Deja Vu?
For the 2nd straight year the Pittsburgh Penguins have the daunting task of taking on the legendary NHL original franchise, Detroit Red Wings. For the Red Wings this is old hat.
Truth be told however, the I believe the Penguins have kicked it up a notch over last years team. Led by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin the Penguins can score on anyone. Notice the output in the playoffs thus far:
| GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | ATOI | PPG | PPA | SHG | SHA | SOG | SPCT | |
| Sidney Crosby, C | 17 | 14 | 14 | 28 | 12 | 12 | 21:42 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 63 | 22.2 |
| Evgeni Malkin, C | 17 | 12 | 16 | 28 | 3 | 22 | 21:17 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 15. |
But this is not a top heavy offense as you can see: Also playoff stats
GP G A PTS +/-
Bill Guerin, RW | 17 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 11 | ||||||||
| Sergei Gonchar, D | 15 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 3 | ||||||||
| Chris Kunitz, LW | 17 | 1 | 11 | 12 | 6 | ||||||||
| Ruslan Fedotenko, LW | 17 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 6 |
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Then of course you have to consider that the Penguins have a solid D. Starting with the netminder.
| Goalie Statistics | |||||||||||||
| PLAYER | GP | W | L | GAA | TOI | SV | SV% | SHO | TGA | TSA | PIM | ENG | |
| Marc-Andre Fleury | 17 | 12 | 5 | 2.62 | 1054:48 | 445 | .906 | 0 | 46 | 491 | 2 | 1 | |
The defenseman are an offensive minded bunch with Gonchar, Eaton, LeTang, and Boucher but as a unit they can hold their own in the defensive zone.
Against Detroit, defense is a must. However a team like Pittsburgh should put the pedal to the metal and hit Chris Osgood with a steady wave of pressure. Not just a onslaught of shots either. They need to attack the net. The trick will be to be able to retreat in transition.
I also think Pittsburgh needs to keep 5 men on the ice at all times. They are not a bad penalty killing team, in fact they were just under 84% at killing penalties. But the Red Wings are 25% with power play success.
In a similar theme theme the Penguins need to imporve on their 19% power play and take advantage of Detroits vulnerable 73% penalty killing unit.
All that said Chris Osgood is one of the best goalies in the NHL and has Cups to prove it. That is why the attack at times has to go right at Osgood. The Pens will also need to have crisp passing to free some speedy skaters. The Penguins also have a couple good puck handling defensemen that should allow the forwards to race toward the Red Wings zone and prepare to "gang bang" the retreating Red Wings.
Make no mistake though the Red Wings are hard to pressure into maing mistakes but when thay do get caught in numbers you need to score.
If this is the year of the Penguin, I think they will need 7 games.
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