It has been 4 days since the last major injury for the Pens...

[schneefink]

On the one hand I want to write more about hockey and the Penguins, because I'm very invested and there's so much going on and playoffs are starting soon!!! But somehow DW doesn't seem like the right place for it, I spend much more time being fannish about the Pens elsewhere. Whatever. Playoffs are starting soon! I realized that when I've finished my thesis I can stay up and watch all the games live, that's motivational. (Sometimes I think it's silly, that I need playoff hockey as a motivation. But who cares as long as it works.)

There's an article about Five times Geno was brilliant with the media and didn't get enough credit (I wish it had featured ten times or more, but not a bad start) that links to Sid and Geno's joint press conference last year before game 7 against the Rangers. I didn't have time to watch it before that game, and after the game I didn't want to, for a surprisingly long time because I was still disappointed about that series. But yesterday I realized that it's fine now, apparently I'm over it. New team, new season, new try!

I actually thought our chances weren't so bad this year, because the Pens were unlucky but playing pretty well, but now that Ehrhoff and Letang are both out possibly long-term… How the fuck do we have so much bad luck with injuries. Three of our four top D are out, including a Norris trophy candidate! (I really wanted Tanger to get it, dammit.) And because it's too late in the season for LTIR and we have no cap space we can't even call someone up, meaning we have to play with 5 D, meaning they'll all be exhausted come playoff time. Fantastic. AND we have to play the Flyers twice, and they're out of the playoffs so they don't give a shit, this has the potential to be really bad… (Fuck Rinaldo.) Silver lining, Pouliot is getting a lot of opportunities, and so is Ian Cole. So far I like him, I hope we keep him. I like Winnik too, but he'll be UFA, so we'll see.

Playoff expectations: we make it to the second round if we get Letang back at full health, third round if we get Ehrhoff back too and there no further injuries, SCF would need a lot of luck. Yes we generally were bad against Metro teams but that doesn't mean anything in the playoffs, I'm mostly optimistic that we can beat any of them in a seven game series.
In the West I'm rooting for the Blues, especially against Chicago.
Only two more weeks!

Comments

[extrapenguin]

Not a hockey fan or anything, but I totally hilighted at the mention of Penguins. Oh well. :P

[schneefink]

Every once in a while there's a post about actual penguins in the subreddit because people get confused, it's great. I'm now even more fond of penguins than I was before.

[snickfic]

AAAAGH. Capslock is not remotely sufficient for all these injuries anymore. How is any team supposed to function like this? How are we supposed to get anywhere? Don't fall in love with the Pens; they will break your heart and themselves simultaneously.

;____;

[schneefink]

Sometimes I think about what this team could have and could accomplish without all these injuries and I'm sad. It's no surprise or coincidence that the past few Cup winners were among the least injured teams in the league. (But then I look at other teams and think it could be worse...)

At least now that Geno also didn't play (!!!) they should be able to call up an emergency defenseman. They haven't clinched a spot yet, but I'm pretty sure they'll make the playoffs, and then in theory anything can happen. Sid winning the Art Ross along the way would be a nice bonus.

[snickfic]

Sometimes I think about what this team could have and could accomplish without all these injuries and I'm sad.

Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to think about.

At least our emergency defenseman seems to be making a good accounting of himself so far in this game.

[schneefink]

You wrote that before CBJ tied it, right? *sigh* None of that was on Fleury, the team really needs to do more to help him out. (Perry, Scuds, wtf were you even doing -.- ) Please Pens just win this game, because the rest of the schedule is ugly (Flyers, Sens, Isles...), and you haven't even clinched a playoff spot yet.

[snickfic]

Yes. Yes, I did. *AGRESSIVE SIGHING*

[schneefink]

I can't imagine that none of the players are at least a little bit mad at Perron for that play, especially if they end up losing. (Which won't happen, fingers crossed.) I want more of that in fic, usually all I see is self-reproach + comfort. Probably because I'm still mad at Perron.

[snickfic]

Yeah, agreed. There's so much emotion tied up in these games, players have to get mad at each other all the time, but fandom never shows that (maybe because no one wants to show anyone as being not "nice").

[schneefink]

Man, if I were Sid I'd be so angry all the time. At the other teams because they haul him down and crosscheck him all the time, at the refs because they don't call anything, he can't say anything because he'll be called whiny and maybe the refs will call even less, at his teammates for doing dumb stuff and when they don't give enough of an effort...

[sahiya]

I'm going to pretend you didn't say that second to last sentence.

[schneefink]

Feel free ;)
I'm very grateful to Chicago for beating the Flyers in 2010 and Boston 2013. But I like rooting for teams that haven't won a Cup yet (with a few exceptions.)

[sahiya]

Okay. I can get over that. I would have cheered for my local team, the Sharks, if they had made it in. Though not against Chicago.

[schneefink]

Sometimes I wonder if DD and I would have become friends so quickly if either of us was a Flyers fan. Then I feel weird about this sports fan thing.

[sahiya]

It is very strange. I never cared about sports until about a year and a half ago, so I'm always taken aback by how different it is from being another type of fan (which I've been for a very long time!). But the Flyers, ergh, I can't even.

[schneefink]

My first hockey practice the coach walked in with a Flyers cap xD Second practice he had a Hawks jacket, which is at least better.

I'm constantly surprised at the ways in which sports fandom and fiction fandoms are dis/similar. The infrastructure is completely different, but otherwise...