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Sunday, 31 May 2009 22:04

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

PREGAME

-Greetings from a simply beautiful day here in Detroit. Yes, such a thing exists.

-This is the waterfront on the back side of Joe Louis Arena. There are some ugly places in Detroit. This is not one of them:

-The Arena:

-Some Yinzers planning an invasion of Windsor:

-A Mario Lemieux fan:

-Once again, there are Penguins fans here:

-The ice:

-Those sheets on the ice are banners which were dropped from the rafters prior to the start of Game 1 with words like "Grit" and "Sacrifice."

-These are some photos we neglected to run from Game 1. From Julie Rubinstein, who came in from Chicago:

-Lee and Ian Cunningham were in town as well:

-The lone Zamboni:

-One of the cool things about this old barn is the seats. This is the last row of seats in the building:

-Above that white ceiling is all the luxury suites. There basically is no separation from the last row to the first row in this building. Really, really cool.

-Outside, a Jaromir Jagr jersey:

-We spotted these two in Rick Tocchet and Phil Bourque jerseys last week at Mellon Arena:

-The towels being given out:

-This ride is everywhere:

-Another pretty sharp Stanley Cup replica:

-CBC filmed this really awesome skit where Don Cherry "invaded" Detroit from Windsor. Bascially, all they did was dock a United State Coast Guard boat along the riverwalk on the back of Joe Louis Arena, have Cherry board it with a few young ladies, go out on the river about half way, turn around and deboard. The boat with a member of the USCG backing the Red Wings:

-Cherry walking out:

-Cherry boarding:

-The board backing out:

-Going out half way:

-Approaching:

-Docking:

-Conquering Detroit:

-What a suit:

-What did the NHL's American broadcast partner do for a pregame presentation? They filmed the steps.... wow...

-Some more sights around the arena. Some fans offer a critique of Marian Hossa's choice of teams:

-A Steve Yzerman Team Canada jersey:

-Former Red Wings and Penguins goaltender Jim Rutherford would not be happy with this jersey foul:

-This Curtis Joseph Maple Leafs jersey is not a foul on account of the Toronto-Detroit rivalry:

-This Senators jersey foul is just stupid:

-We're all for the supporting the Penguins via Team Canada jerseys, but given the opponent, you could stick with a regular old Penguins jersey:

-Larry Murphy:

(By the way, Murphy sat next to us in the press area in the third period and spilled a Coke on his laptop. Just thought you'd like to know.)

-We have to admit, this is a pretty sharp hat:

-Soooo... if this guy leaves the building... the Penguins will win the game?

-Adam Banks is represented:

-Gordie Howe is signing autographs in the concourse:

-Kevin Stevens:

-Darius Kasparaitis:

-No wonder the officating stunk last night:

-Dan Bylsma is going away from the seven defensemen arrangement and has inserted Pascal Dupuis into the line up in place of Philippe Boucher. The Penguins' scratches are Chris Minard, Alex Goligoski, Petr Sykora, Jeff Taffe, Eric Godard, Dustin Jeffrey, Philippe Boucher, Ben Lovejoy and John Curry.

-Detroit's scratches are Pavel Datsyuk, Derek Meech, Chris Chelios, Darren McCarty, Kris Draper, Aaron Downey, Jakub Kindl, Tomas Kopecky and Jimmy Howard.

-Marc-Andre Fleury and Chris Osgood are the starting goaltenders.

-The national anthem:

FIRST PERIOD

17:27: After a slow first two and a half minutes, Mark Eaton touches up a puck behind his net for icing.

16:58: Fleury gets a little daring with the puck behind his net and has it stolen by a Red Wing. Thankfully for the Penguins, nothing comes of it.

16:18: Pascal Dupuis's first action of the final sees him drop Nicklas Lidstrom outside the Penguins' blue line as the legendary defenseman airmails a puck in on net. Fleury makes the save.

14:27: A slapper by Tomas Holmstrom from the left wing is blocked wide of the cage.

