Tag Archives: Chris Osgood

Crosby, Brodeur lead the way: Camp Invitees Named for 2010 Canadian Men’s Olympic Hockey Team

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I love this list. I would add a couple of names here and there, especially an indigenous Canadian such as Jonathan Cheechoo or Wade Redden, but for the most part, the players named to the tryout camp should give the coaching staff a chance to pick a 2010 Team Canada that has a chance to win.

I would liked to have seen Vancouver’s Kevin Bieksa invited as a defenceman, but I’ll have no problem with the final lineup.

Up front, I can’t believe Dany Heatley is on the list after the stunt he’s pulled with Ottawa and Edmonton this week. There is a real integrity and character problem there. If Hockey Canada was going to take an Ottawa Senator, I really can’t believe they took Heatley ahead of Jason Spezza. At least Spezza’s a decent human being who doesn’t hurt others around him. Steven Stamkos should probably be on the list and if you’re going to take Dan Cleary, how about Darren Helm? Of course, the list has to stop at some point.

Chris Osgood should also be on the list. Fleury? Mason? Osgood? I’ll take Osgood every time. However, I still believe Brodeur and Luongo should be the Top 2 goaltenders anyway.

Here’s the list of invitees to the 2010 Men’s Olympic Hockey Team. Team Canada’s camp goes Aug. 24-27 at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary:

Only five of the 16 defencemen invited have Olympic experience: Jay Bouwmeester (Calgary Flames), Dan Boyle (San Jose Sharks), Scott Niedermayer (Anaheim Ducks),  Chris Pronger (Philadelphia Flyers), and Robyn Regehr (Calgary Flames). Rounding out the list of D-men are: Dion Phaneuf (Calgary Flames), Marc Staal (New York Rangers), Shea Weber (Nashville Predators), François Beauchemin (Anaheim Ducks), Brent Burns (Minnesota Wild), Drew Doughty (Los Angeles Kings), Stéphane Robidas (Dallas Stars), Mike Green (Washington Capitals), Dan Hamhuis (Nashville Predators), and the Chicago Blackhawks pairing of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.

Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby heads up the list of forwards. The list of 25 has 11 from the 2006 Olympic team roster, including Shane Doan (Phoenix Coyotes), Simon Gagné (Philadelphia Flyers), Dany Heatley (Ottawa Senators), Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames), Rick Nash (Columbusn Blue Jackets), Joe Sakic (Colorado Avalanche), Martin St-Louis (Tampa Bay Lightning), Eric Staal (Carolina Hurricanes), Joe Thornton (San Jose Sharks), Vincent Lecavalier (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Ryan Smyth (Colorado Avalanche). The rest of the list includes Jeff Carter (Philadelphia Flyers), Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim Ducks), Milan Lucic (Boston Bruins), Patrick Marleau (San Jose Sharks), Andy McDonald (St. Louis Blues), Brenden Morrow (Dallas Stars), Corey Perry (Anaheim Ducks) Michael Richards (Philadelphia Flyers), Derek Roy (Buffalo Sabres), Patrick Sharp (Chicago Blackhawks), Jordan Staal (Thunder Bay, Ont./Pittsburgh, NHL) Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg, Man./Chicago, NHL) and Dan Cleary (Detroit Red Wings).

The list of five goalies includes three-time Olympian Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils), 2006 Olympian Roberto Luongo (Vancouver Canucks), Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-André Fleury, Steve Mason (Columbus Blue Jackets) and Cam Ward (Carolina Hurricanes).

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If Red Wings Take the Series, Helm Could Be Conn Smythe Winner

Posted on June 5, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Thursday night in Pittsburgh, the Penguins sent a message to the Detroit Red Wings: “If you think you can lollygag around with a man advantage just because you’re the defending Stanley Cup champions, think again.”

The Red Wings had a 2-1 lead in Game 4 and the Pens had a man in the box, but a shorthanded goal by Pittsburgh tied the game and in a blink of an eye, the Pens had scored two more to win 4-2 and send the Stanley Cup final back to Detroit with the series tied 2-2.

Without a healthy Pavel Datsyuk, the Red Wings looked old and undermanned against the Pens on Thursday. The Wings really looked a man short. In fact, by the midway point of the second period, the Wings looked downright exhausted. Pittsburgh’s enthusiasm at home made a huge difference and the Pens made sure that the final remained a home-team series. 

