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The Confluence

Andy Sutton has me channeling Yamamoto today

by Tony on 04/17/10 at 09:48 AM ET
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Forget about whether Andy Sutton’s vicious hit on Jordan Leopold was clean or not.  Seriously, forget it.

As a matter of fact, in an unfortunately painful point of view, you should basically thank Sutton this morning.

Why?  Because Sutton’s hit bitch-slapped the Penguins when they desperately needed it.  Andy Sutton just flipped the Penguins’ switch for them.

For as Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto said after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

(Sorry, I’m a nut for Tora, Tora, Tora stuff.)

The Senators were, once again, in a prime position to steal another game from the Penguins and go home to Ottawa with an improbable sweep on the road.  And let’s face it, as it turned out that they only ended up losing 2-1.  Give them credit for that as well.

But that was a different Penguins team after Sutton’s hit.  It wasn’t a vengeful team, one that foolishly gets out of position to make a hit only to put themselves short-handed (see Flyers, Philadelphia).

The Penguins were all of a sudden winning the small battles that go on during every hockey game, much less a playoff game.  Battles that they had been losing up until that point.  They were now skating with a purpose.  And they were finishing their checks alright, where they were awarded 52 of them last night.

It could be argued that the Penguins thought they could sleepwalk through this first round of the playoffs and start ramp up their game in the 2nd round against someone like New Jersey.  Who knows what happens if the Senators simply continued to bottleneck the Penguins like they did in Game One?

But Andy Sutton.saw to it that wasn’t going to happen, didn’t he.

Are the Penguins going to forget him?  Of course not.  But if you recall, Phil Leotardo’s crew didn’t go after Tony Soprano, they went after Silvio Dante and Bobby Bacala.  In the same sense, it doesn’t make too much sense to go after a behemoth like Sutton.  Only Gary Roberts does that.  Besides, going after Sutton isn’t going to do much “damage” to the Senators.  There are plenty of other, and more valuable, Sens in the sea, so to speak.  The Penguins are a veteran team now.  If they’re smart, they’re gonna pick their spot to get even.  Who gets hit?  Doesn’t matter much to me, but when it happens, I fully expect everyone to say “it’s the playoffs” like they did last night, right?

Matt Cooke can’t do it.  He even breathes wrong on someone, he’s gone for at least five games.  Brooks Orpik is a candidate certainly, as is Mike Rupp.

But this calls for a specialist.  Give me Chris Kunitz.  Remember this little gem Kunitz laid on Kimmo Timonen?

So, on behalf of Penguins fans everywhere, domo arigato gozaimasu Sutton-san.  The Penguins are back to playing playoff hockey, and they thank you.

Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: NHL-Hockey, Ottawa+Senators, Pittsburgh+Penguins,

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