DETROIT FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
http://www.freep.com/section/SPORTS
Posted: Jan. 31, 2010
To this day, Dan Cleary has to tried to let go of what happened the last time the Red Wings met today's opponent, the Pittsburgh Penguins, because it resulted in the Wings being dethroned as Stanley Cup champions.
That was nearly eight months ago, and whatever happens today at Mellon Arena on national television, it won't change who owns the Cup. For the Wings, however, it is a significant game because they need points, and getting a pair from the defending champions would be a confidence booster.
"I think it's up to us to show something, especially the way things have gone lately with us not having played up to our potential," veteran forward Kirk Maltby said. "Any time we've won a championship, it's always been that you measure yourself against the team that won the Cup last year."
Detroit's Brian Rafalski, Johan Franzen, Kris Draper and captain Nicklas Lidstrom wait to shake hands with the Pittsburgh Penguins after the Penguins defeated the Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals last June. (JULIAN H. GONZALEZ / DFP)The Wings won the Cup in 2008 when they beat Pittsburgh in six games. A year later, they came so close, leading 2-0 and 3-2 in the series, only to lose Game 7 at home.
"I felt it pretty hard right away," Cleary said, "and still do. When I'm just sitting alone thinking, I think about it a lot and I keep telling myself to try to get it out of my mind. But it's something I'll never forget."
Stanley hero Talbot hobbled by injuries
Maxime Talbot is struggling -- but what good does that do the Red Wings now?
The Game 7 Penguins hero from last year's Stanley Cup finals has had shoulder surgery and groin problems and hasn't made much of an impact at all this season, with one goal in 28 games. But he'll always be the guy who scored twice June 12 at Joe Louis Arena, doing the seemingly inconceivable in rallying the Penguins to the Stanley Cup championship after the Wings had taken a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
It was an ending that first stunned and then stung.
"It didn't hurt as much at first as it did as time passed, when you really realized how close we were," said Chris Osgood, who finished the 23-game playoff run with a 2.01 goals-against average. "We were up 2-0 and 3-2. If you were to tell me again we'd be up in that series, I'd still say we're going to win. When we didn't ...
"I think the initial reaction right afterwards was that we'd played real hard and that we had a lot of injuries; that we'd given it all we had. Then time passed and it was more of a squandered opportunity. ... You play 82 games and then we fought so hard in the playoffs to get to that point, and to not finish it off -- it hurts now more than it did then. It was 0-0 after one period. We were 40 minutes away from repeating."
The Wings did have significant injuries last spring, ranging from Nicklas Lidstrom requiring emergency surgery after getting speared in the groin to Brian Rafalski suffering a herniated disk to Kris Draper dealing with torn cartilage after taking a stick to the throat to Pavel Datsyuk missing seven games with a charley horse to Dan Cleary playing through a significant groin injury.
"Guys weren't 100% and maybe that caught up with us," Brad Stuart said. "No point in analyzing it to death. A lot of it comes down to breaks and the year before we seemed to get all the breaks and last year, we had a lot of them go against us. We had some pretty significant injuries, and not just to third-and-fourth line players, and even when guys did come back, they were still a little bit banged up.
"Losing was very disappointing at the time, but we all had a long summer to think about it and I think at some point you just have to move on."
Today the Wings have bigger concerns: They need points, they need to string together victories; they need to develop a swagger. The Penguins are going through their own issues -- they're in the mid-bottom in the NHL in team defense, their power play is in the bottom five, and they're in a tight battle with New Jersey for the division lead -- which is why today figures to be a high-spirited game with a focus on the present.
"For us, it's more of a game that we need to measure ourselves and look at ourselves in the mirror and make sure we come ready to play," Kirk Maltby said. "As far as history, I personally won't be thinking of that little slash Sidney Crosby gave me at the end of Game 1 or 2, whatever it was."
There was that slash, and there was eventual Conn Smythe winner Evgeni Malkin grabbing Henrik Zetterberg from behind in the dying seconds of Game 2, goading him into a fight, and then escaping suspension. While the individual battles of a year ago may be brushed aside, having gone at each other for two straight springs will stoke today's event.
"Obviously the rivalry has been built," Dan Cleary said. "For us, we're battling for our lives and each game is critical, but this game is on NBC and so I'm sure it's going to be amped up. I look forward to playing it, that's for sure."
Cleary is one of many Wings who still rue what general manager Ken Holland last June called "a giant, wasted opportunity." For Cleary, the images flash when he's by himself, and don't stop even when he tries to force them from his mind. For Maltby, the memories intrude when he's catching up on the world of hockey.
"I have the NHL network at home and they show commercials and it stings a lot when you know what could have been," Maltby said. "People say, well, you've won four Cups -- but it doesn't make you feel any better. When you see Crosby lift the Cup on TV and you see the background and it's Joe Louis Arena, and you think about what could have been ... it's still tough to swallow."
Contact HELENE ST. JAMES: 313-222-2295 or hstjames@freepress.com.
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