The Pittsburgh/Detroit back-to-back Cup Finals in retrospect

[Kyle McMahon]

I am not saying no-one feels that way, because clearly some people do. But I don't think it's a concern of a sizable number of people. It just feels like one of those ornery old-timer complaints, like how nobody is reading newspapers anymore. So I am not surprised that regulars in the history forum may be more inclined to feel that way.

I mean at least when people talk about the baseball season going on too long it's a real pragmatic concern as it's an outdoor sport relying on dry conditions, and many of the teams are playing in climates that turn wet and cold in October.

But hockey is played indoors..and most franchises are now in the U.S. and not even the northernmost parts of it. It's played in Los Angeles, Anaheim, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix..places where it can be 'summer' throughout the entire season. We have artificial ice. If it came down to 'natural', then the NHL should be playing only on frozen ponds in subarctic and arctic climates.

I also view basketball and hockey as sibling sports and find it perfectly normal for both sports to have mostly parallel seasons and playoffs. After all basketball was invented as a winter sport and designed to be played indoors when it was too cold to go outside. The sport that succeeds them in my attention is baseball. But of course baseball starts in early April already..when it is way too cold and grim in many locations to enjoy it actually.

You raise good points about the other sports. I think in general almost all of them go for too long. I don't think a 70 game NHL season ending in the third week of May would upset too many people. Or merely 150 baseball games allowing the World Series to start by October 10 or so before the whether falls off a cliff in the northeast. I think one of the reasons football is so popular is that it's absent for longer than it's in season. People actually have a chance to miss it and get excited for it to return.

But as we both know, money and making more of it is the sole objective for these leagues. They'd probably play year round if they thought it could generate another nickel of profit.

 

[The Panther]

They'd probably play year round if they thought it could generate another nickel of profit.

Should we really be giving Bettman ideas...? What if he's monitoring this forum?

 

[daver]

Great timing with this thread. Every year the league releases the Finals schedule is another year that further displays how odd the last minute change up the NHL came up with in ’09 was. What’s been lost here is not only did the NHL change it to an alternate option not mentioned in their wonderful and concise press release, substantially moving the schedule up from where it was originally supposed to be, but they changed it to the MOST RUSHED FINALS IN NHL HISTORY.

What I mean by that is that no finals in the history of the league played the first 3 finals games within only 6 days after the Conference Finals ended. Even in 1940, which is the only other time they started it off with back to back games, there were 7 days in between. Most years post lockout have had 9 and this years finals has 10. In ’09 the CF’s ended on a Wednesday night in Chicago with the game going to OT. Then they started the finals on Saturday and Sunday with back to backs and then game 3 on Tuesday. Like Babcock said in the press conference before the series started, “what’s the rush?”. Last night the CFs ended on a Wednesday night, with Washington in Tampa (very similar scenario). They will have game 1 on Monday, game 2 on Wednesday, and game 3 on Saturday. As a Red Wings fan, I wish they could play over ’09 with that kind of schedule with downtime to prepare for the series and rest in between games.

If anything, it was a real disservice to the Red Wings that the league would make up that schedule last minute. It was clear which team it would benefit. Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Ericsson, and Draper were all on the shelf at the end of the CFs and Rafalski, Cleary, and Hossa all required off season surgery, so they were the walking wounded. Anyone who claims the schedule didn’t impact the series is clearly in denial. I had no issue with the league moving the schedule up either, I just didn’t appreciate the most rushed start to the finals in history when my team were already at a clear disadvantage going in.

This site has a nice layout of playoff schedules over the years and ’09 sticks out like a sore thumb.

NHL Games

The irony here is that if the Wings won the WCF on the 24th, the SCF starts on the 28th giving the Pens one day to get home then to Detroit despite them sweeping the Caines which normally gives a team some rest.

If that was the case, would agree that the Wings benefitted and claims of league bias for the Wings would be reasonable?

The other irony is that the Wings won the back-to-back games, won another game after a one day break to travel, then had two days in between Game 5 and Game 6 and Game 6 and Game 7 to rest and close out the series. The Wings also had played just five games in 15 days before the start of SCF, and just 11 games in 32 days prior to that.

