Cern

To be fair, Hossa did put up a multipoint game last night. He could be better but he is contributing.

It's not exactly rocket science, man. Hell, the Wings figured that Pittsburgh's depth is an optical illusion a year ago and it took the Penguins three games just to get a goal.

The facts are, a whopping two players are responsible for the entirety of the Penguins' offense. The talk of the Penguins having 'deep' offense is a complete and utter illusion - you can't seriously expect people like Talbot or Satan being scoring threats without either Crosby or Malkin holding their hand. The Wings second and third lines don't need to be babysat by Datsyuk or Hossa in order to score goals. Add in the fact that neither Crosby nor Malkin are particularly stunning at defensive hockey and the Penguins' best defenseman is clearly still injured, and Fleury can't stop rebounds to save his life, I'd be very nervous about the Wings simply being able to outcycle Pittsburgh with scoring threats.

Only two goals didn't involve Malkin or Crosby, one of which was the empty netter Satan's goal was the only one not involving Crosby and/or Malkin 4 of 6 involving one or the other a whopping 0 goals not involving either of them. The Penguins have no genuine depth, it's the result of two players and two players alone. If one or the other went cold they wouldn't even BE in the ECF - what the hell else are Satan or Guerin going to do without someone to feed them pucks? The fact that we're winning series with Datsyuk and Hossa cold (although Hossa had a multipoint game last night) I think actually bodes rather well for the Wings. Pound for pound Detroit has more offensive threats than the Penguins. Gonchar is keeping Datsyuk smothered? Great, that leaves guys like Hal 'Pylon' Gill to prevent Zetterberg, Franzen, Samuelsson, Filpulla, Hudler, Lidstrom, and Rafalski from getting scoring chances. There's simply too many potential scoring threats on the Wings' roster for the Penguins to keep adequately plugged up at once.

Crosby or Malkin played a part in four of Pittsburgh's goals tonight. One of the goals that they weren't involved with was the empty-netter. Those two players are the alpha and omega of Pittsburgh's 'depth', no ifs ands or buts. Also consider that Fleury coughs up more rebounds than a basketball backboard, something that the Wings are going to punish teams for much more than the Hurricanes. I wouldn't expect or count on the Wings' defense completely shutting down crosby and malkin, but if they can be contained at least partially the Penguins' offensive 'depth' will noticeably suffer. I can easily see the Wings winning out a battle of attrition between the two.

What particularly reassured me was the penalty kill for the most part looked pretty good even with Datsyuk out. The way the refs were taking it to the Wings in the first it could have been a complete blowout entering the second but pulled off some major high-pressure kills.

I thought Z played pretty well tonight actually

Burish tries to get Lidstrom of all people angry and the Wings score three goals in almost as many minutes. I...I came.

I'm worried about Homer slowing down that line tremendously.

Main problem is that I think the tagline dosen't quite fit the footage. Should have been something like 'No Rest In The Playoffs' or whatever.

I think TSN is streaming the game. Might need to use a Canadian proxy, which isn't difficult.

Well at least the last two minutes have been exciting...

Pittsburgh has been looking rather sloppy in their own end - much like Boston last round.

The say I see it, the British INVENTED the language, advantage to them for spellings

http://www.thisplaceisazoo.com/uploaded/WR82319_LG.jpg This is the kind I got a while back. Not a purple Red Wings one but it has the team colors.

You wanted domination?! YOU GOT IT

Ugh, yet more scrambling in their own end... What's up with Abby being on the first line?

Nowhere near as satisfying as Malkin face-down on the ice after the final buzzer last SCF, but given how mentally exhausting this last series was for me, I'll still savour it.

If anything, the fact that we won this series (even with game 3 all but handed to the Ducks) without Datsyuk showing up in the boxscore speaks volumes about the Wings depth. Think about it, if Crosby went silent against in the playoffs the Penguins would probably have been toast. In any case, Pavel didn't 'vanish' the way Joe Thorton or Malkin have in the playoffs. He clearly still had a good head about him, he was playing well at both ends of the ice, he just didn't quite get the bounces that translated into goals.

I hate the thought of either of these teams making it to the final. Murder one another in seven with as much overtime as possible.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF... I hope the Penguins and Hurricanes kill each other in seven, can't stand either of these teams.

Pulling for the Bruins. They're my dad's team, my East team, and an original 6 SCF would be the s***.

IT'S OVER

YES! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! CLEARY!

[brokenrecord]HUUUUUUUUGE PP for the Wings[/brokenrecord]