This afternoon, Claude Giroux tweeted a link to this article and wrote, "great article by (author). #very true." The article contains some tips for how clueless women can make their hockey fan boyfriends happy by adopting their opinions, bringing them beer, and not asking questions during the NHL playoffs. I thought I would respond with a few tips for male hockey fans:

• Recognize that there are male and female hockey fans, and that there are men and women who don't follow it at all. If you meet a woman who doesn't know anything about hockey, it's because she has never followed it, not because women are clueless ditzes who don't understand sports -- just like your male friend who can't name three teams doesn't represent the hockey knowledge of his entire gender.
• Some women who don't understand hockey watch games because they think the players are cute. Some men who don't understand hockey watch games because they like to get drunk in public. Both are valid entertainment options, but if you're not generalizing about all male fans based on the clueless drunks, don't generalize about all female hockey fans based on a few female fans who just like the players.
• If you are in a healthy relationship with another person, that person will probably respect and support your sports obsession whether she follows sports or not. Try being thankful and making the experience fun for her, rather than demanding that she bring you beers, sit quietly, and refrain from asking questions "because it's playoffs." The playoffs aren't making you be a jerk to your girlfriend -- that's all you.
• If your girlfriend texts you during a playoff game, you can wait and read the text during a commercial break. If receiving a text during a crucial moment ruins the game for you, that's your fault, not your girlfriend's fault. If you actually get mad at her for texting you during overtime, you are an abusive jerk, and you should probably break up with her to save her from yourself. Then you can watch the rest of the playoffs in peace!
• If your girlfriend watches hockey with you, and she happens to be someone who knows less about hockey than you, don't patronize her endlessly with your superior hockey knowledge because that's actually not fun for her at all. If she has a question, be happy to answer it because she's someone you love and respect (remember?). But don't spend the entire game explaining every offsides call to her like she is an idiot.
• If you're devastated that your team just got eliminated (Philadelphia fans, pay close attention to this one for future reference), and your girlfriend tries to comfort you, just thank her and be glad someone cares about you. If you flip out on her that "it's not okay" and that she "doesn't understand," the problem is not actually that your girlfriend doesn't understand -- it's that you are a galactic tool who doesn't deserve her.
• If a misguided female hockey fan writes a long, sexist article directed at other women, don't tweet a link to it and tell your thousands of followers that it's "very true."

You're welcome, Claude! I hope you find these tips helpful when you're watching the 2nd round from your couch.

Fleury's save percentage is undeniably bad, and that is mostly his own fault (and also the fault of the defense).  However, his early struggles were in games where the offense failed to score enough goals to give him some room, and I believe the offense played a significant role in his current slump.

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As I have watched other teams compete in the playoffs, I have been reminded of how special Dan Bylsma is and how much his attitude seems to contribute to the Penguins' success.  In the days of Michel Therrien, I was used to our coach blaming players and acting helpless at his famous press conferences.  For example, who could forget:

We don't have the right attitude. We like to complain about each other on the bench and on the ice. They better wake up pretty quick... I'm really disappointed with their work ethic and the concentration. Until they change their attitude, we are going to have the same results.

But now, I'm so used to Bylsma's classy press conferences that I get a little surprised when I see other coaches doing the things that Bylsma refuses to do -- calling out underperforming players, whining about the officiating, getting visibly angry or distraught, accusing players on the other team of playing dirty or diving, making tasteless jokes.

I have a little soft spot for Bruce Boudreau even though the Capitals are of course the enemy -- it's hard to dislike a man who is so clearly passionate about his team, and isn't afraid to be openly emotional about it.  His local commercials are awkward and precious, and I think it's sort of touching, if misguided, that he defends Ovechkin no matter what he does.

But watching the press conferences, I think that Bylsma would handle the Capitals' situation very ditfferently (and much better). Bylsma would never call out individual players (Semin) and say that the team "played like crap." He would also project confidence instead of saying, in response to a question about not letting frustration carry over into game seven, "I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine."

Bylsma projects calm and focus no matter what happens.  When the team was down 3-0 in Game 6, they knew that the expectation was to "play our game" and "play the right way" regardless of the situation.  As Bylsma said in an interview yesterday,

"When it was 3-0 and 3-1, it doesn’t matter what the score is, it doesn’t matter what the games are in the series. You just have to keep playing and playing and playing the right way and get to your game so you take the doubt out of the series."

And as Bill Guerin said, also yesterday,

"Dan motivates in a different way. I think he really tries to get to know each and every player's personality and what makes them tick. But I think he feels he can get to guys without threats, without embarrassing anybody."

Bylsma will express confidence in the team, and in individual players, no matter what the situation.  In the rare occasions that he does lose confidence in a player (Martin Skoula), the most you get out of him is that benching the player was "a coaching decision."  He also refuses to whine about the officiating or about NHL disciplinary decisions.  In short, he's a class act, and I believe it's a big part of our team's success.

Can anyone write a FanPost about anything?  I've never tried this before...

But, I found some interesting comments by Pascal Dupuis about the Sutton hit and the aftermath.  The comments, unfortunately, appear in a column by Ron Cook where he's making some point about how hockey players play through painful injuries "with no regard for their health" and it's so hardcore.  But we'll ignore his opinions and look at the quotations.  First, what Dupuis remembers about the injury:

"The first thing I remember was the ref saying, 'Stay down. It's pretty bad. The trainer and doctor are coming,' " he said. "I knew it was bad. My helmet was a bucketful of blood."

Dupuis also reveals that Max Talbot immediately called his wife to let her know that he was okay, and that Chris Kunitz gave him a ride home that night.  He also says that his parents were watching the game when it happened.  I can't imagine watching that hit happen to your son.

When he got home, Dupuis immediately wanted to watch the hit on the internet:

The first thing he did after showing his wife the doctor's stitch work was get on the Internet to see Sutton's hit. "I watched it from every angle," he said. "It was pretty bad."

It's a little strange to imagine Dupuis jumping onto the computer and typing "Dupuis" and "Sutton" into YouTube just like the fans.  But, I'm starting to get the impression that the coaches and the players are a lot more plugged into online fan activity than they let on.  For example, on an episode of the Dan Bylsma show, when they are talking about player nicknames, Bylsma says in passing "haha I saw that one on Pensblog."  We know that Crosby can recite the standings and where he falls in the scoring race.  And most of the players are young enough to be part of the plugged-in generation, and rich enough to buy fancy computers and laptops.  It's human nature to be curious when people are talking about you.  In fact, I bet Sidney Crosby will print out this post and tape it up in the locker room with a note, "Cari on Pensburgh finally figured out Fanposts."

Finally, from the same column, Jordan Staal made a comment that might get him in a bit of trouble:

As Penguins center Jordan Staal said the other day, "They'll replace you pretty quickly if you start complaining about injuries too much or missing too many games."

I'm sure he meant that the team expects players to come back as soon as they can.  But, he implies that players might come back too soon because they are worried about their jobs.  I'm not shocked that this happens or anything -- we all know that players feel pressure to play through injuries in sports -- but it's interesting that he said it to a reporter.

The full column is available here:  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10025/1030894-87.stm