The Sports Monitor

Just when you thought there was a bright spot to the Pirates' season, they go and do it again. First they lost to the Nats, the worst team in baseball. I can give them that one, I guess. After all, they had taken the first three games in their series against them. But they go out and get shut out by a team that gave up 20 runs the night before. It's a good thing I have the Penguins to provide a nice little distraction.

The Wall St. Journal has an interesting article on the mistakes on the Stanley Cup trophy . I think there are a few copy editors available to help for this year.

Any time you have a team on the ropes, you need to put them away. The Penguins had an early lead (1-0) against the Capitals in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinals Monday night. They blew it. The Penguins also had a third-period lead (3-2). They blew that also. The Pens were fortunate that Sidney Crosby scored near the end of the regulation to tie the game and force overtime. The goal was a beauty, with Sid slapping the puck in mid-air into the net. It could have been one to remember for a long time. Instead, it'll be archived after the Capitals' David Steckel scored 6:22 into overtime. The Pens had a lot going their way in this one. They always had closed out the Capitals. In fact, they had owned the Caps in the playoffs. It all ended Monday night. The Pens still have a chance to wrap up the Capitals on Wednesday in Game 7 of an excellent series. Let's hope the Pens don't blow it this time.

It seems Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis is unhappy about his team playing on back-to-back nights in the NHL playoffs. It is a shame that both teams will have to play back to back games ... because the Pittsburgh building - against NHL rules - booked a series of concerts and forced the league to alter the playoff schedule, Leonsis wrote on his blog. That's too bad, Ted. It really is. You'll soon be up there in the upper echelon of crybabies of in sports. It's unfortunate that three events over eight days at Mellon Arena forced the schedule change. One of those events happened to be a Yanni concert. Hey, that's the breaks. Mellon Arena needs as many events scheduled there as possible. And just a couple months ago it looked like the Pens could miss the playoffs. Now that they've evened the series, it looks as if things could turn in Game 5 tonight. Just remember, all that momentum of winning Games 3 and 4 goes out of the window when they drop the puck. If the Pe...

So they've lost. Twice, actually. There might be some panic in the faces of fans, but it's too early to get upset about the Pittsburgh Penguins' two losses to the Washington Capitals. As the higher seed, the Capitals have home-ice advantage. So they've won their two home games. No big deal. Teams are supposed to win at home. Now it's the Penguins' turn. Game 3 is at Mellon Arena. If they lose that, well, it's over. But they just as easily could win Games 3 and 4, sending the series back to D.C. for Game 5. There's an old saying that a series never gets interesting until the home team loses. That still applies here. There's still time to reverse those one-goal losses. The time to do it begins Wednesday.

The Pittsburgh Penguins made a mad dash at the end of the season to grab the No. 4 seed in the Stanley Cup playoffs. After Wednesday's thrashing of the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 1 of their best-of-seven showdown, the Penguins are showing no signs of slowing down. Sidney Crosby and Evegni Malkin each scored a goal and assisted on one, and Marc-Andre Fluery was solid in goal in the team's 4-1 win that wasn't even that close. Pittsburgh improved to 19-3-4 under interim coach Dan Bylsma. The Pens dominated for most of the game and the Flyers tried to get dirty at the end to send a message. They finished the game with three players in the penalty box. "We know that's their style. That's how they play," Fleury said after the game. "But it's nice to see how the guys handled it with no problem and just moved on." The Pens' message was better. They'll move on to Game 2 Friday night. Expect the Flyers to come out with something to prove. Just...