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DETROIT — Tomas Holmstrom, the goalie-screening, crease-crashing, bad boy of the Detroit Red Wings, was asked the obvious first question - how soon might it take him to become Public Enemy No. 1 in Pittsburgh?
"It usually doesn't take long," answered Holmstrom, with a wry smile.
It could even come as soon as tonight. The Red Wings, seeking their first Stanley Cup championship in six years, meet the Penguins in a championship for the ages — and the aged. It is a series featuring the Red Wings' experience against the raw youth of a talented collection of Penguins' players, assembled in short order by Craig Patrick and Ray Shero, the former and current general managers.
The teams have not played each other since the second game of the regular season two years ago, so most of the talk in the run-up to the series has involved polite platitudes about each's other abilities. The nastiness can't start until the two teams actually hit the ice which mercifully, finally, happens tonight.
The Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom will be his usual crease-crashing self when Detroit takes on the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final Saturday night. (CP PHOTO/Dave Chidley)
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As the home team, the Red Wings will get the last line change, meaning coach Mike Babcock will the first opportunity to determine match-ups in the series. While neither he nor his Penguins' counterpart Michel Therrien, was prepared to reveal their respective in-game coaching strategies, the thinking is that the Red Wings will play their top line against Pittsburgh's top line, which is mostly how they've played through the first three rounds of the playoffs.
If that strategy continues, it means that Holmstrom, along with his linemates Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, will play against the Penguins' top unit of Sidney Crosby, Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis, at least in even-strength situations. It also means that Detroit's finesse defence pair, of Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski, will go up against Crosby's line, while the most physical duo of Brad Stuart and Niklas Kronwall would then draw Evgeni Malkin's line, which also features Ryan Malone and Petr Sykora.
The Red Wings are scheduled to be without forward Johan Franzen for tonight's game, as he recovers from concussion-like symptoms suffered in the second round against Colorado. Even though Franzen leads the playoffs with 12 goals, the Red Wings want him back as much for his defensive abilities — primarily his size and strength — as his suddenly robust offence (27 goals in his past 27 games, regular-season and playoff). Franzen plays on the No. 2 line and they would love nothing better than to get him out on the ice against Malkin, whose size and strength is a combination that Detroit hasn't seen in three previous series against the Nashville Predators, Avalanche and Dallas Stars respectively.
"We've gone the whole series matching up against their top line and it's been working," said Holmstrom. "For sure, this time, it's going to be a big test for us — we're playing one of the better players in the league (in Crosby). For sure, it helps us having that 'D' in the back end that can move the puck and play the puck so well and be in the right position."
Statistically, the Red Wings hold an edge in face-off percentage compared to the Penguins, who are one of the worst teams in the league in the circle. Detroit is at a 55.7 per cent success, Pittsburgh at 46.7
Centre Kris Draper is the top Red Wings' face-off man and was third overall in the regular season this past year (at 58.6). He may not get a chance to play against either Crosby or Malkin in even-strength situations, but he will invariably be out there on the first penalty-killing unit. That is when face-offs can make a difference — in either getting the puck cleared from their zone, or allowing a gifted offensive team to set up and make plays.
"Any time you go out on a penalty-kill situation, I want to win that draw as badly as that other team wants to score," said Draper. "It doesn't matter what the score in the game is, I want the face-offs. That's something I take pride in.
"It doesn't matter who you play against, Mike Modano or Mike Ribiero in the last round, you want these guys to chase for the puck for 20 or 25 seconds before they get it. The same thing goes for Pittsburgh. They've got so much talent, that if you can keep the puck away from these guys for a little bit, it's certainly going to help out your situation."
Draper spent part of Friday, reviewing the face-off technique of the three main Penguin centres, Crosby, Malkin and Jordan Staal. Even strength, Draper figures to get some ice time against Staal, but may also see a bit of Malkin, if Babcock doesn't want to play Valtteri Filppula against the big Russian head-to-head.
"It could be a little of both," said Draper. "When the Mule (Franzen) gets healthy, I'm sure he'll want him out against Malkin. Obviously, with the size of the Mule and the strength of the Mule, he could counter the same things in Malkin. So we'll see. Right now, we're not sure how it'll be — if I have Staal and Fil (Filppula) will have Malkin — and see how that's going."
It is thought that Franzen will get medical clearance to play in the series, perhaps as early as Monday's second game.
The problem, according to Franzen, is his flagging conditioning,
"I need to get my legs back," said Franzen. "I don't want to try to hurt the team. I want to help the team when I come back."
Franzen has been out since the second game of the Dallas series and on Friday, defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom suggested that it was good that the team learned it could win without Franzen.
"I think they knew that," quipped Franzen, who was downplaying his new celebrity status — and level of importance in the dressing room. "We won before I started scoring. We're fine. We've got some depth on this team; it's no problem if one guy is out, except if it's Nick. If he's gone, we can't win. Anyone else, we can."
The Red Wings will have 10 players in their line-up tonight, with Stanley Cup rings. Unless Therrien changes his mind and plays Gary Roberts ahead of Adam Hall, the Penguins will have just one — Sykora.
Even though the Red Wings have the decided edge in experience, Therrien suggested his team was not nervous "because we're well prepared for the challenge. And even when we start the playoff, I didn't feel our team was nervous. I think we're excited; I think that's a big difference.
"We worked hard all season long to win our division, to get home ice. We don't have home ice in the final. This is well deserved from the Red Wings. But in the meantime, with the regular season that we got, the way we approach the playoffs, our team was not nervous. Our team was always excited to play the game. And that's the same feeling I got this week."
As for goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, he thought the Penguins' relative inexperience was not necessarily a bad thing.
"Maybe because we're a little younger, maybe we don't know too much what we're getting into," said Fleury. "But at the same time I think everybody, when we step on the ice, we're also very confident. As for myself, I know even if I let a bad goal in, I know my teammates will come back and get a couple. So I think this is just confidence. It's been good for us."
