Can I just recap game 2 by referring to my post from yesterday morning?
It was so much the same, this the second chapter of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings.
Detroit gets some bounces.
The Penguins miss some chances.
The Red Wings win 3-1.
It's hard to blame the Penguins if they are frustrated. They are facing their toughest test against their toughest opponent and while they are playing well, the bottom line is that they still have a goose egg in the victory column in this series.
It looked like it might be worse for the Penguins early on in game 2 last night because Detroit dominated early, but as of the 10 minute mark, Pittsburgh turned up the heat and held the Red Wings without a shot for the final half of that opening frame.
They also were rewarded with the opening goal.
Evgeni Malkin got the tally on a power play. There was a scrum of sorts around the goal, with the Penguins whacking at the puck over and over again. The biscuit eventually squirted out to Malkin in the slot and his shot from about 25 feet bounced off Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart and in.
It was a well deserved goal. The entire PP unit just wouldn't be denied.
In the second period, Detroit made a comeback on the scoreboard, and it started with a situation that most observers -- this one excluded -- found similar to one which happened in game 1.
The Red Wings hemmed the Penguins in their own zone for about 90 seconds, forcing an icing play. Unlike in game 1 when Pens' coach Dan Bylsma elected to call at timeout to try and rest his tired players and prevent a goal (something which, of course, was ultimately unsuccessful anyway), Bylsma chose not to take the time out in a simlar situation in game 2.
On the ensuing faceoff -- won cleanly by Detroit forward Darren Helm over Pens' forward Max Talbot -- Jonathan Ericsson shot the puck from the point by Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the score.
While Ericsson's shot wasn't anything special, Fleury was being screened by -- you guessed it -- Helm and didn't pick up the puck in time.
Bylsma is being second-guessed a bit for his failure to call that timeout, but I think that criticism is unjustified.
First of all, the strategy didn't work in game 1, so it's hard to fault him for not calling the timeout in game 2.
Second of all -- and more importantly -- the situation was different.
In game 1, the score was tied and the situation was late in the 2nd period, when Bylsma was surely hoping to avoid giving up a late goal and giving momentum to the Red Wings going into the third period.
Last night, it was early in the 2nd period, and the Penguins had a 1-0 lead. In addition, his players -- while out there a while -- were not out as long as they had been in game 1.
It just wasn't the same circumstance. I would have done the same thing as Bylsma.
Unforunately, the Red Wings increased their lead to 2-1 later in the period when, after killing a penalty to Malkin, Pittsburgh was victimized by a bad angle goal by Valtteri Filppula that Fleury couldn't stop because he was partially run over in his crease by a Detroit player pushed into him by Malkin.
Filppula, who had scored only 1 goal in the post-season before last night, backhanded this one from just near the goal line high into the far corner before Fleury could even try to get his leg pad or glove up from ice-level to stop it.
Pittsburgh was still into the game going into the 3rd period and still probably carried the better of the play, but another goal in the second straight game by Red Wings' rookie Justin Abdelkader sealed things at 3-1 and the Pens' could get no closer.
And make no mistake about it -- this goal by Abdelkader was the most questionable one Fleury let up so far, with Abdelkader dipsy doodling around the Pens' blueline 1-on-2 against defensemen Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill, before tossing a knucleballer with the puck on edge from about 45/50 feet that meekly sailed in off Fleury's glove hand.
On one hand, I'd like to say the goal was meaningless, because the Penguins got no closer on the scoreboard anyway.
BUT, that goal changes the posture of the game some, doesn't it? I mean, Detroit can sit back a little more at that point. Plus, it had to take a little bit out of the sails of Fleury's teammates.
With their 2nd consecutive 3-1 victory, Detroit heads back to Pittsburgh with a controlling 2-0 lead in the series and, while the Penguins have -- unlike last year -- at least matched if not exceeded Detroit in terms of who has controlled the play, the series tally remains the same at the same point as it did in '08.
Undoubtedly, the Penguins are going to draw on the good things they've done in the first few games, and they should.
Undoubtedly, they also are going to draw on the fact that they were down 2-0 to the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference Seminfinals earlier this year after playing quite well in those 2 contests, before coming back to win 4 of the next 5.
