PITTSBURGH, Pa – You would think by the focus placed on the Detroit Red Wings’ two wins in Detroit the Stanley Cup Finals are all but over. What most people are forgetting though is we are right where we were last season when Pittsburgh was one slow roller by Marian Hossa from forcing a seventh game. It’s mundane to say this is an important game for the Penguins. Such as statement should be properly responded to with a “you don’t say” or something even more colorful. What is important is for Pittsburgh Marc-Andre Fleury not to be the difference in this game. Thus far if you switched teams with Fleury and Detroit’s Chris Osgood it is quite possible the Penguins would be ahead, or at least tied, in the series rather than the Red Wings holding home ice. I will lay my case out for you. Let’s count the goals. In Game 1 Fleury was beaten by a bank-shot off the backboards and once when he flipped his leg around and pushed the puck into the net. Meanwhile Osgood erred when he couldn’t control an Evgeni Malkin shot and Ruslan Fedotenko pushed it home. Score without bad goals? Try 1-1 and into overtime. In Game 2 the Fleury-follies continued although less grevious than in the first game. One would only call the Justin Abdelkader goal a bad one, but what a back-breaker that was as it gave Detroit a two-goal cushion. The first Detroit goal came when Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma decided not to get burnt by calling a time out after an icing and then got burnt by not calling a time out after an icing. Fool me once…The Valtteri Filppula goal was scored when Tomas “The Tank” Holmstom decided to use Fleury as a couch, I am not going to get on M-A for that one. Pittsburgh’s goal? Well let’s just say if Detroit’s Brad (Man of 1,000 Giveaways) Stuart lived in South America somewhere he should watch his back. While they don’t shoot guys in Canada for that kind of nonsense no-one is crazy about scoring on your own goalie–even if you don’t mean to. CGI (Crappy Goal Index) would set the final Detroit 2 Pittsburgh 0. So what have we learned in the first two games? Well nothing if you had paid attention to my brilliantly crafted Stanley Cup preview. In a long series it rarely makes a difference what the stars do, sure it helps if Sidney Crosby or Johan Franzen would score 14 goals in five games, but it rarely happens. True it also hurts when someone goes Joe Thornton on you and pulls out zero points in seven games, but once again–rare. These guys get their points, guaranteed, you take the top four scorers and after seven games they are going to have five-six points apiece. the difference is made when teams win with goaltending and when their depth players chip in. Thus far in summary, Osgood has the correct suffix, and if “Fleurbad” was Fleury’s last name you would also have the correct suffix. Meanwhile if you have someone you still need the spell-checker for (unless you are an AHL beat reporter) in Justin Abdelkader scoring twice and a guy with a freshly-removed appendix in Jonathan Ericsson popping in a goal you are on your way to back-to-back Stanley Cups. As promised the recipe for a Pittsburgh win is a) Fleury to be strong, b) Malkin and/or Crosby to pick up a point and c) they need a goal or two from a Max Talbot, a Craig Adams or a Mark Eaton to win. Then they are right back in it. My recipe for Detroit? Carry on fellows.
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