The Penguins played hard in Game 7 and dominated play, but the sad fact is that if they had played as hard in Games 5 and 6 it never would have gotten to a winner take all Game 7 where anything can happen.
That's really frustrating to me as the Penguins are the only team I root for year in and year out; otherwise I root for individual athletes and have shifting allegiances toward teams that are at least relatively fair to White athletes. That's obviously not an issue in hockey. I expect a hockey team to play hard, especially given how much money fans shell out to support them and because that's what White men are supposed to do, but the Penguins are sadly reminiscent in some ways of the pampered teams and affletes we rightfully criticize.
It's almost guaranteed that Dan Bylsma will be fired, but that should have happened years ago. The organization needs a fundamental shift away from its country club atmosphere, but given that Mario Lemieux is the league's original coach killer and originator of the country club ethos, that is unlikely to happen. GM Ray Shero also needs to go, and if this series illustrated anything, it showed that Lundquist is a far superior goalie to Fleury. Even when not imploding, Fleury routinely flops and flails around and is terrible at rebound control, whereas Lundquist is fundamentally superb along with making lots of great saves.
Bylsma, Fleury and Shero need to go; so do soft coasters like James Neal and Chris Kunitz, and a slew of over the hill veterans. And what a colossal disappointment Sidney Crosby has become come playoff time, especially this year. We'll see what happens. And credit to the Rangers for regrouping when they were all but given up for dead and doing it while having to play 9 games in 15 days.
