OT: One Year Ago..Kunitz Was There

Hockeyholic

Registered User
Apr 20, 2017
16,351
9,884
Condo My Dad Bought Me
Okay, I'm technically a day late. Nonetheless, where were you, and how'd you react to the Kunitz OT goal in game 7? With how the Pens were dominating, did you think it was only a matter of time? Or, did you think/become worried that Ottawa would win on a fluke bounce?

Personally, I kept getting uneasy as the game went along. I knew it only took one bad bounce for the Sens to steal it. When Kunitz scored, I waited twenty seconds before screaming.
 

Gurglesons

Registered User
Dec 18, 2009
91,486
73,657
San Diego, CA
last-train-tocool.blogspot.com
I loved it. Meant I had a chance to go see them on the random Pittsburgh day I had allotted on my trip back home for a wedding.

Game 5 lined up perfectly and with out the 2 - 2 tie going into that game I like wouldn’t have been able to afford tickets.
 

EightyOne

My posts are jokes. And hockey is just a game.
Nov 23, 2016
12,697
12,034
Mixed.

Happy they won. But embarrassed they let the Sens do what they did and take it 7.
 

Beauner

Registered User
Jun 14, 2011
13,031
6,132
Pittsburgh
I can't believe I didn't have a cardiac event during that. Looking back.... how did I keep my composure?? Double overtime? Game 7 of the eastern finals? Are you kidding me, how didnt not have a full on mental breakdown??
 

EightyOne

My posts are jokes. And hockey is just a game.
Nov 23, 2016
12,697
12,034
You should be more embarrassed by this post



I mean. WTF do you want me to say? The OP asked how you felt at the time. The Pens have a penchant for this f***ing shit. Being on the ropes and being cardiac kids. No matter the coach, the players or the decade. And it's kinda annoying. Even though they more often than not seem to come through.

I felt mixed. Clearly I was happy with the outcome. But that doesnt mean it wasnt disappointing it had to go to 2OT in G7.
 
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ColePens

RIP Fugu Buffaloed & parabola
Mar 27, 2008
107,022
67,647
Pittsburgh
That game 7 2OT winner was awesome. It's the difference from "what could have been" to back to back Cups. #14 with a exclamation point on his incredible Pittsburgh Penguins tenure.

When Dumo/Kessel missed their chances, I was scared we lost our opportunity, as so often it happens in hockey. I literally jumped on the top of my hair as it felt so surreal to go back to the Cup Finals.
 

bathroomSTAAL

The halcyon days
Mar 15, 2007
16,325
5,186
Pittsburgh
I remember seeing the play developing, with Sid coming out of the corner and Kunitz cocked for a one-timer, and like rolling my eyes thinking "yeah right." Of course he fanned on it too, just got lucky. But you have to be good to be lucky.

But yeah I was oddly relaxed for the situation up until then, seemed pretty low-key for double OT Game 7 of a conference final.
 

ColePens

RIP Fugu Buffaloed & parabola
Mar 27, 2008
107,022
67,647
Pittsburgh
I remember seeing the play developing, with Sid coming out of the corner and Kunitz cocked for a one-timer, and like rolling my eyes thinking "yeah right." Of course he fanned on it too, just got lucky. But you have to be good to be lucky.

But yeah I was oddly relaxed for the situation up until then, seemed pretty low-key for double OT Game 7 of a conference final.

I mean we owned the entire game. The entire game. If Ottawa would have won, it would have been the ultimate theft. I think Ottawa was the most opportunistic team i've seen in the playoffs. They tried to play 0 offense but would convert at a high percentage. Washington plays a little more aggressive, but they are the same way. Crazy opportunistic.
 

Turin

Registered User
Feb 27, 2018
21,890
25,281
I remember I was working a night shift and had to miss OT. I was a nervous wreck comparatively speaking, and when I got that alert from the NHL app that Kunitz had scored I had an even harder time focusing. Knew they were winning the Cup again.
 

PensPlz

Registered User
Dec 23, 2009
11,252
5,544
Pittsburgh
My jaw dropped.

I slowly reached over to grab my phone.

Brought up the GDT.

Grinned ear to ear reading the comments from people that did nothing but poop on Kunitz all year.
 
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Sidney the Kidney

One last time
Jun 29, 2009
55,519
46,242
When Dumo/Kessel missed their chances, I was scared we lost our opportunity, as so often it happens in hockey. I literally jumped on the top of my hair as it felt so surreal to go back to the Cup Finals.

I'm trying to visualize what the bolded looks like and I can't.
 

orby

Registered User
Jun 16, 2013
6,637
5,155
Erie, PA
www.youtube.com
It was hilarious. After the first OT I had resigned myself to thinking the Pens were just destined not to repeat, to the point where i no longer cared who won. Then, of all people, Kunitz scores.

The finals honestly felt perfunctory after that game. It was like a foregone conclusion they were going to win - the Pens, battered and bruised, were just unshakeable.
 

Pancakes

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Mar 4, 2011
25,943
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It was just a weird playoffs. Took care of Columbus easily, but then Washington more or less dominated us all series and yet Maf and timely scoring was the difference. After game 6 vs the Caps, I thought we were done. Game 7 was hugely surprising to me. The Pens changed how they were playing and got super aggressive on pinches/forecheck and the Caps were taken aback by it because we were the team playing on their heels all series. Caps didn't recover in time, and that was all she wrote.

Then comes Ottawa, and we blow game 1. Bobby Ryan gets a breakaway and we realize just how slow Olli Maatta is because he never comes close to catching him. Then for most of that series we look like the better team, but Ottawa keeps showing grit and finding timely goals. In short, they do what we were doing to Washington. Schultz scores in game 7 and I think this is it, Murr isnt' gonna blow this. And then Ottawa finds a way and dread sets in for me, especially after some of the missed chances in OT. Kunitz ending it was a huge relief.

And then...the Preds. We come out enormously flat in game 1, and have a tough time in game 2 up until we get that early goal in period 3 and get rolling. Preds even it up. I go to game 5 in person, and we just totally destroy them. That was the first time all playoffs where I just knew we were gonna win the Cup. That was it. Sid got that look in his eye where he wasn't gonna be denied. I had a funny feeling driving home that we'd win game 6 too, and so we did.

Such a bizarre playoffs though. Our play was all over the place. It was a much different win from 2016 where we pretty much dominated from start to finish and our only big test was facing elimination vs Tampa but iirc we outshot Tampa every single game that series. I had a good feeling in 2016 we'd go all the way after beating the Rangers in 5 but I didn't get that feeling next year up until game 5 vs Nashville.
 

Star67

Registered User
Nov 17, 2017
77
29
Was on the phone with my dad as I was watching and he was telling me the senators will score in overtime and win and right when he finished that sentence Kunitz scored. Ahhh it was great.
 

Le Magnifique 66

Let's Go Pens
Jun 9, 2006
23,618
3,246
Montreal
To answers the OP question, the way the game was going and the fact that we couldn't score I was 99.9% sure we would lose on a bad break
Lucky we didn't and went on to win the B2B
 
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BHD

Vejmelka for Vezina
Dec 27, 2009
38,124
16,511
Moncton, NB
The goal (or the whole sequence) captured his last few years with the team. Happens to score after not doing anything outstanding the entire shift.
 

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