Non rigged? You must be kidding! I have been watching NHL hockey & Stanley Cup Playoff hockey for more years than I care to mention. I have NEVER seen Stanley Cup Final officiating so one sided in all my years. You mention Detroit’s advantage in PP minutes & number. That is a given!! My Lord, the speed & EXTREME discipline would explain this alone! Hal “the tortoise” Gill was an obstruction machine that was called for, ready for this, two minors the ENTIRE SERIES. I’m sure he averaged that every game until the Finals. How about what I consider to be the greatest non call in the history of the Finals: Red Wings on PP: Pens counter with 26 SECONDS OF TOO MANY MEN. Not called!!! Less than a minute after PP ended, Pens GIVEN PP & scored tying goal. Just imagine…26 seconds that four officials forgot how to count. Too busy eye-balling all Wings looking to even out the numbers, I think. At that point of the game & series, Detroit on a 70 second 2 man advantage, forget about it. They bury the Pens. Detroit up 3-1 going back to the Joe. One last point, game 7 non call icing touch up gives Talbot goal 1. Non called offside gives Talbot goal 2.
Before you want to play with real fans, you better check your facts. All you Pens fans are just bandwagoners & we all know it. Where were you when the league had to save your beloved Pens from bankruptcy & relocation? Again, more research for you. Bettman NEEDED Cindy to win the Cup & he insured it (read above again). Seems the only people who will not accept this are those in the 3 rivers area. The fans, players & world know a dirty little secret. Hungrier team my ass…stay on the porch little dog, stay on the porch.

Lets see where should I start?

First game Malkin was clearly offsides, you scored on that possesion
I dont even remember the exact games but I remember Lidstrom getting checked against teh boards and he wasn’t even within 20 feet of the puck…no call…
Just a shit ton of interference no calls

Icing on there first goal in game 7, it was a no call when detroit touched it up….. Not to mention when crosby got checked he liked jumped and held on to franzens back ….no call….

Through the series, Detroit had 23 Powerplays to the Penguins 15 and Detroit had a total of 47 minutes of penalties called against them to 95 minutes against Pittsburgh. Even taking away the ridiculous numbers from game 5 for both teams (Pitt 2 PPs, 48 PIMs ; D- 9 PPs, 14 PIMs), the Pens were still called for 47 minutes in penalties to the Wings’ 33 and Detroit had a 14-13 edge in power plays. And please don’t forget that among the Detroit power plays were back to back calls in game 4 that resulted in a (very brief) 5 on 3 advantage and almost 4 consecutive minutes on the PP while leading 2-1, only to give up a short handed goal and completely fall apart.

Further, The power plays in the last 2 games went in favor of detroit (2 in each game versus 3 total for Pittsburgh). In 3 of 4 the games that Detroit lost, they had as many or more PPs than did the Penguins. It could also be argued that since Detroit got the last power plays in both games 6 & 7, in the third period while trailing no less, that they were actually given an advantage by the officials.

There was no rigging. The better team won this series. I really wish all the Detroit fans, whose team I had previously held an enormous amount of respect for, would please just acknowlede that a team who was hungrier and wanted it more beat them and won The Cup fair and square.

Nice piece. I wrote something similar last night, you can check it out here:

http://thesportsdick.com/2009/06/13/i-hope-youre-happy-bettman/

Later

Mike