updated:
Carping, whining, criticizing, trash-talking, analyzing, dissecting, ranting, and mocking -- it's all in a good off-day's work during this tense Rangers-Pens series.
The Pensblog has taken to calling Sean Avery, Madonna. That is funny. Will they laugh if Rangers Land starts refering to Sid Crosby as Louganis? Doubtful. Efforts to beatify Mr. Crosby have been underway in Pens-sly-mania for sometime. You can't make fun of a saint, or else you're a blasphemer.
The pope of the NHL, who is more like Paulie and his schemes in the "Pope of Greenwich Village," has his anointing oils ready for the beatification of St. Sidney if he reaches the promised land. Currently you could say, Sid just has a Cultus confirmation.
Anyway, here's what's cooking in the Rangers-Pens playoff oven:
Blueshirt Bulletin [or for the Pens fans BooHoo Bulletin/BS Bulletin]:
The Good, the Bad, and the Crosby -- So why do we keep harping on Sidney Crosby's high diving act? Because we're whiners, right? Wrong -- it's because we're trying to influence the way the game is perceived. As Larry Brooks so aptly sums it up in today's Post, "The national spotlight now will be on the diving issue and the NHL's perceived bias toward its headline act. Everyone now will be under scrutiny, including Crosby, the referees calling the game, and the announcers working it. If this series truly is going to be the Rangers against the world, it will be plainly and painfully obvious by dinner." ...
Rangers downplay furor over Crosby -- here was no game played between the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins in their Eastern Conference semifinal Saturday. But in an otherwise deserted Mellon Arena, the two teams still found themselves jousting...
Rangers need to tighten defense for Game 2 -- Before Friday night, the Rangers hadn't allowed five goals in regulation since the 6-5 overtime loss to Montreal on Feb. 19, a span of 20 regular-season and five playoff games.
So naturally, after they watched video of the Penguins' 5-4 comeback victory in Game 1 - with special attention on mistakes by a team defense that was fragmented and didn't play well without the puck - yesterday's message was: We've got to tighten up. . .
Penguins' coach Michel Therrien cries foul over Sidney Crosby dive -- Putting the referees on notice beforehand to watch out for Sidney Crosby's penalty-drawing theatrics didn't work out too well for Rangers coach Tom Renney in Game1.
And Sunday we'll see how Penguins coach Michel Therrien's impassioned - and unsolicited - defense of his young superstar's on-ice integrity plays with the men in stripes in Game2. . .
Ranger 'D' can't check out -- Replacing Colton Orr with Petr Prucha on the fourth line might seem tantamount to rearranging deck chairs after the Rangers' Titanic-like performance in Game 1. . .
Diving Right In -- The Penguins always have been an interesting franchise, saved from leaving town first in 1984 by conspiring to lose enough games the final six weeks of the season in order to be in position to draft Mario Lemieux, and then saved again in 2006 with a fortuitous victory in the post-lockout universal lottery that allowed the team to draft Sidney Crosby...
Prucha Likely To Resurface In Game 2 -- Tom Renney implied that Petr Prucha would make his first appearance of the playoffs here this afternoon in Game 2 against the Penguins, and though the coach did not say whom he would replace, it's likely Colton Orr will be the healthy scratch after getting 5:48 of ice in his first tournament game on Friday...
Slap Shot Talks With Mike Bossy -- SS: Do you like what the NHL has become in the last few seasons?
MB: I think it’s still a work in progress as far as what they want the game to be. I think the referees are still getting a handle on what to call and what not to call. I think what players want, and everyone has heard this thousands of times, is consistency. They want to know what they can do and what they can’t do out there. I think they’ve done a pretty good job of determining where they want the game to be as far as its physicality. I still think there is work to be done as far as the hooking and the holding. . .
Lynn Zinser / NY Times Slap Shot blog:
Pittsburgh Coach Snaps Back -- The Rangers were eager to move on Saturday from Friday night’s Game 1 debacle against Pittsburgh, but Penguins Coach Michel Therrien was not ready to let go of the conversation about the interference call on Rangers forward Martin Straka against Penguins center Sidney Crosby that the Rangers found so egregious. . .
Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Rangers' roster moves pay off -- In Ottawa, the Penguins faced a team that got out of the gate fast this season, but limped down the stretch. That made for a mismatch in the Penguins' four-game, first-round sweep in the playoffs.
In the New York Rangers, the Penguins are facing something of an inverted image of the Senators. . .
Penguins Notebook: Therrien says his star is no flopper -- There's nothing new about opponents trying to label Penguins center Sidney Crosby a diver, or at least embellishing the effect of infractions committed against him.
It's been a staple in some quarters since former Philadelphia coach Ken Hitchcock trotted out that smear for the first time during Crosby's rookie season. . .
'X-Generation' has given way to new breed of Penguin -- The blue-painted goaltender's crease on a sheet of ice suits Marc-Andre Fleury just fine, and he hardly minds sitting at a table with buddy Sidney Crosby to answer a few questions in front of reporters and camera operators following a Penguins' playoff win.
Seeing his portrait on the side of a bus almost five years ago was more than a bit discomforting, though....
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