Bettman the predictable asshole

Yeah -- 3 calls in first 10 minutes, all of which could have been ignored. Clearly, the "tone" was set -- let's keep a short rein on exciting end-to-end play, and let's instead have as many stoppages and man advantage/disadvantages as possible, so we can't really tell who is the better team. Don't touch anyone with your stick or your free hand -- yeah, that's the ticket to exciting play and lots of commercials. The fans really want to see your f-d out IRL ad with idiot Danica Patrick demanding respect. Blow me. If she wants respect, she needs to win some races, instead of pretending to take her top off in a boner-crushing spot for Go-Daddy. Or the most interesting man in the world who apparently isn't aware that racism (guy in fez) or sexism is out, and thinks its cool to cram a bunch of glam chicks into a crab boat and head for Cuba.

The worst miss was a tackle of a CAR d-man behind his own net that even the idiot Pens fans gave away by groaning, thinking for sure a penalty was going to be called against the Pens. But of course, the Bettman override was in effect, and the refs instead were keeping their eyes peeled to make the sure the offsides, high sticks, hand passes and faceoffs were just so, as well as their protractors handy to gauge the parallelity of sticks to ice.

It looked to me like Cole was skating to the front of the crease -- his right with play off in the corner. It was Orpik who interfered by basically checking him 5 feet in front of the crease before he could get there. And Cole decided to push back rather than yield, which Orpik wasn't expecting, so he goes sprawling. At a min, it is interference on both, but as usual, with the refs completely obsessed with all the middling details, they repeatedly miss the genesis of the foul, and instead call the aftermath.

So the lesson we have learned to date -- do not bump or interfere with goalie, unless you a pitchforking him into the net for the game 7 winning goal. Or if you are Crosby.

Canes aren't hitting nearly enough for my tastes. They, like Wash and Flyers, are frequently having problems with Pens forecheck and getting out of their zone. I swear I have solved it, and should fire off a letter to Paul Maurice before it is too late. To be successful coming out of your zone, you either have to be brave (by holding on and just skating past the pressure) or patient (and be willing to reverse and go backwards rather than force forwards).

The Canes were absolutely horrible vs the forecheck in the first. They just kept coughing it up, willingly just flipping the puck out of their zone and making few meaningful charges in Pitt's zone. I don't think I've seen any 50 yard backhand flips yet, but their D-men seem really hesitant to skate it out, which takes away one of the two options that will work.