GAME DAY: SCP '09, FRIDAY JUNE 12, STANLEY CUP FINAL--PITTSBURGH AT DETROIT, 800 PM ET

If I had kids, I would not let them watch that cracked out show.

Hossa....that sucks.

So Pittsburgh next year?

The Guy With The Mustache wrote:Hossa....that sucks.

So Pittsburgh next year?

Just tell him to stay the hell away from Ottawa! He's now been on two Stanley Cup losing teams in a row! That's got to be a record, too.

Congrats to Cap'n Clutch. I'll get you back next year.

I want to cry.

You'll live I'm sure. The Wings are still the class of the league and the model by which all other franchises are based. They've managed to stay not just good, but a serious contender for the better part of 15 seasons now. Unheard of in the world of the cap and free agency.

The Pens had to be an embarassment for several years to get to this point. Worth it? Today perhaps.

What a game!

Wow! Well, congrats to the Penguins on becoming the Stanley Cup Champs. Great game. I am quite surprised at the outcome, but this is hockey.

Inimitable, and always provocative, Stan "The Maven" Fischler, the dean of hockey writers, pens this perspective on the Pens' purloining of the prize as the Wings wobbled:

THE NEW CHAMPS
Stan Fischler, MaxHockey.com, June 13, 2009

At age twenty-one Sidney Crosby has nothing more to live for; except winning a second Stanley Cup and having a new Pittsburgh arena named after him.

By tomorrow Evgeni Malkin could be named czar of Pennsylvania and all points west of The Igloo.

Marc-Andre Fleury could run for Quebec's premiership and win a run-off election.

Maxime Talbot, who scored the two Pittsburgh goals to drop the curtain on the Red Wings, could do just about anything he wants -- within speed limits -- for the next three months, minimum.

Such is their all-Canadian-American eminence as new dominators of the hockey world.

The Penguinos are the champions, my friends, winners, 2-1, in THE contest that mattered most, Numero Siete, at Joe Louis Arena.

Having dethroned the Red Wings in a thoroughly dolorous Detroit, Dan Bylsma's boys have described a remarkable climb from the dungeon of defeat under whipmaster Michel Therrien to the NHL apex, alias The Stanley Cup.

Crosby and Malkin are no longer mere poster boys for the league; they ARE the league and who, pray tell, will dare stop them? (Pity all of us who will have to see their mugs one hundred times more than we have already.)

But that's the price we pay for their final -- and finally -- successful invasion of The Joe where the once-impregnable Red Wings were repulsed with no equivocation.

Don't let the tight score fool you; the better team won virtually from the get-go with signs of eventual Pittsburgh victory all there from the opening face-off.

Even though the first period ended in a zip-zip draw, it was evident which team held the upper hand and it sure wasn't Henrik Zetterberg's.

Pitt had the first frame's only power play and -- with precious few seconds otherwise -- owned the Detroit zone. What's more, all the allegedly brilliant Mike Babc0ck strategy seemed utterly futile against Bylsma's magic.

The Red Wings prime weakness was exploited over and over; and that was an inability to detach the rubber from the Penguins when the foe got the puck behind the net and along the boards.

At times the Motor City skaters appeared to be doing a sequel of "Land of the Lost," starring Brian Rafalski and Nik Lidstrom, among other culprits.

I wish I had a dollar for every Detroit offside and another buck for every time Brad Stuart played stupid hockey; as on Slapsy Maxie Talbot's first goal early in the second which was an example of Michigan hospitality. "Here, Malkin, have the puck on a silver platter," could have been Stuart's line. And so it went, like a billiard ball, from Evgeni to Maxie to the back of the net with Chris Osgood obliged with a rather large five-hole.

And on Slapsy's second goal, Stuart chose to have a hugging fest with the right boards while Talbot sang a chorus of "Thanks A Million," took off on a two-on-one before lifting a stoppable shot over a half-butterflying Osgood.

Sorry, Chris, there'll be no Hall of Fame for you based on that evidence.

In the Battle Of The Goalies, score it a TKO for Fleury.

Both Talbot goals made Osgood look like the Os-bad of mid-season when his general manager Ken Holland sang him a chorus of "I Told You I Love You -- Now Get Out!"

At his best, Chris is a smallish goalie who plays big, using the angle style to advantage. In Game Seven, he looked like he was auditioning for a Lilliputian part in a "Gulliver's Travels" remake.

Make no mistake, the Red Wings choked; especially the gunners.

Except for precious few occasional flashes, The Zilch Twins, .Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, produced zilch and zilch. What better proof than the man who scored the only Wings goal, Jonathan Ericsson.

But the third period counter was too little, too late because until then, Jon's mates acted as if the Pitt zone was sprinkled with land mines which explains why Fleury could have played long stretches of the contest in a chaise lounge and it wouldn't have mattered one whit in terms of the outcome.

What mattered was that Detroit's veterans couldn't maintain the pace -- except for a useless burst in the opening few minutes -- and veterans disappeared like smoke rings; one in particular.

Marian Hossa, who jumped from Pittsburgh to Detroit during the off-season, would do the entire Red Wings roster a huge favor if he exiled himself to Corsica where, I'm told, there's a league that matches his level of play in the Finals.

Even after Crosby left the ice after a solid second period whacking along the left boards, the Red Wings showed all the lust for victory of a three-toed sloth.

Perhaps the most pathetic aspect of Detroit's demise was the expectation that its players would produce an effort to lift spirits in their strife-torn metropolis.

Instead, all Hockeytown's citizens received was a build-up-to-a-letdown.

As you might have expected, watching the NHL's season-long marketing of Crosby, the second most galling angle was the officiating that actually played HUGE part in deciding the game and Cup-winner.

