Finals Talk

I gave my finals prediction over on the NY Times before the start of the series. I went with Wings in six but right now it sure looks like Wings in four. The truth is that Pittsburgh outplayed Detroit in the first period of game 1 as Nick Lidstrom made two uncharacteristic turnovers. Game 3 is rolling around on Wednesday and the Penguins really need to score the first goal to get their confidence back.

If you look at the TOI breakdown Crosby is out against the Wings top D paring of Lidstrom and Rafalski 75% of the time and the 2nd pairing the rest. The third paring is never out there against the Penguin's top player--with the last change going to Pittsburgh that should change some in Game 3. But the burden is really on Malkin who is seeing mostly the 2nd Detroit D pairing (Kronwall and B. Stuart) and the 3rd pairing to produce.