I'm not surprised they switched to the dump and chase. It just didn't work.
The first period was by far their best, but at least 50% of their passes were gobbled up by the red wing defense. Almost none of the longer passes got through at all. That starts to get in to your head quickly. "Ok, we can't make long passes". You didn't see them happening at all in the second and third.
The break down on their outlet passing resulted in the Pens going to much quicker shorter passes. By the time they were making the second pass, the Wings were closing in on them. A good bit of the time Detroit seemed to know where that second or third pass was going to be and would just sake in and close off the line to the puck. Not straight out interference, but more of just becoming pylons that the Pens had to skate around or over.
As soon as the Pens gave up on the longer passes, the Wings locked them down and took over the game.
If the Pens are able to solve the Detroit back checking and get a few of them break out passes off, the Wings will step back a little and give then Pens more room to play and we will be watching a totally different game. If Detroit is able to continously break up their plays, the Pens will quickly be discouraged and this series is over.
Ozzie was superhuman, while Fleury appeared to be just a mere mortal.
Defensively, Malkin is a liability. While I have no doubt he is normally a great offensive player, I think his defensive mistakes are starting to wear on him. He is aware he should be more responsible defensively and while trying to do that role is giving up a bit of his offensive initiative. In other words, he's thinking too much.
Crosby is already frustrated. He seems to be having a hard time realizing he was contained. Did he have a bad night or did the wings give him a bad night? I think he was flat our shut down. Because his team and the league have put him out as the "face of hockey", when he gets shutdown, his team lets it get to them more than they should. Instead of the rest of the team stepping up, they seemed to have gone in to a depression on the ice. I doubt we can expect this to happen in the next game.
If Detroit wins game 3 or 4 in pittsburgh, this series never sees game 6. They are already leaning heavily on the "we don't lose at home" crutch. If that were to get kicked out from under them, I would put the whole Pens team, except Kennedy, on suicide watch. Kennedy was the bright spot for the penguins in an otherwise lackluster outing.
The real question on every hockey fans mind right now is, "Are the Wings really that good or did the Pens really have a bad bad night?" Maybe a little of both. While the pens may be able step up their play, and I expect they will, if they can, as good as the Wings looked, the Wings can and have played better. Too many pucks ended up lost in their skates without an opposing player anywhere around them.
It's only 1 game, but the writing is on the wall.
