Same song and dance. The Detroit Red Wings will be taking on the Shitsburgh Penguins for the Stanley Cup, yet again. And once again, the Wings didn’t touch the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, while the Penguins groped their respective conference trophy. I could end this post right now and say the Wings will win the Cup again for that very reason and be right on, but I won’t. I’ll break it all down for you starting right…..now.
The Detroit Red Wings prevailed in five games against the Chicago Blackhawks despite playing the last two games without two of their best players (Lidstrom and Datsyuk). It was a solid series, with three of the five games going to OT, but you have to admit it was a series the Blackhawks really didn’t have a shot in. Detroit’s deep mixture of youngsters and veterans, playoff experience, and sheer talent was, before the puck even dropped in Game 1, too much for the Blackhawks. The Blackhawks are young, like barely legal young, and will be back, but this wasn’t their year.
So the Wings move on to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second year in a row and 24th in their illustrious franchise history (only the Canadiens and Yankees have more championship appearances). In the last 15 years, the Wings have been to the Stanley Cup Finals 6 times, winning 4 of those (with this year obviously yet to be determined).
The Penguins don’t have quite the same history as Detroit. In fact, Detroit has played in the Stanley Cup Finals more times than the Pittsburgh Penguins have appeared in the playoffs (24 and 23, repsectively). Pittsburgh only has four Stanley Cup appearances; this year, last year, and 1991 and 1992 when they won the Cup both times.
This year will be slightly different than last year’s Cup Finals. Last year, the Penguins were similar to this year’s Blackhawks; on the younger side and inexperienced. However, with the experience and extra year of growth for superstars like Crosby and Malkin, Pittsburgh appears to be a completely different team than they were last year–especially of late.
Pittsburgh fired the coach that helped them get to last year’s Stanley Cup Finals beyond the halfway point this season in favor of Dan Bylsma, who, interestingly enough, grew up in Michigan. Bylsma led the ‘guins to an 18-3-4 record over the last 25 games of the season and pushed them back into the playoffs as a No. 4 seed. They were barely in the playoffs when Bylsma took over.
With Pittsburgh ending the season better than anyone in the NHL and cake walking into the Finals with an easy sweep over the ‘Canes in the Eastern Conference Finals, not everything is good and gravy for the Red Wings right now. I have my concerns heading into Saturday’s Game 1, but it goes beyond Pittsburgh and starts with the NHL being complete morons/Crosby-crotch lovers. How can you have back-to-back games in the Stanley Cup Finals? I don’t recall any games throughout these playoffs being on consecutive nights as most games either had a day or even two between them. Whether there were a lot of back-to-back games and I didn’t realize it or not, it irks me that the NHL scheduled back-to-back games in the freaking Stanley Cup Finals. It’s ridiculous and it plays right into the hands of the NHL’s love child, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. They are the younger team and thus they are more capable of coming back on the second night of a back-to-back and performing at a higher level. The Red Wings on the other hand are older and probably need the day off to recouperate. Bonehead scheduling by the NHL, if you ask me.
Ironically enough (and maybe a double standard), the Wings could have definitely taken advantage of the NHL’s original scheduling boo-boo by having Game 1 on June 5th. The Wings are banged up right now and definitely could have used more than two days to get those guys completely healthy.
Meanwhile, the Penguins swept the ‘Canes last night and would have received nearly 2 weeks off before a June 5th Game 1. I think that’s way too much time off for a young team that is anxious to get another crack at the team that ousted them in last year’s Finals. Similar to how the Cavs are struggling in the Eastern Conference Finals in the NBA after getting a lot of down time between series, which has seemed to completely mess with their focus and “one goal” (not to take anything away from the Magic, though).
Playing Game 1 on June 5th could have happened had the Wings lost tonight and clinched the series on Friday or in Game 7. It could be argued that having more down time would have been a better situation for the Wings, but you can’t complain about them closing out the Conference Finals tonight.
Pittsburgh’s surely going to be a motivated bunch, especially since one of their stars Marian Hossa jumped ship after last season’s Finals loss to join the Wings. They have basically an entire team that has never won a Stanley Cup, while Detroit has a group of guys that have “been there, done that.” I doubt that’s the attitude the Wings will carry into the Finals, especially since there are guys (like Hossa) who have never won a cup, but sometimes you can’t help but wonder if that will play a part for some of the guys. I don’t think it does or will here.
Personally, despite the lingering injuries and the disadvantage of back-to-back games, I think the Wings will take the series. If Lidstrom and Datsyuk are healthy enough to play, I don’t think there’s any doubt. I’d like to think they sat out the last couple games because we knew we were going to win and that they used those games to get healthier. The Finals might take 7 games, but I’m optimistic and I strongly believe that this Detroit team is even better than last year’s (as long as Lidstrom and Datsyuk are in the lineup). After all, Detroit had the third best record this season and many predicted the Wings to win it all again all season long. They have more talent this year, with additions like Hossa, and winning Cups for some of these guys is becoming more of a habit than anything else.
Not everyone would agree with me, though. Take Scott Burnside of ESPN for example. He writes that the Penguins are the “clear cut favorites” and “Even without the Wings’ injuries, this series looked to be tilting in favor of the Pittsburgh Penguins given the exceptional level [of] play of Crosby and Malkin.” He picks the Penguins to win it in 6.
Welp, this is the same guy who said Crosby and Malkin were going to be too much for the Wings last year and the Penguins would win it in 7. Good call. Yet, the stubborn bastard comes back a year later and makes essentially the same prediction citing the very same reasons–Crosby and Malkin.
Don’t get me wrong, Crosby and Malkin have been unbelievable this post-season, leading the entire league in playoff points at 28 each (which would have been tops in the entire playoffs last year). However, the Cup Finals is a brand new, totally different series. What Crosby and Malkin did against the ‘Canes, Capitals, or Flyers is irrelevant now. If you want to talk about playoff points and “exceptional level of play” then consider last year’s playoffs where Detroit had two guys in the Top 5 for playoff scorers while the Penguins had three. This year the Red Wings have two again, but also have that third guy the Penguins had last year, Marian Hossa, on their team now. He might not be scoring as much in this season’s playoffs as he did last year for the Penguins, but that’s because the Red Wings are incredibly deep and don’t need him to. You better believe he will come out firing in the Stanley Cup Finals against his old team, though. Meanwhile, someone on the Penguins had to pick up the slack of losing 26 total playoff points, so it could have been expected that two of the better players in the game would have so many points thus far in the playoffs. Don’t forget that Malkin was top 5 in playoff points last year heading into the Finals and tallied just three points in the Finals, so his dominance in the playoffs became irrelevant in the Finals then, too.
This is going to be a great series though, and I think it could take all seven games, but the Red Wings are a far too talented group to lose a seven game series. As I said, they are incredibly deep and can hurt you with a number of weapons. The Penguins have two superstars, yes, but the Wings have some of the top defenders in the NHL and have had no problem shutting down a pair of stars before. Wings in 6 or 7, and if you held a gun to my head and said I had to pick one, I’d say Wings in 5.
GO WINGS!
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