Pens-Sharks: 3 keys to making out with Lord Stanley

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in the Stanley Cup Finals. No further expanding needed on that. Let's talk about some key things that the Pens need to do to raise that sucker.

Key #1: Speed over Strength 

The Pittsburgh Penguins are a team built on speed. The San Jose Sharks are a team built on size and strength. The Penguins need to do what they've been doing ever since Mike Sullivan took over as head coach and overwhelm teams with their ability to fly. If they can do that, they will be in good shape.

Key #2: Contain Shoeless Joe

Joe Pavelski has been the most dominant hockey player of this postseason. His 13 goals speak for themselves, and he wears the C for San Jose with pride. The Penguins defense has a tough task at hand, and Olli Matta will need to continue to perform his stellar work in stepping up for the wounded Trevor Daly on defense. The Penguins will also have to beware of another Joe (Thornton) and a Joel (Ward). The Pens defense will not get a pardon, but I think they will be up to the task.

Key #3: Protect home ice.

There is no understating how crucial the first two games of this series will be. The San Jose Sharks have been an NHL franchise since 1991. How long did it take for the Pittsburgh Penguins to win a game in San Jose? Till 2015. Nearly 24 years. So, it doesn't take a neuro surgeon to figure out that things will not come easy at the SAP Center. Win at home.

Final Prediction: Pens in 5

This team is special. This team is exciting. This team is talented. The Pittsburgh Penguins have it all, and they have come too far to be eaten by Sharks. I say Pens in 5 because;
1. They are due to have a short series and
2. They are due to win the cup at home.

This team is ready for a title. This city deserves to watch their club hoist Lord Stanley's Cup in our house. And it will happen. Believe that.

It's all gravy from here

Flashback. April, 2015. The Pittsburgh Penguins, battered and bruised, have lost a tight Game 3 to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Quarter Finals. Rob Rossi, one of the Penguins top writers for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is making his way out of Consol Energy Center. In the elevator, he runs in the Jim Rutherford, the Penguins general manager. What happens next is said to have gone as follows according to CBSSports.Com:

''Thanks for your support'', Rutherford said repeatedly
''You're an (expletive) jerk'', Rutherford said repeatedly

Rutherford followed up these comments by telling Rossi that he should be ''selling ice cream somewhere''. This incident gave Pens fans another reason to dislike Jim Rutherford. After all, his hiring in June of 2014 was greeted with skepticism. ''He's only made the playoffs five times in 20 years with Carolina''! ''Why couldn't they have hired Pierre McGuire?'' ''He's too damn old!'' For the first year and a half of Rutherford's reign as Penguins GM, the skeptics were winning. Rutherford made some questionable moves, such as trading away fan favorite James Neal, hiring the dull Mike Johnston as head coach, and trading high draft picks for wingers David Perron and Daniel Winnick, neither of which panned out in Pittsburgh. At the 2015 trade deadline, Rutherford looked like a fool. He traded two young and promising defensemen in Robert Bortuzzo and Simon Despres for Ian Cole and Ben Lovejoy, respectively. The season ended in disappointment, as the Pens bowed out in 5 games to the mighty New York Rangers.

Fast forward to the start of the next season. Mike Johnston. Oh, dear god, Mike Johnston. The monotone, inexperienced ''I don't care who you are, you're playing 300 feet'' attitude certainly did not help matters. Oh boy, were the first two and 1/2 months of the season joyful. As of December 11th, the Pens were 5th in the Metropolitan Divison and out of a playoff spot. December 11th, why did I pick that day to bring up randomly? Oh yeah, this was the day the Penguins season took about a 3,000,607,08483839292929 degree turn. This was the day one Mike went out, and another came in.

Photo creds to wbs.penguins.com

The other Mike is Mike Sullivan. Praise God, Mike "No nonsense, no facial expressions, and, most important of all, no more Mike Johnston" Sullivan. What a change. Sullivan came from Wilkes-Barre, and he changed everything. No longer did the Pens play defensive, some would say, "scared" hockey. These new Pens would be a kick-ass, in your face, fast hockey. Speaking of quick, let's talk about Carl Hagelin.

Who would have ever thought that the man who ended the Penguins season with bitter disappointment in 2015 could potentially have such a significant role in putting an end to the Penguins season with pure extasy in 2016? Hagelin's OT goal for the Rangers in Game 5 knocked the Pens out of the playoffs. Fast forward nine months, and Hagelin is one of us, as Jim Rutherford, unsatisfied with David Perron's performance as a top 6 forward, makes a deal with the Anaheim Ducks (Hagelin's new team), and brings Carl to the Steel City. This trade was the first turning point, as his presence (and speed) helped make his mates on the now famous "HBK Line" perform to their potential. Wait, what's the HBK line?

