Game Seven: Pittsburgh at Detroit, 8 p.m.
Dream comes true in Game Seven tonight
Stanley Cup on line for Wings, Pens
DETROIT — Dan Bylsma wasn't sure if he still had the photo. He thought it was stuffed in a box somewhere in his basement, but it really didn't matter. The image remained just as clear earlier this week as it did six years ago, when he was exposed in USA Today after missing the opportunity of a lifetime.
The Penguins rookie coach was a fourth-line banger and frequent healthy scratch for Anaheim in 2003 while playing under Mike Babcock. But on June 8, he found himself parked outside the crease in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup finals.
"It's pretty much emblazoned in my memory," Bylsma said.
Picture this: Game Seven was scoreless when Bylsma tipped a shot from the point that handcuffed Devils goalie Martin Brodeur and soared toward the heavens. It was his chance to swat the puck past Brodeur and score the critical first goal, his chance to make a difference in the biggest game of his career.
And he whiffed.
The moment was captured on the front page of the sports section the following day. New Jersey won the game, 3-0. The Cup was gone. Bylsma played one more season, never had another sniff of the Cup and eventually turned to coaching. Six years later, long forgotten by most everyone, the play still haunts him.
Bylsma shared the story as the Penguins prepared for Game Seven tonight against the Babcock-coached Red Wings in Joe Louis Arena. His message was obvious: one strike often means you're out in Game Seven, and it could be gone in a flash.
"That was my chance," Bylsma said. "I remember it very vividly. And that's going to happen [tonight]. There's going to be a chance. There's going to be a play to score a goal or block a shot. That's where we put ourselves — one game, a one-chance scenario. The play's going to be on a lot of guys' sticks. And there will be a picture the next morning."
It's all the Penguins wanted all along, a chance.
Not many gave them one after Game Five, when the Red Wings delivered a 5-0 blowout and assumed command of the series. Pittsburgh regrouped and countered with a 2-1 victory in the Igloo that was more indicative of the series. The two teams are evenly matched in most areas with their collection of skill and defense.
Now, it comes down to one game in Hockeytown. Prepare for overtime.
"It's Game Seven for both teams," Red Wings forward Kirk Maltby said. "Whether you're rooting for one or the other, it doesn't matter. One team has to win and will be raising the Stanley Cup. It's the intrigue of sudden-death. It's going to be a grueling, tough game."
Every player has fantasized about playing in Game Seven, stickhandling down the ice thousands of times with clock winding down. Five, four, three, two, one ...
"You spend your whole life when you're a kid — even when you don't have a net and you've got little snow piles [as goal posts] on the street — dreaming of scoring the game-winning goal of Game Seven in the Stanley Cup final," Babcock said. "You've been doing that your whole life. Now you've got it. Play and have some fun."
Babcock should give the same advice to Marian Hossa. The winger has one game to prove he made the right decision when he abandoned Pittsburgh for Motown because he thought the Wings had a better chance to win it all. He has not scored in the series and appeared to be crumbling under the pressure.
"This is a great situation," Hossa said. "[If someone] would tell you before the season you'll be playing in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup finals, you would take it. This is a great opportunity. I'm trying to make the best of it."
Hossa is one of several story lines intact. Pens defenseman Brooks Orpik is looking to become the third player from Western New York to win the Cup after Kevyn Adams with Carolina and Todd Marchant with Anaheim. Maltby, Nicklas Lidstrom, Kris Draper and Tomas Holmstrom are seeking their fifth Cups with Detroit. Bylsma could become the second rookie coach ever to win it all after taking over during the season. Al MacNeil was the first, with Montreal in 1970-71.
If history means anything, the odds are against the Penguins. The Wings are 11-1 and have won eight straight at the Joe in the playoffs, including three victories over the Pens in this series. Detroit has a 5-1 home record against Pittsburgh and outscored the Pens, 21-6, over the past two years in the finals.
The Cup reached seven games 14 times since the best-of-seven format was introduced in 1939, with the home team winning 12. The home team in hockey, basketball and baseball has won 18 straight seventh games. The last team to win one on the road was the Pittsburgh Pirates, who beat the Baltimore Orioles in the 1979 World Series.
If that's not enough, Detroit is pretty darned good.
The Red Wings are looking to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since they accomplished the feat in 1997-98. They're seeking their fifth Stanley Cup in the past 12 years and second straight over the Penguins. They have more experience, more depth and better goaltending. It would be difficult to bet against them.
But all it takes is one game, one play, one chance for a picture-perfect moment.
"When you don't get it, it's painful," Bylsma said. "When you do get it, it's glorious and you get a lot of good pictures. You take the bad ones if you don't win and put them in a box in the basement somewhere. We're looking for one we can hang on the wall."
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