Detroit Red Wings Champions

Jason Bedard

Scores and Analysis as of 6/8

 

            Well its official as of Wednesday night the 2007- 2008 hockey season is over with the Detroit Red Wings as champions.  Honestly, did anyone expect them to lose?  The Red Wings starting line is Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterburg, Thomas Holdstrom, Nikolas Lindstrom and Brian Rafalski. Enough said.  The Penguins did take them to six games but they couldn’t hold on any longer and Detroit was awarded the Cup.

            All of the games in this series were very close score wise.  Watching the games though it seemed Detroit controlled most of the play.  In Game three Detroit didn’t give the Penguins one shot for eleven and a half minutes.  That’s some pretty stellar defense.  Detroit certainly had chances to win the Cup before Game 6.  In Game 5 they gave up the lead with 34.5 seconds left in the game when Pittsburgh’s Maxime Talbot scored to tie it up.  That game went into triple overtime, fifth longest game in NHL Finals history.  Obviously the Penguins won with a snipe from Peter Sykora over the right shoulder of Chris Osgood.  So instead of winning it in front of the crowd at Joe Louis Arena the two teams traveled back to Pittsburgh for Game 6.

            Game 6 started off with one of the best goals I have seen ever and it all started with the anticipation of Thomas Holdstrom.  Holdstrom recognized the Penguins defenseman was going to wrap it around the boards.  He got a piece of the puck enabling Pavel Datsuk to pick it up on the boards with two Penguins covering him.  Datsyuk spun between them and dropped it to Zetterburg.  Zetterburg with three men on him dropped to one knee and behind the back passed it to point man Brain Rafalski who finished the already amazing play by sniping the top right corner of the net.  Detroit’s Valterri Fullupa puts another one on the board making it 2-0 at the start of the second period.  Pittsburgh wakes up late in the second period with a blistering slap shot from Evgeni Malkin to make it 2-1.  About 20 minutes away from the Cup Detroit was in the same situation they were two night’s ago and they were not about to let that happen again.  The winning goal came from Henrik Zetterburg with a beauty if a snap shot to make it score 3-1.  The Pens never gave up.  Marian Hossa put one home with about three minutes to go and he almost had another goal.  With about half a second to go he made a last ditch effort to score the tieing goal, but he was not successful.  The Detroit Red Wings were named 2007-2008 World Champions with Henrik Zetterburg named MVP of the series.

            This series was definitely one of the better series to watch.  The games were exciting, close and fun to watch.  Pittsburgh is not done this situation was a win, win for them.  They didn’t win the Cup but the majority of their team is young and the playoff and even Finals experience is great to have.  They will back next year hungry for a second chance.  No need to worry about Detroit they have been an outstanding organization since the start of hockey.  It was a great season of hockey and I hope it’s even better next year.

Do Referees Have too Much Influence?

            Referees have way to much influence in every sport.  Every game pretty much comes down to the officiating.  Whether it’s a 45 yard pass interference call or an umpire calling a foul ball fair.  No matter what the situation they have way too much to do with the game and it should come down to the players playing it. 

The two teams who are playing the game can only do so much but the refs have to much influence on the game.  It’s not just in hockey it’s all major league sports.  In baseball, football, hockey and they have way to much influence in basketball.  The calls they have make is left too much up to them.  Except for obvious goals, baskets etc. the penalties and fouls they call is too much of their personal opinion.  Professional sports commissioners need to make some revisions to their sports to make it so the refs don’t have so much influence on the game.  In baseball they should install instant replay so the umpires can tell if it really was a home-run, foul ball or not.  In basketball, my god, it seems the refs’ blow there whistle hundreds of times a game.  The referees call way too many minor fouls a game and it slows down the game and boars viewers.  The NHL is not as bad as most pro sports but the referees have been accused of calling too many penalties and it ends up costing the other team in the end.  The NFL needs to change a few penalties because some of them are totally their opinion.  Pass Interference is the main one.  One ref can call it if the safety touches the receiver or some officials let the safety hit the receiver as their running down the field.

Referees usually can’t win unless they make all their calls go the way of the home team.  I have experienced bad refs plenty of times throughout my hockey career.  An example is when I was in a semi-finals game and I was battling for the puck. I win the battle and I cut to go up the boards with it and I skate right into the referee.  He was not even looking at the play, he was totally spacing out and I had no idea he was there and it caused me to lose possession of the puck.  After our goalie froze the puck he comes up to me and says, “Watch where you’re going!” I won’t repeat what I said after that.  Those refs are the main reason why the good officials get yelled at so much.  Sometimes I will admit they don’t deserve it.  Probably the worst place to officiate ever is a youth hockey rink because I have experienced it.  Those parents yell at them so much I’m surprised the refs don’t skate off the ice, untie their skates and then stab that parent with the blade of their skate.

Something has to change in professional sports so the referees don’t have so much influence on the game.  It’s time the MLB starts instant replay, the NBA modifies the fouls and the NFL revises pass interfence.