Detroit dominates, one game away from Stanley Cup
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
Didn’t think I would be writing this at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, but Detroit made it pretty easy. Not sure “domination” is even strong enough of a word for what the Red Wings did to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5.
Executing in all phases of the game, Detroit thrashed Pittsburgh, 5-0, to take a 3-2 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final. Had to wait until the game was officially over before posting.
I posed two questions before this game. 1. Would the potential return of Pavel Datsyuk fire up the Red Wings? 2. Could Pens G Marc-Andre Fleury continue his stellar play?
Not so sure the return of Datsyuk did anything earth-shattering (though he did have two assists), but the answer to No. 2 was an emphatic NO.
It was a back-and-forth game in the first period until Fleury let up a soft one to Dan Cleary with about six minutes left in the first.
The turning point was Chris Osgood. No, it wasn’t a brilliant save by the Detroit goaltender. Rather, it was a brilliant play of the puck that led to the second goal.
With the long changes because of the teams’ positioning during the second period, Osgood got the puck up ice before Pittsburgh had fully completed its change. Marian Hossa found Valtteri Flippula, and it was 2-0 less than two minutes into the second period.
Tack on three power-play goals in the second, and it was 5-0 with the writing on the wall and Fleury out of the game.
Here’s what I find funny. If you don’t have VS., you’ve got to be wondering what the big deal is about Pittsburgh. Detroit is 3-0 on NBC while the Pens are 2-0 on VS.
Game 6 is Tuesday night in Pittsburgh on…NBC.
***
No word from Blazers assistant general manager Josh Evans as of yet. Hoping to get in touch with him Sunday afternoon after he gets back in from the CHL summer conference in Phoenix.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
I was hoping game six was in Detroit. I predicted a 6 game Redwings win but thought the sixth game was at home. I wonder how important it is to the Redwings to win at home vs away. We’ll see.
Aren’t we at the point where schedules are released soon? We should be within 2 weeks of this happening and we will find out that one of three things are going to happpen:
1. No hockey. Any other season ticket holders get renewal forms? Not me, not yet.
2. We will play about half the season at the Ford center and half at the Cox Center (the ice needs to be repaired).
3. We will play at the Cox Center the full season. Is this even possible? The YardDawgs will maybe play through August and will there be enough time to repair the ice issues at the Cox Center?
Pittsburgh reminded me of one of the Tulsa games last year. Where the frustration just took over, and bad decisions were the rule of the game. And Sydney the Flop just acted like a little kid tonight, and he doesn’t deserve to were that C on his chest. Hopefully we will find out soon if the Blazers will moving over across the street to the Myriad. Can’t wait for the first signings of the season too!