2009 Stanley Cup Final

Did You Know?

• Marian Hossa signed with the Red Wings after turning down a $49 million offer from the Penguins, whom he had played for in the 2007–08 playoffs.
• The Red Wings also signed Ty Conklin, who had played for the Penguins throughout the 2007–08 season.
• Dan Bylsma was a player under Mike Babcock on the 2002–03 and 2003–04 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Game summaries

The Red Wings won game one 3–1, scoring on three unusual bounces. Brad Stuart's shot missed wide, bounced off the end boards, and deflected off goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury's leg for the first goal. Ruslan Fedotenko tied the game after Chris Osgood mishandled a shot by Evgeni Malkin. Johan Franzen put Detroit ahead late in the second period when Brian Rafalski's shot rebounded off the boards to Franzen, who banked it off Fleury. In the third period, Justin Abdelkader swatted a bouncing puck from midair to his stick, went around Jordan Staal, and scored. Only three penalties were called; Osgood stopped 31 of 32 shots, and Fleury stopped 27 of 30.

Television coverage

In Canada, CBC broadcast the Finals in English and RDS in French, with Jim Hughson on play-by-play and Craig Simpson as colour commentator. In the United States, NBC aired games one, two, five, six, and seven, while Versus broadcast games three and four. This was the first time since 1999 that game one aired on over-the-air television. The first two games were played on consecutive nights to avoid conflicting with the debut week of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. NBC affiliates WDIV in Detroit and WPXI in Pittsburgh kept their analogue signals on until 11:59 p.m. EDT that night. Game seven averaged eight million U.S. viewers, the most-watched NHL game in the U.S. since game six of the 1973 Final. In Canada, game seven averaged 3.529 million viewers on CBC.

Records

The Red Wings attempted to become the first team to successfully defend a championship since they themselves had done so. The Penguins became the first team since the Edmonton Oilers to win the Cup after losing in the Finals the previous year, and the first in major professional sports to win a game seven of a championship round on the road since the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. They were the third team to win a game seven of the Stanley Cup Final as the visitor.

Seeded fourth in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins were the lowest-seeded team to win the Cup since the fifth-seeded New Jersey Devils in 1995. They tied for eighth overall in the NHL and became, along with the 1991 Penguins and 1995 Devils, the only post-1967 expansion teams to finish outside the top six overall and win the Cup. The Penguins' victory, combined with the Steelers' win in Super Bowl XLIII, made Pittsburgh the only city to win a Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup in the same year. Detroit had previously held NFL and NHL champions in the same city in 1952.

Stanley Cup engraving

Commissioner Gary Bettman presented the Stanley Cup to Penguins captain Sidney Crosby after Pittsburgh's 2–1 win in game seven. Michael Zigomanis, who played 22 regular-season games but missed the playoffs due to injury, was included on the Cup by petition. Mario Lemieux and Gilles Meloche had their names engraved on all three Penguins championship Cups (1991, 1992, 2009); Meloche held the same position for all three wins. Dr. Charles Burke won three Cup rings but his name is not on the Cup.

Eddie Johnston earned his first Stanley Cup with the Penguins after 25 years with the organization. Dan Bylsma, the 13th rookie coach to win the Cup and the first since 1986, coached only 25 regular-season games before leading Pittsburgh to the title; he was the second mid-season replacement rookie coach to win. Six players on the Finals roster did not qualify for engraving: Chris Minard, Dustin Jeffrey, Jeff Taffe, John Curry, Ben Lovejoy, and Brad Thiessen, who had yet to play a professional game and spent the season in college hockey.