Photo creds to pittsburgh.cbslocal.com

Good question. Well, Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel make up the 2nd line. As those of you who don't know can probably at least figure, HBK comes from the first letters of the last names of these three gentlemen and was also the nickname of WWE legend Shawn Michales. Why don't we talk about the other two?

How about Kessel? The man who, when the Pens traded for him last July, made Jim Rutherford look like a genius (we finally got a winger!). The man who, when his regular season performance did not satisfy the hunger of a brutal Pittsburgh fan base, made Jim Rutherford look like a fool, before making the old geezer look like a savvy fox when it mattered the most by becoming arguably the team's best postseason performer.

How about Bonino? Acquired on July 28th, 2015 for the popular Brandon Sutter, this guy did not exactly turn a lot of heads for much of the regular season. Then, when springtime was in its infancy, the man and his beard flipped the switch, and for the past three months, he has done a fantastic job at centering the line that has become the talk of the town. The Pens acquired all 3 of these men via trade. Speaking of trades, let's talk about the best trade of them all.

Photo creds to nbcchicago.com

If you follow this team, three words have helped your sleep habits since mid-December: Scuderi for Daley. Rob Scuderi is a great man who had some great moments in a Penguins uniform, but the 36-year-old just wasn't getting the job done on defense the way he used to. Enter a man who couldn't fit in with a loaded roster in the Windy City. Enter a man who would add energy to a dull Penguin defense. Enter Trevor Daley. In the middle of Mike Sullivan's first game behind the Consol Energy Center Bench (A 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals), it was announced that the Penguins and Blackhawks agreed to a two player there that sent ''Scuds'' to Chi-Town and Daley to Steel-Town. The move paid off, as Daley's speed and play-making ability gave the D a shot in the D. Unfourtanly, Daley will not be on the ice for any of the Stanley Cup Finals, as his season ended during Game 4 in Tampa Bay when he broke his ankle. However, I don't think anyone can argue that the Pens would not have been invited to the dance if not for Trevor Daley.

Let's give the grinders some love. Matt Cullen and Eric Fehr have both been everything you would want out of bottom six players. The play hard. They are not flashy. They don't grab front page headlines, but they get the job done. Without depth, teams don't get to the promised land. These two men have provided plenty of elbow grease to compliment the speed and flash of their teammates.

Cullen's story, in particular, has been remarkable. At 38 years young, he was reunited with his old GM from Carolina on a 1-year deal that many rendered pointless filler. But Cullen told the skeptics to shove it, scoring 16 goals in the regular season and four more in the postseason, all the while providing excellent wisdom and leadership. Three cheers for Matty Ice.

If I had to pick one song to describe this team, it would be the 1965 classic from The Who entitled '"The Kids Are Alright''. Mike Sullivan knew what he was doing when he trusted his Wilkes-Barre boys to make a rough transition from the small lake that is the American Hockey League to the ocean that is the National Hockey League. Connor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhakel, Kevin Porter and Scott Wilson are just some of the young bucks that filled out some pages in the great book of this season. Some never got to experience playoff glory due to injury, but they are on the ice in spirit. Sullivan's gamble paid off. He knew the kiddies well, and both parties helped each other make the grade in the NHL, and thus played important roles in getting this team to where they are right now.

Photo creds to www.sportingnrews.com

Two Wilkes-Barre kids have shined above the rest this postseason, and I think we all know who they are. The first is Matt Murray. The hot-shot prospect who, by fate, was tabbed as the teams #1 net-minder in Game 3 of the first round series with the dreaded Rangers. The man who, in his second start of said series, pitched a shutout in '"The World Most Famous Arena''. The man who had the task of outperforming two of the best in the world at the opposite end of the ice, and did just that. The man who, after getting the Penguins 9 of the required 16 wins to dance with Lord Stanley, was benched for his elder; and won is job back just two days later. The man who, upon winning his job back, refused to let it go, and won games 6 and 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, giving this city Stanley Cup hockey for the first time since 2009.

Ah, Game 7. The old Mike Lange-ism ''You have to be here to believe it'' never held truer. I was not there, so I cannot fully grasp how loud the Consol Energy Crowd was on that faithful night. However, I could hear from my television that it was not quiet. I read many a tweet stating that it was, without a shadow of a doubt, the loudest CEC has ever been. A big reason that the joint rocked the way it did was because of another Wilkes-Barre boy: #17, Bryan Rust.

