Three keys for the Detroit Red Wings after two games

SIDNEY CROSBY FIGHTS OFF A CHECK IN GAME 1 - PHOTO BEHINDTHEJERSEY

DETROIT NATIVE KID ROCK AT GAME 2 - PHOTO BEHINDTHEJERSEY

Three reasons the Detroit Red Wings have sprinted out to a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals:

- Versatility. The Red Wings offense is the definition of a balanced attack. The quick strike, quick transition offense led by Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk can instantly capitalize on turnovers. Tomas Holmstrom, Johan Franzen, and Daniel Cleary provide a trio of crease crashing options that can disrupt even the tightest playoff defensive system. The Wings also play a strong physical game in the corners and along the wall that can wear down Pittsburgh and force turnovers and mistakes later in the game. Finally, with 4 puck moving defenseman Detroit has skill on the points that should be a penalty kill's worst nightmare. A departure from the third best power play in the regular season (20.7), the Red Wings were only 1-6 in the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals, and 0-8 in game 2. If they are given a similar amount of man advantage opportunities moving forward, there has to be a breakout game for the Detroit power play in the works.

- Experience. The Detroit Red Wings handed Pittsburgh the playoff baton early in game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Penguins were unable to capitalize on 4 straight Detroit penalties, and a costly mistake by goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury lead directly to Mikael Samuelsson's first goal. Fleury misplayed Samuelsson's wraparound attempt, his right foot was set up outside the post and he was unable to T-push across to his left and make a fairly straightforward save. Detroit is a veteran squad, one mistake or one inopportune penalty is all they need to close out a game. When Detroit is behind, they can double shift the usual suspects (Datsyuk, Zetterberg), but they also have skill players who can contribute in the clutch. Underperforming earlier in the playoffs, Samuelsson sank the San Jose Sharks in the second round last season. Daniel Cleary and Valtteri Filppula were streaky scorers during the regular season. Detroit plays solid positional hockey, good spacing and a determined forecheck from the top down. Detroit head coach Mike Babcock mixed up the lines facing Evgeni Malkin, giving him different looks that kept him from gaining any momentum. With Penguins head coach Michel Therrien having the last change in Pittsburgh, he will look for ways to spark their young regular season scoring leader.

- Nicklas Lidstrom. Much of the talk surrounding Conn Smythe most valuable player speculation is centering around Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood. Two straight shutouts, 1.38GAA, 137 minutes of scoreless hockey... on the surface it is well deserved. Others are focusing on shot totals, with Detroit limiting Pittsburgh to 19 and 22 respectively, and submitting Datsyuk and Zetterberg for consideration. Given the fact that there are a number of games still to be played, the hands down leader should be Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom. He logged the most ice time of any Detroit player in the first two games (25:51, 25:05), and finished with an assist and 3 blocked shots. More importantly he was the fly in Pittsburgh's oinment, making solid plays to clear or strip the puck and shut down the Penguins rare scoring chance opportunities. He crushed their will to live, and was a major factor in instilling the self doubt that great teams inflict on opponents. In a game 1 liveblog on AOL, I mentioned that you can not really grasp how good Lidstrom is unless you are at ice level watching him play. He thinks 3-4 steps ahead of the action, puts himself in a good position to make a play, and can be considered almost a 5-on-5 quarterback the way he can control the offensive flow of a game. At this point in the series Lidstrom deserves MVP consideration, with Osgood a close second.

The photos above are used with permission from Christy Hammond's dad at BehindtheJersey.com. He is one of the best hockey photographers online (past photos of his here and here). Photo galleries from game 1 and game 2 can be seen here and here. With game 3 moving to Pittsburgh, home blog territory moves to Empty Netters and the Pensblog.

[Update] Crosby scores 2 to lift Penguins to 3-2 win in Game 3 - Yahoo Sports.

Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins found their offense right where they left it—home in the Igloo. Crosby scored Pittsburgh’s first two goals of the Stanley Cup finals, beating previously perfect goalie Chris Osgood, and the Penguins made this a series with a 3-2 victory Wednesday night.

