GAME DAY: SCP '09, TUESDAY JUNE 2, STANLEY CUP FINAL--DETROIT AT PITTSBURGH, 800 PM ET

Detroit at Pittsburgh

GAME THREE, 2009 STANLEY CUP FINALS
RED WINGS LEAD SERIES 2-0

8:00 PM ET, June 2, 2009
Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania


Versus/CBC/RDS (ALL AVAILABLE IN HD)


Red Wings-Penguins Preview



PITTSBURGH (AP/ESPN) -- Sidney Crosby was nowhere to be found, hidden from sight before the Pittsburgh Penguins play the game that likely will tell them if they have any chance of overtaking the Detroit Red Wings and winning the Stanley Cup.

At the rink? Sorry, no Crosby sighting there as the Penguins rested Monday after losing two games in two nights in Detroit, putting themselves into a deep, deep hole from which only one of 32 teams has previously escaped during the finals.

Doing interviews? Nope, it was a rare Crosby-free day for reporters curious to find out if being shut out on consecutive nights frustrated or, conversely, further motivated the NHL's most visible player going into Game 3 on Tuesday night.

"Every day doesn't need to be Sidney Crosby day," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said of keeping his captain away from probing minds.

Oh, but every day is Crosby day for the Red Wings. Their twin 3-1 victories in Detroit on Saturday and Sunday were created in part by the blanketing defense of Henrik Zetterberg, who has stayed so close to Crosby during the finals that he probably knew where Sid the Kid was hiding out during Pittsburgh's day off.

Zetterberg went over the boards for all but one of Crosby's shifts in Joe Louis Arena, holding him scoreless and creating some visible frustration as the Red Wings closed to within two victories of winning their fifth Stanley Cup since 1997.

Me and my shadow, indeed.

"I've been in different roles, different situations and this one is a pure challenge and it's fun," Zetterberg said.

The question is whether the fun stops for the player known simply as Z by his Red Wings teammates once the venue changes Tuesday night. The Penguins can make the final line change at home, and Bylsma won't have to be as concerned with Zetterberg hitting the ice a moment after Crosby does.

Crosby didn't score in consecutive playoff games for the first time since Games 1 and 2 of the finals against Detroit last season, but he wasn't invisible. Crosby hit the inside of a post among five shots in Game 2, and he had enough scoring chances to worry Mike Babc0ck, especially now that the Red Wings coach must be creative to pair Zetterberg and defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom against Crosby.

"They're going to make it hard for us," Babc0ck said. "We're going to do what we can. We've won a lot of games this year on the road and we did it because we're willing to move people around and have good balance and come at teams."

The Red Wings know they'll see plenty of Crosby and playoffs scoring leader Evgeni Malkin, and a lot of desperation, as the Penguins try to avoid going down 3-0 to the defending champs -- a loss that would likely make the rest of the finals a mere formality.

The Penguins' task is hard enough; of the 32 teams to previously win the first two games 2 on home ice, 31 won the Stanley Cup. Only Chicago failed, against Montreal in 1971.

"Hey, crazier things have happened," forward Bill Guerin said.

Pittsburgh pulled off a 2-0 comeback earlier this spring, rallying to beat the Washington Capitals in seven games despite losing Game 6 at home. But the Capitals lacked the depth, maturity, goaltending and playoff know-how of the Red Wings, who may be even better than the team that took out Pittsburgh in six games last spring.

Detroit, for example, got insurance goals in each of the first two games from rookie Justin Abdelkader, who spent all but two games this season in the minors, while defenseman Jonathan Ericsson had the pivotal goal in Game 2 only a few days after having his appendix removed.

Hart Trophy finalist Pavel Datsyuk has missed five games with an injured foot and, still limping around the rink, doesn't look close to being ready to play. So far it hasn't mattered, and Detroit's goal is to keep it that way.

"The Zetterberg line is doing a phenomenal job against Sid and we try to do the same thing against Malkin," Marian Hossa said. "They're dangerous players, they're getting great chances and but we try to eliminate them."

Hossa, perhaps better than any of his teammates, knows what awaits the Red Wings in Pittsburgh. Hossa surprised the Penguins last summer by turning down a $49 million, seven-year offer to stay in Pittsburgh and instead signed with Detroit for $7.5 million and one season, saying the Red Wings offered the best chance of winning the Stanley Cup.

