Tag Archives: Nick Lidstrom

10 Things I Loved This Week

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It was a very interesting week in the Wonderful World of Sports. Some funny things happened, some great things happened and some people decided to say the things that needed to be said.

Here’s the Top 10 of things I loved this week:

1) The City Council of Glendale did exactly what the government of Manitoba did in the 1990s and decided to pick up the losses of its National Hockey League franchise for another year. Of course, everyone around the game — especially Winnipeggers — called them idiots, but I don’t remember anyone calling Gary Filmon an idiot in 1991. That’s right, the Government of Manitoba paid the Jets losses for four years.

2) The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 5-2 in the first game of the Eastern Conference final in Boston. Sean Bergenheim scored again. He has eight goals in the playoffs. Dwayne Roloson, at age 41, stopped 31 of 33 shots. I wouldn’t have believed it after watching them all season, but these Lightning might be the best team in the game right now. And head coach Guy Boucher might just be the smartest man in hockey.

3) Last week, Detroit Tigers righthander Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter at the Toronto Blue Jays. This past week, in his next start, he threw five no-hit innings at the Kansas City Royals. That’s 14 innings without giving up a hit. After a slow start, Verlander is now 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA and the Tigers have won seven straight games. Pitching is everything and in Detroit it all starts with a 28-year-old righthander who can get it into the 100s.

4) The Winnipeg Goldeyes scored two runs in their final at bat to beat the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks 3-2. That never happens. Fargo never gives up a game in the bottom of the final inning (in this case, the seventh, as the second game of a doubleheader) with the quality of closer(s) Doug Simunic brings in eery year. For the first time in a decade, the RedHawks look vulnerable.

5) Comedian Sarah Silverman  was invited into the FOX TV booth on Saturday and was, essentially, beamed in from another planet. For 5  1/2 minutes she nattered on about, well, nothing but jibber-jabber. It was truly awful. But it proved once again, something that my producer Jim McGregor and I have learned over the years in our own Shaw TV booth here in Winnipeg. If your guest knows nothing about baseball, don’t have them as a guest.

Or, a corollary to that would be: Don’t think you’re funny when you’re not. Joe Buck is a fine broadcaster but he’s not funny. Trying to be funny with Sarah Silverman’s brand of humour when you aren’t funny to begin with is an invitation to disaster. What we saw Saturday was an embarrassing 5 1/2 minutes of lousy TV.

6) Jose Bautista hit his 13th home run of the season during a six-run 11th inning that results in a 9-3 Blue Jays win over Minnesota. Bautista is now on a pace to hit 54 home runs again. This is weird. Here’s a guy who never hit more than 16 home runs in almost five years of big league baseball. He was a Pittsburgh Pirates castoff for goodness sake and now he’s going to hit 54 homers two years in a row. No wonder some members of the Toronto media thought he was on the juice last year. In a world where Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Alex Rodriguez don’t get close to 50, a 195-pound, 30-year-old is on pace to hit 54. You gotta love it, but you also have to wonder.

7) If Nick Lidstrom decides to retire, it’s safe to say he’s the second best defenceman ever to play in the NHL. Sorry, kids, there will never be another Bobby  Orr.

icon cool 10 Things I Loved This Week Here is the trouble with major league sports these days: On Thursday, player agent Scott Boras told Yahoo Sports that the Kansas City Royals had absolutely no chance of signing the next Baseball Jesus (Joe Mauer was the last), Eric Hosmer, to a long-term contract.

“There will be massive increases in television revenues over the next three years and that will change the landscape of baseball salaries,” Boras said.

Which should mean Kansas City will see some of that money. Trouble is, Boras was suggesting there will massive increases in New York, Boston and Chicago and not likely anywhere else.

Buy the way, remember the name Eric Hosmer. He will not reach his 22nd birthday until October and yet this 6-foot-4, 230-pound first baseman has two homers (both in new Yankee Stadium)  in seven games with the Royals  and has a career OPS of .987 (Fifth overall in MLB) . He also has two doubles, five RBI and a stolen base.

He will get a gigantic long-term contract one day. And it will be from the Yankees or Red Sox, not the Royals.

