Wings Hand Cup Over to Pens (George Eichorn Blog)
June 15th, 2009
By George Eichorn of the Detroit Monitor
The Detroit Red Wings were a bunch of beat up guys and their fans a bunch of sore losers. That’s the way I sum up the historic Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Friday, June 12, in front of a sold out Joe Louis Arena throng.
The Pittsburgh Penguins simply out-played the Wings in winning their third Stanley Cup, 2-1, and taking the best-of-seven series, 4-3. The Wings were denied a fifth championship ring in 12 seasons and also back-to-back Cup titles. The Pens were led by goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury who could have won the Conn Symthe (Most Valuable Player) Award had it not been for the work of center Evgeni Malkin throughout the long playoff run.
It took the work of a third-string player, veteran center Maxime Talbot, to secure the Pens’ spot in history as he scored both goals on turnovers by the Wings and defenseman Brad Stuart in particular. Talbot, a French-speaking buddy of Fleury, was the game’s hero on a night that the big guns on both sides were silent. No goals from the Pens’ Malkin, Sydney Crosby or the Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and – once again – Marian Hossa who was the invisible player most of the Finals.
“Man, I was and am still disappointed,” said fan Frank Tringali of Atlanta. “I wanted to see a win (but) it just was not meant. Those two goals - especially the first one - were bad goals from a team standpoint…giveaways in your own end (and) Ozzie really had no chance on both of them.”
In the waning minutes the Wings saw Niklas Kronwall beat Fleury only to hit the cross bar on a blistering shot and Nicklas Lidstrom get stoned by Fleury. It was all she wrote.
Again, Hossa was missing in action on the scoreboard. He was and is a symbol of what this seven-game classic series boiled down to: who really wanted it more. The team he spurned, Pittsburgh, wanted revenge so badly that they used Hossa’s leaving their team as extra motivation to defeat Detroit. And it worked.
I also think the feeling/tone was the Wings had all these historical facts about home teams winning in Game 7s that it was just going to be a foregone conclusion that they would win.
“To me Game 6 was the series,” said Tringali, a former Detroiter, “and fate was not kind to the winged wheel; they had it for the taking and just didn’t do it.”
I suspect there will be changes on the Wings roster for the fall. Players with decisions include Hossa, Chris Chelios, Mikael Samuelsson, Jiri Hudler, Ty Conklin, and perhaps Kirk Maltby, Derek Meech and a few others. Do the Wings resign Hossa? I am not so sure after what I saw in the playoffs. Do they get another stout defenseman? Time will tell as the long season will make the summer a short one for General Manager Ken Holland and his staff.
As for the fans, they were more than rude in booing the Pens along with Commissioner Gary Betteman; they were disgusting. There were many fans in attendance from Pittsburgh who probably got under the skin of ardent Wings fans yet that is no excuse to act so rude in the post-game ceremonies.
Buy George Eichorn’s book, “Detroit Sports Broadcasters on the Air” for $21.95 at www.amazon.com, or send a check for $25 (includes postage and handling) to him at 28822 Los Olas Drive, Warren, MI 48093. Allow two weeks for shipment and please indicate whom the book should be autographed for. Reach him at geichorn@yahoo.com.
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