I said before this series that the big factor that the Detroit Red Wings had on their side was experience. That's not just the experience of 23 Cups to just four on the side for the Pens. It is the experience of the last four seasons that twice saw the Wings capture the Presidents' Trophy and then have dismal post-seasons.
That's the type of experience you need to win the Cup. Whenever things got tough, the Wings had something to draw upon. Pittsburgh didn't have that, and that was the difference in this series.
Following the game, Michel Therrien discussed the issue of experience and how the Wings recent playoff failures helped steel their resolve to capture the Cup this time.
The Red Wings made it abundantly clear very early on in Game 6 that this was a different team than the one that took the ice in the first period of Game 5. The nervousness was not there to the same extent and they sent an early message by scoring an early power play goal which would set the tone for the hockey game.
The opening goal was the Detroit Red Wings at their best with Datsyuk and Zetterberg controlling the puck before Brian Rafalski fired it home. Getting that first goal took a lot of the life out of the crowd in the Mellon Arena and it sent a message to the Penguins that the game would be an uphill struggle the whole way and that is exactly the type of start the Wings were looking for.
The turning point in this one was the Wings' ability to kill off an early two-man advantage for the Pens. I'll call it the "TK-PK," - the Tre Kronor penalty kill - because Mike Babcock put the three Swedes out there: Zetterberg, Lidstrom and Kronwall. They really stepped up and got the job done. Of course they sprinkled in a healthy dose of Chris Osgood for good measure. For one-minute and thirty-three seconds the Penguins had a two-man advantage and managed only three shots on net.
The Pens did finish the night 2-for-5 on the power play, but in this case, the numbers were deceiving because the Wings turned in a phenomenal effort to shut the Penguins' power play down when it mattered most. They won the battles on the special teams in the first period and that set the tone.
Another momentum switcher came very early in the second period when Brad Stuart lowered the boom on Sidney Crosby. You could tell from that point on that Crosby was nowhere near 100%.
Crosby injured his groin earlier in the Stanley Cup final and he injured his ribs earlier in the playoffs but he could deal with that until the hit by Stuart slowed him down in this game. After the hit Crosby did not get physically engaged as he had earlier in the game, he was doing a lot more "fly-bys" as it was clear that Stuart's hit had taken a physical toll.
You could tell as soon as he got injured that Crosby was extremely frustrated in this one and that it was eating away at him. He knew at that moment that he would not be able to give his best effort the rest of the way when his team desperately needed him.
He went to the bench and you could see him express his frustrations as he kicked out at the boards. For the rest of the period he was not as good as he had been for the majority of the series.
It's actually amazing to see how well he played considering he had those existing injuries. The effort was there every single night for Sidney Crosby.
As for Evgeni Malkin, it was a case of too little, too late as he waited for Game 6 to have his best game of the series.
It appeared as though the alarm bell went off for Malkin following Crosby's injury as he stepped up his game in a big way. When he was finally able to score on his patented shot its what the Penguins had been waiting for all series, but in the end, it wasn't enough.