DETROIT FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
http://www.freep.com/section/SPORTS
June 12, 2009
QUESTION: What do you like about Max Talbot’s game and why is it helping your game?
EVGENI MALKIN: “It’s lots of emotion. It’s never stop (skating). Yeah … little bit bad hands. He has lot of scoring chance, not score. Just empty net.
“It’s OK. He learns over the summer.”
That was last week, and Malkin, in his broken English, was kidding; Talbot was sitting next to him. But I don’t think Malkin realized how much he was kidding.
ANDRE JACKSON / DFP
Pittsburgh's Maxime Talbot shoots the puck past Detroit's Niklas Kronwall and goalie Chris Osgood for a goal during the second period of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals Friday June 12, 2009, at Joe Louis Arena.
The final score of the final game of the final series of this season was Maxime Talbot 2, Red Wings 1. If you’re a Wings fan, that adds insult to, uh, insult. Talbot is a professional nuisance, dust in the eye, a guy whose very presence makes you want to regurgitate your last six meals. But enough with the compliments.
Wings fans might wonder if the best team in the NHL won the Stanley Cup. I don’t know. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is that the most deserving team won the Cup, which is how it should be.
Pittsburgh took it to the Red Wings in the final two games of this series and earned this championship. Wings fans have wondered, at various times, what was wrong with the Wings. The short answer is that Pittsburgh is what was wrong with the Wings.
Teams do not make back-to-back Stanley Cup finals by accident, and while everybody talked about the Penguins’ young stars -- for good reasons -- Pittsburgh had some depth, too.
Mostly, the Penguins had a chippiness and belief in themselves that was missing last year. At the end of Game 2, Talbot introduced himself to Chris Osgood the old-fashioned way, with a spear to the chest that was straight out of the year 1328. It triggered a tussle between Henrik Zetterberg and Evgeni Malkin, and it was undoubtedly an intentionally dirty play at the end of a lost game. But it also sent a message that these Penguins would not be intimidated like they were last year.
Still, everybody looked for signs that somebody would wilt. At the morning skate at Joe Louis Arena, reporters asked both the Penguins and Red Wings a series of insightful probing questions:
Are you nervous? You’re nervous, aren’t you? I know you said yesterday that you wouldn’t be too nervous, but how about now? No? OK … (reporter whistles for a few seconds) … now?
You call it stupid and annoying; we call it journalism.
DETROIT - JUNE 12: Evgeni Malkin(notes) #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)Everybody said the same thing: We’ve come too far, we’ll be ready. The Penguins were the team that showed it, though.
Talbot’s first goal came after Brad Stuart committed the worst kind of turnover, right in front of his own net. Yeah, the puck was a gift. But Talbot still had to score, and he sent the puck between the legs of Chris Osgood.
His second goal was just a terrific shot, top shelf, over Osgood’s glove.
The Wings had their chances, right until the end. With 16.1 seconds left, after several aborted face-offs, Talbot squared off against Zetterberg. Zetterberg won the faceoff, but Talbot fought him for the puck and chewed up a few precious seconds.
Maybe Evgeni Malkin was right. Maybe Max Talbot does have bad hands. Maybe he does have a lot of scoring chances and not score. But as for learning over the summer … well, Talbot figured it out quicker than that. And the Wings will think of him and shake their heads for a long, long time.
Contact MICHAEL ROSENBERG: 313-222-6052 or mrosenberg@freepress.com.
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