Michel Therrien - The Cry Baby's Coach

“He’s a good actor,” Therrien said. “I know our players are frustrated right now. It’s tough to play the game, but Osgood did the same thing against Dallas.

“Our team never goes to the goalie. We never did it, and we don’t target the goalie. You want to talk about experience, he goes to players, and he knows what to do, I guess.” -- Yahoo Sports

That's Pittsburgh Penguin head coach Michel Therrien, after his team lost another Stanley Cup Final game without scoring a goal. "We don't target the goalie." Nice sanctimony, pal. Take it easy on your soother while watching tape of your team's latest embarrassment.

I've got a question for Coach Sanctimony: exactly when did you tell your bush league team to start headhunting Johan Franzen? Was it when the Red Wings had two goals before your team even had a shot on net? Or was it before the game, when you knew you were probably going to get smoked anyway?

Johan Franzen returned to the Red Wings line-up tonight after a couple of weeks off. He suffered a concussion earlier in the month, and doctors hadn't cleared him to play until this afternoon. Tonight, after the Wings were up 2-0, the Penguins went to work.

First it was Gary Roberts, the Penguins' has-been defenseman who was a healthy scratch in game 1. All day the sports media talked about having Roberts back in the line-up, hungry for his stellar play and great experience. What a laugher. In the third period, Franzen passed the puck into the opponent's end. Two seconds later, Roberts skated up behind him and punched him in the side of the head. The refs missed it.

A few minutes later, play was whistled dead, and three seconds later Ray Whitney skated up behind Franzen and sucker punched him in the back of the head. Again, the refs missed it.


There is no way that these two players did not intentionally try to injure Franzen with a sucker punch. They've known about his concussion symptoms since the beginning of the series. Tonight, they couldn't help but see the word FRANZEN written on the back of his jersey. And, when the refs weren't looking and Franzen didn't have the puck, they tried to ring his bell and get him scratched from game 3.

I've always thought the Penguins were a whining, bush league team, and tonight's garbage from their players and coach only proved it.

Photo: CBC