9) Saturday was a big day in Manchester, England.

Manchester United won its 19th English title by playing Blackburn to a 1-1 draw. United won the English Premier Division. Then Manchester City beat Stoke 1-nil to win the FA Cup.

10) And this announcement came out of Ottawa on Saturday:

“Football Canada is proud to announce the addition of defensive linemen Brian Guebert (Editor’s note: A former Blue Bomber) and Michaël Jean-Louis to the Senior Men’s National Team roster competing in Austria this summer at the 2011 International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Senior Men’s World Championship.”

We have a Senior Men’s National Team? Who knew?

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Red Wings Lose, Balsillie and Real Hockey Fans Lose More

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

DETROIT — The Pittsburgh Penguins might have shocked the Detroit Red Wings, but they didn’t shock themselves.

Last Friday night at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena, the Penguins got a pair of goals from Maxime Talbot and a great goaltending performance from Marc-Andre Fleury en route to a 2-1 victory over the Red Wings in Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup final.

With the win, Sidney Crosby got his first Stanley Cup and the Penguins avenged last year’s six-game loss to the Wings in the final. It’s unlikely anyone in hockey — except for the true Penguins believers and all those folks who hate the Red Wings for being winners — expected Pittsburgh to win four of the last five games of the series to claim the Cup.

“Dream come true. It’s everything you work for,” said Crosby, the youngest captain ever to win a Cup and a young man who was also criticized by the Red Wings for not shaking hands with Wings captain Nick Lidstrom after the game. “It just feels so good. This is exactly how you picture it, what you play for.”

It was only the 14th Game 7 in Stanley Cup finals history, although it was the fifth Game 7 of this decade. It was also the first time a road team had won a Game 7 since the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Blackhawks in 1971.

This year’s final was sensational, perhaps one of the best Cup finals in more than two decades. It was an amazing comeback by the Penguins, who trailed 2-0 in the series and came back to win four of the last five games.

Evgeni Malkin, who was the NHL’s leading scorer in the regular season and in the playoffs was named playoff MVP, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy.

“For us, it was a different guy every night,” Crosby said. “That save that Marc (-Andre Fleury) made with one second left, he’s done that a number of times in the series.”

Crosby was referring to Fleury’s desperation save on Lidstrom in the dying seconds that preserved the Penguins victory.

Meanwhile, for winning coach Dan Bylsma, a former draft pick of the  Winnipeg Jets, the victorty was almost hard to believe.

“Life’s a bugger,” Bylsma said during his post-game press conference. “I had dreams about this day. I hoped this would happen someday, but good coaches have coached a long time and never gotten an opportunity like this. A lot of times, your first opportunity doesn’t come with a team that’s this talented or this group of players. I’m very fortunate in that regard.”

While most hockey fans were pleased with the outcome of the Stanley Cup final, not many were happy with Judge Redfield T. Baum’s decision to block Jim Balsillie’s attempt to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Hamilton.

In a 21-page document Baum wrote that the court didn’t feel there was enough time to resolve all the issues before the offer for purchase of the insolvent team to Balsillie (for a hefty $212.5 million) closed on June 29.

The question now is: Who IS going to pay for the disaster that is the Phoenix Coyotes. The league says it will find an owner. It also claims the reason for the financial demise of the Coyotes was rotten ownership and bad management, meaning NHL commissioner Gary Bettman believes owner Jerry Moyes is nothing more than a bank, Wayne Gretzky is a buffoon and Doug Moss is an idiot.

I wonder if Bettman has the stones to say that to their faces?

Regardless, Bettman loves to say he saved the Pittsburgh Penguins and can do the same with the Coyotes. Great! So is he going to demand that the Penguins give Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury to the Coyotes? Because if you understand anything about hockey — or North American sport, for that matter — the only way you can turn shit into Shinola is if you give a city a winner.

Pittsburgh, when it was in trouble, was able to draft some of the best players ever to play the game. Unless Phoenix can use that sixth pick this year to come up with the next Gretzky (player Gretzky, not coach Gretkzy), Bettman won’t be able to save anything. After all, the Coyotes already have a new arena.

Hockey is dead in Phoenix and Gary Bettman along with his hand-picked new owner won’t bring it back to life.

