Game 7 is most-watched NHL game in 36 years
June 15, 2009

NEW YORK (AP)—Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals is the most-watched NHL game in 36 years.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ championship-clinching 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on NBC on Friday night averaged 8 million viewers. The network said Monday that’s the most since Game 6 of the 1973 Stanley Cup finals between Montreal and Chicago.

Game 7 earned a 4.3 rating and 8 share. It was the highest rating for a series-ending game since Game 7 of the 2003 Anaheim-New Jersey series.

The rating is the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program, while the share is the percentage of all TVs in use at the time.

June 17, 2009 – Marian Hossa’s quote regarding Sidney Crosby:

"After the game, when I start shaking their hands, I did not think, 'Who is there and who is not there?'" Marian Hossa said, according to the Calgary Herald. "After, I think about it and I thought that I did not remember shaking hands with Sid. I'm sure he was caught in the emotion and did not know where he was. I know him. He wouldn't do it deliberately. He is a great guy. I think he was just excited and caught up in the emotion."

Red Wings really need to give Sidney Crosby a break
Austin Knoblauch of the Los Angeles Times
June 16, 2009

I realize the Detroit Red Wings aren't used to losing in the Stanley Cup finals, but they really need to stop attacking Sidney Crosby.

In case you haven't heard, some Detroit players are upset that Crosby didn't shake hands with all of the Red Wings following the Penguins' Stanley Cup triumph in Game 7 on Friday.

Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom was among the players Crosby didn't shake hands with and, although the future NHL Hall of Famer didn't seem to mind too much, teammates Henrik Zetterberg and Kris Draper are pretty upset over Crosby's perceived lack of sportsmanship.

"That's ridiculous," Draper said.

It's strange the Red Wings are getting so worked up over this, especially when one of their own players has a reputation for going on handshake hiatuses. Defenseman Chris Chelios (who looks ready for retirement now) intentionally didn't shake hands following the Red Wings' playoff loss to the Ducks in 2007. I don't recall Zetterberg and Draper venting to the media about that unsportsmanlike display.

Crosby is merely guilty of getting too caught up in the moment. The thrill of winning his first Stanley Cup finally dissolved the immense expectations that were placed on his shoulders by the post-lockout NHL's rebuilding/marketing strategy (whether you agree with it or not, the league crowned Crosby its prince on draft day 2005).

He has been the face of the NHL for the last four years, and it would be nice if some older players, who have undoubtedly benefited from the exposure he has helped bring to the game, would be a little more understanding about his handshake faux pas.

The impossible Penguins
By Joe Starkey
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
June 12, 2009

DETROIT — It's safe to call Pittsburgh the City of Champions again.

It's also safe to call the Penguins' 2-1, Game 7 victory Friday night at Joe Louis Arena one of the great wins in Pittsburgh sports history, alongside bunch of others, including "The Impossible Pirates" beating the mighty New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series.

Marc-Andre Mazeroski, er, Fleury, made a game-ending save that will be featured on hockey highlight reels for centuries to come, lunging to stop future Hall-of-Fame defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom's attempt at an open net just before time expired.

"The best save I ever saw 'Flower' make," said defenseman Brooks Orpik, as players celebrated with their families on the ice while a throng of Penguins fans chanted and cheered, creating a surreal scene.

Meanwhile, inside the Detroit dressing room, one could only imagine how Marian Hossa was taking all this. Has there been a recent sports choke as prominent as Hossa's? He was the guy who told the Penguins they weren't good enough after last season and bolted for Detroit, then disappeared in the Final.

A joke going around last night was that you can't spell Hossa without an 'o' - as in, zero goals in the series. The guy didn't exactly have a nose for the net, did he? Broadcasters must have grown tired of constantly saying, "Hossa goes wide," as he lugged the puck.

Asked what it was like to shake Hossa's hand afterward, Penguins winger Tyler Kennedy said, "It was great. He didn't really believe in us, or whatever happened, and now he has to stick with it. We're just glad to have the group of guys we have."

The Penguins made Max Talbot's two second-period goals stand up, but not without some seriously tense moments in the third period, as they protected a 2-1 lead for the final 6:07.

Has the clock actually hit 0:00 yet?

"That whole third period, it seemed like the clock was broken, it was clicking so slow," Orpik said.

Few gave The Impossible Penguins much of a chance in Game 7, because they had to beat two opponents: the Red Wings, who never lose at home, and the crushing weight of history.

The past 18 major North American professional sports teams who'd attempted to win a title by winning Game 7 on the road had failed, a streak dating to the 1979 Pirates.

Only one other team in NHL history (the 1971 Montreal Canadiens) had lost the first two games of the Final on the road and come back to the win the series.

Oh, and nobody told the Penguins they'd have to win without their captain, Sidney Crosby, for more than half the game. He left a little more than five minutes into the second period after a knee-on-knee hit from Johan Franzen, then returned for the third to support his teammates on the bench, then dramatically took one final shift at 9:35 (and won a faceoff).

Every single player on the ice, from Pascal Dupuis to Mark Eaton to Matt Cooke to Conn Smythe winner Evgeni Malkin did something to help the team win.

Crosby was the first to hoist the Cup.

"It was actually a lot heavier than I thought it was," he said.

He was followed, in order, by Bill Guerin, Sergei Gonchar, Miroslav Satan and Petr Sykora. The young guys went last, including Jordan Staal, who let out a primal scream heard all the way back to Thunder Bay, Ontario, when he lifted the championship trophy.

In the end, the Penguins finally beat the arrogance out of the Red Wings, arrogance being a complimentary term.

Every great team is arrogant; it just comes across in different ways. Detroit's manifested itself in a complete disregard of the Penguins. The robotic Red Wings barely acknowledged them over the course of two Finals.