Photo creds to www.postgazette.com

In case you've been living under a rock, Rust was somewhat of a factor in the series clincher, scoring the only two goals the Penguins would need for their joyous 2-1 victory. Everybody sees that and falls in love with ''Rusty'', but what a lot of them don't know is what Rust has had to go through. Rust was dealt with the unlucky hamper of a speech impediment. As a man who was dealt that very same hamper, I know how frustrating it can be. But unlike Rust, I don't have to regularly answer questions from the media. But Rust never complained, and has not let his struggle interfere with what he says in the papers or what he does on the ice.

How about Ben Lovejoy and Ian Cole? Two guys, who were mistakes made by Jim Rutherford are playing the best hockey of their careers. Both play hard on defense, and Lovejoy made his greatest contribution yet on Thursday night by setting up Rusty's game-winning goal.

What about Sid? The Kid. The Captian. The franchise. The Master of Disaster. The King of Sting. The Dancing Destroyer. The Prince of Punch. The Count of Monte Fisto (for all non-Rocky fans, I sincerely apologize). This man has been through hell in back. Early this season, he was written off by many (including yours truly) as somebody who would never be able to be the player he once was. He proved us all wrong and became the best player in the world for the second half of the year. No matter what anybody says, he has produced this postseason, and the Pens would not be dancing with Lord Stanley if it were not for the leader.

Back to Jim Rutherford. This beautiful group is his creation. He deserves all the credit in the world, and I can't think of a Pittsburgh Sports figure who's image in the court of public opinion has changed as drastically in a 365-day time span. Rutherford is a hockey lifer. A mastermind. A genius. Three cheers for the old geezer.

The rest of the team. You know who they are. Geno, Tanger, Oli, Kunitz, Dummer, Flower and on and on and on. You know their stories. I could talk all day and most of the evening about every single player on this team. No words can do these boys justice. They are winners. They deserve to win, and hopefully they win four more times and bring Lord Stanley back from his seven-year sleep (and maybe give him some Iron City beer).

Photo creds to www,.post-gazette.com

By: Joe Smeltzer
There's one more person I'd like to raise a glass too before I draw this article to its conclusion; Duper. Pascal Dupuis was a hockey player's hockey player. After 6 and 1/2 years of grinding his way into the hearts of the Steel City, a blood clot proved too much for even a tough-as-nails guy such as Duper; #9 was forced to hang up the skates on December 8th. He could have walked away from the game and never came back or even grieved about his poor luck, but Pascal did none of those things. Instead, he became an active member of the organization, helping the boys out as much as he could, and remaining an important of the team. Should the Pens win this damn cup, nobody deserves to have his name engraved (once again) on the shrine more than Pascal Dupuis.

I'd like to close by saying that this is my favorite Penguins team of all time, and there is no close second. The big thing that separates these boys from the three teams that lifted the you know what is that they do not rely on the stars to carry them. The 1991-92 championship teams followed Mario Lemieux. The 2009 squad revolved around #87 and #71. But these guys are a rock band with about a dozen lead singers. Crosby and Malkin are still two world class players, but neither of them needs to stick out like a sore thumb for this team to reach the ultimate goal. Every single player who takes the ice for Game 1 on Monday has done something big to get this team to the dance, and that's no expression. That is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

So, enjoy these Stanley Cup Finals, and remember that no matter what happens, whether the Pens sweep the series or don't win a single game, that this team is special. Through injuries, coaching changes, and mass scrutiny, they have persevered and are still standing. Pittsburgh is a tough and resilient town, and no team in sports right now better fits the description of its city. As the title of this post says; whatever happens from here on out is gravy on top of the wonderful Thanksgiving feast that Sullivan's troops have prepared on our table. That doesn't mean we don't want to win the damn thing.

Hot Potato: Let's hope Sullivan knows what he's doing

The Pittsburgh Penguins switched goalies two days ago. It didn't go as planned. Today, they are switching goalies again. Was it the right call? Well, I sure as hell hope so.

As you might recall, on Sunday, I wrote an article supporting the Penguins decision to bench young phenom Matt Murray for the more established netminder, Marc-Andre Fleury, for a crucial game five that would take place that night in Pittsburgh. The decision didn't exactly work to perfection, as Fleury allowed four goals and the Pens went down in flames, 4-3, on a fluke goal by Tampa Bay Lightning winger, Tyler Johnson.

Looking back, it is easy to see why fans have been critical of the decision to turn back to Fleury. Aside from the 20 minutes he played in game 4, ''The Flower''  hadn't been on the ice for close to two months. So, it is possible that there was some rust on the Consol Energy Center ice on Sunday (aside from Bryan). It's easy to question the move to a cold goaltender but had Fleury shut the door on the Bolts; nobody would have said a word. In spite of Fleury's rust, he is still a good enough goalie to stop any offense in the league. This is especially true given the fact that St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock tried something very similar on Saturday night to what Sullivan would do on Sunday. Before game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, Hitchcock decided to switch out netminder Brian Elliot with Jake Allen, who had not started in the postseason. The move worked, as the Blues evened up the series.

