Though they dominated puck possession and scoring opportunities Tuesday night, the Detroit Red Wings were unable to deliver the three-game-up knockout punch to Sidney Crosby and his Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens will have a chance to even up the series tonight in Pittsburgh and, once again, expect Evgeni Malkin to be the deciding factor. The Wings have had last year’s Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Henrik Zetterberg, shadow Crosby during the series, and the attention Sid’s garnered should leave Malkin with enough breathing room to do something spectacular, as we have grown to expect of him. Detroit’s game strategy will be to stay out of the sin bin, where they were burned twice last game for powerplay markers by the talented Pens.
As for the playoff pool, things have really tightened up. At the top of the five-man battle, schrader45 and gvn2fly are engaged in a Pens vs Wings battle to decide our winner. Imagine the excitement of a potential game seven to decide the $341 difference between first and second place! Go Pens/Kunitz…
With NHL free agency less than a month away, rumors are running rampant over “who’s-seeking-who”. Apparently the Philadelphia Flyers were unsatisfied with the play of their goaltending tandem this year, Martin Biron and Antero Niittymaki, and have been in contact with Ray Emery. Remember him? The former Ottawa Senator played in the Russian KHL this past season, where he had a very solid season leading his team to a third place finish, while posting some impressive stats. Fellow KHLer Jaromir Jagr has been rumored to be interested in making a return to the NHL, but insists that he will finish out his current contract in Omsk, and that at earliest, he will return to NHL action in 2010. Jagr has always enjoyed the limelight playing in North America, and barring a serious injury, I think we can expect to see Jaromir back on NHL ice surfaces in two years.