13:57: Henrik Zetterberg rushes behind the Penguins' net and gets a few chances on a wraparound attempt. Fleury denies them both. Detroit has six shots already while the Penguins have none.

12:26: Jonathan Ericsson whips a wrister at the cage from the left point. It hits a body in front.

12:00: Kunitz is on the right wing about the take a pass but Lidstrom is just hovering around him. As the pass is coming to Kunitz, Lidstrom snaps his stick out and pokes the puck away with the speed of a snake striking its prey. It's a little play that won't show up in the scoresheet, but it's just amazing to someone like Lidstrom who can read the timing of a play like that and break it up.

10:30: Orpik snaps off a shot from the right point. Osgood knocks it down and covers to freeze play.

9:10: While trying to get by Kris Letang for a puck behind the Penguins' net, Justin Abdelkader appears to hit Letang in the face with a stick. No call.

8:52: Darren Helm tries to hit Evgeni Malkin on the boards. Helm just kind of falls over when he makes contact.

8:16: Kunitz cracks a slapper from the left wing. Osgood punches it away with his blocker.

7:58: Hal Gill runs into his good buddy Holmstrom at the red line and gives him a shove to the ice.

6:24: Ruslan Fedotenko gets between Niklas Kronwall and Zetterberg in the slot with the puck, he gets a clean shot for moment and appears initially to shoot it wide. A replay shows Osgood actually getting a piece of it.

5:49: Kunitz pikcs up a puck near the right wing, moves into the left faceoff circle and rips a wrister. Osgood is in perfect position to eat it up.

4:58: Tyler Kennedy forces a turnover and that leads to a scoring chance. Kennedy pressures a Red Wings player in the corner and steals the puck off him. Jordan Staal picks it up, cycles along the boards and dishes a feed into the slot which Detroit breaks up.

4:02: Fedotenko whips a puck on net from the left wing.

3:52: Malkin is working his way around the boards with the puck. Kronwall cross checks Maxime Talbot from behind near the play. Two minutes for Kronwall. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bill Guerin, Sergei Gonchar and Kris Letang are on for the power play.

3:45: Gonchar hammers a slapper from the top of the slot. Its a body in front.

3:10: That was going to go in eventually. After Malkin blasts a one-timer from the right wing, it hits a body in front. A mad scramble ensues with Guerin and others battling for the puck. Malkin jumps in and pushes it on net. It rattles around some more before it goes in with the possible assistance of Brad Stuart. What an ugly dirty goal. The Penguins really needed that. That gives them an early lead and jump starts their power play which was shut out last night. Malkin gets credit for the goal, Letang and Guerin get assists. Penguins fans celebrate. Penguins 1-0.

0:33: Craig Adams shuffles a puck on net that Osgood steers away with ease.

0:00: End of period. Penguins 1, Red Wings 0.

FIRST INTERMISSION

-That period looked like the first two games of last year's final for the first 15 minutes or so. Then the Penguins got that power play and cashed in. It'll be interesting to see how they play with a lead on the road in Mo-Town.

-The Penguins were hesitant for the most part that period and not nearly as aggressive as they were in the the first period of Game 1. They did not play the body as much as they did in Game 1.

-Malkin's goal gives him 30 points of the postseason. He's the first player to hit the 30-point mark since Joe Sakic had 34 with Colorado in 1996.

-The Penguins have an 11-7 lead in shots.

-Kunitz, Fedotenko and Malkin each lead the game with two shots.

-Detroit has a 9-7 lead in faceoffs (56 percent).

-Crosby has made a big-time improvement from last night. He's 4 for 5 (80 percent).

-Helm is 2-for-3 (67 percent).

-Stuart leads the game with 8:57 of ice time.

-Letang leads the Penguins with 6:50.

-No one has more than one blocked shot.

-We'll give this to Red Wings fans. They're more creative and timely than Washington fans:

SECOND PERIOD

19:30: Kennedy circles around from the corner and whips a wrister from the right faceoff circle. Osgood is able to hang on despite having Jordan Staal wrestling in front for position.

