Penguins In Must Win Situation in Game Three

There's no sense in sugarcoating it.

The Pittsburgh Penguins face a must-win situation in game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings tonight at Mellon Arena (8 PM EST).

The Penguins are down, 2-0, in the series and they know that if they fall into a 3-0 hole, it would be akin to a virtual death knell.

Like the Lindsay Lohan in "Mean Girls" standing in front of me.

It's over. It's just a question of how short it's going to be.

So, in situations like this, where do you turn?

Your Captain.

That is, the Captain who wasn't made available to the media in his hometown on the off-day between games 2 and 3.

Sidney Crosby did not speak yesterday at coach Dan Bylsma's direction because, well ... as Bylsma put it ... every day doesn't have to be Sidney Crosby day.

There may be a little criticism from the league and certain corners of the media for that move, because we all know that Crosby is the #1 salesman for the game.

But I like what Blysma did. He's doing what he thinks is best for his team and his Captain. Crosby likely doesn't need additonal time to focus, but it certainly can't hurt.

Last year, down 2-0 to Detroit in the Finals, Crosby had a fantastic game 3 at home and led the Penguins to victory.

I expect an even better effort from him tonight.

Crosby knows what is at stake. He's played the greatest hockey of his career in this post-season up to this point. Don't think for a minute that, when his team needs him most, he won't deliver. I have every confidence in the world he's going to have a huge game -- and that's true whether Blysma is able to match lines a little better at home and get him away from Red Wings' center Henrik Zetterberg or not.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?columnist=burnside_scott&id=4220639

And even without regard to line combinations, I expect the Penguins to have more energy from their home crowd tonight. While they've lost a few important games at home in the playoffs this year (game 5 against Philadelphia, for one, and game 6 against Washington, for another), they are a good home club and have been for the past several seasons. It's hard not to think that they'll have a big boost from playing in front of their fans on the NHL's center stage this evening.

Of course, the other keys for the Penguins to get back in this series are the things I mentioned yesterday -- capitalizing on their chances and getting much, MUCH better goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury than they have gotten.

If Fleury doesn't step up in this series, everything else won't matter. He needs to start doing that tonight. I don't think he wants to be the goaltender who has an 0-2 record in Cup Final series' on his resume.

Many other Penguin players need to step up their games, too -- the most notable of whom are those on the 3rd line and defenseman Kris Letang.

Let's start with Tanger.

First of all, I'm not even sure he's going to play in game 3 tonight. I believe that Blysma may sit him in favor of Phillipe Boucher, or at least go with 7 "D" again and play Letang less. Letang hasn't played all that well in this series. He's not creating any noteworthy offense and is having trouble with the Red Wings forecheck. Plus, with the fact that the zebras are obviously calling fewer penalties in this series, it means there are less occasions when he can get out there on the man-advantage and maybe have an impact.

Meanwhile, the third line is doing a poor job of matching what the Red Wings are getting from their 3rd line. Jordan Staal, Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cooke are all pointless in this series. Staal, in particular, is a minus 7 in the post-season thusfar and, while the Penguins did a much better job in the face-off circle in game 2 (even winning a majority of the draws), Staal won only 3 of 18 draws in that game. Take him out of the mix and Pittsburgh dominated on face-offs in game 2. He needs to bear down more in those situations and start using his size more down low like he did in the Philadelphia series.

Bottom line: the Penguins need him and that group to start having more of an impact. The Red Wings are where they are in this series because of their goaltender and their depth. As I said yesterday, they don't even care if Zetterberg scores for heaven's sake. All they want him to do is lockdown #87. That's because their depth players are producing for them. Staal's line needs to match that.

I mentioned the fact that Byslma may play 7 "D" again. He knows that Crosby didn't get as much ice-time in game 2 (about 19+ minutes) as he probably should have. The back-to-back games was surely a factor in deciding to go back to 12 forwards for the last contest, but in game 3, on home ice, with the series on the line and Crosby looking to make the difference, and even with the chance to get Crosby away from Zetterberg somewhat, I think you might see the coach give him that opportunity by, among other possibilities, going back to 11 forwards.

For Detroit, I don't expect Pavel Datsyuk to play. Nor do I expect to see Kris Draper in the lineup. Apparently, Draper is well enough to go now, but after the way things have gone for the Red Wings in the first 2 games, coach Mike Babcock is reluctant to change his lineup. It's hard to blame him.

With that, all eyes will be on the Penguins' Captain tonight.

While his eyes will surely be intent on getting the Penguins back into this series.

We're not down 3-0. I'm still in. One Penguin win tonight puts the series 2-1 after 3 games as it was likely to be on one side or the other anyway.

B - E - L - I - E - V - E.

Let's Go Pens!

Recap tomorrow.