So now we go back to Detroit and the Wings need some rest. In fact, these guys need 48 hours off before facing a rejuvenated Pens outfit again. Won’t quite get that, but they will need to sleep through the next optional workout.

Still, and to be absolutely fair, home teams have won every game in this series and there is no reason to believe that won’t continue to happen. As the adage goes: The team with home ice advantage is not in any trouble until it loses a game on home ice.

So for argument’s sake, let us assume, the Wings continue to win at home and eventually win the series 4-3. This team has had some tremendous players during the playoffs: goalie Chris Osgood is right at the top as is hard checking Henrik Zetterberg and steady (35-minutes-a-game) defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom.

But frankly, if one player continues to play as well as he has in the final, and continues to lead the Wings both as a checker and scorer, then Darren Helm of St. Andrews, Man., has a legitimate right to consider himself Conn Smythe worthy.

Thursday, he was consistently the best player the Red Wings had. He’s demonstrated that on more than one occasion this spring. He’s scored some big goals and he’s also done a wonderful job in the corners. He hits, he wins faceoffs and he backchecks as well as any player in the post-season.

I love the fact that when he gets hit, which he often does because of his aggressive style, he just gets up and plays. No slashing, no face-washes, no belligerent  words or gestures. No whining. He just plays.

Frankly, even if he’s not the Conn Smythe winner, he’s been the most refreshing young player in the entire post-season. And his style is the best thing thats happened to the game in decades.

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Lots of Hockey News At Stanley Cup Time: Steen Back in Hockey, Hnidy Wants to Re-Sign in Boston, Wings Win Game 1.

Posted on May 30, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Three things that came up during telephone conversations this past week…

1) Our good friend, Thomas Steen got a job in hockey.

That’s just not good news, it’s great news.

Thomas has gone through some tough times in the past few years, but now he’s back in the game.

The one-time Winnipeg Jets captain and all-time Winnipeg Jets legend is going back to Sweden to work in both junior hockey and the Swedish Elite League.

“I’m going to work for Modo,” Thomas told us. “I’m going to be an assistant coach with the pro club and an assistant coach and scout with the junior team.

“I’m leaving the first of July and I’ll be gone nine months. I’ll get back to Winnipeg for my golf tournament in August, at Christmas and during the Olympic break. But that’s it. I’m going back home.”

He’s not quite going home. Farjestad is home. But close enough.

2) Another good friend, Neepawa’s Shane Hnidy, can become a free-agent on July 1 but what Shane would really like to do is re-sign with the Boston Bruins.

“Yeah, I’d really like to come back here,” he said. “I thought we were good enough to win it all this year, but I know we’ll be good enough to win it next year.”

Hnidy, 34, one of the great stories of heart and perseverance in the NHL, has been a pro for 13 seasons. He’s played nine of those years in the NHL with Ottawa, Nashville, Atlanta, Anaheim and Boston after being drafted (173rd overall) by Buffalo in 1994.

“Someday, I’d like to be a hockey commentator on TV or radio,” Hnidy said. “But right now, I still want to play and I hope that next year, I’m playing in Boston.”

3) We had Darren Helm’s mom, Karine, on 92-CITI-FM’s morning show this past week, the morning after he scored the OT winner against the Blackhawks. She was very proud, and one sensed, still crying after her son’s heroics on Wednesday.

That night, Helm set an NHL record with his fifth career playoff goal. He now has five playoff goals and has yet to score a single regular-season goal. No other NHL player has ever done that.

However, besides scoring goals, the young man from St. Andrews, Man., has one other talent: He can win faceoffs.

In the opener of the Stanley Cup final, a game won 3-1 by Detroit, Helm had won 10-of-12 faceoffs in the first two periods. He finsihed with 11 wins in 15 faceoffs.

One suspects Helm will be a full-time member of the Red Wings next season. It’s unlikely he’ll ever see Grand Rapids, Mich., again.

By the way, how good was Chris Osgood on Saturday night? First star? 29 saves? The best goalie in the playoffs, two years in a row.

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Helm gets Red Wings to within Four Games of Back-to-Back Stanley Cup Crowns.

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Thanks to a kid from tiny St. Andrews, Man., the Detroit Red Wings have advanced to the Stanley Cup final to face the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second straight year.

