At this point it certainly looks like Tomas Holmstrom is going to play in Game 4. And by the way, that was a nice bit of theatre with Mike Babcock, he's got us so confused now.
When people plead that they're telling the truth in our business, it's a sure sign that they're lying or vice versa.
All I know is this, the real firm conviction on whether Holmstrom will play or not will not come until the game day skate on Saturday morning. That's the time they're going to know for sure whether he's ready to go or not.
But I was actually surprised on Friday at how positive both Mike Babcock and Tomas Homstrom were that he's going to be able to play. He made a giant leap forward from Thursday to Friday and if he gets that same sort of quantum leap from Friday to Saturday I think you're going to see him in the lineup.
The best case scenario is that he can play and he's his old normal, pain-in-the-butt self in front of the net. The worst case scenario is not that he can't play at all; it's that he plays a shift or two and then they find out that he can't go. That would leave them a man down and they would then have to re-jig all of their lines.
Changes Are Working
I like the chances of Pittsburgh having better distributed offence because of some moves Michel Therrien made going into Game 3. And that is, going back to their old lines if you will.
Back on home ice, he wanted to create more familiarity, so he decided to put Ryan Malone back with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora. He put Pascal Dupuis back with Sidney Crosby and Marian Hossa and created a more familiar feeling.
I don't think Therrien was suggesting that we could just forget about the two games in Detroit, but he switched everything up for Game 2 and I think that unfamiliarity cost the Penguins.
Once they got back on home ice it was a much better feeling. They embraced the home crowd, fed off that energy and went back to what worked for most of the playoffs. I think they have a better chance at getting even scoring with those lines intact.