cmk418 | Everyone goes home for the summer (Reply)

Welcome, Pittsburgh and Detroit fans, to the "countdown to training camp" world I've been living in for two months.

So, yeah, the hated Wings are the new Stanley Cup champion. I'm not going to say they didn't deserve it because they completely dominated the league this year. And the game tonight. Good grief, the freakin' Pens looked like the Kings out there (not a compliment, in case you hadn't guessed).

And waiting... and waiting... and waiting... to pull the goalie? Not the best move a coach could make. I'd have had him out with 5:00 left, my guess is that Keenan would have yanked him at 10:00.

And that game-winning goal was just sad. Proof that if you actually put the put toward the net more than once every 16 minutes (not that I'm bitter), weird and good things could happen.

I really thought Zetterburg was going to clip the little man with the Conn Smythe - I would have been a fan for life if that happened.

And what was the deal with "Hockeytown"? I'm confused - they're taking the Cup to St. Paul? Wasn't that established earlier this year as the new "Hockeytown"? Are they not going back to Detroit? *g*

At least, we didn't have to go through the "rah-rah. I did a wonderful thing with expansion" crap again. Was it me or did the little man seem subdued tonight?

Dallas Drake. Good for him. Seriously.

I had a bit of a brain fog tonight when they talked about this being Chelios' third Cup because I couldn't figure out who the other team was (I knew it wasn't Chicago). It was Montreal - the team that really got me into hockey - in 1986 with Claude Lemieux and Patrick Roy.

By the way, I was surprised by the commentary once I started listening to it.

suespur, you totally nailed it - Sidney Crosby's team playing a bunch of other guys. I really clued in when the announcer said "uhh... Nik Lidstrom" - like if there's one guy on the hated Wings everybody should know, it's Nik. And not so much with the Datsyuk and Zetterburg love (forgive any misspellings) either, which was refreshing. But when Sid passed the puck for the upteenth time instead of taking the shot and they were praising him for his fine play, I was a little irritated (okay, a lot irritated - the yelling back at the TV kind of irritated). And it was nice of them to break out the "whole ice cam" on many occasions, it made me feel like I was right there, in my usual seats in the upper nosebleed section.

So that's it. Another one in the books and already up on wikipedia.

Oh, yeah, there'll be another one of these hockey posts next week (either the 12th or 13th) to talk about whoever wins the Calder. Will they automatically give it to Kane? Will my boys split the vote and it go to Backstrom? Or will they give it to the rookie of the year?

(And no, that last one wasn't a trick question - the "Jonathan Toews" is understood.)