Red Wings Proving Western Superiority

Just keep looking up to the heavens, boys. Only God can save you now.

This was supposed to be the NHL dream match-up: the young stars of Pittsburgh against an Original Six team. (For those of you new to the game, there were six teams in the original NHL that survive to today: the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, and Chicago Blackhawks.) 

Two teams that are supposed to have great skaters, scoring depth, and maintain puck possession. Right now, Detroit is the only one playing keep-away, and if they don't let the Penguins play with it, Gary Bettman might take his puck and go home. Or he might consider making a second mid-playoff rule change to help Sidney Crosby and crew level the playing field, something like "the face of the game gets to ignore face-off restrictions."

I have been repeating to anyone who would listen what James Douglas Morrison said 40 years ago: the West is the best. Its teams are, simply put, superior to the East.

The East can win the All-Star games with little defense and no hitting, but stars account for less than half of a team's ice time. You need secondary scoring, checking lines to stifle scorers, and guys to just give your stars a breather without giving up goals.

I had thought that the Penguins and Rangers could challenge the West. In fact, because of the more intense grind of the playoffs in the West, playing more physical and simply deeper teams and traveling over three time zones, I picked the Rangers to win the Cup.

Once the Rangers were unable to take more than one game from Pittsburgh, I decided they were not in that category after all. But surely the Pens were, since they manhandled their division rivals, right?

Wrong.  The best puck possession team in the East, with the deepest scoring and a solid defense, has been out-shot by a 3:2 ratio and failed to get one of their 42 shots by Chris Osgood, who was not even the top goalie for the Wings this year. 

Meanwhile, the eighth seed in the West, the Nashville Predators, managed to win two of the first four games against Detroit, and they were in three of the four they lost. Does this mean the Penguins would not have been a playoff team in the West?

Probably not. The Predators knew how to play Detroit because they had already faced them eight times and were 3-3-2 against them. They apparently found more holes in Dominic Hasek's net-minding than they or anyone else has been able to find in Osgood.

It is already clear to me they are not giving Detroit as much competition as Dallas did. And Dallas won their two previous series mostly because the superior teams they were playing against lacked focus (in the case of the Sharks) and discipline (Ducks). 

Therefore, it stands to reason there are at least four teams in the West better than the Penguins. If the Penguins are unable to get a win in the next two games, there will be no disputing they are not as good as any of the eight teams that made it into the playoffs in the stronger conference. 

All things being equal, I would take any of the top seven seeds in the West against anyone in the East. We will also have to wonder if even one or two of the teams that did not make it are more worthy.

I still think the Penguins will prove themselves worthy enough by grabbing one of two at home. For one thing, they will have the line match-ups they want, keeping the Wings from being able to hound Crosby with uber-defenseman Nick Lidstrom. 

For another, they can position their sticks last in the face-off circle, giving them a clear advantage.  That is why home teams often win almost three in five face-offs. Face-offs are the first step in possessing the puck, and if the Penguins can get it, they have a chance to keep it. 

However, so far Detroit has only managed a 66:60 edge in that department.  Either this means this is a skill the Penguins have an advantage in, or it is going to be less of an advantage in this series. The Penguins better hope it is the former.

They have too much talent not to win at least once. They have also have been an unbeatable team at home in the last three months, and will get a boost from the crowd.

Then again, they won all those games against the East.