Another glog, Stanley Cup Finals - Game #3 Pittsburgh vs. Detroit

I am getting a little bit of an early start here, I think I will be glogging Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final this evening. For those not following along on the video, Detroit leads Pittsburgh in the best of 7 series 2-0 and have been every bit as dominating as a 2 game lead could indicate. The Penguins still haven't scored a goal in the finals, losing 4-0 and 3-0 in the first two games of the series. Game three is still a couple of hours off, so for the time being it is just me and my fried potato sandwiches. It is one of those things I grew to like while growing up poor, just sliced potatoes fried in skillet and placed between two slices of bread with butter. Sometimes I will add salt, pepper and maybe a few fried onions, but today it is just potato. They are way cheap to make, which fits my current budget just fine, thank you.

I looked at the Pogo badges this week, they look really easy, so easy in fact that I have already finished the Vaults of Atlantis and need only one more word in Word Jong and then I can pick a personal challenge for myself. I haven't even looked at the ones I haven't done yet, but at this rate I will have plenty of time to finish whatever one I pick.

Is it just me or has Jerry Springer actually gotten worse than it used to be? I realize that it was never Shakespeare, but I saw a few minutes of it today and as bad as it used to be, I just never remembered it being this bad. It is now a coin flip between which show is worse, his or that sorry former security guard of his, Steve, who also has his own show. Worse, locally they run the shows back to back, so if you watch too much of it you can actually feel your brain cells die. I think if I ever were to come up with a list of the worst TV shows during my lifetime, both of those shows would be on it.

Come to think of it, I have some time here, so the worst TV show of my lifetime.....

10) Carson Daley

9) Jackass

8) Cheaters (if you have to hire people because you can't trust your partner, it is already over)

7) Jerry Springer

6) Steve Wilkos

5) Maury Povich (take two people who had sex, one pregancy, and a DNA test,..... wash, rinse and repeat)

4) Murder, She Wrote

3) Matlock (did he ever change clothes? he wore the same suit in every episode)

2) The Nanny (Fran Drescher's nasal voice is reason enough)

1) Mama's Family

I am sure I could have come up with more than 10, but that seems to be a good number when it comes to making lists.

I haven't started looking for a new part time gig yet, I may go out Saturday and do some applications, but for now I am enjoying having some down time to myself so I can do things like eat my fried potato sandwiches. Well that and play baseball on the PS 2, especially after qualifying for the playoffs in my first season in the major leagues. I finished the regular season with 30 HRS and 118 RBIs and now am in the first round of the playoffs, where I have won my first two games, and yes, Joe Random has his first playoff homerun.. Come to think of it, there is still an hour before hockey starts, maybe I can sneak another game in before I start glogging.

Great, I lost in extra innings, which means I may miss the opening minutes of the hockey game. Tonight's game out to piss off a national audience, since NBC has the game in primetime, and the last Pens game they had drew a 1.6 rating nationally (mind you it drew a 26.1 here in Pittsburgh) A quick lesson, which I have done before so for those of you that have read this before, just move along, nothing to see here. The difference between a rating and a share is that ratings include all TVs, where as a share only includes TV's that are turned on. Say there were only 5 TVs in the world and they all were in your home, and of those 5 TVs, one was off, 2 were on Scrubs, 1 was on Animal Planet and 1 was on CSI, then Scrubs would have a 40 rating (2 out of 5 TVs) but a 50 share (2 out of 4 that are on) . Likewise CSI and Animal Planet would both be a 20 rating and a 25 share. What this all means is the last time a game was on NBC involving the Pens, better than one out of every 4 TVs out there in Pittsburgh, even the ones turned off, had the game on. I think John McCain got the memo, one of his campaign commercials just aired and given Pennsylvania is viewed as a swing state and given how poor national ratings are for hockey, he probably got the time cheap, yet he probably did well in hitting western Pennsylvania viewers. Excellent way to spend campaign dollars.

I like campaigns that are smart with their money, like Mike Huckabee in Iowa and his offensive ad that he had, His campaign makes an ad that is he deems is too questionable so he decides to pull it, and calls a news conference to say as much and proceeds to play the ad for the reporters in attendance, The result, the media talks about his ad without him actually buying time on TV stations, free publicity if you will. Sometimes it isn't just having dollars, but spending them wisely.

I wonder if anyone in the blogging audience is watching the game. I get the feeling most of my viewers don't care for hockey all that much.