On the first goal Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik dumped the puck into the Red Wing zone on the wrong side of the center red line. But as NBC's Ed Olczyk immediately noted, the linesmen missed the call.

No whistle; one Pitt goal. Sound familiar?

On the second goal, the senior (Ha!) referees, Bill McCreary and Paul Devorski, failed to whistle down an obvious Pitt infraction and on the ensuing play Talbot escaped on a two-on-one.

No whistle: second Pitt goal.

And while it would be convenient to lay the result on their ineptitude -- or bias in Pitt's favor -- it all came down to the Red Wings' inability to put clamps on the series after going up two games to nil.

Or, to be more specific, Detroit's abject failure to generate offense when it counted in the last two games did them in.

Not surprisingly, the last good chance -- a "ping" off the crossbar in the dying moments -- came from a defenseman, Nik Kronwall.

If youth must be served -- at least that's what they tell me -- Pitt's fly-boys showed the way.

Their younger legs, fierce pursuit of the puck and defining goaltending made the ex-Champs look like they qualified for Assisted Living.

But, if for any reason you are distraught about the result, think of the bright side of things.

In the end, the Penguins victory will benefit ALL humanity because we won't have to look at Crosby's miserable faux- moustache until next year's playoffs.

It's Thanksgiving time in Pittsburgh.

In Detroit, they've got the turkeys!

Must say im very new to hockey over here in England, but just watched a rerun of last nights game, very exciting.
So congrats to the Penguins and unlucky Detroit, hitting the crossbar and that last second save denying them levelling up the scoreline.

Must say im very new to hockey over here in England, but just watched a rerun of last nights game, very exciting.
So congrats to the Penguins and unlucky Detroit, hitting the crossbar and that last second save denying them levelling up the scoreline.

I'm glad you enjoyed it Ferret. Maybe you'll have a chance to watch some more reruns over the course of the summer since we won't have live hockey until September.

cant believe crysby was so ignorant and wouldnt shake the hand of lidstrom

HH, I left the bar before that happened... what's the story there?

Crosby didnt shake Lidstrom hand... If that was the case for other red wings im not sure... But Lidstrom and Draper were not too happy about it.

This is the story from tsn.ca i missed it last night but lidstrom and draper are preet upset

DETROIT -- The Red Wings can accept that Pittsburgh is the Stanley Cup champion. Getting snubbed by Sidney Crosby is another matter.
After watching Pittsburgh hoist the Cup on Detroit's ice, the Red
Wings lined up to shake hands with the Penguins as is custom in the NHL
playoffs.
Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom was up front, followed by alternate captain Kris Draper, congratulating many of the new champions while waiting for Pittsburgh's captain.
"Nick was waiting and waiting, and Crosby didn't come over to shake
his hand," Draper told an Associated Press reporter a couple hours
later as he was leaving Joe Louis Arena. "That's ridiculous, especially
as their captain, and make sure you write that I said that!"
Crosby eventually skated over to shake hands with the Red Wings, but
many had already headed for the dressing room. Detroit forward Johan Franzen and Crosby exchanged words and Crosby then shook hands with goaltender Chris Osgood and some other Detroit players.
Pittsburgh didn't need Crosby to finish off the Red Wings, beating
them 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals without the superstar
healthy enough to play for the whole game.
Detroit was bitter about blowing 2-0 and 3-2 leads in the series, but the previous champions gave the Penguins their due.
"You've got to give them credit," Red Wings coach Mike Wang said.
Goaltender Chris Osgood agreed.
"We're not stunned," he said. "They had a good team."
The Red Wings were good, too, just not good enough to overcome hurt or misfiring stars in the finals.
They swept Columbus, survived a seven-game series against Anaheim and skated past Chicago in five games as MVP finalist Pavel Datsyuk missed several games with a foot injury and Marian Hossa scoring in just three games.
But the Red Wings couldn't hold on to hoist the Cup for the second
straight year and fifth time in 12 seasons when Datsyuk was out early
in the finals and Hossa mustered only three assists against his former
teammates.
"Any time you win three games in a final, you have a chance," Wang said. "We just didn't have enough to get it done.
"The guys that were injured on our team this year never got their
game back to the level it could be. And they were significant players
for us."
Hossa wasn't hurt.
He was just ineffective.
Hossa seemed to crumble in the spotlight after turning down a
lucrative, long-term contract last summer to stay with the runner-up
Penguins to take a one-season shot at the Cup with the defending
champions.
Hossa is eligible to be an unrestricted free agent again, but he wasn't ready to talk about his plans.
"I can't think about that now," he said. "I'm sure we'll have some talks."
The Red Wings will have some interesting decisions to make this
off-season because they probably can't keep Hossa along with key free
agents such as Jiri Hudler, Mikael Samuelsson, Tomas Kopecky and Ville Leino.
Detroit general manager Ken Holland answered some of the franchise's questions during the regular season by signing Henrik Zetterberg to a contract through the 2020-21 season and Franzen to an 11-year contract.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the deals, which are set up to
pay the players much less toward the end of the contracts, don't
circumvent the salary cap.
"The rules allow what the Red Wings have done," Bettman said during
the playoffs. "But if I was running a team, which I'm not, I would opt
for shorter-term contracts.
"If they keep doing it, some of the contracts will probably turn out
to be great and some will lead to people scratching their heads."
Zetterberg likes his team's chances of competing for a championship next June and in the years to come.
"We still have a good team," Zetterberg said shortly after shaving
his two-month thick beard. "It's going to make us stronger. We've got a
great group of guys here that are going to be around for a number of
years."

Well, sounds like the reporter didn't see it either.

well to be fair not a lot of people watch the shaking of hands

and lidstrom is not the type of player who would just make things like that up