@idontlikeem

varsois :

dykespurgeon :

if the stars lose this one now a knife won’t be sufficient i am getting otter a sword

dykespurgeon :

ryan suter prepare to be executed

We love you 💛

🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛

one thing i didn't say in my other post because i'm too busy being upset—

man, what a smart, wonderful crew of people we have here on pensblr. i sometimes hate-read other liveblog tags because i'm petty and i enjoy misery that doesn't belong to me, and the pens folks are genuinely some of the nicest, most respectful, most knowledgeable hockey fans on this stupid website. with pens games, i know whenever i click on the tag i'm going to see humor, i'm going to see high-quality gifs, i'm going to see memes and jokes that are ACTUALLY FUNNY, i'm going to see our fandom-wide headcanons and whatever bullshit we come up with about these dumb players—and how fun is that.

what a season, guys. we had some truly dumbshit stuff we went through as a group this year. i hope you guys are excited for whatever off-season content i come up with, because lord knows we'll have to fill the void.

i have a few plans that a select few are aware of, but i'd also love to keep answering questions about hockey stuff! i love when i get asks about specific parts of the game and play style, or the rules or, like, contracts and shit, because i like trying to make that stuff understandable since so much of it is just. so obscure. the game won't grow if people don't understand it!

also keep an eye out for that fic recs blog i kept threatening to make over winter :)

good news the lunar eclipse healed me.

i'm grieving. if you are not in a place to read that grief, or to read how i'm choosing to process this loss and the possibilities for the future out loud, do not click 'keep reading'. i'm also not in the mood to be talked down or talked out of my feelings so please don't do that either.

if you want to vagueblog about me and say shitty things about my thoughts or what i have to say here, i guess feel free. you've been doing it all season, why stop now. whatever makes you feel better. do know that i see your posts, though. i know they're about me, and i think it's sad and unkind. i wish you happiness, and hope you can approach the offseason and next year with less vitriol and unkindness in your heart.

it is insane to me that this series went to seven games. it wasn't supposed to.

the rangers were supposed to steamroll us. people were going as far as saying it would be a sweep, and tbh as the regular season limped to a close i could kind of see it.

but on the other hand...

it is insane to me that this series went to seven games. it wasn't supposed to.

we had a 3-1 series lead and a 2-0 lead in game five. it doesn't matter that sid had to leave the game; it was late in the second and we blew it. same in game six. we had a lead with five minutes remaining in game seven, too.

so. what does that all mean? how am i actually feeling about this series?

we came into the series with our backup goalie in net, and he pushed us all the way through until he couldn't. we then rode a third-string AHL guy until the very last game, and as good of a story as he was, as much as he did his best to step up, he's not in the NHL for a reason. he let in many many goals that neither tristan nor casey would have allowed in.

we also lost half of our top d-pair and had two top-six wingers missing at various points. we lost our captain and the best player in the world for a game and a half. one player is incredibly injured and still battled through it (jason zucker, i love you, do not do this again, i want you to have a healthy season please).

and yet. and yet.

how did we push it to seven? how did they beat us?

simply put, they couldn't. their all-world goalie faltered and the only way they could avoid being eliminated in 5 was by literal headhunting. literally hitting to injure.

it's disgusting and it's a horrible way to see a season end. to know that, once again, they thoroughly outplayed the opponent, and lost because of...goaltending, really, and bad bounces. THREE own goals off mike matheson's skates. what are the fucking odds.

i'm not going to complain about the reffing here, not really. it's flawed. it's ALWAYS flawed. they aren't biased and it's not rigged, they're just fucking awful at their jobs, all the time, every game, every single shift they are bad at their jobs. so that's that.

i made a post near the the start of the season that i didn't care if we didn't make the playoffs this season as long as geno and kris were signed for next year. we started out rocky with our top two centers missing for significant stretches, and we got hit hard with covid. every team had covid issues this year but think back to october and november- we basically didn't have a team. AND we had injuries and LTIR on top of that.

that's still true. a first-round loss that shouldn't have been, for the second year in a row, stings. five first-round losses in a row also stings. we're better than that. we just couldn't get past it. and it sucks sucks sucks to know that there were things out of our control that made this happen.

but oh, wow, what a 16 years it's been. playoffs every season? four trips to the finals, and three cups? the fact that five years of mild underachieving after that is something that's got people suggesting we burn the whole organization down is really...we are blessed. we are spoiled. we are lucky.

sidney crosby is the greatest hockey player of his generation, and top five all-time. an argument could be made for top three. evgeni malkin is a generational talent who put the team and playing with sid above himself time and again, year after year. kris letang is a franchise defenseman who puts it all out on the line every shift, every game, for this team.

we are so lucky to have them.

and so here's where we get to the source of my grief, the reason this is actually harder than last year even though us even taking it to seven games was unexpected when the postseason started:

we might not have them next season.

it's unfathomable to me to imagine sid and geno playing on different teams. unfathomable. it is insane to me that ownership, both old and new, let geno go this long without signing him, that they're doing him the disrespect of not accommodating his desire to play a few more years with sid. this is the second face of the franchise that's being treated this way. it's disrespect, plain and simple.

geno is my favorite hockey player of all time. i love sid so so much and i love watching him and i'll be distraught when he retires, but geno...man. man. that's my guy. he's been my guy since 2009 and ohh boy, the idea of him not getting to finish his career where he wants, with who he wants...it sucks. it sucks a LOT. the lack of value and care this franchise is extending to him, after everything, after battling to come back, after playing his ass off and constantly being the whipping boy for the team...and he took it, because he wanted to play with sid, on this team. this is where he wants to be.

i think about the years that sid was hurt, the times that geno put the team on his back and carried them through when sid couldn't. i think about the seasons between the cups, the hope and the heartbreak and the letdowns, and how through it all it was them.

they are the team. they are the pittsburgh penguins.

i honestly don't know what i'll do if geno is playing for a different team next season. i hope he doesn't. i also hope he doesn't have to settle for a contract here that's significantly less than he deserves, in both term and dollars. that would be a blow to his pride and it's not something he deserves. a pay cut, yes—he's not the player he was, he knows it, he's willing to take less. but an insultingly low amount? not at least giving him through the end of sid's contract? i dunno. that will hurt too.

i don't want sid to be left alone on this team in the last years of his career. he doesn't want to be left alone either.

for the love of god, FSG and hextall, get geno extended. give him through the end of sid's current contract.

you owe him that. show some goddamn loyalty. prove that my team isn't going to turn into a soulless corporate hellscape.

god. i'm so upset. i haven't been this upset about a penguins playoff loss since 2018.

i'm not answering any asks i get tonight btw. they're getting deleted. i need to process this on my own and i cannot deal with other emotions right now too. sorry.

2014 came for us after all.

god damn it.

it came down to a penalty in game seven overtime.

fuck.

ticklefighthockey :

guys I am hoping and praying but also whatever happens next I’m so proud of our boys I love this team 😭😭😭😭

how are we supposed to live like this

someone in the leadership core needs to step up and do something big here.

pens PLEASE

crosbwhy :

Someone on twitter pointed out louis domingue in his little corner celebrating erod’s goal and I had to find it:

LOOK AT HIM!

2headed-disaster :

Hi David

kristangers :

Wellness check, is everyone okay?

oh psst everyone thank @sequestering for the erod goal.

will be spending the intermission lying on the floor doing deep breathing.