The home team wins again

The Penguins won at home to force game seven against the defending champion Red Wings which will be played on Friday. The home team has won every game so far this series, which would indicate that Detroit would be expected to win the cup as they have the only remaining home date. Still now that it is up to a single game seven the series could very well be decided by a single lucky bounce, and Pittsburgh does not need to much of a fluke to happen to pull off the win. All the team really needs is a good game from Fleury. Still it may well happen that no team wins on the road all series, either way everything is over by the end of this week, with one team or the other taking home the trophy.

Short handed goal allows Pittsburgh to tie up the series

Jordan Stall put together an all around great two way game including a short handed goal to tie up the Stanley Cup finals with Detroit. By winning two of the first four games the Penguins avoid the finals from being a repeat of last year, or a repeat of the Detroit-Chicago series.

Kennedy also had a real nice goal in the game, forcing a turnover, and then two passes later sending the puck into the net.

This has been a series in which match ups have been important, and the home team has won every game so far, in part because of the ability to get the needed match ups. If the Penguins want to win they will have to take at least one game on the road.

Still for the first time this series the Penguins have to be viewed as the favorite to win. Their two wins were far more convincing than the two by the Red Wings, and any chance of the defending champions simply overrunning Pittsburgh have now been shown to be unrealistic. This series is now guaranteed to go at least six games, and has a good chance of lasting the full seven.

Penguins use the powerplay to get a win

The Pittsburgh Penguins won their first game of the finals Tuesday night with a score of 4-2 after earning two goals off of the powerplay.

The Penguins got the early lead in the game, but then quickly gave it up and even fell behind, before tying up the game 2-2 where the score stayed from the middle of the first period until midway through the third. Then the Penguins took a 3-2 lead off of a powerplay goal and got another empty netter to seal the deal.

The Penguins were two for three on the powerplay and it made all the difference in this game. Detroit for their part were one for two on their man advantage opportunities.

The Penguins now have a chance in this series, only being down 2-1. Still they lost in the finals last year after being in the same position, and will need to continue this production with the man advantage, and to get more out of Sidney Crosby if they want to win the Stanley Cup.

And a loss to the Red Wings

Buffalo inched closer to being mathematically eliminated by losing to the Red Wings 4-1 in a game that wasn't even close.

While there was a back and forth first period, Buffalo predictably gave up and allowed the game to get out of hand.

The one exception as usual was Paul Gaustad. After Detroit scored to go up 3-0, the camera went to Gaustad on the bench and he looked rather pissed that his team had been scored on. Had Gaustad been out on the ice for that shift he probably would have prevented that goal. Next shift when he did get on the ice, he put in Buffalo's only goal of the night.

Official Three Stars

Marian Hossa

Tomas Holmstrom

Chris Osgood

My Three Stars

Marian Hossa (two goals, one assist, plus two)

Nicklas Lidstrom (one goal, one assist, plus three)

Pavel Datsyuk (two assists, plus two)

Detroit overruns Buffalo

The Sabres really got overrun by Detroit in their 3-1 loss. Buffalo got outshot 48-22 in the game. Yet Miller put in one of his best performances, and almost stole a second straight game.

The Sabres scored the games first goal, but there was no question throughout the entire game that the Red Wings were the better team. The only difference was Miller, who was able to hold onto Buffalo's lead for a long while, before finally letting some by at the end of the third.

Detroit also dominated on faceoffs, winning an impressive 65%, with not a single Sabre finishing the game with a winning percentage.

Official Three Stars

Mikael Samuelsson

Ryan Miller

Johan Franzen

My Three Stars

Mikael Samuelsson (one goal, one assist, plus two, four shots)

Ryan Miller (45 saves, and the only reason the game was close)

Jiri Hudler (one goal, one assist, plus two)

A belated look at the Winter Classic

Once again this new years day the NHL staged an outside game for the second year in a row. The game was quite different from outdoor games of the past, with the ice conditions actually good, and the weather ideal for the event. This allowed it to become a high scoring affair with Detroit making the comeback to win 6-4.

