Amen

Posted by Linda1st on 06/14/09 at 01:54 PM ET

Did the Red Wings acknowledge the home crowd and thank them for their support after Game 7?

Posted by Guest on 06/14/09 at 04:47 PM ET

i was at the game, and wings took off as fast as possible…
If crosby’s man enough to shake hands when he loses in the final, give him a break and let him celebrate a minute.  There is more talk about this than when Chelios stormed off the ice two years ago after being eliminated by the ducks…

Posted by jeff on 06/14/09 at 08:48 PM ET

You know, I don’t know what they consensus is around here, but I like Kevin Allen.His article is pretty much spot on. I am worried that, like everything else, sports fans (and maybe the athletes themselves) are losing perspective on what really matters.

I hope the fans didn’t boo the Pens or any of their players AFTER the game was over. They were the worthy champions. I’m not so sure about the problem with cheering a bone-crushing hit that sends a rival to the locker room though. It didn’t look as if Crosby was seriously, or even semi-seriously, injured. I thought he just got his clock cleaned. I was silent after the Havlat hit, despite the fact that it was a good hockey hit, because I was afraid he really got hurt. I didn’t get that sense with Crosby and I don’t think the fans at the Joe did either.

Still, this stuff is for fun. One of those ‘evil Pens’ or ‘Wings’ might be our guys next season. This vitriol is a little scary. It was fun to ‘hate’ them while the games were on, but now, they are what they have always been… Hockey players, the coolest athletes in the world.

Posted by Krebstar on 06/14/09 at 10:32 PM ET

It happens everywhere.  I seem to recall fans in Pittsburgh last year booing Zetterberg as he was awarded the Conn Smythe and Penguins fans interrupting Mickey Redmond’s broadcasts with rude comments.  To point the finger at fans in Detroit is just wrong because it happens in every city; people are passionate about their teams.

And didn’t we just have an article on Friday about Bettman being booed everywhere he presents the cup?

Posted by drimo from Cincinnati, OH on 06/14/09 at 10:55 PM ET

It happens everywhere.  I seem to recall fans in Pittsburgh last year booing Zetterberg as he was awarded the Conn Smythe and Penguins fans interrupting Mickey Redmond’s broadcasts with rude comments.  To point the finger at fans in Detroit is just wrong because it happens in every city; people are passionate about their teams.

And didn’t we just have an article on Friday about Bettman being booed everywhere he presents the cup?

Posted by drimo on 06/14/09 at 11:55 PM ET

It doesn’t help that sometimes writers help work the fans up all during the series, and then expect the emotion to harmlessly dissipate the second the series is over.  It takes more time than that to cool off after an emotional experience.

The tough thing is people making decisions based on what they hear on television, and they have no idea where the microphones are or what is happening off camera.  I’ve watched games that were being shown both on CBC and Versus, and from the sound you wouldn’t think they were the same games.  It’s very hard to judge that way.  Probably Bettman was booed whenever he was visible, even if it was while some of the Penguins were skating with the Cup.  It depended on which scene was closer to the fans at the time.  If a group of fans saw Bettman at their side of the ice, and the Penguins were on the other side, they would boo because the scene in front of them seemed to warrant it.  Microphones pick up that group of fans - people watching would think the player being interviewed at the time was being booed, just because they were getting the sound and image at the same time.

And as long as a player skates off the ice under his own power, booing injuries doesn’t bother me.  It isn’t immediately clear how badly someone is hurt (often a player just has the wind knocked out of him, and after a missed shift or two he’s just fine) and if an opponent is the subject of a hard hit, that calls for cheers from the fans of any team.  It would be different of a guy was lying motionless on the ice and people were cheering. 

Crosby is just 21, and he will act like an immature twit at times - everyone that age does.  It’s fair to point it out, but to dwell on it is excessive.  If he still acts like that in five years, then it will be fair to rip him to shreds for it, because he should know better.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/15/09 at 08:35 AM ET

Pretty good take… but the bottom line is that whether he’s 21 or 31, whether he chose to be captain or had it forced on him, the fact still remains that he IS the CAPTAIN, and these things are his responsibility. He’s clearly still a child. He passes the buck like crazy, on everything, not just this.

If you ask me, looking at on-ice effort and off-ice decisions, Malkin is the guy that should really be that team’s captain. His EFFORT in games six and seven were tremendous. I said it in another post—I don’t think he’ll ever have the defensive mind of Zetterberg or Datsyuk, but in those two games, his sheer will overcame it. He was everywhere in both ends, making critical defensive plays almost every shift.

Granted, Malkin can hardly speak English so it’s tough for him to do much bad off the ice. But his on-ice play really lead the entire team and was impactful and inspiring. Crosby’s play was (due to Zetterberg, mostly) flat and useless.

Posted by Nathan from the scoresheet! on 06/15/09 at 08:48 AM ET