ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…Yawn

Crosby had a better face-off percentage, that counts for something...right? (photosource: Yardbarker.com)

If this is the way it’s going to be, then DirecTV and Comcast/Versus might as well go back to hating each other.  I don’t want to be subjected to this numbness during the playoffs.  I felt like I was watching Game 1 in each of the last two Stanley Cup finals.  Detroit systematically put Pittsburgh to sleep and suffocated the life out of them.

Henrik Zetterberg, the best player on the ice tonight, eased two goals past a less-than-sharp Marc-Andre Fleury and assisted on the third in a 3-1 victory.  Pascal Dupuis scored the Pens lone goal against a very good looking rookie, Jimmy Howard.

Howard endeared himself even more to his teammates following the final buzzer when he came to the “rescue” and horse-collared Sidney Crosby away from Zetterberg. After the game was decided, Crosby took out his frustrations on the game’s No. 1 star with two nasty cross checks right on the big #40.

Zetterberg, sporting a mammoth beard, has led a charge that paced the Red Wings to eight wins in their last 11 games, yet the defending Western Conference champs were still in just eighth position before tonight’s contest.

Detroit showed the intensity of a team pushing for the playoffs.  Pittsburgh lacked that same intensity and seemed complacent.  The Pens did manage to kill all four Red Wing power plays, extending their streak to 24 straight; but managed just one power play of their own.

My feeling is that new arrival Alexei Ponikarovsky should be playing on Sidney Crosby’s wing in the absence of Malkin.  The one shift where I noticed this occurred was late in the game and P-sky rang the post.  The knock on P-sky is that he can be absent for long periods of time, with just two goals in his last 15 games, we might be witnessing a run-on vacancy.  Putting him on #87’s line would assuredly give him more offensive chances.

No time to frown, Pens make their way to D.C. for a Wednesday showdown with O-charge-kin and the Caps.  I shudder to think how Fleury will handle Ovi’s wrister if he can’t seem to ward-off a curl-and-drag wrister from Valteri Filpulla.  Brace yourselves.