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GDT - S.C. Finals, Game 4: Red Wings (2-1) at Penguins (1-2)  (8:00)

by Jeff OKWingnut on 06/04/09 at 10:39 AM ET
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Do the Wings take a strangle-hold on the series tonight, and have an opportunity to hoist Lord Stanley at the JLA on Saturday?  Or will they be facing their first real adversity in this SCF?  We know that Kris Draper, the 2003 Selke winner (and Det’s leading faceoff player) is in tonight.  I would imagine that many of the “19” have made engaged in numerous pagan rituals to assuage the hockey gods into allowing the 2008 Selke winner (2009 Selke and Hart finalist) to take the ice tonight. According to “The Highlander” he practiced “hard”, and was centering Fil and Hoss on the 1A line. 

Malkin is a Red Wing Killer, and is pretty much, single handedly, carrying the Pens (assist on PIT lone goal in Game 1, scored PIT lone goal in 2, and 3 assists in game 3).  Adding Datsyuk into the line-up gives Uncle Mike greater flexibility in trying to defend Malkin.  It also should give the Wings more time with the damn puck, Datsyuk plays with it like it is his personal yo-yo.  Datsyuk should also create some matchup issues for Bylsma.  Maybe, just maybe, he and Draper will help DET’s ridiculously inept PK, it has to doesn’t it?  Thankfully DET still owns 5-5 play.  As an aside, can you imagine where the PENs would be without their Hart finalist?

It is game 4 tonight, time to unleash the Hoss!  I’ll be seeing you on the Hasek.
   

POST Season Team Stats (rank):

DET:  14-5 (w-l), .737 point% (1), 3.53 g/g (2), 2.10 ga/g (2), 2.00 5-5 f/a (1), 25.0 pp (3), 71.4 pk (14), 37.7 s/g (2), 28.7 sa/g (2), 53.3 fo% (2).

PIT:  13-7 (w-l), .650 point% (2), 3.55 g/g (1), 2.75 ga/g (7), 1.07 5-5 f/a (5), 21.4 pp (6), 83.6 pk (5), 34.0 s/g (4), 28.8 sa/g (3), 49.2 fo% (9).

PLAYOFF Player Stats:
DET Skaters:
POS Player GP G A PTS +/-  ATOI
C Johan Franzen 19 12 10 22 11 19:36
L Henrik Zetterberg 19 10 11 21 13 22:20
C Valtteri Filppula 19 2 13 15 8 17:25
R Marian Hossa 19 6 8 14 5 18:40
R Daniel Cleary 19 8 6 14 17 17:01
D Nicklas Lidstrom 17 4 9 13 10 25:42
C Jiri Hudler 19 4 6 10 2 14:00
R Mikael Samuelsson 19 5 4 9 7 15:13
D Brian Rafalski 14 2 7 9 10 22:38
D Brad Stuart 19 2 6 8 7 24:37
D Niklas Kronwall 19 1 7 8 4 23:31
L Tomas Holmstrom 19 2 5 7 0 13:51
C Pavel Datsyuk 13 1 6 7 4 20:22
D Jonathan Ericsson 18 3 3 6 10 19:29
D Brett Lebda 19 0 6 6 9 13:57
C Darren Helm 19 3 1 4 3 11:57
L Justin Abdelkader 10 2 1 3 2 6:58
L Ville Leino 6 0 2 2 2 8:26
R Tomas Kopecky 8 0 1 1 0 9:31
L Kirk Maltby 16 0 1 1 -1 9:09
D Derek Meech 2 0 0 0 0 4:04
D Chris Chelios 6 0 0 0 0 7:21
C Kris Draper 4 0 0 0 0 10:14

Minus players for DET:
Maltby

DET Goalies:
Player GPI W L GAA PCT
Chris Osgood 19 14 5 2.00 0.927

PIT Skaters:
POS Player GP G A PTS +/- 
C Evgeni Malkin 20 13 20 33 3 21:13
C Sidney Crosby 20 14 15 29 10 21:40
R Bill Guerin 20 7 8 15 9 17:22
D Sergei Gonchar 18 3 11 14 4 23:10
L Ruslan Fedotenko 20 7 6 13 7 14:20
L Chris Kunitz 20 1 11 12 4 17:08
D Kristopher Letang 19 4 8 12 3 19:29
C Maxime Talbot 20 6 3 9 6 14:46
L Matt Cooke 20 1 6 7 -3 15:17
R Miroslav Satan 14 1 5 6 3 10:21
D Mark Eaton 20 4 2 6 7 1 17:58
C Tyler Kennedy 20 3 3 6 -5 13:49
C Jordan Staal 20 2 4 6 -7 19:25
R Craig Adams 20 3 2 5 1 9:27
D Philippe Boucher 9 1 3 4 -2 11:23
D Brooks Orpik 20 0 4 4 0 19:51
D Rob Scuderi 20 1 2 3 1 20:36
D Hal Gill 20 0 2 2 3 19:31
R Petr Sykora 6 0 1 1 -3 12:49
D Alex Goligoski 2 0 1 1 -1 10:21
L Pascal Dupuis 12 0 0 0 -4 8:34

