortly into the Penguins' winning streak I realized that I had not posted during the early stages of the winning streak. While I used to be more superstitious, sometimes I still find superstitions that I hold onto. Apparently, not posting was a good thing. At least until 2 games ago. Therefore, I was absent from this blog, but within good reason. What a streak it was!
I have found that I have abandoned most of my old superstitions, but sometimes a realization will come to mind and I can not quite shake it. I've toned it down a good bit though. I used to have lucky sweatpants, various lucky t-shirts. I had to be wearing my hair a certain way or wearing a certain pair of glasses (I still get caught up on this one from time to time.)Certain food I ate that day or where I was watching the game. Lucky undergarments along with lucky socks and I am sure there were more. We have all been there though and like the commercial says, "It's only crazy if it doesn't work." I realized that a while ago and realized that sooner or later, the Pens lost no matter what I did. You can't win them all. So, now I may have fewer superstitions and I now know that no matter what I do, it does not impact how the Pens are going to play. Or else I would have tried everything the past 2 games to get the Pens to take less penalties or play better defense or just play a solid game of hockey.
It's tough to see a winning streak come to an end. One knows it's going to happen sooner or later, but it's still not all that easy. Especially when it comes to a crashing halt. It would be better to end a streak in a dignified way. Perhaps a game that we did our best but just could not catch a break with scoring, or maybe a hard fought battle into overtime or a shootout where things just did not go our way. Yes, those kind of games may have been easier to see than the loss to Buffalo and a lot better than that loss to the Rangers last night.

It is time to move on though. A lot has changed since the winning streak has begun. We have new faces on the injured list and new faces in the locker room. Not sure if you heard, but while I was on my superstitious break, the Pens acquired some guys through trades, including some guy with the last name, Iginla.
While the Pens were making headlines with the winning streak, the Pens landed some big names through trades. I won't give you a run-down of the players, it's already old news. Though, these new players won't mean much of anything if the Pens continue to play the way they have the past 2 games.

At the beginning of this shortened season, a lot of people were saying the Pens had the best chance to win the Stanley Cup this season. This trade deadline season, Ray Shero did what he thought would make us an even better team to complete the task. Every team wants to win the Stanley Cup at the start of the season. However, by the time of trade deadline, it sometimes becomes clear what teams just won't make it happen. Also, some teams know they won't be able to keep certain players and rather than lose them in free agency over the summer, players are dealt to teams for something in return (I'm not going to even mention the Calgary Flames and what they got in return for Iginla).
Shero wanted to prove that the Pens are very serious in their quest of winning the Stanley Cup and I think he accomplished just that. The Hockey News' writer Ken Campbell wrote earlier in the week, "A lot of GMs in this league would be content to have both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in their lineup and hope for the best. Not Shero. Nobody in the league today has a better feel for his team, for the league and the fact that standing pat and doing nothing is tantamount to moving backward."

Well, while the last 2 games have been rough, we should give the Pens some time to get things back together. A lot has changed in the past week and a half for this team. Although, that is certainly no excuse for the way they have been playing. All I can do is hope for the team to play better next game and wait and see what this team can do with new players and injuries. 2 bad games is enough though, I'm ready to see a win.

I certainly won't be thinking of the playoffs just yet; we have a season to finish. However, Ken Campbell knows Shero is thinking far ahead, "Shero knows that only one team can win the Stanley Cup in any given year. And with the unpredictability of the playoffs, you can assume he’s also aware there is no guarantee his team will be the one to do it this spring. But Shero knows as well as anyone else that when you have a legitimate chance to win a Stanley Cup with a group like he has, you seize it with gusto.

'What are you supposed to say, that we’re not all in?' Shero said, shortly after making the Iginla trade. 'Yeah, we’re all in. We want to win.'


Well, that's good to hear. Let's start by playing better the next game and getting a win in that one.