2009 Stanley Cup final: Picking out the duds

by James Mirtle on Jun 10, 2009 1:26 PM CDT Comment 10 comments

A few ugly statlines from the first six games of the finals, on both sides:

The Penguins' top line
Sidney Crosby, 20:05 per game, 1 goal, 2 assists, minus-3
Bill Guerin, 15:51, 1 assist, minus-3
Chris Kunitz, 16:15, 1 assist, minus-4

Red Wings snipers
Dan Cleary, 16:41, one goal, plus-1
Tomas Holmstrom, 12:42, two assists, minus-2
Mikael Samuelsson, 14:31, one assist, even
Marian Hossa, 18:39, three assists, plus-1

Pittsburgh's blueline
Mark Eaton, 18:34, 1 assist, minus-5
Brooks Orpik and Hal Gill, pointless, even

On the other side of things, the series' top scorers have been Zetterberg (two goals, four assists), Johan Franzen (two goals, two assists) and Brian Rafalski (one goal, three assists) for Detroit, and Evgeni Malkin (two goals, five assists), Max Talbot (two goals, two assists) and Kris Letang (one goal, three assists) for the Pens.

I love these guys, but I'm not sure Pittsburgh wins this series with Talbot and Letang as two of their top three scorers in the series. And Detroit needs some more point production from Nick Lidstrom.

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Ya know, based on Hossa’s, uh, “performance” in this series and his numbers in the post-season general, can we safely say that Hossa needed Crosby more than Crosby needed Hossa?

by cferneyh on Jun 10, 2009 1:31 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

They both fed off of each other. Hossa probably benefited from Crosby but Sid also was better because of Hossa.

by Hooks Orpik on Jun 10, 2009 2:19 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not really

Hossa’s not really been a big playoff performer in his career going back to the Jacques Martin era in Ottawa. Maybe last year was the exception to the norm.

by Exit716 on Jun 10, 2009 1:57 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Hossa’s lack of production in Ottawa is greatly exaggerated. It took him until his 3rd year for him to score his first goal, but that’s not uncommon (and the first two years were 4 and 6 games respectively). In his fourth year, he had 10 points in 12 games and his fifth year he had 16 in 18, pretty much what his regular season pace was. In his last year in Ottawa, he had 4 points in 7 games, 3 of which were goals. His Atlanta performance of 1 point in the series sweep by the Rangers in 2007 was glaring, particularily since he was coming off a 100 point regular season.

Generally, his bad playoffs have been when his team lost in the first round. 15 points in 22 games isn’t horrible, but it’s certainly not good considering he had 71 points in 74 games this year.

Hockey blogging can't get any flatter.

by saskhab on Jun 10, 2009 2:21 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

15 points in 22 games isn’t horrible, but it’s certainly not good considering he had 71 points in 74 games this year.

Agreed. And when you consider that last year he had 12 goals in 20 playoff games, well, I would assume that Detroit was expecting more – especially now that they find themselves in a 7th game.

by cferneyh on Jun 10, 2009 2:49 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

A lot of Detroit fans are deflecting his performance, stating Hossa plays in a different system. To a degree, that’s true. He fits in well with their two-way play and is not relied on as heavily to score.

Make no mistake though, if they lose Friday and he is without a goal there will be a lot of talk about his offensive merits through the playoffs.

by hallock on Jun 10, 2009 2:10 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Isn’t he playing the same system that got him 71 points in 74 regular season games?

Hockey blogging can't get any flatter.

by saskhab on Jun 10, 2009 2:23 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Right, I’m saying that can’t be the defense for him suddenly becoming a ghost since he does well in it.

by hallock on Jun 10, 2009 2:50 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Err, and by ghost I mean purely in the goal column. I don’t mean to say he is completely errant in these playoffs.

by hallock on Jun 10, 2009 2:51 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

the detroit fans dont need to do anything but watch his play as this series has gone on. he started off strong, played good defense, and had the puck a decent amount – but he wasn’t able to do much with it. As the series has gone on, he’s had the puck less and less, and in game 6, it might as well have been me out there in his jersey. I never understand why some players do the “skate around the outside of the zone move” when they have the puck behind the net. If he’s on his game, he’s taking the pucks to the net more.

Glen Sather is a Hockey Genius.

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by poploser on Jun 10, 2009 3:33 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs