Ok well enough about the past what matters is right here right now. Am I right? And right now the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings are evenly tied at 2 games a piece going into game 5 of the Stanley cup finals.
Games 1 and 2 were played on back to back days at Saturday and Sunday of the past week. Fortunately I had the opportunity to be at the game 2 and witnessed first hand what it is like to sit in a $230 chair in the upper bowl of Joe Louis Arena. From what I did see about games 1 and 2 the series seemed very very even. I did watch almost all of the coverage on espn and nbc about the series, I did not see any analyst pick the wings over the pens. This suprised me greatly because from the line changes that happened at joe louis, it became very apparent to me that hank (henrick Zetterberg aka hank and Z) was going to be on the ice every time that Sidney Crosby took a step on the ice. And that 90% of the time he was going to be going up against the likes of Lidstrom and Rafi ( aka Brian Rafalski). Since Sid the kid has been going up against this pair of defense men and Z he hasn't had as many oppertunities as he has in the previous serieses.
This just of course means what has already happened. The pens are very good at adapting to the other team, like all great teams do. The other players on the Penguins that Crosby is not going to be as effective as he has been in the previous series vs the Hurricanes. Seeing this they have all collectivly stepped up their play dramatically. And being a Red Wings fan I am very concerned after game 4. The Penguins absolutly blew the Red Wings out of the water, Bad. I really don't see this happening but if the play of the penguins continues I believe that the Red Wings are in for a lot of trouble.
But on the other hand, this is a different night and a different game. I was just informed that the Red Wings "best player", Pavel Datsuyk is going to be returning to the line up tonight.
Officiating: From what I have seen in the games I think the officiating has been absolutely horrible. It seems like the officials are trying to be fair by giving both teams the same amount of power plays, but I am sorry that is not the way that the NHL works and never has. I don't get why it is changing in the Stanley cup finals.
I can think of a few individual times for both teams where they have been cheated out of penalties. Numerous times watch as Hal Gill will interfere with forwards dumping the puck into the pens zone. The same call was made on Ericcson earlier in the series. And there is the one call in a crutical moment, the dreaded 6 men on the ice that became very clear to the announcers of versus and not the referees.
Yeah its the stanley cup finals and you probably should just let them play, but I think if a referee sees a penalty he should just call it and if that throws off the balance of "even" power plays then so be it. I wouldn't want it any other way, even if the wings were on the short end.
Keys to winning: Red Wings
- In this series Hossa is the Red wings X factor. If he plays well I believe that the wings win the game.
- The wings first and second line. In order for them to win they will need more production out of these lines.
- It all starts with the fore checking, They need 1-2 players fore checking hard to make the pens turn the puck over in the neutral zone.
- In the past 2 games the production that they have gotten out of Malkin has been astounding. If they want to win he should be on the ice just as much as Crosby.
- Keep up the fore checking. The Red wings turned the puck over way to many times and that lead to t least 3 goals last game. This was all a result of very strong fore checking by the Penguins.
- Fleury. He needs to be on his game and remember that he is back in the Joe with "spring boards". He needs to not give up weak goals and put his team in a hole.
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GO WINGS!!!
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