The Ultimate Tease: Season Summed in 60 Minutes

Devastated.. Can’t say much else.

I believe in giving credit where credit is due. Pittsburgh played very well tonight. But Detroit only played well in the first and last 7/8 minutes. They were their own undoing. But again, Pittsburgh played well, you can’t say Detroit would have won. Pittsburgh wouldn’t have sat back so early in the game if Detroit wasn’t having such problems bringing it over the blueline. But in terms of Game 7 urgency, only one team and Henrik Zetterberg showed any of it.

I’m very upset with a few players in particular. Johan Franzen was pretty bad all Finals long but I feel like he’s even worse in person. He has no urgency away from the puck. He, and Dan Cleary each had the same thing happen. They had been either knocked down or held up in the Pittsburgh zone, while Pittsburgh went to dump it in and change. Then they slowly got up and made their way to the Detroit bench. However, the Detroit defenders moved the puck out of their own zone so quickly, that both Franzen and Cleary were still offsides when Detroit brought it back in. It’s just that kind of urgency. You don’t have to sprint to the bench, but you have to get off the ice at some point. At the very least make it an effort to clear the zone, then you can glide to the bench (you are on ice, you know).

Tomas Holmstrom was awful all playoff and even more tonight. At the same time, I’ve gotta frown at Babcock for putting this guy out there in the waning minutes. Yeah, he’s still a good screen even when he isn’t getting his stick on it, but he was just so stupid with the puck all playoff long. Obviously, he’s never been a skilled guy but he can usually get rid of the puck if his linemate accidentally gave it to him, but all series long it was missed simple passes and turnovers. It’s just brutal to watch. But what did he do deserving of ice time at the end of the game like that? Hossa can stand in front of the net if you tell him to. It’s not like he was going to touch a puck either. Holmstrom’s quickly falling into the doghouse now, I can’t imagine next season will be too pleasent if he keeps scoring at his playoff rate.

Samuelsson was just retarded today. It’s either going to be the perfect send off to the end of his tenure as a Red Wing or the perfect final picture of him from this season that’s going to send me into a rage when he’s re-signed.

Kronwall, Rafalski, and, to a lesser extent, Lebda, are all in the same boat. They can look like great defensemen capable of outstanding offensive totals and solid defensive play, or they can look lost as they spin around with a puck in between their feet. I don’t know how the ice was, but it looked bad. I’m not really a scientist or smart person in the least but I know they always say that changes in humidity are what makes for bad ice, and it rained yesterday before being warm today, so I’m going to assume it was as bad as it looks. But all three of these guys had awful times keeping the puck in, keeping their passes flat, and just generally carrying it up ice without something terrible happening.

Datsyuk, Franzen, Filppula, Hudler, Hossa. File under: Too cute. You don’t pass up open shots in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. Specifically, Hossa. I tried, buddy. I pulled people’s attention to the fact that even when you’re not scoring, you’re a good two-way player. But I just don’t know what happened. Hossa just constantly got himself into trouble in the offensive zone. He flubbed like every strong shot he had. He ran into Datsyuk on a backcheck. He fell near the bench when no one was near him. He either tried to rag the puck through 4 people or he’d dump it in on a 3-on-2. Not happy. He looked like he’d explode offensively eventually. He didn’t. I don’t think he’s too well-liked in Detroit right now. And I don’t know if I want him back next season, he became too much of a rallying point and a distraction. He became a reason on his own for people to root against Detroit, and as we all know, there are no shortages of reasons to root against Detroit. But I don’t know that I don’t want him back either. More on that another day.

What else? I don’t know. Zetterberg was the only guy busting his ass out there. Ericsson wasn’t terrible I guess — he tied for 6th on the team in playoff goals. Helm I didn’t notice that much, so that’s probably good and bad. Stuart had a giveaway that is making everyone call for his head, but they forget that he was levels above Kronwall and Rafalski for almost the entire playoffs.

It hasn’t entirely set in yet. I keep using the wrong tense, i.e. “Holmstrom has been terrible all series” instead of “Holmstrom was terrible.” I’m sure there’s still a few errors, and I’m sure this will be much worse when I start using past tense without thinking about it. I won’t go into too much detail about being there because it makes me feel awful. The first period was exciting and electric. The Wings dominated until the Stuart penalty. Life was good. But after the two goals in the second, the building was lifeless. I sat hunched forward with my chin resting on my hand for almost the whole time. I couldn’t bring myself to do every chant. I felt hopeless, but at the same time, it was sad. A large group of Pens fans sat a few rows behind us. They started a bunch of Lets Go Pens chants. In the first period, those were easily drowned out with “Lets Go Wings”. In the second, they started, but quickly died off as the Pens chant kept going. I doubt it sounded that loud on TV, but in the rink, it was disheartening. It didn’t get loud until Ericsson scored.

