Game 1 Recap: Red Wings Win, 4-0; Lead Series 1-0

Yikes.

Hide the women and children.

The Detroit Red Wings soundly defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins last night in game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, 4-0, on two goals from Mikael Samuelsson and a shutout from Chris Osgood.

The Red Wings lead the series, 1-0.

And it will be a short series if the Penguins don't improve their play quickly. For their sake, they need to create more offense and play with more intensity.

(For my sake, they better win, because if all the puking I've done all day today following last night's loss is any indication, I won't be able to make it past game 2. Actually, it's just a bug but after watching game 1, I'd have every reason to repeatedly vomit over the product the Penguins put on the ice last night).

The night started poorly for the Penguins when goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stumbled onto the ice coming out of the locker room. Things didn't get better for him, either. He was decent in the first period, but arguably had a hand in 3 of Detroit's 4 goals. On Samuelsson's first, he got caught too close to the post and couldn't cover Samuelsson going around the net for a wraparound.

(Incidentally, ignore all the BS from the Versus' team last night about how that goal was scored as a direct result of a bad line change on our part. That's not how the goal was scored. The Penguins still had 3 guys back in their zone; Samuelsson just was willing to work enough to score.)

The second goal was a result of Fleury, Scuderi and Malkin being careless with the puck in front of their own goal. The third Red Wings goal, late in the 3rd from winger Dan Cleary, was evidence that the Penguins had just packed it in. Letang got outhustled and Fleury clearly wasn't up to stopping his short side backhander.

The Red Wings deserve credit. They outshot the Penguins 36-19, and only let up 7 shots in the final two periods. They outhit and outhustled the Penguins too. The Penguins don't need 35 shots to win, but they need more than they had last night.

Evgeni Malkin was really a non-factor for the 5th straight game. If he doesn't get his game together, the Penguins experience in the Stanley Cup Final will be limited. I'm not sure what's keeping Malkin back lately ...

Maybe line changes will shake up the team. Penguins coach Michel Therrein did that at practice today. Here's what they looked like:

Malone-Crosby-Hossa
Talbot-Malkin-Sykora
Dupuis-Staal-Kennedy
Roberts-Hall-Ruutu

Looks like Laraque is going to sit out game 2 so Roberts can play. Although it may have been a bit surprising to see Roberts scratched from game 1, I have no doubt that a least one reason behind Therrien's thinking was the lift putting Roberts in the lineup would give to the team, if needed. Well, after one game, we're there already.

I don't know if the line changes (assuming they are in place for game 2) are a sign of panic or just something to jump start the offense. Maybe both. It's hard to fault Therrein for his moves so far. Although I might have been inclined to stick a little longer with what got us here, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

The key for the Penguins in game 2 is to get the puck deep -- however they can -- and make Osgood go side-to-side. They need to make him work harder. To do that, their defensemen need to support the forwards on the rush. It also would help if we were able to crack down more defensively in the neutral zone and cause some Red Wings turnovers. That might get us rolling too.

If the Penguins are able to win game 2, they'll return to Mellon Arena with a split, and probably be satisfied. That's all they can look to do right now -- take one step at a time.