chrisdetroit

You are right. Until the puck drops nobody knows. Anything can happen. But for the Pens to beat us in 4 of seven games it would be a monumental upset. It could happen but it's not very likely. The Wings would have to literally fall apart and there is nothing that indicates that that is even a remote possibility. But I guess as a Penguin fan, you need to believe in miracles because that is your only hope. The Americans beat the Russians in 1980. Problem is those kinds of things don't happen very often. Alot of the Pens fans are claiming that "on paper" they are the better team and using that to say that they will win. That just isn't so. The Wings are far and away the better team "on paper" and it is not likely that the Pens will win.

It comes down to this. Who is going to stop Datsyuk, Zetterburg and Franzen? Wow, it got awful quiet all the sudden.......

Before game 1 is over, the Pens and most of the fans will realize that they can't beat the Wings, they are just that good

It doesn't matter who played who. Compare the 2 teams head to head: Offensive forwards - Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen against Crosby, Malkin, Hossa That's a tough one. Slight advantage Pens Defensive forwards - Big advantage Wings with our 2 Selke finalists Offensive D Men - Big advantage Wings. Looking at the numbers, 18% of the Pens points come from the D verses 24% for the Wings Defensive D Men - Big advante Wings with Norris Nick, Nick Jr, Rafalski, Stuart Goaltending - slight advantage Wings. The numbers are about the same but Ozzie's experience give us the upper hand Home Ice - Wings Face Off Wins - big advantage Wings and this is crucial for a puck possesion team Coaching - advantage Wings with our Jack Adams finalist and Babcock's Finals experience Grit/Physical Play - slight advantage Wings Watch out for Kronwall and Stuart Hunger/drive - advantage Wings who got robbed last year and are playing like a team possesed Ok, granted some of this is opinion but its not far off. 10 factors and 9 of them Detroit has the advantage. Now I understand the Canadian bias for the Pens, but people, this isn't going to be close. Wings in 4 or 5

I started to read what was a well thought out response until I got to this whitney will own the norris trophy for the next decade That's when I realized that this was just Pens fan making idiotic claims not based on fact.

Just a couple of things: First off the Canadians all worship the ice that Sid skates on so be prepared for lots of completely biased reporting. Most of the hockey talking heads are Canadian so you are not going to get an unbiased opinion. Be ready because if you are like me, you will probably puke after reading the onslaught of crap about how great the Pens (Sid's Pens) are. Secondly the series will come down to this. Who is going to stop Pavs and Hank? Gonchar will help but he's one man. Hal Gill? Sid and Malkin who aren't known for their defensive prowess? Now who's going to stop Sid and Malkin? One of our two Selke finalists? Or how bout our perenial Norris Trophy winner. Need I say more?

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We got him, his name is Franzen. Only problem is that he is injured. We could have traded away Flip and Huds and Helm for Hossa, but then if Hossa goes down we have no Flip, Huds and Helm. What then? Hartigan? Would you have traded away 3 guys from our roster for Hossa? That would have been a hell of a gamble.

How it the hell do you get that from what Babcock said, unless he is out and out lying. All the tests have been negative and Babs says he is feeling better and no longer having headaches. In my book that means the doctors will clear him in a day or two and we will see him back for game 1 against Pittsburgh which will most likely be late this week. Talk about the glass being half empty...

Now that's the biggest exaggeration that I've heard in a long time.

You should check your facts before posting things that are just not correct. 39% of the points have come form those 3 and 61% from other players. If you just conssider goal it's about 60% from those 3. 40% from others. Sorry but the numbers don't jive with your opinion.

We need to keep this all in perspective. We won the first 3. Two were blowouts and one was a close game. They won the next two both close games. So it's 3-2 in our favor. Yes, we had them down 3-0. When they were in that position, they needed to win 4 straight. They have won 2 straight. They still need to beat us 2 more in a row. It's not panic time. Monday will be our 3rd chance to close them out.

Recent history? Like the Avs? If you want to site history you can't pick and chose which examples to use. And history has no bearing on today's games.

