The defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins find themselves in an unexpected elimination game tonight when they host the Montreal Canadiens in game 7 of their Eastern Conference semi-final series. The Pens, who were heavy favourites coming into the series, failed to close out the upstart Habs in game 6 and now face an anything-can-happen, winner-take-all game against the Habs. Following their defeat in game 6 at the Bell Centre, Pittsburgh players admitted that now that the series is going seven games they might just have to start taking the opposition seriously.“Well, I guess we have to play another game against these guys,” a beleaguered Jordan Staal said. “We kept thinking that ‘ok we’ll beat them in 4′, then we lost one and we’re like ‘ok surely we’ll beat them in 5′, then we lose again and we say ‘allright game over we’ll win in 6′, and we somehow lost that game too. Now we’re pretty much like “ok what the fuck is going on, I guess we have to start trying now.”
Even veteran forward Bill Guerin, a man of two Stanley Cups and countless playoff battles, admitted to having little respect for Montreal before the series began and says he still doesn’t respect them. “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve barely been trying in this series. You always hear guys throwing out cliche’s such as giving 110%, well I’ve probably been giving 10% in this series. Maybe in game 7 I will try and get up to 50%. If I give half of everything i’ve got then that should be more than enough.” Head coach Dan Bylsma surprisingly supported these comments saying that “I understand where some of the guys are coming from. I know that I haven’t put much effort into coaching in this series either. I might spend 5 minutes on off days looking at game film, and my pre-game speeches probably last no longer than 30 seconds.”
The one player who showed the utmost respect for his opponent was of course Pens captain Sidney Crosby. Crosby, who has appeared tired and frusturated thanks to the tight checking of the Montreal defense, credited the Canadiens for playing great hockey. “They’ve been tremendous all series long. We’ve thrown everything but the kitchen sink at them but they never backed down, just kept coming at us. I’ve been giving 110% every game and every shift but they’ve got some solid players over there, veteran guys who have been there before and know what it takes to win. Game 7 is going to be a fun game to play in. The crowd is gonna be loud and they are gonna give us everything they’ve got, so yeah its going to be fun. Drop the puck.”
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