A couple different scenarios here. The 1964 Leafs played in the Cup final just two days after dusting off Montreal in Game 7. The 1974 Flyers did the same thing after a tough 7 game series vs. the Rangers. Both won the Cup.
Other teams have had it rough. The 1993 Leafs played 21 games in 41 nights, all Game 7 series.
You have to remember too, lots of teams had injuries that either won the Cup or didn't. The 1992 Pens had Mario with a broken wrist. The 2001 Avs had Forsberg missing in the final two rounds. The 1972 Rangers had Ratelle missing and lost in the Cup final. With all due respect to Datsyuk, was he better than any of these guys? Was he more important than them? He was great in 2009, no doubt, but let's not pretend the 2009 Red Wings are the only team who had injuries in a playoff year. How about the 2017 Penguins? Missing Letang their #1 defenseman the entire playoffs? This team needed that big minute muncher and QB on the powerplay, they really got by with Crosby and Malkin's big postseason. But they repeated, the 2009 Wings didn't.
As for the schedule this is something you have to remember, BOTH teams played in the same games in the final. The Pens played those back to back games too, you know? And lost them by the way. Not to mention it was three days after the Wings beat the Hawks. They didn't travel, the Pens did. Three days after the semis is not unprecedented to start a Cup final. 2014 Kings being the most recent, and they had to travel across the country for it. They won the Cup too.
The back-to-back games to start a Cup final is unusual that is true. But the NHL bowed down to NBC with Conan's debut on the Tonight Show. Should they have? Probably not, but it is the NHL and when does Bettman not do this? Besides, Detroit and Pittsburgh are about as close as you can get with a Cup final showdown as far as travelling. Game 6 and 7 were also both after three days. In all honesty the only thing that was unusual was the back to back days. Did the Wings really lose the Cup because of one measly day? No.
1940 is the one other time I can see the Cup final starting on back-to-back nights. I believe it had to do with the circus being in town at MSG. So they had the first two in New York and the next 4 in Toronto! No kidding. Yet the Rangers still won the Cup despite the road games. Maybe Game 7 is in MSG? I don't know. But either way, the better team won, right? And even so the Rangers had more points than Toronto over the year and deserved home ice advantage.
Look at my argument as a whole. You’re doing the same thing The Panther did. Just focus on two days off and leave out the 3 in 4. Combined, that is extreme as the NHL has ever gone for an accelerated early Finals schedule. That is what the league changed to from the long delay they had originally planned. I have no problem with them changing it but why accelerate things a much as possible when both teams finished the last series so early and it departed from the original plan so much?
Sure, compare it with other Finals series with only 2 days off, compare the Datsyuk injury with others, say a back to back isn’t the end of the world. Combined though, the league really added to a disadvantage one team already had. The league really looked like bunch of Pens fans here even if that’s not the reason.
You start by mentioning two teams that went 7 games in the CF and then had a quick start. You are helping prove my point here. You mention the ‘93 Leafs playing so many games as well but how do those apply to the ‘09 Red Wings who actually knocked out the Hawks in 5 and limped into the next round? It doesn’t. It was an extremely strange situation for the league to suddenly flash the most accelerated start to the Finals they could possibly come up with in that scenario. They had lots of time with both series finishing early but chose to rush into the first 3 games like never before.
Nobody was asking for a long layoff either, just not an accelerated schedule when one team was clearly on the mend. What a kick to the stones it is to see your team already playing at 70 or 80% cause of injuries and then the league decides to “try something different” and condense the early Finals schedule. The Red Wings were reeling from the conference finals that had Lidstrom and Ericsson having surgery and needing to rush back to the finals and play 3 in 4, while missing Datsyuk and Draper to start the series, along with Hossa, Rafalski, and Cleary all playing with publicized injuries. So no, not just Datsyuk being affected here.
The Pens clearly loved the quick start to the series because they were fully aware of the Red Wings situation. The Red Wings clearly hated it for obvious reasons. Anyone who thinks it was fine wouldn’t be saying the same thing if it happened to their team. The NHL decided to change it to an outlier schedule that would clearly benefit one team and make things as tough as possible for the other. How can you keep pretending that is fine?
The delayed schedule towards the end of the series gave the Wings some chance to recover but the damage was already done. The Pens got more confidence from playing an injured and run down team 3 in 4 early in the series, which was exactly what that team needed after getting dominated the year before, and that 3 in 4 had a cumulative affect on wearing down the beat up and older team even more.
I don’t buy the Conan excuse the league provided either. That show premiered one night, which Was June 1 (Monday). Not being able to play that one night caused this schedule? Is that really how this works? Nah.... Frankly, why the NHL did it is irrelevant. That’s not how they should run things and it certainly contributed to a “crushing defeat”.
Like I showed you last time, go back and compare that early schedule with any other in modern times and you’ll see it was unparalleled and an odd time for Bettman to pull it out due to how quickly the CF ended. Haven’t done it since either. It was a one-time gift to Crosby and the Pens and they still nearly blew it.