Say good night, Sidney

posted by Mike Boone at 16h35 EST on May 31


The game ends with Crosby jawing at Henrik Zetterberg.

For all the good it will do him.

Jiri Hudler scored the winner in a tense 2-1 game. The Red Wings have a 3-1 lead going home, and there's every chance this series will end Monday night at the Joe.

Turning point: Detroit killed off a 5-on-3 disadvantage in the third period. Pittsburgh managed but one shot.

The Penguins had 23 in the game to 30 for the Red Wings, who have had a shot edge in all four games. 

Number one star was the great Z, whose defensive play was superb ... and frustrating for Sid the Kid.


Cherry:

All over Therrien after the game for his use of Crosby, Roberts and "that dog Malkin".

3P 00:00:

What an ending!

3P 2:20:

Tick-tick-tick. But the icings are bad.

3P Timeout:

Smart call by Babcock to win a blow for his guys on icing.

3P 4:00:

Cleary's been great on the big line.

3P Break:

Dumb icing by Gonchar, going for the home run pass. The kind of play Lidstrom doesn't make.

3P 6:00:

Good comment by Millen on Zetterberg. In Sweden, from a young age, you play D or you don't play.

3P Break:

They'll talk about that 5-on-3 all summer. One shot? That's sick.

3P 7:30:

What a PK, eh? Some team. One shot allowed.

3P :

Malkin is totally in a fog. And Zetterberg is unreal on the PK.

3P 10:10:

Crosby sells one. This is huge.

3P 10:23:

Here's Pittsburgh's chance.

3P 12:00:

Chaos at the Pittsburgh bench in a one-goal, must-win game

3P 13:00:

The game in a nutshell: Cleary races down the right wing and then outbattles the bigger Orpik in the corner to make a pass. They do that all over the ice.

3P Break:

OK Bob, I'll call it: No penalty. Malkin flopped.

2P 15:52:

Not a great time for a penalty. Tough call on Fleury.

3P 17:34:

Hard work pays off. And Pittsburgh is pathetic clearing their zone.  Let's hear Cherry rave about oberts.

3P 19:00:

Why is frequently-quoted Pittsburgh assistant Mike Yeo talking into his tie?

3P 20:00:

Next goal wins it (there's a brilliant insight). And Hossa will get it.

Hot Stove:

What's with Al Stachan's facial expressions whie Scott Morrison is talking? Is he interpreting it for the hearing impaired? ... Morrison says Toronto would have to offer ats Sundin $7 million to $9 million ... Pierre Lebrun suggests Leafs trade Sundin's rights for a first-round pick ...

2P 00:00:

Temporary loss of my satellite signal. It's raining in Montreal.

2P 2:42:

Crap PP ... and Zetterberg is brilliant on the PK. What a player he is.

2P 4:20:

Nice. Cole throws a bouquet to Mike Emrick.

2P Break:

It's turned into a great series

2P 6:00:

Refs are wisely letting them play.

2P 8:00:

Detroit's passing is so good. They don't go for the long cross-icers or stretch passes. It's always a guy close at hand which means a high percentage pass which means they complete them and move.

2P Break:

Hossa is spectacular tonight. His teammates less so.

2P 11:30:

Detroit's work ethic is killing them.

2P 14:00:

Detroit's PP still struggling.

2P 16:16:

Staal, the best PK man, goes off.

2P 18:00:

Pittsburgh zone clearances are very laborious. That will cost them.

2P 20:00:

Well, Cherry thinks the Penguins suck. I dunno. 1-1. Anyone's game.

Coach's Corner:

Cherry thinks Staal can play the whole PK. Says Detroit is hungrier, wants it more. Video of Chelios sucking up to Cherry on fighting. Then Don talks about the glass, which I don't understand. Nice tribute to Luc Bourdon.

1P 00:00:

Excellent hockey.

1P 18:00:

Staal is tremendous for a player his age. Nice play by Lidstrom on Hossa.

1P 3:00:

Two straight games shots off the back boards have fooled Fleury.

1P Break:

Another Pittsburgh PP ... and they've been deadly.

1P Break:

Some fat rebounds off Fleury. Detroit's goal put them right back in it. That Roberts is unreal: I think he played the whole PP.