Many people feel that Sullivan made a mistake by switching goalies for game 5, and apparently, Mike Sullivan is one of those people. The Penguins announced earlier today that Matt Murray is once again, at least for now, the starting goaltender for your Pittsburgh Penguins.

Now, I don't necessarily agree or disagree with this move. On the one hand, I feel that the Eastern Conference Finals are not an ideal time to play ''Hot Potato'' with goaltenders. In other words, the Pens should just make up their minds and decide who the goalie is and stick with him till the end. On the other hand, much like before game 5, the Penguins need a boost for a do-or-die game 6. Murray has proven himself as a reliable goaltender, and he could very well be the guy to give them that jolt and keep the season alive.

Whatever the case may be, I sure hope Mike Sullivan knows what he's doing. If he gets this right, it could lead to the Penguins lifting Lord Stanley's Cup. If he gets it wrong, it could lead to them lifting a bag of golf clubs.

Screw it, bring back Flower

It's time this man gets his job back

Three weeks ago today, I posted an article in which I stated my belief that the Pittsburgh Penguins #1 goalie job was young Matt Murray's to lose. In the post, I compared the situation between him and Marc-Andre Fleury to the QB battle of Drew Bledsoe and Tom Brady from back in 2001. I also wrote about how, well, hell, you can just read the whole thing right here. http://joesmeltzer775.blogspot.com/2016/05/sorry-marc-andre-murray-is-for-real.html. For awhile, it looked as if Murray could do no wrong as the young man proved instrumental in Pittsburgh's series win over the mighty Washington Capitals. However, chinks have begun to appear in Murray's armor, and that is why the change that Mike Sullivan had made between the pipes was the right call.

It's not because Murray has done anything horribly wrong. Through 4 games in the conference finals, Murray has allowed 11 goals, which makes out to be a 2.75 goals against average. Murray's save percentage over that same timespan is .896. Neither of these numbers are terrible, but they show that Murray has slipped a bit since the quarterfinals wrapped up. Against Washington, Murray's GAA was 2.50, and his save percentage was .927. Those numbers, by comparison, suggest that Murray is fading, but it's hardly been his fault. In the ECF, Murray has been a victim of defensive lapses from Olli Matta and Kris Letang. So, while Murray has not been great recently, he has not been bad either. So, why make the switch? Because Marc-Andre Fleury is the man.

Fleury was, in my opinion, the Penguins MVP of the regular season. He has been a franchise cornerstone since he joined the league in 2003, and he is, of course, one hell of a goaltender. In Game 4 on Friday, Tampa Bay got out to a commanding 4-0 lead, and when Mike Sullivan pulled Murray for the man called "flower" it appeared to be a white flag. But the Pens were not ready to take off the gloves, as they scored three goals and narrowly came up short.

With the series tied at 2, this team needs momentum, and there is some evidence that Fleury could be the mojo that the Pens need. It seemed as if the minute that Mike Sullivan decided to switch goalies, the momentum shifted. I'm not suggesting that this was directly related to the switch, but I think it could have had a positive effect on the players, and the way they battled would certainly support that theory. With the much anticipated arrival of Sean Michales to the Steel City already giving the city some extra juice, Fleury's return will only add to the vibe. The most important thing that Fleury has that Murray does not is playoff experience.

Now, it is no secret to smart Pens fans that Fleury has not historically been a great playoff goalie. In 2012, he performed horribly against the hated Flyers, contributing to a first round playoff exit. In 2013, his performance got him benched for backup Thomas Vokun. However, there have been other instances in which Flower has been fantastic in the postseason, such as 2011 when he nearly led the Pens out of the first round despite the losses of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. In 2014 and 2015, Flower was, for the most part, outstanding, and was forced to carry the club on several occasions. Oh, and then there was that Stanley Cup win in 2009, but that's just a footnote.

Matt Murray will be an excellent goaltender in this league, and should the Pens win the Stanley Cup, he will be a big reason why. But he still has a lot to learn. The Penguins don't have time for learning at the moment. They need to win and win now. In my opinion, Flower gives them the best chance to do that.

Rangers-Blue Jays Brawl: Uncalled for? Yes. Bad for Baseball: Hell no.

*Disclaimer*
This article is in no way promoting violence in sporting events. Punches to the face are dangerous and can lead to serious injury. But, in the case of Sunday's melee between the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays, nobody got hurt, and a lot of eyes were opened. So, here it goes.

