Ann 2The Detroit Red Wings are 2008's Stanley Cup Champions
June 5th 2008 21:14
Photo credit: AP
What a game! Now THIS was the final that everyone was expecting. It had everything. Two teams willing to fight to the death, personal battles, fluke goals, heroic performances, and a dramatic ending.
The Red Wings surprised everyone by charging right out of the gates at the beginning of the game. The team that was supposed to be tired after three overtime periods in Game 5 completely dominated the Penguins at the beginning of the game. Their speed and forecheck was so overwhelming that the Pens were sent to the penalty box four minutes into the game for interference. Less than one minute later, Brian Rafalski scored the first goal of the Wings on the powerplay with the two assists going out to Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. As luck would have it, the puck was actually deflected into the net by defenseman Hal Gill. If he hadn't been there, that shot would have been way off target.
On the Wings' second goal, Fleury was unable to control his rebound, leaving Valtteri Filppula to backhand the puck in between the young goaltender's legs. 2-0 Red Wings. But the Pens were far from being out of it. Their first goal was the result of the battle between Jordan Staal and Pavel Datsyuk. Since the beginning of the game, Staal gave a lot of problems to the Wings defense with his aggressive forecheck and long reach (at 6' 4'', Staal takes up a lot of space on the ice when he extends his stick). Defensively, he took it as a personal duty to bother and/or hit Datsyuk every time the Russian forward had the puck. After being the victim of a severe hit, Datsyuk took vengeance in his own hands and crushed Staal along the boards, almost injuring the Penguins' third center. Datsyuk was penalized for interference though it could have been boarding if Staal had gotten an injury. Consequently, the Wings were down one man with one of their best penalty-killers in the box. Invisible Man Evgeni Malkin didn't miss this opportunity and brought life back to the Mellon Arena with his first goal of the series.
At 2-1, the game was tightly contested. The Wings didn't want to defend too much, but at the same time they had to be careful against a team as desperate as the Penguins. The Pens, on the other hand, completely abandoned the idea of defense as they fought for the equalizer. As a resut, Fleury was often faced with odd-man rushes but he stood tall, until the seventh minute of the third period. In that moment, the man who had kept his team alive in this series, led them to their downfall with the unluckiest own goal ever imagined. With Detroit rushing to his net, Fleury partially stopped a shot by Henrik Zetterberg. The netminder thought he had kept the puck between his pad but the long delay of the whistle told him otherwise. He fell to his back to immobilize the puck that was right behind him. By moving backwards, his butt pushed the puck into his own net and it was 3-1 Red Wings.
As the minutes were passing by, the referees decided to put the whistles in their pockets and let both teams duke it out. There were several instances of hooking, tripping, interferences, but the refs were blind to it all until the 18th minute of the third were Red Wings center Jiri Hudler was penalized for hooking. It was a good call... for the regular season. There were a lot more obvious non-calls than this one but what the hell, it made the ending more suspenseful. On the powerplay, the Penguins took out Fleury and decided to go with six skaters against Detroit's 4-man penalty-kill. As expected, the Pens scored on the powerplay and they had one minute and a half left to score the equalizer. Fleury stayed on the bench and the Pens' six best skaters were sent to the ice. The Red Wings held their own until the last ten seconds where the Penguins started to shoot from all directions. Osgood made the saves, including a stunning stop with one second left to go. He didn't control the rebound, however, and the puck flew across his crease to the other side of the ice (from the goalie's left to his right), almost crossing the goal line with 00.01 to go. And the rest was history.
Nicklas Backstrom is now the first European captain to raise the Stanley Cup and Henrik Zetterberg edged out Chris Osgood to win the Conn Smythe Trophy after his brilliant performance in both games 5 and 6.The Penguins tried their best but the better team won. Pittsburgh still have the potential to win a Cup in the next few years but GM Ray Shero might have some trouble with the salary cap. The Pens will try to re-sign Evgeni Malkin this summer (even though he is under contract until next year) and he will probably command a hefty raise. Next year, Pittburgh's management has to worry about Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury. Both players were exceptionnal in this year's playoffs. If Shero wants Hossa, he'll have to sacrifice one of these players which is highly unlikely. Other than that, almost half of the squad become UFAs this summer, notably Ryan Malone, Jarkko Ruutu, Pascal Dupuis, Georges Laraque and Brooks Orpik.
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