2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs Blog - Conference Finals

With two days between games, Pittsburgh and Carolina stayed away from the ice Sunday. Coaches Dan Bylsma and Paul Maurice were the only ones who even had media obligations, as both met with reporters around midday to discuss the Penguins’ 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference final, and what the teams will be looking to accomplish during Game 4 Tuesday night in Raleigh.

The Hurricanes and Penguins will get back on a more conventional schedule Monday, when they are supposed to work out at the RBC Center.

Fatigue factor?

Carolina needed seven games in each of the first two rounds to eliminate New Jersey and Boston, but centre Eric Staal contends the physical demands of those series aren’t affecting the way the Hurricanes are playing against Pittsburgh.

“I don't think so,” he said. “We feel good. Our legs are there. We're just not winning enough one-on-one battles in the offensive zone.”

Staal also disputed a suggestion that the Hurricanes have to play perfectly to defeat Pittsburgh.

“I just think we need to play better,” he said. “You know, we're a very good team. We didn't get this far for no reason. We didn't get this far because we're not good.

“We haven't played our best yet, and that's showing because we're down three, and we're in a tough hole. But all we can do is bury our heads and take it one game at a time. Come back Tuesday and get one, and then try to go from there.”

'D' up

Pittsburgh has scored 16 goals during the first three games against Carolina, but only one — Philippe Boucher’s game-winner in the series-opener — has come from a defenceman.

Nonetheless, scoring from the blue-line has been a significant component in the Penguins’ success this spring. Defencemen have accounted for 11 Pittsburgh goals, which is just three shy of the franchise record set in 1991, during the Penguins’ first Stanley Cup run.

“Anytime you get help from the back end, it’s a big lift for the team,” defenceman Rob Scuderi said.

Scuderi, whose game is based on sound defensive work, has contributed one of those 11. Mark Eaton has been the most productive guy on Pittsburgh’s blue-line, scoring four times to match his output from the regular season.

“A lot of people underestimate him,” defenceman Hal Gill said. “He’s added a lot to us.”

Eaton, for his part, attributes most of his goal-scoring to Bylsma’s prodding that the defencemen not be passive observers, but get involved in the offence anytime circumstances make that practical.

“It’s a lot of fun for us,” Eaton said.

Gill doesn’t have a goal, but noted that simply generating shots from the blue-line adds a dimension to the offence.

“More important than scoring goals, we want to get pucks to the net, get shots through,” he said. “And I think we’ve done a good job of sustaining pressure or getting a shot on net when we can.”

Where's Whitney?

Ray Whitney, who plays left wing on Carolina’s top line, turned 37 earlier this month and doesn’t have a goal in his past 10 games. That has led some to conclude that he is injured, operating on fumes or simply not capable of filling such a prominent role anymore.

Pittsburgh forward Craig Adams, who played with Whitney on the Hurricanes’ Cup-winning team three years ago, disagrees. Vigorously. And he offers some pretty convincing evidence — like how Whitney is coming off a 77-point regular season, his second- highest total ever in the NHL — to bolster his contention that Whitney’s value far exceeds his profile around the league.

“If you look at what he’s done the last few years, when normally you would say he’s coming to the end of his career, it seems like he’s getting better,” Adams said. “I don’t think he’s a guy who’s ever been considered a star in the league, but he puts up a point-a-game and he’s a pretty big part of that team, in terms of leadership and his personality in the room."

Quick on the draw

Pittsburgh had a nominal edge on faceoffs through the first three games, going 94-91, which is fairly impressive when it’s considered that Carolina ranked eighth in the league on draws during the regular season.

The Penguins have improved steadily on faceoffs over the past few years — Sidney Crosby, in particular, has made a concerted effort to upgrade his success rate — and that progress seemed to accelerate when Bylsma was hired and added former NHL centre Tom Fitzgerald to his staff.

“Tom Fitzgerald has done a great job of preparing the guys, both in terms of giving them options and different things to do in the circle and also an awareness of what the guys we’re going against are doing," Bylsma said.

“When you’re unpredictable in the faceoff circle, in terms of running plays and doing different things, it gives the other team more things to think about.”

Any advice?

Byslma, very much a blue-collar forward during his playing days, was asked Sunday if he taught winger Bill Guerin to throw the kind of backhand feed Guerin gave to Crosby late in the first period of Game 3 to set up the goal that put Pittsburgh in front to stay.

Apparently not.

“I didn't teach him that,” Bylsma said, laughing. “I would have taught him to dump it in.”

Block party

The Penguins blocked 22 shots during Game 3 to push their playoff-leading total to 152, and Carolina launched another 19 that missed that net.

The lost opportunities those represent, Maurice said, help to explain why Pittsburgh was able to win.

“That's way too high a number (of situations) to be in the shooting range to not get something through,” he said, noting that on the Hurricanes’ second goal — scored when Sergei Samsonov knocked in an Erik Cole rebound — Cole seemed to run through every conceivable option before tossing the puck at Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

“Eric probably did 14 different things before he decided he wanted to shoot that puck,” Maurice said.

Not over yet

Pittsburgh has displayed exceptional focus through the first two-plus rounds, so it seems unlikely that the Penguins will start to look past the fourth victory they need to eliminate the Hurricanes and concentrate instead on the matchup they would face in the Stanley Cup final.

If anyone shows signs of thinking that way, however, he probably can expect Guerin and Bylsma, among others, to reinforce that point that the Eastern Conference final isn’t over.

“We’re pretty fortunate to be where we are right now,” Guerin said. “We’re playing a heck of a hockey team. A team I feel has been the best we’ve played, (as far as) playing like a team and playing their system.”

Bylsma was even more adamant about the threat posed by Carolina’s tenacity.

“We know this team's not going to quit,” he said. “We know that's their trademark, they're going to keep coming at us. They've proven that even though the games have ended up with lots of goals on the board. They've been fighting right to the end.

“While we have a lead, we know we need to get one more win to get this thing done with. Right now is better than waiting, so we'll be ready on Tuesday for what we need to do.”