…And The Winner Goes To….Special Teams

There has been one weakness in the Detroit Red Wings game so far this post-season.

Penalty Killing.

In game three of the Stanley Cup finals the Pittsburgh Penguins were able to exploit the Wings’ struggling penalty kill, scoring on two of three power play opportunities.  The Wings currently rank 14th in the post-season with an ugly 71.4% kill rate.

“I think we have to try to be bigger in the lanes,” said Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom after game three. “I thought we were a little too deep. They’ve got to find openings the way they did. So we have to play the position a little bit better out there.”

The Wings are going to have to figure something out quick with the way that the Penguins’ power play has been operating in the finals. Pittsburgh has scored on 50% of their power plays. After going 0-2 in the first game they are 3 for 4 or 75% in games two and three.

“I think sometimes the way we do things we look for fault,” said Wings’ head coach Mike Babcock after game three.  “To me there are two good teams playing real hard. They found a way to execute. They scored. That’s it.”

It’s been a matter of just battling hard out there and finding ways to get pucks on net. – Sidney Crosby

“We feel we have to break that,” said Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma. “Get that possession time and establish that zone time to kind of break them down.”

Penguins’ star forward Sidney Crosby admitted that the Pens tried to do too much, in the first game and a half of the finals, on the power play. Once they got back to the basics they were able to come away with some goals.

“These games are tight,” explained Crosby after the win.  Five-on-five, there are chances, but there’s very few.  When you get an opportunity on the power play you want to make the most of it.  And we did a great job of that tonight.  We’ve really just kept things simple, and it’s been a matter of just battling hard out there and finding ways to get pucks on net.”

It looked as though the Penguins may have been the benefit of a soft call in the third period when Jonathan Ericsson was whistled for interference. The penalty proved to be a costly one, with Gonchar scoring the game-winning goal on a blast from the point.

After the game Babcock wasn’t about to go on a tirade like Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville did in their previous series.

“They told us that they were going to clamp down on it,” he said. “But I’d seen four from one particular guy on their team prior in the game that never got called.  So that’s you know, in a series they call what they think’s a penalty, and they’re trying to do the best they can just like the teams.”

If you don’t include the brouhaha at the end of game two there were five penalties called in the first two games. In game three the refs certainly seemed to clamp down calling five penalties.

As is usually the case in any sport, discipline will be the deciding factor in tonight’s contest. If the Wings can avoid the penalty box they should win the game. However, if they get into any penalty trouble, like in game three where they only had three penalties the Penguins could sneak out another victory.