Penguins-Flyers: March of the ...(well, you know what)...

It is an interesting and thrilling intra-Pennsylvania series we've got going between "Steel (Steal?) City" and "The brotherly 'love' of Broad Street Bullies" right now.

I have no doubt The Super Mario Pens are going to come out on top in a couple of weeks, and let me tell you why.

The Pens don't have superior firepower, but they play smart. Having followed hockey for a few (24?) years now and being a Rangers fan for a lot fewer years, I have been studying closely what they — the Pens — are doing, for a while now.

They play smart.

Not hard, not dominant, not physical, just downright...yeah...smart.

Of course, it helps to have the youngest roster in the league, with players like Malkin, Crosby, Malone and Roberts on your payroll, but there's something else here.

Let me back up a few years and go across the pond. European teams and players have always 'accused' the Canadians and the "trans-Atlantics" of being so damn friggin' lucky!

"Yeah, all they do is they dump the puck, throw it in front of the crease and all of a sudden it ends up in the back of the net! Damn lucky bounces!!"

No, they aren't just 'lucky' bounces. Can you readers tell that I am sucking up big time to Don Cherry here, to get a summer gig? Darn whiny foreigners. Glass cheeks too, aside from chickens, with Forsberg being the prime example.

This is hockey at its best. Throw it in there and hope something good is going to happen! And when you have the talent, speed and ingenuity (please note I am avoiding the word 'firepower') of the Pittsburgh Penguins, something good IS bound to happen.

We Rangers fans cringed and squirmed like worms on a hook when Pens alienated not only the Pride of Broadway with this exact play, but also the best goalie in between the pipes today. Hats off.

But face it — it was the Pittsburgh Mighty Penguins against King Henrik Lundqvist for most of that series, and that's no way to build a team. Shame on you, Glen Sather. Good luck finding a new job, Tom Renney. Good luck in the ignorant "nobody-cares-B-tournament" of IIHF World Championship, Mr. Lundqvist.

Meanwhile, life goes on here. Hockey is fun. I really, really enjoy hockey and if it's played well, it's like music and it doesn't really matter who conducts. It's a work of art.

Showing my age here...but who can forget the "Big Red Machine" of the former Soviet Union? Oh, well...snap out of it.

I am going to get every Pens fan in the world on my case now, but however much I admire the "get-go" and "get-'er-done" hockey of the Pens, you would not be able to do it without the dire and frequent support of the officials.

("Whoa — here come the Sid-Kid conspiracies again!")

Let's face it — a good team, a really good team like the Penguins will draw more and "better" penalties than the opposing team. That's just natural. If you can't keep up, you are diminished to hooking and slashing to stop your opponent.

Old wisdom.

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