INSIDE HOCKEY

DETROIT – Apparently Maxime Talbot didn’t need the summer to work on those ‘bad hands’ of his.

“Hey, I still have bad hands (laughing),” Talbot said. “Those two goals don’t improve my stick handing skills.”

The butt of Evgeni Malkin’s comedic routine between Games 3 and 4 of this series got the last laugh on Friday Night, upstaging both Malkin and Sidney Crosby in epic fashion with both goals in Pittsburgh’s 2-1 victory, cementing his place in Penguins lure as Mr. Clutch and ‘the man’ behind the Penguins third Stanley Cup in franchise history.

“I don’t have a good explanation about why this guy can come up big in tough situations or big games,” Penguins Head Coach Dan Bylsma said. “But he’s done it enough to know that’s what he can do. If your team plays well enough as a team, everyone has a chance to put the cape on. Certainly Max put the cape on tonight”

Talbot put on ‘Superman’s’ cape all right, becoming the ninth player in league history to score two goals in its ultimate game. His own teammate, Ruslan Fedotenko was the last to do it back in 2004. And on a night where the face of the National Hockey League got to touch the holy grail for the very first time, it was his locker mate who proved that a team is more than just two guys.

“A lot of people think it’s Sid and Geno’s team, but it’s everybody’s team,” Talbot said. “And it’s my mom’s team too.”

Sarah Palin would be proud of that response.

For the last two weeks, we in the media have boxed Max out of his stall trying to scope out the best place to talk with Sid. And as any good-natured teammate would, he stole the spotlight from right out under him. Making the big plays when his team needed it most. His ‘fine hands’ picked off a pass right from Brad Stuart and beat goaltender Chris Osgood for the first goal of the game early in the second period. And followed it up minutes later with a wrist shot perfectly placed in the top right corner of the net.

“I don’t remember the goals,” Talbot said. “They weren’t any skill, just luck.”

The irony only begins there.

On a night where the champ, Muhammad Ali was in the building, the biggest hockey name in a generation took home the trophy he was seemingly predestined for. Faster than anyone expected him to, resurrecting a once-bankrupt franchise seemingly bound for elsewhere. It is something many of sport’s greatest, both yesterday and today have not been able to accomplish, much less at such a young age and under such immense pressure. (See Alex Rodriguez, LeBron James)

But the 'Golden Child' logged just one third period shift after taking a hit from Johan Franzen off the center ice boards. He had to leave the game, begging Bylsma to let him play one last shift in the third period before realizing he'd make his biggest contribution from the bench. Not wanting to hurt his team by playing against the feared Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg at what was clearly not 100 percent.

“It was so painful,” Crosby said. “I mean being a captain and seeing what the guys were doing out there blocking shots. Seeing how intense it was, it was more painful to see it go like that.

"But you get to a point where you’ve got to ask yourself whether you’re going to be, you know, hurting your team out there. One misstep and I could cost the guys a lot of hard work, I didn’t want to be the guy to do that.”

Of course, we’ll remember Sid’s first Cup win either by his ultimate lack of production, or the fact that the likes of Talbot, Tyler Kennedy and Jordan Staal were able to do what they did because the focus of Detroit's defensive gameplan was planted squarely on No. 87.

There were other ironies on this night, like how eleven months after signing a one-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings to win Lord Stanley's Cup, Marian Hossa found himself on the other side of the celebration yet again. This time watching his ex-teammates celebrate on what was now home ice. Or in a series where the home team won the first six games, Pens fans made the trip to the 'Joe' in waves, buying tickets for 'Monopoly Money' and outchanting Wings fans in their own building.

So much for home ice advantage, when chants of 'Fleury' and 'Let's Go Pens' were louder than chants of 'Ozzy' and 'Let's Go Red Wings'.

But the ultimate irony may be Pittsburgh being two-for-two in professional sports titles with just three teams in the running. Not only is Marc Staal the 'middle child', but now he's the Pittsburgh Pirates of the family.

Just goes to show you that who gets the first laugh typically doesn’t get the last.