Wings and Pens for the Stanley Cup: Part Two

The Wings and Penguins will hook up again in this year’s Cup Final

Following Detroit’s well-earned 2-1 overtime victory against the Chicago Blackhawks last night, we hockey fans are being treated to a rematch of last year’s Cup final.  When I say “treated,” I mean it.  While I may be an anti-Detroit fan, I readily admit that they are the class of the NHL in terms of pure skill.  The Hawks fought hard last night, and the determination they showed while fighting back to tie the game in the third will only prove to be invaluable experience for future playoff runs.  I have to mention Cristobal Huet’s performance as well, as his play last night probably redeemed him in the eyes of many Blackhawks fans.  Here’s the clip of his save on Johan Franzen with about 15 seconds left in regulation that sent this game into overtime.  Seriously, watch it until you can check out the slow-motion replays of it – it’s not a “lucky” save, as I’ve read on some blogs.  You can clearly see Huet’s head / eyes follow the puck to Franzens’ stick, and he reacts accordingly.  Huet puts himself in postition and makes it possible to stop the puck:

I did a little bit of digging into the season’s archives, and I actually found out where Huet learned to make a save like this.  You can’t specifically see Huet in the following clip, but I imagine him on Chicago’s bench taking detailed notes of what Marty Turco did to the Hawks earlier this season:

Now that I’ve given Huet some props, it’s time that I turn my attention to his Detroit counterpart, Playoff-Chris Osgood.  As you can see, I’ve separated him from Regular-Season Chris Osgood, who enjoys giving up about 4 goals on 20 shots on an average night.  In the playoffs, however, Ozzie becomes superhuman and makes almost every difficult save look routine.  He was beat only once last night, on a beauty of a goal by Patty Kane (who had some serious jump in his step last night after being smothered the first few games of the series).  I struggle to understand the change that Osgood undergoes once the playoffs hit.  Some players raise their game a notch; Osgood raises his about 10 notches.  The question, now that the Cup Final is set, is if Marc-Andre Fleury will be able to match Osgood shot-for-shot.  Here’s my take on the upcoming series, and how it will be different (and ultimately, similar) compared to last year’s final.

Dan Cleary screening Marc-Andre Fleury in last year’s Cup Final

Goaltending:

As I just mentioned, Playoff-Ozzie is currently activated, which means I can’t bash the Wings’ goaltending as a weakness.  Should Detroit win this series, it’ll be Osgood’s fourth Cup (third as a starter), and his Hall of Fame resume will look only that much stronger.  In the Pittsburgh net, Marc-Andre Fleury’s maturation has continued this season, as he’s looked confident during the Pen’s playoff run so far.  However, I am interested to see how he’ll handle sustained pressure against this Detroit team that is considerably deeper than anything he’s faced so far.  In the past two rounds, both Washington and Carolina have been essentially one-line wonders – not so with Detroit, who will attack in waves.  I’d give the slight edge to Detroit here, if only because of Osgood’s ability to step up during clutch time.

Defence:

The defenders on each team have been fun to watch this post-season, as we’re watching good young players make their marks as they evolve into great young players.  Yes, the mainstays on the back-end are there (Gonchar and Boucher in Pittsburgh; Lidstrom and Rafalski in Detroit), but this has been all about the youth movement this year.  The local Detroit press has been making much of Niklas Kronwall’s evolution, and he is certainly challenging Calgary’s Dion Phaneuf as the heir to Scott Stevens’ throne as the game’s most feared hitter for the next decade.  Without re-showing the replay of Kronwall’s devastating hit on Chicago’s Martin Havlat, here’s a sample of the destruction Kronwall incurred during last year’s playoffs:

On the other hand, Kris Letang has played with consistency belying his age (22), more than justifying his 3rd round selection in 2005.  The kid is a winner too, being a two-time gold medal winner with Canada at the World Junior Championships.  He’ll be asked to handle the skill Datsyuk, Hossa, and Zetterberg, while banging in front against Holmstrom and Franzen.  Another significant factor will be injuries.  Nik Lidstrom missed the final two games in the series with Chicago, while Sergei Gonchar is still less than 100% after his knee-on-knee collision with Alexander Ovechkin last round.  As with the goaltending, I have to give the slight upper-hand to Detroit here, whose top 4 is simply more skilled than Pittsburgh’s top 4.

Offense:

Both teams have shown explosive offense throughout the playoffs.  With apologies to Washington’s Alex’s (Semin and Ovechkin), there’s no better duo in the NHL than Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby.  Conversely, there’s no better trio in the NHL than Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Marian Hossa.  While much has been made about how Pittsburgh lost Hossa, I argue that their forward depth is actually stronger this year.  The deadline acquisitions of Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin have given Pittsburgh two gritty power forwards with good hands up front.  It will be essential for them to get into Osgood’s grill and away from his playoff comfort zone.  It’ll be tough, as Osgood is mentally sound.  More questions arise on Marc-Andre Fleury’s end, who will have to contend with Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom’s rear ends in his face.  The Wings’ skill goes beyond these players though, as guys like Dan Cleary and Valterri Filpulla are having excellent playoff runs so far.  Detroit is a little banged up heading into the Finals, as Datsyuk (like Lidstrom) missed the final couple games against Chicago.  If Datsyuk misses time, or is significantly hampered by an injury, then I give the edge to Pittsburgh.  If Datsyuk can go at full speed, he tips the scales back in Detroit’s favour.

Ultimately, despite giving the edge to Detroit in both the Goaltending and Defence categories, I don’t think that edge is a huge one.  Last year’s Final between these two teams went to six games.  This year will be closer, but ultimately Detroit will win the Cup on home ice in Game 7 and repeat as champions.