Faceoff Factor

The Final Game Of The Season

Jesse Marshall | Pittsburgh Penguins

Jun 10, 12:48 PM | Hype this story!

- If Marc-Andre Fleury ever goes down injured, the Penguins could just insert Rob The Piece Scuderi into the net. Scuderi’s late game heroics kept the puck out of the net and enabled the Penguins to hold onto their one goal lead in the waning moments of Game 6. Scuderi was quoted in todays Trib as saying he was “… more of a stand up goalie, not a butterfly goalie.”

- Speaking of Marc-Andre Fleury, what a performance last night. Fleury was heavily criticized for his performance in Game 5 and was nothing short of amazing last night. He stopped Zetterberg early last in the first period and it carried over to the save he made on Dan Cleary with 1:40 remaining in the third. Fleury let his athleticism take over, and it was for the better. When he relies on his quick reflexes and strong lateral abilities, he is at his best. Fleury admitted after the game that he had originally thought about poke-checking Dan Cleary at the end of the game, but opted to wait him out and let him make the first move, which was obviously the right way to go. Kudos to the Faceoff-Factor commenters, yesterday I wrote a story saying I expected great things from Crosby and Malkin and the response from the comments was that Fleury would be the key. He absolutely was and you guys were right.

- There seems to be a lot of chatter today about Max Talbot and Jordan Staal getting more time on the ice last night than Sidney Crosby. I credit Dan Bylsma for going that direction. Staal had the Zetterberg/Datsyuk match-up last night and spent the majority of the time in the offensive zone, a great place to be when you’re up against those two. It will be interesting to see if Mike Babcock can get away from that match-up at home on Friday night. Towards the end of the evening, the Red Wings had forfeited any attempt to go into the boards with Matt Cooke. As he was dumping the puck in, Detroit’s D was allowing him to get position as to avoid getting continually lambasted by the Cookie-Monster. A job well down by the third line last night. Having had a light workload, I’d expect to see some helping heaps of Sidney Crosby on Friday night.

- The Penguins best chance to win Game 7 could rely on their physicality. Chris Kunitz was an absolute cannon last night as the Penguins registered 30 hits yet again. The Penguins need to take the play to the Red Wings early and get the crowd removed from the game.

- The Penguins have not lost a Game 7 on the road in their playoff history. They have also not lost a Game 7 having won the prior Game 6.

- WDVE’s Mike Prisuta told a fun story on the Morning Show today. He was in the arena late last night when Dan Bylsma made his way back on the ice to take in the scenery long after the game was finished. Prisuta yelled something to Bylsma along the lines of “Glad you’ve been keeping it together down there.” To which Bylsma responded, “Glad it looks like I’m keeping it together.”

- In the words of the immortal “Badger” Bob Johnson: “The great thing about the playoffs is that you can lose 3 games and still win the series.”

- Finally, a little reminder on where this team has come from. It wasn’t that long ago, before Sidney Crosby and the rest of the current crew, that the Penguins were in the basement of the National Hockey League. Take a moment to cherish what we have. We are in the Stanley Cup finals, about to face a historic Game 7, watching these young superstars attempt to etch their name in the history books. I remember watching moments like this hoping that we could one day ascend to this level.