I had a post for here a couple of days ago but lost it, so I'll just keep this short and sweet:
I'm all glad that we finally got two Canadian teams in the playoffs, but let's be realistic here. The Pens are the defending champions, and the red wings seem to still be on the ball, which means that it's pretty likely it'll be the Pens against the Wings for a third straight year in the finals.
I don't exactly see anything special with the Canadians at this point. They're good, but they're not great. I've been a Pens fan since the late 80's and followed their tactics for some time to know what they're doing or not doing.
The match between the Pens and Canadians might be close in the end, but more likely, the Pens are saving it up to beat them back in Pitts in the next game and then upset them again back in Montreal in front of their fans (They have a tendency of doing this)..... and even if they don't, the final game is back in Pittsburgh with home team advantage, which could be a flip of the coin win/lose, but my bets are on the Pens in the end.
Sure the Cans are trying to stick to Crosby and not give him any room to do anything, but that's nothing new and it's been a common practice against Crosby for at least the last two years, especially against the Red Wings.... which is part of the plan.
The same thing was done to Mario in the past.... they're the star players afterall, which makes them an obvious target by the other team, yet while the other team focuses mostly on one guy.... other players like Staal can make their moves, while Crosby moves to more of an assist position. Same thing was done between Mario and Jagr.
If the Canadians (or Canadiens if you will) want to beat the Pens, they best figure out these tactics and figure out how to counter them, cuz at this stage, I haven't seen evidence that they have and they're falling into the same trap as everybody else.