And we are underway from Pittsburgh.

One minute and 4 seconds into the game and the Penguins get their first power play, Johan Franzen serving two minutes for holding.

Osgood just made an awesome save on Ryan Malone in front of the net, and the game remains scoreless.

The Pengiins have only registered one shot so far on this power play, but have applied a decent ampunt of pressure, but can they do this 5 on 5? Worse, can they do anything 4 on 5 as the Penguins just took their first penalty, Jordan Stahl 2 minutes for holding.

The game is over 5 minutes old and only three shots to this point, 2 for Detroit and 1 for Pittsburgh. Dang, I need to pee, but I don't want to leave while the game is on.

Not a lot of end to end action, everything is dying at the blue line for both teams to this point, even the early power plays were rather uneventful. Detroit has upped their shot advantage slightly to 4-1, but the game is almost 8 minutes old, so neither team is getting much pressure on the other's goaltender.

Some chippy action taking place, lots of hitting at least since there isn't much shooting. The Penguins still with only that shot by Ryan Malone and the game is now almost a full 10 minutes old.. This is something that Dteroit does extremely well, they just don't give up many opportunities.

Fluery makes a nice save on Brad Stuart in front to keep the game scoreless, but the Penguins subsequently take a penalty, a 2 minute hooking call on Sergei Gonchar and Detroit will enjoy their second power play of the contest.

A couple of big saves by Fluery during the penalty kill, and the only result is that Detroit continues to build their shot advantage, its now 9-1 but the game remains scoreless.

Wait, I think the Penguins might have gotten another shot. That is big news in this contest, even if it didn't result in a goal.

And after some sustained pressure and a rare turnover by Detroit in their own end and the Penguins score their first Stanley Cup Final goal, compliments of Sidney Crosby with an assist to Marian Hossa and the Penguins lead 1-0.

The Penguins have dictated the play for the last 4 to 5 minutes, and the result is first Crosby's goal and now they draw a penalty to get the man advantage as Brian Rafalski takes a 2 minute penalty for tripping, and the penalty will carry over to the second period as the first period comes to a close with the Penguins leading 1-0. The Penguins closed the shot advantage that Detroit had, registering the last 5 shots of the first period to make the shot total 9-6 in favor of Detroit.

Now I can take my pee brake. All I will miss is a Cialis commercial, and really, it has been so long since I used it, I wouldn't know if I need that stuff or not.

Good news while I was peeing, the Pirates are losing again. I keep a radio in the bathroom that comes on whenever I turn on the light. I use it for when I am in the shower and usually keep it tuned into one of the sports talk stations here, and they just updated the Pirates score, they are now trailing the Reds 8-1 and my dream of a losing season lives on. I was getting worried again after they won 2 of three from the Cubs recently, both extra inning games, one because Alfonso Soriano doesn't know how to catch a fly ball, so again they were flirting with the dreaded .500 mark, but they lost yesterday to the Reds and are well on their way to another loss.

While we are in the first intermission, a quick update on my fantasy baseball team. I am still in third place, 3.5 points behind second and 8 points ahead of 4th. The top three teams win money as well as ten dollars for each of the ten category winners, and I lead in batting average, RBIs, and stolen bases, which would be an additional $30, but the season is still very young, I have plenty of time to blow this yet.

Once again we are underway with the second period just starting and the Penguins still on the power play. The Penguins pick up a quick three shots to start the period, but no goals, yet the hard work pays off as they draw another penalty, Niklas Kromwall gets the gate for hooking. Unlike the previous two power plays, the Penguins convert this time, and it's Sidney Crosby with his second goal of the game and the Pens lead 2-0. Hossa and Malone both register assists on the goal.

The Penguins are definitely the team with momentum here early in the second period, the shot advantage that Detroit had is now completely erased, both teams with 11 shots to this point.

Petr Sykora just misses a pass in front from Evgeni Malkin, a really good scoring opportunity there for the Pens but nothing to show for it.

Osgood makes another big save on Sergei Gonchar this time to keep the score at 2-0, but for the first time in this series, the Penguins are looking like the better team on the ice. They have had some opportunities in games 1 and 2 to score, but they haven't had this much sustained pressure in either of the first two contests.

Another scoring chance by Gonchar and his initial shot and rebound shot are both turned away. The Penguns continue to dominate the second period of this contest.

