Wings are rested & ready to roll to Pittsburgh, hoping to hoist the Stanley Cup there again

Rested & ready to roll: Red Wings have eyes on Cup

DETROIT — Chris Osgood lounged on his day off, watching the Detroit Tigers, Tiger Woods and basketball when he wasn’t taking a 2½-hour nap.

“I’m banking some sleep here,” Detroit’s goaltender said Monday.

Osgood and the Red Wings hope the much-needed break — after playing eight times in 16 days — gives them a boost to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals.

Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart took advantage of Sunday, a rare day away from a rink, to catch up on laundry.

It didn’t take Stuart long to get back into the swing of things, shoving teammates such as Jiri Hudler away from Osgood and skating hard during a relatively intense workout at Joe Louis Arena.

“We haven’t had a lot of practices like that the last couple months,” Stuart said before the Red Wings traveled to Pittsburgh. “It was good to get out there to make sure your body is working.”

Detroit coach Mike Babcock was pleased with what he saw from Pavel Datsyuk in his first practice since making his debut in the Stanley Cup finals after missing seven games with a foot injury.

“He looked really good,” Babcock said.

The MVP finalist shot a puck over Osgood’s glove and into the net, finishing a 2-on-1 rush after Henrik Zetterberg set him up with a crisp pass.

“I like the way they looked together,” Babcock said. “I was really impressed with Pavel out there. The other day when he was practicing and he was going to play, I didn’t think he looked great.

“As the game went on I thought he got more confident, and it’s pretty apparent now.”

Datsyuk assisted on the first goal of Game 5, had another assist and made other contributions to help Detroit beat the Penguins 5-0 to take a 3-2 lead in the series.

The Red Wings have a chance to finish the series in Pittsburgh, where they hoisted the Cup last year to give the franchise its fourth title in 11 seasons.

“We’re comfortable on the road,” forward Kirk Maltby said. “A lot of times, we say we wish we could bring our road game home because a lot of times we play better on the road.”

The Red Wings lost at Pittsburgh twice by 4-2 scores in Games 3 and 4.

“It’s up to us to respond to play the kind of hockey we know we can play,” forward Kris Draper said. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere.

“We have to make sure we have a great start to settle down quickly.”

Marian Hossa hopes to keep his emotions in check, focusing on the game and not the decision to leave Pittsburgh to chase a Cup with the Red Wings.

If Detroit ends up celebrating in Pittsburgh, Maltby joked that he’s going to avoid Hossa in Mellon Arena.

“I’m not going to be standing by him,” Maltby quipped. “But we’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves.”