Just watching this series, even while watching it with a stray eye from afar in Washington, was exhausting. For fans, for media, for bloggers, for everyone alike.
Just imagine how it is actually playing the games.
The Penguins showed in Game 7 that they did, in fact, want it more. They played harder and more aggressive for the better part of the game. They played smarter for the entire game and didn't allow for Detroit to wheel and deal the way they like to.
Most importantly, and this was something I made it a point to say both last year and this, their third and fourth lines responded better than Detroit's did, a point that was made emphatically in Game 7 by Maxime Talbot scoring both Pittsburgh goals. Talbot last year was the lone player on Pittsburgh's third and fourth lines who proved to be a burr in the side of the Red Wings.
This year, Talbot solidified himself as a folk hero win or loss given how he handled himself against the Capitals and how he played smartly and selflessly throughout the playoffs. I know that the folks in Pittsburgh's blogging circles will write folk songs and sing the praises of guys like Crosby, Fleury and Malkin but Talbot is the guy for whom much of Pens fans adulation and warm memories from here on out will be saved for.
Evgeni Malkin is the superstar you should get forced down your throat. (Photo - AP)
In this go-round, Talbot had sustained help from Ruslan Fedotenko - a guy who already has Stanley Cup folk hero status for the last 25 Tampa Bay Lightning fans that haven't been run off by the new owners there. Adding characters like Craig Adams and Fedotenko helped solidify the other lines for Pittsburgh helping younger players like Tyler Kennedy and Jordan Staal feel more at home working the grinder lines and realizing that by doing their job checking and defending you can still find a way to pot a goal or two.
Pieces like that are what the team was missing last year and they were able to capitalize best on playing the aggressive forecheck (you know, like I kept saying they ought to do) and put pressure on Detroit's defense.
No, not Nick Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski - those guys you can't exactly rattle. Brad Stuart and Niklas Kronwall however...
To this point in the playoffs, I had been singing the praises of Brad Stuart as his play through the first three rounds had been solid if not spectacular. In the Finals, however, Stuart's efforts in Game 7 are what folks are going to be paying attention to. Stuart took a bad slashing penalty in the first period and had a brutal turnover and mis-timed moment to pinch in leading to both of Maxime Talbot's goals.
Having that kind of résumé in an elimination game will often get a guy run out of town. For Stuart, it's a Finals he'd like to forget as his play suffered. Whether that be from his own mistakes or for having to perpetually look out for Niklas Kronwall who would take himself out of plays looking to deliver a hit elsewhere or do too much on the puck it's tough to say.
For all the advances that Kronwall seemed to make last season in his play after finally finding a way to remain healthy, I couldn't help but find myself watching him to see how he would handle himself and his positioning. A lot of the time he's solid, but there's enough brain farting going on that teams were finding ways to expose him.
I hammered on a lot of this after Game 3 of this series and his +/- rating didn't change after Game 3. In Games 4 and 5 he pulled in a +1 rating and in Game 6 he was even.
Yeah, you guessed it, he was a -2 in Game 7 along with Brad Stuart. Game 7 saw plenty of reckless play from the two of them and if anything that -2 was well earned on their part. The poor unfortunate guy that had to deal with all that was Chris Osgood who truly played stellar all throughout this series and the playoffs.
For Pittsburgh though, Conn Smythe Trophy winner Evgeni Malkin was the story from beginning to end.
Enough about Crosby and him captaining the team to the win - I'm done with that. Good for him for winning but it's not because of him they were able to beat Detroit. Not in Game 7 and not in the rest of the series. He's the guy you're going to get forced down your throats from now until Lord knows when, but it's got to be eating him up how much more sound the Penguins play when he's not around. Malkin carried this team last year while Crosby was out with an injury and he carried the team again in Game 7 when Crosby left with an injury in the second period after taking a hit from Johan Franzen.
This was Malkin's baby from the start of the playoffs and he earned it. Worst of all? Fans in North America aren't going to hear enough about him because he's Russian and speaks poor English and the NHL can't wrap their head around marketing players that don't come from North America.
Amazing, isn't it? I've got a full-blown man-crush on the Hart Trophy candidates this year (Alex Ovechkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Malkin) but the league can't do anything with them. This is why if you too are a Twitter user you should be following Dmitry Chesnokov, one of the contributors at Yahoo's Puck Daddy.
He's Russian and gets all the juicy interviews with the Russian stars and gets the personality out of them that the NHL is too ignorant or lazy to try for and hey, guess what, Russian players aren't the robots you see elsewhere around the league.
Look at it this way, when your favorite Russian player is giving a poorly-worded interview in English, that guy is a regular Jeremy Roenick or Brett Hull when interviewed in Russian.
It's so frustrating to see such marketing ability available here and no one putting it to use it's even managed to derail my Stanley Cup wrap up.
I know a lot is going to get made about how Herr Bettman's wet dream finally came true here, and it did let's not think differently, but what we've got here is a damn spanking nice little cross-conference rivalry teeming over with superstars. Canadians, Russians, Swedes, Finns and Slovaks all over the place.
A lot of you may be stressing the hell out today because your team is playing in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight.
Others of you may have hitched a ride with a team for the Finals after having yours bumped off along the way either before or during the playoffs. It's OK, I'm not here to rat you out or tell the others in your fanbase that you may have given up the team colors in favor of the "prettier" horse that came along.
That's not my job to rat you out and besides, you've got to live with yourself anyhow. Enjoy the anguish of living a lie should that be your course of action.
What I'm here to do is try to share with you what it is to live in the hell of having the next game be your last, when you're that close to taking home the prize that your team is dying to reach. I'm here to tell you that if you want to live life as a hockey fan in a brilliant kind of tortured hell there's one thing you have to do:
Become a college hockey fan.
I'm not joking and hell, if you want examples of that already, take a look at the stories from my Back To School tour of excellence back in March and April.
OK so you don't want to check it out, fine. Here's what the teams in tonight's final have to look forward to (click to enlarge):
Thrill of Victory:
Agony of Defeat:
Those are shots from the conclusion of this year's National Championship game that saw Boston University defeat Miami University in overtime. Yeah, ouch.
Pretty simple, I know, but seeing it is another thing entirely and let's face it, Penguins fans have tasted defeat in the Finals once, just last year. Detroit fans, at least the more modern variety, got a piece of it back in 1995 at the hands of Jacques Lemaire's ruiners of 1990s hockey, the New Jersey Devils.
I can tell you first hand, however, that living and dying by your team is mentally and physically exhausting and having a hand in it with the college team of your upbringing or graduation can make even the most even-keeled of folks become raving lunatics.
For me, my roots are based in Division III college hockey, graduating from Oswego State in 2002. Working games from the press box while in college doesn't allow you to fully give into your fandom, after all, there's no cheerleading in the press box.
In 2003, Oswego State reached the Frozen Four for Division III and you better believe I was there with friends to witness this in Northfield, Vermont. Oswego was the newcomer to the party in dealing with local favorites Norwich and Middlebury (both in Vermont) as well as St. Norbert's College from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Oswego drew Middlebury in the semifinals and trounced them "surprisingly" 6-0 and met the hosts from Norwich in the Finals.
There's no more nervewracking of a setting than being there in person, on hostile ground no-less, hoping to see your team win the big prize. That afternoon we would leave Kreitzberg Arena to the sounds of the place going bonkers as the Cadets would beat the Lakers 2-1. A long, humbled and quiet car ride would follow as we headed back to the Albany area.
Four years later, Oswego would be back in the NCAA tournament and would open up at home against Norwich and exact a revenge of sorts for the 2003 loss beating the Cadets 3-0, this time on Oswego's home ice. A date in the Frozen Four was set again, this time in Superior, Wisconsin.
There would be no road trip, there would be only reliance on the Internet broadcast of the semifinals against St. Norbert's and then praying they win that so I could watch them on CSTV in the Finals.
This is where I leave things off to our media successors at Oswego State campus TV WTOP-10 to show you how this played out. I can tell you this right now, every time I watch this my adrenaline races and I break out into a cold sweat.
(ed. note: YouTube is being a bit buggy lately so be patient and come on back again to see the video.)