As I predicted the game was well watched in the Buffalo area, with the market just behind those that actually had teams playing in the game.

For a look at where the game may go in the future things haven't changed much from last year, but right now the leading contender looks to be Boston which really wouldn't be that bad of a choice. Still I wish the event could stay in Buffalo, as I am sure the city would be able to support it on a yearly basis.

I still feel that Baseball venues are ill suited for this type of event, but they made it work. Just 357 days until the next time the NHL plays outdoors.

The Winter Classic enters its second year

While Buffalo does not have the same excitement for this years version of the ice bowl, this is still a major event on the NHL calendar. The Chicago Blackhawks will host the Detroit Red Wings at Wrigley Field.

While Buffalo is not involved, and is actually playing later today against Toronto, there is still plenty of reasons to be interested in this game. For one these type of events do not happen all too often, although Ty Conklin always seems to be involved. This is Conklin's third outdoor NHL game, making him the only player to go three for three. Secondly after dismissing the game as the "fucking stupid ice bowl" Campbell is back to telling the media how awesome the idea is, and how much fun he is going to be having at the event.

Detroit is a very good team (they are the defending champions), but I will be rooting for Chicago, who has put together a very good past month themselves. I have mentioned by support for the Blackhawks before, they are a very good and very likeable team.

Last season I looked at where the Winter Classic might go next, and Chicago was an option, although I was thinking of their football stadium rather than a baseball field. Baseball fields are a bit different, and it is likely that some of the seats will be very far away and have almost no view of the rink. Overall I think the event would have been better served if it had simply stayed in Buffalo, but it will be interesting to see how long it takes to finally come back.

A few things to watch for in this game, first the ice conditions had a huge effect on the ending last time. Both goals were scored at the very beginning of the periods when the ice was in better shape. Both players who scored in that game were also traded away before the end of the season, expect that not to repeat itself. Watch for Ty Conklin to be in his third ever outdoor game, which is rather lucky. Also tomorrow look and see what the TV ratings in the Buffalo area are. My guess is that they will continue to be high, as the region remembers last years event with pride.

Buffalo finishes the preseason in Detroit

Buffalo finished its preseason schedule with a 3-0 loss to the Red Wings. The game was much closer then the score indicates though, as the final goal was an empty netter, and Roy put one in the net, that didn't count only because the NHL doesn't use replay in the preseason. And seeing as how it doesn't really count there is no reason that they should.

Andrej Sekera got alot of playing time (lead the team) and looked good. He was only a minus one in the game for being on the ice for the empty netter. In less play time Sabres newcomer Craig Rivet also looked good, but was on the ice for all three goals against.

Buffalo's powerplay was also very poor in this game going zero for eleven. Sometimes the couldn't even get the puck in the zone, other times Ty Conklin played well, and earned himself the shutout.

Central division

For most of the past decade the central division was the easiest in the NHL, and the Red Wings took advantage of this year after year to repeatedly win the president's trophy. Starting with last season the division has gotten tougher and should be much more competitive this year. However there is no reason to expect the Red Wings not to come in first.

#1 Detroit Red Wings
Winners of both the President's trophy and the Stanley Cup last season, there is little reason to expect this team to fall. The team lost almost no one except for replacing aging goalie Dominik Hasek with Ty Conklin who had a breakout year last season as the back up in Pittsburgh. Detroit also managed to sign this offseason's most coveted free agent, Marian Hossa for a completely reasonable amount.

#2 Chicago Blackhawks
Although finishing just outside of the playoffs last season Chicago is clearly a team on the rise and will be much improved this year. The team's young core of Kane, Toews, Sharp and Byfuglien have all returned. Furthermore they have bolstered their defense by signing former Sabre Brian Campbell. Also they have signed goalie Cristobal Huet leaving Khabibulin as the backup and committing $12.375 million of cap space to their goaltending. However the team has not resigned Kevyn Adams and unexpectedly traded away Robert Lang for only a draft pick. Chicago was the only team in the league that didn't look scared of the Red Wings throughout the season.

