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PITTSBURGH 3 OTTAWA 2 (series tied 2-2)
The Ottawa Senators pressed hard in the 3rd but couldn't get the equalizer as the Penguins won 3-2 to send the series back to Pittsburgh tied at 2 games a piece. And after missing a ton of players for this game, all 4 injured Penguins that were out for Game 4 could be back in the lineup tomorrow, making the task for the Sens to regain control of the series that much tougher.
It's been quite a battle between these two squads, trading off wins, but one team's definitely being given an advantage here, and it's not who you think. The NHL announced this morning that Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf was fined $10000 for a homophobic slur aimed at an on-ice participant. The problem here is that there's a precedent for this type of incident, and they didn't follow it. Last year Andrew Shaw was fined $5000 and suspended 1 playoff game for a similar incident. So why is it that Getzlaf, a league superstar gets less of a punishment (and seriously, if you're thinking of pointing out his fine was double, remember that Getzlaf's 2016 salary was $9.25 MILLION). It's embarrassing enough that the league has this incident happen during what has been a pretty spectacular post season. It's worse that they are clearly showing what they have always denied, that there's a separate set of rules for stars than for everyone else. You can't even deny it. And should the Ducks go on to win the series, if you're Nashville you should be pissed off. The best player on the Ducks should be suspended for this, and it's a terrible look for the league to not punish him accordingly.
2017 World Hockey Championships Semi Finals- CANADA 4 RUSSIA 2
I slept in this morning, and missed the first two periods of this game, and glad I did, because after spotting the Russians a 2-0 lead, Canada saved the best for last. They fired 19 shots at Andrei Vasilevskiy, scoring 3 times and adding an empty netter as they shocked Russia to advance to tomorrow's gold medal final. Canada was led by Ryan O'Reilly once again, as the Buffalo Sabres forward scored the winner during a furious 3rd period. Canada will face the winner of the Sweden/Finland game going on right now for Gold tomorrow.
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Just discovered a video I'd never seen before by FORCED ENTRY. Hailing from Seattle, they were a thrash band wallowing in obscurity through the sea of grunge bands in the 90's. Their album As Above, So Below is a criminally underrated masterpiece, and still in my all time top 20.