Matt

The aggressiveness and effort on a forecheck isn't there through 40 minutes. Get aggressive, get to the front of the net and force the Penguins to take penalties against you. Right now Detroit's not doing that. Osgood was phenomenal in that period. Huge saves.

After watching the reply I didn't have a problem with Franzen going. He have a nice forearm to Orpik's head right after the whistle that set him off.

Agreed. Fleury, for stretches, has been very good at controlling rebounds but he's also given up some dandies as well. They MUST get the shots on net and force him to control the puck.

One note on Draper's penalty: It was the direct result of a horrible pass by Draper in the neutral zone that was a direct turnover. Can. not. turn. the. puck. over.

The penalty kills have a lot to do with the flow of a period. We saw the same thing in Game 1 of the series, when the Wings were killing off 3+ power plays then, too. If the Red Wings can keep themselves out of the box and can continue to roll four lines and keep the shifts short, you'll see a lot more flow and more consistent play.

Also -- the Wings are big-time committed to getting shots from the point in this game, and that's really good. Nice to see the commitment to getting to the front of the net and pouncing on some rebounds.

- I don't have any problem at all with the penalty calls that the Red Wings took in the first. Those are textbook calls -- and LAZY penalties. If they skate they don't take those dumb penalties. - Good response to tie the game up quickly. - Need to cut down on the turnovers in the neutral zone and at Pittsburgh's blueline. Had some bad ones near the end of the period that resulted in a couple of chances. - Wings ARE standing around too much in the defensive zone and really need to crank up the aggression in the battles along the boards. Sticking your stick in there isn't going to cut it. - Cleary has looked good, as expected, on the first line. A couple of good chances in the first period.

Got a link for that?

If anyone wants to help out a poor ol' web site owner get a couple of tickets, please feel free to PM me.

Hey Reg, haven't seen you around these parts since last week... Where have you been?

I don't think that can be really singled out with Cleary, he made a few solid plays tonight. He's a guy you want out there crashing the crease.

I wouldn't call it diving, but he did get pushed off the puck a lot for a guy his size. The hooking penalty he committed on Kronwall late was completely boneheaded and an easy call -- the fact he hopped up complaining was amusing.

Meh... puck was bouncing a lot and maybe Pittsburgh is a bit more used to it but I don't think it had any effect on the end result. The Wings came ridiculously close several times but it wasn't to be tonight.

Assertive has nothing to do with it -- the Penguins high PKers are jumping out on him and Rafalski. The puck needs to be moved, and moved QUICK, to get those guys out of position to open up a shot. The problem is that tonight they delayed/held on to the puck a bit too long on the halfboards waiting for something to open up. If they're going to cheat high the team needs to take advantage of it. The forwards (Pavel) that sit out there on the halfboards need to just cut in toward the net instead of just skating straight into the zone to draw the defender down.

Tonight was the first loss in which I've worn it. Detroit's been undefeated previously. "Bad luck" is relative.

Oftentimes they're caught trying to do too much individually and in a few stretches tonight they were caught just standing around. However, for most of the series they've moved the puck extremely well -- but they're not taking shots. They need to get some shots on goal. Pittsburgh's being aggressive on the points and Detroit started to attack that by having guys cut in at the half-boards, but they're not taking shots once they get there. (Often it looks like they're just trying to get the high defender(s) to come back down before getting it right back to the point-man.)

Did it ever occur to you that it's because the opponents have their backs against the wall? The Penguins picked up the tempo tonight and played well. Kudos to them. Outside of a few really glaring turnovers Detroit didn't play bad. They weren't as assertive and aggressive as they could have been, for sure, but I don't think anyone really though this would be a sw*ep regardless of how the first two games went. Pittsburgh got a big lift from getting the first goal -- that was glaringly obvious. However, I thought Detroit responded well. Who knows, if Staal's double-minor on Lidstrom gets called not long after Franzen cut it to 2-1, we could be talking about an entirely different game. Those are the breaks, however. s*** happens -- but absolutely nothing that happened in this game has made me waiver at all about the capabilities of this Red Wings team. Detroit wasn't outplayed tonight, Pittsburgh simply cached in on some horrid Detroit turnovers.

They've been guilty with playing tentative out there for long stretches, for sure. Hopefully the "using a series lead as a crutch" isn't the case again.

Pittsburgh got a MONSTROUS break with that missed double-minor call on Staal. Amazing. After a good start it appeared the Red Wings sat back a bit as Pittsburgh built off a couple of solid shifts that resulted in the lead. Make no bones about it, Pittsburgh is being far more aggressive in this game and it's resulting in some brainfarts and unforced errors. I'm not seeing the same effort to finish checks and outwork the Penguins in corners so far in this game, consistently, anyway. It's been there for flashes but not nearly consistent enough. Need to keep going hard to the net and stop trying to overthink the shots on net -- just get it on net. The loose pucks and rebounds are there. Seeing some of the same problems that plagued the Wings at times vs. Nashville and Dallas: getting hemmed into their own zone and not making smart plays to clear the zone. Definitely room for improvement and overall the Red Wings aren't getting vastly outplayed here. Tighten up defensively and ramp up the aggressiveness and they'll be fine.

Now SIX!

Ok, so who are the four nitwits on here?

I think he's saving that for Game 4. His jersey was at the cleaners.

Yes.