Your 2008 Stanley Cup Champions

After one of the most crushing losses imaginable on Monday night, last night the Detroit Red Wings sucked it up, bounced back, and held off the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Stanley Cup, 4 games to 2. As the Detroit Tigers season circles the drain, I'm going to savor this victory for a long, long while.

Monday night's loss was one of the most brutal sports-watching experiences I've ever gone through. The Wings were winning that game 3-2, with under a minute left. Joe Louis Arena, the Detroit home ice, was shaking with anticipation of the hoisting of the Cup. The Penguins pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. With about thirty-five seconds left, Maxim Talbot managed to bang the puck in past goalie Chris Osgood's skate. Tie game, overtime.

So what is a person, like me, who needs sleep or I wilt? I wasn't about to miss the chance to the Wings win it all, especially on an overtime goal, which is rare and special way to win. So I watched, and I watched, and I watched. First overtime, second overtime, third overtime. It was now almost one o'clock, and I was doing mental calculations on how long it was to be before I had to wake up. Finally, in the beginning of the third period, the Penguins scored on a power play. I immediately clicked off the TV and stewed.

I was in such a funk over the loss that I stayed home from work the next day and caught up on my sleep. I now knew what it was like for the Red Sox fans who went through the excruciating end of game six in '86, to be one pitch or just a few seconds from wrapping it all up, but giving the opponent an opportunity to strike back. All day on Wednesday I was having kittens, wondering if I could possibly live through another game.

But I watched. This time the game was in Pittsburgh. The Wings scored early, and then added a second goal for the precious two-goal lead. After a Penguin goal, the Wings added a third, when Henrik Zetterberg's shot went between goalie Marc-Andre Fleury's legs, and ever so slowly, as if he were shitting a peach pit, emerged from beneath him and trickled toward the goal. No one knew where it was, and when Fleury fell back he sat on the puck and it squirted into the net. As players milled around, the referee signaled a goal with fervor.

Under two minutes left, the Penguins pulled the goalie on a power play and got a goal to cut the lead to one. Could the game possibly end the way it did on Monday? Could my heart take it? The seconds ticked down, and the Wings couldn't complete clear the puck. With ten seconds to go, Sidney Crosby got a shot on goal, that Osgood blocked. Marion Hossa grabbed the rebound, and just after time expired he got off a shot that slid harmlessly across the crease (it wouldn't have counted even had it gone in). The game was over, the Cup was won.

The captain of the Red Wings, Nicklas Lidstrom, was the first European captain to hoist the Cup. Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe Trophy for MVP of the Playoffs, so clearly this morning Detroit loves the Swedes. Zetterberg had the most goals in the playoffs, but he also played some amazing defense, including being a key part of two sequences, one in game four, one in game six, of killing off a minute and a half of five-on-three penalties. I think those two kills were key to the whole shooting match.

This is the fourth Cup win in the last eleven years for the Wings. A few of the players, like Lidstrom, Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper and Tomas Holmstrom, have been there for all four. Perhaps it was their experience and level heads that prevented the Wings from suffering what the Red Sox did twenty-two years ago.