So far, it looks like he's made the right decision, which should further anger the fans who booed him whenever he stepped onto the ice during Detroit's 3-0 win in Pittsburgh on Feb. 8.

"It's going to be loud in Pittsburgh," Hossa said. "They show you what they think. ... Nothing is going to change on my part. I just try to use it to my advantage, that booing, (and) play my game."

The Penguins know they can't keep playing Detroit's game and hope to succeed, but they're confident that going home will help them slip more pucks behind Chris Osgood.

They also hope it steadies goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who was shaky in Game 1 and was beaten by a long, knuckleball-like shot by Abdelkader in Game 2.

To win, Pittsburgh probably needs contributions from someone other than Malkin (1 goal, 1 assist), who displayed some of his frustration by fighting with Zetterberg late in Game 2. Similarly, Crosby flashed his discontent by ramming his stick into Kirk Malby after Game 1. Now, in so desperate a situation, the Penguins need their stars to score, not to scrap.

They also aren't getting any offense from center Jordan Staal's third line or from Chris Kunitz, who plays alongside Crosby yet has only one goal in 24 games. That won't get it done against these fast-rolling Detroit wheels.

"I don't think we should be frustrated," defenseman Sergei Gonchar said. "I don't think we are frustrated because the series is not over."

Lose Tuesday, and it might be.

Cue the cliche's....

It's a must win...

Can't afford to do down 3-0...

One shift at a time...

shabbs wrote:Cue the cliche's....

It's a must win...

Can't afford to do down 3-0...

One shift at a time...

Our best players need to be our best players

Shoot to score

never give up

Leave it all on the ice.

It's not over yet.

The fourth game is the hardest one to win. No, wait, it's a little early for that one.

Cliches aside, the real issues for the Penguins include their failure of their role players in the first two games.

Chris Kunitz's very disappointing play in this series...and he wasn't very good in the last one either.

Miro Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko and Max Talbot need to be much better.

The backchecking of Pittsburgh's forwards hasn't been good.

The Pens' defense has gotten caught too often off guard, out skated by the Wings, and very poor at clearing the front of the net.

Fleury's actually been pretty solid--but he has not gotten the support Osgood gets.

That's all got to change in Game Three.

davetherave wrote:Cliches aside, the real issues for the Penguins include their failure of their role players in the first two games.

Chris Kunitz's very disappointing play in this series...and he wasn't very good in the last one either.

Miro Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko and Max Talbot need to be much better.

The backchecking of Pittsburgh's forwards hasn't been good.

The Pens' defense has gotten caught too often off guard, out skated by the Wings, and very poor at clearing the front of the net.

Fleury's actually been pretty solid--but he has not gotten the support Osgood gets.

That's all got to change in Game Two.

A senior moment?

504Heater wrote:
Has Petr Sykora even played this playoffs? That's what's killing the Pens. Satan is okay, but he's not what he used to be. Fedotenko never was anything real special, but he has the experience. Talbot isn't anything offensively special. Kunitz hasn't done a thing - and he has experience as well. If these guys can't do it, who will?

I think Kennedy has looked excellent in these playoffs. If things are going to change, perhaps he'll be the one?

Satan is OK? He's got to be better than that. I was watching the game on PVR and near the end of the second period I suddenly had to ask myself -- wasn't Satan supposed to be in the lineup? I could not remember hearing his name mentioned at all. Mind you, I was fast-forwarding throughbreaks in the action and commercials, but you would have expected to hear a player's name mentioned during the action.

If you look at the stats we're just waitin' on that fat lady again LOL.

Seriously though the Pens have something like a 3% chance of winning this series. I believe it's 31 teams out of 32 have won the finals when up 2 games to none in a best of seven.

Yeah, history is not in the Pens' favour, that's for sure. But as they say, it ain't over until it's over. It would be nice to have the Pens make a series of this and win both at home.

shabbs wrote:Yeah, history is not in the Pens' favour, that's for sure. But as they say, it ain't over until it's over. It would be nice to have the Pens make a series of this and win both at home.

I'm hoping they tie it up as well. I think if they do that then the pressure is back on the Wings. I obviously had high expectations for this version of the Pens but I think they've wasted their opportunity to the point of no return. Sure the results could have been different had they not hit those posts, had Fleury not allowed at least 3 terrible goals out of 6, had some of those breakaways resulted in goals etc...