1P 8:30:

Hossa is playing great. Roberts does a good job on the doorstep. Red Wing loses his stick and Cole doesn't notice.

1P 10:57:

Adam Hall hustles and Rafalski goes off.

1P 12:54:

Cleary's doing a good Holmstrom imittation. Detroit needed that after a lousy PP.

1P 14:55:

First Detroit PP. Very significant.

1P 16:00:

All Pittsburgh. Fleury makes that great save on Rafalski and the game turns.

1P 17:09:

Just like that. Crosby makes a great play at the blue line. Gonchar drives it on net and Hossa does what's going to make him rich

1P 17:49:

Great start. And Drake takes a dumb penalty.

1P 20:00:

Penguins won't be outshot 9-1 to start tonight.

Anthem guy:

He's pretty good. eh?

Cherry:

"Let's go Pens!" A national broadcaster. Can you imagine John Madden doing that?

Luc Bourdon:

A moment of silence. They know about the dangers of bikes in Pittsburgh. Ben Roethlisberger was damn near killed on one.

Bettman III:

McLean is overmatched. "Everybody's going to be fine." OK, Gary.

Bettman II:

He says he didn't read the Toronto Star story on ticket revenues. So is he a liar or a fool?

Bettman:

Will Ron ask him about the ticket revenue debacle among his Sun Belt franchises?

Bob Probert:

I really like Elliotte Friedman's features. 3,300 PiM. Wow! Colin Campbell, Jacques Demers' assistant in Detroit, was his minder. "As of right now," Probert says, "life's good."

Pre-game:

Good interview with Gary Roberts ... Tomas Holmstrom likely out ... "No one forgets where they came from, especially being a Newfoundlander." Right on, Dan Cleary. Vintage b&w footage of Alex Faulkner. Man, he still looks good. Must be that sea air (which wouldn't account for how good Elmer Lach looks) ...

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Comments

think you are right about Frankie the Bull, although if he would sign for around $750k, he would make a very good insurance policy

J.T.'s picture
I agree on Bouillon...but Orpik, I'm not sure. I think he'd be a good signing too, but with Campbell, Redden, Roszival et al on the market, I think the really big deals will be used up on those guys. I could see him signing four years for somewhere in the three million per ballpark. http://habsloyalist.blogspot.com

G-Man's picture
Be nice to get Roscival. Gilbert

sidhu's picture
What about Malik? He seems to be the 'under the radar' signing that Mr Gainey enjoys. Malik is a big body and, what impresses me most, is that he's a quality 5 on 5 player - the past five years, Malik was +30, +35, +28, +32, and +7. He seems to have some injury issues, though.

J.T.'s picture
I'm pressing charges against Cherry for the theft of my shower curtain. http://habsloyalist.blogspot.com

lolllll..............Thank goodness I don't get the HNIC feed... I hoped you kept the clips.......

For the curtain of course....

sidhu's picture
Good period of hockey there....

Therrien needs some hair thickener

J.T.'s picture
And some hair to go with it. http://habsloyalist.blogspot.com

sidhu's picture
Crosby threw his broken stick down like the complete baby that he is

"Crosby threw his broken stick down like the complete competitor that he is" Fixed that for you.

Boards, down low, is what wins it in the playoffs. It's the little things that turn into big things(goals)....

J.T.'s picture
Yup...I agree. That's one of the little things that cost the Habs. They lost so many of those battles for the puck. They have to get better at that for next year. http://habsloyalist.blogspot.com

J.T.'s picture
One thing the Wings all have in common...they're great on the boards. http://habsloyalist.blogspot.com

Very well JT !!!!! I'll e-mail ya with the particulars...lol (Hi Mike too)

Cherry's an idiot............

J.T.'s picture
Sami!! How's it going, lady? http://habsloyalist.blogspot.com

1-1

J.T.'s picture
Interesting how human Osgood looks while his D is running around like headless chickens. Makes me feel a little bit better about Price's performance against Philly. http://habsloyalist.blogspot.com

The difference? Osgood is a career backup and Price is a future superstar. Osgood looks bad because he -is- bad. Prices excuse was probably nerves and youth.

