Therrien had obstructed view

PITTSBURGH - A sure sign of a team in trouble is when a coach in the middle of a playoff series keeps talking about the officiating.

Meet Michel Therrien, coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Why was his team in arrears, 2-0, to the Red Wings in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup finals prior to Game 3 last night? Well, one might think it was because the Penguins had yet to put a puck behind Winged Wheel goalie Chris Osgood. Therrien wasn't denying that, but according to him, the Penguins went 0 for Detroit because the officials allowed the Red Wings to obstruct them from getting the puck, and we all know getting the puck is a prerequisite to putting it in the net.

"It's really tough to create offense against a team like that," said Therrien before the Penguins broke through with a 3-2 win last night, "because like I said before, the obstruction is there. They're a puck possession team. And we're a puck possession team. That's the first time this year we're having such a hard time to get the puck. There's a lot of obstruction."

The referees, said Therrien, would have to penalize the Wings for the alleged obstruction, and then his team would have to respond by connecting on power plays.

"After a few penalties," explained the former Canadiens coach, "usually players adjust and give you a chance to get to the puck. And right now we're having a hard time to get to that puck."

Good try, but usually not very successful. Therrien claimed the Penguins' objections to the supposed infractions were brought to the NHL's attention. According to Wings coach Mike Babcock, his club's meeting with league officials yesterday morning did not focus on obstruction issues.

"I don't know what there is to talk about," said Babcock. "Obstruction is when you get your stick on someone and you don't move your feet, or something like that. I think when you're in the right spot and don't move your feet, I don't think there's obstruction."

Added the Wings' captain, veteran defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, "We're playing the way we've played the whole season. When your forwards are coming back that hard, it makes it very easy for the defensemen."

And therein lies the key to Detroit's success in the first two games. The tight, seamless interface between Red Wing defensemen and forwards, especially with the puck deep in their end, never allowed the Penguins a consistent forecheck. Absent that presence and puck control, the Penguins spent 120 minutes doing a whole lot of nothing.

As for obstruction, Babcock said league officials here yesterday focused on something else.

"Most of the meeting," he said, "had to do with blows to the head."

To emphasize his point, Babcock opened wide his eyes in false astonishment. It was his way of expressing displeasure over a couple of hits in Games 1 and 2 delivered by the Penguins, including one on which veteran Pittsburgh winger Gary Roberts roughed up Johan Franzen.

A near miss

Dan Cleary was going to be a Bruin. Or so he figured.

"I remember sitting there that day, behind Joe Thornton," said the Detroit winger when asked what he remembered about the 1997 draft in which Thornton went No. 1 to the Bruins. "The Bruins had two picks, and my agent [Mike Barnett] told me I was going to Boston, too."

Some 12-18 months prior to the draft, Cleary, in fact, projected as the No. 1 pick. But while Jumbo Joe's stock grew steadily higher during 1996-97, Cleary's steadily plummeted. When it came time to use their second pick, No. 8 overall, the Bruins went for Sergei Samsonov. Four more clubs then passed on Cleary before the Blackhawks took him No. 13.

"I wouldn't change anything," said Cleary.

But it was a circuitous route to success for Cleary. A bust in Chicago, he was dealt to the Oilers in March 1999. His game slow to develop in Edmonton, he signed in the summer of 2003 as a free agent with Phoenix, where Barnett was general manager. Cleary spent the lockout season, 2004-05, in Sweden, and only made it back to the NHL in September '05 when the Red Wings offered him nothing more than a training camp invite. Now, three regular seasons later, he has turned into a valued depth forward on arguably the NHL's most talented squad.

Sound familiar?

Babcock's Anaheim Mighty Ducks couldn't score against the Devils in Games 1 and 2 of the 2003 Cup finals, but after the two shutouts (similar to the Penguins' fate in Games 1 and 2 of this series), the Ducks got their game together and stretched the series to its limit before losing.

"It was all about we were unworthy of being in the final," said Babcock, recalling the negative media coverage when the Ducks were blanked in the opening two games. "And I remember [goalie] Jean-Sebastien Giguere stood up at one of these meetings and sat here and said, 'We earned our way here and we have a heck of a team.' And [the Penguins] have earned their way here. They've got a heck of a team. We've got two good teams going out. I think experience, being through that in the past, helps me understand what they're going through, and yet helps me understand what we need to do."

Physical force

Ex-Boston College blue liner Brooks Orpik had a big night in Game 3, logging a game-high seven hits in 23:27 of ice time. "One shift, I think he got four huge hits," said Therrien. "It gave a lot of momentum to our bench and the crowd so involved. So that was pretty unique to see." . . . The Penguins inserted veteran Darryl Sydor into the lineup, using him instead of Kris Letang. Sydor played a steady 13:31 . . . Roberts landed five hits, including one big thump on Andreas Lilja just seconds before Adam Hall gave the Penguins a 3-1 lead. Had Hall's ricochet shot not gone in, his attempt likely would have gone straight to Roberts at the top of the crease, where he would have had a shot into an empty net . . . Kris Draper and Dallas Drake led Detroit with five hits apiece. As the game progressed, Draper drew the duty of trying to pester Sidney Crosby . . . At one point in the third period, according to bench reports, Penguins pest Jarkko Ruutu told Draper he was old and should retire . . . The referees missed a Jordan Staal high stick on Lidstrom that left the defenseman spitting blood on the bench.