If you don't have any plans for tonight, don't bother making any.
TSN has got your late night taken care of.
Get your Dairy Queen. Get your Timmies. Get your cheesecake.
Get whatever you need.
There is a Game 7 in the very near future. Tonight, it will be Washington and Boston. As of Sunday night, game start times hadn't been determined yet.
Going back over the last week of hockey, for the first time in a long time, the Flyers and Penguins provided more entertainment and maybe a few records.
The jokes flying around about this series are good.
By contrast, the St. Louis/San Jose series is the exact opposite of what became of the Flyers/Penguins.
The two goalies in the nets for that series (Fleury and Bryzgalov) watched as both of their GAAs reached new heights.
It was funny listening to TSN's James Duthie describing all the goals that went in during the fourth game.
"Oh...that one went in too!"
"Another goal!"
"Marc Andre Fleury actually made a save (or 2)."
Goaltending was non-existent in that series. Sadder than a cash bar at a wedding.
The sad thing is that one of them is a Stanley Cup champion from only a couple years ago.
The other one is Russian-born (to me, that should mean that he is good).
For the first four games, especially the fourth game, it seemed like if you take a shot on net, it is going to go in the net.
Scores have been 5-4, 8-4, 8-5 and then the score of Wednesday's Game 4 was 10-3. Game 5 was only 3-2 and the sixth was 5-1.
"I think we got embarrassed in front of our fans," states Flyer centre Claude Giroux. "I think (our) guys forgot that they've got two of the best players in the world on their side."
If it's possible to pull a goaltender, and then put him back in later in the game, that could have happened that night at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia.
The Penguins obviously went on to win that game as they scored 10 goals, lighting up Flyer goalie Ilya Bryzgalov like he was a Christmas tree. Pittsburgh was 4-for-9 on the power play, including 3-for-5 in the first half of the second period. Pittsburgh held a 36-25 shots on goal advantage. Both Flyers goaltenders stopped 13 of 18 shots they faced.
Whereas Penguins goalie Fleury actually made a save or two, joked Aaron Ward of TSN. Fleury and his teammates dished out the worst kind of punishment, the kind usually only seen in the movies.
Jordan Staal had a hat trick, Evgeni Malkin had his first two goals of the series and Sidney Crosby scored once.
Fleury, by the way, also finished with 22 saves. He did not allow a goal in the second and third periods as the Penguins built on a 4-3 lead after 20 minutes to make it 9-3 after 40.
For the third straight game in this series a team scored at least eight goals. The 45 combined goals the Flyers and Penguins have scored are the most in Stanley Cup history through four games.
The last time the Flyers gave up 10 goals in a playoff game was April 25, 1989. Ironically, it was the Penguins who did it to them. Fans of both sides likely remember it as well because Mario Lemieux scored five goals and dished out three assists for eight points in the Penguins' 10-7 win. The Penguins were the first team to score at least 10 goals in a playoff game since the Los Angeles Kings scored 12 against the Calgary Flames on April 10, 1990, according to STATS LLC. The teams have combined for 23 first-period goals heading into Game 5, the most in NHL history for through the first five games of a playoff series. There's little chance of a goalie controversy in Philadelphia. After earning huge cheers for stopping his first shot, Bobrovsky was worse than Bryzgalov, allowing four goals the rest of the second period.
If there's anything you'd like to see covered by Game 7, please forward your suggestions to the Yorkton This Week sportsdesk by phone (306) 782-2465, or email jeff@yorkton this week.com.
