Penguins, no Dove

Friday April 25, 2008 @ 12:21 PM EDT

AJ plays alongside fellow blogger Eddie Cahill in the CBS crime Drama, CSI: NY. The Irishman has also made appearances on Supernatural, Bones, and Entourage. AJ will be giving his insight into the Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup Playoffs run.


This is a hard series to predict.


The hardest, possibly of the second round.


Of course you know I’m taking the Pens.


I don’t know how many games it’ll take, or how many OTs they’ll need to get it done, but I do know, that at the end of the seires, the final tally will say “Pens win in BLANK.”


Heck, let’s say six. Pens in six has a nice ring to it.


We have one of our head writers on set – he’s a big Rangers fan, he was a former police detective from New York – and his name is John Dove. Well Dove thinks that the Rangers will take it in 6. And he gave me his reasoning…


He figures that Pittsburgh is offensive, the Rangers are defensive, meaning it’s strength vs. strength in this series. And he believes the maxim “Offense wins games, Defense wins championships.” He believes the style the Rangers play is the perfect style to shut down the, excuse the pun, “high-flying” penguins.


I can see some merit to what he’s saying because if Lundqvist gets hot, if he’s playing like a man possessed, it’s going to be intense.


But you have to shut down Crosby. And Malkin. And Roberts and Staal and Gonchar and Malone and Petr Sykora. Oh, and Hossa. Remember him? He’s a pretty solid player in his own right.


And they’re just getting going.


What’s certain is this: from what I’ve seen, from what I’ve been hearing from people, and from what I’ve seen out of other series around the league, this one is going to be the most exciting.


I say bring it on.


Because one thing Dove doesn’t know is that in the last series they played both ways, they played strong offense but they were tight defensively. They’re versatile like that.


Because they’re a younger team, some people might question if they have the maturity, and last year, I would’ve agreed with them. This year, things are completely different. They know what it’s like to lose, they’ve fixed the problems they had in last years’ playoffs, and they’re coming into their own.


Like I said, I don’t think they’ll sweep, because both teams are very solid. But I think six is the magic number here.


Now, as some of you may or may not be aware, Eddie Cahill works with me on the set of CSI:NY, and as many of you probably know, Eddie is one huge Rangers fan. Well, as you can imagine, things just might get a little ugly around here.


I think we’ll get some trash-talking on the set, for sure. I think he said something about how he’s looking for a Penguins suit, and he’s going to try to get me to wear it. Well, I will wear that suit when they beat the Rangers for the fourth time.


How about that?


So anyway, for tonight, I’m all set up: I’ll be on a plane but I have the TiVo ready to roll, recording the game and anything schedule to air after that, just in case of OT.


I’m going to watch when I land – depending on when I land, though, I could still catch some of it if it goes into OT.


And Eddie, in the past three playoff rounds the Rangers are 0-3. Let them dwell on that for a bit, and let them dwell on the fact that 0-4 isn’t far away. Because if Pittsburgh plays that offensive style and we hold the D like we did in the last round, we’ll really take it to them.


AJ

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