You have a selective memory. We were not going to get Hossa for Sammy and Flip. What Pittsburgh payed for him was the equivalent of Flip, Howard, Hudler and guy like Helm. All this for a guy that is going to walk away from Pittsburgh after they lose in the Finals. Hossa for Flip and Sammy was never on the table.

If you dig deep enough on any really good sports team, you will find some weakness to write about. That's exactly what they are all doing.

No it isn't. The 3 of them have scored 21 goals in 14 games for an average of 1.5 goals/game. In my book that means they are doing just what you said was unrealistic.

Wait a minute. Our top line is kicking ass but his complaint is that the other lines aren't? Talk about digging to find something negative to write about.....

He is correct in that most of the scoring as of late has been coming from DZH line. But he didn't mention one other little thing. Dallas has not been able to shut down that line. Monday in Dallas, Pav had 3 and Z had 1. 4 goals from that line and 2 on Wednesday (except Bettman robbed us of one). It's ok to have most of your scoring on 1 line as long as the opposition can't shut them down which Dallas has not been able to do. It's only a problem if the opposition can shut down the big line and I haven't found anybody (talking heads included) that give Pitts D any chance it hell of doing that. Sergei Gonchar is an above average D man but he is only +3 for the playoffs. After that they have a bunch of average no names. And their forwards are not particularly great on Defense their top 4 forwards are all +4 and +5. By the way, you mentioned game 3. We won that game 5-2. I will take a duplicate of that every time.

Awesome post! Well thought out and factual.

I agree with you. The Wings D is much better than the Pens. Not only in shutting down the oposition but in scoring and moving the puck up to the forwards. Last week I looked at the stats of the 4 remaining teams and the % of points coming from D-men for Pittsburgh was much lower than the other 3. The Wings were the highest. Secondly, every year the NHL hands out a trophey to the best defensive forward in the entire league. This would be the best out of aroound 400 forwards in the league. Before the Selke is awarded, the narrow the field down to 3 finalists. This year the finalists are John Madded, Henrik Zetterburg and Pavel Datsyuk. What does this mean? It means that we have 2 of the 3 best defensive forwards out of 400 in the league. And both of them are on the same line. There is no question that the Detroit defense including our defensive forwards are WAY better than Pittsburgh's. This my friends will be the difference. It does no good to have skilled young forwards if the Wings defense shuts them down. And with Pittsburgh not getting much scoring from their D-men... I expect a short series 4-1 Wings.

Morrow doesn't scare me at all. He's 1 player that is playing great but one player isn't going to beat the Wings. He has been playing with alot of energy and throwing his body around but in my opinion, he's playing over his head. The guy has been in the league of 7-8 years and up until last month has done very little. 1 good series does not a great player make. While he's busy taking runs at out guys, we will be skating around him and putting the puck in the net. Last year everybody was worried about Joe Thorton. Remember how that worked out.

I agree with you. If we win the cup I think he will retire.

Here we go again. Look I like Ericsson. He has great potential but we aren't going to make him a starter over Lebda. He has to earn that spot. Experience in the NHL is critical. This is the Red Wings, we don't take rookies and instantly make them starters just because they are big.

There's no question that the butt end of Ozzies stick took out Ribero as he was skating past. Now did he do it intentinally - probably but that's a jusdgement call. It certainly isn't obvious one way or another. Ribero's slash was obviously intentional - there is no question about it. Based on the obvious intentional slash in retaliation for a hit from Ozzie that may or may not have been intentional, the league really has to give Ribero a 1 game suspension. Even if the hit from Ozzie was intentional, its a common play in hockey - put your stick out and let the guy run into it. Normally there isn't even a penalty for that. By the way, good job on the animated gif.

No. That means he's done for the game and the league will review it. I'm betting that the league will give him 1 game. Even if he's a star, their has to be some punishment for swing a stick like that after the horn had sounded, even if Ozzie clipped him with the butt end of his stick which he did. 1 game.