Penguins 4, Red Wings 2 - Postgame - 6-4-09
POSTGAME
-What more can you say about Evgeni Malkin? He makes everyone on his team better. Even Sidney Crosby. So much has been made out of this series about the Crosby-Zetterberg match up. The Red Wings need to find someone to stop Malkin. And they need to do it fast.
-Marc-Andre Flery had another huge effort. He was always in position, he dealt with players like Tomas Holmstrom and other in his face crashing the crease and he just seemed totally composed. He was only beaten twice on two goals his teammates left him out to dry on. There was a reason he was named the first star of the game.
-Crosby and Staal each broke out of slumps. Staal's shorthanded goal changed the game and gave the Penguins all the momentum. Crosby looked like he was playing a regular season game against the Islanders at times tonight.
-Staal's goal very much reminded us of the player that burst onto the scene here in 2006-07. He just used his body (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) to blow by the much smaller Rafalski (5-foot-11, 191 pounds) and showed the scoring touch that allowed him to punch in 29 goals his rookie season.
-Detroit as a whole looks a little worn down. The Penguins have played them pretty physicial for three of the four games and you have to wonder if the smaller older team is starting to run out of gas.
-Has anyone seen Nicklas Lidstrom? He's not normally a guy who does too many things that really stand out that much. That's just the nature of the position. But he has seemed rather ordinary for most of this series. We wonder how healthy he is. Brad Stuart has been Detroit's best blue liner.
-We won't say the Penguins have Chris Osgood figured out. They beat him by simply generating some fantastic scoring chances. You find us a goaltender who can stop some of the chances he gave up goals on.
-Matt Cooke continued to just hit anything in red and white. He's really inflicted a lot of punishment on Detroit.
-Officiating continues to be horrendous. Each team got away with stuff that would've been called in the regular season.
-Helm has been Detroit's best forward this series for our money. He played well in all three zones and has been strong in the faceoff circle.
-Hossa's getting chances but he's not converting. Detroit fans have to be disappointed in his offensive production.
-We'd bench Draper regardless of his health. Justin Abdelkader has been a far better player.
-The Red Wings ended up with a 39-31 lead in shots.
-Hossa, Franzen and Malkin each led the game with six shots.
-The Red Wings had a 34-27 lead in faceoffs.
-Malkin was 4-for-5 (80 percent).
-Helm was 8-for-12 (67 percent).
-Lidstrom led the game with 24:10 of ice time.
-Gonchar led the Penguins with 21:34.
-Scuderi and Orpik each led the game with three blocked shots.
-Lidstrom paced the Red Wings with two.
-Malkin, Crosby and Staal each had a goal and an assist.
-Crosby (31) and Malkin (35) became first pair of teammates to hit the 30-point plateau in the same postseason since Brian Leetch (34) and Messier (30) with the 1994 Rangers.
-Malkin now has has the eighth highest single-postseason point total in NHL history. Geez.
-Malkin has seven points (two goals, five assists) this final.
-Speaking of Malkin, check out the mob around his dad after the game:
-If they handed out the Conn Smythe Award today, it would prompt a lot of questions as to why they handed it out so early and Malkin would get our hypothetical vote.
-Malkin recorded his 60th and 61st career postseason points.
-Staal's shorthanded goal was the first of his postseason career and it was his first overall since a 5-3 loss at Colorado, Jan. 10.
-Staal reached a career-high with his eighth postseason point.
-Staal moved into the franchise's top 25 career postseason scorers and passed Jean Pronovost for 24th place. Each player has 18 points, but Staal (12) has more points than Pronovost (nine).
-Letang picked up his 15th career postseason point and moved into the franchise's top 30 career postseason scorers.
-Talbot scored his 20th career postseason point.
-Kennedy moved into the top 50 among the team's career postseason leaders with his 11th point.