Sigh

I am too emotionally involved. Anyone who knows I am a Red Wings fan knows this. Now with the Stanley Cup series tied at 2-2, I find myself at a new level of stress for my team. It has been a brutal, hard-fought challenge to get to this point, and no, I am not talking about this series. I am talking about this season, and this entire playoff road for the Wings. From the second they won the Cup last year it has been one steady up hill climb to try and get back to the same moment again. There is a reason why so few repeat to win the Cup. It is nearly impossible.

Last night we did not do ourselves any favors, as I watched an abysmal penalty kill and as Henrik Zetterburg bluntly said we put on a "turnover clinic" to give the Penguins all they needed to take a couple goal lead. While the Wings went on to put in a solid third period and log more shots on goal then the Pens, they were not the quality shots we needed. The Wings have no one to blame but themselves for the loss they suffered in Game Four, and they know it.

And, of course, everyone is saying we are tired. Duh. Of course, we are tired. We played a bone-crushing series with Anaheim (one I would challenge the Penguins to have survived, I might add), went on to Chicago, which beat us up a bit more and then with no more then two days between started this series with back-to-back games. We are missing a key player in Pavel Datsuk and many other key players are injured and are essentially pretending not to be. Meanwhile, the Penguin's swept a tanked Carolina team (who spent themselves in a seven game series on the Bruins) and enjoyed multiple days rest between games during it, plus received three additional days off before starting the Stanley Cup finals. Gee, ya think the Wings might be more tired? (Yes, the Wings are a bit older in years, but in this case we have just played more hockey and more hard hockey so don't kid yourself.)

And like it or not call it a conspiracy, call it "tilting the ice," call it whatever, but there has been a huge amount of, shall we say "hiccups" in the Red Wings path this playoff road. Let's face it: It is not in Bettman's interest to have the Red Wing's win the Cup. He has made the Penguins the face of the NHL with Sydney Crosby as his poster boy. Anyone who has watched the NHL promos for this past season would think the Penguins had won the Stanley Cup last year!

Through it all the Wings continue to battle through questionable calls or non-calls..... Game Three in the Anaheim series when a tying goal was disallowed, which would have sent the game into overtime, instead the Ducks win. Game Three in the Chicago series when Kronwall gets a game misconduct and a major penalty on a hit on Havlat that every expert/talking head I could find and read called a clean hit. It changed the whole dynamic of the game, forcing the Wings to play without a key defenseman for more then half the game. Consequently, in this series if Kronwall so much as taps someone he gets a penalty (i.e. the weak "tripping" called at the start of Game four last night. The CBC announcer's remark said it all when watching the replay, "Well, I guess that was tripping.") Game Two of this series Malkin's automatic suspension reversed because he "was not sending a message," and has no history of fighting. (Check last years series in the Stanley Cup finals .... he actually did the same thing in Game Two with a few seconds left, just not to the same degree.) Game Three of this series when the Penguins play for 21 Seconds with a sixth man on the ice until he skates off (in front of the ref!) and yet no ref calls a penalty for too many men. Or last night when Matt Cooke literally boarded Nick Lidstrom (who was not playing the puck, can you say interference!) during a power play, and it was just ignored. Both the CBC and Versus announcers were calling for a penalty on it.

Yes, in Bettman and the NHL's need to pander to the masses and try to create more interest in the sport of hockey I would caution them to be somewhat careful that in so doing they do not alienate the fans who were here all along. I would ask them to not be so quick to "kick to the curb" a team that has 11 Stanley Cups in its history, is an Original Six team, and carries itself always with class and dignity and does not make excuses (even when their fans, myself included, cry foul for them) Because here is the deal. I think this is a good series without the referees or the league interfering. I don't think the Wings are necessarily done just yet because they tend to find the will and determination when no one else can. No, do not jump on the media bandwagon and count the Wings done now that the series is tied for you would be wrong to do so. BUT, if they should ultimately come out on the downside of this I would like to know that it was because they just got beat (and I am okay with that, they are still my team) not because they were "not allowed" to win.