Wednesday night in Detroit, the Wings ended the Cinderella playoff run of the young Chicago Blackhawks with a 2-1 overtime victory as Darren Helm was the hero. Helm scored the game winner at 3:58 of overtime as the Western Conference champs are now just four wins away from their second straight Stanley Cup. The final starts Saturday night in Detroit.

Amazingly, Helm became the first player in history to score his first five NHL goals in the playoffs. He still hasn’t scored a regular-season goal. He breaks the record of another Manitoban, Winnipegger Eddie (Spider) Mazur who scored his first four NHL goals in the playoffs with the Montreal Canadiens in the 1950s.

Here’s our look at the upcoming Stanley Cup final:

Western Conference champion Detroit Red Wings (No. 2 seed in the West) vs. Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins (No. 4 seed in the East):

The Red Wings are clearly the favourites, and for good reason. They just won the Western Conference title without Hart Trophy (MVP) finalist Pavel Datsyuk and Norris Trophy finalist (Top Defenceman) Nicklas Lidstrom is the lineup for the final two games of the Western Conference final.

However, when the Wings beat the Penguins in five games in last year’s final, the Pens’ top scorer Evgeni Malkin was injured and now, with a healthy Malkin, the Pens disposed of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern final in four straight games. Meanwhile, Malkin was not only the leading scorer in the regular season this year, but is currently tied with teammate Sidney Crosby for the scoring lead in the playoffs.

But here is why I like the Wings to repeat: Youth, experience and speed. Granted, with the addition of Bill Guerin, the Penguins have those elements, but Detroit just might have one of the great teams in NHL history. Almost every member of the Wings already has a Stanley Cup ring with two exceptions: off-season acquisitions Marian Hossa and Ty Conklin, who both played in Pittsburgh last year. I also like Detroit’s goaltending. Chris Osgood will outplay Marc-Andre Fleury when it counts.

The Wings and Pens split the season series 1-1. Detroit won 3-0 in Pittsburgh on NBC, on Feb. 8 while Pittsburgh won 7-6 in overtime way back on Nov. 11 in Detroit as Jordan Staal had a hat-trick. No team has repeated as Stanley Cup champions since, you guessed it, the Red Wings in 1997 and 1998. And that’s why I like the Red Wings in six games.

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Old coaches, young superstars and the best goalie in the playoffs.

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

As we get set to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins eliminate the Carolina Hurricanes in four straight games (barring a miracle), in tonight’s Eastern Conference final there was a boatload of hockey news today.

There was also just some stuff.

Onward:

1) Pat Quinn was hired as head coach by the Edmonton Oilers today. He’s 66. Personally, I like Pat Quinn, a lot. He’s a fine man, who did a wonderful job with Team Canada in Salt Lake City in 2002 and with our national junior team. I had a lot of respect for him when he was head coach of the Leafs and I must admit, he’s always been very respectful to me.

The question has to be in this case: Can a 66-year-old coach find happiness with a young team in Edmonton? Especially after the Calgary Flames just dumped 59-year-old Mike Keenan, another old coach, who gets recycled more than old truck tires. 

There is a difference, however. Keenan is a guy who likes “his guys.” He likes veteran players he knows and can trust. And that’s fine. Trouble is, “his guys” don’t win anymore. Quinn, however, during his time with the national junior team, proved to everyone he can teach young players how to play the game.

And that’s exactly what the Oilers need.

Age has nothing to do with anything. It’s attitude and approach that matters. Quinn might be 66, but he has already demonstrated that he respects young, enthusiastic hockey players and can take those types of players and show them how to win.

Full disclosure: I like Pat Quinn as a person. And I also believe he will be a great head coach in Edmonton.

2) Tonight, we get to watch the likes of Sidney Crosby, Eric Staal, Evgeni Malkin and Cam Ward play an extremely important NHL playoff game.

If the Penguins win, the young stars from Pittsburgh will zoom into the Stanley Cup final for a second straight year (frankly, no matter what the Hurricanes do, Pittsburgh’s offence should put a quick nail in Carolina’s coffin).

What is most interesting, however, is that whenever the media looks for a storyline involving the Pens, it’s always Sidney Crosby vs. (insert name here). Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovechkin. Sidney Crosby vs. Jarome Iginla. Sidney Crosby vs. oh, I don’t know, Johan Franzen?

