Wing Dynasty

The Detroit Red Wings finally collected what they knew was theirs all along – the 2008  Stanley Cup Championship.  In game 6 of what was at times both a predictable and surprising series, the Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 at Mellon Arena, completing what was an incredibly determined run toward the ultimate prize in sports – the Stanley Cup.

Looking back to 2002, there was a lot of talk about what does or does not make a  “dynasty” in hockey, and whether or not they met the criteria at the time.  Well, if there were any doubt then, there shouldn’t be anymore.

The Wings:

• have won 4 Stanley Cups in 11 years
• have reached the playoffs 17 seasons in a row – sports record
• have had 8 consecutive 100-point seasons – NHL record (tie)
• have been the best team in the regular season 4 of the last 6 seasons
• have won 11 Stanley Cups for 3rd overall (Montreal has 24, Toronto 13)
• Were an outstanding plus-25 in the 2008 Playoffs

Incredible.  And even more so when you consider they were able to continue their success after the imposition of an imposing salary cap system 3 years ago which shrunk their Yankee-like $80 million team in half.

They won despite their “weak” Swedish-centric team.  They won despite having a European captain.  They won despite being a “small” team that had too much “finesse”.  They won despite “lacking goaltending”.  They won by doing the simple things, and doing them with a striking attention to detail and perseverance.  They won by playing incredibly disciplined hockey.

But most of all, they won because they knew they could.

Not so Fast

Holy crap am I tired.  Its been a while since I’ve had to function at a high level on a mere 4 hours of sleep.  But it was worth it, even though the Wings lost a heartbreaker in triple overtime – 109 minutes and 57 seconds of some pretty entertaining hockey.

It started off horribly, with the Wings playing like an inexperienced bunch of rookies in the first period, which allowed the Penguins to grab a 2-goal lead.  The Wings were able to fight back and eventually take the lead in the third period, but the Penguins scored with just 33.4 seconds left in the game to force overtime.  That’s right – the Wings were a half-minute away from hoisting Lord Stanley.  The Cup had been polished.  The champagne was in the locker room.  All they had to do was weather the storm, and they couldn’t.

So, its off to Pittsburgh for game 6 in what will undoubtedly be a crazy atmosphere, as their fans now have a glimmer of hope.  Again.

Cup Memories

In a Playoff season that started with much anticipation and excitement on my part, the Wings are on the verge of winning the Stanley Cup on home ice, and once again I am trembling with excitement.

This playoff run has been especially special to me, mostly due to the happenings in my personal life that have been occurring before and during this season’s Cup run.  My life has changed in pretty dramatic ways in the last year, but at the same time, it hasn’t really changed at all – both of which are very good things, albeit rather confusing to anyone not inside my head.  And when I look back, I realize that many special moments in my life have been punctuated by the Wings capturing sports most treasured trophy.

The first cup for the modern Wings was in 1997, which was the year I graduated from high school.  In fact, I watched the final period and the subsequent celebration from the all-night senior party at my school.  The following year they won again, and I remember being the midst of my first “real” and “serious” relationship of my “adult” life – and yes, all of those quotation marks are necessary, in retrospect.  I had completed a year of college, and things were pretty tumultuous at the time.  When they won again in 2002, I had recently returned from a fishing excursion with my father (during which we missed one of the greatest games in Wings history), gotten a new car and felt on top of the World.  I remember being hammered drunk at The Downtowner in downtown Houghton, MI and watching coach Scotty Bowman lacing up his skates before hoisting the final cup of his stellar career.

And its only fitting that as the Wings are on the verge of their 4th cup in 11 seasons, my life is at its most crucial and exciting period to date, one that is so real and genuine in its importance that its hard to overstate.  And for the first time, the memories of right now will resonate throughout my life like none before it.

Go Wings!

Off to see the Wizard

For those who aren’t following the NHL Playoffs, Detroit’s Dominic Hasek has been both brilliant and boneheaded in these playoffs.  He almost single-handedly won game 2 for the Wings, and almost single-handedly lost game 4.  He was replaced by Chris Osgood in that last game at about the halfway mark after surrendering a pair of goals in a short span for the fourth time in the series.  Yeah, you read that right – he’s given up back-to-back goals in less than a minute three times, with the other breakdown spanning about 2 minutes.  Obviously, for a Hall of Fame net minder on a team whose only acceptable Playoff outcome is to get at least to the Conference Finals, this is totally unacceptable.

So, for tonight’s game 5, with the series returning to Detroit tied 2-2 with Nashville, Chris Osgood is starting, and I couldn’t be happier.  Its not that I’m glad the Wings threw away a stranglehold on the Predators in this series, but I’ve always been a big fan of Ozzy, since he arrived back in the early 90’s as Tim Cheveldae’s backup.  And he’s never been a better goalie than he is right now.  He’s got all the talent he’s ever had, now combined with the cool, calm and collected demeanor that only a seasoned veteran can posses.

Its going to be a great day – awesomely warm and sunny, and I’m gonna get my drink on watching some hockey.  Damn I love Playoff hockey!

Finally – a restful Sunday!

For the first time in quite a while, I feel rested following the weekend.  I’m tired and could easily take a nap, but I’m not to-the-bone exhausted and feeling miserable like has been the case recently.  Its probably because of the awesome Sunday Carrie and I had, which consisted of getting out of bed before 6 (if memory serves – I didn’t pay much attention to the clock) eating breakfast by 8 and bouncing around the house getting small, easy tasks done.

At around 12, we headed out to Best Buy so I could spend my B-day gift card I received from her parents and then on to go ice skating at 12:30.  When we got home at around 2, we decided on pizza and salad, after which we took a nap for a little over an hour until around 4:30.