If a quote could describe the Wings' attitude, it was one from goalie Chris Osgood after Game 2. Somebody asked Osgood what he thought of a certain aspect of the Penguins' game.

"I don't think about the Penguins," he said.

He will now.

They all will.

Detroit was supposed to celebrate its fifth championship since 1997, on home ice, and solidify its status as a bona fide dynasty. Instead, it was The Impossible Penguins who shocked the hockey world.

DETROIT - JUNE 12: The Pittsburgh Penguins celebrate with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Thank You, Marian Hossa
By Bob Smizik
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 13, 2009

There is nothing in sports -- nothing -- that can match the hoisting of the Stanley Cup.

So there were the Penguins in this incredible, almost unimaginable season out there on the ice of Joe Louis Arena raising the most cherished trophy in all of team sports after winning Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final over the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1.

First Sidney Crosby -- the youngest captain ever to do so -- holding that fabled jug over his head; then Bill Guerin, then Sergei Gonchar . . . and, finally, the finest moment of it all -- Mario Lemieux.

The torch has been passed. From Lemieux, the heart and soul of this franchise, to a new generation of wondrous talent.

Let the dynasty talk begin. And, yes, a dynasty is in the offing.

Jordan Staal, 20; Sidney Crosby, 21; Evgeni Malkin -- the Conn Smythe Trophy winner -- 22; Marc-Andre Fleury 24. There will be more Cups for this group.

Let’s not forget Dan Bylsma, 38, the coach who brought it about, and Ray Shero, 46, the general manager who put it all together.

And, finally, a special nod to Marian Hossa, 30, the man who made it possible.

Bear with me on this one.

Hossa is the man who turned his back on a lucrative contract offer from the Penguins -- seven years $49 million -- after last season to sign with the Red Wings for one year $7.4 million. It was fiscal idiocy but Hossa had his reasons. The Red Wings, he believed, gave him the best chance to win the Cup.

Forget for a second that Hossa skated off the ice last night not just a post-season flop and a bit of a fool but rather as the ignition switch on this fabulous turn of events.

If Hossa signed with the Penguins, not only would the franchise not have had the salary cap room to sign other important players but -- and as much as his legion of detractors won’t like this -- the Penguins are a better regular-season team with him. Face it, Hossa is a terrific player -- in the regular season -- and there is little doubt the Penguins would not have been floundering as there were in mid February if he were on the team.

Which means Shero would not have pulled the trigger and fired coach Michel Therrien and replaced him with Bylsma. And if that didn’t happen this team never would have got to Detroit. The change of coaches is what brought about this remarkable turnaround -- from 10th place in the Eastern Conference to Stanley Cup champion -- and Hossa made that possible.

This victory means so much. It shuts up -- once and for all -- the ridiculous critics of Fleury, who put the absurd demand of perfection on him. Fleury -- and his teammates -- held the mighty Red Wings to a total of two goals in the final two games. If that were not enough, he snuffed out two Detroit chances -- one that had the look of a game-tying goal off the stick of future Hall of Fame defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom -- in the final few seconds. Fleury didn’t win the Conn Smythe, but if he had no one could have argued.

Max Talbot didn’t win it either, but he carved his name in Penguins history in such a way that it never will be forgotten. Talbot scored both goals for the Penguins. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Most remarkably, the Penguins won without a point from Crosby, who was injured in the second period and took only one more shift after that. He will have his critics -- the same loudmouths who rejoiced in finding fault with Fleury -- but Detroit coach Mike Babcock said it best about Crosby when -- in that other great hockey tradition, the post-game handshake -- he congratulated the captain on his leadership.

He’s only 21, a kid, but he sets the tone for what is the best hockey team in the world. If he doesn’t score a point, his contributions are immense.

The Penguins lost the first two games of this best-of-seven series, which meant they had to do the impossible and beat the great Red Wings four out of five. And that’s what they did.

It was the third Stanley Cup for the franchise, and with all respect to Lemieux and that legendary list of Hall of Famers who were his teammates in 1991 and 1992, this was the best of the bunch.

This one was unexpected, almost totally, and oh, so sweet.

So we’ll say it one more time: Thank you, Marian Hossa.

DETROIT - JUNE 12: The Pittsburgh Penguins celebrate after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

Penguins beat Red Wings, 2-1, in Stanley Cup thriller
Third championship in franchise history
By Dave Molinari
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 13, 2009

DETROIT -- It was said that the Detroit Red Wings could not lose Game 7 of a Stanley Cup final on home ice. They did.

That Marc-Andre Fleury could not be counted on to win big games. He has.

That these Penguins were not ready to be champions. They are.

The driving forces behind the victory were forward Max Talbot, who scored both goals, and Fleury, who turned aside 23 of 24 shots and made a lunging game-, season- and Cup-saving stop on Nicklas Lidstrom with about a second to play.

Penguins center Evgeni Malkin, who led the playoffs in scoring with 36 points, received the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the postseason.

"He told us before the playoffs that he was going to lead us to the Stanley Cup," right winger Bill Guerin said. "He's an amazing competitor, an amazing player."

But this victory was not about one guy, or two or three. Championships are won by 20 or 21 or 22 men, although the Penguins had to get by with 19 for much of last night.

Captain Sidney Crosby missed most of the final 34-plus minutes after Detroit's Johan Franzen hit him at center ice early in the second period, pinning Crosby's left knee between his own and the boards.

Crosby went to the dressing room and did not return until the start of the third and managed only one 32-second shift in the middle of that period.

"We tried to make it so I couldn't feel it anymore, but it just didn't work," he said.

The injury did not, however, prevent him from becoming the youngest captain in league history to hoist the Stanley Cup.

