Well it's halfway through the Stanley Cup Finals, and Detroit has jumped out to a clean 2-0 lead. It doesn't get much cleaner than what they've done. So far Chris Osgood has faced 41 shots, and he has made 41 saves. Game two was slightly closer than game one (the Red Wings won 3-0 instead of 4-0), but the Penguins haven't been able to do anything this series. Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury's face plant prior to the game on Saturday has proven to be a metaphor for the rest of the Penguins. The Penguins breezed through the first three rounds of the playoffs, and expectations have been high for the finals, but now one must wonder- did the lack of adversity in the prior rounds leave them at a severe disadvantage for these finals? As I said in my Stanley Cup preview, the Pens haven't faced a deep offensive team, a deep defensive team and Fleury hasn't been tested. My concerns over all three areas have come to pass, and Pittsburgh has been caught completely by surprise. Luckily for the Penguins, they still have two games at home, and no one has beaten them there yet. So game three should give us a pretty clear picture at where this series is going. Will the Penguins make a series out of it? Or will they become the second Pennsylvania team to suffer a sweep in the finals at the hands of the Red Wings?
On a different note, I am a little disappointed in the Penguins. They aren't handling this losing thing very well. They took a full eight roughing penalties in game two tonight. Those were coupled with two goaltender interference penalties (one wiped out a powerplay), a slashing call and a 10 minute misconduct (given to my "favorite" tough guy/cheap shot artist Gary Roberts after his second roughing penalty of the night). The Penguins are looking a lot more like the Broad Street Bullies they claim to abhor (albeit, they've also been a lot less successful). Detroit ended the game on a 5 on 3 powerplay when the game still could have been close had the Penguins scored a quick goal. The discipline that the Pens displayed throughout the first three rounds of the playoffs has quickly gone M.I.A. They're lucky this game wasn't a blowout. They handed Detroit nine powerplays, and Detroit was unable to convert on any of them. It's not like the Pens fans can even complain about the calls being against them, roughing, goalie interference and slashing calls are the easiest calls for a ref to make.
And this will never get old:
1 comment:
I was thinking the same thing about the Pens and their lack of adversity so far in the playoffs. It could certainly come back to bite them now!
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