**** YOU!!
That Game 5 remains one of the most haunting, unspeakable things to ever happen. The Red Wings blow a chance to go up 3-1 by losing Game 4 to a Pronger-less Ducks team because the Sasquatch got suspended, but they still have Game 5 back at home, on NBC, on a Sunday afternoon. They lead 1-0 on a goal by
Andreas Lilja of all people, and give it up in the final minute of the 3rd period on one of the flukiest goals of all-time. Skunkbeard Niedermayer whiffs on the shot in the slot, but it ticks off Lidstrom's stick and flutters in slow motion over Hasek's shoulder and into the damn net, setting the stage for the birth of Andreas LOLja. If you watch, the
moment he gives it away to Selanne, a fan stands up immediately, and is turned and headed out a split second after Selanne scores. A friend and I joke sardonically to this day about the guy in front who knew it was over as soon as the puck was turned over.
That loss was a fluke of bad luck from the hockey gods, along with Rob Niedermayer blatantly pushing Hasek into the goal in Game 2 for the tying goal (Ducks won in OT). If Hasek was any better (he was 99% done as an NHL goalie that year; 100% done the next spring), or if Niklas Kronwall and Mathieu Schneider play a single second in that series, the Wings win. I'll go to my grave believing the Red Wings were the best team in 2007 at full strength.
I'd like to remind everyone who views me as too pessimistic and too negative: this was the last time I was confident about a Red Wings win. Game 7 in 2009.
I'm still paranoid about that series. Games 1 and 2 being on back to back days, only three days after the Wings finished the WCF in 5 games. The Penguins getting away with 6 men in the offensive zone for 20 seconds, with a linesman allegedly calling for the player nearest the bench to get off the ice to avoid a penalty. Jonathan Ericsson getting called for the same obstruction call that Hal Gill did every time on the ice, with 10:00 left in a tie game, setting up the GWG on the ensuing Pittsburgh power play.
But I digress. Samuelsson hit the post, Fleury robbed Cleary's breakaway, Franzen smacked the puck into Rob Scuderi's leg instead of the net, and Kronwall hit the crossbar in the dying minutes of Game 7. The turning point of this series, btw, was the 2nd period of Game 4. Wings were up 2-1 in the series and 2-1 in the game and got a PP. They botch the PP, Malkin is sprung on essentially a breakaway; Osgood stops him. Barely 30 seconds later, on the same PP, the Wings stumble over themselves again, and Jordan Staal gallops down the ice, basically flicking poor little Brian Rafalski away as he charges in and ties the game with a shorthanded goal. Five minutes later it was 4-2, and the Wings looked dead. I know Doc is a huge disbeliever in "momentum"...I present that sequence as evidence. Staal's SHG changed
everything in that game.
This was superstition too. Crosby himself said they touched it that year to change their luck because they didn't touch it in 2008.
06-04-2014, 05:16 AM
