You do indeed hear 2 hockey games. The Flyers finally stepped it up, and the Penguins couldn't match them in intensity. It got scrambly in the third period but after Staal's second goal they clamped down pretty well.

It's the first time the Flyers have ever won a game after being down 3-0 in a series. The other 5 times they were swept.

I knew going into the third period it wasn't going to be a cakewalk. Once the Pens get a spark it's hard to shut them down. But I have to give the Flyers credit for that bend but not break attitude. Biron was good when he had to be and will need to do the same if the Flyers intend to win the next one on the road. It looks like juggling the lines created just enough offense, so that Briere who was MIA in the series finally showed up.

There is potentially great great GREAT news for the Flyers -- not only might Braydon Coburn be able to return on Sunday, but Kimmo Timonen has been cleared to skate tomorrow and may play in game 5 as well! There's still hope!

The fat lady isn't singing yet is she?! Flyers played last night like they should have in game 3. So I get two more hockey games this weekend.

I would not have liked to be in the Wings dressing room after their loss today. I am sure Babcock let it rip. Turco was HUGE today, so back to big D we go.....Detroit didn't look very desperate today, and you'd think they would have....

I missed the game because of softball practice. Sounds like Marty Turco was the star of the game.

With two softball games tomorrow, I'll miss the Flyers-Penguins game 5 as well. But not to worry. Shop.com already knows the winner, apparently.

So as it turned out, we only got part way through our first softball game when the rain got too heavy -- and with the fields already pretty saturated from rainfalls earlier in the week, there were rivers in the infield, so the rest of the day was called off. By the time I got home there was still about 8 minutes left in the first period. Unfortunately it was 2-0 Pittsburgh and it didn't get better, even with Kimmo Timonen back on the ice. I switched to the Phillies (whose game resumed after the rain stopped) before the second period was over.

You should have stayed at the fields, Joe. I think it might have been better for your psyche .

Seriously, I want to commend the Flyers on a hard-fought series. It must have been tough trying to play with some serious injuries. Now onto hoisting Lord Stanley's cup!

Oh this is going to be great! Red Wings VS. Penguins!!! Let's Dooooo It!!!!!!!!!!!

Franzen

Lidstrom

Osgood

Zetterberg

As good as the Wings are, and they're good, I just don't see anyone being able to stop Crosby, Maulkin, and Hossa, and Fleury is everybit as good as Osgood. With all due respect to Babcock and the Wings, Pens in 7.

Well,Tom,I'm going to have to go with the Wings in 7.

I COSIGN 100% with the above message, except to say GO WINGS!!!

Detroit needs this MOJO!!!!

Good call, Tom; I'm inclined to agree. Not only can the aforementioned players put up points, but so can Malone, Gonchar and Sykora. Their goaltending has a slight edge over Detroit's, with a 1.84 GAA and a .933 save percentage, while Detroit has a 1.93 GAA and a .918 save percentage. The defense has also blanked opponents three times, while Detroit has only done it once. Detroit is a very talented team and has rightfully earned the President's Trophy, but the Pens are far tougher than any opponent than the Wings have faced. However, the reverse is true for the Penguins. It's a tough call, but I'm going with the hometown team.

The Red Wings have won 3 Cups in a little over a decade. The Pistons are in their sixth straight conference finals and won the NBA title in that stretch. The Tigers were in the World Series in 2006. Detroit needs NOTHING.

My finals preview and my official prediction: Detroit in 6. Although, honestly, I get this feeling that it might be a short series for some reason. My gut tells me that if a team gets ahead by a couple of goals, they'll be able to prevent an in-game comeback. I could see either team winning four straight games if they manage to take the lead in each one.

My prediction Pens in 6. So far in the online polls up here it seems most Canadians are picking the Pens. The Toronto Star poll has 57% picking the Pens.

I'll be curious to see if the excitement a Pens-Wings series should produce, combined with the games moving back to night games on the weekends will help salvage the shrinking TV ratings up here. This past weekend the Saturday and Sunday afternoon games drew less than 500,000 viewers on Saturday and just under 800,000 on Sunday on CBC - both ratings less than the almost one million who watched the final of the World Hockey Championships on TSN on Sunday. That championship game peaked at 1.4 million viewers during the overtime of Canada's loss to Russia. What has to be of concern to the CBC is that the ratings for this past weekend's conference final games were even well below their average rating of about 1.1 - 1.2 million viewers for the early game on Saturday nights during the regular season.

