The Detroit Red Wings prevailed over the Penguins, largely with their reliance on obstruction techniques. (Source: AP)

First the good news for the NHL, the Stanley Cup Finals match-up between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the eventual winners, Detroit Red Wings created a level of excitement not seen for the league since 1994 when hockey was challenging basketball’s popularity. The NHL received tremendous exposure for the dream fantasy match-up of having one of the ‘Original Six’ franchises matched up against the most enticing and entertaining teams in the league. After incurring the worst network ratings recorded in primetime for last year’s Ducks-Sens snooze fest NBC rebounded strongly with an over 100%+ ratings increase. The triple-OT instant Game 5 classic between the Pens & Wings drew a 3.8 rating, the strongest number in six years for the league. It’s easy to see why the extreme ratings bump - game 5 was an absolute revelation for the league and was the bright light of the entire playoffs. If the NHL wants to convert people into hockey fans they just need to have them watch that game and guaranteed the popularity of the NHL would see a spike. The ratings for the cup-clinching Game 6 built on that strong following and garnered a 4.0 rating.

For all the good that came out of the Finals the type of hockey strategy in the end that won out was an unappealing one for fans and God save us if other teams choose to mimic the Red Wings’ obstruction-filled play as is the vogue with copying a Stanley Cup winners’ style.

Over the course of the playoffs Detroit was penalized for nearly double the amount of obstruction calls than the next closest team; 17 obstruction penalties on Detroit to 9 that were called on Pittsburgh. The amount of times Detroit got whistled for obstruction gives you a good sense of how much it’s a part of their game plan; guaranteed the discrepancy of obstruction calls would even be a wider margin if the NHL’s officials called Detroit’s interference techniques more closely.  This is a team that’s constantly obstructing and picking players, so much so that they’ve become masters of obstruction and have made an art form out of it. The game 4 winner by Jiri Hudler was the direct result of a pick set by Darren Helm that took Pens defenceman Brooks Orpik out of the play.

The Red Wings are a puck possession team as are the Penguins although it was quite evident during the first two games of the series that Detroit’s skilled puck moving defenceman Nick Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski and Niklas Kronwall not to mention the sick puck handling skills of Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk were vastly superior. As a result Pittsburgh was forced to alter their plan and play a dump and chase fore-check style and this is where Detroit’s obstruction game took full force. The minute a Penguin tried dumping the puck in he and the other forcecheckers were met with Red Wings players impeding their progress to the puck, thus resulting in giveaways and opening up opportunities for Detroit’s terrific transition game.

Steady. Poised. Methodical. Not exactly the type of exciting adjectives that get the adrenaline pumping. As fundamentally sound as the Red Wings are they are a horrible team to watch from an entertainment standpoint in the same vein as the San Antonio Spurs are to the NBA. The parallels between the Wings and Spurs are pronounced: both teams are led by three stars born outside of Canada and the US: Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan for the Spurs and Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Nick Lidstrom for the Wings. The Wings have won 4 championships in 11 years; the Spurs have won 4 in 9 years. The Spurs and Wings are both led by two players that are incredibly talented, incredibly technically efficient and incredibly boring sound bytes and un-intriguing personalities in Duncan and Lidstrom respectively.

Like the Spurs the Red Wings are a tough team to cheer for. Their style of play is almost robotic and unemotional. You punch them in the face and they’ll just skate away rather than fight back. It’s an efficient style in that their composure allows them to draw penalties and refrain from taking dumb retaliation calls but it’s as hard of a style to relate to as why Wanderlai Silva, a man nicknamed “The Axe Murderer”, uses Darude’s Sandstorm, a tune that’s normally reserved for people who wave glow sticks and blow whistles to come out to an UFC fight.

The Pens on the flip side were full of likeable and engaging characters. Exhibit A: look up “Max Talbot Commercial” on You Tube. Exhibit B: Ryan Malone takes a puck to the face in Game 5, has his nose explode and hardly misses a shift despite having his nose initially broken in Game 1 of the Finals. When renowned Sports Illustrated Football writer Peter King singles out your toughness and courage in his well-read MMQB column you know you’re making a strong impact on those watching.

In the end the 2008 Stanley Cup finals will not be remembered for the Detroit Red Wings’ obstruction style, largely because of Detroit’s pedigree as an ‘Original Six’ club. You can bet if a team like the New Jersey Devils or the Minnesota Wild who are denigrated for their defensive/obstruction tactics were in the final the view of the 2008 finals would be completely different. Instead the finals will be remembered as one of the most exciting and entertaining finals, which isn’t completely baseless because half of the games were absolutely thrilling; heck Game 6 delivered us the NHL's version of the St. Louis Rams - Tennessee Titans Super Bowl half-yard goal line stop in the form of Marian Hossa's last second shot in Game 6, which rolled across the Detroit goal line and just missed tying the game.