Just a city boy, born and raised in Mus-ke-gon Michigan…

Going into the Stanley Cup Finals if you were asked to pick who would lead in goals scored after two games you would have gone through a couple dozen names before you found the correct answer.

Surely you would have guessed Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, perhaps even Nicklas Lidstrom or Bill Guerin.

Wrong.  All wrong.

Leading the Stanley Cup Finals in goal scoring with two after two games is little-used left winger Justin Abdelkader, who has logged just 14:05 of total ice time. He might not be the best player on the ice but he sure utilizes his time well.  If, by contrast, Sidney Crosby scored a goal every 7:03 he was on the ice he’d be well on his way to scoring his sixth goal of the series.

Abdelkader’s performance–aided by fortunate bounces and shoddy goaltending–underscores exactly why the Detroit Red Wings lead the series 2-0 heading to Pittsburgh:  Depth.

The Wings ability to get production from its fourth line is a huge asset to a team that came into the series banged up and was supposedly disadvantaged playing back-to-back nights.

Yet it isn’t merely that the Wings’ role players are more skilled than the Penguins’, it is that they are tireless workers who make their own luck.

Less than three minutes into the 3rd period Abdelkader skated the puck through the neutral zone.  His job:  get the puck deep enough into Pittsburgh’s zone so his defensemen could change.  But like all good employees, when he saw a chance to do more he took it.  He skated into Penguin defensemen Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi who whacked at the puck and jarred it away from the former Michigan State standout.  However Abdelkader didn’t give up on the play and controlled the bouncing puck long enough to send a fluttering shot toward the net.  The shot beat goalie Marc-Andre Fleury glove-side giving the Wings a 3-1 lead.

The Wings energy players have been the difference in the series, Abdelkader, Ville Leino along with Darren Helm have provided youthful energy along with solid play that has allowed the Wings the two games to nil series lead.

So much for the back-to-back games favoring the younger, more rested Penguins.

Moving Forward

An old cliche states: “A series doesn’t start until someone loses at home.”  While it is a load of crap, it wouldn’t be a cliche if it didn’t offer some value, even if just to give a team hope after losing two straight games  (teams that go up 2-0 win the series more than 87 percent of the time; so much for “doesn’t start”).

In hockey, home ice provides a large advantage.  Since the home team gets to make the final line change they have the ability to pick their matchups.  Wings coach Mike Babcock used this advantage to perfection thus far in matching Zetterberg against Crosby during every opportunity.  A strategy that has stymied “Sid the Kid” and kept him off the score sheet.

With the final change in Pittsburgh, Penguins coach Dan Bylma will undoubtedly try to keep his top player away from Zetterberg as much as possible.  We will see if the NBC announcers’ man crush on Bylma is well founded now that he has the tactical advantage.

For the Wings, I would expect a lot more quick changes if they win faceoffs trying to get Zetterberg on the ice as much as possible to matchup with Crosby.  However there will likely be times when others will have to man-up to stop Crysby, uuuurrrr Crosby, when Zetterberg is on the bench.

While the scoreboard states a 2-0 series lead it could easily be an 0-2 disadvantage as the Wings got some very favorable bounces in the first two games (thank you Joe Louis Arena boards).  The Penguins also hit several posts in Game 2 at times when a goal would have made a world of difference.  Don’t expect the Penguins to go away quietly, and with the tactical advantage home ice provides this series is far from over.

Random Thoughts

• I hope Pittsburgh fans don’t have their panties in a bunch over the non-call on Hossa’s slash prior to the Filppula goal.  It’s no worse than the no-call on Malkin’s trip of Kronwall in Game 1 that led to a breakaway.  The difference is that one team capitalized and the other did not.
• Fleury is getting worked over by Osgood at this point.  Weren’t people trying to compare him to Grant Fuhr before the series started???
• Sidney Crosby is the worst looking superstar I can think of (please let me know if you have others I’m not remembering).  Seriously, even for a hockey player, the dude is just an ugly person.
• If Pavel Datsyuk comes back for Game 3 Babcock will have an interesting decision to make on who he sits.  The obvious answer would have been Abdelkader, but can you sit the series goal leader?  It’s a coaches dream dilemma.
• If you were to sit someone down who didn’t know hockey and ask them who the best player on the Penguins was after two games it would undeniably be Malkin over Crosby 100% of the time.  The guy is carrying his team.  Glad to see him fight near the end of the game; true hockey player fashion.
• Does anyone know the betting line on the Red Wings fourth line outscoring the Penguins first line?  I think I might want to wager on that.
• I officially have a man crush on Darren Helm

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Kevin Patra lives by the adage: Those who can’t do, write.  Currently, he is a grad student at the University of Southern California studying Online Journalism, after spending four years at the University of Michigan obtaining a bachelors degree from the school of Language, Science & Fun. Patra considers using the troughs at Joe Louis Arena as one of the most traumatic experience of his childhood.

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