The Red Wings still lead 2-1 after two shutout wins at home. Game 4 will be Saturday night, again in Pittsburgh, before the series shifts back to Detroit for a now necessary fifth game.

The Penguins improved to 9-0 at home in the playoffs and have won 17 straight there, dating to a loss to San Jose on Feb. 24. Pittsburgh’s previous game in front of the home crowd was a 6-0 blitz in the clinching Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals against Philadelphia.

Local Sports Notes - May 28th

JR MIDDLEWEIGHT RICARDO CORTES RETURNS TO HP PAVILION JUNE 5TH

SAN JOSE BASED UFC FIGHTER LYOTO MACHIDA - PHOTO SHERDOG.COM

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES SANTA CLARA HOME OPENER VS DALLAS

A few local sports news and notes:

- The Fight Night at the Tank boxing series returns to San Jose Thursday June 5th featuring the WBC's Carribean Heavyweight title holder Manuel Quezada (22-4, 15kos) vs Teke Oruh (14-1-1, 6kos), San Jose Jr Middleweight Ricardo Cortes (22-2-1, 15kos) vs Antonio Johnson (7-0, 3kos), and up and coming Northern Californian prospects Mike Dallas Jr (Bakersfield) and Eric Garcia (Salinas). Dallas Jr holds an extensive 115-12 amateur boxer record, competed in the Olympic trials, and won a PAL amateur national championship at 141 pounds. During his professional debut in San Jose, a unanimous decision win over Alejandro Balladares in March, legendary trainer Angelo Dundee worked his corner. After a very popular training session at the Titanium Gym in SF prior to his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, WBC Super Featherweight title holder Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao will train at the West-Wind School in Berkeley as part of the promotional tour for his fight with David Diaz.

- On SpikeTV's hour long Countdown to UFC 84 video preview, a feature on undefeated light heavyweight Lyoto Machida (13-0, 3kos) noted a move to San Jose to train at the American Kickboxing Academy in preperation for a pivotal bout with former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz. Machida is one of the few competitors to successfully adapt his Shotokan Karate background to mixed martial arts, and the dominant tactician smothered Ortiz for 3 rounds en route to a unanimous decision win. The stacked UFC 84 card also saw former PrideFC champion Wanderlei Silva snap a losing streak with an early first round KO over Keith Jardine, and Hawaiian B.J. Penn take apart former UFC lightweight champ Sean Sherk to become the undisputed champion.

Local mixed martial arts organization Strikeforce, based out of San Jose, has seen its first ever MMA highlight program on NBC submit the competition in its late Saturday night time slot. Strikeforce on NBC's .5 national rating in the 18-34 yr/old male demographic was more than 4 of the last 5 "Jimmy Kimmel Live" programs, more than all five airings of "The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson", and equal to a pair of "Late Night with David Letterman" broadcasts according to a press release. Strikeforce on NBC airs late Saturday nights after SNL and Poker After Dark, and is also available online at nbc.com and Hulu.com. On June 27th Strikeforce will feature a clash between two elite Bay Area fighters, Gilbert Melendez (Fairtex) and Josh Thompson (AKA), for Melendez's Strikeforce Lightweight Championship. The card will also feature noted PrideFC and Fox Sports commentator Frank Trigg, Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, heavyweight Anthony Ruiz, and Elaina Maxwell.

This is going to be a massive week for MMA on broadcast television and on cable. Elite XC will kick off its Saturday Night primetime programming at 9PM on CBS with a card featuring Kimbo Slice, American Gladiator Gina Carano, a superfight between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith for the Lawler's EliteXC middleweight title, and Phil Baroni vs Sharkspage favorite Joey Villasenor. San Jose's Frank Shamrock will provide color commentary for the broadcast. Sneak in a Larry Beil "with authority" for the Bay Area viewers if you read this blog Frank. This blog needs to develop a catchphrase.