They had plenty of time to be as prepared as possible for the SCF.

 

[danincanada]

The irony here is that if the Wings won the WCF on the 24th, the SCF starts on the 28th giving the Pens one day to get home then to Detroit despite them sweeping the Caines which normally gives a team some rest.

If that was the case, would agree that the Wings benefitted and claims of league bias for the Wings would be reasonable?

No, I don't think that would have been fair to the Pens if it did happen, nor would it be good for the hockey being played in the finals because by that point in the playoffs teams need some time to recover or the hockey will suffer. But it didn't happen, did it? And what makes you think the NHL would stick to anything they had in that press release? They provided two scenarios and they chose to toss that into the trash once the CFs finished anyways, preferring to rush the first 3 games of the finals more than any other time in history. And they did it with teams that finished up the CFs in 4 and 5 games, so you're right, usually they give the teams some rest after that. Why didn't they? The two options they provided and the third they changed to were all very unusual schedules. It was either incompetence on the leagues part or something else because looking back none of them make any sense and what's the point of releasing that if you're not going to stick to it anyways?

The other irony is that the Wings won the back-to-back games, won another game after a one day break to travel, then had two days in between Game 5 and Game 6 and Game 6 and Game 7 to rest and close out the series. The Wings also had played just five games in 15 days before the start of SCF, and just 11 games in 32 days prior to that.

They won the back to back games but they looked terrible doing it and literally gritted it out with experience even though they had the most firepower in the league. By the end of that second game it looked like everyone was skating in mud. This is not how the Finals, which should be the leagues showcase event, should be. Leading up to the finals they also played one of the most grueling 7 games series you'll see, travelling back and forth to California. Then the Hawks series had OT in 3 of the 5 games and the injuries mounted with Datsyuk, Lidstrom, and Ericsson all going down. After they finished off the Hawks in 5 they deserved a regular finals schedule and so did the fans. Instead, the NHL came up with an extremely strange schedule and haven't come close to repeating it since.

They had plenty of time to be as prepared as possible for the SCF.

They had less time to prepare for those first 3 games than any other team in history, and this was one of the most banged up teams heading to the finals in history. That's a terrible combination but they still made it to 7 games, decided by 1 goal. That says it all to me.

 

[Rick Kehoe]

No, I don't think that would have been fair to the Pens if it did happen, nor would it be good for the hockey being played in the finals because by that point in the playoffs teams need some time to recover or the hockey will suffer. But it didn't happen, did it? And what makes you think the NHL would stick to anything they had in that press release? They provided two scenarios and they chose to toss that into the trash once the CFs finished anyways, preferring to rush the first 3 games of the finals more than any other time in history. And they did it with teams that finished up the CFs in 4 and 5 games, so you're right, usually they give the teams some rest after that. Why didn't they? The two options they provided and the third they changed to were all very unusual schedules. It was either incompetence on the leagues part or something else because looking back none of them make any sense and what's the point of releasing that if you're not going to stick to it anyways?



They won the back to back games but they looked terrible doing it and literally gritted it out with experience even though they had the most firepower in the league. By the end of that second game it looked like everyone was skating in mud. This is not how the Finals, which should be the leagues showcase event, should be. Leading up to the finals they also played one of the most grueling 7 games series you'll see, travelling back and forth to California. Then the Hawks series had OT in 3 of the 5 games and the injuries mounted with Datsyuk, Lidstrom, and Ericsson all going down. After they finished off the Hawks in 5 they deserved a regular finals schedule and so did the fans. Instead, the NHL came up with an extremely strange schedule and haven't come close to repeating it since.



They had less time to prepare for those first 3 games than any other team in history, and this was one of the most banged up teams heading to the finals in history. That's a terrible combination but they still made it to 7 games, decided by 1 goal. That says it all to me.

There wasn't any conspiracy to harm the Wings, and you're forgetting about a huge break in Game 7 in Detroit, when Crosby injured a knee. Detroit had Games 6 and 7 at home, with a 3-2 series lead. Pittsburgh was just the superior team, and earned the title on the ice.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

There wasn't any conspiracy to harm the Wings, and you're forgetting about a huge break in Game 7 in Detroit, when Crosby injured a knee. Detroit had Games 6 and 7 at home, with a 3-2 series lead. Pittsburgh was just the superior team, and earned the title on the ice.

