My favorite part of the end of each round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is when the losing team reveals its injuries. It's like a big mystery is solved each round. Over in Pittsburgh, the big reveal was Evgeni Malkin played the finals with some kind of flu that made it hard for him to keep food down.
Over in Detroit, the mystery of Steve Yzerman was solved. I was a little curious why we didn't see him after Detroit clinched. The reason? He didn't want to take anything away from the players. Classy. But Stevie Y needs to realize he's management now. It's all about stealing attention and taking credit. Someone get that guy an MBA!
Also, this is a scary thought: Not only do the Wings have the contracts and cap space to keep their team together next season, but they should even have space to add a big free agent. Like maybe someone whose name rhymes with Nats Tundin?
More good news? Game six rated well in the U.S.. I suspect the NHL is looking into ways to have the Wings and Penguins play each other in the finals every year. I'm not sure if the other owners would go for that, though.
Bad news? Sami Kapanen retired from the NHL. He was moving down the Philly depth chart and didn't want to uproot his family with a trade, which is pure Kapanen — the desire to work tempered by selflessness.
Finally, John Dellapina had a report on the rumor ex-Tampa coach John Tortorella would come to New York to coach, with current Rangers coach Tom Renney moving into a management position. The super loyal Tortorella, who turned down a chance to coach the Rangers while an assistant in New York, out of loyalty to John Muckler, told Dellapina he thinks Renney is doing a great job. Tortorella's name comes up a lot here in New York, though. If he doesn't find work this summer, his name will certainly come up when the Rangers go into their first swoon.

The crazy thing about game six was that neither team seemed to be playing anywhere close to 100%. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of game five. Detroit was buzzing around goalie Marc-Andre Fleury but they could never really put away Pittsburgh. Luckily, Pittsburgh played like a demoralized team for huge stretches, once again not really waking up until the last few minutes of the third. With a little more poise, though, I think Pittsburgh could have won the Cup. Pittsburgh's lack of focus was the big clue that this was a young, inexperienced team. They never found that extra gear in game six. Well, they found it. They just couldn't stay in it.
Drew Sharp writes the Wings' victory helps eradicate the myth of the weak European player. He obviously didn't win the Cup, but I would add Pittsburgh's Marian Hossa as also helping to dispel that myth. The book on Hossa is that he disappears in big games, but the last few minutes, he was just a machine, even almost managing to single-handedly tie game six in the final two minutes. Unless he just figured a few extra late-game goals might bump his next contract. But I'm trying not to be cynical.

I'm thinking of calling Monday/Tuesday's game five 'game five/six', since it pretty much went six periods. I'm not sure if it will confuse people, though.
Chuck Finder had a great piece looking at what the Penguins did between all of those periods (ate oranges, bananas, power bars, and pizza) and features a Max Talbot quote on the rigors of three overtimes that might make him the Yogi Berra of the NHL: "Physically, it's more mentally than anything."
Michael Rosenberg checks in with just why the game five loss was so rough on Detroit. Detroit still has two chances to clinch, but Pittsburgh is going to have a lot more jump in their game tonight. Hopefully, the puck won't be jumping too much: The crew in charge of Mellon Arena ice is working hard to keep the ice in decent condition. People were slagging on the Mellon ice before they realized it was pretty much just as bad in Detroit. Global warming is kind of hurting hockey. For more on this, see my PowerPoint presentation AN INCONVENIENT ONE-TIMER.
Also, what's with Pierre McGuire? During gave five, he revealed Penguin Petr Sykora had said he would score in OT (during the OT). This was McGuire's thought process on that:

"When Petr Sykora did what he did, he banged the glass twice and he pointed at himself, 'McGuire, I'm going to score.’ I'm saying to myself, 'Should I put that on the air or should I just hold off and not embarrass the kid?'." McGuire said. "And I said, 'You know, I'm going for it. I'm putting myself out there.'"

How exactly was McGuire putting himself out there? By reporting what he heard on the bench, as he's paid to do? If Sykora didn't score, did he somehow think he would be blamed? Who has the awkward job of explaining to McGuire that while he does announce the game, he's not playing or coaching the game. He has nothing to do with its outcome.
Pierre: If you're reading this, I'm sorry you had to find out this way.
Also, John Tortorella was officially fired from Tampa Bay. No confirmation if he was told by the guys decorating his office for Barry Melrose. San Jose's Patrick Marleau, always the subject of trade rumors, could be heading to Columbus. Also out of San Jose, former Isles GM/current NBC talking head Mike Milbury spoke to GM Doug Wilson about the Sharks coaching job. David Pollak says he doesn't think it was very serious, but just the same, I'll say a little prayer for my west coast friends. Ex-Sharks coach Ron Wilson was offered the Toronto coaching job. He has yet to accept. He might decide to go with dental surgery instead.

