The Hockey Stop

The Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins play Game 6 at Mellon Arena Tuesday night to determine if the Wings will win the Cup or the Pens will send the series back to Joe Louis Arena for a deciding Game 7.

Since I work on a newspaper website for my full-time gig, I decided to peruse the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Detroit Free Press websites to find out what kind of online coverage they have.

So as a fun aside to the action on the ice I present the inaugural Stanley Cup Final city newspaper championship: PG vs. Freep.

PEDIGREE: The Post-Gazette was founded in 1786 while the Free Press was first printed in 1831. However, the Free Press has received eight Pulitzer Prizes while the Post-Gazette has yet to nab the coveted newspaper award.

Advantage: Detroit Free Press in a blowout. Pulitzers trump longevity.

SITE LAYOUT: The Penguins page on Post-Gazette NOW has a clean and organized look to it. Nice mix of video, stories, blog posts and photos. But perhaps the best feature of the site is the "Motown Breakdown" section, which aggregates headlines from the Free Press website and provides links to the stories and columns. It's a good thing for Penguins fans their team isn't so generous with the Red Wings, although some might argue they gave away Game 5 in which Detroit pounded Pittsburgh 5-0.

The Wings section of Freep.com is less polished. It has the look and feel of an amateur blog from Number1Osgoodfan.com. There is too much blank space on the left column and story scroll down is entirely too long. The site simply doesn't do justice to the defending Stanley Cup champs.

Advantage: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by a wide margin.

MULTIMEDIA: Post-Gazette features a scrollable video section at the top of the site that provides clickable access to the multimedia page with original video production, editing and reporting plus a virtual tour of the Penguins' new $290 million arena.

The Free Press site has some nicely packaged video with original production, editing and reporting. The difference is that you are able to watch the videos from the Red Wings landing page instead of having to click through to another page. There is a poignant video feature titled "Common Enemy" about the similar booming histories and current economic struggles of the two cities, one a center of the auto industry and the other a steel town, both trying to make a comeback and holding onto hope in these difficult times.



Advantage: Tie. Both sites have solid multimedia content.

CONTENT: Lots of great original reporting on both sides. Seth Rorabaugh's Empty Netters blog and contributions from general sports bloggers, columnists and reporters all provide comprehensive and insightful analysis of the Stanley Cup Finals from the Penguins' perspective.

Helene St. James' blog on Freep.com keeps Detroit fans up-to-date on the latest happenings. But it is long-time Free Press columnist and best-selling author Mitch Albom ("Tuesdays with Morrie") who is able to put it all in the proper perspective.

Advantage: Detroit Free Press. Mitch Albom. Enough said.

INTERACTIVITY: Post-Gazette has a Q&A section in which fans can submit questions to Penguins beat writer Dave Molinari. Fans can also upload photos to the site, participate in live chats, buy Penguins collectibles and sign up for mobile alerts. There is even a fan landing page called "The Icehouse" with printable cheer cards, games and more.

Visitors to the Free Press Wings page are able to comment, blog and share photos if they sign in first. There is even a photo contest in which fans submit images of their homemade posters. There is also a poll, but it is related to the Tigers, not the Wings.

Advantage: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. There is much more to keep fans engaged.

FUN FACTOR: The Post-Gazette features two poorly designed games, one lame beat-the-goalie game and the other a tiresome punch-the-Detroit-player takedown game.

The Free Press features a creative, hilarious and graphically pleasing game called "Smack a Penguin," which was designed by Free Press cartoonist Mike Thompson. Players use a hockey stick to smack as many penguins as possible within a 30 second time limit. The little penguins pop out of holes on the ice. The cartoon penguins are harder to hit than Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin barreling down the ice on a breakaway.

WINNER: Detroit Free Press. But only because of the "Smack a Penguin" game. Overall the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is a slightly better site. Now back to smacking penguins ...