Well, they’ve won 4 in 12 years-good enough for me.
Wings in 6, 42 total goals.
Like I said earlier, the Stanley Cup was won by Detroit when they beat Anaheim. All the other teams are just bumps on a road. Helm is the new Corey Perry.
Huh…what was that?!? Oh, it was just Chicago.
Penguins win in 5 games, 23 total goals.
That’s right. All of you must now bow before my insurmountable one point lead.
What? I’m in the lead vs. Bruce Wayne. He’s the friggin’ Batman. Looks like the one thing that he’s not prepared for is my patented over-analysis.
Now to business. I’m really not happy about the first two games of the stanley cup finals being back to back. The NHL playoffs are already hard enough. No reason to turn it up to eleven. If anything, it favors the younger pens though games like that are generally bad for everyone involved.
The Penguins: Crosby/Malkin. Those are the two biggest reasons that they will win the cup. Both look like they’re on a mission. That said, Malkin being on a tear makes up for the loss of Hossa. That’s a break even for me vs. last years Pens. And as much as Crosby is being knocked for “poaching goals,” it’s not a terribly bad strategy. It almost borders on brilliant. You obviously can’t do too much against him or you’ll take a penalty away from the play and it should work well against Osgood who still tends to play against the angles and leave half a net open. It also keeps teams from simply hounding Crosby as much as Detroit did last year. Their biggest weakness is their defense. They’ve gotten better overall with the forwards doing a better job of it, but it doesn’t compare to Detroits. Fleury has had moments of brilliance, but he doesn’t appear to be as formidable as last year. The Pens will have to once again try to win games 4-3 instead of 2-1.
The Red Wings: You cannot say enough about the Wings depth and team play. What they (may) lack in star power vs. the Penguins, they more than make up with clutch contributions from all players. I’ll use the most recent example of Darren Helm last night, burning thirty seconds of shorthanded time all by himself, leading both teams in hits, and scoring the game winner. Plus there’s Hudler, Samuelsson, Cleary, Ericsson, Filpula, and so on. Take away Crosby and Gonchar from the Penguins and you have problems. Take away Datsyuk and Lidstrom from Detroit? Apparently not as serious. Also, I like that Detroit has a pair of talented and really nasty defensemen in Kronwall and Stuart. If anyone from Pittsburgh goes head down, they’ll regret it. Detroit’s biggest weakness? Their defense. Not as solid as last year. Against the Pens they’ll have to do a much better job clearing rebounds and controlling the front of the net. As I said above, Ozzie is great at cutting down the angle, but he leaves half the net wide open. If the Wings aren’t careful, Crosby and company could poach their way to the Stanley Cup. Detroit also has been spending a lot of time unable to break out of the defensive zone. If anything will be the Wings undoing, it’ll be letting themselves getting worn down into taking bad penalties which their penalty killers have been lousy at killing off.
The Questions: Can Detroit keep Crosby and Malkin to a minimum, and if they do will Staal play Wing clipper? Will Detroit’s rough road to the finals leave them well seasoned or just plain done? Can Osgood continue to play as if the regular season didn’t exist? If Kronwall or Stuart lay a bone crushing legal hit (see Havlat games 3-4) on Crosby, who will feel it more: Crosby or Gary Bettman?
My prediction: Wings in six. Pittsburgh had to work harder to get to where they are, but they the only team that they have faced as deep as Detroit is Detroit. Philadelphia was brawn with no brains. Washington was offense with no defense. Carolina was just plain out of gas. If Lidstrom/Rafalski can break up plays and Kronwall/Stuart can drive to distraction as only they can, the four lines that are as much a Detroit trademark as “hockeytown” will carry them to a repeat.
The Pens biggest problem is the make up of the team a star-heavy but depth-weak team is primed for a fall against the WIngs. With Datsuyk, Zets, Drapes, and (when-paying) Maltby up front, and The defensive core, They can pretty much shut down any two players at will, and let the rest of the teams go head to head. And Detroit’s rest-of-team is monumentally better. Last year at least they had Hossa as a third option now they have …Fedotenko? Satan? no chance. And With Crosby’s head case problems anybody want to bet on how many times Crosby takes stupid retalitory or matching penalties against second and third tier guys?
Unless the Wings injury problems continue and escalate I just don’t see it.
My bonus round choice: 37 goals.
GO PENS!!!
Harborwolf: Nice summary. We now turn coverage back to Bryan Engblom and VerSus.
Nice (and lucky) 1st goal by the Wings!
Fleury shi…, I mean lays another goal for the Wings.
Justice.
guess i shoulda posted this in the existing thread.
Dammit!
Cheap goal compared to Wings goal.
Nice shot by Stuart.
Excuse me? You are honestly saying that a steal from Malkin, a hard shot, with a rebound that is skillfully gathered and shot into the net is a cheap goal, while the Wings goal was a complete and total fluke? Rose colored glasses a bit? Dear lord…
Forgot to get my pick in. Without looking at the score of the game, I say Pittsbugh in 6, 32 goals.
Nice kill …now we gotta do it again.
I am from Detroit. I call them like I want to see them.
Fleury is our best player so far.
I’m starting to see Bruce Wayne’s version. Fleury just kicked it into his own goal.
gooooooaaaaaaalllllllll!!!