Hockeyhead

How can Detroit win the Stanley Cup if they can’t even win on the road?  Pittsburgh has got one more shot at the unenviable task of putting up a win in the others team’s barn.  I can’t think of a more fitting end to the 2009 Stanley Cup Final than a road victory by the younger more exciting, Hossa-free Pens.  Pittsburgh’s secondary guys came up big on offense and Marc-Andre Fleury made a couple of the biggest saves of the playoffs to fend of Detroit 2-1 and force a seventh game.

For the first time in this year’s Final I took the opportunity to flip between CBC’s Canadian coverage and NBC’s presentation of the game.  It’s funny when you can hear the excitement in Jim Hughson’s voice when Crosby and Malkin take to the ice together for an early first period man advantage, then with a flip to NBC you can be notified by some dickhead that “this power-play is brought to you by Bud Light”.  NBC’s coverage was several seconds behind the CBC feed, probably in case a young lady in the crowd got excited and decided to flash a titty.

Other than the incessant amplified glass-pounding by some goddamn animal last night, we were treated to the most entertaining game of the series.  Everything changes when the Cup is in the arena.  I poke a lot of fun at the Red Wings here, but in real-life it’s hard not to respect what that franchise has accomplished over the last decade and a half.  It’s time to pass the torch you fuckers.

(bumps to Stoeten for digging up the video)

I’m sorry, I just can’t get behind Detroit.  It’s no so much the players they have now or had on any of their other Cup winning teams, and I love Chris Osgood just because he wears the old-school helmet.  It’s these flashbacks to my youngest years as a hockey fan that I just can’t shake from my consciousness.  These images shall live with me forever:

We’re not going to get into it too much, Bob Probert and Joey Kocur scared the living be-Jesus out of me, that card isn’t worth shit, and I’m not even going to get into Gerard Gallant and John Chabot.  The Wings sucked royal fucking dick when I was kid, but Steve Yzerman was awesome.   Now, they just remind me of the Red Army, I can’t cheer for them.

The Penguins on the other hand get me giddy like a five-year old Oilers’ fan in 1985.  Sidney Crosby and Evegeni Malkin trading shifts and scoring chances provides the best in adult male entertainment this side of titties.  It was a noticeably different game with a much more wide open pace when Crosby was strategically shifted sans-Zetterberg.  The Kid only registered a single assist, but he controlled the game much more than we had seen in Detroit.  Home boards ice advantage indeed.

Maxime Talbot has slotted surprisingly well on the wing beside Malkin.  Malkin, who technically should have been suspended, notched three-assists including one on Talbot’s goal in the first period and on Gonchar’s game-winner.  Clutch.  Brooks Orpik and Matt Cooke laid some serious body on the Wings tonight, the physical play of the Penguins may have been the difference.  A similar solid all-around performance from the Pens in Game 4 could make this a new series, I’m buying in.

Pittsburgh eclipsed Detroit’s highwater mark of three goals with their 4-2 victory.  Give me a Penguins win on Thursday, the wheels will fall off the Wings in Motor City.