Detroit Red Wings Lose 2009 Stanely Cup Finals in Game 7

What the heck happened? I actually just moved to Detroit August of 2008, so I am totally new to hockey. So of course living here - I wanted to engulf myself into the culture of Detroit. And one of the requirements of doing that is to go buy my first octopus, boil it and go down to the Joe and throw it down on the ice and watch it bounce (I have yet to earn my Detroit Red Wing merit badge). And I also decided to invest quite a bit of my time and ultimately a lot of emotion into watching the Red Wings pursue their quest of winning the Stanley Cup back to back.

So first off - hockey is pretty entertaining it has been a fun ride and I have learned a lot. Second, why did we even let the Penguins back into the series in the first place? And third, was this whole series just an NHL conspiracy?

Detroit as a city really needed this win. There are plenty of us out there that just need to see and feel some personal victories right now to lift us up. We all need to be prescribed just a spoonful of hope and we were really counting on Wings to dish that out last night.

The question remains...what the heck happened last night?

This next line will sum it right up: "It wasn't about the Red Wings losing the finals; it was about the Penguins winning it"

And poor Marian Hossa chasing his dream for the last two years of winning the Stanley Cup.

What can we all learn from this? We should never be cocky. I feel the Red Wings and the city of Detroit (myself included) got just way too cocky. We felt this was in the bag - no big deal. Being cocky will always set you up for failure. We always need to respect our opponents. It's just the mindset of being cocky that makes you think that you are just going to show up and be handed the championship. But here's the problem - the Red Wings didn't show up last night and that's what was the most frustrating for me. Dang, I was so upset last night - that was not how the story was suppose to end.

All I can say is that these experiences just allow us to build character. Learn from it and we will be back next year. Until then - Go Tigers!