Bring on the Penguins…once again. The entire postseason I have watched the Penguins and hoped that someone would knock them off. Well, I guess the Wings will have to step in and do it once again this year.
Honestly if it was any other year and someone told me that Osgood was playing great going into the Stanley Cup finals I would say why bother playing the series, just give the Wings the Cup now. Eastern Conference teams just don’t see the tough defense like the Wings have, and the Wings can score as much or more than Eastern Conference teams against the tougher defensive teams of the Western Conference. However, this year is a little bit different and I have to say it is certainly not a lock for the Wings (ESPN says the Wings aren’t even the favorite).There are four strikes against the Wings that make this much more of a challenge then the typical Stanley Cup Finals (earlier I thought if we beat Anaheim the Cup was ours…now I think it’s still up for grabs).
1) Penguins again – We have to play the same team two years in a row, which means they have a team full of guys that don’t want to go through the agony of losing again.
2) Hossa – He was their top player from last years finals (I think) and turned down a lot of money from them to play for us for less money because he said he wanted to win a Cup…while this is added motivation for Hossa, it is also a lot of motivation for the entire Penguins team.
3) Wings Injuries – Injuries are piling up for the Wings. We are deep but I don’t want to have to play the Penguins without Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Ericsson and Draper. The Wings are great and the young guys have really impressed me, but I don’t want to have to fight battle with both arms tied behind our back.
4) Schedule – The NHL has successfully created the worst possible schedule for the Wings. With all the injuries and three overtime games in the previous series the Wings now have to play the opening two games on back to back nights…well there goes home ice advantage. Oh and they are considering an earlier start than 8pm on the Sunday game, which would mean the first two games at home for the Wings will be played in less than 24 hours. What the What!!!
If it were any team besides the Red Wings I would say they didn’t have a chance, but since it is the Wings I’ll still say they’ll win it. However, I expect a really long challenging series…though if the Wings could do a solid for a long time fan and sweep them it would really help me since my wedding is during Game 5, thanks.
Honestly if it was any other year and someone told me that Osgood was playing great going into the Stanley Cup finals I would say why bother playing the series, just give the Wings the Cup now. Eastern Conference teams just don’t see the tough defense like the Wings have, and the Wings can score as much or more than Eastern Conference teams against the tougher defensive teams of the Western Conference. However, this year is a little bit different and I have to say it is certainly not a lock for the Wings (ESPN says the Wings aren’t even the favorite).There are four strikes against the Wings that make this much more of a challenge then the typical Stanley Cup Finals (earlier I thought if we beat Anaheim the Cup was ours…now I think it’s still up for grabs).
1) Penguins again – We have to play the same team two years in a row, which means they have a team full of guys that don’t want to go through the agony of losing again.
2) Hossa – He was their top player from last years finals (I think) and turned down a lot of money from them to play for us for less money because he said he wanted to win a Cup…while this is added motivation for Hossa, it is also a lot of motivation for the entire Penguins team.
3) Wings Injuries – Injuries are piling up for the Wings. We are deep but I don’t want to have to play the Penguins without Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Ericsson and Draper. The Wings are great and the young guys have really impressed me, but I don’t want to have to fight battle with both arms tied behind our back.
4) Schedule – The NHL has successfully created the worst possible schedule for the Wings. With all the injuries and three overtime games in the previous series the Wings now have to play the opening two games on back to back nights…well there goes home ice advantage. Oh and they are considering an earlier start than 8pm on the Sunday game, which would mean the first two games at home for the Wings will be played in less than 24 hours. What the What!!!
If it were any team besides the Red Wings I would say they didn’t have a chance, but since it is the Wings I’ll still say they’ll win it. However, I expect a really long challenging series…though if the Wings could do a solid for a long time fan and sweep them it would really help me since my wedding is during Game 5, thanks.
