Learned something after game 3.  Don't write blog entries immediately after a game - especially one as exciting and enjoyable as game 3 was.  Just don't - you're liable to write off the wall stuff and look like a schmuck.  So...I say that because that's exactly what I did.  And exactly how I looked.  Oops.

Anyway, tonight is a pivotal game 4 in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.  Pittsburgh's 9-0 home playoff winning streak is on the line against a Detroit team that absolutely cannot allow Pittsburgh to climb back into this series.  Winning a 7 game series is one thing; winning a 3-game series is something else entirely.  Short series turn on critical moments - a bouncing puck here, a controversial call there.  You can't build the momentum, can't afford mistakes, can't relax, not for a second.  Of course, Pittsburgh *wants* a 3-game series - and if they win tonight they get what they want.  Why does Pittsburgh want it?  I think it's obvious - Detroit is slightly better.  Not all the time, not critically better, but slightly better enough from top to bottom that Pittsburgh's really only chance of winning is to get into that 3-game series and roll the dice.  No one knows what's going to happen, and so therefore tonight's game is a total must-win for Pittsburgh.

What can Detroit expect from the Pens tonight?  Energy, pure and simple.  Pittsburgh found space and time in game 3, and were able to generate some offense finally against Detroit's vaunted D.  Pittsburgh's incredible home crowd spurred the team on and the game 3 showed a marked difference.  The Pens finally figured out what Detroit was doing to them, and was able to start countering.  The Wings were still able to dominate stretches of the game, but unlike games 1 and 2, Pittsburgh was able to counter.  So the teams now have a lot more healthy respect for one another, and that's why tonight's game is such a critical one.  There's no telling what's going to happen.

The Wings have got to get their stars getting some goals - and along with that get their PP working.  Zetterberg had a late game 1 meaningless goal (on the PP no less) and Datsyuk have none.  Not what was expected - nor needed - for Detroit to win.

Pittsburgh needs to first score any goals - game 3 was the first time they filled the net at all this series - and it has to be more than Crosby and the fourth line.  The Pens fourth line has been great all playoffs long, and so far in this series they've lived up to their expectations.  But where's Malkin?  Sykora?  Malone?  Staal?  They are conspicuously absent from the scoring tally, and if Pittsburgh expects to win another game let alone the series, these guys have got to step up big.

I think that the Pens will win tonight and force at least a 6-game series.  I just get the feeling that they are ready for a break-out type game.  It will still be a long, difficult series because both teams (despite what I said earlier about Detroit's slight advantage) are very, very good.  There won't be any more 3-0 wipeouts for either team.  They will all be the 4-3 variety I think.  Good hockey.  Fun to watch, and yet painful because of how intense it is.  Any way you cut it, tonight at 8PM I'm glued to the television set. 

GO PENS!