We may have jumped the gun in burying the Stanley Cup Final as we did in this post two days ago (and some of you said as much). The Final’s first two games reportedly have been the highest rated in seven years, and their cause can only be helped by the fact that the Pittsburgh Penguins have decided to not roll over and die. From Why? Sports:

Sidney Crosby(notes) still didn’t find the net as Henrik Zetterberg(notes) shadowed him whenever possible—Crosby has one assist in three games—but playoff scoring leader Evgeni Malkin(notes) set up the first three goals. Malkin, almost invisible at times during last year’s finals, has 33 points in 20 games—the most since Joe Sakic(notes) had 34 for Stanley Cup champion Colorado in 1996.

Pittsburgh also went 2 for 3 on the power play, with Red Wings coach Mike Babcock calling the interference penalty on Jonathan Ericsson(notes) that led to Gonchar’s game-winner.

Game Four will be played in Pittsburgh on Thursday. Puck Daddy has a great interview with one of the greatest players of all time, Bobby Hull. And Mark Messier has his own award now? When did this happen?

While the Red Wings seem to be scoring with ease against the Pittsburgh Penguins in this year’s Stanley Cup Final, the games themselves aren’t scoring many viewers. From the AP:

The NBC telecast [for Game 1 of the Final] drew a 2.6 rating and a 5 share. That’s compared with a four-game NBC average of a 3.2 rating and a 6 share one year ago.

Detroit has won convincingly in the two back-to-back games in Detroit, and suddenly the Pens are facing elimination at home unless they can win Game 3 in the Igloo on Tuesday. If a team falls in the playoffs and nobody’s around to watch it, does Sidney Crosby’s crying still make a sound? While you ponder that (or not), here’s the big fight (via Hockeyfights) that should have earned Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin a one-game suspension, as it happened in the last five minutes of play. At least when the NHL throws its rules out the window, it does so from the league’s front office, and not from the referee’s wallet at a Vegas sportsbook.

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We love athletes that play for the love of the game, even if “play” sometimes takes the interpretation of “beat the snot from thy opponent’s body,” which is what happened at the end of Anaheim’s win against Detroit in Game 6. They just couldn’t wait to start Game 7, and some mighty scuffling occurred therein. Boston also managed to force a Game 7 by beating Carolina, but they did it in a much less masculine way. Aaron Ward played, despite having a bruised vagina.

More quasi-brawlishness after the jump, specifically from the ice hockey world championships in Switzerland where the United States and Switzerland played off for the bronze medal. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, the Anaheim Ducks (they’re no longer the “Mighty Ducks” since Disney sold the team to this guy in 2006) edged out another win against Detroit last night, but the rub was that Detroit actually scored the tying goal with under two minutes to play in regulation. Only the referee pulled a Hochuli and blew the play dead, thereby disallowing the goal. Even though the NHL has had instant replay since 1991, this play apparently was not reviewable. Which is yet another reason we need to see a team get screwed before any of us care about hockey.

Look, I don’t care if the clowns in Detroit want to litter their own ice with traditional mollusk fare, but to do it in someone else’s building? You’re taking your life into your own hands. Just ask Greg Goloborodko (not pictured), one of the Columbus-area Red Wings fans that tried to do just that during Game 3 at the Blue Jackets’ Nationwide Arena:

He lobbed a 2 1/2-pound octopus nicknamed “Homer” about 60 feet over the Plexiglas and onto the ice. Yes, Goloborodko names his octopi for Red Wings’ players — the latest in honor of forward Tomas Holmstrom.

Goloborodko said he was detained by arena security, threatened by angry Jackets fans and enjoyed a chance encounter with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman before being escorted from the building.

“I heard Bettman say, ‘I’m not happy about this one bit.’ I don’t know if he was responding to me or talking about something else.”

Goloborodko got off relatively unscathed:

Elsewhere in Nationwide Arena, Blue Jackets fans pounced on a fan in a Red Wings’ No. 91 Sergei Fedorov jersey before he could heave an octopus.

Goloborodko said Jackets fans vented their anger and that arena security was not happy having to defend him.

The tossing of the octopus on the ice has been a Red Wings’ tradition since the 1950s, but that’s where it needs to stay. You don’t see Auburn taking their eagle into Tuscaloosa and you don’t see Bengals players committing felonies outside of the Tristate area. So the next time you’re thinking of bringing an octopus to Ohio, make sure it’s in a dark room with seven of your friends. They may not go for it right away, but that’s where the ether comes in.

Oops, sorry hockey.  I forgot about you there.  But for fans of the NHL, the second annual Winter Classic was enjoyable.  Or at least I would assume that’s how they feel.  I turned it on and watched it for a couple minutes, and it looked like something I would really like if I were one of those people that liked televised hockey.

Anyhoo, the Michigan Red Wings beat the Chicago Blackhearts 6-4 at Wrigley Field yesterday.  There was much skating, and puck-slapping, and vintage sweaters.  And though the players later complained, the fans loved the brick boards with the ivy growing on them.  Sven Olaffssson scored a hat trick, Yevgeny Brzenzinskiy added a goal and two assists, and goalkeeper Michel-Jean Ouellebecque was pulled shortly after giving up his sixth goal.

Or so I would imagine.  There may be some factual inaccuracies in the previous paragraph.  I kinda zoned out while I read the recap.