Aside from the first two games at the Joe,
nothing about this series has gone as expected.

Probably the most glaring evidence of that
is Detroit not being able to "push the skate down on the throat."

They've had the Pens on the ropes three times this series:
Game 3, Game 4, and Game 6.
All Pens victories.

Conversely, the Pens have played their best in the most desperate of situations.

The Joe is the house of whores anytime more than two Detroit-area women are in it.
But it's been the house of horrors for the Pens in this series.

However with the Cup on the line in a Game 7,
it's safe to throw that notion out the window.

Both teams will bring their shit.
The best team will win.
The fecal matter in the stands won't win the Cup for Detroit.

As a precursor to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals,
we wanted to see how Pittsburgh sports teams have done in championship Game 7s.

We were pissed that the Phantoms, Stingers, and Crossefire didn't even make the playoffs in their brief stints here.

The NBA has steered clear of Pittsburgh 'cause they know we don't care.

But the Pirates.  Wow.
They are 5-0 lifetime in World Series Game 7s.
Time to take a look at that first one.

1909 World Series
Pirates win 8-0 in Game 7.

Kind of fitting that the Pirates traveled to Detroit to take on the Tigers at Bennett Park

for the first Game 7 in World Series history.

From what we can gather, Bennett Park wasn't even sold out for Game 7.
Some things never change.

We dug into the Internet archives and found this post from the HONUS OF RESPONSIBILITY JOURNAL:

We dug up this photo of the 1909 Pirates, looking for that relief pitcher who was giving Ty Cobb the business: