Great Game – Unless You’re a Wings Fan
Last night’s battle between the Penguins and Red Wings was a game that featured great hockey. It was one of the more physical games I have seen and while Pittsburgh outshot Detroit significantly over the first two periods the action really was back-and-forth. I’d actually even say that Detroit had as many chances, they just couldn’t seem to get the puck on their sticks or on net (Datsyuk’s seeing-eye feed to Zetterberg in the first minute of the game comes to mind). However, as a Wings fan it was heartbreaking to watch the team lose even though it means a chance to win the Cup on our own ice. I just don’t want to see Pittsburgh do to us what we did to them last year – which is now a real possibility though I do have a lot of faith in Detroit winning game seven. There are two things I must comment on though. First off, while I have been a fan of the refs for most of this series, the first penalty of the game was ridiculous. Jordan Staal pushed Henrik Zetterberg into Fleury after Zetterberg had just shot the puck and was off balance and Zetterberg gets called for goaltender interference. It wasn’t so much that the call itself was awful (it wasn’t a good call, but I could have lived with it) as when it was called. The game was back-and-forth at that point and while Detroit killed it off, it put Detroit on the defense, something that it seemed to take them a while to recover from. The other thing that I feel a need to comment on is Marian Hossa. We all know he’s a great talent, but where has he been in this series? Pittsburgh has a much weaker defense than Chicago and especially Anaheim. The Red Wings paid Hossa 7.4 million to have a player that wanted to raise the Cup for the first time and would contribute in doing so. So far in the finals Hossa has not contributed, when he should have been extra motivated playing against his former team. He was Pittsburgh’s best player in the finals last year. Hossa needs to break out in game seven.
