Any chance Draper makes his debut, tonight?

If so, which of the youngsters becomes the Abdicator?

You can’t the kid with the great chip shot to the clubhouse, so my money’s on Leino. If not tonight, then next game.

but i love Babcock. best coach in hockey.

I think Bylsma has crippled Crosby’s ice time in trying to keep him away from Zet. It’s difficult when you don’t get the last change, you try short-shifting other guys and what-not. But the bottom line is, if the Pens can bring this one back to Detroit, he’s got to have more than 19-20 minutes upon getting there. I like that they’re making quick changes and keeping everyone fresh, but when you are the team that obviously has less depth, the marquis players have got to lead the charge more often than not. There is no reason IMO from Dan B’s prespective for any of the Wings’ forwards to have more ice time than Crosby and Malkin.

I agree with James, particularly in the third period. The Wings were obviously wearing down in both games. You could see it in every period, where the Penguins slowly took over the play. Get Crosby on the ice more in the third, and you’re going to get him more time against Abdelkader. That may not be true by game five.

That’s what I thought was the worst part about Abdelkader’s goal in game two: it crushed Pittsburgh. They completely dominated the first two minutes of the third period, just as they had the end of the second. When Abdelkader scored, the life just went out of them. It helped Detroit that they could focus on just playing defense at that point, but the Penguins almost gave up. They should have still been able to control the play.

This is what I was talking about a couple of weeks ago when I said that Detroit doesn’t let the time of the nature of the goals they give up bother them. Pittsburgh obviously did let the timing get to them, and it cost them.