The Hockey News: Mike Brophy's blog: THN at the Stanley Cup: The ultimate sacrifice

THN at the Stanley Cup: The ultimate sacrifice

Ryan Malone has had a very unlucky nose in the Stanley Cup final. (Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images)

Mike Brophy
2008-06-04 14:06:42

PITTSBURGH - The Penguins will try to pull off the Miracle at the Mellon tonight. That is, if they don’t kill each other first.

Assistant coach Mike Yeo was the latest victim of a Penguin-on-Penguin mishap, suffering a large gash on his chin when an errant Georges Laraque pass hit a teammate’s stick and deflected into Yeo’s face. The cut looked good for at least 20 stitches, according to Dr. Sidney Crosby in the Penguins dressing room.

While Yeo left to get stitched up, reporters huddled around Ryan Malone’s stall quizzing him about how he feels today, given the fact he suffered his second broken nose of the Stanley Cup final (to go with a chipped tooth and swollen lip) after taking a Hal Gill slap shot in the face in Game 5. Malone also broke his nose in Game 1 when he was lambasted by Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall. Truth be told, Malone ain’t lookin’ too pretty these days.

Remarkably, Malone barely missed any shifts in Game 5. He returned to action and continued to be a grinding, physical force.

After the game, Malone told The Hockey News he was lucky because the puck actually turned and hit flush with the flat side rather than with an edge.

“It’s called sacrifice,” said Penguins GM Ray Shero this morning. “We have it written on the wall in our dressing room and the guys know it takes sacrifice to win.”

The Penguins actually have it written in five different languages so that everybody on the team gets the message.

Even Shero is not exempt from taking a hit. Earlier this season while playing shinny, he was clipped on the chin by a high stick from former NHLer-turned-broadcaster Phil Bourque and now bears an inch-long scar as a reminder.

I will say, having covered many Stanley Cup finals, I am constantly amazed at the physical and mental toll NHL players endure at this time of year. I’m so tired I feel like I could sleep for a week and here these guys are playing triple overtime and then reporting to the rink for work the next day, not to mention facing hordes of media.

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A guy like Pittsburgh defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who was driven face first into the boards in Game 5, sits out about 60 minutes and then helps set up the overtime winner. Unbelievable! If this were the regular season, he surely would have shut it down for the night immediately after being hit. Turns out he had muscle spasms and when they calmed down, he was ready for action.

• NHL referees are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. While they don’t like the idea of calling goalie interference in overtime, let alone twice in extra time, they also don’t relish the idea of a goalie being hit by an opponent and the winning goal being scored while the fallen goaltender is unable to do his job. It is a discretionary call.

“We don’t want the Stanley Cup-winning goal being scored with the goalie on his back after being crashed into,” said NHL executive Kris King.

The Red Wings were rightfully ticked off about the two calls against them, but you just know if the skate was on the other foot and Chris Osgood had been bumped rather than Marc-Andre Fleury, resulting in a goal by the Penguins, Detroit would be screaming bloody murder.

The more controversial of the two was on Dan Cleary, who courageously drove to the net looking to win it for his team and become the first player from Newfoundland to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. You would be hard-pressed to find anybody in the rink who thought his motive was to wipe out Fleury, but the call was made nonetheless.

Frankly, I would have been happier if the referee stopped play to see if Fleury was OK and didn’t penalize Cleary.

THN senior writer Mike Brophy is on the road following the Stanley Cup final and will be filing daily reports until a champion is crowned. To read his other entries, click HERE.

For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, Subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.