Both games this past weekend were in series that were 3-1, which does take away a bit of the anticipation. And with Canada in the WHC final it's natural that more fans would be interested in that game.

What do they know? They probably picked the the Maple Leafs before the season started!

Eddie - be nice. And besides we're not that stupid. It's next year that the Leafs win.

Oh what a pretty,pretty game! Loved it!!! The Wings played a text book perfect game.Winning the majority of face-offs,killing penalties,making great checks and creating productive
power-plays.Detroit 4 Pittsburgh 0

I COSIGN 100 million perecent!!!

Well I gotta say that Detroit gave a clinic on how to out hussle their opponent, they just swarmed all over a Penn players like T-cells going after an infection in the body. They just shut down and dominated the Penguins. A most impressive victory for Detroit. Its going to be interesting to see how the Penns appraoch game 2.

No doubt that has a lot to do with the constant media attention on that nice kid from Cole Harbour NS who destroyed his mom's washing machine with hockey pucks (just in case there is anyone who hasn't heard that story yet ). But the Red Wings certainly have a lot of fans in Canada too, especially in southern Ontario (outside the 416 area code, of course ) and among some of the older fans across the country who always want to see an 'original six' team. I'm sure the Red Wings have a lot of fans in Sweden, too!

I was at a movie yesterday and had expected to be home in time to catch at least some of the game, but ended up going for dinner too, so the game was already over by the time I got back at 9 pm (I live in the wrong time zone). The 4-0 result was quite a surprise, but I expect Pittsburgh will bounce back in game 2.

It was mentioned on the late night sports broadcast that the Red Wings, Tigers and Pistons were ALL playing in Detroit yesterday and all were sold-out or nearly sold-out, which I think is pretty impressive for a city that has been experiencing a lot of economic hardship. I'm not sure if the economy is much better in Pittsburgh these days...

Then there's my aunt who lives in Windsor but grew up in Detroit and hopefully all of my cousins who live in and around Cape Breton,Nova Scotia are pulling for us as well.

I noticed in an interview the other day, former Chiefs head Coach Babcock was wearing a Chiefs cap. Thank you Mike!!!! Is game 2 on today or is it Tuesday????

As far as I know,game 2 is tonight.

Fleury falling on his face coming on the ice at the beginning of game 1 was not a bad sign for the Penguins. It was an embarassing moment.

Yes - Fleury falling flat on his face was not the best omen for the Pens - although to give Fleury credit he played very well in the early going - so obviously he was not rattled by his pre-game face plant.

And I'm not sure if you are able to get the play by play down in the US from the CBC website - but I noticed that in addition to streaming the televison play by play with Bob Cole on www.cbc.ca/sports - that it is also possible to watch the game in Madarin and Punjabi on the CBC site. Hockey Night In Canada goes trilingual.

Here's hoping the Pens give the Wings a better game tonight.

Two consecutive shutouts for Detroit. I'm thinking that what I wrote above is going to come true. Pittsburgh needs to find a way to generate some offense and fast. I didn't get to see game 1 but I saw a lot of game 2 and it seemed like the Red Wings almost always had the puck, and when the Penguins did get the puck they didn't have it for long. The Penguins were only able to get something going on the power play.

This series is reminding me of the series where the Devils just shut down the more heavily favored Wings by just stifling their quickness between the blue lines.

I think Detroit is just playing some muddling and disruptive defense and not letting the quicker Penguins generate that offense.

I have no complaints so far

Another great game.The Wings have been just about perfect.No complaints from me.The Penguins look tired and definitely don't look like the "quicker" team to me.

I saw about half of this game, but the word dominant kept coming up in my mind....its beginning to look like Detroit just may be hoisting a Stanley Cup soon, and while my Chiefs hoisted a Memorial Cup, their old Coach Babcock, will be lifting the Stanley Cup. Now that is pretty damn cool. I am stunned that Pittsburgh hasn't scored a goal since game 5 against the Flyers.

I really don't care who wins. I was just hoping for a good series - but so far only one team has shown up. Or at least Detroit has been playing so well as to make it look that way. So let's hope the younger Pens start playing better in front of their home fans on Wednesday otherwise this is a dud.