"It's everything you dream of," Crosby said. "It's an amazing feeling."

He later pronounced himself to be "100 percent" for the victory parade.

Crosby was the No. 2 scorer in these playoffs, putting up 31 points in 24 games.

Talbot gave the Penguins all the offense they needed, but it was not clear that he had the winner until Fleury threw himself across the crease to deny Lidstrom on a rebound with about a second to go.

"I saw the shot coming in, and I just tried to do everything I could to get over there," Fleury said.

He did and, in the process, secured a championship and shattered the perception that he cannot produce when the pressure and stakes are highest.

"It's only fitting that he made that save with a second left to clinch it for us," defenseman Mark Eaton said. "You can't say enough about the way he's played, and what he did for us."

Winning Game 7 avenged losing the Cup to Detroit at Mellon Arena in 2008 and completed a remarkable turnaround by the Penguins. When Dan Bylsma was brought in to replace Michel Therrien as coach Feb. 15, they were five points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

Bylsma promptly led them to an 18-3-4 record during the stretch drive and rallied them from a 3-2 deficit in this series. He joins Al MacNeil as the only rookie coaches to win a Cup after getting his job during the season. MacNeil did it with Montreal in 1971.

The Penguins have won all three of their Cups on the road -- they did it in Minnesota in 1991 and in Chicago in 1992 -- and last night became the only road team to win a game in this series.

The loss was just the Red Wings' second in 14 home dates during the playoffs and marked just the third time in 15 tries that the visiting club has won Game 7 in a Cup final.

It helped that the Penguins never had to play from behind. Talbot gave them a 1-0 lead at 1:13 of the second when he put a shot between the legs of Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood from the inner edge of the right circle. Malkin made the goal possible by getting his stick on a Brad Stuart pass and deflecting it to Talbot.

Talbot beat Osgood on a two-on-one break at 10:07 of the second, and that provided the Penguins' margin of victory after Detroit's Jonathan Ericsson scored from the right point at 13:53 of the third.

But that was the only puck Detroit got past Fleury, and at 10:37 p.m., the Penguins triggered a civic celebration that might last for days.

"I really don't know if it's sunk in yet," Eaton said. "It doesn't get any better than this."

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The Kid's all right
By Jeff Passan
NHL - Yahoo! Sports
June 13, 2009

DETROIT – Sidney Crosby held the phone up to his ear. The prime minister of Canada wanted to talk with him. Crosby had just won his first Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins, a moment preordained since before he hit puberty, and like any good politician, Stephen Harper felt it his duty to congratulate his country’s finest hockey export since Mario Lemieux.

“Hello?” Crosby said. “Hello?”

Apparently, the reception at center ice inside Joe Louis Arena minutes after a championship-clinching 2-1 victory against Detroit isn’t quite five-bar strength. As an NHL official scrambled to get a signal, Crosby limped across the ice, his left knee still screaming from the hit that sidelined him almost the entire final 35 minutes.

Certainly it wasn’t Game 7 as Crosby envisioned it as a child, though nothing can live up to such inflated expectations. The result was the same, and that’s what mattered: Sid the Kid, hockey prodigy, kissed the Stanley Cup and kissed it good, five times in all, and plenty more to come this summer, and now the prime minister was on the line again, the connection this time robust.

Crosby listened.

“Thanks very much,” he said. “I appreciate it.”

He nodded.

“Thank you.”

He shrugged.

“Well, thanks very much. I really appreciate it.”

He smiled.

“Great.”

He hung up and went back to hug his parents.

Lest we forget: Crosby still is just 21, so it’s not like he’s going to engage in any sort of improvisational banter with an international head of state. That takes time and practice, neither of which Crosby has because his destiny is and always has been hockey greatness, and immortality is forged with the Cup raised above the head.

Crosby, with the captain’s C on his sweater, was the first to carry the amulet. It weighs 34½ pounds, a pittance compared to what life placed on Crosby’s shoulders when he was discovered to have a preternatural talent gifted to so few. That he became the youngest captain to helm a Stanley Cup-winning team – he has two years on Wayne Gretzky – wasn’t as much of a surprise as how he did it: with a Penguins team that was a postseason outsider in mid-February, and against a Red Wings team that vanquished the Penguins in the 2008 Finals and looked every bit as strong entering this season’s.

“He is our team,” said center Max Talbot, who scored both Penguins goals. “He is the heart and soul of the Pittsburgh Penguins. And I think everybody knows that. If they don’t, well, I’m telling you: He is our leader. What he brings every day to the rink is special. The pressure he had to go through to become that player is really special.

“Every day he thinks about hockey. Everything he does is about hockey. He respects the game. Yes, he’s not flashy like other players in the NHL, and maybe the media thinks he’s boring. But he respects the game. He loves the game. And you know what? Today is so special to win that for him, with him.”

Talbot got the Game 7 glory, and Evgeni Malkin won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, and Marc-Andre Fleury earned kudos for save after phenomenal save, and Bill Guerin finally captured another Cup after a 14-year drought, and Dan Bylsma’s incredible run as Penguins coach culminated in the loss of his championship virginity, and still, every one of them converged on Crosby when he picked the Cup off a table and spun like it was Ginger and he was Fred.

The previous 90 minutes were excruciating. With 14 minutes, 30 seconds left in the second period, Johan Franzen dashed toward Crosby and checked him into the boards. From the look on his face – the one that follows a shot to a man’s nether regions and is the closest he will ever come to the pain of pregnancy – to the fashion in which he glided off the ice, barely moving, Crosby was in a bad way.

Turns out, Crosby said, the pain originated in his left leg. He jumped to avoid Franzen’s check, and the outside of his knee was jammed on the boards.

“I couldn’t really walk,” he said.

