GTOPG: Rick DiPietro's Face Is Still Broken; Pens Lose 9-3

By Finesse

According to almost every postgame quote from players on both sides, what happened last night is all a "blur."  Well, here at GTOG, we've mined the video, read the quotes, and broken down the box-score and we've discovered that what happened last night is as clear as day: The Islanders are suffering from a decades-long inferiority complex with no end in sight caused solely by their own ineptitude at managing themselves as an organization both on and off the ice.  Last night was, paradoxically, an attempt by the Isles to distract your attention away from their overall irrelevancy.

Smiling To Keep From Crying

None of us played in this game so we have to remember to cool our emotions a bit here.  We aren't tough by pounding keyboards, just like Rick DiPietro isn't tough at anything except making it difficult for the Islanders to find additional cap space to waste on more terrible contracts.  We don't really know what was happening on the ice or what was being said.  Actually, we do.  The Islanders attempted to set the sport back 10 years, which means they only have to set it back another 20 to get to a time period when anyone actually cared about them.

Ok, enough shots at the Isles.  Let's turn it over to Brooks Orpik to explain in the most rational way possible what that was last night.  From the Trib:

"I don't know what they were so frustrated about," Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said. "Johnny got into a fight with their goalie (earlier this month) who was very willing — and you've got guys like Trevor Gillies who are out to hurt people. The league takes care of all that stuff, and I'm sure they will."

Exactly.  The Islanders getting mad at Johnson for shattering Rick DiPietro's overpriced face would be like me getting mad at the owner of a liquor store that my brother was trying to rob for not willingly turning over the money to him.  It made no sense at the time and continues to not make sense no matter how much the Islanders try to rationalize it, as you can read in these quotes.

"No, I don't know what I'm doing."

Lost in the fighting is the fact that the Penguins lost this game by 6 goals and were largely noncompetitive throughout.  Because we are all so concerned about the brawling, it was easy to forget that on several of the Islanders' goals, the Pens were standing around watching or merely giving a courtesy effort to tie people up in front.  I'm not sure if this amateur lineup the Pens were throwing out was too busy congratulating themselves for beating the Kings or were simply overmatched.  Whatever the case, it was a dreadful performance.

No one is feeling sorry for the Pens right now.  Godard is going to be suspended and Tangradi looks like he will probably be out for at least a couple games, meaning the Pens are one injury away from having to  call up Adam Banks from The Hawks.

Wrist Healed; Will Play 18 Mins on Sunday

Some people out there will say that what is happening to the Pens is "karma," which makes no sense because in no other context has karma ever come back to hurt someone just because he/she was really really good at his/her job like the Pens are.  Oh, well.

In our fireside chat, we warned that things could get worse before they get better.  And, sad as it may be, we still might not be at rock bottom.  But things are never as bad or as good as they seem.  Things will turn around.  It's why we love hockey.

Stay The Course.

Go Pens.