2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Blog

The Detroit Red Wings twice have lost back-to-back games in these playoffs, but it's going to be a mighty chore for the Pittsburgh Penguins to do that again tonight.

The Red Wings looked very focused at the skate this morning here at Mellon Arena. None of the Red Wings players would say it, but there is a feeling in their locker room that they should have routed the Penguins in Game 3, that the Penguins got away with one.

The fact is, other than Adam Hall's bank-shot of a goal in the third period, the Wings dominated the last half of the game.

PITTSBURGH - When hockey personnel speak about injuries in the playoffs, the temperature around them often gets a lot warmer. What comes out of the mouth is usually a lot of hot air.

In the 1999 playoffs, the Colorado Avalanche said Ray Bourque had a foot injury. It was really to the knee, and the Avs flipped out when the correct injury was reported in the press.

In the '96 playoffs, the Chicago Blackhawks memorably said Chris Chelios had an "equipment problem" in a Western semifinal game against the Avalanche, when really Chelios had a numbed leg from an over-injection of Novocain.

In 1982, New York Islanders personnel went to great lengths to keep Mike Bossy's injured knee a secret. Bossy wore a brace, but nobody outside of the Isles' dressing room knew it at the time.

The Detroit Red Wings said Friday valuable winger Tomas Holmstrom has a hamstring injury. Of course, the former Iraqi Minister of Information said the Baghdad airport was safely in Iraqi control hours after the Americans had seized it a few years ago.

PITTSBURGH - Almost an hour after Wednesday's Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, a group of drunken Pittsburgh Penguins fans in a luxury suite atop Mellon Arena loudly accosted a group of people sitting in the lower bowl wearing Red Wings sweaters.

"Go home Red Wings," they bellowed for at least 20 minutes in the otherwise empty arena, their beer muscles fully flexed from the safe distance.

The Red Wings faithful - who appeared to be friends and family members of players - stayed mute, with security personnel standing alert, but who for some reason were not sent to shoo the inebriated louts home.

It was a tough night, in other words, to be a Red Wings partisan in the Steel City. Not only were the Red Wings beaten, for the first time in a while they were beaten up a little too.

PITTSBURGH – You only have to do one thing to get the proper flavour of Wednesday's Game 3: cue up the tape of Brooks Orpik's third-period shift in the third period. You know the one.

That's the one where Orpik was like the 400-pound man after a two-day fast, when the doors first open to all-you-can-eat Chinese lunch buffet. Orpik hit four Detroit Red Wings players hard, like that first course of Szechuan dumplings from the hungry 400-pounder.

In about 30 seconds, the previously pedestrian Orpik transformed into the deranged looking Bill Bixby, then into the final, finished Ferrigno's Hulk. Daniel Cleary and Johan Franzen and anybody else who came into Orpik's path were sent into orbit.

PITTSBURGH - Darryl Sydor is in, Kris Letang is out and Sid and Geno might be on the same line together.

That is the news coming out of Wednesday morning's pre-game skate at Mellon Arena, where the Pittsburgh Penguins will host their first Stanley Cup Finals game in 15 years tonight.

Down 2-0 to the Detroit Red Wings, Penguins coach Michel Therrien said there could be some line changes tonight - and one of them could see the pairing of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

By Simon Dingley, CBC News

Pittsburgh's most famous fish market is refusing to sell octopi to visiting Red Wing fans.

Wholey's Fish market in Pittsburgh's district known as "The Strip" is demanding identification from anyone who tries to buy one of the eight-armed slimy creatures, which retail for $7.98 US a pound.

"They're not pretty, but they are tasty. But if you're from Detroit you're not allowed to buy an octopus," says owner Dan Wholey. The staff at Wholey's are decked out in Penguins baseball caps. There's a stuffed toy penguin in the store, and a stuffed bear wearing a gray Penguins T-shirt.

The market is a Pittsburgh institution. It's been here since 1914, and sells 5,000 pounds of fish a day, including halibut from Sidney Crosby's Nova Scotia, which retails for $17.98 a pound.

The Pittsburgh Penguins keep trying to come up with new solutions to solve the Detroit Red Wings. But it's starting to sound like the terminally ill patient hoping the latest experimental drug trial will produce a miracle.

First, the Penguins wanted to play their normal game, which is skate, skate, skate. Then, they had to forecheck better, take the body a little more, get softer dumps and get turnovers.

Now what? It's gotten to the point where the Pens are wondering if the aged Darryl Sydor's insertion into the lineup for Wednesday's Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final will help turn the ship around against Detroit.

But is this just rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic? Sidney Crosby, who apparently is the only Pittsburgh player able to communicate for his team now, says no. At least it seems he said no.

By Simon Dingley, CBC News

Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby says the media shouldn't make a big deal out of the fact he skated without his teammates this morning.

Crosby took shots on back up goalie Ty Conklin for about 15 minutes, before the rest of his teammates came out for an optional skate.

The Penguins trail the Red Wings 2-0, with Game 3 scheduled for Wednesday night at the Mellon Arena (CBC, 8 p.m. ET). The Penguins were shut out the first two games of the series.

Burgess Meredith was a tougher penguin than the ones who showed up for the first two games of the Stanley Cup final. Burgess, at least, always got the better of the first episode before getting bamboozled by Batman in the finale.

This is just what Gary Bettman didn't want. His league's brightest, most telegenic young star so far has as many points through 120 minutes as do you, dear reader. How do you sell your product to a skeptical American public, that it's higher-scoring and more exciting, with those numbers?

"The Best Final Ever" so far certainly is not. Game 2 was another one-sided rout on the scoreboard. But at least the Penguins looked a little ticked off about things this time. Maybe the most refreshing
thing about the second straight shutout for the Penguins, the thing that makes you think they might still have a puncher's chance in this series, was the collective nastiness toward Detroit's best forwards.

By Simon Dingley, CBC News

Brandon Shea may be the bravest man in Pittsburgh. Monday night he proudly wore his Nick Lidstrom Red Wings jersey inside Pittsburgh's Mellon arena.

Shea was in enemy territory. He was surrounded by thousands of screaming Penguin fans, each of whom paid $5 to watch Game 2 of the Penguins-Red Wings playoff series from Detroit on a giant scoreboard screen.