Wings Halfway to Another Cup

The Red Wings continued to be comfortable at home, and are now going to Pittsburgh up 2-0 in the series.  Maybe Marian Hossa made the right move after all.

Justin Abdelkader got another knuckleball past Marc-Andre Fleury. His insurance flutters have really helped the Wings flip to defense mode and lock down Sidney Crosby & co.  The Wings D has been the biggest factor in this series so far.

One Pen who’s putting points on the board is Evgeni Malkin. After the end of last night’s game, he’s also the series PIM leader. If Vegas was crazy enough to put odds out on him fighting Henrik Zetterberg, there might be a few bankrupt sportsbooks right now. A frustrated Malkin went after Zetterberg, who took a while to get a glove off.

Malkin picked up an instigator from the play.  NHL rule 47.22 calls for an automatic suspension any time a player receives an instigator within the last five minutes of a game, but will not be suspended.  This is completely expected.  The league has been pretty consistent about lifting the suspension for instances like this: close games, scorers on the ice, play seems non-premeditated.  For some reason there’s confusion about this, and the rule itself is awful, but this is how it’s worked since the rule has been added.

Game 3 is Tuesday night, 8pm eastern.

Videos added

Evgeni Malkin vs Henrik Zetterberg May 31, 2009
Chris Nilan vs Tim Hunter May 18, 1986
Eric Boulton vs Wade Brookbank Mar 28, 2008
Boris Valabik vs Joe Corvo Mar 28, 2008
Martin Lapointe vs Tim Conboy Mar 16, 2008
Barry Nieckar vs Shane Churla Feb 11, 1995

Some reads

Bettman: ‘We’re fighting for Phoenix’
Fighting OK at Mooseheads training camp: Russell
The boys are back in town