20 Foot Penguins

There's an old Monty Python episode where they satire Hollywood movies. They show a film crew making an epic about the guy who explored the North Pole (Robert Scott).

The director wants a fight scene. The movie star wants to fight a lion, but there are no lions in the North Pole.

They say:

Movie Star: Listen, I gotta fight the lion. That's what that guy Scott's all about. I know. I've studied him already.

Movie Director: But why couldn't you fight a penguin?

Movie Star: Fight a rotten penguin?

Movie Director: It needn't be a little penguin. It can be the biggest penguin you've ever seen. An electric penguin, twenty feet high, with long green tentacles that sting people.


And that, more or less, is what's happened in the Stanley Cup finals. The defending champ Red Wings had jumped to a 2-0 series lead and we gave up on Pittsburgh. We almost felt sorry for them.

But last night the Penguins struck back with a powerful 4-2 win. Now they have tied the series at 2 games each, made sure the series will last at least until next Wednesday, and brought themselves back, once again, from the brink. They have suddenly become the 20 foot Penguin with stinging electric tentacles. And now Detroit, having lost General Motors to bankruptcy, may be losing the cup as well.

Malkin, adding to the best scoring postseason by anyone since The Great One in 1993 had a goal and an assist. Sidney showed up with a G & A of his own. The Penguins scored 3 second-period goals in less than 6 minutes – including a shorthander by Jordan Staal in a back-to-back Red Wing powerplay - to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 win.

All this makes Nugman's pick of the 'Guins in six look smarter every day. And the Redwings have to think back to last Sunday to remember the last time they won a playoff game.