Even if you're of the opinion that the Pens have outplayed the Wings thus far but the Wings are getting all the bounces all the luck and favourable reffing calls it doesn't matter. The Wings are up 2 games to none and haven't played their best in this series yet. How long before the Wings dominate in a game or two? There's almost no room for error right now.

Crosby has no points and Malkin has a goal and an assist through the first two games. If they want to win, that's gotta change. Having last change should help that on home ice.

Being a Wings fan, I see how getting pucks to the net works. Even though the Pens have out-shot the Wings 65-56 through the first 2 games, most of those shots are wide open. Pitt needs to get bodies in front of Osgood like Detroit does in front of all goalies. Ozzy will stop 99% of what he can see.

Another problem they are having is in the face-off category. If the Pens want to make a charge in this series, they need to win, and control, more face-offs. Detroit is the best in the league in this category and have scored two crucial goals in the offensive zone because of it. Pitt must rise to the challenge.

Like I said, I am a Wings fan and believe we will take it in 5 with a split in Pittsburgh. Hopefully the remaining games will be as close as the first 2. This is the type of hockey you'd expect from the top two teams, and as a fan of hockey, it's nice to see.

The Wings are king for getting in goalie's faces, that's for sure.

shabbs wrote:Crosby has no points and Malkin has a goal and an assist through the first two games. If they want to win, that's gotta change. Having last change should help that on home ice.

Don't forget that on his goal he didn't even register a shot; it was knocked in by the D.

swales wrote:Being a Wings fan, I see how getting pucks to the net works. Even though the Pens have out-shot the Wings 65-56 through the first 2 games, most of those shots are wide open. Pitt needs to get bodies in front of Osgood like Detroit does in front of all goalies. Ozzy will stop 99% of what he can see.

Another problem they are having is in the face-off category. If the Pens want to make a charge in this series, they need to win, and control, more face-offs. Detroit is the best in the league in this category and have scored two crucial goals in the offensive zone because of it. Pitt must rise to the challenge.

Like I said, I am a Wings fan and believe we will take it in 5 with a split in Pittsburgh. Hopefully the remaining games will be as close as the first 2. This is the type of hockey you'd expect from the top two teams, and as a fan of hockey, it's nice to see.

First, I agree that they will likely split on the road and win in 5 at home (although I originally picked them in 7). I am not, however, sure that we are seeing the two best teams. Pittsburgh waltzed into the Finals by beating a used-up Canes team, which should not have been even close to the Bruins. The Bruins lose their best chance at a Stanley Cup right there, in game 7 at home. Can't blame that one on Thornton. Julien just may be gone. The other "challenges" for Pittsburgh had been the one-man Capitals (with a rookie goalie that pushed them to 7!) and the injured Flyers with Biron in goal. Pittsburgh is in the Finals, at least partially, because of the luck of the match-ups. Detroit got there by eliminating Anaheim and Chicago -- two teams that had been playing extremely well and were not suffering from injuries (at least not to start the series).

Still no Ice Chips update for today. I thought they were usually updated at 11?

So the analysts are all saying that, with the last change Bylsma will try to keep Sid away from Zetterberg. Has anyone considered what keeping Sid away from Zetterberg will do to Henrik's production? To say nothing of the inference that Crosby cannot produce unless he is isolated from a good defensive forward. And, as good as Zetterberg is defensively, he is not a 3rd line checker. Detroit has one or two of those as well.

Bottom line, while Sid's production will likely increase, so will Zetterberg's. The two may cancel each other out. We'll have a higher scoring game, but Detroit's depth will still prevail.

Thoughts?

Anybody out there? Hello???

OK, here's a joke, then:



One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the
rascally behavior that was going on.

So he called one of His
angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.

When he returned, he
told God, 'Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are
not.

God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better
send down a second angel to get another opinion.'

So God called another
angel and sent him to Earth for a time.

When the angel returned he went
to God and said, 'Yes, it's true.
The Earth is in decline; 95% are
misbehaving, but 5% are being good.'

God was not pleased. So He decided
to e-mail the 5% that were good, because he wanted to encourage them,

and give them a little something to help them keep going.

Do you
know what the e-mail said?

Okay, I was just wondering.....because I
didn't get one either.

OK, Ice Chips finally updated. Samuelsson did not skate this morning. He is ill and may not play. Draper is ready but it'll be a coaching decision. Datsyuk skated and is getting better, but it's more likely he could play on Thursday.