While I don't agree there was a conspiracy to harm the Wings, I will correct you in that they did not have home ice for game 6. They had home ice for games 5 and 7.

Yeah, you can't really argue that they moved it ahead of the originally posted date in the circumstances that occurred. (The fact the series would have started earlier if the Wings had won the WCF earlier isn't really the pertinent point).

That said, I always felt like in 2009 the Wings were the worse team than Pittsburgh. The 3-1 series lead seemed built on smokes and mirrors, and it didn't surprise me that much when Pittsburgh came back to win it. The 2008 series was already pretty close but the Wings' guile and experience in depth helped them prevail.

Also to clarify, the 2009 Wings had a 2-0 lead, and then Pittsburgh won the next two to tie it up 2-2.

 

[daver]

They won the back to back games but they looked terrible doing it and literally gritted it out with experience even though they had the most firepower in the league. By the end of that second game it looked like everyone was skating in mud. This is not how the Finals, which should be the leagues showcase event, should be. Leading up to the finals they also played one of the most grueling 7 games series you'll see, travelling back and forth to California. Then the Hawks series had OT in 3 of the 5 games and the injuries mounted with Datsyuk, Lidstrom, and Ericsson all going down. After they finished off the Hawks in 5 they deserved a regular finals schedule and so did the fans. Instead, the NHL came up with an extremely strange schedule and haven't come close to repeating it since.

Both teams had to deal with the same conditions. If the Wings were that tired after Game 1 then they weren't destined to win.

The scheduling was due to the Pens arena not being available and the fact that the start date of May 28 missed happening by one day. I don't think it was unusual for the NHL to avoid having nine days between games.

 

[daver]

They had less time to prepare for those first 3 games than any other team in history, and this was one of the most banged up teams heading to the finals in history. That's a terrible combination but they still made it to 7 games, decided by 1 goal. That says it all to me.

Who cares how banged up they were? Who cares if they went seven games against the Ducks? They should have beaten them in less games if they wanted to avoid the travel. The same thing for the OT games with the Hawks; win it regulation!

Are you looking for a consensus that the wrong team won and/or they got screwed by the league on purpose? You aren't going to get too much sympathy from any other fanbase.

 

[daver]

No, I don't think that would have been fair to the Pens if it did happen, nor would it be good for the hockey being played in the finals because by that point in the playoffs teams need some time to recover or the hockey will suffer. But it didn't happen, did it? And what makes you think the NHL would stick to anything they had in that press release?

So your argument is the league would have hypothetically changed the schedule regardless of when the CFs finished to the benefit of the Pens?

 

[quoipourquoi]

The original Finals schedule as of May 16th:

5th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th

7 games in 12 nights. That’s brutal. Lessening the time between rounds from 9 days to 3 days in order to expand the time between Games 5, 6, and 7 was probably the fair move, but whether it’s Detroit/Carolina or Chicago/Pittsburgh or Chicago/Carolina or Detroit/Pittsburgh, it was back-to-back on the weekend to start because of Conan. Too much is made out of it, and everyone knew days before the Conference Finals were over that the league was looking to change the schedule to exactly what it became.

 

[danincanada]

Both teams had to deal with the same conditions. If the Wings were that tired after Game 1 then they weren't destined to win.

The scheduling was due to the Pens arena not being available and the fact that the start date of May 28 missed happening by one day. I don't think it was unusual for the NHL to avoid having nine days between games.

Both teams did not have the same conditions prior to the finals though. They never do. One team was completely banged up and everyone knew it.

No argument from me that the NHL avoiding a 9 day break wasn't unusual. What was just as unusual, if not more, was starting off the finals with the schedule they came up with instead. You know, the one that rushed the first 3 games quicker than any other NHL Finals in history.

Who cares how banged up they were? Who cares if they went seven games against the Ducks? They should have beaten them in less games if they wanted to avoid the travel. The same thing for the OT games with the Hawks; win it regulation!

