The Pen-goon Empire Strikes Back...I Mean Strikes Knee.

The Pen-goons have struck again this time it was Brooks Orpik with a dirty knee to knee hit on Derek Stepan.  The Pen-goons have clearly resorted to tactics, dirty and questionable tactics that their counterparts in the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers use.  This the second time within a week that the Pen-goons, have really lived up to their new nickname.  There is really no place for this kind of play in the NHL, and I am starting to get highly annoyed by its common-place in the game today.

I was not the only one annoyed by the hit or the lack of respect that players seem to have for each other, here is a video of John Tortorella, the Rangers' outspoken coach about the hit:

Tortorella makes a great point about the whining stars on the Penguins.  We all know that that starts off with Cindy (Sidney) Cry Baby Crobsy.  The guy is constantly whining the officials, and diving all over the place.  He has even gone so far as to whine about fans throwing hats on the ice after a hat trick was scored by the opponents.  Really Cindy? Come on now, just play the game and stay up on your skates.  You look like a fool, flopping and diving all over the ice.

This is the second time in the past week that the Pen-goons have struck against a playoff bound team.  The first was Vitale's hit on Briere in a meaningless point of a 6-3 game in the third period.  Orpik was given a 5 minute major for the knee to knee hit last night.  It was more then Vitale was given for cowardliness against the Flyers.  This really need to stop and if you are a Pen-goons fan you cannot be proud of the way that your team is finishing the regular season.

If I was the Flyers in preparations for the game Saturday, I would be sitting my star players.  The Pen-goons are clearly out in full force and are trying to injure key players on their opponent's teams.  If I was the Flyers, I would consider calling up high energy, enforcer type players for the game on Saturday.  There is no reason to let the Pen-goons injure anymore of your team's star players right before the playoffs start.  Clearly, the Pen-goons are out for blood now.

The whole situation was not without another spineless denial by Daniel Bylsma (the head Pen-goon):

 “You see here where (Stepan) jumps out of the way and Brooks is on his track and looking to hit the guy at an angle, and he trying to get out of the way creates that scenario,” Bylsma said.

This is the same response Bylsma gave after the Briere hit, when he said that, that hit was a clean hit.  I know we discussed that hit before, but I feel I need to make the point again, that if you injure someone it is not a clean hit.  If you injure someone you do not need to come out and decry if the hit was clean or not, you need to apologize to the player you injured.  Its just common respect.  Bylsma would take none of that as you can see by his quote.  Stepan jumps out of the way because he saw Orpik putting his knee out!  Come on, Bylsma you do not need huge glasses to see that.

The Pen-goons need to shoulder the responsibility for their actions.  They have not been playing with any class the last week of the season.  What is more disheartening is the NHL does not seem to care because NBC, the NHL TV rights, are in love in the Pen-goons.  I'd love to see what Bylsma's response would be if someone went after their stars.  An eye for an eye, right?  We will continue to follow the NHL, and until a time when the Pen-goons can start acting like a civilized NHL team, we at Seasons in the Sun will stop referring the Pittsburgh franchise as the Pen-goons.