That Sexy Slide: The Piece

"I made a pretty brutal quote a couple of days ago," Scuderi explained. "I was supposed to say, 'a' piece to the puzzle, but instead I said, 'the' piece to the puzzle. So, it's not Sid, it's not Geno. Apparently it's me."

Scuderi Saves The Day.
After congratulating Fleury, the Pens' real goalie, the Penguins made sure they saved a few of the customary stick taps for the man they call "Scuds."

"Obviously we went to Flower first," Pittsburgh forward Matt Cooke said of Fleury. "He made a huge save on (Dan) Cleary (on a late breakaway that could have tied the game). But then the rest of the room had a lot of accolades for Scuds for playing his second position, which is goaltender."

It wasn't the first time he did all he could do to save lives last night though (and certainly not the first time he's ever saved lives). There was a point in the game where, much like last year, MAF plopped his butt down on top of the puck. This year the outcome was different. This time, he stopped it but just in case his butt wasn't big enough, Superhero Scuderi plugged up the hole with his stick. I can pretty much guarantee that everybody watching the game was holding their breath. And then MAF proved that he had this under control. And then Scuderi proved that he had it under control just.in.case MAF didn't (and he really proved that at the end of the game. amazing). There was a close-up of Marc laughing. It was unreal.

Dear Ray Shero, ROB SCUDERI MUST BE SIGNED TO A LONGTERM DEAL. Pronto. I don't care how much money he wants. I will find money and pay him myself. He wants to stay here and we want him to stay here. There is no way I could handle it if they let him go. He makes me feel safe.

When I got home from work yesterday, DH and I were discussing last night's game. We concluded that he was not as confident as I was. Okay, so that's understandable. Fair enough. Then the discussion went to UFA's. One of whom happens to be Rob Scuderi. I, personally, liked it better when everybody was quiet about his superheroism. I do not want people to offer him a trillion dollars. That'd be tempting for anybody. I want to hear the words, "Rob Scuderi, The Piece, wants to stay here and we want him to stay here so we have signed him to a multi-year deal." Until I hear that, I will vomit at random times throughout the day every day. And that really is not going to be pleasant for anybody. So anyway, DH says, "Do you really think that if somebody offered us something worthwhile, that we wouldn't let him go?" I said, "Yes, I really think that." The conversation went on for a while. He was giving me different scenarios where he could see them giving him up. I told him he was being silly and to quit making my stomach hurt. Then he sadistically started in on Letang. "You are crazy if you think your boyfriend is safe too." I argued that point too. We are keeping Letang. That's already been said. It's fact. He finally let up when I started to cry (slight exaggeration... they hadn't fallen out of my eyes yet) and told him if he didn't shut his mouth I was going to punch him right on it.

I've realized why I stopped watching hockey on a regular basis all those years ago. Watching the games is exciting and exhilirating and all of those things. When your team wins, you are beside yourself with joy and nothing can break you down. But when your team loses, it sinks you. I am an easy crier. Then they have these players that play for you just long enough to make you fall in love with them and then they decide they are playing for money instead of your team and your heart breaks a little bit. (Hossa can't be used as an example here, in case you were wondering. He more than proved he isn't playing for money. We offered him mansions and boats and prostitutes and Tyler Kennedy probably bought him his very own pony but he still left. That was his choice. I don't have it in me to dislike him for it. Maybe if I was watching faithfully last year I would, but I sincerely doubt it.) And your coaches and managers and owners tell you why this person was replaceable when in your mind you know that no matter what, that person will always have a piece of your heart and you can't replace that and a part of your insides dies a little bit. So I think I figured out that I probably stopped watching hockey regularly when we let Kevin Stevens go. And by the time he came back to play for us, my heart was hardened to hockey. Now he's a scout and the media talks to him a lot and I have my husband who has softened me a tad and it's okay for me to watch hockey again. See? All these years later and I still take it back to Kevin Stevens because he has a piece of my insides.

But what was I talking about? oh yeah. "THE PIECE" IS MY PEACE. WE MUST KEEP ROB SCUDERI SO I CAN FEEL SAFE AND SECURE ENOUGH TO SLEEP AT NIGHT.

*exhale*

I told my husband that if we are ever face to face with Rob Scuderi it is likely that I will throw myself into his arms. He said, "No you wouldn't. You only like the good-looking players." Which, hello? I've already said superhero=hot, but also? not true. I can't help what Kris Letang looks like. But he was teasing.