Are you looking for a consensus that the wrong team won and/or they got screwed by the league on purpose? You aren't going to get too much sympathy from any other fanbase.

I mentioned the Duck series because you were just looking at how many games they played but travel was a huge factor. The Pens never had to deal with that in the East. In fact, the Pens had a much easier path. The Canes were pushovers, especially for the CFs, but the Hawks would win it all the following year so even though it was a learning experience they needed they were a tough out. It's easy to say it was the Red Wings fault they didn't finish things off earlier but it's just an attempt to avoid viewing what the league did, which was something the Red Wings had no control over that magnified their injury problems even more. A typical finals schedule and the team has more time to recover, heal, and prepare. Again, they needed it far more than the Pens and everyone knew it. This is why so many were suspicious at the time because it was obvious who should benefit from the quick turnaround schedule.

I'm not looking for sympathy from any fan base, just stating facts.

So your argument is the league would have hypothetically changed the schedule regardless of when the CFs finished to the benefit of the Pens?

No, I'm not making that argument but it's an interesting question. Who knows. I just know what the league ended up doing and it wasn't right and didn't make sense and it gave one team an obvious edge going in considering the circumstances. That was obvious at the time and now, even if you won't let yourself admit it.

 

[danincanada]

The original Finals schedule as of May 16th:

5th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th

7 games in 12 nights. That’s brutal. Lessening the time between rounds from 9 days to 3 days in order to expand the time between Games 5, 6, and 7 was probably the fair move, but whether it’s Detroit/Carolina or Chicago/Pittsburgh or Chicago/Carolina or Detroit/Pittsburgh, it was back-to-back on the weekend to start because of Conan. Too much is made out of it, and everyone knew days before the Conference Finals were over that the league was looking to change the schedule to exactly what it became.

Where did you find this proposed schedule? So they wanted to do back to backs with Friday/Saturday instead? What about Conan on the Friday night? It would have been his first show on a Friday.

That would be brutal any way you slice it but time off leading up to the series would help. Not the 2 day nonsense that happened.

 

[daver]

Both teams did not have the same conditions prior to the finals though. They never do. One team was completely banged up and everyone knew it.


No, I'm not making that argument but it's an interesting question. Who knows. I just know what the league ended up doing and it wasn't right and didn't make sense and it gave one team an obvious edge going in considering the circumstances. That was obvious at the time and now, even if you won't let yourself admit it.

First bolded - Meaning what exactly? Who cares who knew what?

Second bolded - The Pens had an edge in being healthier, that's the only edge I can see. No team got an edge from the scheduling. The Wings would have gotten an edge if they swept the Hawks, so any edge in scheduling was in their control.

 

[c9777666]

Would have been interesting to see how that SCF would have been scheduled had Chicago forced a game 6 in the WCF

 

[danincanada]

First bolded - Meaning what exactly? Who cares who knew what?

Second bolded - The Pens had an edge in being healthier, that's the only edge I can see. No team got an edge from the scheduling. The Wings would have gotten an edge if they swept the Hawks, so any edge in scheduling was in their control.

No team gets an edge from scheduling? This series has examples of how injuries and scheduling (changes) mesh together perfectly to do just that.

Datsyuk. He returns from injury June 6th, which is game 5. If they started the series as per the press release, he’s playing game 2 on that day, or they can even hold him out longer at their choosing. Edge Pens.

Lidstrom and Ericsson. Both had emergency surgery days before the finals started. Don’t you think 2 or 3 more days near the start of the series would impact them? Edge Pens.

Walking wounded. Rafalski, Hossa, and Cleary were all visibly laboring and needed off season surgery. Don’t you think 2 or 3 more days near the start of the series would impact them? Edge Pens.

As a team as a whole, they deserved a more reasonable finals schedule so they could fairly defend their title, injuries or not. What they got was a rushed one-off. Front loaded just enough to make them break instead of bend.

If your “edge” is only days off between series then of course the team that advances first gets that. Getting to start the finals at home is a benefit the higher seed gets so can’t help you there.