18:34: More Therrien-esque hijinks from Bylsma as he has Staal, Dupuis and Guerin on a line for a faceoff.

18:02: Fleury covers up a puck that trickles in from the point. Kirk Maltby skates in and gets dumped in front by Brooks Orpik. Orpik then looses his balance and falls on Maltby.

17:15: We're not sure what's going on near the Zamboni entrance, but most of the folks in the second to the right of it are wearing blue t-shirts.

16:49: Fedotenko works a puck around the boards to talbot. Talbot dishes a nice little feed to Malkin in the slot. Malkin snaps off a wrister that Osgood juuust gets a piece of. We're not sure Osgood saw that, but it was a nice save.

16:22: Hossa snaps off a wrister from the right wing wh

15:42: With Detroit causing all kinds of havoc in front, Letang whips the puck around the boards just to get it out.

15:39: TIe game. This was going to happen eventually. Off a facoeff win by Helm, Ericsson gets the puck and hammers a slapper from the left point. Helm is right in front unaccounted for and screens Fleury. The puck beats Fleury on the glove side. Someone has to take care of Helm there. Jiri Hudler and Helm get assists. Penguins 1, Red Wings 1.

14:46: Detroit is dominating this period. Zetterberg takes a pass from the right wing and moves in alone down the slot. He goes to the backhand and is denied by Fleury's glove hand. Huge save. The Red Wings are playing with way too much speed and space.

12:05: Malkin challneges Ericsson one-on-one on the right wing but can't beat the defenseman.

11:45: Malkin is called for interference as he battled with Ericsson on the boards. Ericsson just kind of takes a tumble. Kind of a weak call given what has been let go so far in this series. After play is halted, Orpik and Holmstrom give each other the business in front of Fleury. No call. Rob Scuderi, Gill, Cooke and Staal are on for the penalty kill.

10:26: Scuderi blocks a pass on the boards and tips it up to Talbot who tosses it up ice so his team can change lines.

9:45: Malkin's penalty is killed.

9:31: Another dirty goal gives Detroit the leads. After stealing the puck off Dupuis (who might've had his stick slashed) Hossa snaps off a wrister from the left wing. Fleury makes the save. The rebound squeeze through the crease. Holmstrom is right there getting mauled by Malkin and Gill. As Fleury is trapped the puck comes over to the other side where Valtteri Filppula backhands it from a tough angle along the goal line to the left of the cage. Nice shot by Filppula. Detroit just earning goals through hard work. Holmstrom and Hossa get assists. Red Wings 2-1.

8:53: Osgood holds out the puck after a mad scramble in his crease. Once again, NBC doesn't offer a replay. "Ozzz-EEEEE! Ozzzz-EEEE!!"

7:50: A puck slides out to Letang at the right point. He moves in with it, hesitates then shoots. It appears to be deflected high. Letang need to release that sooner.

7:13: NBC SHOWED A REPLAY!!!! Cooke dropped Zetterberg with a hit in the corner.

6:43: Cleary works his way up the left wing. Gill hounds him the whole way up the ice. Cleary shoots but Gill appears to district him enough to send the shot wide.

5:46: Malkin swats a shot from the right wing. Talbot is in front but the puck gets deflected wide.

5:09: Malkin gets popped by Justin Abdelkader inside the Detroit blue line. Malkin stands him up and Abdelkader appears to break his stick.

4:48: We didn't really get a good look at this when it initally happened, but Crosby dished a feed from behind the Detroit net to Guerin to the left of it. Guerin snaps off a shot to the far side that hits the post.

4:41: Crosby zips a pass from the left wing into the slot for Guerin who appears to put it wide. Osgood might've gotten a piece of the pass and disrupted the shot.

4:05: Kennedy works the puck around the boards, moves into the right faceoff circle and whips a rising wrister. Osgood traps it against his chest and makes the save.

