Over the course of a lifetime, every ice rink is going to see its share of
unlucky bounces. But when it comes to bad bounces at critical moments, the east
end of the ice at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., has seen more than its
fair share of late.
A little less than a month ago, the arena hosted the
NCAA Frozen Four. The final featured perennial college hockey power Boston
University against Miami University. On that night, Miami held a two-goal lead
in the third period, only to see Boston Univeristy score twice into the net on
the east end in the final minute to force overtime.
And once Boston
University got to OT, an incredibly bad bounce off Miami defenseman
Kevin Roeder gave the Terriers the game-winning goal. What was so
heartbreaking about that goal was that Roeder did exactly what he was
supposed to do as he dropped to the ice to block a shot from Boston's Colby
Cohen.
Saturday night in Washington, it happened again, in Game 5 of the Capitals-Penguins Stanley Cup playoff series. This time the
victim was Washington Capitals defenseman Tom Poti.
An Alex Ovechkin
goal late in the third period tied the game 3-3 and forced overtime. Having lost Games 3 and 4 in Pittsburgh, the Capitals were
desperate to regain their momentum. They didn't want to return to Pittsburgh for Game 6 down 3-2, especially after winning Games 1 and 2 at home.
But at the tail end of a
power play in OT, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin broke in over the Washington blue line
with only 39-year old Sergei Fedorov to beat. For Fedorov, it was an unfamiliar
spot: normally a center, head coach Bruce Boudreau was forced to shift Fedorov
to defense to replace the injured John Erskine.
Taking
advantage of his incredible speed, Malkin was able to turn the corner on Fedorov
and break in on Washington goalie Simeon Varlamov. Also heading straight toward
the net through the slot was Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby. Malkin saw him and
pushed a pass off of his backhand that Crosby could easily tap into an open net
before Varlamov could shift to the opposite post.
Which was where Poti
entered the picture. Positioned to cut off the pass, Poti dived to intercept
it. "Their guy is coming down the wall ... You know it's Malkin, so you can't
give him too much time and space and it became a two-on-one and I tried to go
down to take the pass away," he said.
And while the puck did clip his
stick, it took the worst of bounces, and deflected through Varlamov's
five-hole to give Pittsburgh the win.
When asked after the game if he could
have done something differently, Poti said: "I don't know. It's tough because if
you give him [Malkin] too much space to come in, he's a guy who can make a play
and score the goal, so I don't think there's anything I'd do different again. It's just an unlucky bounce and there's nothing you can really do about
it."
Something tells me that Miami's Kevin Roeder feels the same way.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
8 comments
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Comments
Bill Buckner over ice.
by L'etat, c'est moi on May 10, 2009 12:50 AM EDT reply actions
Let me tell you what I think. I think the interference call should have been made 13 seconds into this highlight in front of the pens net. That call is made 10 out of 10 times in the regular season, and the first and second periods of the playoffs. This is what I don’t understand. How can the refs screw with the game with a bunch of phantom calls all year long, but when a flat out interference call is right in front of them, they don’t call it. I’m tired of this ****, and I bet I’m not the only one. I just want to make one thing clear. I’m a Wings fan, not a Caps fan, so there is no bias when I say these things. All I want is the NHL, the owners, the NHLPA to get together, and figure out if it’s worth having these bull**** phantoms calls in the game just to bring a few more people to the games. If they don’t they will lose just as many true hockey fans, as they hope to attract with these new rules.
by stickyicks on May 10, 2009 9:47 AM EDT reply actions
Actually Stickyicks true hockey fans understand that there are calls made and missed in every game. And dont complain about the officiating. Could an interference call have been made? Probably. But it wasnt. Just as it wasnt in Gm 4 when Bradley interferred with Letang which directly resulted in the Caps tying the game. Calls are missed, the officials are human and make mistakes just like you. All complaining does is make you look like a douche.
As for Eric McErlain, is this guy a Caps homer. He writes a stupid blog about Crosby compaining about the hats after OV’s hattrick. But when OV complains about officiating he writes nothing. Then a bad bounce for the Caps, and oh the east end of the verizon center is haunted. Poor Caps. What a joke.
by karatekid4u on May 10, 2009 11:26 AM EDT reply actions
Actually Stickyicks true hockey fans understand that there are calls made and missed in every game. And dont complain about the officiating. Could an interference call have been made? Probably. But it wasnt. Just as it wasnt in Gm 4 when Bradley interferred with Letang which directly resulted in the Caps tying the game. Calls are missed, the officials are human and make mistakes just like you. All complaining does is make you look like a douche.
As for Eric McErlain, is this guy a Caps homer. He writes a stupid blog about Crosby compaining about the hats after OV’s hattrick. But when OV complains about officiating he writes nothing. Then a bad bounce for the Caps, and oh the east end of the verizon center is haunted. Poor Caps. What a joke.
by karatekid4u on May 10, 2009 11:26 AM EDT reply actions
Co-sign karatekid 100%. It’s funny, I don’t really see Pens fans (Tho I’m sure some do) complaining about reffing. There are plenty of calls and non calls that went against Pittsburgh in this series too….Matt Cooke being tripped, preventing him from blocking AO’s shot in Game 4 comes to mind… It goes both ways, that’s the nature of the game.
As for the lucky bounce, Sid was going to put it home anyways, so Caps fans need to get over it and hope their team can come out strong in Game 6!
Let’s end this one at the Igloo!!!
GO PENS GO!
by LastSonOfKrypton on May 10, 2009 12:44 PM EDT reply actions
on that goal it was pick your poison. and the bounces havnt gone the pens way either. look at some of ovechkins goals this series.. the hockey gods have been smiling upon him! and agreed with karate and kryp, the caps have gotten away with some penalties to, its part of the game, game 4 ( i think) shouldnt have even gone to OT, but 2 back to back missed calls by the refs let the caps get back into the game. dont complain about the officiating, its been going both ways!
by MultipleScorgasims on May 10, 2009 2:36 PM EDT reply actions
on that goal it was pick your poison. and the bounces havnt gone the pens way either. look at some of ovechkins goals this series.. the hockey gods have been smiling upon him! and agreed with karate and kryp, the caps have gotten away with some penalties to, its part of the game, game 4 ( i think) shouldnt have even gone to OT, but 2 back to back missed calls by the refs let the caps get back into the game. dont complain about the officiating, its been going both ways!
by MultipleScorgasims on May 10, 2009 2:36 PM EDT reply actions
From a PENS FAN***
As a PENS Fan I realize that calls are missed and then some that are pay backs for missed calls (adding insult to injury). If any WASH CAP fan feels they need to complain about interference in GM5 overtime, they need to look at Bradleys 2 interference penalties that weren’t called in GM4, one on Letang and the other on Orpick, which the latter led directly to the game tying goal (Orpick was hammered into the NET). If anything that was payback for by the REF’s for missing those calls. Maybe we should re-look at OVI’s hit on Gonchar or even the slue foot he gave to Malkin in the 1st period of GM5. I think at this point everything is evened out, suck it up and play game 6.
by guardian154 on May 10, 2009 4:58 PM EDT reply actions
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