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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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Three things rattling around in my cranium…

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Yet again, after a hard day at the radio/internet/selling/consulting/newspaper grind, here are three things banging inside my gray matter…

 

(1) In the end, the Minnesota Vikings just didn’t have enough offence on Sunday. Defensively, the Vikings were not embarrassed in that 26-14 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, but on offence, quarterback Tarvaris Jackson just couldn’t get it done. 

 

However, in fairness, his receivers didn’t do much to get open, and that’s probably because Jackson had virtually no time to throw. On Sunday, the Vikings mediocre offensive line didn’t even reach mediocrity. Jackson went 15-for-35 For 164 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. On Monday and Tuesday, all the pundits in the Twin Cities were calling for his head.

 

And that’s fine, but if the Vikings don’t fix the right side of the offensive line and don’t find a better left tackle than Bryant (Where’d he go?) McKinnie, it won’t matter if the Vikings make a trade to get Peyton Frickin’ Manning next season. Before poor Jackson got set on Sunday, his pocket had already collapsed. That offensive line was embarrassing.

 

Still, overall, it was a good season for the Vikes. Brad Childress isn’t much of a coach and while his offensive line is terrible and his defensive secondary is thin, it’s apparent you can build an offence around Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor. There might be a future yet.

 

(2) Happy to see Canada beat Sweden 5-1 in the gold medal final at the 2009 IIHF World Junior Men’s Hockey Championship. Somewhat disturbed to see the Swedes live up to every Don Cherry stereotype.

 

I really thought, after Thomas Steen, Nick Lidstrom, Johan Franzen, Tomas Holmstrom, Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg, that whole “Chicken Swede” thing had gone the way of the dinosaurs. After Monday night’s Canada-Sweden junior final, however, Cherry’s jingoistic rants about “Euro-hockey” might have been true.

 

If your goalie dives whenever someone comes within three strides of his crease and when your players spend every stoppage of play checking for blood, you’ve regressed back to the days when Swedish hockey players were so frightened of Canadians they almost always seemed on the verge of filing assault charges.

 

Sadly, the real gold medal final at the World Junior was Saturday night’s Canada-Russia semi. That was a great game featuring the two best teams in the tournament.

 

(3) Why is it, whenever I turn on a hockey game on Canadian television, I get Mike Milbury? Milbury is a Yank who singlehandedly destroyed the New York Islanders franchise, now he’s telling Canadians how the game should be played. Thank gawd for the mute button.

 

To make matters worse this week, former Detroit Lions president and franchise destroyer Matt Millen is now a TV football analyst and on Monday, he told the New York Times that he liked his new job. He also told the Times, he didn’t regret one thing about his eight seasons ruining the Detroit Lions and if he had to do it over again, he’d do it exactly the same way. That’s a moronic statement.

 

Sadly, that’s what passes for a TV football analyst these days.

 

Again, thank gawd for the mute button. 

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Despite the officials’ odd calls and the media’s cheers, Wings on the verge of Stanley Cup. Game 4: Detroit 2, Pittsburgh 1.

Posted on June 1, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Congratulations to referees Mark Joannette and Brad Watson. It was apparent from the opening faceoff that if Joannette and Watson could get the Pittsburgh Penguins enough power play opportunities, the Pens could win Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final and send the series back to Detroit all even at 2-2.

 

So Joannette and Watson did their jobs. Dallas Drake, Brian Rafalski, Kris Draper, Brett Lebda and Johan Franzen were all sent to the penalty box in the first period. Sure, their infractions were penalties — well, sort of — but the fact that most of the stuff was going both ways didn’t have any effect on the officials’ inexorable march toward complete homerism.

 

Sadly — what happens in these situations as often as as not — the Pens didn’t co-operate. Even though only three Penguins were penalized (gotta make it look good, right?), the game was still tied 1-1 after 20 minutes. Sure, Pittsburgh got that big power-play goal to open the scoring, but somehow, at even strength, Nicklas Lidstrom tied it. Damn that even strength.