On the bench, Crosby took off his skate. He tried to move his leg and keep it from locking up. Trainers injected a numbing shot. Crosby swallowed two painkillers. Nothing worked.

“I still couldn’t really skate that much,” he said.

Unable to walk, unable to skate, Crosby still rejoined the game with 10:25 left in the third, the Penguins holding a 2-0 lead and a comatose group of fans finding life from a scoreboard stand-up-and-clap plea. Pittsburgh had experienced this before. Washington tried the same video ploy in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, which the Penguins won 6-2 on the road.

This was different. No team in professional sports had clinched a championship in a road Game 7 since the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979, and the Penguins had been embarrassed three times already at the Joe: 3-1 losses in Games 1 and 2, and a 5-0 embarrassment in Game 5 that left them staring at elimination.

Already they’d staved it off in Game 6. And Crosby wanted to be out there to help them do it in Game 7. He couldn’t. That one shift in the third period was all he mustered.

“It was so painful,” Crosby said. “I mean, being a captain and seeing what the guys are doing out there blocking shots. Seeing how intense it was, it was even more painful to see it go like that.

“But you get to a point where you’ve got to ask yourself whether you’re going to be, you know, hurting your team by being out there. And I knew I had everything I could to numb it or try to play through it. But at the same time I’m playing against [Pavel] Datsyuk and [Henrik] Zetterberg. One misstep and I could cost the guys a lot of hard work. I didn’t want to be the guy who did that. So I kind of had to sit and wait and watch.”

What he saw was frightening Jonathan Ericsson’s goal with 6:07 remaining) and exhilarating (Fleury deflecting a shot off the crossbar and later diving for a Nicklas Lidstrom shot as time expired) and so very edifying. Even if Crosby finished the postseason with a league-leading 15 goals, none mattered as much as Talbot’s, the latter of which was scored with Crosby sidelined.

“We could either whine about it and give up a lot of chances and maybe have them tie up the game,” Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi said, “or suck it up and keep it going.”

Crosby made sure to embrace dozens of people during the hour-long on-ice celebration, and off to the side, others marveled at him: who he was, what he accomplished, how he did it, why success gravitates toward him. His mother, Trina, took Crosby’s stick and a smelly towel and said, “This is going into my basement.” His father, Troy, was too overwhelmed to talk, the thought that he had posed for a picture with his son and the Stanley Cup an excellent muzzle.

The limp abated some – “It’s not even a knee [injury],” a team spokesman said, “just a charley horse” – and Crosby made his way over to Lemieux, one of the sport’s all-time greats. Lemieux owns the Penguins. He helped secure a new arena, set to open toward the end of 2010, that kept the team in Pittsburgh. Lemieux brought the Penguins back-to-back championships early last decade and had waited for this moment since the organization drafted Crosby with the first pick in the 2005 draft.

Crosby leaned in. Lemieux whispered something in his ear. The reception was crystal clear, and this time, Crosby didn’t mutter a word, and not because he didn’t know what was appropriate. Lemieux knew exactly what he was thinking.

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Evgeni Malkin #71 of the Pittsburgh Penguins hold up the Conn Smythe MVP Trophy after a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings during Game Seven of the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Malkin first Russian to win Conn Smythe
TheStar.com
June 12, 2009

THE CANADIAN PRESS - DETROIT – Evgeni Malkin didn't have to say very much during these playoffs to make a statement.

The reluctant superstar put together the most productive spring in more than a decade, racking up a playoff-best 36 points and helping lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup.

That helped earn Malkin the Conn Smythe Trophy on Friday night, making him the first Russian ever to be named playoff MVP. In fact, he's just the third European following Henrik Zetterberg last year and Nicklas Lidstrom in 2002.

"Big day in my life," Malkin told CBC while his teammates paraded around with the Stanley Cup. "My friends are happy, I'm happy."

One year after fading in the playoffs, Malkin was at his best in the final two rounds.

He had eight goals and 17 points over the final 11 games as the Penguins swept the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final before beating the Detroit Red Wings in a seven-game Stanley Cup thriller.

As a result, he fulfilled his dream of having a picture taken with Sidney Crosby and the NHL's championship trophy – a photo similar to the one featuring Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr from the franchise's last championship in 1992.

"I think about it a lot, especially these last (two) weeks," he said before Game 7. "It's my dream. Me and Sid, just like that."

Any way you look at it, Malkin had a stellar season.

He's the first player since Lemieux in 1992 to take home both the regular season and playoff scoring titles. He's also a finalist for the Hart Trophy at next week's awards show in Las Vegas.

Essentially, the only thing keeping him from being a bigger star is his reluctance to conduct interviews in English.

Malkin only came to the podium for one interview session during the Stanley Cup final, but he made a lasting impression during that visit. Sitting alongside linemate Max Talbot, he joked that his teammate had "bad hands" and could only score into empty nets. The room erupted in laughter.

In fitting fashion, it was Talbot's two goals that lifted the Penguins to victory.

On the ice, Malkin was just as impressive. He had two hat tricks during this playoff run and scored arguably the nicest goal this spring, coming out from behind the net and backhanding a shot over Cam Ward's shoulder in the third round.

The praise for his strong finish provides a stark contrast to the criticism he received at the end of last season. He was a ghost in the final two rounds then, registering just five points over the final 10 games.

Teammates saw a big difference this time around.

"I think people lose sight of how young some of these guys are on the team," said Penguins defenceman Brooks Orpik. "Like him (Malkin), Jordan (Staal), Sid. They're still so young. So much pressure is put on these guys.

"It was (Malkin's) first time playing that long. I don't think his body was really physically ready for it. I think he's done a lot better job off the ice preparing his body for this time of the year."

Needless to say, the preparation paid off.

