Nightfall

Excellent job Matt! Props to you.

This is why I am a Wings fan, but also a hockey fan. I enjoy watching hockey from preseason all the way to the finals. If the Wings aren't on, I watch another team. I have more than a few favorite teams to watch if the Wings aren't on. Lots of good hockey out there. Plus, next season I will have season tickets to the Grand Rapids Griffins! That being said, the Wings are fun to watch and have been since I became a fan of hockey back in 1995. Watching them win the last 4 cups have been a great treat as a fan of the team. That being said, as a hockey fan I have to congratulate the Pens on a hard fought series. It came down to the Pens being hungrier for the cup. I won't loose sleep over it tonight. I will however miss the glow I had last season from seeing the Wings win the cup. You are right, being a sports fan is really illogical and masochistic. You have no control over the team, but you so desperately want them to win. This is why I started playing hockey in 1998 for the first time. I never skated before and here I was strapping on the goalie pads to play my first game. I didn't want to be one of these armchair fans. I wanted to play and enjoy the game of hockey. Tonight, the Wings lost the Stanley Cup and I am sad. In 5 weeks I will be playing in my rec league hockey playoffs and I will be motivated to win a championship. I guess if you play the game, you have a whole new appreciation for the sport. Which is why I was upset when the Pens won, but as a fan of the sport, thats just the way the puck bounces. Someone has to lose. Someone has to win. Its actually quite sobering to read the posts on this forum. No one is blaming the reffing or a league conspiracy. I thought if the Pens won I would be seeing that. Instead, the fans as a whole acknowledge that the Wings played like crap the last two games and were obviously not as hungry as the Pens. It takes a true fan of the game to see beyond team bias and make statements like that.

As an alternative.... Stuart clears the puck up the boards, and it doesn't hit a skate and go to Talbot. Instead it just goes up the boards and its out of harms way. Stuart pinches and the puck is put in deep. --- The point is that it was a couple bad bounces that just went the Pens way. The Wings had a couple chances like this, but couldn't convert. They did have less chances though as the Pens played an outstanding game and out hustled the Wings. If you have to look for a scapegoat to feel better, look at the Wings as a whole. You aren't going to win many games only scoring 1 goal per game.

Kinda hard to win a game when you only score 1 goal. Also, the bounces favored the Pens today. Not Stuarts fault in the least.

I feel for Hossa as well. The press is going to give him a bad rap. If he would have stayed with the Pens for an ungodly amount of money, the Pens probably wouldn't have made it as far as they did this year. The Pens would have no made the trade for Guerin and Kunitz. Who knows what the chemistry would have been like. Who knows how the Wings would have done this year without Hossa. If anything, Hossa will learn from this experience. His will and desire to win a championship will go into the offseason and next season he will be ready to compete again and even harder this time. It all doesn't fall on his shoulders though, but if he brings an A+ effort, his teammates will rally around him. I hope he resigns with the Wings at a discount.

Malkin deserved it. He scored more points this playoff season than any other player in the last 10 years. Well deserved MVP.

Yup, the Ducks are going to be our new rivalry after this last playoff series. The rough stuff in game 6 solidified that I think.

Amen! The Pens deserved this series. They wanted the game more than the Wings. The way they cycled the puck while the Wings were standing still was awful to see as a Wings fan. When the final horn sounded however, I was ready to give them the credit they deserve. No Wings fan should be blaming the refs or a league conspiracy. The Wings fans can blame the bounces going the Pens way, the turnovers by Detroit, or maybe even the lazy play by the Wings themselves. The Pens deserved this series. Congrats Pens.

If I am sad about anything, its not having any hockey to watch for the next 3+ months until preseason starts up. The Pens were the better team in this game once again. It was painful to watch the Wings piss that game away, but the Pens were hungrier for that cup and they deserved it. I applaud the Pens for a hard fought series and a well deserved win.

Actually, when I go to a Wings game, I enjoy Pizzapopulous in Greektown. They have the best deep dish pizza and coming from Chicago, you should enjoy it too. I put it a little better than Lou Malnattas. Make sure you show up early because it takes a while for the pizza to bake. Good luck and go Wings!

