Penguins v. Red Wings

I didn't do much yesterday. We went to my lot in Rector for awhile. It was very peaceful and beautiful up there. Since I don't have much to report, I will take this opportunity to talk about the Stanley Cup Finals.

There is a lot of talk about the fact that the Penguins did not face the Red Wings this year and so the Pens and the fans here don't know much about the Red Wings. That is not the case with me. I watched the Red Wings a lot during the hockey season. They were often on Versus. I mainly watched them because I'm a big fan of Dominik Hasek. He didn't do great in the playoffs, so he was replaced with Osgood. I know who Zetterberg, Franzen, Duck Soup (?) - sorry I can't spell their names, Lily Ya (sic), Draper, etc. are. I'm no expert on the Red Wings, but I watched them a lot. I know more about them than if the Pens were playing the Stars, the Ducks, the Sharks, or anyone else who could have been the opponent. I actually attended a lot of Sharks games when I lived in San Francisco, but that was a long time ago. I'm not that familiar with their current team. But I am somewhat familiar with the Red Wings. So, just the fact that I pretty much know the team has kept me, to some extent, from being in some type of state of shock where I just don't know what hit me.

I learned something about the Red Wings during this playoff season, because I ended up watching them some during the playoffs. The Red Wings basically take an overwhelming lead against their opponents so that by the time their opponents begin to wear them down, it is too late. The Penguins have done the same thing. Each team had home advantage and used it. This time, the Penguins don't have home advantage, so the Red Wings are doing it to them. Even Hasek was part of this strategy. When he was dumped, he had gotten them off to an overwhelming lead, but he started blowing it, and he was replaced by Osgood. Osgood did the same thing Hasek did. He got them off to overwhelming leads and then started to blow it. But because he did not blow it as bad as Hasek, because others could be blamed, and because it probably wouldn't have looked good to make a second goaltender change back to the former goaltender who was pulled, they've stayed with Osgood.

We will not have a sense of the outcome of all this until game 3 on Wednesday night. If the Penguins win at home and make a strong showing, that it may just show that each team does better at home and they may have to duke it out 7 games. If the Red Wings do well at Mellon Arena, then the Penguins may not be able to bounce back enough to make a run at taking the series.

In any case, there is much we can learn from the Red Wings. The Red Wings have been a good team for a long time in spite of having low draft picks. In addition, the Red Wings, as we have learned this playoff season, have remained a good team in spite of low fan enthusiasm. The Penguins are good for an entirely different reason. The Penguins are good because they were very bad for many years and were lucky enough to get high draft picks when the best draft picks were available. So the Penguins are very good now because very young dudes who are the most talented players available in the draft in recent history are very good right away. Ray Shero was very smart in getting Hossa and trying for the cup this year before some of these very good young players go off to other teams. In addition, the Penguins DO have enthusiastic fans, and they are getting a new arena. So if the Penguins don't beat the Red Wings this year, we can learn from them about how to keep a good team for years to come even when we do not continue to have high draft picks.

We are very lucky that we do have young players that we acquired through very lucky draft picks. We have enthusiastic fans, and we are getting a new arena. We have much more than Detroit has. They have been able to get where they are without the benefit of what we have. So we are very lucky and we have a bright future.