I hope the Penguins look for strength to both of those things because they are going to need everything they can get against a team that is much more formiable than Washington .... and to overcome the fact that of the 44 teams who have gone down 2-0 in the first 2 games of the Stanley Cup Finals, only 3 have come back to win the Cup.
Worse, it hasn't happened in 38 years.
Pittsburgh will surely get a boost coming back home for game 3 on Tuesday night, and they'll need it beacuse the game is certainly a must-win.
Maybe it will also be more lucky for them.
Again last night, Pittsburgh was a victim of poor puck luck and missed opportunities. They hit 3 posts (Malkin, Guerin and Crosby -- 2 of which were on the inside of the iron), and had several good scoring chances they couldn't capitalize on. LW Rulsan Fedotenko and LW Chris Kunitz missed golden moments to get the Penguins on the board in the first period, before Big Ben started making noise for the Penguins the rest of the game.
I'm not the only one to think the Penguins have just gotten a rough ride on that end of the equation, either:
http://www.freep.com/article/20090601/COL01/90601007/1053/SPORTS05/Wings+have+had+luck+on+their+side+in+Games+1+and+2
What makes the bad luck and missed chances tougher is that the Penguins outshot Detroit for the 2nd straight game (this time 32-26) -- on their home ice, no less.
I'd like to know when the last time was that Detroit was outshot at all, let alone 2 games in a row, or let alone 2 in a row on their home ice. That just doesn't happen.
Which leads me to Chris Osgood.
Osgood is playing better this year than he did in the Finals last season. I'm not going to give him huge accolades, because the Penguins aren't doing a good enough job of bearing down enough on the chances they have gotten, and because of the many posts they have hit, but to Osgood's credit, he has kept his team in the game.
On the other end, Fleury just isn't holding up his part of the bargain in the Pittsburgh crease.
Again, this is the common view at this point:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?columnist=lebrun_pierre&id=4220354
If Pittsburgh has any chance of getting in this series, Fleury has to just shut the door. No more soft goals like Abdelkader is scoring. No more bad bounces off the boards. Playing the Red Wings requires him to be better than he has.
The Penguins also need to get more contributions from their other forwards.
Look at who's scoring for Detroit: Brad Stuart, Abdeldaker, Filppula, Ericsson. Their depth players. They have nothing from Hossa in this series. Nothing from Lidstrom. Zetterberg is basically just being used to shut down Crosby for heaven's sake, and that's a testament to Detroit's depth. They've been getting it from other players during the entire post-season and is probably the biggest reason why they are in the Finals and now up 2-0.
If the Penguins don't start getting those efforts from their support players, it's going to be an even shorter series than it looks like it could be right now.
At least the Penguins will have Malkin for game 3, becasue there was some initial question as to whether he would be available after his role in a scrum at the conclusion of game 2.
With about 18 seconds to go, Osgood stopped a shot and Talbot jabbed at him to try and get the puck free. In the resulting faracas, Malkin and Henrik Zetterberg got into it, and Malkin started throwing punches first, leading to an instigator penalty and game misconduct.
By NHL rule, when you get an instigator in the last 5 minutes of the game, you are automatically suspended for the next contest, pending league review and possible recission of the suspension.
Rescind the suspension is what Colin Campbell, NHL VP, did last night, indicating that the rule was designed to eliminate situations where players were seeking retribution or trying to send a message for the next game, which Campbell felt -- correctly, I may add -- Malkin was not doing.
Again, the Penguins have played better. They have reason to be upbeat to some degree as they head back to Mellon Arena, where they have been tough to beat the last few months. To wit:
http://www.freep.com/article/20090601/SPORTS05/906010431/1053/SPORTS05/Penguins+upbeat+despite+being+in+0-2+hole
However, for as good as Pittsburgh has played, it hasn't been enough so far. Their Captain and the rest of the team just have to dig down and find a way.
They have to keep skating and dictating as much of the play as they can.
They have to finish their scoring chances against a goalie that, no matter what anyone says, can be had.
And they need their goaltender to step up and be clutch for them.
If not, they'll soon be facing the same pit-in-their-stomach feeling they had against the same team last June:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?columnist=burnside_scott&id=4220353
More tomorrow.
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