Malkin had the most points in any playoff season since Wayne Gretzky put up 40 in 1993.

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Evgeni Malkin #71 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Malkin joins Mario as Conn Smythe winner
By Alan Robinson – AP Sports Writer
June 12, 2009

DETROIT (AP) - Mario Lemieux. Evgeni Malkin.

Three Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup championship teams. Two Penguins who won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

The current Penguins are popularly viewed as Sidney Crosby’s team, but the player they got as a runner-up prize in the 2004 draft when they didn’t get Alex Ovechkin turned out pretty good, too.

Malkin didn’t score a goal in the last three games of the finals, but he led all playoff scorers with 36 points—the most since the Kings’ Wayne Gretzky had 40 in 1993—and his pass set up the first of Max Talbot’s two goals Friday night as the Penguins beat Detroit 2-1 in Game 7.

Malkin was in tears as he realized what he accomplished a year after doing little offensively with one goal and two assists as the Penguins lost to Detroit in six games. This time, he had two goals, six assists, a big smile and a trophy to lift.

“Any time you have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on a team, you have a chance,” Lemieux, now a co-owner, said after taking a brief victory lap with the Stanley Cup, just as he did as a player in 1991 and 1992 when he won the Conn Smythe both times.

The Penguins got good in a hurry mostly because they were so bad from 2002-05, winning fewer than one of every three games each season. Those bad teams allowed them to draft Marc-Andre Fleury, Crosby, Malkin and Jordan Staal, the stars of this team—and Max Talbot, an eighth-rounder in 2002 whose scored both goals in Game 7.

The Penguins wouldn’t have gotten to Game 7 if it hadn’t been for Malkin, who looked tired, off his game and not quite certain he was ready to win the Cup against Detroit a year ago, but was dominant in all four rounds of these playoffs. In each series, Pittsburgh won the deciding game on the road.

“I saw Geno crying, he’s from Russia, and this is how important and huge it is for him,” Talbot said.

Only three years ago, Malkin sneaked away from his Russian team in Finland, made a clandestine flight to North America and stayed hidden in the United States for three days so he could join the Penguins, and they had to survive a court fight to keep him.

Now, Malkin and Crosby (31 points) are the two leading scorers in the playoffs and the first teammates in 15 years to score more than 30 points.

“Before this game, someone asked me and I said I could see an Arizona Diamondback (scenario), co-MVPs him (Malkin) and Crosby,” Penguins general manager Ray Shero said. “They’ve been unbelievable players, and you have to pick one I guess.”

Even if Malkin wouldn’t have been the one they would have picked if they had won that 2004 draft lottery—Washington did, and took Ovechkin. Pittsburgh went second, selected Malkin, and was rewarded with the player who led the NHL in playoff and regular season scoring.

In the playoffs, Malkin had two goals and six assists in six games against the Flyers, and two goals and eight assists in the grueling seven-game series against Washington in which the Penguins rallied from a 2-0 deficit, just as they did against Detroit. He had a monster conference finals against Carolina with six goals and three assists in four games.

“Do you need to talk about it? I think he pretty much sums it up every time he’s on the ice,” defenseman Hal Gill said. “He plays a level above everyone.”

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Evgeni Malkin #71 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Penguins' youth marches to Stanley Cup
By Dan Wetzel
NHL - Yahoo! Sports
June 13, 2009

DETROIT – He’d given up five Game 5 goals on this same sheet of ice. He was yanked in the second period as catcalls and confidence dropped around him, the Detroit crowd going wild over his failures.

The old questions were returning to his young shoulders – you can’t win a Stanley Cup with Marc-Andre Fleury, the fans kept laughing. Pittsburgh can’t win with all these kids, not yet at least.

Now it was six days later, now everything was on the line, the Stanley Cup shined up and waiting. It was the final, furious seconds of Game 7 and Fleury was back in this red-clad house of horrors, these relentless Red Wings swarming him one last time.

He had held them all night. Twenty-two saves to this point, just one goal. Pittsburgh was clinging to a 2-1 advantage. In the final minutes he’d deflected one shot off his shoulder and then the cross bar. In the final seconds he’d knocked a shot off to the side.

Now Niklas Lidstrom had the puck on his tape though, room to shoot, the clock in its absolute final tick of life. This was a Hall of Famer with one shot for the Stanley Cup.

Fleury had little choice and perhaps less chance. All the goalie could do was heave his body toward the open side net.

The puck slammed into his chest.

One second later his teammates mobbed him. Ten minutes later he had Lord Stanley in his hands.

He circled around and lifted it in the air, right back in the face of all those Detroit fans that had abused him the week before, right back at those that thought that these Penguins weren’t ready for the big step, right back at everyone who believed a guy nicknamed “Flower” would wilt under the pressure.

“What is Game 5?” Marc-Andre Fleury smiled after. “I lift the Cup tonight.”

Here were all these Penguins, too young, too green and too inconsistent going out and not just lifting it but seizing it. Here were all these 20-somethings, the team of the future skating into Joe Louis Arena on Friday and deciding the future was starting right now.

They were in 11th place in the middle of the season. They were the fourth seed entering the playoffs. They needed to win all four playoff series on the road. They were forced to take four of five from the mighty Wings, even rebounding from that horrific 5-0 humiliation a week ago.

Talent they had. Everything else they occasionally lacked.

Their coach, Dan Bylsma, said he always thought this team “could win a Stanley Cup” just “maybe not this year” he admitted.

Then came Game 7 and it didn’t matter who did or didn’t think anything. The players believed. This wasn’t so much Pittsburgh winning as Pittsburgh dominating.

They were quicker to the puck than Detroit. They showed more life, better execution and deeper hunger. They sucked the life out of Joe Louis long before they pumped in two second-period goals; the educated hockey fans of Hockeytown well aware that their team was being outplayed.

