After the lockout season of 2004-5, having both teams return to the finals for second consecutive year was a validation of sorts for the no-stone-unturned rule changes implemented by the N.H.L. 

The Penguins’ Cup-clinching victory Friday night was a true testament to how much their new perspectives have helped since the coaching switch in February, when Dan Bylsma replaced Michel Therrien, who favored a more defensive style. Bylsma put in an aggressive system structured to make the most out of his more skilled players. In other words, he found a way to match - and eventually beat - Detroit at their own game.

“I think the game is meant to be played aggressively and in your face,” Bylsma said after his team claimed the Cup. “When you can dictate the pace of the game and where it’s played, you can put teams back on their heels. That’s a fun way to play, and, I think, the right way to play.”

Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock spoke before the game on the issue, praising the improvement in quality of play. “When you think from the lockout to where we are now, how far we’ve come, it’s a fantastic thing,” he said.

N.H.L. teams with a good amount of fresh blood generally do their best to mold themselves around the formula of the previous season's Stanley Cup champions, which means that the Penguins’ victory could signal a continued movement from the defense-oriented tactics that dominated the N.H.L. after the Devils won the Cup in 1995.

Stanley Cup celebrations will go Tuesday in Pittsburgh, but for many concerned about the struggling local economy, that's an even worse outcome than losing the series altogether. Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstah recently made the following comments about the high costs of celebration: "The Steelers' championship parade cost us roughly $6.5 million in street closures, float rental, security expenditures, and sanitation overtime—not to mention the incalculable loss of man-hours for our struggling local businesses," Ravenstahl said. "Pittsburgh can't afford to forget how the four Super Bowl parades we had in the 1970s were followed by mill closures, layoffs, and a decade-long recession."

The Red Wings couldn't pull out the victory in the end, but perhaps they slowed the pace of the city's near-inevitable economic collapse for just a while. And for that, to many around here, they're still hometown heroes.