 

Now, let’s be fair, the officials certainly couldn’t be criticized. After all, they bought into the media hype. They bought into the league’s apparent delight in having Pittsburgh tie up the series (a delight created by the mainstream media). They even bought into hockey’s latest myth — which is Gary Roberts according to Don Cherry. Heck, Joannette and Watson even gave the Penguins a two-man advantage for a minute and 26 seconds in the third period!. That’s unheard of in a Stanley Cup playoff game. 

 

Didn’t matter. The Red Wings were just too good. Detroit won Game 4, 2-1 on Saturday night. Despite fewer power-plays and NO two-man advantages, the Wings outshot Pittsburgh 30-23 and even outhit the bigger, younger Pens 35-33.

 

Even though Detroit had eight minor penalties to Pittsburgh’s five in the first, even though the Pens had a long two-man advantage in the third, it didn’t matter. Even on the other guy’s ice, the Red Wings were just too good.

 

The Pens had everything going for them on Saturday: Home ice advantage, a place where they’d won nine straight in the playoffs; an international mainstream media that was virtually leading their cheers; a coach who had been given hours of meeting time with the NHL’s brass so he could whine about obstruction calls; more power play opportunities (6-3); and even Sidney Crosby (the NHL’s real “latest myth”).

 

And still they couldn’t outplay a President’s Trophy-winning Red Wings team that is destined to win the Cup. 

 

Again, I couldn’t care less who wins this thing (Detroit? Pittsburgh? Doesn’t affect my life), but after awhile, this media cheerleading for the Penguins has become annoying. C’mon guys. 

 

In Game 3, Marc-Andre Fleury was spectacular and Crosby was out there almost by himself. No question, those were brilliant performances. 

 

But in every other aspect of Game 3, Detroit was clearly the better team. There was really no reason to believe that Pittsburgh was suddenly going to get back in the series. Crosby got away from Draper et al and scored twice and Fleury stood on his head, but that was it. Evgeni Malkin was invisible (again). The Pittsburgh defence was confused. This “awesome” forecheck and “fearsome” hitting (the media’s words) got them a meagre 24 shots and they were barely in the game in the third period.

 

Saturday night, despite every reason to believe the Penguins had been handed a playoff game on a platter by two officials who really got caught up in the hype, Pittsburgh fell at home. Now, in four playoff games, Detroit has outshot the Penguins 134-88 (36-19, 34-22, 34-24, 30-23).

 

Everybody likes a good story and the Pittsburgh Penguins are a good story. But if you like a good (great?) hockey team, the Detroit Red Wings proved how good they were despite all odds on Saturday night. 

 

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Penguins alive. Game 3: Pittsburgh 3 Detroit 2.

Posted on May 28, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

That’s why we watch hockey. That’s what those folks who don’t love the game miss when they choose to watch the Pistons and Celtics play the American version of European Team Handball. (How many steps is Kevin Garnett allowed going to the basket? Eight?)

 

But who really cares about basketball? Nothing on earth is better than great hockey. Up and down. Big hits. Tape-to-tape passes. Outstanding chances. Terrific goaltending (at least, at one end).

 

Oh yeah, and how about the superstar factor? Sidney Crosby scores the first two goals of the game. Nice. 

 

When the final score in a game in the Stanley Cup final is 3-2, it’s hard to find fault. Although if Detroit fans want to blame somebody, they could probably get away with blaming Chris Osgood.

 

The winning goal was a deflection from behind the net off Osgood’s back by Adam Hall, a guy who wouldn’t be considered a big goal scorer. At the other end, Marc-Andre Fleury showed us why he’s now 9-0 in the playoffs at Mellon Arena.

 

The only criticism I had of the entire evening was the chicken-livered penalty calls early in the game. It’s silly, you know. In the first two periods, players can hardly breathe on each other. There were seven penalty calls in the first two periods and one in the third. The early penalties were all cheap. In the third period, everything — including hitting from behind — became legal. No wonder Americans don’t understand the rules and no wonder it’s difficult to grow new fans. If you actually try to understand the rules of this game you’ll never get it. Canadians who have lived with it all their lives know the entire sport is completely different in the third period of a playoff game.

 

Thank the lord for that.

 

The final period last night was spectacular and while Don Cherry really wanted to make Gary Roberts the hero, ol’ Don wasn’t even close. The hero was Fleury.

