Red Wings' character helps raise their game
GUEST COMMENTARY
Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere offers his thoughts after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals.
I thought in Game 5, the Red Wings were a little nervous in the first period. Tonight wasn't the case. They came out and scored the first goal, which is always a big goal in the NHL, especially in the playoffs.
They showed a lot of poise and a lot of maturity. They could have been shaky after the way they lost Game 5. That could have been in the back of their minds but they moved on and played a strong game.
Maybe there was a little less pressure to perform on the road. It's hard to tell. I don't think it really matters at this point. You just want to play the best you can and get that win. The last win is always the hardest.
It's a heck of a grind for them and I think it's pretty amazing that they clinched every series on the road. As hard as it is to win on the road, especially in the playoffs, it just shows how much character they have to do that. We clinched every series at home last year. So it's impressive.
You need your power play to be going in those big games and Detroit found a way to score big goals on the power play throughout the playoffs. You could also say that the two five-on-threes that Pittsburgh missed on [in Games 4 and 6] were big because they were always at key moments.
In the playoffs, you need to score in those situations. You need your key players to come up big and score. The other side of it is if you're the defensive team and you can kill those five-on-threes, that can give you a lot of momentum. As an example, we killed almost one in every game last postseason.
On Detroit's second goal, the rebound is where Marc-Andre [Fleury] wants it to be. But it's out of his reach and for him to go after it, by moving, he had to open up his legs and the rebound just went through there. The guy is human.
The first shot was not a hard shot. Sometimes it's harder to control these things that are going to happen from time to time for a goalie. The third goal is just unfortunate. He's trying to freeze the puck, he sits on it and it goes. I don't think it's a mistake. It's just the way it goes.
[Chris] Osgood made some really big saves tonight. He reminds me a little bit of me last year where he doesn't have to steal the show for them. He doesn't have to do things he isn't capable of doing. He just has to do his job and give his team a chance.