In the end they watched a goaltender that’d been run out of the building in less than two periods, deliver 53 minutes of shut-out, Game 7 hockey. Then, after his one slip up, he rebounded to provide a few final minutes of Cup-winning brilliance.

“Just stop the puck,” Fleury kept repeating. “Just stop the puck.”

“Everybody’s always saying, ‘Oh, we’re not sure [about Fleury], he never won anything,’ ” Maxime Talbot said. “But you know what? He proved [to] everybody that he’s a winning goaltender.”

Winning was the only question left for the Penguins. The star power was there, but the Stanley Cup isn’t impressed with beauty. It is swayed by grit and determination and heart.

So here was this team of forever youth and scraggly beards, going against the winning machine out of Detroit. Here was Jordan Staal, 20. Sidney Crosby, 21. Evgeni Malkin and Tyler Kennedy, 22. Fleury, 24. Talbot, who had both goals Friday, was an old man at age 25.

They’d seemingly grown up together. All of these kids arriving in Western Pennsylvania at nearly the same time; just after Mario Lemieux helped save the proud franchise from relocation.

It was a perfect storm.

“I met Sid when he was 13, I was 16,” Talbot said of the hockey prodigy. “When he was 12 he had an agent. And I was in front of my TV when we won the lottery, Pittsburgh got the first pick overall and it was Sidney Crosby. I was kind of scared.”

It was a reasonable emotion and not just because they played the same position. Crosby would bring skill to the team. He’d also bring immediate demands and grand expectations. This was a team of destiny, everyone thought. Not everyone was willing to wait for destiny though.

Every misstep was blown up; every loss seen as a sign of greater failure; every bad individual performance a question on long-term potential.

“There’s a lot of scrutiny about these guys,” Bylsma said.

Until this perfect spring day in Michigan, in the toughest building in hockey, they provided all the answers by taking down the sports’ modern dynasty.

Here was Pittsburgh, their time now, their Cup here.

Here was Marc-Andre Fleury, a last-second save for the ages. Here was the goalie holding the Stanley Cup above his head and with a look of redemption into those fast-emptying stands that had once tauntingly sung his name.

No one was mocking him now.

No one was questioning these Penguins either. Not now, not ever again.

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury #29 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Talbot, Fleury come up big for Pens
By Angie Carducci
FOX Sports on MSN
June 13, 2009

Why the Penguins won: After coming back from 2-0 and 3-2 holes in the Stanley Cup finals to win two consecutive games each time, the Pittsburgh Penguins etched their names into history Friday night at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena.

The odds were stacked against Pittsburgh going into Game 7 as each of the first six games had been won by the home team, and the last time a visiting team won a Game 7 in the finals was 1971. But the Penguins shattered those odds by executing their puck-management game plan, staking a 2-0 lead by the midway point of the second with two goals from Red Wings' killer Max Talbot and getting a big-game performance from 24-year-old goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

"When you score big goals through your career, it feels like it stays with you," said Talbot, whose four goals in this series followed his Game 5 heroics of last year when he denied the Red Wings the opportunity to clinch the Cup at home by tying the game with just seconds remaining. "It might sound stupid, but hockey is a lot in the head. You start believing in it, and you just say to yourself that you're that type of player. You want to be there in the big games."

Not even a knee injury to captain Sidney Crosby about six minutes into the second period could deter the Penguins from their destiny. Pittsburgh was strong on the forecheck and forced the Wings into 25 turnovers on the night, two of which resulted in Penguins goals. They came at the Wings hard, battled for loose pucks and endured a third period in which they managed only a single shot on goal by blocking shots, clearing the zone and getting a stellar contribution from Fleury to preserve the win.

"It was so painful, being a captain and seeing how intense it was, what the guys are doing out there blocking shots," said Crosby. "But you get to a point where you've got to ask yourself whether you're going to be hurting your team by being out there. I did everything I could to numb it, but I'm playing against [Pavel] Datsyuk and [Henrik] Zetterberg. One misstep and I could cost the guys a lot of hard work, so I had to sit and wait and watch. But we don't get to this point without everyone contributing. I knew the guys were going to find a way to pull it off."

Why the Red Wings lost: Last year's Stanley Cup champions competed right up until the end. They dominated on faceoffs, winning 70 percent to Pittsburgh's 30, and got long periods of sustained pressure in the offensive zone. They outshot the Penguins 23-18 on the night and took the body to their opponent early, throwing 21 hits to Pittsburgh's 12 in the first period. But the Penguins did a good job of controlling the play in the neutral zone, preventing the Wings from getting shots through to the net and forcing them into making wrong decisions with the puck.

"I think we got off to a decent start, and then the dreaded second period," said Detroit winger Kirk Maltby. "Not that we played poorly, but two mistakes end up being two goals. Obviously, that's the end of it there."

The Wings came on with a big push in the third, cutting the Penguins' lead to 2-1 with 6:07 remaining on a crisp defenseman-to-defenseman pass from captain Nick Lidstrom to Jonathan Ericsson, who one-timed it past Fleury on the glove side from about 60 feet out. With less than five minutes remaining, Pittsburgh had yet to get a single shot in the final frame, and the Wings were coming with a big push in an attempt to tie it up. But the Penguins sacrificed their bodies to hold them off, Fleury stood tall and, in the end, time simply ran out for Detroit.

"We had opportunities in the first and third period, but unfortunately when you're down a couple of goals, the clock's your enemy," said Maltby. "We had a last-second opportunity there, and I'm not sure there's any time left on the clock for an opportunity. So, no excuses. They worked their butts off as hard as we did. And tonight they just scored more than we did."