 

Detroit outshot Pittsburgh 34-24 and, by my count, outchanced the Pens 26-6. The Wings also outhit Pittsburgh 34-31 — only two Wings didn’t register a hit. 

 

Let’s not lie, here. The Red Wings dominated this game in every aspect but one. That’s right. Fleury was much better than Osgood. 

 

But hey, the goalie is part of the team and in hockey, a goalie can win you a championship. Detroit’s skaters might have been better, but Marc-Andre Fleury was spectacular and while it’s unlikely Pittsburgh will win three of the next four games, it’s not impossible.

 

A great goalie can pull it off and this Saturday night, Marc-Andre Fleury gets another chance. 

 

One can only hope Saturday’s Game4 will be as good as Wednesday’s Game 3. 

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The Perfect Game? Game 1: Detroit 4 Pittsburgh 0.

Posted on May 24, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Can you play a perfect hockey game? That’s pretty tough to say and, probably, even tougher to  imagine.

 

Hockey is so much different than most sports with its speed, its puck movement, the ebb and flow of each line change. Goaltending, power plays, bad passes, dumb passes, great passes, giveaways, takeaways, missed assignments, blocked shots, all the things that can make or break a team — or even both teams — tend to make hockey the most imperfect game.

 

Ever sat around watching a hockey game and counted the “completed” passes? If you have and you ever got past three, it was probably on a power-play.

 

That’s why, what happened on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena, was really something to watch. The Detroit Red Wings probably got as close to perfect as a team can get.

 

They outshot the Penguins 36-19. Outhit them 31-25. Outscored them 4-0. In a nutshell, the Red Wings completely dominated Game 1 of the 2008 Stanley Cup final.

 

Kris Draper was in Sidney Crosby’s face all night and while Crosby often escaped and played brilliantly, he got only three shots at Chris Osgood and was never a real threat to score.

 

Meanwhile, Evgeni Malkin was AWOL. Marian Hossa had four shots on net and two misses (almost all of those chances were set up by Crosby), while Hal Gill, a guy that four of our local media geniuses — on TV, no less — said was playing “really well,” (puh-leese) was on the ice for three of Detroit’s four goals and finished at minus-2. 

 

Offensively for Detroit, two goals by Mikael Samuelsson, pretty much put this one away, but sensational goals by Daniel Cleary and Henrik Zetterberg, in the dying moments, put an exclamation point on the opener.

 

Detroit was better in all aspects of the game. If it’s possible to play a perfect hockey game, the Red Wings played a perfect hockey game on Saturday night.  

 

Game 2 goes Monday. Maybe it’ll be Pittsburgh’s turn.   

 

 

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Why I like Pittsburgh’s chances, even though I’ve picked Detroit to win the 2008 Stanley Cup final.

Posted on May 24, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

For our regular readers, let me make myself perfectly clear. I’m picking the Detroit Red Wings to win the NHL’s Stanley Cup final in six games.

 

However, I do believe there are ways for the Penguins to win the series. That’s because, while I like Detroit (at least if I’m asked, I’ll say I like Detroit), I think Pittsburgh is good enough to challenge and perhaps even win. In fact, this will be the best Stanley Cup final in decades.

 

Here’s how Pittsburgh wins the Stanley Cup…

 

(1) Uses it’s advantage. If you check the old fashioned tale of the tape, Pittsburgh is younger and bigger. According to the NHL Guide and Record Book, among those players who have appeared in at least one playoff game this spring, the Detroit Red Wings’ average age is 32.3-years-old, nearly five years older than the Penguins’ average age of 27.9 years. The Penguins measure in at nearly 6’2″ and 208 pounds; the Red Wings average just under 6’0″ and 195 lbs. That could have a bearing on the outcome.

 

(2) Chris Osgood. Detroit’s “newish” No. 1 goalie is better than Dominik Hasek and he’s played pretty well, but he’s still not the goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has proven to be in these playoffs. It was a much wiser man than me who said: “We call it the Stanley Cup final because we can’t call it goalie.” The better goalie will win this series and that could easily be Fleury.