Minus players for PIT:
Cooke
Staal
Kennedy
Boucher
Sykora
Goligoski
Dupuis

PIT Goalies:
Player GPI W L GAA PCT
Marc-Andre Fleury 20 13 7 2.63 0.906

Injury Report:
DET:
Andreas Lilja (D) Concussion (Sidelined indefinitely)
Tomas Kopecky (W/C) Eye injury (Sidelined indefinitely)
Kris Draper (C)  Lower Body (Day to day)
Pavel Datsyuk (C) Lower Body (Day to day)

PIT:
Mike Zigomanis (C/RW) Shoulder surgery (Remainder of season)

HOT and NOT:  

DET Hot:
Jonathan Ericsson (D) 3 pts in last 5 GP
Henrik Zetterberg (C) 13 pts in last 11 GP
Marian Hossa (RW) 7 pts in last 6 GP
Johan Franzen (LW/C) 13 pts in last 12 GP
Tomas Holmstrom (RW/LW) 2 pts in last 2 GP
Chris Osgood (G) 3-1-0, 1.48, .948 in last 4 GPI

DET Not Hot:
Niklas Kronwall (D) 1 pts in last 4 GP
Mikael Samuelsson (RW) 0 pts in last 5 GP
Dan Cleary (LW/RW) 0 pts in last 3 GP

PIT Hot:
Kristopher Letang (D) 3 pts in last 2 GP
Sergei Gonchar (D) 2 pts in last 2 GP
Evgeni Malkin (C/W) 19 pts in last 9 GP
Maxime Talbot (C/W) 5 pts in last 4 GP
Ruslan Fedotenko (LW/RW) 5 pts in last 5 GP

PIT Not hot:
Tyler Kennedy (RW/C) 0 pts in last 5 GP
Jordan Staal (C/LW) 0 pts in last 5 GP
Chris Kunitz (LW) 0 pts in last 4 GP
Miroslav Satan (RW/LW) 0 pts in last 3 GP

Jeff Sagarin NHL Ratings, from USAToday.com:

To make predictions for upcoming games, simply compare the RATINGS of
the teams in question and allow an ADDITIONAL .25 goals for the home
team.  Thus, for example, a HOME team with a rating of 4.43 would be
favored by .57 goals over a VISITING team having a rating of 4.11.
Or a VISITING team with a rating of 4.56 would be favored by .42 goals
over a HOME team having a rating of 3.89

NOTE: Use whatever home advantage is listed in the output below.
In the example just above, a home edge of .25 was shown for
illustrative purposes. The home edge will vary during the season.

NHL 2008-2009 through 2009   June 2, Tuesday -  finals
HOME ADVANTAGE=  0.36       RATING   W   L SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 10 | VS top 16 |  ELO_CHESS   |  PREDICTOR
1 Detroit Red Wings     = 4.95   65 36   4.04(  11)  24 15 |  34 18 |  4.91   1 |  4.99   1
4 Pittsburgh Penguins   =  4.51   58 44   4.04(  12)  21 18 |  37 30 |  4.53   4 |  4.50   4

Wednesday Wings practice, from “The Highlander”:

Babcock just said that Datsyuk is a game-time decision. “We have an optional skate tomorrow morning and we’ll see how he responds after that and after today. I have to talk to (trainer) Piet (Van Zant) and see how (Datsyuk) looks.” Datsyuk also said that he would be a game-time decision tomorrow.

That said, Datsyuk was practicing hard today, doing drills for the first time in a long time. The practice lines were shuffled as though they were preparing for Pavel being back. It sure looks like Datsyuk will be back unless his body takes a step backwards after today’s workout.

Also, Babcock just confirmed that Draper is back in the lineup, but said that he doesn’t know who’s out. Well, it sure looks like Abdelkader is out. Leino and Maltby were Draper’s wings in practice. Draper, Maltby and Leino were off the ice for a half-hour while Abdelkader worked out.

——

Pavel Datsyuk is practicing right now as though he’s going to play in tomorrow’s Game 4. First, he’s working through all the drills and looking good. Until this point, Datsyuk (foot) was just skating on his own, not doing drills.

Also, Datsyuk is centering a line at practice with Valtteri Filppula on one wing and Marian Hossa on the other. There is no reason to shuffle the lines like that unless the Wings believe that Datsyuk will likely be available.

So that said, here were the practice lines ...

Franzen-Zetterberg-Cleary
Filppula-Datsyuk-Hossa
Hudler-Helm-Samuelsson
Leino-Draper-Maltby

Lidstrom-Chelios
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Lebda

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