Haircuts

...Brian, explain how big the goaltending has been in this series.



Keith, it all comes down to one save by Fleury. It really set the tone for the whole game for him. Take a look:





In pre-game?



Absolutely, Keith. You can tell that all of the saves he made in pregame really gave him the confidence he needed when the puck dropped. You can't say the same for Cam Ward...






Wait, Cam Ward was signing autographs before the game instead of warming up? Isn't that video from 3 years ago?



Keith, maybe it is, but you just don't see the same determination and fire.



Uhhh...alright...what about the scorers in the series?



Well, we all knew coming in off the heels of the Pens-Caps series that Sidney Crosby was playing like you expect a superstar to play in the games that really matter.



And what games would those be, Brian?



...uh, that would be the playoffs, Pierre.


Oh, cool!




Anyway, while the stars for the Penguins were the unheralded guys like Miroslav Satan and Phillippe Boucher, Sidney Crosby played very well for the Pens including this excellent dish to Guerin that was robbed by a great glove save from Ward.





You have a feeling you'll be hearing from Sidney Crosby this series. You pretty much know you can count on him. The X-factor in most people's minds is going to be the play of Evgeni Malkin, who stepped it up late in the Capitals series and, as you saw, continued that momentum here tonight with an incredible backhand goal off a feed from Tyler Kennedy. This goal put the Hurricanes in a deep hole from which they couldn't recover. Consistent play like this from Malkin will make things much easier for the Penguins. As for Eric Staal, he played pretty well tonight in his own right, putting pucks on net and setting things up for his teammates to finish. But, you just know he's going to have a hard time sleeping tonight after blowing that late chance to tie. You aren't going to beat the Penguins if you keep missing chances like that.



Thanks, Brian. Man, I'll tell you what, if all of the games in this series are like this one, I'm going to run clean out of jizz!


Absolutely, Keith. I think I jizzed in my pants three times during this game!



We'll see you all on Thursday right here on Versus, the network where hockey teams play hockey games versus other hockey teams. If it's anything like tonight, you won't want to miss it.