TSDMike | June 14, 2009
A lot has been made of the fans’ reaction to the second period hit by Johan Franzen that knocked Sidney Crosby out of the game. I’ve read in comments and blog posts by various writers displaying the ubiquitous opinion that Detroit fans showed no class by cheering the injury to Pittsburgh’s franchise player when it occurred.
But, this is severely out of context, and the criticism is unwarranted.
TSDMike | June 3, 2009
Twenty-one seconds.
Twenty-one seconds in the second period of game three of the Stanley Cup Finals kept this series from being a boring sweep by the heavily favored Red Wings. Twenty-one seconds prevented the Finals from being over in six days.
The whole playoff season this year has been a disaster for Gary Bettman and the NHL. In a league fighting for popularity and for relevance in the sports world, this has done nothing to bolster their position. Out of the 14 completed series, only the second round matchup of Pittsburgh and Washington had any excitement to it. The Penguins went on to storm through an overachieving Carolina team to reach the finals for the second straight year.
Detroit swept through their opening round against Columbus, then went seven games against an underrated Anaheim team – but that series should have been done in five games. Had Jonas Hiller not made 7,000 saves in game two’s triple overtime marathon, the Wings would have steamrolled the Ducks easily.