COMMENTS (19)

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sean gugliuzza Posted
(2009-04-30 06:24:10)

james smigiel, you can say it was awesome to see the pens stop the wings from winning on home ice. but it felt equally better to watch the class-less pens fans in distraught when the wings won it in pittsburgh, something the pens couldnt do in the series, via detroit being the higher seed. booing is something that is expected in that type of situation, but never to the conn smythe winner. hank played hard and he deserved it. i live in pittsburgh, and i can tell you they have some very un-hockey-intelligent fans. they have penguins fans, not hockey fans. very ignorant people. the chants for crosby to win it made me laugh. he has no defensive qualities, except maybe diving and getting the other team a penalty. on one play, he was checked (barely) inside the wings zone, and the puck was in the pens zone for about 20 seconds, and crosby never passed the blueline. im pretty sure centers are supposed to get back to help. he just decided to do nothing but cherry pick, and of course, he did absolutely nothing when he got the puck from dupuis, i think it was him who passed it at least. also. about how detroit had more penalties, big deal. that just show's they dont have goons like gill and orpik out there to attack players because they're 5 feet away from fleury. orpik attempted to maul franzen because franzen almost scored. it was pathetic. without fleury, this series would've been over last week. and btw, im a sabres fan. go ahead and give me pity.

JT Posted
(2009-04-30 06:23:59)

Roll on Red Wing Nation! The Cup comes home.

David Posted
(2009-04-30 06:23:53)

Read the rule book. Zetts knocked Fleury down, so please explain how that was a slop GI call. That one play had more goaltender contact than both Malone and Sykora's infactions combined. As for the Cleary call, it was close, but it all comes back to the fact that you don't hit the goaltender. PERIOD. He could've cut right, not touched Fleury, and still gotten his shot off. He didn't, and he was called. It's that simple. You could say I follow hockey, i've been playing for over 14 years. And as a player, I can see why they were called. Again, I don't see any Detroit fans denying they would up in arms if it had been Pittsburgh players to have hit Osgood.

yums Posted
(2009-04-30 06:23:52)

Muttley, I agree with you except for one point. If the refs don't make calls, the conspiracy theorists will complain about the non-calls! that's the beauty of conspiracy theories, they're impossible to disprove. Let's face it, if people really believe the refs are favoring one team they'll pick the calls or the non-calls to support that.

Steve Posted
(2009-04-30 06:23:52)

What are Detroit fans so upset about? Haven't the Red Wings scored dozens of goals this past season with a player in the crease interfering with the goaltender or by crashing the net and knocking the goaltender out of the play? Sure they have. How can anyone feel sorry for them because the refs are finally starting to get it right.

muttley tha first Posted
(2009-04-30 06:23:52)

Here's the thing, David: if you follow hockey, you can spot a garbage call, no matter who it gets called on. If it's against your team, you're understandably upset, and if it's against the other team, you'll take it, but you know you don't deserve it. Those two GI calls were slop and so was the hook on Pittsburgh, and if you actually believe they were legitimate calls to make in a OT/2OT game in the Cup finals, you have a larger-than-average amount of brain trauma or are wearing a whistle and stripes.

whatsthatsmell Posted
(2009-04-30 06:23:50)

There has been a lot of talk about the officiating this year, and many articles written about it. Fact is, there shouldn't be any more than the normal banter going around, but that is not the case. If the ref's were doing their job properly, then articles like this would be unnecessary. Now we have another two GI calls that are highly debatable. At least this time they didn't result in lost goals like the two on Holmstrom.

John Posted
(2009-04-30 06:23:50)

Whenever I've knocked over a goaltender in the crease, with or without the puck, I expect to sit in the box. If I don't, I call that a lucky break and the ref's suddenly my best bud. The talk that somehow running a goalie is acceptable is inanely idiotic. Having said that, I don't understand what made those and the two hooking calls on the Pens worth calling when they'd ignored so many other legitimate infractions through the rest of the game. This idea of putting the whistles away in big games just makes everyone think they're being cheated and makes the officiating too arbitrary.

David Posted
(2009-04-30 06:23:50)

The author of this article is right. If the shoe was on the other foot the Wings fans would have ZERO problem with those GI calls. The fact is that this particular penalty was called 3 times prior to Game 5 and Wings players should have realized it. It's on them. It's obvious that in the Finals this is something the refs are watching. The Wings fans weren't complaining in Game 2 about Sykora and Malone being called for GI. Come to think of it, Pens fans weren't complaining either. That's the difference. Oh, and to all the conspiracy theorists wearing red, the PIM breakdown thus far is 88 minutes for Pittsburgh to 62 minutes for Detroit.