I am 18 years young. Baseball is my favorite sport, and it took me quite awhile to accept that our national pastime has a problem attracting younger fans. This winter, I finally came to my senses and realized that kids my age just aren't drawn to this great game the way they used to be. The game is too slow, too passive, and just not interesting enough for the younger generation to be interested. For these reasons, what took place at Globe Life Park in Arlington was overall, good for the game of baseball.


Here's the situation. It's the top of the 8th inning, and the Texas Rangers are clinging to a one-run lead over the Toronto Blue Jays. Jose Bautista is on first base. The reason he is on first base is that Matt Bush, the hard-throwing Rangers reliever, beaned Joey Bats with a 97 MPH Fastball. Justin Smoak is now the hitter. He hits a ground ball to the third baseman, who throws the ball to second to try and turn a double play. Due to the frustration of being beaned by Bush, the man called ''Joey Bats'' attempted an illegal slide into the Rangers second baseman, Rougned Odor. What happened next needs no explanation. For the five people who haven't seen it already, just watch.

The roots of this, as baseball fans should know, go all the way back to last October, when Bautista flipped his bat after hitting the home run that knocked Texas out of the playoffs. Now, here are a few of my takes from this whole fiasco before we get to the main point of the post

1. The fact that this whole thing stems from a bat-flip is absurd. Bautista was showing his emotion in a situation that called for it. Texas completely blew game 5 of that ALDS, and should be more pissed about that.

2. While Bautista's slide was unnecessary, it was no dirtier than what used to be commonplace in the game. MLB Network did an excellent breakdown of the incident which showed Odor intending to hit Bautista in the face with the throw to first. Not only was it wrong for Odor to do this (as well as the punch, of course), as you will see by watching this play, it was also hypocritical.

3. An interesting theory could be that Matt Bush acted alone in beaning Bautista. Bush was not a part of the 2015 Rangers and had never faced Bautista before, so it is possible that Bush was looking to impress his teammates by nailing Joey.

4. Seriously. It was a freaking bat flip.

Now, it goes without saying that this whole melee was uncalled for and pretty childish. However, it accomplished the difficult task of getting people under the age of 45 talking about baseball. On Monday, I asked several of my friends around school who are, at best, casual baseball fans, and every one of them saw the punch and loved what they saw. I saw one of my friends who hates baseball retweet a video of the punch. Young people loved it, and boy, does baseball need more stuff that young people love.

I'm not condoning fighting in sports, as Bautista could have been seriously injured by Odor. However, he was not injured. Therefore, I believe that since this incident got people talking about baseball who would not normally be talking about baseball, it was good for the sport. This is the second article that I have written regarding young fans being drawn away from the game. The first is a featured article on my page, and it also relates to Bautista, and ironically, it relates to the bat-flip that started this whole crap-shoot.

I believe that baseball is doing just fine regardless of the average age of its fans, but getting the kids into it certainly won't hurt business, and this punch sure as hell did not hurt business.  Hopefully, something else can happen to excite the young fans that doesn't involve somebody getting clocked.

Lightning 3, Penguins 1: Pens performance: Frustrating. Fan behavior: Disgraceful

Photo creds to www.espn.com

I've been accustomed to being at sporting events for my entire life. I've had season tickets for the Pittsburgh Pirates for all 18 years of my existence. I've been to several Pittsburgh Steelers games, as well as a few NCAA Tournaments. I'm also familiar with the atmosphere of a professional hockey game. So, needless to say, I am familiar with sports, as well as it's fans. Therefore, I know when fans take what they are watching too seriously. That was most definitely the case at Consol Energy Center on Friday night.

It started about 2:00 in, when Lightning winger Ryan Callahan drove Pens defenseman Kris Letang into the boards, drawing a 5:00 major for boarding. It was a dirty hit, and Pens fans had a right to be upset about it. However, I felt that the crust of the fans surrounding me in Section 209 (particularity the 40+-year-old man sitting directly in front of me) was uncalled for as well. As dirty as Callahan was, f-bombing him to death from peanut heaven didn't help heal Kris Letang's head. Although this agitated me for a minute or two, I understood that this is just how fans are. So I accepted the juvenile behavior and continued watching the game. What happened about 10 minutes later, however, was a black eye on the great sports fans of Western Pa.

A puck was dumped behind the Lightning net, and Tampa's excellent goaltender, Ben Bishop, went out to play it. Here, he was challenged by Pens winger, Connor Sheary, who beat him to the puck and nearly set up a goal for Patrick Hornqvist. While he was getting back to his cage, Bishop's knee turned awkwardly and he went to the ground in a ton of pain. In the immediate aftermath, some fans were cheering, and to me, this was understandable, as it was not quite clear how badly Bishop was hurt and Pens fans thought that their team's chances of winning might have just increased significantly. A few seconds later, those cheers turned to boos. Yes, a pro athlete was on the ground in what I am sure was an unimaginable amount of pain for those who have not gone through it, citizens of our respectable city were booing because play was stopped. Yes, people were stupid enough to think that Bishop would be faking the injury, and yes, the worst was still to come.