Full disclosure:
After Garren Reisweber scored that OVERTIME GAME-WINNING GOAL, I leapt out of the chair, did a lap around the house, then ran outside leaping into the snowbanks via backflip.
I've never done a backflip before, and I've never dared try one since but it's true, adrenaline can make you do super-human things.
That said, your team is on the road looking for their first championship and the road to get there goes through overtime in the semifinals and in the finals, it's a wonder myself or any other Oswego State hockey alum survived.
But I did and I'm alive to pass this on to those of you who will be locked down into Game 7 tonight to let you know that win or lose, you're still going to be there to fight again.
Neither Detroit nor Pittsburgh are going anywhere bad after this season. Folks want to write the Red Wings off and say that their demise is imminent.
It's not.
Pittsburgh has already proven that they'll be able to stick around by making it back again this year, especially after dropping their dead-weight of an albatross named Michel Therrien.
If your team loses, yeah it's going to sting like a son of a bitch and it's going to eat you up for a while. You probably won't want to look at anything hockey for some time after that and you can't be blamed for it.
But if you come back from it and you hunger for more and you develop that war wound with your team, and believe me losing in a game where it's all or nothing is a cannon blast to the midsection in the Civil War, the reward is worth the wait.
Game 7 wins and losses weed out who belongs and who doesn't and if for some sick psychotic reason you want to give yourself a better chance at experiencing this sensation of living on the brink with a team you know and love and adore... Sign up for college hockey. Pick a team and go along for the ride.
If you went to college that has a team, even better, you're already in the family. All you have to do then is start caring about them. Don't have a team yet? Snoop around, adopt one, adopt a local team if you've got one. Remember though, you're adopting them not to half-ass your attention to them you want to accept them into your life because you're a maniacal hockey fan and you seek more and you have wanton disregard for your sanity.
Detroit fans I probably don't have to tell about college hockey given that Michigan alone has University of Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Western Michigan, Ferris State, and Lake Superior State all contained within their borders.
Joe Louis Arena plays host to the annual Great Lakes Invitational pitting Michigan, MSU and Michigan Tech against a fourth team to be named later. RPI joins them this upcoming season. Yes, consider that foreshadowing for what may come in December.
For Pittsburgh fans and those of you actually in the Iron City or close by, you've got a couple of teams within reach of you: Robert Morris University and Mercyhurst College. Robert Morris plays in Pittsburgh itself while Mercyhurst is located to the north in Erie. There is a bonus to becoming a Mercyhurst supporter though:
Mercyhurst Lakers goalie Matt Lundin shows off Whalers-colored glory.
Your team wears the colors of the Hartford Whalers. I can see no other reason than that to want to become a fan of Mercyhurst. If you're into the women's college hockey scene, Mercyhurst's squad is one of the better ones in the country. Double your pleasure Pennsylvania.
I know that this post offers in no way any kind of comfort or solace for those looking to find a way to get through tonight's game and I'm only serving to be more of an enabler of further stress, hair loss, anxiety and short fuses but I just want you all to be able to join me in that club.
Some say "misery loves company" but in this case it's more like the asylum seeks more patients.
You're hockey fans after all, be proud of your insanity.
I know that sometimes trips are really often poorly timed and, well, you could say that this is one of those times as I'm headed to Washington, D.C. for the weekend and will NOT be recapping Games 4 and 5 while I'm there because, honestly, who knows if I'll even get to see them.
No, that's not a dig at Versus for not being in a hotel there - I'm not even staying in a hotel.
So to commemorate this occasion, I was going to play you the video from Mr. Show with the stars of the show singing "Going On A Holiday" but that's lame and it sucks. So instead if you'd like to complain about me dumping out on recapping the game, I want all complaints to be like this:
Good luck keeping up with that! See you next week.
I should really just re-print my game recaps from last year and see if anyone bothers to fact check me at this point.
Just picking up and running with this acid flashback kind of thing for this series turned out to be the right thing to do since, just like last year, the Penguins pulled off a Game 3 victory.
In this version, a crazy up and down first period with two goals for each team lead to a Detroit-dominated and defensively locked down second period which saw Detroit get its opportunities to take the lead and then turn into a third period where Pittsburgh turned up the pressure and get the lead and the victory on the power play.
Once again, however, officiating is at the forefront of the discussion after an obvious too many men on the ice call was missed in the first period. Shortly after that, Detroit was booked for a penalty which lead to a Pittsburgh power play goal to tie the game at two. Even the guys in the NBC booth were going bonkers over the call.
The Penalty Kill is this family’s dirty secret. The Kill is the clepto dad, the dirty sister who hands it out like candy at Christmas, the mom who got a DUI last week, pulled over and arrested in the middle of the day. Our penalty kill is a problem like that. It’s not going to just go away without treatment. And, left to its own devices, it’s going to humiliate us all at the worst possible moment.
The truth hurts. In short-handed situations there's something drastically different about how the Red Wings go about business. The pressure on the point men isn't there, defensive positioning is certainly off, hell, look where Niklas Kronwall is standing on this goal:
Pretty tough to help your goaltender when you're screening him. Then again, Niklas Kronwall is a bit of a dirty secret for Detroit as it is anyhow. Kronwall is currently a +4 on defense in the playoffs. Not bad, sure, but how does he stack up with his teammates?
Nick Lidstrom: +10
Brian Rafalski: +10
Jonathan Ericsson: + 10
Brett Lebda: +9
Brad Stuart: +7
Brad Stuart has been a stud throughout these playoffs so why are his numbers a bit off from the rest? Look no further than his defensive partner Kronwall.
Yeah, I know, he makes the big hits and makes the highlight reels and all that fun stuff but positionally he's a bit off and already in this series we've seen him make a misplay that leads to a Evgeni Malkin breakaway.
You think this is something Dan Bylsma and the Penguins staff haven't taken note of? You bet they have and they know that Stuart is playing out of his mind and doing even more to help/cover up for Kronwall's mistakes.
How does this translate out in Game 4 though? Who knows. At this point, why even try to deviate from how things shook out from last year. Detroit has shown an uncanny ability to rebound from losses and make corrections in their game to make sure these problems don't come up again.
Pittsburgh is going to need to bring the thunder like they did for the third period last night all game long. Another period like their second period last night where Detroit controls play and gets the chances they did will not turn out well for the Penguins. Then again, perhaps the Penguins had a bit of hockey karma coming their way after some of the bad-break-bounces they suffered in Game 1 and that's why you see Mikael Samuelsson rip a couple of shots off the post.
Then again, I could say that unicorns will stampede the ice and leprechauns will take over and control Game 4.
Wait, nevermind, a leprechaun already runs the NHL.
Me breaking out Yogi Berra is apparently rubbing off in a big way because not only are Detroit and Pittsburgh in the Finals for the second straight year, but now the Red Wings have come out on top of the Penguins by identical 3-1 to scores in each game this year and are once again ahead in the Finals 2-0... Just like they were last year.
Invoking more of the acid flashbacks to last year was Valtteri Filppula who scored the game-winning goal in tonight's Game 2 in a play that's come under some major scrutiny from at least one very famous Penguins blog. Have a look for yourself and see what you think, highlights from NBC:
The contention from the Penguins loyalists comes from the stick-work from, who else, Marian Hossa. On the play you see Pens forward Pascal Dupuis try to maneuver away while be harassed by Hossa. Hossa lifts the stick, he stick checks him all while Dupuis' stick breaks in his hands. I'll admit, his reaction to having the composite lumber fall apart in his hands had me fooled but after the replay... Well, that's just crappy luck.
What stuck out to me here is that Dupuis instantly tried to sell a call and stopped playing. Now, I know selling a call is all part of the game... You don't stop skating to yell though. Dupuis realizes a couple seconds too late that he has to keep playing and by that time, Detroit is at the half-boards and firing away and then the scrum ensues leading to Filppula's insane backhand goal.
