Detroit Free Press

In the end, you could no more stop them than you could stop the moon. They rose to the occasion, they rose to the challenge, and finally -- when the last seconds ticked away and Chris Osgood threw his hands into the air and leaped into a hug from Larry Murphy as a lonesome octopus came flying onto the ice -- finally, they raised the roof. They were back to the big stage, the Stanley Cup finals, and they burst through the curtain with a certain swagger, as if they knew it would happen, as if they've been here before.

Look, I'm not trying to make excuses for these guys. But hockey is rough business. The Red Wings need a release. They need to blow off steam. So, OK, maybe it isn't "normal" behavior. But they're big, powerful men. They have to do it. They gotta have it.They need their chess.Chess?"We're into it," admits Darren McCarty.Chess?"Oh, yeah, every chance we get," says Brendan Shanahan.Chess? Chess. On the team plane. In the hotels. In the locker room. Chess. It may be Bobby Orr on the ice, but it's Bobby Fischer everywhere else.