Stanley Cup Finals Best Of 3
Written by KenCo, Friday June 05 2009
Listening to Detroits FM sports talk station, you hear a lot of complaining. Starting from the refs bad calls, to the refs missed calls, to anything/everything you can imagine. All you hear are excuses. Some rightfully so. The too many men on the ice non-call in game 3 which resulted in a Wings penalty and a Pens goal. The Malkin suspension where the NHL has a rule that states its a one-game ban to players who instigate a fight in the game’s final five minutes. None the less, what's over is over, and now the Finals are in a "Best Of 3" scenario.
Everyone was not looking forward to this series being a rematch of last years Stanley Cup Finals, where the Pens 2 wins came from a 3OT victory in game 5 in Detroit, and a 3-2 victory in game 3 in Pittsburgh. Both close games that came down to the wire.
Now we're at Game 5. A best of 3 series between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Wings will have home ice advantage, and hopes for a healthy roster only looked better when Datsyuk took warmups, but did not play during Game 4. Datsyuk, a runner up for this years Selke Trophy, which is given to the NHL's top defensive forward, will be a great addition to the wings lineup, who just got back Kris Draper, who is one of the leagues best Face-off winner.
Adding back Draper and Datsyuk is always a positive, but not in the eyes of most. They will be taking the place of Ville Leino and Justin Abdelkader. Abdelkader shooting 4 times in 3 games he played (was removed in Game 4 for Draper), and scoring twice. He averages only 7 minutes and 15 seconds of ice time a game. His +/- rating is +2. He's also only 22, so look for him to be a big name in the Red Wings future. Leino also nets in at 2 assists with a +/- rating of +2.
Game 3 and 4 can be summed up in 1 word though. Turnovers. Big turnovers which leave Osgood in vulnerable positions. He's been good at stopping about half the breakaways, but these 1-0, 2-0, 3-1's that have been occuring due to turnovers, but when there are 4-5 goals because of them, it's hard to put all the blame on Osgood.
One thing I would like to mention, is that the refs need to make up their mind. Either call it all, or don't make the calls. Not this half and half bullshaw that anger both fan sides. Thank God Brad Watson isn't the ref. Don't need no phantom goals.
What will games 5-7 (yes, it's going 7 folks) tell us? Who the best team in hockey is. Both teams are deserving to be there, and the Penguins are showing that they deserve to be there even more than everyone said. In the end, it's going to be the team that makes the least mistakes.
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2 comments
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The media seems to be having a love fest with the Pens- the Wings are being punished for being one of the best, dominant teams in hockey.
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I'm just disgusted. Disgusting.