To say that Sidney Crosby was a better player than Alexander Ovechkin in the series is not really fair to Ovechkin.
At the end of the day, the Capitals did not get nearly enough from Mike Green and Alexander Semin, two marvelously talented players and game-breakers in their own right. I'm sure there will be all sorts of talk about injuries and what may or may not have been ailing them but they simply didn't produce.
And you knew the Penguins were in good shape for the game because Sergei Gonchar was back.
Everyone remembers what happened in Game Four and the controversial hit by Ovechkin. He missed Game Five and Game Six. It didn't look like he was going to come back in the series at all.
But he played in Game Seven and ended up having an impact when his one-legged slapshot led to the game's first goal. The only issue after that was how much he played. I was surprised the Penguins kept playing Gonchar, including four shifts in the third period when they were ahead.
Anything Can Happen
What's wrong with the picture in Detroit? The Red Wings have outplayed the Ducks, they've out-chanced them and they've outshot them but they still find themselves in Game Seven.
How is this happening? It has been Jonas Hiller at one end and Ryan Getzlaf at the other and now the Red Wings are vulnerable to elimination with an heroic effort by either player. Getzlaf has shown ample proof in these playoffs that he's capable of putting a team on his back and carrying it with his physical presence and goal-scoring ability.
The Ducks are in a good spot.