Hockeytown Exposed: Pucksburgh Holds The Torch Now

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Nonetheless, there’s a reason to think that the glory days are behind the Red Wings for awhile. Hard to believe, but defenseman Chris Chelios is 94-years-old. Team captain Nicklaus Lidstrom is 39, and for one of the few times in his career, Mr. Norris Trophy looked like it in the playoffs. Forward Kris Draper is 38. Goaltender Chris Osgood and forward Tomas Holstrom are 36. D-man Brian Rafalski is 35. Center Pavel Datsyuk will turn 31 soon.

It had to happen sometime, but the Big Red Machine has a lot of well-worn parts now.

What puts Pucksburgh over the top is the best sixth-man in the league. In Detroit, tickets to even some playoffs games were readily available this spring, which would have been unthinkable not long ago. Meanwhile, the Penguins have sold out Mellon Arena in 188 consecutive games—a streak that began after Crosby came aboard.

In the playoffs, the Mellonheads that don’t have tickets watch the game on a supersized TV monitor outside the arena doors. In Game 6, NBC turned party-pooper and pulled the plug on the lawn party, but that didn’t stop a suburban Pittsburgh couple. They showed the game on a 10-by 15-foot screen outside their home, where a few hundred fans pulled up lawn chairs and whooped it up on the street.

Would you believe that 375,000 people showed up for the championship parade? Or nearly 15 percent of Greater Pittsburgh? On a Monday afternoon? And that only two arrests were made?

 “We got off to a bad start, but they stuck behind us,” Crosby said of the fans after the Stanley Cup clincher. “They have been so loyal to us for a long time. They deserve this.”

When is the best time to rob a bank in the ‘Burgh? Easy. When a Penguins game is on television. Local ratings are so ridiculous, nobody would know about it. The seventh game of the conference semifinals against the Washington Capitals was the highest-rated NHL game for any Fox Sports Network regional outlet in the country. In the regular season, the average Penguins game produced a 6.9 rating, the best of any FSN affiliate for the second consecutive season.

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