Wings look beatable, but Pens still lose Game 1

It was a game of bounces and mental mistakes. And the Detroit Red Wings normally shine in those.

But despite winning Game 1 of the first Stanley Cup Finals rematch in 25 years last night by a score of 3-1, the Wings looked very much beatable. The Pens were good, but they made too many mistakes, and they lost way too many faceoffs – 71% of them to be exact.

On top of that, Marc-Andre Fleury looked a little bit shaky and made a couple of mistakes that were costly. So even though the Pens could have won, they simply weren’t good enough, despite playing a solid road game. You can’t beat the Wings if you’re just good. It takes either a great effort by the team as a whole or a spectacular performance by a hot goalie to beat them.

But Fleury made it too tough on the Pens last night when he didn’t realize that Stuart’s point shot would carom off the backboards, and then he chose to try to play a loose puck instead of standing by the left post on the Franzen goal, on a puck that also bounced off the wall behind him.

The first goal was a real tough break, but the second one is on him. Now, we can’t forget the fact that the Penguins were pretty awful in those two shifts and Crosby lost the faceoff to Zetterberg after Bylsma took the timeout before Franzen scored, and you also can’t ignore the fact that Hal Gill turned the puck over on the opening goal.

But Fleury could and maybe should have made both of those saves.

If the team and the goalie play well, then maybe you can come out on the winning side against Detroit, especially if the Wings don’t play their best game.

So even though the Pens’ collective effort was perhaps deserving of a victory, Fleury wasn’t good enough in Game 1, and the Big Red Machine made the Pens pay for their mistakes. Good teams expose goalies sometimes, and the Red Wings definitely did that to Fleury last night.

Of course, they also exposed players like Gill, who are slow and can’t keep up with the speed and skill Detroit brings to the table. Good thing he’s really the only slow player the Pens employ right now.

Fleury must play better, but his defense can and has to play better in front of him if the Pens are going to unseat the Wings as defending Stanley Cup champions.

However, it should be noted that the Wings were outshot only for the third time in the playoffs. The Pens had 32 shots on goal, while the Wings had 30. This is a team that’s been averaging 11 more shots for than against in their run back to the Finals, so it’s definitely worth pointing out that the Penguins at least won that battle.

And the fact that the won only 16 of 55 faceoffs makes that stat even more surprising. Just imagine what can happen if the Pens do better at faceoffs and at clearing the puck the rest of the series.

Game 2 preview

The series resumes tonight at 8 pm on NBC, the first set of back-to-back games in the Finals since 1993. Some in the Wings’ organization have complained about the unusual scheduling, and they have Conan O’Brien to thank.

The late night host kicks off his stint on The Tonight Show starting Monday night, and since NBC had the rights to Games 1 and 2, they chose to schedule the games on weekends, not just because they didn’t want to have any of Conan’s shows delayed because of overtime, but also because they’d rather not have the NHL on during weeknights.

So to Wings fans – well, your conspiracy theories about the NHL helping out the Penguins are pretty much just that, silly conspiracy theories.

As for NBC, what else can you expect. The NHL basically is at their mercy. They push hockey down to 12:30 pm games on Sundays in favor of golf during the regular season, and of course, they’re also known for moving playoff games that go to overtime to Versus because of a four-hour prerace show for the Kentucky Derby.

And oh yeah, there’s that whole thing about their greedy execs not wanting to make an exception and allowing the screen outside of Mellon Arena. So if you haven’t followed the Pensblog’s lead, ‘do it’ now and contact their greedy execs.

Anyway, for the Pens to tie the series tonight, they won’t just need better goaltending and a better effort defensively. If they’re not going to win at least 50% of the draws, then they should at least concentrate on winning  some of the key faceoffs.

Also, their power play was dreadful on their two chances at the beginning of the first period in Game 1, and they’re not gonna get many chances against Detroit. So if they do get power plays, they have to win the key faceoffs deep in Detroit’s zone, move the puck quickly and keep it simple. That means not passing up shots, not forcing the puck to the big boys, and making life difficult for Osgood by crashing the net.

Notes and video

• Pavel Datsyuk and Kris Draper will once again be scratched tonight, as Red Wings coach Mike Babcock has decided to keep his lineup intact for Game 2. Given the fact that they won Game 1 and that Game 3 is coming up on Tuesday, this is probably a good decision for the Wings.
• There’s no doubt that the Penguins already knew about the lively boards at Joe Louis Arena and Marc-Andre Fleury was aware of how much the Wings use them to their advantage. However, one must wonder if once they dropped the puck, he forgot all about it. The Pens should take a hint and use the boards to their advantage as well.
• YouTube highlights from last night courtesy of AGreatDayForHockey87.
• Full post-game interviews from last night with Fedotenko, Talbot, Fleury, Letang and Gill from FSN, courtesy of GhostWalker40.
• And here’s Crosby’s post-game press conference.
• Pens TV as always has more interviews, and they should have new ones today.

And finally… Super Mario

The big guy has decided to finally start doing interviews, and like Gary Thorne would say, you gotta love it.

Let’s Go Pens! Join us in the chat room tonight.