Game Five
Holy Himalayan handmaidens, what a game. We finally shut off the lights and tried to get some sleep around 1:15 this morning, but my dreams were full of hockey.
Bottom line from my point of view: you can only serve up bullshit penalties to the Red Wings for so long before the Penguins find a way to capitalize on the man advantage. And finally, halfway through the third overtime period, they did.
My husband is discouraged this morning. “This is one of those sports film clip moments, where the tide turns and Pittsburgh comes back to win three in a row.” I’m not convinced. That would make a tidy TV movie, and if the Red Wings were from Buffalo, it would nearly be a guarantee (more on that in another post). But the Red Wings are an excellent team this year and they have a tradition of winning. They have two more games to wrap this up. Winning last night would have been excellent, but from the Detroit point of view, it wasn’t essential.
“They found Osgood’s weakness,” griped my husband. No no no. Nonsense. They did discover that if they cause a commotion to one side of the net, it’s much harder for Osgood to track a puck that comes around from behind. They tried to exploit that for about fifty minutes to no avail. The game winning goal wasn’t scored that way.
Penguins’ goaltender Fleury was excellent last night, though he dives like Greg Louganis (thanks to my husband for suggesting a slightly more contemporary diver reference than my original mention of Mark Spitz). Detroit’s offense had a better game than the final score indicates; they peppered him solidly period after period but he held on.
Detroit’s defense, though, was slow and sloppy too often. We couldn’t tell how much of that was the ice deterioration throughout the game; it was obvious that passes and plays were crisper at the start of each period and the slowdown didn’t seem to be entirely the fault of growing fatigue.
In the end, though, how could they hope to win when the officials were against them? Two utterly bogus penalties were called on the Wings in overtime, but they managed to ride them out. (There was one lame hooking penalty on the Penguins, too, to be fair.) The final penalty, high sticking where the “victim” wasn’t even touched, was judged to be worth four minutes. What the fuck? I’d accept four minutes if he hit the guy in the face or even if it was early in the game and the refs wanted to send a message. But in the third overtime period of a deciding Stanley Cup game? That was a ludicrous call and gave Pittsburgh the opportunity they needed.
My hero of the game — and quickly becoming my favorite Detroit player - was Danny Cleary. He’s a fave on a purely emotional level because of his Newfoundland heritage, but it seemed that he had his stick on the puck more than any other player in the game.
I’ll close the post with a few lines from “Ordinary Day” by Newfoundlanders Great Big Sea. CBC has been using this in a commercial that showcases the Cup, so I think it’s especially appropriate.
In this beautiful life, there’s always some sorrow
And it’s a double-edged knife but there’s always tomorrow, oh you know
It’s up to you now if you sink or swim
Just keep the faith and your ship will come in
On to Game Six, fellas.