#3 Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators slipped into the playoffs in the eighth spot last season and are likely to finish close to that spot again. The team played well in the playoffs only losing to division rival and eventual cup winners Detroit in six games. The predators have one of the league's top goalies in Dan Ellis. The team is also lead by former Sabre JP Dumont. On the downside they lost rising star Alex Radulov to Russia, and have a mess of an ownership situation.

#4 St. Louis Blues
The good news is that this is at least a team on the rise. While they will almost assuredly finish in the bottom two in their division and out of the playoffs the team will get better by next year. They have a decent goalie in Legacé and some veteran leadership in Paul Kariya and former Sabre Jay McKee. They also have some good young players such as Stanley cup winner Andy McDonald, rookie T.J. Oshie, and West Seneca native Lee Stempniak.

#5 Columbus Blue Jackets
While better than they were last season, the Blue Jackets have little to no chance of making the playoffs. The team brought in some veterans such as R.J. Umberger, Mike Commodore, and Kristian Huselius, but still lack the depth do go far. Their goalie is ok, but this team is not set for success.

Defense wins championships

The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley cup against the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. The sixth game wasn't all that close for the first two periods, and then down 3-1 the Penguins only managed to get one shot on goal in the first 16 minutes of the third. They really did try hard for the final few minutes of the game, but thats a strategy I've seen fail for the Sabres time and time again these past two seasons.

Henrik Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe, and Crosby and Hossa also did very well for their team as well. It should be interesting to see where Hossa ends up during the off-season. For the Red Wings both Cleary, and Lindstrom had very good series as well.

Hasek got another cup as he put up a 2-2 playoff record for his team. Osgood was probably the biggest surprise player of this post season, but he did get plenty of help from his defense. Marc-Andre Fleury played well for the Penguins especially in game five where he had 50 saves. Still he let in to bad goals in game six, and wasn't the overwhelmingly dominant player that Pittsburgh needed to be to bail them out at that point.

Given how flat the Penguins were in games one and two of the series, it's hard to say that the best team didn't win. Crosby will have to wait another year.

Detroit Dominates in the early going

Detroit has been rather dominate so far in the finals. With 4-0 and 3-0 wins it is starting to look as if Pittsburgh doesn't have a chance. This is all despite that the Penguins looked like the better team coming in.

Chris Osgood has a two game shutout now, and while he is helped by the leagues best defense the fact that he can shutout players like Crosby, Malkin, and Hossa is impressive.

Penguins on their end really need to step it up. Dallas, and even Nashville did much better against Detroit then Pittsburgh is doing, and there is really no excuse for that. It's not as if the Red Wings are without flaws, but you need to get some goals if you ever want to be able to win the cup.

Game three of the Stanley Cup finals is Wednesday night.

Time to break out the brooms

The Pittsburgh Penguins continued their nearly perfect post season with a 4-1 win over the Flyers on Tuesday night. This gives their third 3-0 series lead in this year's playoffs. While the Rangers did manage to force a game five, the Penguins have been pretty close to perfect in this post season and have put up an impressive 11-1 record.

Out west Detroit is doing the same thing. The Red Wings have given themselves a 3-0 series lead over Dallas, and after sweeping the Avalanche in the last round, have won nine straight games.

The entire third round of the playoffs could easily be done by Thursday May 15th which would almost ensure that playoff hockey doesn't even make it to June this year. After a very exciting first round to the playoffs, rounds two and three have been very straight forward, and over rather quickly. Fortunately the good side to this is that the finals between Pittsburgh and Detroit promise to be exciting. With these two teams clearly a full step ahead of the rest, watching the young offensive team take on the older defensive team will be quite the exciting match up.

