Toute Acclament Fleury!
Game 5 showed every single reason why nothing compares to a sudden death Stanley Cup Playoff game. A team on the brink of elimination was getting pummeled. They held on by a hair, gritted their teeth, and left two of everything they had on the ice. The crowd was living and dying with every play. Twenty thousand fans were 30 seconds away from their pinnacle moment as a sports fan—they were going to see their team win the cup on home ice.
(And by the way, hockey is probably the best sport to witness a championship in person. In all other sports the teams celebrate on the field, but they’re in a hurry to get to the locker and really celebrate. When a team wins the Stanley Cup every single player skates around with it as the fans cheer for him. It’s such an authentic and meaningful interaction between player and fan.)
As the 20,000 Red Wings faithful stood on their feet waiting for the cup, Max Talbot put the puck in the back of the net. (Speaking of Talbot, he’s only 24 but you can already tell that when he’s old, young playoff teams will constantly be trying to acquire him at the trade deadline to bring in veteran leadership and toughness. He’s already that solid of a player.) When Talbot’s shot went in a unique gasp bubbled up from the crowd. It was part “Damn my wife is gonna be pissed I’m coming home late,” part “Fuck, I had $1,000 on Detroit winning,” part “I wanted to see the big shiny cup,” and part “I don’t like Marc Andre Fleury.” Two hours later, thanks to Peter Sykora, in was just another Stanley Cup loss.
Of all the predictions made by players over the years, Peter Sykora’s has to be the craziest. It’s one thing for a player to guarantee a win or great performance in a big game. But to declare you’re going to score a goal during the second overtime of a Stanley Cup game in which your team is getting crushed is completely ridiculous. What were the odds on the Penguins scoring? Sykora scored about 12% of the Penguins goals during the regular season but there was only about a 25% chance the Penguins would score. That means it was at least a 25-1 one shot Sykora would score.
There’s also the possibility Sykora was just joking around with Pierre McGuire. Maybe McGuire was joking that the game was so long and he had to go sleep and Sykora just said something like “Don’t worry, I’m gonna score.”
Though Sykora’s goal came on a legitimate power play, the referees are still getting a lot of shit for the two questionable goaltender interference calls they made earlier in overtime. Here’s the thing. They were the right calls. In both cases a Detroit player skated into the crease and knocked over Fleury without the assistance of a Penguin. If Detroit scored off either of those scrums it would not have been a fair goal. Since the referees can’t wait and just waive off the goal, they have to call a penalty.
Finally, you can’t say enough about Marc Andre Fleury. The save he made on a 2-1 late in the 2nd period is the best save you’ll see in hockey. I’m not saying its the greatest save of all time, but you can’t argue that there’s a tougher save.
Fleury leveled the playing field. He took over the game. He’s the reason the two teams will pay again tomorrow night.
Gary Roberts was acquired by the Penguins at last year’s trade deadline. He was re-signed in the offseason. All in all, Roberts has been a member of the Penguins for more than a year, but apparently that’s enough of a reason for his 
So you can imagine my excitement when Devils coach Brent Sutter passed up the opportunity to blame Andy Greene’s struggles on “confidence,” and instead 