Unfortunately, the mainstream hockey media loves a story no matter how silly it is. If anyone is looking for a consistent storyline, it should be this one: Evgeni Malkin vs. the hockey world.

This spring, Ovechkin will likely be awarded the Hart Trophy as the regular season MVP and so far in the playoffs, Crosby has the inside track to the Conn Smythe Trophy. 

Meanwhile, all Malkin has done is win the league scoring championship and lead all scorers in the playoffs (12 goals and 16 assists). 

There was a day before all these mouth-breathing TV bingo callers became uber-experts, a day when scoring goals and dishing out assists was an important part of the game. And today, nobody does that better than Evgeni Malkin.

I guess he’s no Sidney Crosby (he certainly doesn’t have the same group of publicists), but he could be the Rodney Dangerfield of the NHL.

3) Of course, if Malkin isn’t hockey’s answer to Rodney D., it’s Detroit Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood.

Ozzie is close to winning his third Stanley Cup as a starter (he was also on a winner as the No. 2 to Mike Vernon). He’s also been to the finals one other time, been a Vezina Trophy runner-up and won the Jennings Trophy twice. He was the second goalie ever to score a goal (following Ron Hextall), was the No. 1 goalie (statistically) in the NHL in the 1995-96 season, is 10th in the NHL in career wins and the winningest goaltender in Red Wings history. He’s been an all-star, won Stanley Cups in two decades and is on the verge of going back-to-back.

And yet, you ask anybody in the mainstream media and he/she will tell you: “Detroit’s only problem is goaltending.”

Hogwash.

I can’t tell you how sick I am of hearing our TV experts talk of Tim Thomas this or Roberto Luongo that or Cam Ward… whatever. The best goalie in the playoffs last year was Chris Osgood and clearly the best goalie this year is Chris Osgood.

At 37, he’s never been better. Right now he leads the playoffs in wins with 11, is second in goals against average at 2.14 and fourth in save percentage at .921. He’s 11-4 in the post-season, has an assist and a shutout.

He’s often hung out to dry by his always-attacking teammates and yet he’s made some magnificent saves in this year’s post-season. He’s been tremendous.

At this stage, I don’t want to argue with the experts who believe Crosby is a shoo-in to take the Conn Smythe. But there is still a lot of hockey left.

And right now, the best goalie in the playoffs has not been Jonas Hiller, Cam Ward or Tim Thomas. It’s been Chris Osgood.

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On to the Conference finals: We like Wings and Pens — Again — in the Stanley Cup final

Posted on May 16, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

For those of us trying to make money in the wonderful world of Sport Select, the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs have been a pretty decent source of revenue. 

Granted, after two rounds, the two top seeds — the Boston Bruins in the East and the San Jose harks in the West — are gone, but for the most part, the teams we have selected to reach the Conference Finals, have indeed reached the Conference finals.

Pittsburgh, with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will face Carolina with Eric Staal (our darkhorse pick as a Stanley Cup finalist) in the Eastern final, while the “Winnipeg” teams, Chicago with captain Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Cam Barker against Detroit, with Darren Helm and Derek Meech, are in the Western final.

That’s obviously the way it should be.

For the record, here at rcsportsblog.com (you can follow us on twitter), we went 7-1 in the first round and 3-1 in Round 2. The only outcome we did not select correctly in Round 1 was, of course, Anaheim’s upset of Jonathan Cheechoo’s San Jose Sharks and our only incorrect choice in Round 2 was Carolina’s Game 7 upset of the No. 1-ranked Boston Bruins.

Interestingly, we also said that the two most interesting — and exciting — series would be Chicago-Vancouver and Pittsburgh-Washington. They were.

So on with the Show. Here’s our look at the third round, the conference finals, of the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs.