Hmm, if he is still *skating* then it's probably not a break. Would you skate on a broken foot even if you know you are not playing? Wpuld it not be better to completely rest it?

I'm not a doctor. Paging Dr. Rooney.

Yeah, you can skate on a broken foot. It's the fear of taking one off the foot, a slash, or just some physical play that is the prob.

Not gonna get any worse when skating on it.

wprager wrote:

davetherave wrote:
That's all got to change in Game Two.

A senior moment?

It had to change in Game Two as well...but your youthful impertinence shows itself again.
:^^^^: :^^^^: :^^^^:

davetherave wrote:

wprager wrote:

davetherave wrote:
That's all got to change in Game Two.

A senior moment?

It had to change in Game Two as well...but your youthful impertinence shows itself again.
:^^^^: :^^^^: :^^^^:

Hey, with 4 kids, trust me, I'm catching up to you by the time the second one is a teenager.

Mario to do the ceremonial puck drop. I hope he doesn't hurt his back.

Datsyuk is optimistic he'll be ready for game 4 after the morning skate today:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?id=4224707

Datsyuk has been sidelined for five games by a foot injury and is not ready to play Tuesday night against Pittsburgh in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals.

But Red Wings coach Mike Wang said Datsyuk might be back for Thursday's Game 4. Wang says Datsyuk was optimistic after his skate Tuesday.

wprager wrote:Datsyuk is optimistic he'll be ready for game 4 after the morning skate today:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?id=4224707

Datsyuk has been sidelined for five games by a foot injury and is not
ready to play Tuesday night against Pittsburgh in Game 3 of the Stanley
Cup finals.But
Red Wings coach Mike Wang said Datsyuk might be back for Thursday's
Game 4. Wang says Datsyuk was optimistic after his skate Tuesday.

Probably a good idea just to keep him in the press box, even if he could go. No sense making it any worse when you are in a good position. The young guns are pulling more than their weight and it seems like the defense is good to go with the exception of Lilja.

As for Samuelson, I believe that he would want to play anyway. If not, Draper says he's ready to go. It should be an interesting one for sure. 3 and a half hours and counting.

If they lose tonight... I suspect we'll see Datsyuk and Draper in Game 4.

shabbs wrote:If they lose tonight... I suspect we'll see Datsyuk and Draper in Game 4.

Agreed. They won't have a choice.

swales wrote:

shabbs wrote:If they lose tonight... I suspect we'll see Datsyuk and Draper in Game 4.

Agreed. They won't have a choice.

I'm not 100% certain of that. If they lose both games in Pittsburgh they are still in command -- it becomes a best of three with home ice advantage. And as for any momentum, the return of Datsyuk and heading back to The Joe would certainly swing it around.

But, first thing is the game tonight. Win, and it's academic. Actually, if they win tonight, Datsyuk might still dress for game 4 because, I'm sure, if there is any chance of the Cup being presented, he'll want to be there and contributing.

By the way ratings over at NBC for the first two games of the SCF are up 17% over last year. Last year they started with games 3 and 4, so I am not totally surprised that ratings are better. Still, I guess it's better than nothing. The games, on average, got a 2.8 rating and a 5 share (that's 2.8% of all TVs, or 5% of all TVs that were on). By comparison, one of my favorite shows this past season, Terminator, began last year with an 11.1 rating and a 16 share, but lost half of that by its second episode. It didn't get much (any?) better from there. That 11.1 rating corresponded to 18.6 million viewers, so the 2.8 for the first two games works out to nearly 4.7 million people. Good thing that the SCF does not cost NBC nearly as much as Terminator did to FOX.

Draper may be in tonight...

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2009/06/02/Cup-Injuries-0/

To replace Samuelsson.

Why the hell is that game at 8? I've been ready since before supper!

All of them are 8:00pm starts.

Thank you NBC.

shabbs wrote:All of them are 8:00pm starts.

Thank you NBC.

Yeah, I pretty much assumed it was the NBC thing. Those affiliates have to have their 6PM news, then NBC has to have it's world news at 7, or are they still running Jeopardy?

NBC has "I'm a celebrity: get me out of here" at 8, at least according to zap2it.com. My guide didn't even have the Saturday game on the NBC channel (it may have been on).

No lineup changes for either team.

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:zetterberg is going to be getting extra ice time to try and stay matched up against crosby

Crosby should be getting extra ice-time as well with last change...