I certainly hope that you intended this comment as a joke. Obviously there would always be health issues. There are health issues by the end of the first week of the NHL season. Moving the series up significantly exacerbated the health issues for one team far more than it did for the other.
The difference is if the Hawks extended the series to 6 games the final would have started the following weekend. I remember thinking that the NHL was being stupid if that happened. No way did they need a week in between. So in a way I was hoping for the Wings to close it out in 5 because that made more sense to start it three days later, and it would be less deeper in June. Honestly, by the time early June comes, I am done with hockey. I just want the Cup final over so I can enjoy summer. It doesn't need to go longer. It would have been quite unusual to start it so late like that. So when the Wings finished it off in 5, it started at a normal time, three days later.
And by the way, can we stop crying a river about the Wings' injuries already? They had injuries, good for them, so have a lot of great teams and they still won. This is not the fault of the Pens.
I understand why the NHL moved the games up, and it isn't like anyone is suggesting that the NHL should have moved the games back further than they were scheduled to accommodate Detroit. The fact is that the league moved the games forward six days from the original schedule, which very obviously hurt one team a lot more than it hurt the other team. The reasons you listed for moving up the series, while all very true, have literally nothing to do with the obvious reality that Pittsburgh benefited from the change, which is what you seem very reluctant to admit.
The healthier team benefitted from the change..............initially. Once the Wings went up 2-0 it didn't matter anymore. It was a complaint when it first happened. It is like saying, "Well, there should have been a penalty on that play, but we scored with the goalie pulled and the delayed penalty anyway." It just doesn't matter anymore about the back to back. The healthier team should have capitalized on it, but they didn't. Case closed. There were two full days off in between Game 5 and 6 and 6 and 7.
How did the 2008 and 2009 Pens team differ, as far as their records? No one has dissected them yet in this thread, have they?
I have earlier. I told you, their young core was just one year older with that much more experience and that much more seasoning. Having a better more well rounded, Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, Staal and Letang made them better. Losing Hossa wasn't good, but adding Guerin and Kunitz was. Remember, Gonchar is out most of the year in 2009, if you don't think your #1 defenseman who had 65 points the year before will affect some points in the standings then you should. The 2008 team was greener. They played Ottawa, NYR and then Philly in the East. Not bad, but they didn't play someone like Washington like in 2009 en route to the final. Crushing the Caps on the road in Game 7 I think showed this team was for real.
Since the '88 finals their have only been two teams to win the Stanley Cup with a negative goal differential in the finals
2009- Pittsburgh was -3
2004- Tampa Bay was -1
Side Note: Vancouver took Boston to seven games, and ended the series with a -15 goal differential
Those are 7 game series, I don't think it is a big surprise when the difference is that miniscule. Vancouver's would have been had they won, but they didn't. The 1960 World Series is what I would call a big difference. The Yankees outscore the Pirates 55-27 - more than double - and lose in 7 games. That is something worth bringing up I think.
The 1986 Habs won the series in 5 games but only had a +2 difference over the Flames. That has got to be least for a 5 game win in the final. 1980 Islanders were +1 in a 6 game series vs. Philly. Flyers were just +2 over the Bruins in 6 games in 1974.
Here is the biggest discrepancy and it happened in the same year. The 1945 Leafs were -6 in the semis in a 6 game series no less against the heavily favoured Habs. Then in the final were even vs. Detroit in 7 games. Islanders were -3 against the Pens in 1993, although it wasn't the final.
I think these are meaningless anyway. Like I said, unless it is the 1960 World Series, nothing really stands out. That one is in a league of its own to the point where you almost practically feel like still giving the Yankees the win because it is so criminal. Then again, it isn't as if the Yankees didn't win a bunch on either side of 1960.
