MVN - Most Valuable Network

Red Wings raise the Cup!

Hockey coaches all over the world are smiling today.  The best hockey club won the Cup.  The club with militarily tight cohesion are champions.  The squad who played the best defense were the last standing.   Coaches preach fundamentals and team play.  They’ll be able to use this Wings team as an example of what can be achieved when a hockey club functions as a unit.

Pittsburgh was arguably the more talented team in this Finals. Any club with Hossa, Crosby and Malkin have a talent advantage.  They also played solid, hard-nosed, two-way hockey throughout the series.  The Pens left it all on the ice and should not hang their heads today.  Chins up boys, you never gave up, especially in the last four games of the Finals.  This season should be viewed as a huge success for the young ice birds.

Game six was was inches away from going to OT but a last second, (no exaggeration), Hossa rebound attempt slid harmlessly through the goal crease as the horn sounded.  Penguin players, fully spent, lingered on ice for minutes after the NHL season was complete.  Some perhaps hoped they would be granted a stay of execution.  Most were just too tired to move.

Marc-Andre Fluery did not have his best game.  The final two Detroit goals were weak.  Goal number two was scored on a very ordinary backhander from Valtteri Filppula that found the five-hole.  The game winner will haunt the talented Pittsburgh Goalie for a while.  Henrik Zetterberg, shot the puck and it appeared that Fluery made the save.  In fact the puck trickled through the netminder and sat just behind him, a foot or two from the goal line, on the ice.  Suddenly aware that he did not possess the puck, Fluery lunged back to attempt to cover.  Instead he managed to flip the puck past the goal line with his posterior.  This one will sting during the off-season but odds are Fluery will one day lift the sacred Cup over his head.

Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP while amassing a franchise record 27 points in the post-season.  Henrik also played superior defense throughout the playoffs.   The same can be said for the great majority of players on this well-coached machine of a hockey team.  The Red Wings won their 11th Stanley Cup because they know and perform their roles flawlessly.  Their passing is crisp.  Their sticks are always in lanes denying opponent opportunities.  They maintain a very high level of professionalism and have unbreakable composure. The best team won the Cup this year.

Nick Lindstrom became the first European Captain to ever raise Lord Stanley’s Cup.  The hall of fame Defensemen is also one of the classiest guys in the league. Lindstrom follows in the footsteps of another Detroit legend, Stevie Y, who possessed very similar traits on and off the ice.  Funny how even-tempered players with a “C” sewn to their sweaters tend to win Cups.

Congradulations Chris, “older than most dirt” Chelios.  The super veteran played 69 games in the regular season and will get his name once again inscribed on the Cup despite missing the finals due to injury.  Congratulations Dallas Drake.  After 14 years in the league, his hard work has been rewarded with the ultimate prize in hockey.

So ends the 2007-08 NHL season and it has to been seen as a step forward for the league.  Beginning with the classic outdoor Buffalo-Pitt game, exposure has increased as have TV ratings.  Young stars such as Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin and Kovalchuk have begun to revitalize the game on the world stage.  The future looks bright for the NHL.  Hopefully the suits, (talking to you Mr. Commissioner), don’t screw it up.

Soon draft talk will heat up.  Off season acquistions and rumor will shift into high-gear and the coaching carousel will begin to whirl.  Before that happens let’s take a moment to appreciate this year’s champs, the Wings.  The best team won this year.  Enjoy the party Hockey Town!

Your Loyal Servant,

Sean Grace

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 8:30 pm and is filed under One-Timers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.