And my only other comment about last night's game other than that Detroit was by far the better team is that if any country's dive team needs a back-up diver in Beijing this summer - Chris Osgood is available.

FYI - According to the Star 2.3 million watched Game 1 on Versus - which actually topped the 2.1 million Canadians watching the CBC. That rating is a mixed bag for the CBC as it is down 23% from Game One of the Ottawa-Anaheim series last year - and down 44% from Game One Edmonton - Carolina two years ago, but it is 39% higher than the last all US team final with the Devils and Ducks in 2003.

And Hockeytom - Some 294,000 watched your Spokane Chiefs win the Memorial Cup up here on Sunday.

I should certainly hope it would! Even considering the fact that hockey is much less popular in the US than it is here, one has to remember that the US has nearly ten times our population, and two American cities are involved in the finals this year. As I alluded to in a reply to one of your earlier posts, I think this perception (or maybe 'stereotype' is a better word) of Canada being a 'hockey crazed' country is overblown by the media, as your figures show that only 6% of Canadians were watching game one. Personally, I know very few people who are watching the series. However, if Pittsburgh somehow manages to mount a comeback and push this to a seventh (or even sixth) game, the numbers should go up. So far, it's turning out to be a lot like last year...

No comment as to the thrashing my Pens are receiving, but they're clearly being outplayed, outhustled, and outmatched. Even Therrien's line changes didn't do the job. I seriously hope the Pens rebound at home and find a way to win back on the road. Still, I'm proud of the strides this team has made.

Saturday's game one drew the second highest rating EVER on Versus/OLN/Outdoor Life Network. Only Lance Armstrong's final Tour de France ride in 2005 did better.

Oh what a heartbreaker!! Pittsburgh 3 Detroit.Let's do it Red Wings!!!!!

The Penguins finally show up. Still, they had to hang on to win.

It did live up to my thought that the team scoring first won't blow the lead. Will there be a game that's tied with a score other than 0-0?

I missed the game last night...I take it the Pens got what they needed, a win.

Eddie, give the Wings more credit, they scored two goals, not "." I was a bit surprised to see that game 4 isn't until Saturday, a three-day break while both teams remain in Pittsburgh. Not that travel is much of a factor anyway, in this year's eastern vs "western" series.

Sidney finally found the spark the Penguins needed last night. I know some of you don't like him, but I found these comments interesting, an excerpt from an article on nhl.com:

Crosby, much like a young Wayne Gretzky a generation ago, and Ovechkin are both refreshingly media-friendly in a sport that struggles for attention in the United States against football, baseball and basketball.

Penguins owner Mario Lemieux, on the other hand, was aloof with the media in his heyday as a superstar in the 1980s and 1990s, and has begun to take heat for not making himself available during this year's playoffs.

Ratings continue to be up -- the second game on Versus did even better than the first (though still not quite matching Lance Armstrong's final ride), and the ratings for the 3 games overall make it the highest-rated first 3 games since 2002.

Hey Joe:
NBC's Game Three 2.8 National rating was some 87% larger than Game Three last year. And of note in the Detroit market the Stanley Cup rating was an 18.2 which topped the Game Five Pistons/Celtics match-up which drew a 15.9 rating. Eddie - maybe it is OK that Detroit calls themselves Hockeytown.

I was actually switching back and forth between NBC and CBC.Even if I only watched CBC,I'd have to change the channel as soon as Don Cherry and his migraine-inducing suit appears!

Migraine inducing suit, thats pretty funny Eddie!

Rather than migraines, for me his psychedelic (does anyone still use that word?) suits induce flashbacks of an acid trip I took back in the '70s. So maybe the intro music to Coach's Corner ought to be 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' or 'Purple Haze'.

Pivotal game this evening. Pens win, and we are tied in the series, if the Wings win, they are up 3-1, and I just don't see Pittsburgh being able to come back, with Crosby or without. I plan on catching this game today...

Oh what a great game! The highlight was Detroit killing off a 2 man Pittsburgh advantage! Zetterburg was brilliant!!

Detroit's defense and experience is just too much for Pittsburgh to handle. That was a long 5-on-3, over 1:20, and Pittsburgh didn't have many chances.

Let's do it!

I COSIGN 100%! GO WINGS!

I'm exhausted! I never stay up this late on a work night!!! I have to get up at 5:45! Oh please lets finish off these Penguins!!