About 3 minutes passed, and Consol Energy Center had, for the most part, gone silent, as the crowd settled down because they realized that what they were watching was a serious thing. Sadly, a gentleman sitting about three rows in front of me (again, no younger than 40), belted out; ''Get him a tampon''.

I won't elaborate on that insult because there is no explanation needed. However, there is a reason that I brought up the ages of the spectators in question. Say a kid my age (18) or a few years older had yelled out ''Get him a tampon'' at the top of his lungs. It still would have been horrendous, but at least a young man's juvenile behavior would have made some sense. The fact that these insensitive and vulgar insults were being shouted by gentlemen not much younger than my dad is pathetic at the very least, psychotic at the very most. The worst part about the Bishop injury reaction was what transpired on social media.

In the eyes of far too many Penguin fans, Bishop deserved to go down. That's right. By their logic, because Letang was hurt earlier by a dirty play, that means Ben Bishop, who had nothing to do with Callahan's hit, deserved to be in an intense amount of pain. "Karma" was the word of the day for many a yinzer. "Shameful" was the word of the day for me. I think that word is entirely appropriate for the behavior of our city's fan base.

Now, to be fair, Bishop was met with a respectful applause when he was carried off the ice on a stretcher. However, that only does so much to make up for the idiocy of booing him when he first went down, and it was certainly unnessceary of NBC analyst, Pierre McGwire, to praise the fans for their respect of the injury, when just 5 minutes before, they were emmensley offensive.

Aside from being disrespectful on Friday night, the Consol crowd was, from the second period forward, pretty dead. I know that the Penguins performance didn't give fans a whole lot to cheer about and that the Lightning are not as intense of an opponent as the Captials or Rangers, but the joint needed to be far louder than it was on Friday. The players had an excuse to be fatigued from an emotional six-game series with Washington. The fans did not, and they must bring it in Game 2 and give the players a much-needed energy boost.

I think that Pittsburgh sports fans are as good as any in American sports, but their actions on Friday night were uncalled for, and certainly are unbecoming of the ''City of Champions''. I hope that this type of disrespect is just an aberration and does not become anything more than that.

Leicester City represents everything good about sports

Photo creds to leicestermercury.co.uk

If you hate cliches, don't read this article. I'm warning all of my readers that this will be as corny as any sports article I have ever written. And I am not the least bit ashamed.

If you've been on ESPN at all over the past three days, you've probably heard something about the soccer team that went from 5,000/1 odds all the way to winning the ultimate prize in the greatest league in the world. Yes, the American sports media has done a fairly good job of hyping this thing up as possibly the biggest shock in the history of sports. But no matter what anybody says or writes, nothing will ever be able to capture fully just how ridiculous the Leicester City story is. I won't be an exception, but I'll do the best I can.

Get ready, here comes the first cliche. Had somebody decided to produce a movie about a football club with 5,000-1 odds coming from out of nowhere to win their country's top prize, nobody would have gone ahead and made the film. It would have been too far fetched. This analogy gets thrown around a lot, but it applies perfectly in this situation. I'm sure there are a lot of you reading this who do not follow soccer at all, and some of you may know nothing about Leicester City, so here is some background.

In 2015, Leicester very nearly finished in the bottom 3rd of the English Premier League, which would have meant that they were to be relegated to the next highest division. But the Foxes got it together in the last month of the season and finished 14th. After the season, many skeptics and fans alike felt that LCFC had gone from rubbish to something worse than rubbish when they fired their popular manager, Nigel Pearson, and brought in Claudio Ranieri, and this is where our story begins.

Claudio Ranieri turned out to be the perfect choice for the Foxes. Photo creds to www.skysports.com

Despite being one of the hottest teams in the league towards the end of the 2014/15 season, nobody was expecting anything good from the Foxes when the new season rolled around. Many people did not believe that Ranieri would be a good fit for a manager. After all, he had just been fired by the Greek national team after suffering  humiliation at the hands of the worse than lowly Pharoh Islands, and in 30+ years managing, had never won a league title anywhere. Ranieri looked like a lame duck manager coming to a lame duck club.

One thing led to another. Leicester kept winning while others kept stumbling, and on Monday, the beyond impossible dream was realized. I understand we Americans have a natural bias towards all things American, but this British game has now given us the greatest shock in the history of sports.