On cable, Versus will air its highest profile mixed martial arts card to date. WEC 34live from Sacramento on June 1st will feature Sac native and former UC Davis wrestler Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver for Faber's WEC featherweight title. Faber is considered a top pound-for-pound fighter among those in any weight class from any organization, legitimately top three or top two. Also on the card will be a tough matchup between Yoshiro Maeda and Miguel Torres, Rob McCullough, Jeff Curran, Chase Beebe and Sharkspage favorite Charlie Valencia. Solid. More information is available via versus.com or wec.com. Also of note locally: Pure Combat held its first event in Stockton (event report by Sherdog), and the Cage Combat Fighting Championships featured 3 title fights for its May 17th card at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

Last note, ESPN has announced a new half hour mixed martial arts highlight program that will air on its broadband video section. It will have a tough time gaining traction among the very popular HDnet Inside MMA show featuring Bas Rutten (available for download Friday's on Sherdog.com), but ESPN should not have a problem creating a significant standalone audience. There is no Sharkspage MMA highlight program in the works.

- The San Francisco Chroncile's report on the Bay to Breakers quarter marathon is definitely worth a read, and the poll options are classic. Was on the blogger injured reserve for the Bay to Breakers race and the Pat Tillman run this month, but friends and family were involved in raising money for both. One charity for the B2B used previous race photos from this blog.

- The third photo above features a sunset over the San Jose Earthquakes Santa Clara home opener with FC Dallas. Dallas and San Jose finished with a 0-0 tie on May 3rd in front of 10,515 vocal fans. In two subsequent games at SC, the Quakes suffered a late come from behind 3-2 loss to Columbus, and a solid 2-1 win over the 2-time defending champion Houston Dynamo. The game with Houston was featured on ESPN2, and archived briefly on ESPN360.com. The announcers repeatedly mentioned the loud fans and organized chants from the crowd, and the audio picked them up perfectly the entire game.

There were several nice runs by midfielders Ivan Guerrero and Ryan Johnson, and Los Altos high school alumni Joe Cannon was solid in goal, but Quakes GM John Doyle is examining all possibilities to bring in a striker to provide more offense. The Quakes rebuilding process is far ahead of where it should be for an expansion team, but they have access to one of the deepest pools of local collegiate talent in the country. Expect several mid to late draft selections to contribute in the coming years. Danish Brondy IF import Peguero Jean Philippe has reinjured a knee and will miss the rest of the MLS season, and according to Elliott Almond of the SJ Mercury News forward Kei Kamara will miss 5 games due to World Cup qualifying for his home country of Sierra Leone. One of the best sources for in-depth SJ Earthquakes information is the new centerlinesoccer.com website. Well worth a visit. If you missed the Manchester United vs Chelsea competing in the Champions League Final in Moscow, the game is archived on ESPN360.com.

- The longest operating horse racing track in California, San Mateo's Bay Meadows, finished its 74th and final regular season of racing on May 11th. A few news reports promoted the finale with significant fanfare, but the last 10 days of racing on the picturesque racetrack will actually take place during the San Mateo County Fair (which finishes August 17th). Bay Meadows track publicity manager Tom Ferrall noted the confusion, and said that the Fairgrounds races will feature the "pomp and circumstance" befitting the track's longstanding history. A local group called the Friends of Bay Meadows is trying to organize a last ditch lawsuit to save the race track, more power to them.

- Following the French Open, several of the top women on the tour will travel to Stanford for the 2008 Bank of the West Classic July 14-20th.

- After tommorow's Calgary Vipers Golden Baseball League home opener against the Edmonton Cracker Cats, there will be one more line item in legendary anti-Sharks agitator Theo Fleury's resume: two-sport athlete. According to Bill Graveland of the Canadian Press, Fleury is going to throw out the first pitch and possibly attempt to play a few innings. Fleury finished his hockey career with 455 goals and 1088 points in 1084 games played, as well as earning a Stanley Cup ring and an Olympic gold medal. The Calgary Herald's George Johnson delved deeper into Fleury's public enemy #1 persona in San Jose during the first round of the playoffs. Another team in the Golden Baseball League, the Chico Outlaws. If Fleury is available for a road game in Chico, this blog will hold a fundraiser and post live coverage.

- The re-unification of the IRL and Champ Car was given a boost with Danica Patrick's first win at the Japan 300 at Motegi (although the Long Beach Grand Prix Champ Car series broadcast send off was interrupted in the final 5 minutes by a Danica interview). This weekend the top two o