After all that, however, that goal wasn't the backbreaker. Filppula's goal made the score 2-1 but a familiar face from Game 1 was going to notch his second goal of the series and coincidentally enough it would again be the goal to make the game 3-1. The fresh-off-the-TV video from NBC:
From that point on in the third period, the Penguins were toast and it showed for the better part of the next ten minutes of play as Detroit toyed with and puck-controlled for that time. Puck control was a huge issue for Detroit in the first 30 minutes of this one as they found themselves uncharacteristically turning it over and dumping and chasing rather than staying back and patient.
Give the Penguins a lot of credit here as their forecheck forced the issue on Detroit but the Red Wings seem to always find a way to bend and not break and to resist the waves of pressure.
The one glaring issue with the series to this point, however, is the difference between the defensemen of these teams. It's already unfair to have the Red Wings roll out there with Nick Lidstrom, Brad Stuart, Brian Rafalski and Nick Kronwall. Adding 6'5" former NHL Draft Mr. Irrelevant Jonathan Ericsson to the mix and having him produce (he scored Detroit's first goal tonight) and help out on the special teams with seamless effectiveness turns the tide even more in favor of Detroit.
Penguins defenseman Hal Gill in his natural state.
Pittsburgh's extreme lack of solid play on the blue line is becoming more noticeable and bigger efforts in shutting down Detroit's third and fourth lines, never mind the top two lines, are needed out of guys like Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill who have looked beyond abysmal through two games.
Scuderi was a -1 and Gill a -2 in Game 2 and Gill, while a solid shot blocker and space-taker-upper, is slow and prone to grabbing and holding out there something for which he should be fortunate the officials are letting go. So far through the first two games, Scuderi is -3 while Gill is a -4.
Not good.
Topping off the amazing coincidental party was how a game that was virtually decided managed to have some shenanigans break loose involving one of Pittsburgh's super-duper-mega stars. Tonight, it was Evgeni Malkin's turn to embarrass the Penguins as he instigated a fight with Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg after a fracas near the Detroit net, sparked by Maxime Talbot spearing goaltender Chris Osgood into flopping like Vlade Divac. Take a look:
Now, really, this whole Déjà vu thing takes a life of its own in this situation if you'll think back to last year's Game 2 and what occurred that night:
OK a questionable hit from a Penguins player leads to Osgood hitting the ice and then we're playing the feud where Evgeni Malkin gets made to look really bad against someone from Sweden. Last year it's Johan Franzen and this year it's Zetterberg.
I really don't know how this can play out any more similar than it has already.
The one "issue" that came up out of tonight's schoolyard horsing around was that Malkin was booked for instigating a fight in the final five minutes of a game, something that according to the NHL Rule Book leads to an automatic one-game suspension.
Of course, if you believed the league was going to stick by that rule in the playoffs, you're crazy as less than an hour after the game, Colin Campbell didn't even bother to spin his Wheel of Justice and said that there would be no suspension for Malkin.
The one stark difference between this year and last year in spite of the results is the professionalism coming from Pittsburgh's locker room, namely from head coach Dan Bylsma. While guys like Crosby and Malkin are busy running around like idiots and Maxime Talbot is too busy mouthing off at Marian Hossa or jabbing at Chris Osgood, Bylsma keeps his head held high and offers no excuses and points no fingers.
Imagine the explosion if Michel Therrien were in charge this year? Ye gods.
Q.Did you see the Hossa hook-slash on Dupuis before the second goal, and if so, what did you make of the whole sequence?
COACH BYLSMA:I think the way I saw the replay that our guy was trying to get the puck out. Hossa came in and used his stick to lift up their guy's stick. You can make the judgment. The referee made the judgment that it wasn't a hook.
I can slow it down and look at it myself and make my own judgment, but that was what happened. We failed to clear it with that hook and it led to the goal.
Pretty calm and collected there and it's that kind of thing this Penguins team needs in that locker room so they don't lose their heads and run around like idiots. Too bad Dan Bylsma wasn't with this team last year.
It’s really tough to generate offense against that team. They’re good on obstruction. It’s going to be tough to generate any type of offense, if the rules remain the same. So it’s the first time we’re facing a team that the obstruction is there, and we’re having a hard time skating to take away ice.
We took two penalties tonight on the goalie. We never take penalty to the goalie in the playoff. I’ll tell you something, I reviewed those plays. He’s a good actor. He goes to players, and he’s diving. Took away our power play. Got to get focused. I know our players are frustrated right now. It’s tough to play the game. But Osgood did the same thing against Dallas under Ribeiro.
It's like night and day.
Should the "history repeating itself" theme continue, Pittsburgh will take Game 3 and get talk of this being a series once again started in earnest. That said, if Detroit gets Pavel Datsyuk and/or Kris Draper back in the lineup on Tuesday life gets even more difficult for the Penguins because right now, they're having a very hard time keeping up with the Red Wings AHL Invasion Unit of Justin Abdelkader, Ville Leino and Darren Helm. Adding in an MVP Candidate and a defensive face-off wizard only makes the Penguins hill to climb even more treacherous.
OK sure, you may have predicted Detroit would win the game. That's possible.
Did you predict that Sidney Crosby would be held off the scoresheet?
Did you predict that there wouldn't be a true highlight goal scored?
Did you predict that the one goal that would be the highlight goal would be scored by Justin Abdelkader?
What you can't see there is Abdelkader smacking the puck out of mid-air and floating it into the upper corner to put Detroit ahead 3-1.
As for the other goals scored in this game, well, the Joe Louis gremlins were in full effect and the Hockey Gods enlisted a Hanna-Barbera least-favorite to lend a hand in scoring tonight:
You don't know him? That's OK, he's not worth looking up on YouTube or trying to find him on Cartoon Network - he sucks. Given what went down this evening with Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury we're sure he feels the same way.
Check out the two other goals he allowed this evening:
I know the best way to sum that up is, "Shit happens" but yeah - ouch.
How Marc-Andre Fleury felt in Game 1 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals.
That said, as bad as Marc-Andre Fleury had it, Chris Osgood had it going the other way for the Red Wings in stopping 31 of 32 shots and while a bit shaky early on in controlling rebounds, one leading to Ruslan Fedotenko's seventh goal of the playoffs, Osgood was a rock.
What's turning out to be one of the crazier phenomenons of the NHL Playoffs is that the more folks seem to discount the work of Chris Osgood, the better he gets. From the second he set foot on the ice in last year's Stanley Cup Finals as a desperate replacement for the struggling Dominik Hasek, Osgood has been a playoff freakshow.
His efforts in Game 1 brought his playoff goals against average this year to 2.00, second only to Tim Thomas of the Bruins. His save percentage sits at a lofty .928 yet some folks out there more than happy to discount whatever he brings to the table.
But see, now's the time when I act like a dick and trample all over what I just wrote about him and say: You just never know with Osgood though.
Old memories fade slowly and while you'd like to think the visions of Osgood leading both the 1998 and 2008 Detroit Red Wings to Stanley Cup titles would be the lasting vision of him... The ugly goals and previous poor performances out of both Osgood and some past Red Wings teams tarnish his now incredibly sick and lofty NHL legacy.
Chris Osgood through all this remains the NHL version of Rodney Dangerfield. If he keeps up with the tremendous output and numbers and wins... He's the benefit of a great defense. If he gives up a few and Detroit loses in rough ways, it's "typical" Osgood and he has to do better than that for Detroit to win.
No respect I tell ya! No respect at all!
For all that talk about having the great defense in front of him, Chris Osgood sure is facing a good amount of shots. After Game 1, Osgood has faced an average of close to 29 shots per game (28.5+ for those wanting more accuracy). Obviously he's not having boring games in goal and his 2.00 GAA proves that he's been on top of his game.
Of course, if he goes the way of Cam Ward and melts down completely all this talk is moot and Osgood will probably never shake off the, "You're not good enough" demons for the rest of his career and eventual heated debate on whether or not he's a Hall of Fame goaltender.
After all of that, however, it wouldn't be an official Penguins game if Sidney Crosby didn't get involved in some way. This time it came after the final horn:
Ah jeez. Now, honestly, what is the point of doing that? According to Sidney Crosby, well... You figure it out:
"Yeah, Kirk, he was doing what he always does. Giving guys lip service and things like that. I two-handed him I think on top of the foot there as we were skating by. He felt it was necessary for him to keep talking after the game, and I thought I'd whack him."