First off, let me say that I am a Wings fan. At the same time, I am also a hockey fan. I love the sport of hockey. I play rec league 3 times a week, I watch the NHL Center Ice package, and I go to many minor league hockey games through the course of the year. Hockey is the greatest sport on the face of the planet, and I couldn't be happier watching the greatest players in the world playing in the NHL. If the Pens do pull this off on Friday, I am going to be the first to give them huge props. Here is a team that spit in the eye of every stat out there. When the media said they weren't coming back from a 2-0 deficit, they kept working. 41 of 44 teams that win the first 2 games go on to win the series? Bah! The Pens can do it! Over 80% of teams that win game 5 when the series is tied 2-2 win the series? What hooey! The Pens can do it! 12 of 14 game 7s in the Finals have went to the home team? Not today boys! The Pens can do it! They won every game at Mellon Arena. The Wings played lazy in game 4 and game 6, especially game 6. Talk about a chance to close out a team and you play lazy for 40 minutes. If the Wings piss this opportunity away they have no one to blame but themselves. In the end, if the Pens win game 7, I am going to congratulate them. I will watch the celebration and as a hockey fan I am going to be happy for them. They deserved it. While the masses here on this forum and other Wings fans that I know will be calling out conspiracy theories and bad reffing, they will be avoiding where the real blame should be put. On the Wings themselves. The Wings fans will realize that their team had their shot and failed because of lazy uninspired play about 3-4 months later when the new season starts up. It will be a summer of blame pointed at every other figure and thats just not right. So if the Pens do pull this off, give them the props they deserve. They bucked the odds and did what they needed to do to take the series. The least you could do is give them a little respect.

Anytime you give the other team 2 games and they win one on their own is enough to push the series to 7 games. If the Pens lose game 7, they will know that they gave it their best run and it just wasn't in the cards for them this year. If the wings lose game 7, they will spend the summer kicking themselves for the one that got away. They had this series from the time the puck was dropped in game 1, but lazy uninspired play in 2 games gave the Pens 2 more wins than they should have had. I certainly hope the wings come out on fire on Friday and win a hard fought game. I certainly hope that they find that switch and turn it on and LEAVE IT ON all game long. If the Pens do pull it out though, you have to hand it to them. The Wings would have given them this series and the cup as a result on a silver platter.

I never for the life of me thought I would be agreeing with a rational Pens fan. Cheers! Here is to hoping for a great Game 7. I know we both want our respective teams to win, but to know that there are rational fans out there that see beyond their own bias is refreshing.

I give them a 1 in 10 chance at coming out on top. The wings 11-1 record in the post season is huge. Pens record on the road is 6-6. Still, game 7 where anything can and will happen.....

Absolutely. I am confident as well, but I still have this bad feeling that creeps in every now and again.

I wish I had your confidence.

True story! No other Wings fan will give the Pens props though. It will be all about the crappy reffing or league conspiracy. Never that THE RED WINGS pissed their opportunity away by playing lazy.

About 80% The stats all point to a Wings victory. Record this playoff season: 11-1 at home, 4-6 on the road. 41 of 44 times the team that took the first two games at home has went on to win the series. Over 80% of the time the team that wins game 5 when the series is tied win the series. 12 of 14 game 7s are won by the home team. Wings get last change and advantage in the faceoffs. They also get the home crowd behind them. All numbers point to a Wings victory. All stats point to a Wings victory. In the end though, game 7 can come down to unlucky breaks. So I deduct 20% for that.

Here is my contribution to a Wings victory.

I found a new friend on this forum. Excellent post again. I agree 100%.

This is the best damn post I have read in a long time. Amen my man. Amen! This is just what I was trying to say.

I agree. The Cleary chance was an unbelievable save by Fleury. One thing is for certain, if the Pens pull off the win in Game 7, I am going to congratulate them. Not because I am a Pens fan, but because they put together a solid playoff run and wanted it more. Every Wings fan on and off this forum will blame every conspiracy theory, bad reffing, or league incompetitence on a Detroit loss on Friday, but deep down everyone will know who the fault lies with. It lies with the Wings and the Wings alone. I don't even want to think about it. The Wings just gotta get it done on Friday.

Maybe you are right. I will also say that the Wings had better chances, but just could not convert. This is why as a hockey and Wings fan I am nervous as hell about Friday night. The same thing could happen to them that happened tonight. Could being the operative word. It could happen to the Pens as well. Anytime you chock it up to a final game is when crap can happen and you lose because of it. True, but as I said before, the Wings tempted fate. They played lazy in Anaheim in game 3 and game 6. They played lazy tonight and in game 4 on the road. Anytime you extend a series due to lazy play is when luck can come back to bite you. I hope I am wrong here, but how many fans here would be physically ill if that happened. As you said, Game 7 will come down to lucky bulls***. Will that lucky bulls*** be for or against the Wings? I guess we will see on Friday.

Oh, and Draper was the guy who scored the only goal. Draper, a 4th liner that scored his first of the playoffs. Not any of our top line players that SHOULD be producing.

Absolutely. The Pens answered back in game 6 thats for sure. I hope the Wings answer back after a slacking effort in game 6. The thing that worries me is its game 7. Anything can happen. A fluke goal could mean the series. The Wings have put themselves in this position and they have no one to blame but themselves for it. There are only so many times you can test fate before it burns you. They tested it against Anaheim and came out ok. Their luck is going to run out sooner or later and I don't want it to be in a game 7 at home thats for sure. As a hockey fan, I hope the best team really does win. No fluke goals. Just let the game play out and the best team come out on top. As a Wings fan, I want that team to be the Wings. The Wings have to want the game. Millions of praying and hoping fans will not matter as the Wings have a job to do on Friday. Lets see if they respond.