Detroit gets their first break of the second period, as Hal Gill gets called for cross checking and Detroit will enjoy their third power play of the game. The Penguins catch a huge break, as Jordan Stahl breaks his stick on the faceoff, basically giving Detroit a 5 on 3 advatnage but Fluery makes a big save and the net gets knocked off of its moorings before the puck can cross the goal line keeping the game at 2-0.

The Penguins kill the power play and Detroit is now 0-3 with the man advantage, as they could only get one shot on goal during the power play. The Penguins, who at one time trailed in shots 9-1, now actually have a 14-13 lead in that category.

By the way, I did finish the second Pogo badge. Maybe during the second intermission I will pick my personal challenge for the week.

Hal Gill gets called for another penalty, 2 minutes for cross checking again and Detroit gets their 4th power play of the game. Gill has put Tomas Holmstrom twice onto the ice face first by appling the stick to the back this period, both times resulting in penalties.

Finally Detroit converts on the power play, Johan Franzen skates through three guys and scores to cut the lead to 2-1. Niklas Lidstrom gets credit for an assist on the goal, but it was pretty much all Franzen on that effort.

Detroit commits another turnover in their end with a little over 3 minutes remaining in the second period but Osgood makes the save on Malkin's shot, so no harm done as far as Detroit is concerned.

Some end to end action for the first time in this game with 2 minutes remaining in the second period. Both teams getting rushes up the ice but neither team is able to convert and after 2 periods of play the Penguins lead 2-1.

Okay, I picked a Payday Free Cell for my personal challenge and also nuked a couple of burritos to eat during the third period. Yummy!!!! I think I am ready for third period hockey action.

Jason Giambi hit another homerun tonight, the gold thong must be working. Not that that has anything to do with hockey, but I was checking up on my baseball team during the commercial break and happened to notice that. And no, I did not draft Giambi for my fantasy team, we have a policy, "No Thongs Allowed". Also the Pirates did lose, 9-1, they are now 4 games under .500.

Okay, the third period is underway. Since the conference finals (last round), the team that has scored first has won every game.

2 and a half minutes into the third and the only two shots of this period belong to Detroit, both teams now have 19 shots, but no scoring to speak of.

Marian Hossa has a great backhand chance that clangs off of the post and a shot a few second later forces Osgood to scramble to keep it from crossing the goal line.

Fluery makes a save on a Johan Franzen shot to keep the game at 2-1 with just over 15 minutes remaining.

The Penguins notch their third goal, off of a lot of hard work by Adam Hall and he eventually banks it off of the back of Chris Osgood from behind the net. The play was aided by a big hit by Gary Roberts. Maxim Talbot and Roberts get the assists on the goal.

Detroit comes right back and just misses a goal as it glances off the outside of the post, which is immediately followed by Brooks Orpik having a defesemans dream, registering 4 hits in about tens seconds on the Red Wings. The intensity of everything has picked up if that is possible, the hitting is more fierce, the action is more end to end and the scoring chances are coming more frequently right now, but the Penguins still lead 3-1.

Mikael Samuelsson scores for Detroit and all of a sudden the score is now 3-2 with just about 6 minutes remaining. Franzen gets credit for an assist as does Valtteri Filppula. Man, I am never going to get the spelling down on all of the Euorpean and Russian names.

Franzen is denied again by Fleury and Detroit has gotten a jump in their step since scoring their second goal, and they have 5:38 to try to score the tying goal.

Detroit has taken a 32-24 lead in shots now, as they have had the better of the scoring opportunities for the majority of this third period. To make matters worse for the Penguins, they take a penalty with just 4:18 left in the game, Evgeni Malkin will serve 2 minutes for hooking. What a bad time to take a penalty, having just a one goal lead and this late in the game. It will be up to the Penguins penalty killers to maintain this slight advantage.

Detroit is having a hard time getting into the Penguins zone to start this power play. When they do get something going, Fluery makes the save amid a mass of bodies in front of the net. Detroit manages just one shot on the power play, but almost as soon as the penalty ends, Detroit gets a 2 on 2 coming in with Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datysuk but Fluery again makes the save to keep it at 3-2.

The Penguins withstand a late flurry of activity as Detroit pulls their goaltender and the Penguins hold on for the win 3-2. Of course, I will post the video whenever it is available. But for now, I will do a spell check and go ahead and post this.