Yeah, I don't understand it either.
Signs of early frustration from Crosby? No, that's dumb so punch yourself in the yambag if you think that's the case.
Trying to bait Kirk Maltby and the Red Wings into doing something stupid to go running around after him in Game 2?
Well... Crosby can't be that naive to think that that would actually work. Detroit has already gone through two teams that are both a lot better at that sort of thing and a lot more nasty about it (Anaheim and Chicago) than Crosby thinks he is being in this case and Kirk Maltby running his mouth and getting that kind of reaction out of Crosby means that he's doing his job well.
The storylines for Game 2 are going to be about whether or not Maltby and the Red Wings respond to Crosby's petulance (they certainly won't go out of their way to do it) and whether or not Crosby can give his team a lift and a split before the series turns to Pittsburgh.
Both teams played this game very well and for all intents and purposes it was a very even game. Some folks will be critical of the officiating both ways and there were certainly a lot of non-calls but the key here is that the flow and pace of the game was not affected by it. It didn't become a slow, plodding, slug-it-out sort of game with both teams playing dump and chase all night and if that sort of thing can continue throughout the playoffs and matters stay consistent the series will stay entertaining to watch.
With the quick turnaround for Game 2, this will provide a good test for both teams fitness level because neither one is going to want to head to Pittsburgh gasping for air.
Simple brilliance plays its way out all the time it seems and the Stanley Cup Finals this year are no different, especially since it involves the same two teams we saw there last year.
Detroit and Pittsburgh: Let's dance again.
When I wrote my preview on last year's Finals, I surprised myself with how tuned in I was. To make a long story short, I shocked myself with how I was able to sound more competent than a CBC Color Analyst.
Obviously I watched a lot of hockey.
One of the things I said last year about the Finals seemed to come through in how the Pittsburgh Penguins played this entire postseason and it's how they have to approach the Red Wings this year as well. Last year, Michel Therrien was too stubborn and too foolish and too immature to implement a plan of attack that took it to the Red Wings and he ignored this sage advice from the relatively unknown blogger who calls himself Hockey Joe:
Pittsburgh's plan of attack here has to be to push, pressure and force the issue. Make Detroit get back on their heels and defend, to throw the puck at the net and keep control of it themselves. If Pittsburgh does indeed decide to pile into their zone defensively and rely on blocking shots and trying to stop Detroit at the blueline...they're going to spend a lot of time waiting for Detroit to just give up the puck to them on a dump in or turnover.
Pretty brilliant stuff there, right?
This year's version of the Penguins, at least the ones coached by Dan Bylsma anyhow, have shown that they'll attack and forecheck and pressure the living hell out of the other team and force them to make bad passes and turn it over.
Well how about that?
Then again, I like to pat myself on the back as it is anyhow with regard to the Penguins because the Pens have shown that they're begrudgingly listening to me from afar as it is anyhow.
It's tough to say that you want to run a guy out of town after he takes his team to the Stanley Cup Finals, but these finals have shown me that Michel Therrien is the absolute wrong guy to take the Pittsburgh Penguins into the future.He's certainly not Glen Sather, who in the same position with a similarly young and talented team in the early 1980s, was able to take his lumps against the New York Islanders and use that as a building block to take the league over. I don't recall ever seeing Glen Sather hitting the press and setting a bad example for Gretzky and Messier and Kurri.
Given what Michel Therrien has shown here, he can only lead this young bunch to more bad habits.There are some good coaches out there waiting to be hired right now that would suit this team a lot better. It might behoove the Penguins to make a move once the series is over and should the Penguins, indeed, lose out to get Therrien out of there and get someone who can mold this team better for the future.
On February 15th, 2009 Michel Therrien was mercifully fired by the Penguins. Not-so coincidentally enough, the Penguins got their collective heads out of their ass and steamed their way back into the playoff picture and now they're in the Stanley Cup Finals after disposing of a gassed and punchless Carolina Hurricanes team.
So what did we learn here? We learned that I'm an idiot savant and master of the obvious. We also learned that ONE YEAR AGO I was using the already-tired comparison of the current Penguins squad to the 1980s Edmonton Oilers.
Then again, it doesn't help that the Oilers in the 80s got smacked around by the Islanders in 1983 and then bitch-slapped an old and on-the-way-out Islanders team in 1984 to win the Stanley Cup. I feel I have to be the guy to put this nonsense comparison to rest.
The Islanders after 1984 have been irrelevant to the NHL outside of a few stunning and spectacular finishes in the playoffs, but they never made it back to the Finals after that drubbing at the hands of Gretzky and Messier and Kurri and all the other Hall of Famers on that team. The Oilers, of course, moved on to be a powerhouse for the rest of the decade until Peter Pocklington needed money and Wayne Gretzky got too big for the City of Edmonton.
These Penguins are set for a while with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal. Coincidentally enough, these Red Wings while some of the parts are old (Nicklas Lidstrom, Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Chris Osgood... I guess) this isn't a team that's going anywhere.
Andrew Divoff, the Wishmaster, says: Fulfill the prophecy.
Should Detroit lose to Pittsburgh and fulfill the Gretzky Prophecy, these Red Wings won't fade into oblivion, they'll be back again and again and again as long as Mike Babcock is behind the bench. I'm not going to prattle on about the depth of Detroit, that's been shown off enough already in Game 4 and 5 against Chicago.
No Lidstrom and no Datsyuk? Meh, no problem.
As for this Final... Good luck breaking it down because there's a lot going on here that doesn't point to any definitive answers.
What do I know? Crosby and Malkin look a lot better and are teeming over in confidence, a lot more so than last year. Are they as dangerous offensively? Sure they are... As long as they follow the guidelines I told them to follow last year - which means not changing a damn thing from what they've been doing in the playoffs so far.
The Penguins have stayed healthy most of the playoffs and the one guy who may still be iffy out there is power play guru Sergei Gonchar whose knee hasn't been the same since having it knocked around by Alex Ovechkin in the second round.
Christopher Walken in "The Prophecy": I thought prophecies were my thing. I mean, jeez. Come on!
As for Detroit, a lot of the attention on them is on injuries. After all, Nick Lidstrom missed the last two games against Chicago with a mysterious "lower body injury" rumored to be a problem with his ankle. Pavel Datsyuk has been out with the same "lower body injury" since after Game 2 against Chicago, of which no one can really guess what the deal is although rumors of a broken foot have swirled.
Kris Draper has missed time with a groin problem although his replacement in the lineup, Darren Helm, seems to be doing all right for himself and had his definitive game of the playoffs to this point in Game 5 doing a masterful job killing a penalty and scoring the game-winning goal in overtime to vanquish the Blackhawks.
I can't help it, I'm a sucker for the Keyboard Cat.
The reason why I say it's tough for me to gauge just how well Pittsburgh is doing is because the Eastern Conference has been a joke all year and that really showed through in the playoffs.
No, the Penguins aren't a joke - settle down. The Penguins (along with the Bruins) were the two teams I was banking on to find a spot in the Finals. Everyone else? Flawed beyond belief. Flyers, Capitals, Devils, Rangers... flaws everywhere. Boston getting bounced by a hot Carolina team (and they were red hot coming into the playoffs) was about as shocking a result as you could ask for in these playoffs. The Hurricanes having to go through brutally tough defensive teams with a penchant for falling asleep offensively like the Devils and Bruins drained them and the fact that they were able to make their way to the Conference Finals blows my mind. There's no reason why they beat the Devils and it's unreal that they beat the Bruins.
Cam Ward should get a medal of honor for his work having a bum squad of defensemen playing in front of him like Joni Pitkanen, Denis Seidenberg, Anton Babchuk, Niclas Wallin, the mentally fragile Joe Corvo, Tim Gleason, Frank Kaberle.
Really, who the hell are these guys? Whoever they are, they couldn't handle Pittsburgh and Cam Ward only had so many horseshoes up his ass to sustain the 'Canes.
What I do know about Pittsburgh is that they're immensely talented and can score in bunches but are they the dominating buzzsaw we watched in the latter stages of the series with Washington and all throughout the Carolina series?