Everyone stood for the last few minutes. Details are fuzzy now. Detroit had some good chances, Kronwall ringing it off the bar stands out. Although at the game, not having access to replays, I was surprised how quickly I’d forgotten about that and moved on to looking at the clock and seeing how much time Detroit had left. Fleury made a great save at the buzzer, and it was over. I made an abrupt decision. I left before the handshakes. Not something I’m really proud of after applauding how many Pens fans stayed for Game 6 last year when Detroit won. But at the same time, I think it’s going to haunt me for a long time. Just thinking about it is miserable. All I see is Fleury making that last save, three zeroes on the clock, then a flash of white tearing towards the Pittsburgh net and a terrible sinking feeling in my stomach. Walking out, hearing the Penguins announced as 2009 Stanley Cup Champions — I felt like collapsing. It felt like a dream, it felt like it shouldn’t have been over yet.

It’s not as though they don’t deserve it. And it’s not as though Crosby is as bad as everyone makes him out to be. I think with this playoff, Malkin is now the better player. I don’t think Crosby is captain material, though there’s not many standout candidates on Pittsburgh. I think he’ll be great in five years, but he looked “very 21″ a lot in this series. I didn’t want to see him lift the Cup. And I didn’t want to see the smug fucking look on Gary Bettman’s face getting to hand the Cup to him, definitely more pleased than if Detroit won but not to the point where he rigged anything. The officiating was consistent. But I want to ask if anyone else feels they’d let a lot go if it was Detroit/Carolina. But anyway, I heard Bettman’s weasel eyes lit up when he passed the Cup to Jesus H. Crosby. But I haven’t seen it yet. I’m going to go as long as I can without seeing it. Not because I’m bitter (but I am), but because that’s going to be the image in every single NHL/NBC/Versus ad for all of next season, and likely seasons beyond that even if Pittsburgh doesn’t repeat. The Golden Boy won. What now? Are people going to watch hockey now, Gary? Or will fewer watch, because Crosby winning at 21 is like a movie ending in it’s third scene?

But the tease. These problems that Detroit had, the small things like breaking the puck out, turning it over in the neutral zone, general defensive awareness and giving up odd man rushes, poor line changes, were things that were noticed all year long. No team is perfect, but this team was definitely frustrating and anyone can tell you that. After dominating most of last season without an issue, the addition of Hossa this season provided mouth-watering possibilities. Those levels were never reached. Sure they won 50 games and scored 270-some goals and won 15 playoff games. But there were very few A-game efforts. There were very few games that came close to the level of play we saw throughout the 2007-08 season. They would do it once, so you’d figure “hey, they must be rounding a corner.” Then they drop three straight. They win two straight, with 20-minute efforts and you say “well, they could play better, but at least they’re winning.”

That feeling never went away. The playoffs, on average, saw a much higher level of play. But the Finals saw them outplayed in most games, but that having no effect on who actually won the game. This game would have been the imperfect capper to such an inconsistent season. A 20-minute effort in a Game 7. They tried it. Didn’t work. Still a successful season, but its an additional reason to be bitter. This was my first full season blogging and really reading other blogs and paying attention to their comments. They won 50 games, but I think everyone will tell you this team was a hell of a lot different from the 2007-08 team, and it wasn’t just because they didn’t have Dallas Drake.

This one stings. I can’t write much else about it right now. If I feel better in the morning (i.e. sometime around nightfall when I decide to get out of bed), I might. But this ended up being longer than I expected. I don’t know how to deal with this. I’m proud of the team. But I’m soured by the fact that they could have played so much better. I can’t forgive and move on to next year yet. Many of these problems were things that occurred all season and were never fixed.

Anyway, I didn’t think I’d be able to write tonight. But it’s helped me feel a little better. I think I would be much more torn up if they didn’t win last year. I’m not entirely ready to look forward to next season yet, because we’ll be weaker. But just slightly. Two out of three isn’t bad. There’s a lot to figure out before then. Sometime over the weekend I might throw together some offseason scenarios, but no promises. Some semi-insignificant site news coming in the future. Draft preview on the table. We’ll see. Throw out other ideas for the offseason. Should be an interesting one, I hope to be able to keep this place pretty active.

Go Wings is a little hard to get out right now and a little cliche. The kicker to this post, should be one thing, and one thing only:

OZ-ZIE! OZ-ZIE! OZ-ZIE! OZ-ZIE!