Faceoff Factor

Red Wing Roundup - May 28th

Ashley Gallant | National Hockey League

May 28, 11:05 AM | Hype this story!

Last change? No problem.

In the first two games, Mike Babcock decided to play best against best, with Zetterberg, Datsyuk, and Holmstrom against Crosby’s line. And now, even though the series has shifted to Pittsburgh and Therrien has the last change, Babcock is not concerned that his top line may not play against Pittsburgh’s top lines.

“Now, what we’re going to do is let [that top line] go and let them try to generate offense. We’ll match up with whoever we get. We’re just going to roll our lines out the gate and make sure we’ve got the right matchup on the back.”

“I sometimes think you overcoach,” Babcock said. “You get in the way of letting the guys have rhythm.

“[In Game 2], they kept taking Crosby off the ice, so to me they were trying to avoid that matchup. In the end, that’s what happened when our [top] line scored against their fourth line.”

Osgood and Hasek to be honoured

Red Wing goaltenders Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek will be honoured today at a luncheon in Pittsburgh for winning the William M. Jennings Trophy, which is awarded to the goaltenders who allow the fewest goals for their team. They have allowed only 184 goals in 82 games this season.

Game 2 antics won’t spill over into game 3

When asked on Tuesday about what happened at the end of game 2, Babcock dismissed the events.

“Well I don’t know, I don’t pay any attention to that stuff,” he said. “We were all at the game, we all saw the game, you can all decide on your own. Pretty straight forward to me.”

In the last 10 minutes of game 2, the Penguins showed their frustration and were penalized twice for goaltender interference. The second call drew a crowd on the ice and prompted the Penguins to call Osgood a ‘diver’ after the game.

“That’s just something at the end of the game,” he said. “I wouldn’t put a whole lot into that. They can’t go to the penalty box; you and I both know that. So there won’t be any of that. A lot of times when something happens we make into that it’s going to carry over to the next game and it never does.

“The bottom line is that we’re going to come out and do what we do and focus on our team and be prepared to play and see how it goes. But we’re not worried about that one bit.”

If the Penguins have learned anything so far it’s that the Red Wings are a very disciplined team and will sit back and let the Pens take penalty after penalty. As forward Darren McCarty said,

“Hopefully, just if they keep taking shots at our guys they keep sitting in the box and it’ll benefit us on the power play. It’s not the first guy that’s tried that, or the first team that’s tried those different things with us. Our mentality is just to turn the cheek because it doesn’t benefit us. I think we’ve done a good job of that.”