Can't answer that without making myself into some jerk, so I won't bother.
A lot of folks want to harp on the goaltending for these teams and frankly any fair praise and criticism lobbed at either guy is earned and fair. Many folks are waiting for the "real" Chris Osgood to show up, same goes for Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury got through his potential buzzsaw series with the Capitals and Osgood got through his nightmare with Anaheim.
I'd like to say I'd be shocked if I saw Osgood or Fleury get lit up in the Finals... But I can't in good faith say that. If either or both goaltenders fell off the wagon in this series I would be confident in saying, "Yeah, you could see that coming."
Them's the breaks but anyone looking to cite the regular season performance and trying to apply that to how these guys have done in the playoffs so far is an idiot, a jerk or both. Apples and oranges there kids and it makes me wonder what the hell the deal is with Detroit and I can't help but feel we're getting played by Mike Babcock.
The Wings for the better part of the regular season played sloppy, made folks buy into the talk of a Stanley Cup hangover and Osgood was often outplayed by backup Ty Conklin this season. They were defensively sloppy, Osgood looked lost more often than not and the team would seemingly take two out of three periods off in a game only to turn it on to show that they can still do it.
The playoffs start and Detroit has to deal with a Columbus team that gave them fits all year long and then promptly mops the floor with them in four straight.
Wha... What happened?
They draw Anaheim and predictably struggle with a team that rolls rough and tumble with the best of them and Detroit even manages to get through some suspect rulings and find their way into the Conference Finals against the new up and comers of the NHL and the feel-good story for the Original Sixers in Chicago and manages to get through them seemingly easily in five games.
What's at play here? I think Babcock and the Red Wings have been giving everyone the Milton Berle treatment. Yes, that's right, I'm going to give credit to Bill Simmons here. What's the Milton Berle treatment? From Simmons:
In case you didn't know, Berle was famous in Hollywood circles for being more endowed than anyone else. Basically, he was the Dirk Diggler of Hollywood. (Note: There's a hysterical anecdote in the SNL book "Live From New York" about this. Highest of high comedy.) Anyway, the famous story about Berle (maybe an urban legend, maybe not) was that somebody challenged him to a "who's bigger?" contest once, and Berle soundly defeated the guy, then bragged to someone else in the room, "I only pulled out enough to win."
I don't 100% believe that's what the Red Wings have been doing all season, but the final two games with Chicago showed me something that Mike Babcock has been in his own way trying to keep a lid on and that is how sickeningly deep and talented this team is. The regular season for all NHL teams is an unending grind filled with unlimitless potholes and boredom. The playoffs is what it's all about and for teams like Detroit where they're playing 82 games just to get to the real show... Well, why open the bag of tricks right from the get-go so everyone knows how to prepare for your team?
Just ask the Sharks about how that worked out for them.
Add in the new mysteries here in the playoffs with Lidstrom's injury (which I'm not buying for a second) and Datsyuk's injury (which I do sort-of believe to be mostly true) and the whole thing stinks to me of Babcock only breaking out just enough to win.
After all, when your team dismantles the opponent 6-1 in a game where Lidstrom is out, why suit him up again and risk injury when everyone had everything sealed up nicely without him? Why not rest him up for what could be a short turnaround to Game 1 of the Finals if you win Game 5. Worked out well this time I'd say.
Kris Draper goes down with the same groin injury he had previously and Darren Helm and his fresh legs and speed to burn get to jump in the lineup without controversy? Sounds pretty ideal to me.
Same thing with the talk of Osgood being "dehydrated" during that 6-1 flogging and not playing the third. I don't buy into that for a second, but Mike Babcock will feed that to all the beat reporters and they'll all report it as fact meanwhile he's back in the office laughing at them knowing full-well that he wasn't going to leave his main man in a game where the other team is skating around like a bunch of angry kids and you don't know what they'll do next. Why risk a needlessly stupid injury at the hands of guys that could give a crap about your players in that kind of hornets nest - just sit him out for the third period and get him ready 20 minutes sooner for Game 5.
Will they need all hands on deck to make sure Pittsburgh doesn't run wild like Macho Man Savage on Detroit? Absolutely, although I don't think Babcock is terrified of the Penguins the way many folks seem to think they will be.
I'm just wondering if my Milton Berle supposition here is going to play its way out and say, perhaps, Pavel Datsyuk has a "good enough" morning skate on Saturday and he's a go for Game 1. I think Babcock is playing everyone here and look out if he is, because if he whips it out all the way... It's going to be a freak show out there.
If he's not doing that and Pittsburgh is exactly what they've looked like the last few weeks this is going to be a series for the ages and the official start of a cross-conference rivalry for all of us to sit back and enjoy for the years to come.
Just remember, if the Penguins win and writers from across the Internet start proclaiming their ability to predict the Gretzky Prophecy just remember that it was right here where the comparisons began in earnest a year ago and that Andrew Divoff and Christopher Walken are going to kick their asses for fulfilling the prophecy.
It's funny, I figured that by citing the Chappelle Show in my last entry about how Brian Campbell was maybe the last guy to step up and start swearing vengeance was going to go over poorly, but Ike th didn't think it would actually play out lie skits do on the show.
So how did Brian Campbell and the Chicago Blackhawks enact their revenge on Niklas Kronwall and the wildly short-handed Detroit Red Wings (who were missing Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom and Kris Draper in Game 4)?
Well...
First there's this. You'll see Brian Campbell in this video pinched in too far on the power play (he's behind the Detroit net!) leaving Cam Barker by himself as the Red Wings break shorthanded the other way two-on-one.
Then there's this one where Campbell is used as a screen by Johan Franzen who proceeds to shoot the puck BETWEEN HIS LEGS and over the shoulder of Cristobal Huet.
And then there's Valtteri Filppula who scores off a rebound untouched after Marian Hossa uncorks one from the left wing side.
Who jumped out on Filppula after he gained the zone in the first place?
You guessed it... Frank Stallone.
Er, Brian Campbell.
What makes this all the more amusing is that the third goal, a power play goal for Filppula (one of three power play goals the Red Wings would score in a 6-1 rout of the Blackhawks) is that apparently Joel Quenneville had some issues with how the Red Wings got that power play in the first place.
That's right folks, the worst call in the history of sports. I can't rip into Quenneville as well as his own fans can, so leave it to the folks at Second City Hockey to step in and do the job for me:
Joel Quenneville - You were brought in to keep your cool and provide a guiding hand for a young team. Your players saw you lose your composure, and promptly followed suit. That outburst was unacceptable.
Unacceptable, immature, and about a thousand other adjectives you could throw in there. As for me, let me just offer up one suggestion for Joel Quenneville:
Wire Brushes: Guaranteed to get the sand out of your vadge or your money back!
Use that in your nether regions to get the sand out of the most delicate of crevices. Perhaps you could get away with whining like that in just about any other series.
Not this one though, not after what happened with Niklas Kronwall in Game 3. This is frustrated petulance at its ugliest out of Coach Quenneville. It also allows me to quote myself:
Hyperbole is a dangerous verbal weapon because it often renders the user stupid.
As for Martin Havlat, he played in this game.
Ballsy? You bet.
Gutsy? Absolutely!
Stupid? You bet your sweet ass it was and here's why:
You won't get a closer view of that, but that was Havlat getting taken out by Brad Stuart. He left the ice and did not return to the game after that. What Havlat is doing out there in the first place will remain a mystery as Coach Quenneville already made it a point to cover his tracks and proclaim that all was well.
You can lie to us all you want, coaches do it all the time, but you can't lie to us about this one because this is what Marty Havlat looked like in Game 3:
The guy from The Karate Kid was heard yelling, "Get him a body bag! YEAH!"
You cannot tell me he had it all together enough to be even thought of as remotely ready to play. Jesus, looking at this picture hurts my head and I've never had a concussion. James Mirtle at From The Rink has a great entry just on this angle and whether or not Havlat should have played.
James hits it home on this closing thought:
He's fine. He's ready. He's all right.
