Well, it didn’t take the Red Wings long to commit to playing Pavel Datsyuk when the Stanley Cup Finals return to Detroit for Game 5 Saturday night. When asked about Datsyuk’s status for Game 5, Coach Mike Babcock responded simply, “He’ll play.”

Datsyuk brings a whole other dimension to the Red Wings that the Penguins will have to match up against. Certainly, with Pavel in the lineup it will relieve some of the duress Zetterberg has been under trying to skate with Sidney Crosby.

Time for the Penguins to evolve and deal with it. Because if Datsyuk is full strength, the Penguins will have to worry.

Say what you want, and having myself read the commentary out of the Detroit papers and Red Wings blogs do vehemently disagree, the Red Wings appear to be out of gas. That does not mean that at some point they will not make a pit stop and refuel. But for now the defending Stanley Cup Champions look tired and defeated.

I sit in D7, four sections up and to the left side of the Pens bench if you are looking at it from the ice. Even from my perch I could see Detroit’s players gasping for air and slumped on the visitor’s bench as the game wore on. When his Sidness teamed up with MVP (Geno Malkin) to put the Penguins ahead 3-2 you could see it from the International Space Station if that damnable roof on the Mellon Arena still opened. Any time you can see the full numbers on the back of a player’s sweater you know they are leaning forward looking for something that they might not have.

Here is the scary thing though. Datsyuk is still not playing. Is he ready? If he is, he is well rested. My sources say he was ready, but only about 80%, for Game 4. This is why the Detroit coaching staff was not quite ready to play him. So he sat. The Wings lost. Now, with Game 5 looming what happens? Does a ready and well rested Datsyuk play and add fresh legs to spark the team out of the Motor City? Does a hobbled Datsyuk get thrown in to the fray by a Detroit team looking for anything at all? And if so does will he be a non-factor or a hindrance? Or will he sit again, still not ready for the ice?

Here’s another scary thing. Detroit played well in the first period at times dominating the play. They also scored quickly in the second to take a lead. But this is the second game in a row where around the halfway point of the second period the Red Wings looked obviously tired. Still, if they can keep getting the lead on the Penguins, is Osgood able to steal a game the Pens should by all rights win?

And yet another scary thing. Sure, the series is now a best of three but it is a best of three with two in Detroit and those darn boards that can score on visiting goalies by themselves without much help. Ask Marc-Andre Fleury about that.

And how about this for just one more scary thing? If the Penguins cannot pull out a win on Saturday night at the Joe, they will be down 3-2 and facing elimination, again, in Game 6 on home ice giving Detroit another chance to hoist the cup in front of really depressed Penguins fans.

Come Saturday night, the Penguins need to dig down deep, find that extra gear, put some extra gas in their own tanks and crash, bang and boom the Red Wings all over the ice; all while staying out of the box. Fleury will need to play a near flawless game to beat Detroit on their home ice and in their own barn.

Do that, and they will have a chance to do something Pittsburgh fans have never seen done – have the home team hoist the Stanley Cup on Igloo ice.

There are moments in every game and every series. And then there are moments. Last night in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and the Penguins trying desperately to not fall behind 3-1 to the Red Wings for a second year in a row, contained one of those moments.

With the Penguins reeling after giving up two goals in a little over two minutes, one at the end of the first and one at the start of the second period to find themselves trailing 2-1, it was Jordan Staal (3) that ignited the crowd. Or maybe, and more correctly, it was Max Talbot who started it. After back to back penalties, the Penguins on their heals and short handed for an extended period, Talbot found the puck on his stick and pushed it ahead to Staal who put his head down and set his sights on Chris Osgood. When the puck left his stick, the shot was not a particularly great one. In fact it was more pushed than actually shot.

But it went in behind Osgood, who yes, is indeed mortal, and the Igloo erupted. Not just the fans, but the Penguins as well who stormed up and down the ice for two more goals with the help of Crosby (15) who was fed by Malkin and Mr. Kennedy (4) who was fed by Cosby. All three goals happened in just 5:37 of play. And it could have been worse. Malkin had to rush a shot on a breakaway in the closing seconds of the period because of the clock and Osgood flashed his leather to keep the score from being worse.

Fleury, once again, allowed a couple marginal goals on 39 shots but held firm when it matter most as the Penguins defense allowed more shots than you would like to see. Granted 39 is a lot, but many of them were not serious chances as the Penguins did a good job limiting legitimate chances. But any shot on goal always has a chance. The Penguins will have to work on this problem before game five in Detroit on Saturday where they have a chance to go up on the Red Wings 3-2. Of course they also have a chance to go down 3-2 as well.

We’re down to a best of 3 series now and the Penguins must win in Detroit at some point to win the series. Doing so Saturday night would certainly help their chances of making it to the prom with that most pickiest of dates in one Lord Stanley.

My fellow Pittsburghers have to respect the Red Wings. Last year a lot of you didn’t and the climbed up on the Penguins too fast for the Penguins to recover. This year is no different. Are the Penguins better than they were last year at this time? No doubt about it and no disrespect to Marion (I have a better chance to win the Cup in Detroit) Hossa. But if the Penguins had kept Hossa they would not have Satan, Fedotenko, or Guerin. There is also a possibility that others might not be around either like Brooks Orpik. In all honesty the Penguins had no room for another $7 million player on their roster. The Red Wings did. Alone he makes them better.

