By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Blame goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury all you want for the Penguins' rotten predicament. He deserves it. He has been badly outplayed by Detroit's Chris Osgood in the first two games of the Stanley Cup final. If that continues tonight in Game 3 at Mellon Arena, the Penguins' season will be over before the weekend is done.
Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
The Penguins hope to see more production out of Sidney Crosby now that coach Dan Bylsma controls the matchup of lines on home ice.
But Fleury's erratic play isn't what doomed your favorite hockey club in Games 1 and 2 in Detroit. Clearly, that would be the lack of production from stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Here's their sorry scorecard after the pair of 3-1 losses:
Crosby -- no goals, no assists, one cheap shot on Detroit's Kirk Maltby at the end of Game 1.
Malkin -- one lucky goal that Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart kicked in, one assist, one cheap shot on the Red Wings' Henrik Zetterberg near the end of Game 2.
Crosby and Malkin have done a nice job of beating up the Detroit players, but they certainly haven't done much damage to Osgood.
Maybe that isn't totally fair. Maybe that isn't giving Osgood, who has stopped 62 of 64 shots and allowed just a single goal in four consecutive playoff games, his just due. "Ozzie's been amazing," Detroit winger Dan Cleary said. "I've never seen him play better," Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom added.
It's also not as if Crosby and Malkin have been invisible. Crosby had to play against Zetterberg -- a terrific player, especially defensively -- much of the time and still had or created plenty of scoring chances. He hit posts in each game, might have had a Game 2 goal taken away from him when Zetterberg covered the puck near or over the goal line -- replays were inconclusive -- and set up linemates Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin for at least three tremendous opportunities that Kunitz and Guerin failed to convert. Malkin figured in both Penguins' goals, although, again, Stuart deserves much credit for the one in Game 2. Malkin is the first player to get 30 points in a playoff year since Colorado's Joe Sakic did it 13 years ago.
But the harsh truth is that isn't enough from Crosby and Malkin, at least not if the Penguins are going to win the Cup. They can't keep being outscored in the series by somebody named Justin Abdelkader. The terrible trend that has developed -- the Red Wings have scored six even-strength goals, the Penguins one -- simply can't continue or this Cup party will be over in four games.
Coming close isn't enough from Crosby. This is a man who still leads the pack in this playoff run with 14 goals. Getting great scoring opportunities isn't enough from Malkin. This is a man who wasted those chances to put the Penguins in control in each game.
It's probably no wonder Malkin went berserk on Zetterberg late in Game 2, wailing away on him and drawing an instigator penalty and game misconduct. By NHL rule, he should be suspended for Game 3 but isn't because, well, his name is Malkin and the league refuses to take its stars out of the big games for anything less than murder. You and the Penguins had better never whine again about how Washington's Alex Ovechkin wasn't suspended for that knee-on-knee hit on Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar in the second round last month.
DETROIT - MAY 31: Evgeni Malkin(notes) #71 of the Pittsburgh Penguins looks on against the Detroit Red Wings during Game Two of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on May 31, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)If the Penguins lose the series, Malkin long will remember the breakaway he failed to convert in Game 1 when it was 1-1 or the sweet pass from linemate Max Talbot that he failed to convert in Game 2 when it was 1-1. Aren't the truly great players supposed to score in those situations?
WWMD?
You know, What Would Mario Do?
Of course, Malkin is no Lemieux.
But Osgood -- no matter how well he's playing -- isn't Martin Brodeur, either.
It's nice to think Crosby and Malkin will get it going tonight. With the last line change, the Penguins will be able to get Crosby away from the great Zetterberg. Maybe the ugly incident with Zetterberg will inspire Malkin the way a hit from Carolina's Scott Walker and the exchange of punches soon after with the Hurricanes' Chad LaRose did in the previous series when he had a hat trick in Game 2 and two goals and an assist in Game 3. And here's hoping Penguins coach Dan Bylsma does a better job getting Crosby and Malkin on the ice. They played 19:36 and 20:23, respectively, in Game 2, which is not nearly enough.
If there's any reason for hope, it's that Crosby was remarkably upbeat after Game 2, a stark contrast from his mood after the first game. It was after Game 1 that he lost his cool by whacking Maltby on the skates on his way off the ice because of what he termed excessive "chirping" by Maltby.
"We're doing good things," Crosby said. "We know if we keep playing the same way, we can come out on the right side."
Defenseman Mark Eaton was singing the same song on the other side of the Penguins' room.
"I don't think we're going to change much," he said. "We've just got to keep going at them and eventually we'll get a few past [Osgood]."
Eventually?
How about tonight?
Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
First published on June 2, 2009 at 12:00 am
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