Nashville Predators head coach Barry Trotz was a guest of the Tom & Joe Show on 92-CITI-FM on Thursday morning. One of the best interviews in all of professional hockey, Trotz told Tom McGouran and The Coach that while he loved Dallas and thought the Stars had a great team, he felt Detroit had way too much firepower.
Like many of us, Trotz expects an extremely short series in the Western Conference final.
As for the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Eastern Conference final, Trotz believes that if the Flyers bang and crash, they might have a chance against a Pittsburgh team that Trotz also says has “far too much firepower.”
“If Philadelphia plays the same type of intimidating game they did against Montreal, they could make the series a long one,” Trotz said. “But that Pittsburgh team has a lot of talent and toughness. When you can throw Malkin, Crosby, Hossa and Staal out there, when you have two tremendously talented offensive-type lines, and they won’t back down, you can be a pretty formidable team.
“Philadelphia works very hard, but Pittsburgh keeps coming at you all the time. I won’t say Philadelphia can’t win the series, it’s just going to be very difficult.”
After the opening games of the two series, it was pretty obvious that Trotz’s assessment was dead on.
On Thursday night, the Red Wings just dominated Dallas. The Wings scored three power-play goals, built a 4-0 lead and coasted (as they often do) to a 4-1 victory. Big Tomas Holmstrom, who found himself a nice comfortable spot in front of Dallas goalie Marty Turco, led the way for the Wings with a goal and an assist. It was Detroit’s seventh straight playoff victory and set up a do-or-die situation for Dallas on Saturday.
That’s right, do-or-die.
Already down 1-0, if Dallas loses on Saturday, they’ll fall behind 2-0 and no matter how well they play the rest of the way, they will NOT win four out of five against the Red Wings.
Trouble is, what can Dallas possibly do to beat Detroit if Chris Osgood plays well in goal? Osgood is, after all, the only weak link on this Red Wings team, and if he shuts you down (Detroit outshot Dallas 31-21 in Game 1), it’s pretty much hopeless. Dallas isn’t big enough, Dallas isn’t fast enough, Dallas can’t match up and Dallas can’t shut down the Wings power-play.
Game 1 was not only a statement by Detroit, it was a sign of things to come.
Over in the East, Philadelphia got a couple of quick goals by Kenora’s Mike Richards and took a 2-1 lead on the Pens, but before the second period ended, Pittsburgh was up 4-2 and in the third, Malkin and Co. just shut down the Flyers.
What we found out in Game 1 of this series, is that Pittsburgh is just as tough and maybe tougher than the Flyers and if the bangin’ and crashin’ doesn’t work, Philly could go down quickly.
We still figure the Flyers will have some jam at home, but after Malkin got drilled a couple of times and still got up to score two goals and dish out an assist, the writing was on the wall. Unlike Montreal, Pittsburgh isn’t going to back down and that will spell doom for Philadelphia.
We selected Pittsburgh in seven. The Pens are now 9-1 in the playoffs and we might have underestimated their toughness.
* * *
A couple of coaches were fired this week.
On Wednesday, to no one’s surprise, the dysfunctional Toronto Maple Leafs fired head coach Paul Maurice, the only good thing the Leafs had going for them the last two years. That franchise is in worse shape than we thought.
Two days later, ex-Maple Leaf Joel Quenneville was let go by the Colorado Avalanche. Quenneville was 131-92-23 in three seasons with Colorado, coaching a team that was old and on the slide after a decade near the top of the NHL. It was probably a blessing that Quenneville was given a chance to look for work elsewhere. The Avs are going nowhere but downhill.
The Leafs, meanwhile, are a mess. Currently being run by an old coot named Cliff Fletcher who destroyed the club with some dreadful trades in the late 90s (and the Leafs haven’t recovered) then went on to collect a million dollar paycheque to screw up the Phoenix Coyotes, Toronto is now without a head coach, a real general manager and probably a captain. Maurice, who had one year left on his contract, compiled a 76-66-22 record in two seasons as Toronto’s coach but failed to make the playoffs in both years.
Maurice and Quenneville are both class acts and relatively young and will find work. Both franchises, however, are in big, big trouble. Colorado is getting older by the minute while Toronto is just bad news.
In fact, the next coach in either city had better not buy a house.
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