Leicester winning the league is a bigger shock then that magical NC State basketball championship run of 1983. What Jim Valvano's Wolfpack accomplished was incredible, but it was only over a three week period. What Leicester accomplished took place over a span of 8 months. It is far more miraculous than when Buster Douglas took out Mike Tyson on that night in Toyoko, as Douglas was just a 42-1 underdog to take out Kid Dynamite.

This will be my most controversial statement of this article, but the Leicester's story is more shocking than that of the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey team that pulled off the ''Miracle on Ice''. Yes, the win over the USSR will always be a staple in the history of sports, but it was just one night. Leicester shocked the world for a whole season. With all due respect to the late Herb Brooks, the Miracle on the Pitch was a greater miracle than the Miracle on Ice was.

What is one of the most impressive things to me is the financial world of the sport in which Leicester won the title. Fans of small market baseball teams who think God hates them should try root for teams like Aston Villa, Bournemouth or Queens Park Rangers. In the premier league, the success of your favorite club depends on the man who owns them. In the past 24 years, a total of 6 teams (including Leicester) have finished at the top of the table (Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers preceded the Foxes. With the exception of Blackburn, all 4 of those teams have a considerable amount of money, particularly when it comes to Chelsea and the Manchester teams. The reason Blackburn was able to win in the 90's was because some loaded dude (Jack Walker) bought the team and invested in buying players, not too different from what Manchester City has done in the past decade. To put this further into perspective, in that same time span, 12 different MLB teams have won a World Series, 13 NFL teams have won Superbowls, 13 NHL teams have won Stanley Cup's, and 7 NBA teams have won titles. So, it's safe to say an underdog story in the English Premier League is more inspiring than in any of America's four major sports.

Leicester did not have to resources or the tradition to spend big, so Ranieri was forced to go under the radar during last summer's transfer window. He spent little, and came away with fools gold, singing two quality and tough defenders in Christian Fuchs and Robert Huth, as well as a solid man upfront in Japanese international Shinji Okazaki. But Ranieri's biggest singing came just five days before the season started in the form of a little-known French club called Stade Malherbe Caen; enter, N'Golo Kante. Kante played as big a role as any in Leicester's run and fit perfectly into Ranieri's counter attacking 4-4-2 style that emphasized teamwork, confusion to the opposition, and excitement for the fans. Ranieri was an old man who nobody wanted as manager, but his demeanor of a hip grandfather, as well as his tactical brilliance, made him the perfect man to lead the unlikely charge.

When Chelsea's Eden Hazard scored his beautiful goal on Monday to sink the title hopes of Tottenham Hotspur, I entered a state of happiness. For the past two months, I've braced myself for Leicester winning the league, but that did not make the reality any less surreal. But as awesome and happy as I was when Leicester got the job done and etched their names into the book of coolest things in history, the word ''inspiring'' never crossed my mind. ''Shock'', ''Yay'', ''How'', ''I don't believe it'' ''They did it''. Thoise were all things that were running through my skull early Monday evening, but the word ''inspiring'' never made it there until I got a text from a buddy of mine.

My friend, Mike Roberts, is a 2015 graduate of West Allegheny High School and a big time soccer fan. When I asked him about Leicester winning it on Monday, here is what he had to say;

''It's inspiring when you see where they came from. Jaime Vardy's story, in particular, is especially remarkable. I look at things like that and let them drive my mind to believe there are no limits to what you can do. Everton is my squad, but it's special to see what happened. 

Vardy is a great example of ''rags to riches''. Photo creds to www.uktelegraph.com

Vardy's story might be the most remarkable one of all. A football outcast before the age of 25, Vardy was signed by Leicester, who were in the second division at that time, in 2012 for a reported fee of just 1,000,000 pounds. After a difficult first campaign, Vardy picked things up in the 2013-14 season, scoring 16 league goals and helping the foxes back into the EPL. The next season saw Vardy begin to get noticed around the world, as his play in April of 2015 earned him the league's player of the month award. As you could figure, Vardy broke out this season, scoring 20 goals and leading his club to the impossible.

Just 4 years ago, Vardy was playing for Fleetwood Town, a club that was in the 5th division of English football. Now, he is the toast of England, and a champion. Now here is where I get cheesy. It's as cliche as anything in the world to say that one can do anything that he sets his or her mind too , but that does not mean it is false. People like Vardy, Raneri and Jake Arietta of the Chicago Cubs has shown within the past year that you never know when an unknown is going to become a superstar. Weather we like sports or not, we should look at the inspirational figures that athletics have given us over the course of history and apply it to our own lives, no matter what we want to become known for. Leicester City is the embodiment of the phrase ''impossible is nothing'', and I highly recommend that anybody reading this tunes in on May 15th at 10:00 A.M. to see Leicester City be recognized for their accomplishments in a road game at Chelsea, there last of the season. The reason why; you will never see their likes again.

