A Post about hitting The Post.

Clang.

And again, clang.

You can always tell when a shot that hits the post. You can hear it in the cheap sheets - it echos through an arena - nearly as loud as the goal buzzer. But with a very different meaning.

Last night in Motor City we heard it twice. The sound of two Pittsburgh Penguin shots beating Red Wing Goaltender Chris Osgood - beating him, but not scoring goals - because two pucks hit the post last night.

The first was Bill Guerin's rocket off a great feed from Sidney Crosby in the second period. Just missing, the shot hit the inside of the post and bounced away harmlessly.

In the third period it was Sid The Kid himself who hit the post again and the puck was buried beneath a pile of players, just inches away from goal line.

And those two clangs were the difference last night. An inch closer and the Penguins score 2 more goals, and what ended up as a 3-1 loss could have turned out quite differently.

But hockey is a game of inches (that is - inches and scattered teeth). And after coming close last night the Penguins now have front row seat to look at the abyss. They're in a 2-0 hole now and - as Nugs pointed out last night - the historical odds of a comeback in this position are (like Nicole Richie) much too slim to be healthy.

For those of us rooting against Sidney Crosby getting his hands on the Stanley Cup - so far so good.