OK, so we called it. Big deal. Nothing could have been easier.
The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in six games with a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Mellon Arena last night.
What more can you say, really? The Wings are the best team in the National Hockey League. Period. They won the President’s Trophy and were the best team all year and Wednesday night, despite a late goal on a power-play (the result of another phantom call by two officials who must have had a wager on the game), they won the Cup on the road by outshooting the Penguins 30-22 and by getting a timely (OK, cheap) winning goal from the great Henrik Zetterberg.
Still, this one was a no doubter. Zetterberg was a wonderful choice as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner and it was great to see old Dallas Drake get his first Stanley Cup after 16 years in the game.
Congratulations, as well, to Darren Helm and Derek Meech, the two Manitobans who contributed to Detroit’s fourth Cup in 11 years.
Granted, Pittsburgh was full marks for taking this series six games. After all, with a defence that includes Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill, it was amazing that they had the bullets to win the Eastern Conference championship. Heck, young Meech, the eighth defenceman in Detroit, would be the fourth D-man in Pittsburgh.
Detroit was clearly the better team. They forechecked better, they skated better and they created more chances to win. They were tougher in the neutral zone, broke out quicker and beat a brilliant Marc-Andre Fleury enough times to win another title.
They even won that title with shaky ol’ Chris Osgood in net. Good on ‘em
Now, watch out for Pittsburgh. If they improve their defensive unit, they’ll start winning Stanley Cups, and they’ll win them for a long, long time.
But mark my words. They won’t win any at all until that defence gets better.
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• Arron Asham of Portage, a forward with the New Jersey Devils.