PHOTO BY SCOTT VANKOUGHNETT
Detroit, MI — With the pre-game skates out of the way, the focus now turns to game two tonight at Joe Louis Arena, with the Penguins looking to bounce back from a 3-1 loss in game one last night to the Red Wings.
Detroit received two fortuitous bounces; the first on Brad Stuart’s second goal of the playoffs, banking off the boards, and then off Marc-Andre Fleury and into the net; and then the eventual winning goal by Johan Franzen, who put the puck in front of the net, only to have Fleury kick his leg up to make a desperation save and knock it into his own goal.
Although they were happy to get the win, many of the Red Wings players were focused on preparing for game two, most notably Henrik Zetterberg, who commented on playing back-to-back games in the playoffs.
“There some similarities to the regular season,” said Zetterberg. “You have to prepare yourself like normal and get your body going, and skate a little more in the warm up.”
One of the major storylines from the first game was Detroit’s domination in the faceoff circle, winning 39 of 55 draws (71%). Zetterberg won 15 of his 20 draws, and in particular, a draw against Sidney Crosby leading to the go-ahead goal by Franzen.
Zetterberg was asked what led to so much success against the Penguins in game one.
“I think we had some lucky bounces after the puck was dropped,” he said. “There’s a lot of 50-50 pucks and if it ends up on your side its easier to get [win] them. We had them on our side yesterday.”
The Penguins search for redemption tonight, looking to get a split at the Joe before returning to Pittsburgh for game three on Tuesday.
Crosby felt as though they played well enough to win in game one, but couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities.
“We felt like we gave ourselves a chance to win,” he said. “You need to play the right way, especially in the second and third. It just comes down to putting our chances in.
When questioned about Marc-Andre Fleury and the two fluky goals Detroit scored against him, Crosby said his teammates still have 100% confidence in their star goaltender.
“He’s proven over the last couple of years that he’s a big reason for our success,” he said. “We realize he’ll be there and make the big stops for us. Its great having him back there.”
A side storyline that has been picking up more and more steam here at the pre-game meetings, was Red Wings coach Mike Babcock claiming Crosby was head-hunting Zetterberg in last nights game.
Crosby didn’t want any part of Babcock’s sideshow.
“I’m not going to get involved in his games,” he said. “He [Babcock] can say whatever he wants, but I haven’t been known as a head-hunter in my career. He’s the first one ever to say that, so its pretty interesting stuff.”
Watch the drama unfold when the puck drops @ 8 pm tonight on CBC and NBC.
Other notes from the rink prior to game two…
- The 1984 finals between the Oilers and the Islanders that everyone has compared this series to, started a bit differently than this one. The Islanders, compared with the Wings, lost their first game 1-0, but then stormed back to pound the Oilers 6-1 in game two. Pittsburgh is hoping to play on history and split this series here tonight…
- The view from the Pittsburgh bench is unreal…went out during the Pens practice and stood near the bench for a second and got some interesting looks from the players/coaches on the ice….
- Matt Cooke, Jordan Staal, Max Talbot, Bill Guerin and Crosby were all playing soccer in the hallway and one of them almost hit Staal in the nether-region…prompting everyone to burst out laughing. Seems like they’re all pretty loose for tonight’s game…
- Talked Darren Dreger and Farhan Lalji from TSN…both good guys and were happy to share some knowledge…
- Brad Stuart had upwards of 12 or 13 sticks in the hallway into the Red Wings dressing room….over $2000 worth of sticks on one player…ridiculous…
- The Wings dressing room can give even the strongest willed person chills. It was pretty awesome walking into a dressing room that housed the likes of Yzerman, Federov, and Shannahan in their prime…
- Spoke with Larry Murphy about the similarities and differences between teams and players from this years Detroit team to the back-to-back teams of the 90’s….Scott told me I should have booed him (being a Torontonian)
Topics: Detroit Red Wings, Game 2, Game Two, hallway soccer, head-hunting, Henrik Zetterberg, Joe Louis Arena, Larry Murphy, Mike Babcock, Pittsburg Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Stanley Cup finals
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