First, congratulations to the Penguins and their fans. The team was obviously the better team this time around and earned their shot at the Stanley Cup. I find myself pulling for the Wings right now, but that is probably better assessed after a couple days to let go of this series. For anyone who cares to get another 2 cents heading into the Detroit series and/or just needs a way to kill time with the stretched out NHL scheduling, I will put up a blog with my thoughts on the Penguins coming out of this series sometime Wednesday or Thursday.

As for game 4, it went much like the rest of the series in many ways. The Canes suffered from a couple too many breakdowns. The 1st goal featured another Pen that the Canes lost track of in front of the net and the big 3rd goal featured a breakaway where a Canes defenseman failed hockey 101 not doing his job taking away the pass on an odd man rush. And though the Canes did bring energy for stretches, they just struggled to find any kind of easy offense, weird deflection goal or other break to build on scoring the 1st goal or answer more quickly when the Pens responded.

But at this point in the season, I think the details are much less important than the read on the character in these situations. The Carolina Hurricanes did not lay down on Tuesday night, and I come out of game 4 no less confident that the team has the right kind of guys leading the ship. Eric Staal was frustrated more than successful on Tuesday even with his big goal to start the scoring, but the push and desire were clearly there for 60 minutes. And despite a rough series, Cam Ward is still the guy you want to hang a franchise on going forward. He went about his business trying to win hockey games even when the mistakes in front of him made it difficult. We got exactly none of the frustrated goalie throwing his team under the bus that is not uncommon in this situation. And with that I think you have the 2 pillars around which you continue to build this franchise. People are already talking about what happens with various free agents, what the team needs to do to get a little better this summer, etc. But my prediction is that the 1st significant announcement is the extension of Ward beyond the last year remaining on his contract. With Staal signed long-term, this deal would lock up the young guys that you build around and also give GM Jim Rutherford a good idea of how much money is left to build out the roster.

But for Canes fans, I think it is important not to let the Pittsburgh series to have you moving forward to 2009-10 too soon with stopping to enjoy what a great playoffs it has been. Which was your favorite?

--Game 4 Vs. NJ: Jokinen's goal with 0.2 seconds left followed by Brodeur busting his stick on the boards.
--Game 5 Vs. NJ: The 1-0 goalie duel between Ward and Brodeur. Even though the Canes lost, this was truly a classic.
--Game 7 Vs. NJ: A goal by Jokinen with only 1:20 left to tie it and then another goal 50 seconds later by Staal to turn what turned sure playoff extinction into a sudden and bewildering series win.
--Game 2 Vs. Bos: Ward's shutout to answer the experts who were calling for a quick Bruins dismissal of the Canes.
--Game 3 Vs. Bos: Another Jokinen overtime winner.
--Game 7 Vs. Bos: Scott Walker's overtime winner to stretch the Canes string to 4 straight series with game 7 wins with the last 2 on the road.

This playoff season has been an absolute blast to be a Canes fan especially with our usual 2-year drought following a deep run. Here is hoping that we do not have to wait 3 years again!

Before I call 08-09 finished from a Canes standpoint and move on to 09-10 I will take a shot at writing up a Penguins series post-mortem after a little time to digest it.

Go Canes!

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