“I want to make speech longer but my English short.”

-Pavel Datsyuk (with nods to Bethany's Hockey Rants for posting the quote)

Updates since last posting (I apologize but things have gotten crazy here):

• Detroit won the Stanley Cup: BOOOOOOOO!!! HISSS!!! (obviously I am not a Detroit fan)


• Dominik Hasek (G-DET) is retiring (now I have to find another good goalie for my fantasy team)


• Patrick Kane won the Calder Trophy!!! YES!!! He was so awesome to watch last season. I'm so happy for him (Other NHL trophy winners listed here and of course Ovechkin is carrying around a lot of metal)

Battle of the Goalies

I think it was Don Cherry who said (or at least re-iterated) that great teams have great goalies. This year's Stanley Cup finals are no exceptions. It is the battle of the goalies: Chris Osgood for Detroit and Marc-Andre Fleury for Pittsburgh.

Game 6 starts tonight, and so far it's Detroit ahead 3 games to 2. Here is a numerical comparison between Osgood & Fleury so far in this final series:

• Chris Osgood: 3 wins, 2 of them shut-outs. 112 saves against 120 shots, so the save average is 93.3%.


• Marc-Andre Fleury: 2 wins. 178 saves against 192 shots, making the save average 92.7%

So, as you can see, despite Osgood's 2 shut-outs, the save average are close to each other.

Osgood has been good to me on my fantasy teams when Hasek was benched for various reasons this past season. But in this final series, I have much greater respect for Fleury, and it's not because he's a Quebecois goalie (I do like French goalies a lot, like Patrick Roy when I was much younger & Pascal Leclaire currently). Fleury, I think in this series, is a better goalie than Osgood. He has been bombarded by the Detroit offense and have made countless great saves. A team's best defense is their goalie, and since Pittsburgh's defense is not as strong as Detroit, Fleury has pretty much kept the team's chances alive. And quite frankly, Detroit's defense pretty much makes Osgood's job easier.

Though I'm not a Pittsburgh fan, I am definitely not a Detroit fan (though I have had their players on my fantasy team and they had been good to me). With that I must say:

Go Penguins!

Detroit @ Chicago Live Blog 1st Period

Honorary puck drop by Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks (he's the man of the town this week).

Detroit has been extremely rough at the beginning. Many cheap shots against the 'Hawks by Chelios & Rafalski. Chicago scores within 6 minutes of the period during a 5 on 3 power play in favor of the 'Hawks.

Another Blackhawks goal shortly after. Faceoff and went in. Jordan Hendry had his first NHL goal of his career.

7:52, 3-0 Blackhawks. Looks like Robert Lang on this goal. What is wrong with Detroit this evening? Being complacent? Goalie change already. Hasek is out, Osgood is in.

14:20, Zetterburg just scored from 50 feet away, 3-1.

I apologize for only doing a period of game, but I need to finish up my time on the 'net.