3:45: Helm coasts up the left wing and tosses a wrister on net. Fleury eats it up.

2:15: Staal tries to chase a puck into the offensive zone but is held up by Kronwall. No call. Staal then trips up Kronwall. No call.

1:07: Brian Rafalski fires a slapper from the right point that Fleury knocks down despite a screen.

0:43: Cleary moves down the right wing and and pushes a puck into the crease. It comeso out into the slot where a Detroit player jumps on it. His shot is deflected by a Pittsburgh stick.

0:23: Fleury just robbed someone on a nice feed in the left faceoff circle. Fleury just punched his blocker up in the air to knock it away. He might've gotten awa

0:09: Filppula cranks a slapper from the left wing that well over the cage.

0:02: Off another faceoff win by Detroit, Lidstrom launches a slapper from the left point that Fleury directs away with his blocker.

0:00: End of period. Red Wings 2, Penguins 1.

SECOND INTERMISSION
-Detroit dominated that period for the most part. Other than a few chances by the Penguins, Detroit dominated that period.

-The Penguins look like they're back on their heels way too much and they're just allowing Detroit to control the flow of the game.

-A goal by Detroit might ice this game. They got a third goal lead early in the third period of Game 1 and just clamped down on the Penguins' offense and choked the life out of the game.

-The Red Wings are 10-0 in the playoffs when they lead after two periods.

-Detroit had a 23-20 lead in shots.

-Brooks Orpik of all people leads the game with four shots.

-Lidstrom, Cleary, Zetterberg and Hossa each lead Detroit with three.

-The Penguins actually have a 21-18 lead in faceoffs (54 percent).

-Crosby is 9 for 12 (69 percent).

-Abdelkader is 4 for 6 (67 percent).

-Rafalski leads the game with 15:53 of ice time.

-Eaton leads the penguins with 13:59.

-Letang is right behind him with 13:57.

-Gill, Scuderi and Orpik each lead the game with two blocked shots.

THIRD PERIOD

18:21: Crosby comes around the back of the net with the puck. He shoots to the far side. It his the far post and bounces off and skids along the goal line behind Osgood. Crosby appears to get it back and shoots to the far side again. Zetterberg is on his stomach in the crease and appears to keep it out. Officials review the play. It's impossible to tell if that puck crossed the goal line. The review confirms the non-goal call. More bad bounces for the Penguins. Did Zetterberg get away with covering the puck again?

17:13: That might've done it. Justin Abdelkader moves into the offensive zone with the puck against Gill and Scuderi. Each Penguins' defenseman gets a piece of hte puck and tip it away momentarily from Abdelkader. Abdelkader cuts across the crease and managers to maintain possession despite the poke checks from Gill and Scuderi.  He then whips a wild wrister at to the far side that Fleury just isn't prepared for. It beats him far on the glove side. He didn't even seem to make a play for the puck there. Ouch. Not a good goal to give up even if he was screened. The goal was unassisted. Watch Detroit choke the life out of the rest of this game. Holmstrom and Hossa get assists. Red Wings 3, Penguins 1.

16:18: "FLerrrrrr..... Eeeee..... Flerrrrr.... Eeeeee....."

15:10: Stuart cranks a slapper from the right point that gets deflected wide.

14:55: "FLerrrrrr..... Eeeee..... Flerrrrr.... Eeeeee....."

14:11: Guerin cracks Darren Helm with a big hit at center ice. Helm looses his stick, regains it and skates to the bench.

13:29: Zetterberg takes a tumble over Scuderi in the neutral zone.

11:27: "LET'S-GO RED-WINGS!!!! (clap, clap, clap) LET'S-GO RED-WINGS!!!! (clap, clap, clap)"

9:20: Lidstrom distributes a pass to Helm on the left wing, Helm moves into the offensive zone and cranks a slapper that appears to get deflected wide.

9:06: Dupuis controls the puck behind the Detroit net and dishes a feed to Satan who cracks a shot wide.

