Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby blames elimination on lack of execution -NHL Playoffs Update
Pittsburgh Penguins were one of the favourite teams heading into the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Playoff Quarterfinals but being eliminated right in the opening round shocked the entire world.
Philadelphia Flyers were amazing in the series as they put Pittsburgh on the verge of elimination after winning three straight but come Game 4 and 5, Penguins were showing signs of a comeback.
Flyers finally eliminated Penguins in Game 6 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Pittsburgh captain, Sidney Crosby, finally came out after being eliminated, blaming the disappointing loss on the lack of execution by the team.
"There are no guarantees," Crosby said. "Everyone believed we had the team capable of doing that (winning the Stanley Cup), but that being said there's a lot of hockey to be played to do that. I don't think guys were caught looking too far ahead or caught
up in the expectations. The expectations are there all year, they're high, guys understand that; but I think everyone does a great job of staying in the moment and worrying about the team ahead of us.
"But at the end of the day you have to go out there and execute," Crosby added.
Last year, Penguins still got past the opening round despite not having their superstar forwards, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the line-up, but this time, as both were healthy and performing up-to-par, anything brilliant could not come as a result.
Now that Penguins have a long offseason ahead of them to think about what went wrong, they will definitely need to change the way they execute in order to avoid any disappointments next season.
Pittsburgh plays amazingly well during the regular season but when it comes down to the real test, they just did not have it in them to take charge against Philadelphia.
Ilya Bryzgalov, the Flyers superstar goalie, was another factor in their loss as the Russian net minder was just too solid in net for Pittsburgh to penetrate. Marc-Andre Fleury on the other hand fell short on every other attempt Flyers won a huge margin
in majority of their games.
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