Is It Football Season Yet?

Crap

Well, it was a close one at least. I don't know how the Penguins snatched this one away but they did. I'm extremely disappointed in the Red Wings as it looks like they didn't really care until the last period, which was an amazing 20 minutes of hockey. What ultimately decided this game was that all of Detroit's stars were non-factors in both games 6 and 7. Of course, there was also the fact that Fleury willed his team to a victory in the closing seconds of the game. He made a handful of acrobatic saves at the very end when someone finally lit a fire under the defending champs' collective asses.

The Pen's played great, I have to give them that, but if Malkin and Crosby are the futures of the NHL then it's most definitely not going in a direction that I am happy about. I understand he's the captain but seeing Sid the Kid parading around holding Lord Stanley's Cup around the ice put a bitter taste in my mouth (scratch that, I was still at that time enjoying the chicken wing/ pizza spread put together by good buddy Penguins fan Matt while also enjoying a nice cold Blue Moon from Sabres fan other-Matt at the time). Pittsburgh did not win this on the shoulders of Crosby, as much as the NHL tried to make the audience feel like we were watching the second-coming every time he got on the ice. Other than a couple soft goals and the 0-5 beat down it was Fleury and a bunch of role players who won this. Malkin was amazing in the playoffs, but as I've already bitched and moaned about, I didn't necessarily like his conduct.

What it comes down to though is that a loaded roster like Detroit, which has 4 lines worth of quality players, should have definitely been able to close out the series. With the work that Osgood did I don't see any way around it. They were just plain lazy. Maybe they thought a game 7 in their home arena would be a cakewalk. They know differently now. So, that's the end of another NHL season. See you next year.