ROUND THREE

EASTERN CONFERENCE

No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. No. 6 Carolina Hurricanes

The Pens won the season series 2-1-1 and were not only in last year’s Stanley Cup final, but have five players with Stanley Cup rings. They obviously have enough experience to handle this series against a team that won the Cup in 2006 and still have 10 players from that team. The Pens have the stars in Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar and Jordan Staal, but Carolina has so much grit and character, that it’s impossible to count them out. It also doesn’t hurt that when it looked like this team was out of it back in February, goalie Cam Ward went 14-4-2 over the final 20 games. Ward won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2006 and will have to be that good again against all the Pittsburgh firepower. We like the Penguins in five.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

No. 2 Detroit Red Wings vs. No. 4 Chicago Blackhawks

The Red Wings are the defending Stanley Cup champions and they’re certainly good enough to win it again. In fact, the Red Wings have the best team in the National Hockey League. They roll four strong lines, have a Norris Trophy defenceman in Nick Lidstrom and an MVP-calibre forward in Pavel Datsyuk, they are well-coached and have better goaltending (Chris Osgood) than the Eastern media will ever give credit. The Wings won the season series against the upstart Hawks, but when asked about this matchup, I always see that January 1, outdoor game at Wrigley Field, the one in which the Hawks rode the home crowd to an early lead and then collapsed under the weight of the Wings speed and talent. The most important thing the Hawks have going for them is youth and enthusiasm and, hey, that might carry them, but we like Detroit in six.

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Nobody playing better than Red Wings, and for all the right reasons

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I have a dear friend, Scott O’Neil, who is the production manager at 92-CITI-FM. He’s the guy who makes all my NHL, NASCAR and NFL Reports sound so good.

 

O’Neil is like most sports fans. When it comes to anything other than his two favourite teams, he’s a smart, sophisticated fan who can look at objectively at any issue — either on-field or off.

 

However, when it comes to his two passions — the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Red Wings — he can get downright apoplectic. Nervous, cranky, bitter. When his teams don’t win, he’ll be happy to whine about it for hours on end.

 

In fact, before the playoffs started last week, he was giving it the old “woe-is-me” routine about his beloved Wings and how they were going to get ambushed and upset by the Columbus Blue Jackets, a decent club, but a club that shouldn’t be in the same league as the Red Wings, let alone the same opening-round series.

 

So while Scotty was going off about how “Ozzie had to be at his best,” and how “Kronwall can’t take any stupid penalties,” and about how “this team will get frustrated by (Columbus goalie) Steve Mason and start taking too many offensive chances,” I couldn’t help but wonder what it’s like to love a team so much that you actually become irrational when talking about them.

 

Anyway, after the Wings disposed of Columbus 4-1 and 4-0 in the first two games on the Western quarterfinal, I tried to figure out exactly why the Red Wings are so successful.

 

Here’s a five-point conclusion:

 

1) Chris Osgood is a much better goaltender than the so-called experts think. Nobody wants to give Ozzie any credit, but he’s been superb for a number of post-seasons and looked unbeatable in Game 2 this past weekend.

 

2) The Wings play just as well in their own end as they do in the opposing end and they’re frightening in the offensive zone.

 

3) The Red Wings special teams are better than any other special teams in the game today — when they want to be. The Wings scored three power-play goals in Game 2 and allowed none. In Game 1, they scored one power play goal and allowed none. This Wings team, right now, is just about perfect. 

 

4) They aren’t bored anymore. The 82-game regular season appears to bore the Wings to tears. They have not shown either cockiness nor boredom in the first two games of the post-season. 

 

5) The Wings move the puck better than any team in hockey. Some teams can’t complete one pass in a row. Watching the Wings breakout, you’ll often see them complete five, six, seven passes in a row. No team handles the puck better and no team breaks out of its own end quicker (OK, maybe Boston’s break out is just as good, but they don’t handle the puck as well).

 

The Wings are a great team that should win their second straight Stanley Cup title. However, saying that that suggests that another team’s goalie won’t steal a series from the Wings and we’re already watching Nikolai Khabibulin, Henrik Lundqvist and Roberto Luongo steal series right now.

 

What is it that one very smart general manager once said? “We call it the Stanley Cup playoffs because we can’t call it goalie.”

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Wings win the Cup. Game 6: Detroit 3 Pittsburgh 2.

Posted on June 4, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

OK, so we called it. Big deal. Nothing could have been easier.

 

The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in six games with a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Mellon Arena last night.

 

What more can you say, really? The Wings are the best team in the National Hockey League. Period. They won the President’s Trophy and were the best team all year and Wednesday night, despite a late goal on a power-play (the result of another phantom call by two officials who must have had a wager on the game), they won the Cup on the road by outshooting the Penguins 30-22 and by getting a timely (OK, cheap) winning goal from the great Henrik Zetterberg. 