Did the Red Wings know they were in control of the scheduling edge? Not to that extent, not with Gerry at the helm cause he completely changed everything last second, broke their own agreements, and rushed the start of the series with 3 games in 4 days once Detroit advanced. If everyone got that same press releases for the two scheduling possibilities then no wonder the Red Wings organization were so upset once the change was announced. It was a farce whether the league was conspiring or just inept in my opinion.

 

[daver]

No team gets an edge from scheduling? This series has examples of how injuries and scheduling (changes) mesh together perfectly to do just that.

Datsyuk. He returns from injury June 6th, which is game 5. If they started the series as per the press release, he’s playing game 2 on that day, or they can even hold him out longer at their choosing. Edge Pens.

Lidstrom and Ericsson. Both had emergency surgery days before the finals started. Don’t you think 2 or 3 more days near the start of the series would impact them? Edge Pens.

Walking wounded. Rafalski, Hossa, and Cleary were all visibly laboring and needed off season surgery. Don’t you think 2 or 3 more days near the start of the series would impact them? Edge Pens.

As a team as a whole, they deserved a more reasonable finals schedule so they could fairly defend their title, injuries or not. What they got was a rushed one-off. Front loaded just enough to make them break instead of bend.

If your “edge” is only days off between series then of course the team that advances first gets that. Getting to start the finals at home is a benefit the higher seed gets so can’t help you there.

Did the Red Wings know they were in control of the scheduling edge? Not to that extent, not with Gerry at the helm cause he completely changed everything last second, broke their own agreements, and rushed the start of the series with 3 games in 4 days once Detroit advanced. If everyone got that same press releases for the two scheduling possibilities then no wonder the Red Wings organization were so upset once the change was announced. It was a farce whether the league was conspiring or just inept in my opinion.

Not sure what's so hard to understand about these three concepts:

1. Injuries happen; it's not an excuse for losing

2. The team that can finish off an opponent early usually gets more time off than the team that needed more games.

3. Complaining about the first two concepts is nothing but sour grapes.

Insinuating that the league was biased for the Pens or should have considered the Wings' injuries in scheduling is ridiculous.

 

[danincanada]

Not sure what's so hard to understand about these three concepts:

1. Injuries happen; it's not an excuse for losing

2. The team that can finish off an opponent early usually gets more time off than the team that needed more games.

3. Complaining about the first two concepts is nothing but sour grapes.

Insinuating that the league was biased for the Pens or should have considered the Wings' injuries in scheduling is ridiculous.

Injuries happen, yes. You call it an excuse, I say they had a large impact on the series, especially when they are this numerous and the series is this close. There’s nothing wrong with wondering how a series would play out without the injuries. People do it all the time.

It was only 1 day in this situation and not what I have a problem with. I’m not sure why you think I’m arguing this.

Point 3 turned into a straw man.

The NHL already told everyone what the finals schedule would be with two scenarios so they didn’t need to do anything. Rushing the schedule the way they did actually makes it look like they considered the Wings injuries, and wanted to help the Pens. They already had a schedule that would be very helpful to a beat up team and decided it was too long a layoff between series. I think everyone can agree it was too long and should be moved up. What did they change it to? Two days off then 3 in 4, which is the quickest race to game 3 in the history of the league. So the NHL went from one extreme to another. Good job Gary, you “fixed” that problem!

Instead of a schedule that was beneficial to the injured team that was already in place, they suddenly changed it to a schedule that would be beneficial to the far healthier team. They should have made a typical schedule, which would fall somewhere in the middle of the two. What happened was an injustice and made the league look either inept or like they were meddling. Take your pick.

In a nutshell. NHL has finals schedule in place as per press release, which would be a 9 day layoff. After Red Wings advance that gets changed to quickest start to the finals in history. You see no problem with this whatsoever? Your allegiance to a team shouldn’t blind you from seeing how odd the whole thing was. They literally said the layoff was too long and then came up with a schedule that became the all-time quickest start to the finals. Went from one extreme to another. Yeah, let’s focus on who advanced first and the sour grapes of complaining about injuries.