You know, I could write about how Pittsburgh managed a three-overtime win in Detroit, keeping them alive in the finals, but I'm probably not the best person to ask. Wings coach Mike Babcock would be a better place to start:

I think people certainly watching in the stands and at home and looking at the shots on goal, territorial advantage, and say: How did you not win this game? What's your sense of that?

Babcock: Well, I mean, I thought we we had every opportunity to win the game, obviously. And saying that, though, we started slow.
I thought we were really nervous. We never made a play in the first period, for whatever reason. And whether that's focusing on outcome rather than just process and doing what you always do. You know, we really battled our way back, we had every opportunity. And we had it twice, one at the red line and one on the half wall. And we didn't get it deep, and we never got it out.
In the end, they scored, and we never scored on our chances in overtime. So that's the game.

I thought Marc-Andre Fleury was the real difference-maker. Pittsburgh basically gave up the game for a good 10-15 minutes in the third. They stopped checking. They stopped shooting. Detroit just went to town on Fleury and he never gave up. That allowed Pittsburgh to wake up in the last minute to bring the game into overtime.
And how about Petr Sykora getting the game-winner? It was especially surprising after Pierre McGuire oddly announced Sykora was hurt, standing next to Sykora on the bench, but not really asking him about it, with Sykora seemingly pretending not to hear him.
Also, I love how much ice time is becoming a storyline. Of course, after three overtimes, it's not really something you can control. But before yesterday's game, Penguins coach Michel Therrien defended his practice of not leaving Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby out on the ice for the entire game. I bet Therrien is mad he addressed it at all. It would have been cool to come back today and be like 'OK. You guys were right. I gave Crosby 34 minutes yesterday.' Jacques Demers wrote about ice time in USA Today the other day, praising Detroit for their short shifts. Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios' minutes have been pretty low -- he's been out since game five of the Dallas series. While Chelios was supposedly scratched with a leg injury, Shelly Anderson speculates he's actually been a healthy scratch. Chelios certainly isn't the most mobile defenseman in the league, but if there's one thing the guy knows how to do, it's win big games. I wouldn't mind having him out there.

So Detroit is one game away from winning the Cup, it seems. Saturday's win over the Penguins was pretty convincing. Detroit was faster, smarter, calmer, and more disciplined. It's really as simple as that.
I watched the game at a friend's house and pretty much everyone joked about the calls Sidney Crosby gets, which makes it especially funny to hear Penguins coach Michel Therrien complain about the non-calls against Detroit. Although Therrien isn't alone. David Staples of the Edmonton Journal says he didn't think Henrik Zetterberg got the whistle he deserved when he tied up Sidney Crosby during the Penguins 5-on-3 powerplay. Interestingly, Therrien didn't have an issue with Zetterberg's work on the kill.
All of this kind of indicates a problem with officiating that Larry Brooks addressed yesterday. My feeling watching just about all of the playoffs is that there's a lot of make-good calls being made. Like Pittsburgh gets a lot of calls in their favor during the early playoff games so the next few games are all called toward Detroit. You see this kind of officiating ebb-and-flow during the normal course of a game, but this seems to be a much larger tally. I don't think the Devils were called for anything after New York Ranger Sean Avery stood in front of Martin Brodeur, waving his stick. It seemed like the league was making good for not shutting that down sooner. And now, it seems like the officials are doing that in the finals, too. As any NBA fan will tell you, the game is only as good as the officials calling (or not calling) the game, so if Gary Bettman wants to sell his product, he needs to get his officiating in order.
And wow. Tampa Bay is really a mess. Coach John Tortorella isn't even fired yet and they're already talking about his replacement? That's just classy. And Barry Melrose as the replacement? On the one hand, I applaud anything that gets him off of TV, but can the Tampa ownership really believe anyone will respond to this caricature of a person?I realize Tortorella was a challenging coach, what with his beefs with just about everyone on his team, but there are plenty of other players' coaches available who have coached in the modern NHL. I don't think Barry Melrose and his self-help philosophy are the answer for a one-line team with severe goaltending issues.