2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Blog

By Simon Dingley, CBC News

Pittsburgh - It is something few reporters experience.

Behind the scenes, at the Stanley Cup final. Outside the winning team's dressing room in the moments leading up to the trophy being awarded.

Wednesday night during the second period of Game 6, I parked myself beside the Red Wings' room at Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena. Usually I cover NHL games from the press box. But I feared if I didn't get down to the Wings' room early, I may not get in at all because of the huge crush of media.

The room was located in the hallway behind the Penguins' net.

PITTSBURGH – Sweden is home to so many of life's little pleasures: The smorgasbord, for one thing. And Ingrid Bergman. And the final destination of one of the main characters in one of history's greatest novels, Catch-22.

And, for the next few months, it's going to be the frequent home of the Stanley Cup.

There is no doubt at least one headline out there today in the world's newspapers that will have the title "How Swede It Is for the Red Wings," and can you blame any editor out there who falls into such punnery?

With six of the top nine playoff scorers on the Detroit Red Wings being Swedish players, maybe the theme song for the new Stanley Cup champions should have been The Winner Takes it All by one of Sweden's lesser gifts to the world, ABBA.

Pittsburgh - The verbal posturing between Mike Babcock and Michel Therrien over officiating in these Cup Finals continued this morning at Mellon Arena.

Red Wings coach Babcock had stayed silent about the officials prior to Game 5, no doubt because his team was up 3-1. Winning has a funny way of making coaches content with the state of all things, including the refs.

But now that his team has blown a clinching game, one in which two goalie-interference calls were made against his team, Babcock started to chirp more about the refs on Tuesday. He also took a swipe at Pittsburgh's Therrien, musing aloud that maybe he should start talking more about the refs, like Therrien did earlier in the series, to buy
more calls in future games.

By Simon Dingley, CBC News

Pittsburgh - They sat anonymously in a corner of the Mellon Arena this morning. Six members of Marc-Andre Fleury's family and a friend are in Pittsburgh. They're here to support him and cheer him on as he tries to win the Stanley Cup.

Last week Fleury's father, Andre Fleury drove 10 hours from his hometown of Sorel, Quebec, about 65 kilometres north east of Montreal, to watch his son.

"This is like a dream come true," he said. "It's incredible."

Marc-Andre's sister Marylene has been in Pittsburgh for a month. The Penguins gave her an internship with the team's marketing division. She says her brother's success has been "fantastic."

PITTSBURGH – It's going to take more than one Stanley Cup and a few hundred other big playoff saves before Marc-Andre Fleury deserves comparison to Patrick Roy as a money goaltender.

Saint Patrick no doubt would be insulted at having Fleury's name mentioned with his based on one triple-overtime Cup final win. Roy not only made 63 saves in a triple-OT win in Game 4 of the 1996 finals to win the Cup against Florida, he won the Cup as a rookie in hockey's ultimate pressure cooker, Montreal.

Petr Sykora's Psychic Hotline is now open for business.

Sykora told a United States hockey broadcaster during overtime he would score the winner for his Pittsburgh Penguins Monday night. On Tuesday morning, his prediction came true, and Pittsburgh danced out of Joe Louis Arena with a 4-3 triple-overtime victory, the fifth-longest Stanley Cup final game in history.

It was an amazing finish to an incredible game, and now the Cup final moves back to the Steel City for a Game 6 Wednesday night.

By Simon Dingley, CBC News

It is situation critical for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Penguins trail the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup final going into Game 5 Monday night (CBC, CBCSports.ca 8 p.m. ET). A loss, and their dreams of the Stanley Cup die.

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby vows to go all to keep his team in the series. "I'm gonna try. I'm definitely gonna empty the tank. I'm not gonna save anything," he said.

"We know they (Detroit) don't wanna come back to Pittsburgh (for Game 6). They're gonna be desperate, but so are we."

It's not like winning three straight games is the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest with only a pair of sandals, a T-shirt and a bag of Elk jerky. But looking at the statistics of teams having overcome two-game deficits to win a Stanley Cup Final sure makes it seem that way.

Only one team in NHL history has overcome a 3-1 series deficit to win. That team, of course, was the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were actually down 3-0 to the Red Wings.

Coming back from big finals deficits is tough in any sport, but it just seems impossible in hockey. Although Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said earlier in the series he is not a big believer in "momentum," legendary former coach Scott Bowman is.

"It's tough to convince your team you can get out of a big hole, especially in the Finals," Bowman said. "It's tough to feel excited about the task in front of you. It's a challenge."

PITTSBURGH – He played four games in the NHL and allowed 17 goals, including seven in the first as a Hartford Whaler. His playing career cannot be judged as anything less than a dismal failure.

Ken Holland's career as an NHL executive cannot be judged as anything less than a spectacular success.

The Detroit Red Wings general manager is on the brink of a Stanley Cup, but it would not be his first. One can make a good argument, though, that this would be the first with his true, personal stamp on it.

The others came with Scotty Bowman as his coach, and everybody knows how involved Bowman was with key personnel decisions. Bowman might have been hockey's biggest "meddling coach." But how could you argue with Bowman's hockey knowledge? Certainly it was difficult for a guy like Holland, a journeyman minor-league goalie with little front-office experience when he started working with Bowman.

By Simon Dingley, CBC News

If you pay attention to Detroit's media, the Penguins-Red Wings series is over.

The Red Wings have already won the series. And Detroit will be celebrating its fourth Stanley Cup in 11 years Monday night.

The front page of Sunday's Detroit Free Press screamed "STANLEY CUSP".