8:35: Gill holds up Hossa who is chasing a puck in the corner. No call. Remember the "new" NHL?

7:13: Hossa moves behind the Penguins' net, comes around the left side and backhands a shot at the net. Fleury fights it off.

6:32: Crosby moves into the offensive zone with speed, dekes by a defender and snaps off a wrister to the far side that Osgood stick his left foot out and boots away. Huge save by Osgood.

6:18: "Ozzzzzz-EEEEEE! Ozzzzz-EEEEEE!"

4:29: Dupuis is dropped behind the Detroit net by Lidstrom while battling for a puck.

3:29: Crosby jumps on a loose puck along the boards and swats a rising wrister on net. Osgood hops up to fight it off.

2:38: Dupuis moves up the right wing and as he enters the zone he attempts to dump the puck in. Lidstrom is there and just makes one of those little poke checks that only so many defensemen in the league can make. Dupuis gets the puck back and ends up offsides.

1:56: Franzen steals a puck near the Penguins' blue line, dumps it in and skates to his bench.

1:39: Fleury is pulled for an extra attacker.

1:30: Off a cycle, Fedotenko dishes a puck into the crease. Osgood is up against the crease and holds it out. Malkin is there battling for the rebound but Osgood covers it.

1:04: Franzen whips the puck down ice wide of the cage.

0:18: Malkin snaps off a wrister from the right faceoff circle. Osgood hangs on for the save. Talbot jabs him with a stick. Osgood falls over as if he were shot by a sniper. A few Red Wings jump Talbot. Kunitz jumps in. Malkin goes after Zetterberg. Malkin is really frustrated and he just boils over dropping the gloves. Zetterberg is an unwilling participant but he battles with Malkin. Malkin slips and falls, gets up and tries to fight Zetterberg some more. An official stands between them holding them at arms length. While that's going on, there's another fight going on in the crease with Osgood in the middle of it. After everyone is separated, A whole mess of penalties are doled out. Malkin gets a boot. Detroit ends up with a two-man advantage. Malkin got five minutes for fighting, an instigator and a 10-minute misconduct. Talbot got two minutes for slashing. Zetterberg gets a fighting major as well. How crazy was that to see two of the best players in the world fight? It'll be interesting to see if the NHL doles out an supplementary discipline after that. We doubt the league will take action, but an instigator in the final five minutes is a no-no.

0:00: End of game. Red Wings 3, Penguins 1.

POSTGAME

-Amazing how one bouce can impact the outcome of a game. If Sidney Crosby scores that goal that hit off the post and was eventually covered by Zetterberg early in the third, this is a tie game and all bets are off. Instead, Detroit came right back and got a goal by Abdelkader that essentially sealed the win for them.

-Regarding that goal by Adbelkader, we didn't have a great look on it to see if there was a screen, but Marc-Andre Fleury needs to make that save. Chris Osgood is stealing goals at times for his teammates and giving them momentum. Fleury is not.

-We're not saying Fleury played awful by any means, but he's just not playing to the standard Osgood is setting this series. He's made a few saves that were tough, but how many of his saves having you saying, "Wow!" to yourself? Osgood has made saves fitting that description in our book.

-If there's any hope to the Penguins being down 2-0 in this series, it's that they have arrived at this point much differently than they did last year. In the first two games of last year's Cup final, they were completely outplayed. So far in this series, the gap between them and Detroit isn't that wide. They've controlled play at point throughout each game. The Red Wings have just cashed in more of their chances and have been aided by a few lucky bounces. This series is far from over.

-As we've said more than enough, playing from behind on Detroit is a death sentence.

-It might be lip service, but Mike Babcock seems to have a similar opinion:

"I've been impressed with how hard they've played right throughout their lineup. They've put a lot of heat on us at times. Tonight they hit two posts. Crosby hit a post, Guerin hit a post, Crosby hit a post east-west behind the net. That's the way hockey is. You've got to keep working hard."

