Surprisingly, I don’t feel that bad having just watched my beloved Penguins go down in the first game of this Stanley Cup Final. I feel like we played the Red Wings on a much more even field than had been the case in last year’s final. In fact, it is possible that we outplayed the defending Stanley Cup Champions tonight.
I thought the Penguins came out a bit tentative at the beginning of the game. They seemed to loosen up as the game progressed. In this game, I did not see a great deal of evidence that the Wings would completely dominate the puck possession game. I thought the Pens did a good job of preventing good scoring opportunities. In fact, the Red Wings three goals were of a less than highlight reel nature. They got two bad goals that were the result of A) the lively boards at Joe Louis Arena & B) Fleury not playing the rebounds off of said lively boards properly. The third goal, though a bit fluky, was the result of Detroit’s fourth line putting in some hard work. The Pens, on the other hand, did have some good scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalize on all but one of the scoring chances. Ruslan Fedotenko scored a rebound goal that came as a result of Malkin stealing a puck in Detroit’s zone.
The officiating was interesting tonight. I cannot say it was good or bad. What I can say was that it was consistent. The refs seemed to let just about everything go tonight. That certainly goes for both teams. There were only three penalties called in a very physical game.
Notes:
- I did not think that the Penguins intensity level was as high as it needed to be or has been in previous games.
- Dan Bylsma may have panicked a bit in his juggling lines quite a bit after the Pens got down.
- It will be interesting to see, now that they have lost with 7 defenseman, if Bylsma brings back Dupuis. I think this would be a great move. Dupuis can bring some much needed speed and and energy to the lineup. This could serve as great advantage against this tired and banged up Detroit line up.
- Fleury needs to be better.
- There is going to be an interesting battle coming between Crosby and Zetterberg.
- How cool was it to see Brooks Orpik lay Hossa out in the first period.
- Why does Malkin insist on shooting the puck right away on breakaway attempts? This guy has amazing hands. I need to know why he does not use his moves to get the goalie out of position.
I think the Pens will be just fine. Let’s go steal one away in Detroit tomorrow.
EAT THE WINGS…..BEAT THE WINGS!
What is wrong with writing like an 8th grader on speed? I think I would rather have hotwings for dinner than Penguins. Pretty gross if you ask me. Who knows what you all eat up there in Detroit.
Nice to see letsgowings brought his one friend over.
GO PENZ!
OH Dr Hook,
You are garbage! You write like a 8th grader on speed.
Your team is done like dinner. A delicious penguin dinner. I hope you, and your unconvincing superstars enjoy loseing to the evil empire again this year.
Seems to me that line matchups are going to be way more important in this series than I can ever remember. If the Penguins can squeak one out tonight they should be able to win their home games.
Cheez Man- you are right about the face-offs. That was ridiculous. I know the Pens can play better. But your biggest problem is that the Wings didn’t bring their “A” game either. We are not used to getting out-shot. The biggest surprise was that this game seemed too easy to win. Like last year’s first 2 games. But the Pens stepped it up last year,albeit too late. When Crosby is being out-scored by a rookie with only a handful of NHL games under his belt, well it is time to wake up.
@ PENZRGR8……
The “whining about whiners” is hilarious. Something you’d expect to see more like that from Philadelphia posters then from a Detroit poster. Detroit posters are usually much more mature as they’ve actually won CUPS.
But, here we go once again with (this time) Maltby flapping his gums at passing Penguin players and Crosby gives him a whack. It looked to me what I’d expect a captain would do. In other words, we don’t take ANY crap. None.
Whether Lidstrom would do that, or not – don’t know. However, I do suspect Gordie Howe would have done much more than Crosby did. But then again – Howe wasn’t born across the pond either.
[[ Fleury needs to be better ]]
Only at playing them ricochets! Where they need to step it up a notch is on the faceoffs. Three-to-one won’t cut it.
[[ It will be interesting to see, now that they have lost with 7 defenseman, if Bylsma brings back Dupuis. I think this would be a great move. ]]
As much as Dupuis reminds me of Jim McGough I do think he brings a bundle of energy and if Sykora isn’t hurt it might be nice to see him replace Satan and Dupuis replace Boucher.