Perhaps. But he didn't look all right, at least to my eyes. I wish the question was asked if Havlat had suffered a concussion and what treatment, exactly, he's had in the interim. It's not impossible that he recovered just fine from having his bell rung a few days earlier, but why then does he have to leave the game after taking a routine check early in the game?
Isn't that cause for concern? Perhaps especially so for a player with Havlat's extensive injury history?
You bet your ass it's a cause for concern and the question of whether or not Havlat BS'ed his way into the lineup or the Blackhawks trainers and Quenneville would willfully ignore Havlat's condition is something that I hope the beat writers will try to find out more about.
As for this series, for all of Brian Campbell's talk of the Red Wings being a "gutless" team, the 'Hawks have a lot of soul-searching to do after putting in a putrid performance like that in a game that was set up for them on a platter to take. Two of the best players in the NHL, nevermind just on the Red Wings, the entire league were in the press box for this game as well as one of the top defensive forwards and Chicago comes out with that performance?
Brutal. Simply brutal and a truly gutless performance out of this team that was too caught up in seeking redemption for a guy who ended up wrongly suiting up for the game. I'll let the guys at Hockee Night wrap this one up for how Chicago "performed" in this crucial Game 4:
Christobal Huet. What a sieve. He probably wound up with sunburn fro the red light. He gave up a lot of goals, and none of them were particularly tough. He was absolutely brutal.
VERSTEEG! When you're down 4, you don't skate out of the box and get chippy in open ice. That's dumbshit hockey, and that isn't what makes a good team a top team. Oh yeah, calling out guys when you're down 5? Nice set of balls you grew there, kid.
The Hawks' passing. They've gotten this far by opening up the ice with stretch passing, but the Wings have just run a passing clinic, everything has been tape-to-tape. At times the Wings looked like they were doing some Harlem Globetrotters stuff out on the ice, moving the puck at will.
Things are not looking up for Chicago and this is setting up for a blowout of even more embarrassing fashion for the Blackhawks because if you can't nut up and strap it on for a game where the other team is ridiculously shorthanded from the get-go... Then what game can you get up for?
By now you've already seen the Niklas Kronwall hit on Martin Havlat from Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.
Far be it from me to prevent you from viewing it all over again.
The last time I saw a look on a guys face like that was a couple years ago...
Oddly enough, that's the last time Brian Campbell ever checked a player. Even stranger still, that hit looks pretty similar to the one Kronwall delivered to Havlat.
I bring this up because in the press conferences today, Brian Campbell had something to say about Niklas Kronwall and his bodycheck:
"I thought [Kronwall] jumped," Campbell said. "Marty didn't have the puck, I thought his forearm came up high. I thought it was gutless all around. [Kronwall's] done it hundreds of times in the league and it seems like nothing ever happens. He could as easily came in and used his shoulder and hit him with his side and it would have been fine. Instead he comes up and explodes with his fists and his forearms and jumps. I just don't understand it. It's unacceptable and it's not like it's the first time it's happened with that guy."
Hundreds of times? Yikes. Hyperbole is a dangerous verbal weapon because it often renders the user stupid.
As for what the Blackhawks plan to do about it, Campbell added this juicy tid-bit.
"These guys gotta pay for it, guys that are taking shots to the head. It's unacceptable, and it's not like it's the first time it's happened with that guy."
All right, I get it.
A guy lays a clean hit, and this one certainly was, yet people are going to blow it up into something worse. It just follows suit with everything else that's gone on this year and allows Mike Milbury to hang on to the one thing he's ever been right about.
Problem now is that Brian Campbell, of all people, has laid down the gauntlet and said that Kronwall is going to pay. This threat would sound more imposing if it came from just about anyone else on the Blackhawks roster. Adam Burish, Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager... Pick one.
Brian Campbell though? What's he going to do to Kronwall, sweat all over him?
So Detroit Red Wings stars Nick Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk are missing out on the All-Star Game in Montreal because they're injured.
Some writers around the league are questioning exactly how hurt they are considering they both played in Detroit's last game before the break. Fair enough question I'm sure, but then again, the NHL hasn't gone so far as to make the All-Star Game falsely an exhibition by making it count for something, anything, that would necessitate the best and the brightest be there whether they're injured a little bit or not.
Suffice it to say, the All Star Break allows a lot of players time to rest up, heal up and get ready for the second half of the season as well as the playoffs. You know, since the ultimate goal of the NHL season is to win the Stanley Cup and all, sometimes professionals like to be...professional and make sure their obligations to the team are met and that no one goes and does something profound and silly like getting hurt in a highly publicized exhibition.
NHL (Lack of) Disciplinarian Colin Campbell breaks it down:
''We've all got obligations to the fans, the rights holders - this game is being televised around the world,'' Campbell said.
Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk will have to sit out a game next week as punishment for skipping this weekends event. Neither player will lose salary.
''I feel bad for Nicklas Lidstrom,'' said Campbell. ''He's been here how many years now? It's unfair that he gets caught in this web.''
You know, it's not so much a web - it's a couple of guys who are nicked up that would rather sit at home. These weren't All-Stars elected by the fans ,which if you're skipping out on a fan-elected spot, fine - take the heat and chew on a suspension - the game is about the fans after all.
But they weren't - they're reserves and whether you agree with how that came about is another story (thanks to the fans in Chicago and Anaheim for this one). Fact is, the starters are the ones who are deemed most important, they're the ones who are burdened with having to put on the super pretty face for the fans. Reserves? Meh - everyone gets one of those.
What's been amazing surrounding all this hoopla is how talk and conspiracy theories have blown up over at a favored Red Wings spot, Abel to Yzerman.
Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur has pulled out of the Sunday's NHL's All-Star Game in Atlanta to deal with family matters. Brodeur said he informed Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello of his decision about a week ago, but it was not announced by the NHL until today. Brodeur will be replaced by Boston goaltender Tim Thomas.
"It's a tough decision," Brodeur said. "I've got some stuff going on with the family back home, so it's something I just wanted to make sure I was here to take care of. It's definitely a tough one. It's such a great weekend to miss. That's why I waited so long. I tried to avoid making that decision, but I think it's for the best."
That's fine, I won't take issue with "family matters" even if that means going home to boink your sister-in-law.
What, too soon?
Meanwhile, Puck Daddy makes sure to mention that seven players backed out of last year's All Star Game in Atlanta for any number of reasons, including injury. Of course, they weren't suspended because players were apparently allowed to be taken at their word last season.
Whatever.
As for Detroit this time around? Well, suffice to say, Ken Holland isn't very happy - this from the National Post.
"I'm not going to call Nick and tell him he's got to go to Montreal to sit and talk with the media for a day," said a fiery Holland, who is upset with the NHL's treatment of Lidstrom on this issue.
"Imagine me calling Nick, a six-time Norris Trophy winner, four-time Stanley Cup winner and someone who has gone to the last 10 all-star games and telling him he can't spend the time with his four boys and wife.
"I have too much respect for Nick because I know he's playing in pain. He's shown up at every NHL Awards show he's been nominated for. He's done everything the league has asked him to do.
"He's put in his time and he's paid his dues. I'm backing my player because I know he's hurt."
In other words, Gary:
I got your two All Stars right here Gary!
If you think Holland let things go after that, you're fooling yourself and he took things a step further in reminding Bettman who swings the big stick.
"I don't know exactly what Gary has said, but we've always encouraged our players to go and they have over the years," Holland said. "We played in the Winter Classic when asked even though there was some internal opposition. We gave up our traditional New Year's Eve game.
"We've helped carry the flag for the league for more than a decade. I think we've tried to be good partners in these things.
"I understand the All-Star Game is important, but I'm not going to tell Nick and Pavel to go either."
It's clear that the Red Wings even before the Salary Cap Era began had a contentious relationship with the Commissioner's Office. Herr Bettman didn't care for the Red Wings spending as much money as they did and neither did Gary's poor buddy owners. They shut down the league for a year, get the salary cap they want only to discover the Red Wings are also a brilliant scouting team and can grown their own talent.
The Ilitch Family and Ken Holland have been teaming up to give Bettman the finger for years now and Gary hates every bit of it because the Red Wings keeping getting in the way of his grand schemes of doing what he thought David Stern did with the NBA. Stern got lucky in riding the coattails of Magic and Bird and then having Michael Jordan fall in his lap to take over the world.
