Detroit Takes Game 1

My first thought after the game was, “Well, at least we didn’t lose THAT bad this time around.” Of course that’s never a good thought to have after a game because it means you lost.  The pens’ performance in Game 1 of the series was, no doubt, better than last year’s game 1...not that, that would be particularly hard to achieve.  Although I do sound negative, Pittsburgh hung for most of what turned out to be a very physical game.  Detroit, however, definitely outplayed the Pens in the long run to earn their 3-1 victory.

Couple of observations:
1) The Red Wings dominated Pittsburgh in the face-off circle.  The Penguins won only 16 of 39 face-offs, or a measly 29%.  That absolutely needs to change…and fast.

2) Osgood, stopping 31 of 32 shots, definitely played better than Fleury, who only stopped 27 of 30.  The Red Wings’ goalie had a couple of key saves, including one on Malkin’s breakaway.  Not to mention a little bit of luck with a puck that lands on his back (I’ll be talking about that more later).  He certainly earned his #1 star of the game.

3)  The ref’s seemed to put away their whistles for most of the game only calling 3 penalties (2 against Detroit & 1 against the ‘Burgh).  They didn’t call penalties on either side that may not have gone unnoticed in prior playoff games…which is fine by me since they seemed to keep it that way for the entire game & the same for both sides.

4) The Pens’ power play wasn’t doing much against Detroit’s penalty kill.  Based upon the numbers going into the game, this is something a lot of people were wondering if Pittsburgh would take advantage of.  To me, our team seemed fine once they set up in the zone, but had huge issues actually getting the puck into the zone.

5) Even though Pittsburgh’s defense was responsible for a few turnovers in its own zone, I think they did a great job in taking care of rebounds in front of the net.  Remember 4 min left in the 3rd? No clue how the Big Red Army wasn’t able to score on that opportunity.

6) Orpik on Hossa. Awesome.

7) By far my biggest (and really only) problem with this game was when the puck lands on Osgood’s back.  game highlights on youtube @ 5:57.  Crosby shoots the puck, bounces off the post, lands on Osgood’s back, and (this is what the officials missed) Zetterberg pushes the puck with his left HAND off of Osgood’s back and shoves it underneath Osgood.  Since this happens in the crease it’s a penalty shot per rule 63.5/67.4.  I don’t know if the commentators agree with me (the highlight cuts out at that point & I was watching the game in a place where I really couldn’t hear the audio), but I haven’t found an article yet to even mention this.  I’m also not certain if this play is reviewable or if its something the Pens had to request to have reviewed or whatever.  But if it is reviewable someone somewhere definitely dropped the ball on this one.

Lets get this clear, I am NOT blaming the loss on this.  The Red Wings deserved the game.  And I’m certain ppl can complain about a missed call here or there.  But PP’s are considered clicking when they score only 25% of the time & a PK unit is considered bad when successfully killing 75% of penalties. But Crosby (who I’m guessing would get the penalty shot) averages a 30% scoring rate on SO attempts for the season (couldn’t find anything that included penalty shots as well) & Osgood averages a 58% save rate with home SO attempts.*  So odds are, a penalty shot has a better chance of impacting the score than a penalty.  I also like my chances with a Crosby v. Osgood penalty shot and wonder what, IF Crosby would have managed to score, would a 3-2 with 15 min left in the game would have resulted in.

8) On to the next point now that I’m done with my rant.  I have to say the puck seemed to bounce in the Red Wings favor a little more.  I really don’t think it’s something to be concerned about since I’m sure that’ll even out over the series.  Although, it doesn’t make the two Detroit goals that wouldn’t have gone in if they hadn’t hit MAF any easier to stomach.  I do, however, firmly believe good play & smart play will put you in a position to best take advantage of those lucky bounces and there was no doubt the Wings did that…even if all three of their goals came off unusual bounces.

9) Great play by Malkin to set up our only goal.

10) Pens actually out shot the Red Wings, even if only by a shot.  And they had more blocked shots (ESPN’s gamecast says the pens had 3 more but I don’t trust it that much).


In the End: I’m sure a lot of ppl feel the Pens need to step up their play for the next game, & they won’t have much time to change things since its tomorrow.  But the same should be said for the Red Wings.  They didn’t score a single goal that didn’t involve them capitalize off of some fortunate bounce.  Now this isn’t taking anything away from any of their goals (a goal is a goal).  But they aren’t going to be able to depend on that every game.  Not to mention Osgood is giving up a fair amount of rebounds.  Bottom line, hopefully the penguins will be to make the necessary adjustments to steal a playoff game in Detroit tomorrow night.  Although, that’s easier said than done since the Ducks were the only team able to do it thus far…and it took 3 OT’s.  But the Pens gotta do it sometime if they are to win the series.
(Take it easy on me since this is my first post)

*I felt Crosby’s away SO attempt avg for the year had too small of a sample size to refer to.  His career away SO attempt avg is 24%.  Osgood’s career home SO save avg is 61%.  The league avg scoring rate is 33% for all SO attempts for the year.