 

[quoipourquoi]

In a nutshell. NHL has finals schedule in place as per press release, which would be a 9 day layoff. After Red Wings advance that gets changed to quickest start to the finals in history. You see no problem with this whatsoever?

It was known that the league was looking to change the schedule while the Penguins were up 3-0 in their series and the Red Wings were up 3-1 in their series.

According to multiple sources, if the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings can wrap up their respective Conference final series by Wednesday night, the Stanley Cup finals likely would start on Saturday, May 30 in Detroit. In this scenario, Game 2 would be played on Sunday, May 31.

This is a change from a May 22 press release from the league that indicated that the championship series would begin on Friday, June 5, if both Conference final series didn't end in four-game sweeps.

The Penguins can close out their series with a victory over the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Tuesday night. The defending champion Red Wings, meanwhile, have positioned themselves to advance with a win over the Blackhawks on Wednesday in Detroit.

 

[daver]

The NHL already told everyone what the finals schedule would be with two scenarios so they didn’t need to do anything. Rushing the schedule the way they did actually makes it look like they considered the Wings injuries, and wanted to help the Pens. They already had a schedule that would be very helpful to a beat up team and decided it was too long a layoff between series. I think everyone can agree it was too long and should be moved up. What did they change it to? Two days off then 3 in 4, which is the quickest race to game 3 in the history of the league. So the NHL went from one extreme to another. Good job Gary, you “fixed” that problem!

I don't see how any objective observer would see this. This is a complete conspiracy theory. All the NHL did was look a bit silly in releasing a schedule before the end of CFs which appears to be unprecedented and set a imperfect schedule that both teams had to deal with. The only advantage for the Pens was a deserved extra day off for sweeping the ECF.

The question here is: Do you think the league should consider a team's injuries issues when scheduling?

 

[danincanada]

I don't see how any objective observer would see this. This is a complete conspiracy theory. All the NHL did was look a bit silly in releasing a schedule before the end of CFs which appears to be unprecedented and set a imperfect schedule that both teams had to deal with. The only advantage for the Pens was a deserved extra day off for sweeping the ECF.

The question here is: Do you think the league should consider a team's injuries issues when scheduling?

Its not just about the league considering teams injury issues, it’s about having a certain standard for scheduling the finals and being careful to be fair to the two teams involved. The NHL came up with an unprecedentedly quick schedule at a time when one of the teams was going to be far more negatively impacted by it than the other. To me, the NHL knew this but ultimately decided they didn’t care if it wasn’t fair to do it then. A good commissioner would look at the Red Wings situation and decide this wasn’t the year to make it quicker than ever, go with a more typical schedule, and wait for another year when both teams came in with similar health situations and it made more sense overall.

What was the reason for the big rush? Both teams ended the CFs early so they were well ahead of schedule and usually that allows for more downtime. The league certainly didn’t have to give extra time off due to those injuries, but scheduling the first 3 games quicker than ever before when you’re ahead of schedule already? It was unfair to the injured team because they got handed the worst possible scenario (by the league) with far less time than usual to try to recover, heal, and gear up for the ultimate in hockey, what’s supposed to be the showcase of the league. Look at this year, by the time they start game 1 the Wings/Pens already had the back to backs done and were going to play game 3 on the Tuesday, and the Caps/Lightning went to 7 games! No rush this year and no back to backs. In fact, this is closer to what they usually do for the Finals.

The Conan reason still sounds like a big crock to me. They didn’t want to interfere with the premier on Monday? No problem, don’t play on Monday. They played Tuesday and Thursday anyways and were originally scheduled to start Friday - all evenings during Conan’s big first week. Where’s the conflict? Oh right, they just had to start with back to back games, the only time it’s been done other than 1940. You know, because of “reasons”.

We will never know what was behind the rushed schedule, but Gary sure did a good job of making it look like meddling because it was so unusual.