Gary saw the same thing with Sidney Crosby and still does. He sees the same kind of thing with the Blackhawks now with super talents Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. He sees all these NBA-like stars in his eyes and the Red Wings keep slapping him into reality and Bettman is too much of a Napoleonic pantywaste to deal with it.
His actions against Lidstrom and Datsyuk do have an awful and disgusting precedence (see Brodeur last year) but that doesn't make it right. If a guy's hurt, let them stay home. Major League Baseball doesn't make their injured guys show up if they don't want and their game means something.
Then again, expecting Gary Bettman to not be petty and to somehow find a way to make a joke out of All-Star Weekend, you know when a joke of a game gets played in the first place, seemed like things even he couldn't do. Everything this guy does turns to crap - leaving well enough alone wasn't good enough and it never will be because either he's the dumbest executive on earth or he's got the world's worst consulting firm giving him really bad ideas.
I'm going to take a pause from the needling of the establishment to say a few words about a man who many NHL fans might know from their history books about his days with the Detroit Red Wings as both a coach and general manager but had such a far reaching and deeper history in the college ranks that for those unfamiliar with college hockey (or lacrosse for that matter) or who never grew up in Upstate New York you may have never heard of him.
This is a bit more of a localized story, I understand that and what folks don't know about Coach Harkness or his history is a shame because his history and his story is rich with the kinds of things movies are made of.
Harkness' legacy in Upstate New York hockey that moved me to become the hockey fan that I am today, because without him and everything that he did not just for the RPI program but for Glens Falls, NY hockey as well.
Harkness' record with RPI speaks volumes for itself. He took over the coaching job at RPI in 1950 after then RPI President Livingston Houston wanted to revive the hockey program. After seeing what Harkness did with the lacrosse team, it seemed like a natural fit that he should take on the hockey team as well.
Did he ever.
In the 1953-1954 season, Harkness along with star players like Frank Chiarelli, put RPI on the national map by leading the Engineers to the National Championship. The teams they beat along the way?
University of Michigan and University of Minnesota.
Not too shabby.
His record at RPI from 1949 to 1963 was a modest 187-90-7 with the crowning glory season being 1954's National Championship team. In 1951, Harkness established the RPI Holiday Tournament which still continues today some 57 years later.
From there he moved on to Cornell University and his legacy was cemented leading the Big Red from 1963-1970 and winning the National Championship in 1967 with a little help from a goaltender named Ken Dryden and again in 1970.
Harkness' 1970 team was thoroughly incredible and dominant finishing the season 29-0-0. This would be Harkness' last year coaching in the NCAAs as he was hired by the Detroit Red Wings to be their coach. His days with the Red Wings would not be remembered well as long time fans in Detroit think of those days as "Darkness Under Harkness" as midway through his first season as coach of the Red Wings he was moved up to the General Manager's office where he stayed for three seasons and going through a number of head coaches as the Red Wings struggled.
It could be said that Harkness had the dubious distinction to try and follow in the shoes of beloved Red Wings legend Sid Abel, but the Red Wings during these days weren't the machine that they were through the 1950s and 1960s.
It was Harkness' ties to the Red Wings that brings him up to speed with my own interest in hockey. Growing up during the 1980s in Upstate New York and becoming a hockey fan at a young age marveling at the play of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Mario Lemieux choices were limited as to what local action you could watch up close and personal.
Harkness, of course, got his start with RPI and RPI hockey for the longest time after his departure saw its share of ups and downs. When Mike Addessa coached the team in the 1980s, however, the team saw greatness on the ice like it had not seen since Harkness stood behind the bench for the Engineers in the 1950s. In 1985, RPI was lead by incredible talent, talent unlike what RPI had seen since Frank Chiarelli took the ice in Troy. RPI, instead, had future Hall of Famer Adam Oates centering their top line along with players like John Carter and George Servinis along with goaltender Daren Puppa - the Engineers won their second and final National Championship.
Nothing makes someone a fan more than a winning team does, and the RPI teams under Coach Addessa with Adam Oates were exactly that. That team lead me to become a hockey fan as well as an RPI fan and follower. Without Ned Harkness, there would be no RPI hockey in Troy. There would not have been a team to watch nor would there have been the all-world talent like Adam Oates for me to watch live and in person. I'd be a worse-off sports fan because of all that.
To that end, Harkness was also responsible for the establishment of the Adirondack Red Wings. Sure, his time working for the Detroit Red Wings was less-than memorable by Red Wings standards, but with Harkness being a Glens Falls resident, after being born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada his family moved to Glens Falls.
In 1979, the Detroit Red Wings main farm team in the AHL was established in Glens Falls where they remained until 1999. The first General Manager of that team was none other than Ned Harkness. From 1979 to 1982, Harkness was the GM for Detroit's farm team and in 1981, the Red Wings won the Calder Cup defeating the Maine Mariners four games to two, a championship that proved to be the final feather in the cap for Harkness as he helped put together the first championship team in his home town of Glens Falls.
The legacy of the Red Wings in Glens Falls is impressive given their 20-year stay in the small city. Four Calder Cups (80-81, 85-86, 88-89, 91-92) and numerous future NHL players and stars later, the Red Wings inspired many folks to become hockey fans. Even more amazing is that the 1985-1986 Red Wings team was also lead by Adam Oates as well. That RPI connection runs deep here and it all falls back on Harkness.
Sure, hockey isn't the popular sport fans like myself would like it to be and times have become tough for the local favorites in college and the minor league pros, but without Ned Harkness, hockey in upstate New York would not be what it is today and the world of college hockey would not even be close to being the same.
OK sure there's lots of talk about the Olympics right now. After all, a lot of the best athletes in the world are in China to see who can perform the best under environmental and political duress in games that occur when the weather is normally warm and pleasant.
These Olympics are, of course, inferior to those that will occur in two years in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
What will stay similar between these games and the Winter Games in 2010 is how the United States will fare in the glamour team sports.
I've no doubt in my mind that the fretting and worrying and kvetching going on about the Team USA basketball team will again pay off because, frankly, the rest of the world figured out how to play great basketball by watching the same players that made basketball great during the 1980s. The U.S. players, of course, got too enamored with how well Michael Jordan played basketball and everyone from my generation and onwards has been doing a really, really terrible impersonation of him thus eliminating team play in the sport.
You know the kind of play I'm talking about. The kind that Larry Bird and Magic Johnson made absolutely dominant during the 1980s. Those guys made everyone else on the floor with them better and it showed. The same style of ball the Europeans like Spain, Greece and Italy as well as the Argentinians and Brazilians play now. The kind of ball that got the U.S.A. a "lowly" bronze medal in 2004 in basketball.
Given how woefully me-first many of the players on this year's Team USA are I can't help but buy into the media fretting and think that the doom and gloom forecast will hold up. These Euro and South American guys can ball and they do it old school style.
Getting owned by Euros is something Team USA is going to have to get accustomed to though. Come 2010 and the Vancouver games, despite the onslaught of young and up and coming scoring talent for the hockey playing Americans, this is a bad time to be gunning for gold.
The host Canadians are going to be very, very good. That goes without saying. Thankfully, in terms of world hockey, Canada gets the Maple Leafs treatment in Canada. They get all the media hype, worrying and coverage one could imagine is possible coming from three major metropolitan media markets (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) and then the rest of the world knows that they're loaded as well and follow suit.
Adding to the circus this time around is, of course, Sidney Crosby - hated by bloggers everywhere outside of Pittsburgh, mocked for not being able to grow anything resembling respectable facial hair and the newest icon of the NHL. Team Canada will be the favorites because they'll have a maniacal and idiotically rabid home crowd for every game.
I warn you now, if you're an American get ready for booing. Booing of the team, booing of the players, a whole lot of booing of Jack Johnson - all because during the 2006 World Junior Championships he tried to do the world a favor and send super NHL scumbag and Philadelphia Flyer (pardon the redundancy) Steve Downie a message. He didn't exactly connect on his message, but if you're a psychotic Canadian hockey fan, chances are you're still holding a ridiculous grudge against Johnson. Judge for yourself here:
This was hailed by Canadians as the dirtiest hit in the history of hockey.