Still, this one was a no doubter. Zetterberg was a wonderful choice as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner and it was great to see old Dallas Drake get his first Stanley Cup after 16 years in the game.

Congratulations, as well, to Darren Helm and Derek Meech, the two Manitobans who contributed to Detroit’s fourth Cup in 11 years.

Granted, Pittsburgh was full marks for taking this series six games. After all, with a defence that includes Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill, it was amazing that they had the bullets to win the Eastern Conference championship. Heck, young Meech, the eighth defenceman in Detroit, would be the fourth D-man in Pittsburgh.

Detroit was clearly the better team. They forechecked better, they skated better and they created more chances to win. They were tougher in the neutral zone, broke out quicker and beat a brilliant Marc-Andre Fleury enough times to win another title.

They even won that title with shaky ol’ Chris Osgood in net. Good on ‘em

Now, watch out for Pittsburgh. If they improve their defensive unit, they’ll start winning Stanley Cups, and they’ll win them for a long, long time. 

But mark my words. They won’t win any at all until that defence gets better.

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Talking points: Prevent defence. It doesn’t work in football and it sure doesn’t work in hockey.

Posted on June 3, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

After thinking about Pittsburgh’s 4-3 triple-overtime victory over Detroit in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup, here are five talking points to discuss amongst yourselves…

 

1. Assuming that the NHL really wanted a Game 6 on NBC this week, was there some kind of conspiracy to change the way the game was officiated in overtime so that phantom goaltender interference penalties (and not dives) would be called just to give the Penguins a couple of OT power-plays? My answer is no, simply because I have never been given any evidence that the NHL is smart enough to concoct a conspiracy (see the report on ticket revenue in the Toronto Star).

 

2. Marc-Andre Fleury doesn’t get enough credit. On Monday night, the shots were 58-32 in favour of Detroit. The Red Wings dominated the game. Still, Pittsburgh won. On 92-CITI-FM on Monday morning, Joe and I asked fans to suggest a Conn Smythe Trophy winner. The overwhelming number of respondents chose Detroit goalie Chris Osgood. That suggests to me that most people who phone radio stations haven’t been watching the Stanley Cup final.

 

3. Sidney Crosby is as good as the hype.

 

4. If you get a four-minute power-play in overtime, you should win the game. But the game never should have reached overtime.

 

5. I have a theory. It goes like this: I’d make a horrible football owner because I’d write into my coach’s contract that the moment he went into “prevent defence,” I could fire him on the spot and replace him with myself. Crazy? I don’t think so. That’s because, I believe that after you’ve beaten the crap out of a team for 59 minutes, why fall back into a defensive shell, in fear of what they might do to you? Sorry, coach, but you keep kicking the crap out of them until they curl up into the fetal position and yell “Momma!!!” Detroit gave us the hockey equivalent of prevent defence on Monday and as a result the Wings blew a 3-2 lead in the dying seconds and lost in overtime (and might have lost the Cup, as a result). Playing any sport scared is an invitation to the other team to come and beat the bee-jeezus out of you. No matter what happened in overtime on Monday night, Detroit lost Game 5 in the final 10 minutes of regulation. 

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Penguins get breaks and better goaltending. Game 5: Pittsburgh 4 Detroit 3 (3 OT).

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Nothing better than three power plays (the last one potentially four minutes long) in overtime. Eventually you’ll win.

 

That’s what made the difference for the Pittsburgh Penguins late last night and, with the Pens 4-3 triple overtime victory over a Red Wings team that outshot them 58-32, we’ll get more hockey this week. That’s not a bad thing.

 

So, let me digest “the best thing that ever happened to the NHL” — and I say that with all the sincerity of a gambler facing an opponent who knows the cards are marked — before making a final assessment on Tuesday morning.

 

In the meantime, throw all this into a blender and turn it on: Marc-Andre Fleury was magnificent and Chris Osgood was not. The Wings decision to play prevent defence with a 3-2 lead in the final 10 minutes of regulation time was disastrous. Toss in a couple of phantom goaltender interference calls in OT and an overtime decision by the officials to make hitting-from-behind legal again. And always remember that the league really, really, really needed at least one more game on NBC. Smell that…it has the odour of a PIttsburgh win. 

 

We’ll digest that cocktail and hook up tomorrow. I’m on the radio in less than six hours.

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