Thursday, April 23, 2009

Hells Bells


Hell’s Bells – AC/DC

By Jan Snyder

My Dad was known to use some salty language during hockey games. Most I can’t repeat here but one of his favorites was “Hell’s bells, we can’t get it out of our own end.” Or “Hell’s bells, he couldn’t put one in with a two by four.” They were many variations on the theme, but ‘hell’s bells’ was the common denominator.

Unfortunately, Dad’s expressions fit this game to a tee. In the first scoreless period, things were looking good for the Pens, a couple of times pucks almost went in, but didn’t. In the second period, Philly took over and soon Asham scored their first goal.

Geno made some nice moves, got to the net, put it in – but replays showed he kicked the puck in. Hell’s bells, the goal was called back. Geno played well, as did Sid, but nothing wanted to happen. The Pens’ third line played a feisty game, got some chances, and was tenacious, all for naught. The white-out crowd did their part to help, but they couldn’t produce any particular magic either.

In the third, we hoped for a better fate, but hell’s bells, no breaks for us and we just had to watch Giroux and Knuble knock in two more.

Maybe the absence of Kris Letang and Petr Sykora made a difference. Letang was replaced by Philippe Boucher and Sykora by – Satan! Hell’s bells, did those replacements change the team chemistry? Did the team expect Fleury to continue his Superman routine from the previous game? Did they really want to go back to the “fans” of Philadelphia and their incredible lack of hospitality?

Marty Biron did a reasonable impression of Fleury from the last game in this game, making some quality saves especially when he was peppered in the first. The Flyers played a good game, didn’t fight much, and it all worked for them. On the other hand, the Pens didn’t seem quite as desperate as those guys in black and orange. Hopefully that will change in the next contest.

Now we play on Saturday afternoon, in Philly, on NBC. Back we go to the home of a thousand Taco Bells and the Liberty Bell. Hell’s bells, I really didn’t want that to happen!

Let’s hold on to good thoughts until Saturday and hope we can wrap it up in Flyer country. Wish you were here to enjoy it all with us, Dad!




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