Key moment: If anyone still had doubts that Fleury could come through for his team with everything on the line, he emphatically erased them in Game 7. He came up big throughout the game but found another level to his game as the clock ticked down.

The Penguins backstop got some luck with about 2:10 remaining when he went down to stop a Niklas Kronwall shot with his midsection and it bounced up, skipping over his right shoulder and off the post. Then he made two Cup-clinching saves in the game's final four seconds, none bigger than with one second remaining, where he dove across the crease to rob Lidstrom.

"Me and Flower are pretty tight, and you want him to make the save," said Talbot. "They played desperate; they were coming at us. They're a great team. And we were able to stay with it and win the game."

"I thought Fleury had his best two games in Games 6 and 7," said Wings coach Mike Babcock. "You've got to give him credit."

What's next: A year after winning the Stanley Cup on Pittsburgh's home ice, the Wings watched the Penguins return the favor. Detroit has a mix of experienced veterans and young talent that should ensure the club remains among those to beat for years to come but this postseason, injuries to key players and playing a lot of games in a relatively short span of time eventually caught up to the Wings as they fell just one win shy of defending their title.

"I thought we looked out of gas pretty much all series," said Babcock. "I thought we competed, I thought we tried, but I never thought we got to the level we would have liked to. Our guys did a good job to battle through and do the best they could, but we just didn't have enough to get it done."

For the Penguins, next up is the parade — Pittsburgh's second championship celebration in four months after the Steelers' Super Bowl win earlier this year. Rookie coach Dan Bylsma, who joined a Penguins team in February that was on the outside of the playoff race looking in, has led his club to a championship. Evgeni Malkin, who led the postseason with 36 points, cemented his status as one of the best players in the world and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. And after being heralded as "The Next One" since he was a teenager, Crosby will have his name on the Stanley Cup at just 21 years old.

"It's a dream come true; it's everything you imagined and more," said Crosby. "Everything it took to win, we did it. Blocking shots, great goaltending, different guys stepping up. We've been through a lot. Last year was pretty devastating, but we found a way to claw our way back and finally finish it off."

"Every morning I like to wake up and say today's the best day of my life. Well, today really is the best day of my life," said Talbot. "Four years ago, this team was close to moving, and look what happened. Three years later, we're in the Stanley Cup Final, and four years later we win that beautiful Cup."

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury #29 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Maxime Talbot #25 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Penguins' Talbot cements reputation as big-game player
CBC Sports Staff
June 12, 2009

Max Talbot isn't a big-name player. He's a big-game player. And the games don't get any bigger than a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup final.

And the performances don't get much larger than the one Talbot turned in during Pittsburgh's 2-1 victory over Detroit at Joe Louis Arena on Friday night as he scored both of the Penguins' goals to make the third Stanley Cup in franchise history – and the first since 1992 – possible.

"I don't have a good explanation about why this guy can come up big in tough situations or big games," Penguins rookie head coach Dan Bylsma said. "But he's done it enough to know that's what he can do.

"He's gritty, he's determined and he's not scared to go after it."

Talbot got his first goal at 1:13 of the second period to open the scoring, then scored what proved to be the Cup-winner at 10:07, when he put a shot over the glove of Detroit goalie Chris Osgood on a 2-on-1 break with Tyler Kennedy.

Not a bad night's work for a guy who's usually touted for his penalty-killing and defensive work, although Talbot didn't seem terribly impressed by his individual feat.

"I don't really care about the two goals," he said. "Everybody's talking to me about that.

"I'm here [at a media conference] because of that. But we won the game."

That second goal stood up as the game-winner because goalie Marc-Andre Fleury lunged across the crease to deny Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom from the inner edge of the left circle with about a second to go in regulation and the Penguins clinging to a 2-1 lead.

"I saw the shot coming in, and I just tried to do everything I could to get over there," Fleury said.

He made it and, in the process, saved the Penguins' victory and obliterated any remnants of his reputation as a goaltender who can’t win the big game.

Fleury's teammates have disputed that suggestion for years, but winning a Stanley Cup – and preserving it with a spectacular last-season save – makes the subject a complete non-issue.

"Fleury is a winning goaltender right now," Talbot said. "Everybody's always saying 'Oh, we're not sure. He never won anything.'

"But you know what? He proved to everybody that he's a winning goaltender and I'm so happy for that and that's going to stay with him."

Self-proclaimed MVP:

Pittsburgh centre Evgeni Malkin was widely criticized for the way he faded during the Penguins’ playoff run a year ago. Not this time.

Malkin finished as the leading scorer in the playoffs and, by assisting on Talbot's first goal, pushed his points total to 36.

"He told us before the playoffs that he was going to lead us to the Stanley Cup," Penguins right-winger Bill Guerin said. "He's an amazing competitor, an amazing player."

Captain crunched:

Sidney Crosby is the Penguins' captain and their undisputed leader, but he took only one 32-second shift during the final 34-plus minutes of the game.

Crosby was injured when Detroit's Johan Franzen hit him at centre ice, pinning Crosby’s left knee between Franzen’s left leg and the boards.

"I don't know if I chipped the puck or somehow the puck kind of got ahead of me," Crosby said. "Franzen kind of finished me.

"I tried to jump to avoid it, and my knee got jammed between his hip and the dasher, the ledge on the boards. It jammed the outside of my knee.

"I couldn't walk, really. So I took my skate off and tried to move it around.

"They gave me as much numbing as they possibly could and I still couldn't really skate that much. I went out for one shift to try it.

"I figured I could go out there and maybe spot in once in a while if guys got tired. I knew we had a short bench with me being out.

"I tried to spot in a bit, but I couldn't really stop or turn ... I just had to stick with it and watch from there.”

