Diary Time: Pens and Canes Score Early and Often in Game Two

8:01: I’m a little late on this, but apparently the Staal brothers aren’t talking at all during the series—or at least they’re trying not to.

Eric was stranded with his wife and teammates at a movie over the past few days, and because no cab was available, he called Jordan. Even then, apparently they barely talked.

I wonder how awkward a family dinner would be during the playoffs.

Eric: Marc, can you tell Jordan to pass the salt?

Jordan: Marc, can you tell Eric to score a goal first?

Jared Staal: You know I could pass the salt just as easily as Marc could.

Marc Staal: Play a game first!


8:04: Dennis Seidenberg just scored his first ever playoff goal to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 3-2 lead. If the scoring keeps up at this rate we’re in for a….wait for it….a 16-12 final score.

8:06: Erik Cole ran into his own player earlier but kept coming back and playing hard. The guys hurt and he’s a trooper as Ward stops a streaking Guerin down the right side.

8:09: We just had a closeup of the netcam doing its thing. It’s strange that it looks like that thing that came out of the top of R2D2 in Star Wars. I wonder if it does as much cool stuff as R2 did?

8:11: I want to have the Maxim Coors Light Caddy experience or whatever they call it, and I’m not even good at golf. The beer and caddies are enough to convince me though.

8:13: Here’s something you don’t see everyday in the playoffs: An off-the-puck penalty! Chris Kunitz just high-sticked Scott Walker away from the play, so we’ll see how the ‘Canes powerplay does.

8:14: Darren Pang will be happy: Pierre McGuire just said that Eric Staal is “jumpin” tonight as Cam Ward makes a huge save shorthanded on Jordan Staal off of his own (Ward’s) turnonver.

At least he cleans up his own mess.

8:17: The penalty finished up, but the ice still seems really open—Carolina and Pittsburgh are playing back and forth hockey, and while there weren’t a ton of chances, I got to see Sidney Crosby shoved into Marc-Andre Fleury.

Somewhere Don Cherry just smiled as Carolina takes a penalty and the Pens offense as a chance to finish up the period with the man advantage.

8:20: Apparently Sergei Gonchar isn’t looking right. I was going to make a joke about “Well he did get smoked by Ovechkin” but we just got clarification that it looks to be an upper-body injury too, which might not be good. Even if it is, this is the NHL and playoff hockey—not the NBA—you play through it. Being soft on the puck is no excuse.

That being said, it’s intermission time: Duthie just used the words “paneling” and the word “panel” as a verb and noun respectively. Sweet.

8:40: We’re coming back to the second period and the two most interesting things coming out of the intermission show was the fact that Dennis Seidenberg won the people of a restaurant in Raleigh a free bratwurst for scoring a goal, and the question as to whether or not Shane Doan’s “no-movement clause” applies to the team actually getting up and moving and whether or not it’s a breach of contract as Kris Letang hits the post and Sidney Crosby is going off for tripping.

8:42: The Carolina power play was simply anemic and it’s proven by Maxime Talbot picking up the puck in the neutral zone, walking over the line, and letting one rip past Cam Ward after the penalty had finished up. 3-3.

8:45: Scott Walker with a low hit on Evgeni Malkin, but no penalty is called and the players are getting a tad chippy out there. In other news, question number two in the “Prove you’re not a Pens bandwagon jumper” quiz is: Name the two players who scored the series-clinching goals in both of Pittsburgh’s back-to-back cup wins.

8:50: We just saw a road hockey-like graphic on Cam Ward. It was a silhouetted goalie in front of a net (much like the drape that has the holes in it for practicing) with the location that all of the pucks have beaten Ward with during the playoffs.

Apparently, Talbots' is one of only five goals to beat Ward up high these playoffs. That’s the kind of goals Pittsburgh needs to take a stranglehold on this series.

8:53: Pitkanen and Crosby are jousting in front of the Carolina net after the two crashed the crease together and now the’yre shoving! Joni Pitkanen against Sidney Crosby…THIS IS THE FIGHT WE ALL WANT TO SEE!! LET THEM GO!!! LET THEM GO!!!!

8:54: The refs don’t let them go and Kunitz got in on it at the end as the Penguins begin to control the play in the Carolina end, as Matt Cullen gets nailed for high-sticking. The Penguins are buzzing on the powerplay, but Cam Ward is standing tall. The puck movement game is going well, but Ward seems to be anticipating the show very well.

With the way he’s performed these playoffs, Ward has made the jump into the “elite” roster of goalies in the NHL along with guys like Brodeur and Luongo.

Does anyone even realize he won 39 games in the regular season? Cam Ward is the man.

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