 

[daver]

Its not just about the league considering teams injury issues, it’s about having a certain standard for scheduling the finals and being careful to be fair to the two teams involved. The NHL came up with an unprecedentedly quick schedule at a time when one of the teams was going to be far more negatively impacted by it than the other. To me, the NHL knew this but ultimately decided they didn’t care if it wasn’t fair to do it then. A good commissioner would look at the Red Wings situation and decide this wasn’t the year to make it quicker than ever, go with a more typical schedule, and wait for another year when both teams came in with similar health situations and it made more sense overall.

As I said before, the league should give zero considerations to injury issues when scheduling and both teams had to deal with the schedule. There was nothing unfair about it.

If the series started on the 28th, the Wings would still have had the exact same impact from their injuries. Actually every game gets moved up a day so maybe Datsyuk doesn't get into Game 5.

 

[danincanada]

As I said before, the league should give zero considerations to injury issues when scheduling and both teams had to deal with the schedule. There was nothing unfair about it.

If the series started on the 28th, the Wings would still have had the exact same impact from their injuries. Actually every game gets moved up a day so maybe Datsyuk doesn't get into Game 5.

So far you’ve completely avoided acknowledging the fact that it was the quickest start to the finals ever. Why hasn’t the league ever scheduled 3 games within 6 days after the CFs finished before, or after? Could it be that it’s unreasonable to do that to two teams who already came so far? Could it be that the league would usually rather provide adequate rest time to give a better product to their fans? Yeah, those make sense.

Setting up an unprecedented schedule like that when the Red Wings were limping into the finals was not fair or good for the product on the ice. They definitely got the short end of the stick that year because usually they’d get another 3 or even 4 days off early on.

Who cares about the 28th. It didn’t happen and the league would have just changed it anyways had both teams swept. Again, what makes you think they would follow that part of the “potential schedule” press release when they didn’t follow the other scenario that actually happened?

 

[daver]

So far you’ve completely avoided acknowledging the fact that it was the quickest start to the finals ever. Why hasn’t the league ever scheduled 3 games within 6 days after the CFs finished before, or after?

Because they want to market it, give the teams time to get logistics, tickets, etc. figured out. It's why the Super Bowl is two weeks after the Conf. Championships.

Again, both teams had to deal with whatever scheduling was thrown at them. If the Wings needed extra days after playing just 16 games in 48 days before the SCF, they were not destined to win.

 

[daver]

Who cares about the 28th. It didn’t happen and the league would have just changed it anyways had both teams swept. Again, what makes you think they would follow that part of the “potential schedule” press release when they didn’t follow the other scenario that actually happened?

Source? And if they did change it, it would have benefited the Wings anyways.

 

[danincanada]

Because they want to market it, give the teams time to get logistics, tickets, etc. figured out. It's why the Super Bowl is two weeks after the Conf. Championships.

Again, both teams had to deal with whatever scheduling was thrown at them. If the Wings needed extra days after playing just 16 games in 48 days before the SCF, they were not destined to win.

You failed to go further and explain why ‘09 was different than every other year in this regard.

If you asked anyone following at the time which team needed more rest they’d say the Red Wings. They advanced a day later, had a tougher series, were far older, and were decimated with injuries, including to two all-time greats. It wasn’t even close, everyone knew the Red Wings were in far worse shape. I can’t recall another finals like it, maybe Oilers/Isles ‘84?

You still haven’t acknowledged the unprecedentedly quick start to the finals after both teams advanced early and how odd it was, but i know you claim it was fair. Loaded with injuries? Tough luck, the league wanted to try something “different” this year. All of the Red Wings disadvantages listed above weren’t going away but they were magnified even more by an unreasonably fast start. It completely benefited the Pens - great time to try out something different I guess.

It’s sad that you refuse to grasp or admit how unfair it was simply because it greatly benefited your team. If it was a typical finals schedule, then that’s just the NHL playoffs for you, injuries - tough luck, but this was the NHL (purposely or not) piling on to sway things even more in favor of the healthy and fresher team. It’s not what a well run sports league would do to it’s franchises and fans. The Red Wings were defending champs and came all the way back to the finals again, so it was a travesty that this is when the NHL decided to mess with a scheduling format that typically works out for both teams so they can settle things on the ice. Rushing into the series like never before magnified any injury and fatigue issues that were present. It’s a simple concept and it impacted the whole series.