DETROIT -- It’s the story that won’t go away. Now, the Detroit Red Wings are saying that Pavel (Groundhog Day) Datsyuk is in, and will play in Game 5.
And if you think you’ve had enough of this waiting game, you should hear these poor players try to answer the same questions day after day.
"We've heard all the chatter about him coming back," said Penguins defenceman Brooks Orpik. "It doesn't change anything for us, to be honest. Even if he does come back, we all have a lot of respect for the player he is. But that being said, I don't know how effective he's going to be if he comes back and he's playing at whatever level he's playing at."
Hang on a second.
Are we talking about the same guy? The Pavel Datsyuk who led the Red Wings with 97 points this season? The league’s fourth leading scorer behind Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby?
The same Pavel Datsyuk who is up for both the Hart Trophy and Selke Trophy?
"Like I said, we're not too concerned about that," Orpik said. "I think throughout the playoffs we've just been more concerned with the way we're playing. And if he does come back, it doesn't really change much for us, really."
As the cliché goes, a series doesn’t begin until someone wins the first game on the road. That would be incumbent on the Penguins, who have evened this Stanley Cup final at 2-2 but have not yet wrested home ice advantage away from Detroit.
"We've got to get to our game. We've got to play," said Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma. "We can play better. We can bring a different level to our game. We had a different level in the second period (in Game 4), but as a team we're always focused on what we need to do, what we're doing well, and how we can do things better."
But now the ball is in the Red Wings’ court, when it comes to finding another level in this series. Pittsburgh had played well in losing Games 1 and 2 at Joe Louis Arena, and the Penguins raised their games considerably in a pair of 4-2 victories at The Igloo.
What Bylsma fears is a team that can see the brass ring on the horizon, but tries too hard to reach it.
"Hopefully we bring that level-headed approach, whether it's a loss or whether it's a win," he said. "We're no closer to the end than they are. We have two more wins to get, and we have a tall task going into a tough building against a very good team who is playing well.
"It will all happen on Saturday for Game 5."
Drop the puck.
