Detroit Red Wings at Pittsburgh Penguins Game 3 (Wings lead 2-0)
It’s hard to blame just one person for the fact that the Pittsburgh Penguins are down 0-2 in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Detroit Red Wings for the second straight year.
But if one person is getting a large part of the blame, it’s Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby.
While superstar teammate Evgeni Malkin has a goal and an assist in the two games,
Crosby, the NHL’s second-leading scorer in this postseason, is pointless. In part that’s because the Wings, with the last line change in Detroit, have used Henrik Zetterberg and his line to stymie Crosby and his line.
Crosby didn’t score in consecutive playoff games for the first time since Games 1 and 2 of the finals against Detroit last season. But will the Pens having the last change in tonight’s Game 3 make the difference? Oddsmakers at WagerWeb.com seem to think so, as the Pens are -145 money line favorites.
“Certainly, I thought Crosby has done a good job of working and battling through it.
We’ve gotten a number of situations where we’ve gotten scoring chances, good scoring chances, and those are indications that you look for,” Pens coach Dan Bylsma said.
“We’ve had pucks in and around their goalie. We’ve talked about a couple of situations where it’s in the crease on the goalie, you know, scrambles there.”
Zetterberg, the 2008 playoff MVP, sacrificed his offensive game to pay more attention to Crosby. Zetterberg is a plus-2, however.
The Crosby-Bill Guerin-Chris Kunitz line, which has been one of the most offensively productive units since it was formed in early March, has been shut down this series by the line Zetterberg centers with Johan Franzen and Dan Cleary.
Despite recording just an assist this series, Zetterberg ranks second on the Red Wings this postseason with 19 points and nine goals, so he might be in line for another playoff MVP.
In reality, how far this series goes probably depends on Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. His save percentage is .886 in the Cup Finals, and no goaltender has been able to beat the Red Wings in recent years unless his save percentage was .924.
What makes Fleury’s struggles more troublesome is that Wings goalie Chris Osgood has stopped 62 of 64 shots (.968 save percentage) in the first two games.
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