Room for Osgood in the Record book

The NHL created an alternate site for the playoffs and on that site, you can find Both playoff and final series records and in different categories.

One record that could be with in his reach, is one that his teammate Hasek established the last time the Red Wings win the cup. In 2002, Dominik Hasek had gone 166 mins and 3 seconds without letting a goal in against the Carolina Hurricanes, which was 22 mins and 32 seconds shy of Frank McCool’s record. Except McCool had established his record from game 1 in the 1945 cup Final against Detroit. With an another goaless performance by Osgood in game three, he would be only 8 mins and 36 seconds from re-writting Mr.McCool’s record, that has held up for the last 43 years now.

Osgood also could tie a record if he goes unscored on in game three. The most shoutouts in a final series. Martin Brodeur was the last to do it in 2003 against Mike Babcock’s Anaheim team.

If he let’s in less than 3 goals in this series, he would tie Terry Sawchuck for the fewest goals in one series.

Bowman : Red Wings secret weapon

The legendary coach won’t be stopping pucks on Penguins rushes, he won’t be playing the point on the powerplay with Nicklas Lidstrom, he won’t be in front of net chasing loose pucks, but he will be useful in an another way.

Scotty Bowman will have a birds eye view on what Pittsburgh coach Therrien will be throwing on the ice, taking notes and giving his recommendations to Wings coach Mike Babcock.

Pittsburgh coach, Michel Therrien, has said that he does not believe in line matching, one of Bowman’s masterfull skills in his coaching days. Therrien can say that all he wants, but I’m sure he knows that the legendary coach has always had a few tricks up his sleeve. True, Babcock is not Bowman, and has his own way in coaching, which is good, and Scotty won’t deny it, but at the back of Babcock’s mind, he has to say to himself, ‘’ I have a fountain of information, coaching knowledge and experience right in my backward, why not use it.’’

And Why not. You have to be brain dead or not have lived on this planet to not dig in to that vast and immense fountain of information. Babcock is far from being brain dead and has lived on this planet long enough to know that you don’t pass up chance like this, espacially that you have the better chance of winning a Stanley cup this time around then in the first one.Babcock was the coach of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks when they went to the cup finals in 2003 against the New Jersey Devils.

Bowman has won more games in both regular season and playoffs combined, than any player on both sides will ever play in their careers, and that includes both coaches.

A whisper from Bowman to Babcock, could change the series, and we will never know what was said, but it won’t matter once Lidstrom picks up the Stanley cup.

The Detroit Red Wings are headed to their fourth Stanley cup final in eleven years, which comes up to about a cup final appearance every 2.7 years. The Pittsburgh Penguins will make their first in 16 years. Sidney Crosby was not even 5 years old when now owner Mario Lemieux hoisted the big mug and the Conn Smythe Trophy for the second straight time.

The only common point between these teams besides their respective high octane offense, is that Scotty Bowman was behind the bench when both teams last won a Stanley Cup.

Scorring First

Detroit’s record when scoring first during these playoffs is 10-1, when trailing it’s 2-3. Pittsburgh has not lossed when they have scored first, and are even when trailing at 2-2. When leading after period 1, Detroit is 11-1, Pittsburgh is 7-0. Trailing after 1, Detroit is 0-1, Pittsburgh is 1-1.

Leading after two, Detroit is 11-0, Pittsburgh is 9-0. When trailing, Detroit is 0-3 and the Pens are 1-2.

No real advantage for either.

Face-offs

Advantage to Detroit, they are really good in the circle and it’s become their bread and butter. Detroit is at 55.7 % and Pittsburgh is at 46.7 %

Detroit has very good face-off guys in Draper and Zetterberg. Draper is at 63.4 and Zetterberg is at 57.9 %.

Jordan Staal has been the best for Pittsburgh so far in this run, but Crosby and the rest will have to step up their face-off skills to beat a very good Red Wings team.

Turnovers

As we saw in the Dallas-Detroit series, turnovers killed the Stars. Zetterberg and Datsyuk have 34 takeaways between the both of them. Pittsburgh is not too bad in that area either, as the Crosby line totals 40 takeaways, so beware Detroit.

I will say Detroit in 5

Finals Stats

Face-off circle is doing in Dallas and Philadelphia

Face-offs are key to the success you have in the playoffs, but not always. Detroit is ripping the Dallas Stars appart in the face-off circle, and in is being transformed into goals.

Look at the table for the three games played so far. These are face-offs in all three zones.

% percentage for the series.

Detroit	OFF	DEF	NEUT	TOT	Gametotal	%
Game 1	16	9	10	35	58	60.3
Game 2	13	12	14	39	55	70.9
Game 3	6	8	17	31	54	57.4
	35	29	41	105	167	62.9
	59.3	65.9	64.1

Dallas	OFF	DEF	NEUT	TOT	Gametotal	%
Game 1	10	6	7	23	58	39.7
Game 2	6	4	6	16	55	29.1
Game 3	8	5	10	23	54	42.6
	24	15	23	62	167	37.1
	40.7	34.1	35.9

You can’t expect to win to many games or series with averages like the ones obtained by Dallas.

In the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh series, the guys leading the series are miserable on the face-offs, but the pucks seems to follow them to the net and in.

Pittsburgh	OFF	DEF	NEUT	TOT	Gametotal	%
Game 1	7	9	12	28	54	51.9
Game 2	10	8	13	31	72	43.1
Game 3	5	5	11	21	50	42.0
	22	22	36	80	176	45.5

Philadelphia	OFF	DEF	NEUT	TOT	Gametotal	%
Game 1	8	3	15	26	54	48.1
Game 2	15	13	13	41	72	56.9
Game 3	8	3	18	29	50	58.0
	31	19.0	46.0	96	176	54.5

Winning face-offs don’t mean anything if your not doing anything with it afterwards.Detroit is steamrolling the Stars, and the Flyers are getting steamrolled, as they are not completing the work after the puck drops.

Most likely we will have a Pittsburgh-Detroit Stanley cup final. You can be sure that Detroit will want to continue it’s winning ways in the face-off circle, so Penguins beware, sharpen up your skills as the Wings mean business.