And you think they won't be ready to tear the building down to win gold at home? Oh baby.
Just for reminder's sake - here's some of what you may know Steve Downie from this past season:
What sucks for Canada and the United States alike is that while Canada v. USA will have all the hype of a classic rock 'em, sock 'em championship fight - the USA is the least of the worries for Canada. The Euros have plenty to deal out but there are two teams in particular that will make life absolute hell for anyone that has to play them in the medal round.
No, it won't be Slovakia nor will it be the Czech Republic as they're both aging hard and already a bit thin on all-around talent.
Yeah, I know, we'll be 30 years removed from the Miracle on Ice and still USA v. Russia gets people worked up. What won't be fun for the US is that Russia will break out with Evgeni Nabokov in goal and three of the "other" greatest players in the NHL, maybe you've heard of these guys:
Alexander Ovechkin Evgeni Malkin Pavel Datsyuk
Sure, Canada has the talent to keep up with those guys - but do you really want to be dealing with those three, potentially on a line together, for 25 out of 60 minutes in a game? No thanks.
Meanwhile, there's still guys like Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Semin and Maxim Afinogenov who enjoy scoring at will.
The Russians are woefully thin on defense however, but that's OK because Nabokov is used to not having a decent defenseman in front of him. The Russians will be very dangerous and a huge pain in the ass to play. It'd behoove teams to not take penalties because you'll be assured of getting those first three guys out on the ice together to make Brodeur/Luongo/Price/Fleury's life hell in net.
Next up: Finland
Finland stunned everyone and their mother in the Turin games in 2006 by making it to the Gold Medal game. They shutout the Russians in the semis winning 4-0 and their toughest game (aside from the Final) did indeed come against the United States in the first game of the elimination round defeating the Americans 4-3.
What helps the Finns is that they're absolutely stacked in goal. Mikka Kiprusoff, Vesa Toskala, Kari Lehtonen and Nicklas Backstrom all hail from Finland and while its always a question who will say yes to playing for Finland, they're stacked. For what it's worth, Finland won the silver in 2006 with arguably their "C" team goalie tandem of Antero Niittymäki and Fredrik Norrena. While Niittymäki was the sometimes starter for the Flyers at the time, Norrena wasn't even playing in the NHL yet while being property of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
With the talent the Finns have in goal, their scoring prowess is going to, likely, take a big hit in 2010. Saku Koivu will be another year older, Teemu Selanne may or may not play (I'd say he will even if he's not playing in the NHL - he lives for the International competition), and Olli Jokinen will be the only scorer actually in his prime. The Finns are also going to be markedly weaker on defense as well, but something happens in the Olympics that makes the Finns incredible difficult to deal with.
I am not going to discuss sports voodoo like guts, grit, magic, aura or any of that nonsense but know this: Finland has advanced to the medal round in every Olympics since 1980 except for 1984 when they finished just on the outside looking in in third place of their group. The Finns put it together come Olympic time, just don't bet the house on them if they make it to the Finals as they've yet to win Gold ever.
Finally, there's this team: Sweden
You might know most of this team already as the vast majority of the big talent on Sweden was playing for the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings. That's no slight on the Red Wings nor is it a knock on their style. Sweden won the Gold Medal in 2006 beating their rival Finns for the prize 3-2 in the Gold Medal game.
The Swedes looked lackluster in the preliminary round of the Olympic tournament, finishing third in their group. Little did everyone in the Final Rounds know that Sweden was playing the part of the pool hall hustler. They drew surprising Switzerland in quarterfinals and disposed of them 6-2. They drew the always difficult Czech Republic in the semifinals and destroyed them 7-3.
They were a wrecking ball in the elimination games and notched it up again against Finland to hold them off to win it all.
Worse yet for 2010 - they're even more loaded than before. As this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs showed, there's still talent emerging from Sweden. They'll bring all-world superstars and fellow best players in hockey Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg. They'll also have Henrik Lundqvist in goal. They'll have Johan Franzen. They might still have Mats Sundin - depending on whether or not the NHL's version of Brett Favre ever decides what he wants to do with his life. The creepy Sedin twins will be there to make the hometown Vancouver fans boo them. Tomas Holmstrom will be there to infuriate all the teams. Daniel Alfredsson might even crack the first line. Hell, Peter Forsberg might even make an appearance too.
Sick. Just absolutely sick.
What's worse for everyone is that even with their "D" team playing in the 2008 World Championships, since most everyone was still playing in the NHL Playoffs, Sweden suited up a bunch of mostly nobodies and still made it to the bronze medal game where they were shutout by Finland. For what it's worth, Canada beat Russia in the finals to win the championship but these results barely register as a barometer for how things might go as all of these teams were mostly suiting up guys that won't even be going to Vancouver.
Sweden is frighteningly good and will be more than equal to the task of the seemingly overloaded Canadians. Don't get me wrong, it's going to be fun to root for Team USA hockey in 2010. There's a lot of talent up front and Ryan Miller is more than a stud in goal - heck, even Rick DiPietro isn't overly terrible, he's certainly better than Robert Esche or Tim Thomas, that's for sure, but Team USA is at best the fourth most talented team going to Vancouver. Canada and Sweden are 1A and 1B. Russia checks in next and then it drops off a bit to Team USA.
Can Ryan Miller steal games? Absolutely. Can Patrick Kane take the baton and be the big scorer? Tough to say.
America will be thin on playmakers and scorers, period. It's probably for the best that NHL idiot Brian Burke was named the General Manager of the 2010 team because he'll have to pick a squad ugly and nasty enough to try to slow down the likes of Canada, Sweden and Russia.
Team USA will have a lot of fun youth on the blue line in the form of Jack and Erik Johnson (not related). Ryan Whitney and Brian Rafalski will help out immensely as well but their jobs are going to be extremely difficult in trying to help contain these ridiculously talented teams.
What's important here is that the USA are going to be underdogs all along. They can play loose, they can play without worry, they can do what they need or want to do because let's face it, all the pressure in the world is on Canada to win gold in their home country. Team Canada in hockey is what Team USA is in basketball - plain and simple.
But let's face facts here, things have to break really, really, really well for the United States to have a shot at even bronze. They're closer in talent to the Czechs, Finns and Slovaks than they are to Russia, Sweden or Canada. That means there's a good chance that two of those teams will be facing each other in the semifinals of the knockout round meaning if Team USA makes it that far, they'll have to get the team lucky enough to miss out on that soireé.
Of those three who would Team USA want to deal with? The choice is simple: Bring on the Russians. A matchup with Russia would render the crowd almost neutral, although its likely that the US and Canada will face each other in the round-robin part of the tournament - hello bad blood! Canada has no love for Russia either. Canadians hates their swagger, they hate their flashiness and most of all they'll have a hate magically built up for Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin for having the temerity to be as good as or better than Canada's Hockey Savior, Sidney Crosby. The US will have no real flashy superstars on their team and as long as there's no incident to dump gasoline onto the Canadians rabid fire of hate for the US, the Americans could win the crowd - especially if it means a date with Canada in the Finals.
Yeah, I know this forecasting is way too far out and there are far too many things that will change by the time the rosters are filled and February 2010 rolls around - but I love this. The Olympic hockey tournament is perhaps the greatest hockey tournament in the world and when nationalities and pride are on the line... anything goes.
Just remember Americans... we're the underdogs for once.
Big time.
Anything positive is a victory of sorts whether it be real medal-winning victory or just moral. Sure, some folks will try to talk it up like Team USA is loaded, but if they do, chances are they work for ESPN or they're an idiot blowhard blinded by nationalism who still doesn't jack about hockey.
Just keep in mind, if Team USA loses to a team from Europe it won't be the end of the world - in fact, it's probably expected.
Kind of how it should be for Team USA basketball in the coming days.
A fan of old time hockey, at least if the kind they played in the 1980s counts at least. A guy who's fed up with watching the game he loves being handled and managed by folks with the intelligence equivalent to that of the common, everyday puckbunny.
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