Forecast? Fleury's with no chance of Lightning. Pens win game 1!

Alright first off, Fleury is already getting MVP chants, if you want to know why? Heres why:

Lecavalier stick handles in a phone booth trying to beat MAF and what does everyone forget? You can't spell BAMF without MAF. Fleury denies him the joy of a goal and then makes a couple additional stops in the same defensive series. What really set the tone for the entire game though, was this hit by Orpik on Stamkos:

Smeared him on the boards and Stamkos wasn't the same afterward. This is playoff Brooks Orpik, like the video I posted in the pre-game, where Orpik gets 4 hits in like 15 seconds. Brooks has the ability to become a whole lot more intense and focused during the playoffs. Almost as if he flips this switch in his head and becomes a beast on skates. The Pens had a gameplan and it wasn't any different than other playoff series, wear the other team down with physicality and when the time is right, strike hard and fast.

For two periods these two teams battled physically and not a goal was given up, many close opportunities on each side but nothing could slip past either teams goaltender and going into the third you could wonder if this was going to be a defensive duel into overtime.Then things changed, and the facilitator of that change was a hard working James Neal. Kovy gets blasted by a lightning player and that player loses his stick, having to make a hand pass instead of a regular pass he gets it along the boards but Martin is there and plays it to Neal who has come across the rink to help. Neal with only seconds to react sees Kovalev has gotten up from his hit, is wide open on the right side of the net and gives him a shot pass, the same player who lost his stick is there and could of made a play had he picked up his stick, no defensive play, wide open Kovalev with Roloson out of position and the first goal of the game goes in:

The veteran gets the pass from the playoff 'rookie' and Shero looks like a genius for putting these two together. Neal is hopefully one step closer to understanding his slumping regular season doesn't matter and that now that he's in the playoffs, it's a whole new animal and he needs to tame that beast and make it his own. Wait... what's that sound? It's the sound of the crowd roaring again as 18 seconds later Arron Asham beats the world and scores another goal after wrapping around the net, and beating Roloson, who is again out of position and puts one in for a 2-0 lead after 45 or so minutes of scoreless hockey. Consol Energy Center erupted and it was louder than it's ever been.

Asham comes in along the right hand boards, uncontested, cut's to the middle of the ice, fakes a slap shot, goes down to the goal and skates just about into Roloson, Roloson goes down and challenges but doesn't get it. Asham cut's it back and wraps around the goal, tries to tuck it in but isn't far enough out yet, somehow keeps the puck and slips it into the net beautifully past a scrambling Roloson, who is now probably thoroughly confused.

Near the end, Lightning coach Guy Boucher decides to pull Roloson with less than 2 minutes remaining in the third. Everyone thinks Fleury is going to try and shoot one down and get a goal, he does look to try once but there is too much pressure, eventually after a shot comes down he turns it to the corner, where Brooks is waiting to play the puck, Brooks gets it to Staal who gets it to Kunitz along the half boards, and he plays it beautifully at the blueline into the empty net and the Pens would go on to be 3-0 victors against the Lightning in game 1.

Now a couple things I didn't point out in the above. The Pen's Defense got away with quite a few noncalls and one drawn penalty that was a real work of art. Michalek, perhaps without even really realizing it, gets his stick in St Louis's mouth, drew quite a bit of blood for all we know probably took out a tooth for that much blood, no call on Michalek and the Pens avoid a 4 minute penalty kill.
**Footage of that hit up now.**

Not but a few minutes later Michalek catches another Bolt in the face with his stick, this one less damaging but still, no call.

In the third period, keeping the trend of highsticking alive, Letang does the greatest acting job I've ever seen. He is being challenged and the Bolt put's his stick near Letang's chest, realizing he could use this to his advantage, Letang grabs the middle of the stick, brings it up into his own chin, and snaps his head back wildly as though he was just shot. Tampa Bay penalty, and Letang goes laughing all the way back to the bench I would imagine. I know I was laughing pretty hard at the acting job, he sold me and the crowd, but not Bob Errey. Sadly there is no footage of this yet but boy was it something of a work of art.

Cue the MVP for Fleury Chants.