Real Kato Blog: We Win! (Detroit Red Wings edition)

Whew.

So Monday night, I suffered as the Detroit Red Wings gave away the game-tying goal to Pittsburgh with 34 seconds left in the game, and proceeded to lose in triple-overtime.

Tonight, Detroit was within inches of giving it away again, but managed to stave off the Penguins, 3-2, winning the series in six games. The eventual winning goal came because Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury sat on the puck after it trickled between his legs, and his butt squirted the puck into his goal. On the other end, as the clock expired, the puck went all the way across the goal mouth after getting by Chris Osgood, but didn't go in.

I'm amazed at the level of talent on this Detroit team. It finally all came together: offense, defense, goaltending. Henrik Zetterberg was amazing. I guess this makes up for the disappointing finish of the Detroit Pistons (who, by the way, fired Flip Saunders after three years of underachieving).

Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings.

Permalink 7 Comment

Posted by Ken in: sports

Comments

Comment #1 from Brett (Guest)
2008 Jun 5 - 7:19 pm : #

The Red Wings were CLEARLY the better team. They dominated every game and completely peppered the Penguins. Their losses? Costly mistakes that Pittsburgh took advantage of. Pittsburgh's got some serious talent, but the Red Wings epitomized team play.

All in all, it was good hockey. Fun to watch. And wouldn't you know it? After living in NC for three years and never meeting a Penguins fan, I met 17,000 in the last week alone! Who knew?!

Comment #2 from Dan (Guest)
2008 Jun 6 - 11:53 pm : #

OK. After reading the previous comment, one of the quiet 17,000 needs to speak up.

"Dominated every game"? Which games did you watch?

I'll give you domination in games 1 and 2. That was obvious, glaring, and extremely painful. If that's all you saw, then I can understand your point of view.

But I don't know how you call it domination in games 3-6. Four games, split 2-2, and all won by a single goal. How is that domination? Yeah, you outshot us in all 4, but that and 7 bucks will buy you a beer at the next game you go to. You never had a lead in game 3. You only led for 10 minutes out of 110 in game 5. Our special teams were more efficient in all 4 games, and we made you pee your pants just a little bit with 1 second left in game 6, didn't we?

Sorry, but that isn't domination in my book. That's a championship team needing to play their absolute best to put away a valiant but undermanned opponent.

Congratulations to the Wings and their fans. You were clearly the better team (I won't quarrel with you on that point), and you deserved to win. But come on, give the Pens a little credit. A lesser team would have tucked it's tail and ran away after those first two games.

Comment #3 from Brett (Guest)
2008 Jun 7 - 11:06 am : #

I watched the games the Wings won, and even went out of my way to watch the two they didn't. I was fortunate enough to watch them at different bars amongst mayyyyyybeeeee another Wings fan or two, and also amonst the thousands of Pennsylvanians that apparently migrated to North Carolina just to watch the Finals in an NC bar.

Time of possession and shots on goal indicated them dominating. That's how the Wings did it all season. They're not the best shooters in the league, but that's how they'd do it; own the puck and pepper the other team with shots, overwhelm them, as they did in every game.

In the two they lost, the Penguins were able to capitalize. I'm not saying the Penguins got lucky. It's the NHL, they've got some serious talent, I would hope they would put up a fight. And, as I said, it was good hockey. But there were moments in some of the games that I felt like I was watching the Red Wings play the South Park Kindergarten team, but with Fleury in goal instead of a 5 year old. They owned the puck and ripped shot after shot.

If Pittsburgh can keep it's young core in tact, I expect to see them in plenty more Stanley Cups in the future. Solid team with exceptional talent.

Comment #4 from Ken (realkato)
2008 Jun 7 - 2:53 pm : #

I definitely think there's talent on the Penguins team, and I thought it was an exciting and competitive series. So I give the Penguins all the credit in the world; they certainly showed more spirit than Detroit's other opponents. In the end, I think it came down to the fact that Crosby and Gonchar and Fleury can't win a championship without a little more supporting help.

Comment #5 from Brett (Guest)
2008 Jun 7 - 3:44 pm : #

Malkin and Hossa are no slouches in the sack...I mean, errr, ice, either.

Comment #6 from Dan (Guest)
2008 Jun 7 - 11:04 pm : #

Brett, I'm OK with your definition of domination, and I definitely saw the same thing at various times throughout the series. It was disheartening to say the least. But I still can't agree that the Wings dominated and overwhelmed (as you put it) the Penguins in EVERY game.

What about game 3? The Wings controlled it for the first 12 or 13 minutes but couldn't score. And then the Penguins flipped a switch and completely took over the game. The last part of that first period looked just like you described with the South Park Kindergarten team, but suddenly they were wearing red and white. The Pens controlled the tempo of the game for the next 40 minutes or so, and the main reason they were outshot was because the coach got conservative and stopped taking offensive risks in order to protect the 2 goal lead he had for most of the last 2 periods. It may be only one out of six, but from where I sat, if either team dominated that game it was Pittsburgh.

And game 5? Yeah, I saw domination from the Wings in that game, especially in the 3rd period and first OT. But did that make a difference to you when Sykora's shot hit the back of the net? The Penguins stayed in the game, weathered the storm, did what they had to do, and came up huge at just the right moments. I don't think they were ever overwhelmed in that game.

At the end of the day, I agree that the Wings were simply the better team throughout. Beyond that, I guess anything else I have to say is just quibbling and probably makes me sound like a sore loser. But I'm proud of my guys and I wanted to stick up for them. Six months ago, I thought they had a good chance to make the playoffs and maaaybe win a series. They grew up a lot this year, and made some good teams look ordinary in the playoffs. The future looks bright in Pittsburgh.

Congrats again on your championship. The best team in the NHL has the cup, and that's the way should be.

Comment #7 from Dan (Guest)
2008 Jun 7 - 11:06 pm : #

P.S. to Ken, Are you running your site on central time as a tribute to the Stanley Cup Champs?

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