Sorry, Marc-Andre: Murray is for real

By: Joe Smeltzer
September 23rd, 2001. Foxboro, Massachusetts. 5 minutes are left to play in what has been a pretty dull defensive battle between AFC East Rivals, the New York Jets and the New England Patriots. Under center for New England is a man who is expected to be in the northeast for the next decade: #11, Drew Bledsoe. Drew had it all. He was tall, good-looking, and had a rocket for an arm. He had already led the Pats to a Superbowl appearance three years prior and looked to be a Patriot for life when Robert Kraft inked him to a 10-year contract worth $103,000,000 in March of 2001. But, fate has a funny way of inserting itself into whatever situation it wants to.

With New England down by 7 and with the ball, Bledsoe needed to make something happen. So the ball was snapped, and Bledsoe looked downfield for a receiver to throw too. When nobody was open, Bledsoe did what all quarterbacks should do and ran to the sideline to gain a few yards and get out of bounds. He accomplished his objective, but not before receiving this hit from New York's All-Pro linebacker, #57 Mo Lewis

The hit sheared a blood vessel in Bledsoe's chest, nearly killing him and putting him out of action indefinitely. Replacing him at quarterback was a scrawny kid from San Mateo, California, who, despite having a solid career at the University of Michigan, was taken in just the 6th round of the 2000 NFL Draft. The result for Bledsoe was five more years in the league and 0 Superbowl or Pro-Bowl appearances. The result for the New England Patriots was 4 Superbowls, 6 AFC Championships, 13 AFC East Titles, and the birth of the greatest quarterback the league has ever seen.

Ok, so maybe the Pittsburgh Penguins goaltending situation won't turn into the hockey equivalent of the Bledsoe-Brady saga. However, Saturday's 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals has officially convinced me that, unless things take a drastic turn for the worst, one of the league's best goaltenders shall be a spectator for the remainder of the postseason. 

To give a little background, on April Fools day of the year of our Lord, 2016, Penguins netminder Marc Andre-Fleury was sidelined indefinitely with a concussion. That put the faith of the city (or at least it's sports fans) in the hands of a 21-year-old who, just four months prior, was robbing snipers for the Hershey Bears, Grand Rapids Griffins and Utica Comments in the American Hockey League. The 21-year-old's name is Matthew Murray, and he is good. He is real good.

Not too long ago, Matt Murray wore the colors of the baby Penguins. Now, the big Penguins are depending on him. Photo creds to wbspenguins.com

So good so soon, that the #1 goaltender job is his to lose. After a Game 2 victory over Washington in what has been Murray's greatest performance to date, the kid has a playoff record of 4-1, with a Goals Against Average of 1.74 and a Save Percentage of .939, good for 3rd among current playoff goaltenders in both categories. Also on his playoff resume is a shutout in Madison Square Garden, and all four of his wins have come against two of the top goaltenders in the world. Yes, Murray is impressive, but what about Fleury?

Remember the pre-Mike Sullivan 2015-16 Pittsburgh Penguins? Well, they weren't very good. In fact, they were so underwhelming that many figured they would not make the playoffs at all, and that very well might have happened, if not for the man known as "Flower." With the Penguins offensive guns firing blankety-blanks, Fleury needed to be on his A++ game virtually every night he was in the cage. Fleury almost singlehandedly kept the Titanic from sinking, and in my opinion, he was the Penguins most valuable player of the regular season. However, this is not the regular season. 

This is the playoffs, and in the playoffs, it's all about who has the hot hand, especially when it comes to goaltenders. There are countless examples, such as Ken Dryden with Montreal in 1971, and, to a lesser extent, Johan Hedberg with the Pens in 2001, of young and unproven goaltenders catching fire at the most critical time. Murray looks like he is headed into that territory, and I do not think Mike Sullivan should tamper with the Penguins rhythm regardless of the who his options are. Going back to my opening statement, here is some more New England football history. In the 2001 AFC Title game, fittingly against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tom Brady was the one who was knocked out of the bout. Drew Bledsoe took Brady's place in a role reversal and led the Pats to victory. When SuperBowl time rolled around, Bill Belichick decided that Brady was still too hot to sit and went with the hot hand, and the rest is history

I think that the Pittsburgh Penguins have a reasonable chance to raise Lord Stanley's Cup high no matter who is in goal, but Murray is the hot hand, and the hot hand must be fed. So, I would advise Mike Sullivan to take a lesson from his hometown Patriots and ride the wave until Murray hits an undertow.