-Evgeni Malkin will not be suspended for picking up that instigator penalty at the end of play. This is a statement from the NHL regarding the incident:

"DETROIT (May 31, 2009) -- National Hockey League Senior Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell issued the following statement regarding the instigator penalty assessed to Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin at 19:41 of the third period of tonight’s Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final:

Rule 47.22 states: "A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five minutes or at any time in overtime shall be suspended for one game, pending a review of the incident. The director of hockey operations will review every such incident and may rescind the suspension based on a number of criteria. The criteria for the review shall include, but not be limited to, the score, previous incidents, etc..."

Following that review, Campbell said: "None of the criteria in this rule applied in this situation. Suspensions are applied under this rule when a team attempts to send a message in the last five minutes by having a player instigate a fight. A suspension could also be applied when a player seeks retribution for a prior incident. Neither was the case here and therefore the one game suspension is rescinded."

NHL Hockey Operations also determined that Malkin should have been assessed a game misconduct for not having his jersey tied down. "

-Technically Malkin had been suspended for roughly an hour after the game until Campbell made his ruling.

-Again, Sidney Crosby needs to produce. He's getting his chances. He getting shots on net. He's creating chances for his teammates. But something offensively is needed out of Crosby. The Penguins got to final this season because he was scoring at a pace that rivaled some of the greats of the game. The Penguins will not win the Cup without Crosby producing offensively.

-That said, just like last year, he's going against one of the best defensive forwards in the league in Henrik Zetterberg and just like last year, Zetterberg is winning the battle early.

-Its just amazing to seed Detroit operate with a two-goal lead. That saying that a two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey does not apply to this team. It just sets up a wall at the neutral zone, disrupts passing lanes, and makes it nearly impossible for an opposing team to break through. The coaching throughout this organization is amazing.

-The scary part thing about the Red Wings is that they've limited they haven't played with Pavel Datsyuk, an MVP candidate for five games. If you take Malkin or Crosby off the Penguins, they might fall apart.

-Hal Gill with a pretty strong opinion on his team:

"I think we've proven that tonight I think we outplayed them. Last year we got outplayed pretty badly. And we have to go back home thinking of what are we going to do? Right now, I think we know what to do. We've just got to keep sticking to it, and things are going to go our way."

-The Penguins need something from their role players. Detroit's getting goals from Abdelkader. A score from someone like Tyler Kennedy or Craig Adams would be helpful towards the Penguins' cause.

-Is it us, or has Sergei Gonchar been rather quiet for two games?

-Hossa had the steal (and possible slash on Dupuis) that led to the winning goal by Filppula, but he really hasn't been as large of a factor as one would have thought. He's playing good defense, he had two assists, but you would think a player of his caliber would offer a little bit more.

-It didn't cost the Penguins the game, but the officiating has been awful in this series. Both teams have gotten away with quite a bit.

-The Penguins once again led in shots, 32-26.

-Malkin led the game with six.

-Hossa led the Red Wings with five.

-Can't blame the faceoffs for the Penguins tonight. They led, 27-24 (53 percent).

-Talbot was 6-for-8 (75 percent).

-Abdelkader was 4-for-6 (67 percent).

-Stuart led the game with 24:44.

-He's obviously healthy enough to play, but if he were really 100 percent, we have to imagine Nicklas Lidstrom would have much more than 23:20.

-Gonchar led the Penguins with 23:14.

-Rafalski led the game with three blocked shots.

-Gill, Scuderi, Orpik, Gonchar and Lidstrom each had two.

-Today's obligatory mention of the last team to win the Stanley Cup despite being down 2-0 in a series was the 1971 Montreal Canadiens who came back to beat the Chicago Blackhawks.

-Bill Guerin moved past George Ferguson and Sergei Zubov on for 29th place on the franchise's career scoring list. All three have 15 points, but Guerin (seven) has more goals than Ferguson (four) and Zubov (one).

-Game summary.

-Event summary.

-Highlights.

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