Wow - Another 3-1 Win By The Red Wings and They Lead the Finals 2 - 0

Well the Stanley Cup Finals head to Pittsburgh and will resume on Tuesday Night with the Detroit Red Wings leading the series 2 games to nil. Pittsburgh has to really go back and figure out how the Wings are neutralizing their keys to victory, and they have to hope that somehow between now and Tuesday evening Chris Osgood gets back to earth. Osgood was the #1 star of the game again tonight with a Save % of 0.969.

Both the #1 star and the Save % are duplicate images of Osgood's performance in game 1, so who's leading the Conn Smyth voting if it's held tomorrow? Probably not Sidney Crosby who was once again held off the scorecard.

Oh and in a totally weird motion that clearly sends the signal that discipline in the NHL is nothing but arbitrary and capricious, Evgeni Malkin will not be suspended despite getting an instigator penalty in the last five minutes of the game. Here what was in the game recap up on NHL.COM: "Malkin received an instigator penalty for a fight with Detroit’s Henrik Zetternberg at 19:41, but will not be suspended.NHL Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell issued the following statement regarding the instigator penalty:Rule 47.22 states: "A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five minutes or at any time in overtime shall be suspended for one game, pending a review of the incident. The director of hockey operations will review every such incident and may rescind the suspension based on a number of criteria. The criteria for the review shall include, but not be limited to, the score, previous incidents, etc..." Following that review, Campbell said: "None of the criteria in this rule applied in this situation. Suspensions are applied under this rule when a team attempts to send a message in the last five minutes by having a player instigate a fight. A suspension could also be applied when a player seeks retribution for a prior incident. Neither was the case here and therefore the one game suspension is rescinded."

Well it's over to the Igloo now and according to the crack broadcast team at NBC it will be a totally different story there because the Penguins will have the last line change. I don't know about that, it sure seemed like Detroit had four lines that could skate with any combos Pittsburgh was throwing out there in the final two periods tonight. In any case, we are defiantly seeing some good hockey being played and I have to believe that either Osgood is human or Fluery steals at least one of the next two games and this is at least a five game series no matter what. Oh well of even more interest to me is whether either Datsyuk or Draper play in game 3 after everyone has an off day. Oh and once again - how about that Justin Abdelkader kid - he scored another goal tonight...