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The 2-1 Game Seven victory by the Pittsburgh Penguins gave them the Stanley Cup in shocking fashion. On paper the Red Wings have a much more talented and experienced lineup in comparison to the youth movement wearing the colors of the City of Pittsburgh flag.
However as the Wings injury report was released, it was understandable how the Pens were able to shock the favorites for the Cup. It is not too say that the Pens are not talented, but if the Wings were healthy, would the series have still gone in the Pens favor?
The injuries that could have caused the Wings to falter include Ericsson recovering from his appendectomy as well as Lidstrom recovering from a Patrick Sharp spear to his nether region and Datsyuk's leg issues also from the Chicago series.
These aliments as well as a few others started to take their toll in Game Six. The Pens shot out of the gate in Game Six and for some reason the Wings could not keep up. Their sluggishness is not a feature of Wings hockey. The mistakes of giving up breakaways is also not a feature of Wings hockey.
In Game Seven, the two goals scored by Pens forward Maxime Talbot are the worst goals for any opposing team. These were not the kind of goals that props are given by the other team for their artistry. The first one on a mistake pass from Brad Stuart who thought it was icing is an omen goal.
The second Talbot goal was on another breakaway (two on one) that left Wings fans bent over that the Wings defense would collapse again and that the season could be over in the wrong way.
The world record of offsides by the Wings in Game Seven were not like the Wings in every other game this season. They were so on edge to make something happen that they couldn't get anything to happen.
If they could get into the Pens zone, they would do a dump-in and do a change of lines. This style of play is revealed that this game was not going in the Wings favor.
The Jonathan Ericsson goal prevented the shut-out and left the Wings a degree of dignity prior to the clock running out on the season. His slap-shot offered a preview of what is to come next season when he will be on defense when the Wings start their season against the Blues in Sweden.
There was a lot of flak directed towards Marian Hossa who managed just three points in the Final and no goals. Being that he was on the other side of the ice in last season's Stanley Cup Final did have fans wondering...
However the real reasoning that probably lead to Hossa being O-ssa is because the Pens saw him as their number one priority. There is no other Wings player that they needed to neutralize on both an offensive and fan-requested basis.
Also since they did play with him the season prior, they knew his strengths and weaknesses from a teammate perspective. It didn't help that Pavel Datsyuk missed the first four games of the Final and that Henrik Zetterberg was focused on keeping up with Crosby/Malkin.
After the game ended, the stories of the night did not end. Sydney Crosby, captain of the Pens forgot to lead his team in the handshake which left players and fans of the Wings once again put off by his behavior.
The Wings players did stand on the ice waiting to shake his hand but after few minutes left the ice. However Crosby will have to face Niklas Lidstrom at the NHL Awards along with the rest of the captains up for awards. No one wants to think that the NHL poster boy would snub one of the most respected team captains in sports.
The next issue was the roar of boos when the Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup were brought out to be rewarded to Evgeni Malkin and Sydeny Crosby. The Wings fans were not booing the Pens.
Instead the Wings fans were booing Gary Bettman. This was the first chance the Wings would have in doing this as they couldn't last season since the Cup was won in Pittsburgh.
Why do the Wings fans hate Bettman? Let's see.
Whenever he is asked about bad calls by refs he avoids the issue which included the crease calls against Tomas Holmstrom last season.
He allowed NBC to schedule the Stanley Cup Final around their TV shows.
He expresses an attitude of favoring Pittsburgh which included having last season's advertising for the NHL Center Ice package focused on the Pens as if they in fact won the 2008 Stanley Cup.
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