I'm glad Petr Sykora was on the ice last night. I've missed him.

I've missed his shot and his net presence... and his happy, sweet, smiling face. He didn't score last night but he did help create chances and blocked a shot or two (one of those sexy slide saves too). Satan has a calming presence and a killer shot when he can get one. I can see how choosing between the two could be a problem for the coaches. If I had to choose, and I had to base it on play and not how cool their names look on jerseys, I'd probably pick Petr every time. That tells me he wasn't 100% before last night. Or still isn't.

Three Stars of the Game:
1) Marc-Andre Fleury
2) Jordan Staal
3) Tyler Kennedy. Kennedy. Missssssterrrrrr Kennedy.

People who would show up there if those three weren't so unreal:
1) "THE PIECE" - who has saved Pittsburgh's day so many times it's impossible to count and should appear on this list after every game... wait, why wasn't he one of the three stars last night?
2) Matt Cooke - who was easily the best player on the ice last night. I about peed myself when that dude on NBC said it too. I punched the couch and said all scary and shouty, "Yeah! Fuckin' right he was!"
3) Mad Max Talbot - who logged in a tremendous amount of ice time (that's a whole other paragraph) and has been forgiven for momentarily making us look like the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 5
4) Brooks Orpik - who was stellar
5) Craig Adams - who doesn't get his name said nearly enough

If you look at the average time on ice for games 1-5 and the TOI for game 6, it seemed like they played who MAF feels most comfortable with. Max played almost 5 minutes more than usual. Five minutes. That’s amazing. All the penalty kill players got more ice time. Our penalty killers are Scuds, Gill, Staal, Cooke (who was seen pre-game talking to Marc-Andre, which means more than it sounds like it means), Adams, Talbot, and some Dupuis thrown in, with Gonchar/Orpik and Eaton relieving Scuds and Hal when applicable. That says A LOT. Our “role players” are THE key in this series. Sid played on a penalty kill at one point (to win the faceoff for Jordan who has been struggling with them) and still logged way less ice time than usual. Max, Jordan and Geno (who was quietly amazing) all logged more time than Captain. Misssssterrrr Kennedy only plays 13 minutes per game and he has scored twice in this series. That’s incredible. If the Wings aren't going to let Crosby and Malkin break out (and they're not going to because they can't), we need to put the people in there who can keep them from scoring. All this stupid talk about Crosby and Malkin need more icetime to make a difference is stupid. What we ended up doing was smart. Maybe even brilliant. I'm not saying that Crosby can't make a difference, because he has proven that he can, I just really liked the strategy we used last night. Maybe even loved it.

And because I am a Letang lover, he had a truly remarkable shift where he forced somebody (I forget who it was) the whole way around the boards. He made the dude make a big U turn along the boards right back to their side. It was pretty. And there was a point when they were in the offensive zone, Lelover included, and Cooke came from one direction and Letang was coming up from the blue line to get the puck off some Red Wing (why can't I remember which Red Wing did what last night? hahahaha... I told DH they all look alike except for Zetterberg who is pretty and Helm and Ericson who are young.) and Cooke lays the dude out and Letang just quietly and calmly takes the puck. I was like, "HOW DID HE STAY SO CALM?" He probably peed a little bit but damn it was impressive.

We won last night because we had to. That was what I told everybody all day yesterday. "Are the Penguins going to win?" "Yes." "What if they don't?" "ummm. They have to." "So that's it? They're going to win because they have to?" "Yes."

Things like this are why you fall in love with players.

You know them. They are gracious. They are kind. They are funny. They are real. This is their life. They play 82 games per year IF they DON'T make the playoffs. These guys live and breathe this sport all year round. They give interviews before and after every game. They interact with fans whenever it's possible. They are dedicated. They are determined to be better no matter how good they already are. People like Nick Lidstrom (I will be free to love him when this is over) and Bill Guerin are still playing hockey because they love it. How can you not love that? How can you not appreciate that? How can you not support that? Seriously. It's amazing. And if that's not enough for you, how about this?

That right there is proof that I was meant to start watching hockey again. Goodlord. I mean, shit, some of these guys are beyond gorgeous and they risk that beauty to play this sport because that is what they do. Man, I love that.

It's A Great Day For Hockey!