SCF: Penguins VS Wings
May 22, 2008 NHL
The 2008 Stanley Cup Finals begin this Saturday, pitting the Original Six Detroit Red Wings against the risen from the ashes Pittsburgh Penguins. The young Penguins, led by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, will look to run roughshod over the older, ‘more experienced’ Wings. Still, you have to respect Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Holmstrom (Zetterberg in particular saved my fantasy team on more than one occasion). In goal, both Chris Osgood and Marc-Andre Fleury have been doing excellent work, Osgood especially as he had to step in after Hasek tried to give their opening round series away.
My excitement for Game 1 (8:00pm start time) has waxed and waned, thanks in no small part to the NHL having the teams sit on their hands for days and days so they can start the series on a weekend. I know they are trying to take care of their core market (namely, the millions of people who watch on HNIC) but it’s really hard to stay interested for that long when the Sabre-guys aren’t involved! I’m picking the Penguins in 6, and I hope America tunes in to watch this clash of two US teams whose cities actually know what hockey is when their teams aren’t in the finals.
Tags: crosby, datsyuk, detroit, fleury, hasek, hnic, Hockey, hockey night in canada, malkin, NHL, osgood, penguins, pittsburgh, red wings, zetterberg
NHL All-Star Starting Lineups Announced
Jan 8, 2008 NHL
The starters for the NHL All-Star game (in Atlanta this year) have been announced. The East, to no one’s surprise, is headlined by Sidney Crosby, Vincent Lecavalier and Daniel Alfredsson. The blue line has the Wookiee Chara and Andrei Markov, with the usual suspect in Goal, Martin Brodeur.
Your Western Conference starters are one Vancouver goalie shy of being a Detroit/Calgary sweep. Jarome Iginla, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg start up front, Dion Phaneuf and Niklas Lidstrom are your D-men, with Roberto Luongo between the pipes.
The game itself is January 27th at 6pm, but leading up on Friday and Saturday there is a youth hockey tournament to showcase how the sport is trying to grow in the South. The skills competition and YoungStars game takes place on Saturday night.
Tags: all-star, all-star game, allstar, atlanta, brodeur, chara, crosby, Daniel Alfredsson, datsyuk, Hockey, iginla, lecavalier, lidstrom, luongo, markov, NHL, phaneuf, zetterberg
