Last year when these teams met in the Finals, the Red Wings jumped out to the early 2-0 series lead. This year was no different. Can Pittsburgh keep last year's trend going with a win in game three back in Pittsburgh?
Considering the fact that I picked the Penguins to win the series, I knew that I would take a ton of flack from Red Wings fans if the Red Wings ended up winning the series.
What I wasn’t anticipating was the smack-talking starting after only two games. Yes, obviously a split in Detroit would have been much preferred. And yes, by the looks of things, Pittsburgh may end up losing this series. But you can’t actually write a team off until they lose a game on their home ice. If Pittsburgh wins all three of their home games, they only need to steal one in Detroit; stealing game five or game seven is just as good as stealing game one or two.
Now don’t get me wrong, Detroit isn’t going to just roll over in Pittsburgh, they are a veteran team and they aren’t afraid to play on the road. All I’m saying is that this Pittsburgh team is very strong, and Hockeytown can at least wait until they grab a game in Pittsburgh to start hoisting the cup.
Games one and two were actually an improvement from last year for the Penguins. Last year, the Penguins lost game one 4-0 and game two 3-0. Not that anyone is going to count it as a moral victory, but being outscored 6-2 in Detroit beats getting outscored 7-0. This holds no bearing on this series, just a fun fact to look back on. The reason being, last year Pittsburgh headed home after being shutout in two straight games, and in a must win game three to avoid a near-impossible 0-3 hole, Pittsburgh got on the board and won the game 3-2.
Two early Detroit wins doesn’t change the fact that this series could still very well have some life left in it. While Detroit may likely win this series (Pittsburgh letting the first two games without Datsyuk in the lineup get away from them hurt), I don’t expect Pittsburgh to go down without a fight. -150 seems like a lot of chalk to lay on a team that hasn’t shown much life through two games, but that just goes to show you how confident bookmakers are that Pittsburgh will get the job done tonight, giving away juicy +130 odds on a massive public favorite. In a must-win situation back at home, the Pens make the series interesting again tonight.
The Pick: Pittsburgh ML -150