Posted:
#1
I've had a good laugh lately at all of the people saying that Sidney Crosby has been invisible in the finals up until game four. On ESPN the other day they had a fan quote on the front page that said "Sidney Crosby must be an acronym for invisible". It was a weak joke but most of all it was a ridiculous statement.
I'll assume that quote came from someone who only checks the boxscore the next day and says that if he didn't record a point then he must not have played well. I would like to think that a real hockey fan would know better.
For those of you who are new to the game of hockey or those who refuse to watch the entire game please realize that you don't have to score a goal to have an impact on a game.
You may or may not agree that Crosby is the best player in the game but trust me when I tell you that other teams focus their game plan on stopping him. He is the smartest offensive player in the game and at any moment he can create an offensive chance for himself or someone else.
During the first two games in Detroit Crosby may not have scored but he was creating plenty of chances for himself and his teammates. A few unlucky bounces and some great defensive plays were all that stopped him from getting on the score sheet.
Lets not also forget that he has been doing this with arguably the best two-way forward in the game covering him. Henrik Zetterberg is not just a great offensive talent, he is also one of the best in the game at shutting down opposing teams' offensive stars.
As we have begun to see in the last two games Zetterberg's assignment may be starting to get to him physically. He looked tired during most of game four. It looks like the extra ice time as well as the difficult task of shadowing Crosby may be catching up to him.
With Pavel Datsyuk out of the lineup Mike Babcock hasn't had the luxury of allowing both his stars to share in covering the Pens top stars. They seem to have decided on trying to limit Crosby as much as possible. This has allowed Evgeni Malkin to get good matchups throughout the series which he has taken advantage of. Call it the "Crosby Effect".
Look for Babcock to make some adjustments for game five to try and slow down Malkin as well as Crosby. A Datsyuk return would be a big help at this point. But whether or not Datsyuk returns look for Detroit to be more focused defensively.
Pittsburgh won't find it as easy to score at the Joe so look for game five to be a tightly contested affair likely to go under the total, currently 5.5 at Pinnacle.
Good luck,
Tritesy
I'll assume that quote came from someone who only checks the boxscore the next day and says that if he didn't record a point then he must not have played well. I would like to think that a real hockey fan would know better.
For those of you who are new to the game of hockey or those who refuse to watch the entire game please realize that you don't have to score a goal to have an impact on a game.
You may or may not agree that Crosby is the best player in the game but trust me when I tell you that other teams focus their game plan on stopping him. He is the smartest offensive player in the game and at any moment he can create an offensive chance for himself or someone else.
During the first two games in Detroit Crosby may not have scored but he was creating plenty of chances for himself and his teammates. A few unlucky bounces and some great defensive plays were all that stopped him from getting on the score sheet.
Lets not also forget that he has been doing this with arguably the best two-way forward in the game covering him. Henrik Zetterberg is not just a great offensive talent, he is also one of the best in the game at shutting down opposing teams' offensive stars.
As we have begun to see in the last two games Zetterberg's assignment may be starting to get to him physically. He looked tired during most of game four. It looks like the extra ice time as well as the difficult task of shadowing Crosby may be catching up to him.
With Pavel Datsyuk out of the lineup Mike Babcock hasn't had the luxury of allowing both his stars to share in covering the Pens top stars. They seem to have decided on trying to limit Crosby as much as possible. This has allowed Evgeni Malkin to get good matchups throughout the series which he has taken advantage of. Call it the "Crosby Effect".
Look for Babcock to make some adjustments for game five to try and slow down Malkin as well as Crosby. A Datsyuk return would be a big help at this point. But whether or not Datsyuk returns look for Detroit to be more focused defensively.
Pittsburgh won't find it as easy to score at the Joe so look for game five to be a tightly contested affair likely to go under the total, currently 5.5 at Pinnacle.
Good luck,
Tritesy
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