The rest of the evening consisted of us doing nothing, more or less, with me formatting and reinstalling XP on her PC and getting it on the network, and her doing some baking.  We didn’t get to bed until around 10, which is late for us, but even with that, I still feel more awake and energetic than I have in I don’t know how long.

That’s good, too, as I was worried I was gonna be tired, a problem that would compound itself this week, as I have 2 hockey games to watch, both of which are later than normal.

Oh, and go Wings!

Unfinished Business

I’m so excited that I’m almost quivering.  Twelve hours to go… plus another several weeks, hopefully, until its all over with for the year.  And I have a real sense of cautious optimism.  But, then again, when haven’t I come spring time?  Well, ok, I was more pessimistic in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but c’mon – that was a much different Red Wing team than what exists now.  In fact, it was a different team last year as well.  This year’s team is better, though you wouldn’t know it by listening to all the pundits around the hockey news world.

Of course, the national perception of the Wings is no different than it has been in recent years heading into the playoffs – these Wings are too small, too vulnerable and too heavily based on finesse play.

Forget the nagging fact that the Wings were remarkably close to winning the Western Conference Finals last year against Anaheim, who went on to win the Cup.

Forget the nagging fact that late in Game 5, with the series tied at 2 games apiece, the Wings were leading when a questionable penalty was called on them, resulting in a power play that the Ducks capitalized on, sending the game into OT, where the Ducks ultimately won the game.

Forget the nagging fact that in Game 6 of that series, the Wings were down 4-1 in the 3rd period, and managed to claw their way back to being down by only 1 goal, which preceded one of the most intense offensive attacks I’ve ever seen in hockey or any other sport for that matter.  Not knowing any better, you would have thought the ice was, in fact, heavily slanted toward the Ducks’ goalie.  Those Wings were close.  Incredibly close.

And forget the nagging fact that this seasons’ Wings team is better.

Now, I’m not saying there’s any injustice in the result of last year’s Playoff run.  No, bad calls are made, great attacks are stymied and great teams are made to appear meek.  That’s hockey.  That’s life.  What I’m saying is that last year, the exact same things were being said about the Wings as are being said now – they’re too old, too soft and too small.  All that bullshit rhetoric stopped once the Wings reached the Western Conference Finals last Spring.  But its April, so its time for it to begin once again.

Today marks the first day…

Today marks the first day of the year where it actually felt like spring as I left the house.  Even at 5:00AM, it was warm and inviting.

Today marks the first day that we won’t have to make any more trips back to the apartment.  That’s right – no more moving our crap and no more cleaning.

Today marks the first day that we can finally concentrate solely on unpacking.  And, with any luck, we may just have a house devoid of boxes by August.

Today marks the first day of what I imagine will be a pretty damn good month.  With Mario Kart Wii coming the day after my birthday and finally having some time to devote to SSB Brawl, I’m a happy guy.

Today marks the first day of the last month that Carrie and I won’t have season passes to Cedar Point.  The park opens on May 10th, and I think we’re going on the 13th or 14th.  We’ve never had passes before, and we’re pumped.  Get yours!

Today marks the first day of a month in which the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs begin.  The Detroit Red Wings are, once again, one win away from clinching the President’s Trophy as the NHL’s best regular season team.  Again.

Today is a good day. 

March 26th, 1997

I was reminded today of my most proud moment as a Detroit Red Wings fan: The March 26th Bloodbath, or whatever you want to call it.  Wikipedia has a good detailed description of the incident, but here’s a quick summary…

The Wings and Colorado Avalanche had been rivals with increasingly-rising hatred and competition between them as both teams were high flying, hard hitting NHL powerhouses in the mid-to-late 90’s.  In game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference Finals, Colorado’s Claude Lemieux checked Detroit’s Kris Draper from behind into the boards, and subsequently finished his “check” by shoving Draper’s face into the glass.  Draper left the game with a dismantled face that required reconstructive surgery and his jaw being wired shut.  Not only that, but Draper wasn’t able to return to hockey until the middle of the following season – some 7 months later.

The Wings and Avs had played 3 games during the regular season prior to March 26th, each with a level of intensity that made obvious the incredible level the rivalry had reached.  This game, however, was different.  Tensions started to rise early in the 3rd period, and finally at about 18 minutes in, a huge brawl erupted, sparked in part by Igor Larionov’s hit on the Avs’ Forsberg.  Chaos further ensued as Darren McCarty (Draper’s line-mate on the famous “Grind Line” – heavy hitting, hard skating players) sucker-punched Lemieux, and basically just pounding on him.  Of course Lemieux, being the pansy he is,  collapsed to the ice, essentially curling up into the fetal position.  Suddenly, Colorado’s goalie Patrick Roy came rushing down in defense of his teammate.  In hockey, this is a big no-no.  Since fighting is allowed (though penalized), there’s an unwritten rule that the fights have to be even – 5 players on each side.  With Roy joining the fray, the balance was thrown off.

Detroit’s Brendan Shanahan saw Roy coming down to tackle McCarty, and intercepted the goalie with a mid-air hit, sending Roy to the ice (at the 1:45 mark of the video).  Detroit’s goalie, Mike Vernon, was well on his way to take of Roy at this point, and subsequently pulled him out to engage him.  The two goalies fought a damn good fight, with Roy receiving the worst of the damage.  It should be noted that Vernon is about 5″ shorter and significantly lighter than Roy.

Once the brawls were cleared, there was a lot of blood on the ice, and the arena was absolutely out of control, and rightfully so.  The Wings went on to win the game in overtime on a goal by McCarty (who was not a frequent scorer), 6-5.

And the Wings went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1997 & 98.

Watch the video here.   It still gives me goosebumps.