 

(3) The defence steps up. If Pittsburgh has a weakness, it’s on defence, but they’ve been good so far. No reason for them to continue.

 

(4) Sidney Crosby needs to be a better leader than the handful of leaders Detroit possesses. Nick Lidstrom, Kris Draper, Chris Chelios, Darren McCarty… they’ve all been around the bend and they have all those rings. Sid the Kid needs to be even better.

 

(5) The 1-2-2 defensive system has to shut down the likes of Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Jiri Hudler and a defence that moves the puck very quickly. This will be a different assignment than the Pens faced against Philly.

 

(6) Get more chances and score more goals. Sounds simple, but this time it’s true. Detroit won’t waste its sweat equity running the Penguins the way Philadelphia did. The Red Wings are a smarter team with more finesse. Despite Pittsburgh’s vaunted, much-publicized, defensive “system,” this series will be about offence.

 

(7) Outwork the Wings. Again, it sounds simple, but it’s not easy. Granted, if the Wings get ahead, say, 3-0 or 4-1, they often take their foot off the gas. But why wait? Pittsburgh needs to get ahead 3-0 — not fall behind 3-0 and hope Detroit kicks back — and they can do it by outworking a team that hasn’t been outworked yet.

 

The fact Pittsburgh is bigger and younger and that, so far at least, their goaltending has been better, means the Penguins have a great chance to win this series. 

 

But I still believe it’s Detroit’s time and will stick with my original prediction — Detroit in six games.

 

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“Big European” Red Wings look like early Cup favourites.

Posted on April 27, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

At the Manitoba Writers Guild book awards at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on Saturday night — where my book, “The Winnipeg Jets: A Celebration of Professional Hockey in Winnipeg” lost Winnipeg book of the year to a communist rant by lefty Godfather Roland Penner — a handful of people in Tweed jackets who said haughtily “I’m not a hockey fan but…” asked me who’d win the Stanley Cup.

 

I said, without hesitation, the Detroit Red Wings. I either got a surprised look or a really surprised look. One woman, who appeared as if she’d been caught in the headlights said, “Oh, I didn’t know Detroit still had a team.” Tells you how little our literary crowd knows about, ahhh, umm, anything at all, I guess.

 

Anyway, I wasn’t kidding. After what I watched on Saturday afternoon, this Red Wings outfit is clearly the best team remaining in the post-season.

 

After all, the Wings didn’t just beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-1 on Saturday, they eviscerated them 5-1. Outshot them 40-20 (and Colorado blocked 15 more shots to Detroit’s four), outhit them and completely outplayed them. That was as solid a performance by one team as we’ve seen in the playoffs this season, simply because the Wings beat a good team in the process. 

 

No, this wasn’t the Nashville Predators, a marginal collection of has-beens and might-bes who were coaxed into the playoffs by Barry Trotz, the best coach in the game. This was the Colorado Avalanche, a team made up of great and near-great players such as John-Michael Liles, Joe Sakic (who can still play), Milan Hejduk, Paul Stastny, Jordan Leopold, Adam Foote and Ryan Smyth.

 

Yeah, they’d be better with Peter Forsberg, but not that much better.

 

In Game 1 of the series, the Wings built a 4-1 lead and then took their collective foot off the gas. It was a game the Wings completely controlled. They built the 4-1 lead and they let Colorado back in the game when they, the Wings themselves,  started coasting late in the second period. 

 

Saturday, the Wings didn’t let up. They outshot Colorado 10-4 and 22-6 in the first two periods and while Colorado had more shots in the third (10-8), the Avs didn’t have but one good scoring chance and they converted on that one good scoring chance — but the score was already 4-0.

 

The big star was Johan Franzen, one of the Wings’ “big Europeans.” At 6-foot-3, 220-pounds they call him “the Mule,” but he plays like a thoroughbred.

 

Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Kronvall, Tomas Holmstrom, Jiri Hudler, Pavel Datsyuk, Nick Lidstrom and Valterri Flippula were damn good, too.

 

Remember, these Wings play “big, European hockey,” and this year it could be unbeatable. They are large, fast, skilled and tough and if they stay awake for 10 more wins, they’ll win the Stanley Cup in a romp.

 

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