Despite the bumps and the bruises that are evident on every Detroit player you cannot downplay that they know how to win and have been doing it so far this post season. Remember, the Penguins won their second Stanley Cup with injuries and Lemieux playing with a broken wrist. So don’t think that injuries will mater.

Some of their players might be older, but age is not always a factor. Last year a lot of people thought that the older Red Wings would not be any serious match for the young, fast Penguins either and look what happened.

There is still a battle left in this war and to win the Penguins will have to draw upon every sound strategy ever implemented on the battlefield to come out on top. The most important of those is never underestimate your opponent and make them play your game. Don’t play theirs. That is where respect comes into play. Because if you respect your opponent you will not allow them to gain an unnecessary upper hand and take advantage of your foolishness.

“Tradition” states that the only trophy one dares touch once the Stanley Cup playoffs begin is Lord Stanley’s Cup itself. To do anything else is said to anger the hockey gods by embracing a lesser achievement and that said gods will be more than happy to allow you to settle for less than the grand prize of hockey if that is the way you want to be.

Last night after the Penguins scored an empty net goal to ice the Eastern Conference Championship, I stood up and declared to my buddy who I was watching the game with that Sidney should skate over to the Prince of Wales Trophy after the game and skate around the ice proudly with it in defiance of “tradition”. Of course I also jokingly suggested that he spike it on the ice and proclaim aloud, “WHO’S NEXT?” Imagine my pleasure when somehow my thoughts were magically read by His Sidness and he defied the gods themselves to try and smite him. He and the team also sent a clear challenge to whomever may win the Western Conference Finals (which will probably be Detroit); do you have the balls to touch the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl?

Essentially the Penguins have challenged the manhood of the Western Conference Champs who are still to be determined. Perhaps they have even spotted them a few goals by granting the favor of the hockey gods upon either Detroit or Chicago should they stick with the “tradition.” We will have to wait and see.

Last night, the Penguins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes in a clean sweep of the Eastern Conference Finals and the record is intact – no team has ever come back from a 4-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game started like many this spring with the Penguins opposition scoring early on a soft goal. At 1:26 of the first, Staal (10) scored on a wrap around that squeezed under Marc-Andre Fleury’s pad. It gave Carolina fans hope but that was all they had to cheer about as the Penguins rolled the rest of the way with only minor speed bumps put up by a feisty, yet tired, Carolina team.

Fedotenko (6) scored at 8:21 off a Boucher shot pass to the far post that caught Ward way out of the net, a theme for the entire game. Then with 1:29 left in the period, Max Tablot (4) scored off a fluttering pass that Ward half swiped at, bounced off the top of his glove, over his head and landed softly in the net. BLAMO – 2-1 Pens.

Then in the second, Crosby and Guerin stuck. In a reversal of a previous goal where Guerin fed Crosby at the far post in front of ward, it was Guerin’s turn. Guerin popped a puck out of the Pens zone which Crosby picked up. Crosby skated down the wall and had a 1-1 in font of Ward with Guerin following behind him and Kunitz trailing the play in the middle of the ice. Guerin turned on the jets and swept to the far post as Crosby pulled up at the circle to Ward’s right. Crosby flowed the puck over and Ward was not able to move post to post fast enough to stop the dagger from being placed in their hopes for a comeback. Guerin’s goal was his seventh of these playoffs.

Adams (3) added an empty net goal in the final two minutes and it was over and the brooms came out.

Pittsburgh only managed 24 shots on net against Ward which is a far cry from the 40+ they have been putting up. Fleury faced a total of 31 shots including 16 in the second period constantly flashing leather and kicking out a pad to stop pucks fired by the Hurricanes.

Now with the question of who will represent the East settled, the question of who will represent the West remains. And if Detroit has the wherewithal to end the hopes of the Blackhawks tonight will the NHL courageously move the Finals up to this weekend as my sources in the NHL tell me they are considering?

The Columbus Blue Jackets came into Pittsburgh hoping to win a game. The Penguins hoped that their comeback against Tampa Bay would not be the end of their good fortune. Thanks to Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins got what they wanted. Fleury stoned the Blue Jackets on 15 first period shots and was again huge in the third stopping 10 of 11 and 33 of 34 overall. He won the Penguins this game.

And it was his goal tending that allowed the Penguins to eventually get a 1-0 lead in the second off of Kris Letang’s 4th of the year. Letang (5) would add another nearly ten minutes later to make the score 3-0. In the end the Penguins wound up with a 4-1 victory and two wins in a row playing a fairly consistent and gritty game. Crosby (21) scored an empty netter at the end to seal the win.

Columbus fell to 24-23-5 on the year and the win, while it helped the Penguins moral did not move them up in the standings. They are still in 10th place behind Carolina who also has 57pts but also a game in hand. They are one point back of the Panthers that have two games in hand.

The real test is this Sunday against a struggling Detroit squad that is only 4-4-2 in their last ten but coming off two wins against St. Louis and Pheonix with a game against the Oilers the night before. The Penguins must play hard and really must win that game to prove that they are ready to make a run here with time and games running out.