[[ I guess only in Pittsburgh is Cindy Crysby considered a tough guy. Of course, those soft Euro types completely stoned her on the ice. Stay classy!]]
This is funny STUFF here . . . “Cindy Crysby!” Wow, that’s a good one kid. And YINZ stoned “her” too, eh.
You asked the questions, kid – and got the answer.
It doesn’t seem like you could take it either. Just for the record: Maltby didn’t whine about it – you see he was just flapping his lips. Just like you kid. Now go wipe the snot off your nose and get ready for Game 2.
Go Pens!
Slick,I guess only in Pittsburgh is Cindy Crysby considered a tough guy. Of course, those soft Euro types completely stoned her on the ice.
Stay classy!
Wings in 5
Soft Euro hands the cup to Hossa
@letsgoredwings
I am surprised by the whining even though your team won.
You all complain when Crosby whines, so I guess it is just natural for you all to complain when he does something about yapping physically.
Great show by the Pens. Without a couple of flukey goals, I think the outcome would have been different.
Crosby needs to find a way to get free more. I still think we can do it.
Nice to see Hossa knocked on his can can a few times.
GO PENZ!
@ our letsgowings vistor –
I noticed it. The announcers noticed it and I think if Maltby noticed it he’d have kicked Crosby’s ass. That is, if he could.
By now you must have read Crosby’s remarks. As they were walking of the ice Maltby continued to give the Penguin players “lip service” – and he (CROSBY) “two-handed him on top of his foot.”
To answer your question directly: No, I can’t imagine a soft Euro like Lidstrom doing any thing like that, ever. Crosby, on the other hand is more a NA Captain and I can see him doing that again especially if a seasoned vet like Maltby flaps his gums.
Good show by Crosby that the Penguins aren’t about to take any Detroit poop.
Nice TROLL set-up attempt however. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Second period: Osgood stones Kunitz on nice set-up from Crosby and Osgood stones Malkin on the breakaway. Besides the major faceoff losses – it’s Game 2 less than 12 hours away.
I found this site in order to ask the Pens fans if they noticed Crosby chopping at Maltby as the teams were leaving the ice?
I have come to know a lot of Pittsburgh fans here in Detroit and they have always been classy.
But when your Captain shows no class, you are already beaten. Can you imagine Lindstrom doing that ?
Did anyone notice?
I’ve got an early commitment this morning (tee off time) but thought I’d drop a few quick notes:
Freaky goals aside… when you are a puck control team and you only win 29% of the faceoffs it’s like handing them the game on a silver platter. Better than a 3 to 1 margin is not going to cut it even against the Islanders.
Did Jordan Staal have something in his eye during the singing of the anthem or were those tears?
As for the eye on Hossa – he gets clobbered by Orpik yet has 4 takeaways backchecking the entire game. No star awarded but it would be hard to say he wasn’t the best player on Red Wings last night. In my opinion he wins round 1.
Osgood in the post game gave the boards some credit saying, “It’s tough for goalies. They definitely are dangerous, and tonight they bounced our way.” But… the Pens knew it.
Stopping Malkin on that breakaway was equal to Fluery’s stop on Ovechkin.
The only part of the game that bothers me a little bit is (between periods) people like Milbury and Pang suggesting that the refs are letting a lot go, with a “That’s the way it should be in the finals.” What a load that is. Some calls should have been made on the Penguins just as well as against Detroit. I have no major problem with the refs calling the game consistently, which they did last night. My problem is with these dinosaurs who appear to be representing the NHL suggesting that there should be rule changes because it’s the Finals.
Has anyone noticed that Pierre McGuire has toned down his act a bit since losing out on Minnesota’s GM position to Chuck Fletcher?
It’s down to getting a split on the road and my Penguins in 4 is right out the window. But… I haven’t lost the belief the Pens are the better team. Did anyone say that tonight’s game is HUGE!
Go Pens.