The Teacher's picture
Thank you J.T. I think you know what I'm referring to :)

J.T.'s picture
No clue. Should I have? http://habsloyalist.blogspot.com

The Teacher's picture
Well considering that you deleted three comments off your board, one of which referred to me, I thought you might.

J.T.'s picture
Oh, that guy? He's some idiot troll who spews trash on my blog pretty much daily. I delete him as a matter of course. http://habsloyalist.blogspot.com

The Teacher's picture
Yeah, he goes around to other sites also and does the same thing. He is what used to be Cournoyer12 on this site.

The Teacher's picture
going to make him rich? I think he's rich already Boone.

Keith's picture
Pens want to make it a series. Good for them.

The Teacher's picture
Crosby...best player...

sidhu's picture
Teach, best player is Ovechkin. You'll see, just watch the awards show.

Bean's picture
I think that's the first time I've ever seen Mouth-Breathing Malkin with his mouth closed!

J.T.'s picture

Keith's picture
Buttman is a spin doctor extrodinaire and MacLame buys into it.

The Teacher's picture
He didn't really look like he was buying into it to me, to be honest.

The Teacher's picture
"Nononono" Bettman, you're a slug.

Bean's picture
Considering that Toronto Star story sprung from an internal NHL report, even if he really didn't read the article (yeah, right), he'd still have seen the information the story was based on. Bettman is (still, always) full of it.

the_larry's picture
If Holmstrom is out, that will be very detrimental for Detroit - more-so than when Franzen was out.

The Red Wings are such a matured product that I would expect them to remain as lethal as we know them to be even in the short absence of one of their important players like Rafalski, Homlstrom or Franzen..... but I would start to worrry though if any of the Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Zetterbeg triumvera were to be missing games. PS : They ought to feel pretty secure with Lidstrom tough,.. I heard that he missed only 22 games in 14 years in Detroit ... simply incredible ... insane in fact when considering his ice time per game..... could probably set a record just for the ice time alone.

Would you guys trade Price, Komisarek, and Plekanec for Crosby?

Mike Boone's picture
Yes, and I'll be finalizing the trade with Penelope Cruz when she comes over here after the game tonight.

Moey's picture
Price at this point is out of the question. Goaltenders still win cups, and if Bob is right about him he will be our key player. Komi and Pleks are replaceable, so yes I would trade them.

My question is would you trade all three of those players as a package. I don't care if one would trade Komi and Pleks. So would I. I have the three there for a reason.

Moey's picture
Obviously the answer is no, I apologize for explaining it.

Pleks14's picture
I would trade any single player to get Sidney Crosby by far no exceptions price,kovalev,koivu anyone!

Moey's picture
Sidney is not popular with HIO posters for one reason only, he's not OUR crybaby.

Mike Boone's picture
You are 100 per cent correct.

Playing 4 lines during the season and the weak division their in plus the lead they had this year gave Detroit the luxury of spelling their players during the heat of the battle this year so they should be as fresh as anybody.

The Teacher's picture
Crosby is the best player in the league, as I keep repeating :)

24 Cups's picture
Teach - I look forward to debating Crosby vs Ovechkin with you over the next twenty years. Maybe we should plan a Pittsburgh - Washington field trip during the next few years to see both of these guys in action. What a game that would be! I'm on pension so I'm assuming a young buck like you will pick up the tab:-) The Original 24 Cups

"Following the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Babcock declined an offer to remain with the Ducks, and on July 15, 2005, was named head coach of the Detroit Red Wings." I think he made the right move. He'd probably already have the ring but I think Detroit will be solid for a long time if they can keep a team together like they have now, even with the Lidstrom's et al aging. That said, I hope they lose tonight and the series in 7.

Moey's picture
I'd prefer Detorit to win, but I don't want 7 games. It's not decisive or indicative of who was the better team and it could have gone either way. I prefer to see a statement playoff run, ended with an exclamation mark, like the Habs did in 93.

Mike Boone's picture
I don't care who wins, as long as it ends in six or fewer. I'm invited out next Saturday and I don't want to send the evening in my basement blogging Game 7. I know this is selfish. But that's the kind of guy I am.

24 Cups's picture
Hey Mike - What the hell, just invite Penelope to watch game 7 with you and help you blog the game in between extra-curricular activities. You know what they say, if after four hours..... The Original 24 Cups

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