I am not a hockey fan. I don't hate the sport; on the contrary, I enjoy watching it when I do so. It's just that I don't have a team to root for, and I have no connection to the sport, so I never got into it.

I really like watching NHL hockey live, but not enough to drive to Chicago or Detroit or Columbus to do it. Add in the fact that it's next to impossible to actually watch hockey on TV in this country, and you see that my excuse for never watching hockey is pretty much bulletproof.

There is no valid excuse, though, for not watching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It is the most awesome event in all of sports (except for a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals that goes into overtime), and the Penguins and Red Wings lived up to the awesomeness on Friday night.

I don't know a ton about hockey, so if you want in-depth analysis, go to Peter's posts last night or wait for Nate's post that will probably be coming up pretty soon. But I'm going to do the best I can to impart the immense amount of awesomeness that occurred in Detroit last night.

First of all, Maxime Talbot deserves some huge props. Since I had never heard of him before last night, I can assume that he's not exactly the Penguins' go-to source for scoring. He's not Crosby or Malkin, or even Miroslav Satan (possibly my favorite name in all of sports) or Gonchar or Guerin or Staal. But he was half of the tag team that won Game 7 for Pittsburgh.

Talbot scored two goals, one of which was an awesome shot over Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood's glove hand that he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of stopping. To be able to come through like that in the biggest game of your life says a lot about a person, especially when you're only 25 years old.

Speaking of coming through, a few words on Marc-Andre Fleury. You probably don't know this, but I've been driving three hours a day from Westfield to Bloomington and back for summer classes five days a week. Because of that, I've been listening to a lot of sports talk radio, and (in an upset) the shows I listen to, especially Jim Rome, have been devoting a lot of time to hockey over the past week or so.

A lot of the talk has been about Fleury and Osgood, primarily how inconsistent Fleury has been. Especially in Detroit, where in Game 5 he gave up five goals and had to be pulled from the game. They also talked about how underrated Osgood has been throughout his career and how if the Wings won the series and Osgood won the Conn Smythe (playoff MVP), he could make a case for Hall of Fame induction.

In Game 7, it was Marc-Andre Fleury and not Osgood who was able to come through for his team. Osgood played fairly well and only gave up two goals, but Fleury was better. He got lucky a few times; he allowed fat rebounds right in front of the net, but no Red Wing was ever in position to capitalize.

Not to mention, he had possibly the best three seconds I've ever seen from a goalkeeper in the best possible situation—the last three seconds of the game. He saved two potentially game tying shots, including one on a spectacular dive that looked like he was taking a bullet meant for the president or some such thing. Fleury answered his legions of critics in a big way.

The Penguins also showed that hockey is a true team sport after losing their superstar player and the de facto face of the league (please don't tell Alex Ovechkin that I said that) to injury.

Sidney Crosby took a hit near the beginning of the second period, and suffered a knee injury that appeared to be the most painful thing that ever happened to any person ever (judging by Crosby's reaction). He played one shift in the third period, and that was it.

Even with a shortened bench, the Penguins didn't appear to miss a beat, with Talbot scoring their second goal shortly thereafter. Crosby is the captain, so he got to hold the Stanley Cup first - but in the clinching game, his team carried the load of his hype and high expectations for him while he was forced to ride the bench.

There's a lot more that I could cover, but I'll leave that to the people who actually know hockey. Suffice it to say that as a non-hockey fan, I'm extremely pleased with my decision to watch that game. I had no real stake in it aside from a general affinity to Pittsburgh, but I spent most of the third period either (literally) on the edge of my seat or standing up.

If Gary Betteman could figure out a way to bottle that and distribute it before every game, the NHL would surpass football in about a week. Hell, I'm considering actually making an effort to watch more hockey next season now.

It doesn't happen every series, but the next time there's a Game 7 in the hockey playoffs, watch it. You won't regret it. It's the best thing there is in sports.