With Crosby removed from the mix, Bylsma shifted Jordan Staal from the third line into Crosby's spot between Guerin and Chris Kunitz and moved Talbot off Malkin's right wing and plugged him into Staal's place between Matt Cooke and Kennedy.

The particulars of Crosby's injury weren't immediately known, but he said it does not appear to be serious and that he expects to be over its effects "in a few weeks."

Crosby is the youngest captain in NHL history to win a Cup and was able to go on the ice with his teammates at the end of the game. And to enjoy the celebration as much as anyone.

"It’s everything you dream of," Crosby said. "It’s an amazing feeling."

To good health:

A lot of things went right to make it possible for Pittsburgh to win the Stanley Cup. One things widely overlooked was good health.

The Penguins lost just three man-games to injuries during their 24-game playoff run.

Defenceman Sergei Gonchar sat out two with a right knee injury after knee-on-knee contact initiated by Washington's Alex Ovechkin during Game 2 of the second round and right-winger Petr Sykora missed Friday's game after breaking his right foot blocking a shot in Game 6.

The Red Wings, by way of comparison, lost about 70 man-games.

Bylsma's boys:

The Penguins were five points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot when Bylsma replaced Michel Therrien as head coach Feb. 15.

He promptly led them to an 18-3-4 record in the final 25 regular-season games and a 16-8 mark in the playoffs, but acknowledged after Game 7 that he didn’t anticipate having so much success so quickly.

"I think I knew the quality of the players we had and the team that we had," he said. "I believed in the organization we had and you do let your mind wander.

"You do think this is a team that could win a Stanley Cup. Maybe not this particular year.

"I didn't think that. But you've got a good group of players in there and they've been through a lot, even though they're young, and they have a lot of character.

"We just got them focused in a different direction. I think the game is meant to be played aggressively and in-your-face.

"When you can dictate the pace of the game and where it's played, you can put teams back on their heels. That's a fun way to play and that's, I think, the right way to play.

"I'm a little surprised how quick they bought in and how quick they got it. But I'm not surprised how good they became."

Precedent setting:

The Penguins didn't just defeat Detroit in Game 7, they overcame a lot of history and precedent. The victory made them the:

Only team to win a road game in the series

Third visiting team to win a Game 7 in a Cup final. Home clubs have won 12

Second team to defeat Detroit at Joe Louis in these playoffs. The Wings finished 11-2 there

Only club except the 1971 Montreal Canadiens to win a Cup final after dropping the first two games on the road

Second team to win a Cup by earning two Game 7 away victories

NHL Play Offs Magnificent victory for Lemieux
By Bruce Garrioch, Sun Media
CANOE -- SLAM! Sports – Hockey
June 13, 2009

DETROIT -- Mario Lemieux stood a few feet away last night as Sid the Kid smiled for the cameras and took one last twirl with the Stanley Cup before leaving the ice at Joe Louis Arena.

In a lot of ways, Lemieux looked like a proud father.

The owner of the Penguins was the club's top player the last time the franchise won the NHL title in 1992 and while he didn't enjoy last night's 2-1 victory as much from the press box, Lemieux was thrilled to see players like Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury crowned champions.

"It's been great," said Lemieux.

"It's satisfying to help a great hockey club with the ultimate goal of winning a Stanley Cup. It's been a great ride for this team. These guys have worked so hard to make this happen. They've been through a lot and they beat a tough team."

Lemieux said it was a courageous win by the underdog Penguins.

"To win the Stanley Cup is a great feeling. It's the ultimate goal. You try to win the Cup for two months. There's ups and downs throughout the playoffs and to finally be able to lift that Cup is tremendous for everybody involved with the organization," said the two-time Conn Smythe winner.

The focus was on Pittsburgh's young players, but veterans like Bill Guerin, who hadn't won a Cup since 1995 with New Jersey, and defenceman Sergei Gonchar, who had lost in two previous trips to the final, played big roles.

"It's huge for me. I've never had an experience like this. I've been dreaming about it since I started playing and finally the dream came true," said Gonchar.

"If you told us three months ago, when we weren't even going to make the playoffs, that we'd be here today, it would have been hard to believe."

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

DETROIT - JUNE 12: Head coach Dan Bylsma of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 2-1 to win Game Seven and the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena on June 12, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Pens fans sleep little, buy much
By Michael A. Fuoco
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 13, 2009

Talk about endurance!

Running on victory-fueled adrenaline, Pittsburgh Penguins fans ignored sleep deprivation and headed out to stores early this morning to snatch up Stanley Cup Championship merchandise.

So committed were some fans that they lined up outside Dick's Sporting Goods in South Hills Village at 6 a.m.--one hour before the advertised special opening time. Sales manager Jason Kuharic, who hadn't slept because of his own excitement at the win, knew what the customers were experiencing and opened the store an hour early.

Within a few hours, more than 500 people had come and gone, bags full of championship t-shirts--they come in black and white--as well as penantss and magnets and other do-dads.

So active was the selling that some sizes quickly sold out but UPS shipments to restock the specially set-up championship merchandise tables were expected every 45 minutes.

The championship hats finally arrived at 8:30 a.m. Pent-up demand was so high that, for a time, sales associate Jen Erny of Bethel Park simply took them out of boxes and handed them to waiting customers, not having time to put them on the sales table.

The euphoric buying scene was similar at Pen Station, the Penguins team store at Mellon Arena. Again, people waited in line for the 7 a.m. special opening time. Again, the 1,000 or so customers who crowded the store in the first 2 1/2 hours of operation snatched up so much merchandise that certain sizes sold out. More shipments were ont their way. The hats were scheduled for delivery at 12:30 p.m.

For those stores and others selling championship merchandise, such fanatical demand is a problem they welcome.

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