Posted by Scott Burnside
DETROIT -- Here are things we will be looking out for in tonight's Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings:
1. The Datsyuk factor
Pavel Datsyuk (foot injury) will make his first appearance in the Wings' lineup since Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, and many questions surround his return. It appears the Hart Trophy nominee will start off playing the wing with Valtteri Filppula at center and Marian Hossa on the opposite wing, as opposed to his natural center position.
But Detroit coach Mike Babcock said if Datsyuk looks like he is feeling OK, he will move the star back to center and presumably have him take shifts against the playoffs' leading scorer, Evgeni Malkin.
Still, no one knows just how effective Datsyuk will be until the adrenaline of the game kicks in, Babcock said.
"He seems to be that he's tolerating [the pain] now," the coach said this morning. "I watched him in the skate, I mean, he doesn't look like Pavel; and yet, in saying that, when the puck's dropped tonight, I've seen a lot of that over the years."
Even when he was playing before the foot injury, Datsyuk was not all that effective and has just one goal and seven points in 13 postseason games.
"It's going to help both offensively and defensively what he brings to our team. Looking at how hard he works every night, his takeaways are one of the tops in the league," Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "He brings that work ethic that we need."
2. Again, the fatigue
So do the Wings have another gear, or are they truly being worn down by the schedule and punishing forecheck of the Pittsburgh forwards? Some of the Penguins players have suggested Henrik Zetterberg looks tired, and he has logged a lot of ice time trying to check Sidney Crosby.
Zetterberg logged 20:58 in Game 4, his lowest ice time in the series by three or four minutes. Lidstrom, who has also looked fatigued in the finals, has been punished, legally or otherwise, by Matt Cooke.
Babcock noted that his team has been through all of this before in previous series.
"We're playing in our building tonight. I feel great about our opportunity," he said. "We're in the finals this year. To me, it's all about opportunities. That's the way I look at it.
"The other thing is, the reason you play these games and the reason I think you cover sports is to be involved in the big events. Well, here's a big event right here today. You want to be good? Be good."
3. The Big Three
Pittsburgh's big three centers were on fire in Game 4, with Jordan Staal scoring a huge short-handed goal and adding an assist and Crosby and Malkin leading the charge in a pivotal second-period outburst. If the Penguins can get production once again from the pivots, it's hard to imagine the Penguins will be denied.
4. Will the Wings' big guns show up?
Lidstrom has no points in the series. Zetterberg has one goal. Tomas Holmstrom has not scored in 16 straight postseason games. Dan Cleary has no points in the finals. Jiri Hudler has gone nine straight games without a goal.
"Everybody has to bring their A-game, whether you're a fourth-line or a top-line player on this team," Lidstrom said. "You know you have to come out in a game like this or in the remaining games, and I think that goes around the locker room, that everybody needs to play their top game when you're facing a Game 5 or 6 or 7."
5. Special teams
The Penguins have won the special-teams contest in this series by a fairly wide margin, and if that continues, the Wings' chances of repeating decline precipitously.
Pittsburgh has killed 9 of 10 Detroit power plays while scoring on 4 of 9. In a series as tight as this (both teams scored 10 goals going into Game 5), that discrepancy in special-teams work is huge and may well be the difference in deciding this year's Cup winner. Veteran defensive specialist Kris Draper said Saturday that he thinks the Wings need to be more desperate.
"'Desperate' is a good word," Babcock said. "But to me, it's just do what you do, but do it hard and be aggressive when you get the pucks. That's been the biggest thing is Pittsburgh's power play, and I said this yesterday, when they shoot it, they're getting it back and we're one and done on ours. You can't be one and done.
"In the end, the power play and the skill and all that is a great thing, but the determination to get the puck back, to me, is a bigger thing," Babcock added. "Two of their goals in this series on the power play is when they basically had us out there for a chunk of time, and just ground it and ground it, and found a way to bang it in the back of the net."
ESPN.com Stanley Cup playoffs blog
