Pens: 1. Lightning: 0.

This blog will be overwhelmingly hockey-related until the Pens get eliminated from the playoffs win the Stanley Cup. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Remember how I compared the first round of the playoffs to foreplay yesterday? Yeah. That was for the extended metaphor's sake. I'm a maniac right from the beginning. I treat every game like it's the Stanley Cup final. Probably not healthy...

I had to watch the first game of the series in the midst of a particularly horrible karaoke night at BW3s. The first two periods were complete torture for me. As much as I love little kids and Coldplay, I wanted to throw my knife and fork at the 8-year-old who sang "Viva La Vida" and had clearly never heard the song before. When the 80-year-old woman (who is a regular on karaoke night) started her usual "Can't Get You Outta My Head" by Kylie Minogue, tears sprang to my eyes.

Then, James Neal made a delicious pass to Kovy who sent it home. 1-0, Pens. 18 seconds later, unsung hero Arron Asham scored, basically finishing the game. Fast-forward ten minutes, the goalie is pulled and Kunitz scores the empty-netter. Pens take the series lead with a 3-0 win. I fought the urge to karaoke "We are the Champions."

They showed Sid, sitting in a box with a headset on. He seemed so focused. Again, I battled tears. Staalsy had a solid game - he had a few dangerously-close shots and was named 3rd star of the game. Mostly, he distracted Stamkos, St. Louis, and company with his gorgeous cleft chin and enormous hands.


Fleury single-handedly owned the Lightning. Perfect game for him. Beautiful start to the series. Good news - Pittsburgh's forecast is calling for some more FLEURYS and white-out conditions for Friday. Come on. You knew it was coming. Floridians can't handle snow. Get it?