By ALAN ROBINSON, AP
May 28, 2008
PITTSBURGH - If the Pittsburgh Penguins need inspiration and motivation - and, boy, do they ever, down 2-0 to Detroit in the Stanley Cup finals - perhaps they can get it from Red Wings coach Mike Babcock.
The young and perplexed Penguins' world-class scoring talent not only was stifled but was shut out in two games in Detroit and, since his team's 3-0 loss in Game 2 on Monday night, coach Michel Therrien has worn a look that is part exasperation and part disbelief.
Heading into Game 3 tonight, in an arena where they haven't lost in more than three months, maybe Therrien and the Penguins should consider this: Recent history suggests the finals not only aren't over, but may only be starting.
In 2003, Babcock's Anaheim Mighty Ducks were being written off after Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur shut them out by identical 3-0 scores, just as these Penguins are after being held blanked twice by Chris Osgood. New Jersey's trip to Southern California was seen as a mere formality, with the Devils expected to return home with the Stanley Cup firmly in tow a few days later.
Instead, the Ducks won two overtime games in the Pond, and a series that appeared ready to last the minimum four games instead went the maximum seven. The Devils finally won the Cup, but only by winning all four games in the Meadowlands.
So are the Penguins already finished? Have they been upstaged and unraveled by an older, more experienced and more Cup-worthy team? Maybe not yet.
"We have a lot of guys who are capable of scoring and making things happen," Sidney Crosby said yesterday, not even 12 hours after the Penguins returned home from their two worst games of the playoffs. "And our confidence is fine. We all believe in each other."
Babcock recalls that going home was all his Ducks needed in 2003. He hopes the same scenario doesn't work against his team five years later.
"Their guys are going to say, 'OK, we're a good team at home. We're 8-0 at home. Nothing's happening in this series as long as we hold serve, that kind of thing,' " Babcock said. "That's exactly what happened (in 2003), suddenly, the series was the best of three."
