As a Pens fan I feel like this right about now...

As a Sabres fan I don't feel much better. Granted the Sabres are 2-1 in their series while the Pens are 1-3 but I'm going to blame that entirely on luck or lack thereof. No one said the playoffs were going to be easy and if they did they were high. Or in Anaheim (for the record I'm really pissed they didn't sweep I just want that series to be over, dead and done :b). But to follow a team that seems to play like they don't even care about it being the playoffs and that's about a hundred times more painful. Especially when said team fought so hard during regular season to accomplish what they did.

In fact I'm almost a little pissed that the those numbers aren't reversed because Pittsburgh may have been slow to come out of the box but they're trying. They're still together and they're still fighting but Ottawa has just been scary good from the start. The Pens are struggling but they're still trying! I can't say the same about Buffalo. At every turn they are disgusting me. They are suppose to be a high scoring puck moving team and what are they're forewards doing? They're on vacation in key west already. Especially our CAPTAIN. Our fourth line is performing better than our top and it's a good thing fans aren't allowed near the plays or I think more than a few would be tearing one, Daniel Briere, a new one. I am just waiting for Lindy to bump him for it and I have noticed that he hasn't been sporting a C lately.

I've always felt that Dru was the true captain of the team though while Danny was our star and boy everything bad you can say about star players has been ringing true with him lately. He's failing to make plays, follow through on plays, he's afraid or just unwilling to take and make hits and don't give me the size excuse cause than man can be obnoxious and rough when he wants to (and often is). He doesn't have the third highest pims on the team for nothing. Speaking of penalty minutes, generally I can be okay with those when you can back them up with some valuable points but since the end of regular season I have seen him do little more than take ridiculous hooking and slashing penalties and he even got himself thrown out of the game at one point. And no I am not giving him even the slightest ounce of credit for that goal he just got last game until he can start performing consistently. He's not the only one though just the one that infuriates me the most. It would be nice if Pominville and Vanek could step up too and Roy while making some great plays that I'm glad for is offsetting them with horribly costly ones. Of course like I said Dru is in top form and that's very important and somehow the D is keeping it together and even performing in place of the forewards while they flounder like fish.

I hear rumours that the team is falling apart in the locker room. That they're at each others throats and calling each other out some of them doing so publicly. I'm looking at you Ryan Miller, it wasn't cute or appropriate the first time and it sure as hell ain't helping anyone now. Not to mention bitching about the D when they are the only ones that are performing just because you haven't been in top form between the posts all series is not acceptable. It is your problem. Even if it is theirs it is your problem to address with them. Either way. FIX IT. And don't go crying to the media anymore because it is doing nothing to endear anyone to your cause.

I don't want to sound like I'm kissing monsieur Biron's ass right now but I think this is the hardest I've ever missed him right now. Off the rink, this was his forte. I'm not saying he was a some messiah that could solve all these problems oh of course not but he could still draw a group together inspite of them. I look at last years team and compared to this year and I don't know why we're falling apart now, when it made us so much stronger then but I'm truly sad to see it happening.

Speaking of the team last year we lost so many treasured players in the off season who are doing fantastic in their respective playoffs this year. JP Dumont for Nashville (Why JP? Why?) is having a spectacular post season with something like 7 points already. In spite of the fact that they will probably (hopefully) get trounced by San Jose. Which brings me to Mike Grier who is always a pleasure to watch and makes me feel not so terrible about cheering for the Sharks. And over in the Vancouver Dallas match up the Taylor Pyatt score a game winner on top of gaining some other key points while for the stars we have Stu Barnes netting a point or two himself. It's impossible to want them all to succeed but if it were!

In conclusion, I still have complete blinding faith in the Pens, want to have faith in Buffalo and Calgary, hope Anaheim would just hurry up and get their series over with, have a strange affection for Tampa shutting down NJ's game (and essentially kicking their fourth line out of the game in a brilliantly retarded ploy that I love them for), and am just so ridiculously glad that Vancouver is keeping me in the orange.