Until then it's just time to bust out the brooms and get this second round over with.

The Favorites are winning

So far in the Conference Finals, both of the favorites have come out ahead with 2-0 leads. Both teams have done very well for themselves, and at this point it almost appears as if we could just skip ahead to the final round. While I actually picked the Stars to win, and thought that the Flyers could make it close, there is little to no reason to expect either team to win four of five at this point which is what it would take to win.

Pittsburgh is having a great year in the playoffs, and has put together and increadable 10-1 record. Furthermore they are mostly injury free, and have gotten solid play from Crosby, Malkin, and Hossa. This makes it difficult to slow them down, to the point that you really can't beat the Penguins with a defensive battle.

Detroit is also doing very well with a record of 10-2 and an even better 8-0 with Osgood as a starter. Granted Detroit's first round opponents were relatively easy, but with the way they are outshooting the Stars they have been a bit dominate in the first two games of this series.

For the Flyers and Stars, they are both seeing the limitations of relying too heavily on goaltending, and can't win when the other team has far better offense. The Flyers are ok up front, but have to manage on without Kimmo Timonen and now Braydon Coburn for their defense. Playing Hatcher for 28 minutes a game isn't ever going to win you anything, let alone against the high powered offense in Pittsburgh. For Dallas, they are still doing ok in their own end, but are unable to put forward any offensive push at all. Detroit's defensemen, are shutting down Dallas, and making things easy for Osgood. As Turco proved with his three shutouts last playoffs, you need more than a really good goaltender to win. The two Martys have not been the problem, everyone else is.

Detroit scores 8 to sweep

Detroit got one goal, for every leg of their octopuses in their final game of a four game sweep of the Colorado Avalanche. The Red Wings had been dominate the entire series, but this game wasn't even close, and Detroit didn't even prop up their goal total on empty netters. The Avalanche entered the third period down 0-3 in the series, and 1-7 in the game. Going into those final twenty minutes they knew that they didn't really have anything to play for.

The Penguins on the other hand, were unable to remain undefeated in the post season, and where shutout by the Rangers. Still, they should be the favorites to move on out of that series, and this single loss should do little to slow them down.

Dallas and San Jose have the only game on Friday night.

Setting up the Sweep

All three of Tuesday's games have given the winner a 3-0 series lead, and a chance to get the sweep. While the Stars wins over the Sharks have been the closest (two of the three came in overtime), they will have the first chance to eliminate their second round opponent when they play on Wednesday night.

There is a possibility that all three teams will pull off the sweep, and the second round will be over much quicker then the first round was. Round two could see three series over after just four games, while round one only saw that happen once, and had three series go to the full seven.

The Penguins are going the best of all the teams and are 7-0 in the playoffs so far. Theoretically they could win all 16 games to take the cup. Regardless they are at least doing much better than the 0-4 record that they put up in the post season last year.

Buffalo outplayed again

The Sabres got outplayed once again, losing to the Red Wings 4-2. The Sabres got an early goal from Kaleta, but were otherwise flat throughout most of the game.

Vanek and Roy who had been playing well as of late finished the game a combined minus five with zero points. Miller actually played well in this game, and had little to no chance on the ones that did beat him. Both teams were an acceptable (but unspectacular) one for six with the man advantage.

Kaleta actually had a pretty good game and was plus one with a goal (and three hits) in the loss. The Sabres other goal scorer, Jason Pominville also played well and had eight shots on the night, while the only goal against he was on the ice for came on the penalty kill.

What the Sabres really need is Jochen Hecht to be healthy again. Maybe by Buffalo's next game on Wednesday against Philadelphia.

Official Three Stars

Niklas Kronvall

Johan Franzen

Patrick Kaleta

My Three Stars

Johan Franzen (one goal, one assist, plus one)

Niklas Kronvall (two assists, plus three)

Valtteri Filppula (one goal, one assist, plus one)