Adventures of A Red Wings Packrat: Jersey Foul Edition...

I just so happen to be the proud-ish owner of a Red Wings jersey foul. I say “proud-ish” because after all these years, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. I’ve had it for at least eight years (it was an integral part of my ’02 Cup celebration), but I’m not exactly sure when it came into my possession. I have no idea where my mom found it. It’s a baseball-style jersey that says “Red Wings” on the front and has Shanny’s name on the back. It’s officially licensed stuff, so I’m not 100% sure it qualifies as a foul. Either way, it’s awesomely bad.

Back in ’02, I was but a high school sophomore. The Wings were kind enough to win the Cup the night before the last day of school/final exams. The next day, I wore the jersey foul since wearing a real hockey jersey to school in June would’ve been a poor life decision. One of my best friends happened to show up in an Yzerman semi-jersey that day, too. Somehow, in our excitement, we ended up nicknaming each other after the players on our backs. I became Shanny and she became Stevie. This was ironic because my favorite player was Stevie and hers was Shanny.

That day was also the end of the year pool party for a school club. At the party, we assigned Wings player names to all of our friends. An extremely studious friend became Igor Larionov. A talkative one became Brett Hull. Someone else became Sergei Fedorov because we felt like he had to be represented at the party and nobody else fit. I think there was also a Luc Robitaille. Nobody else there had the slightest idea what we were talking about. I’m fairly certain that most of them wouldn’t have known the Wings had won the Cup if we hadn’t shouted it at them multiple times. That didn’t stop us from finding a silver-ish bucket and making them pose for celebration shots like the team did on the ice. We also discovered that the people who were hosting the party owned an autographed Gordie Howe stick which they let us take pictures with, but that’s not really the point. In more on-topic news, a red and white jersey foul paired with a turquoise beach wrap with killer whales on it makes a fantastic outfit.

Those same jerseys were worn down to the city a few days afterward when my dad took us to the celebration parade. It was the first we’d been able to attend. It was sweltering. Once again, the Shanny jersey foul saved me with its short sleeves and breathable fabric. I’m fairly certain it was almost seven years before the jersey foul made it out of my closet again to see the light of day.

Last spring, when the Wings were in the Finals, that same friend from high school and I decided to watch one of the road games down at Hockeytown Café. I’d worn most of my Wings shirts already, so I decided to throw on the Shanny foul for nostalgia’s sake. Imagine my surprise when my friend showed up at my front door wearing the very same Steve Yzerman semi-jersey she’d worn for our fake celebration all those years earlier. It was an awesome moment in our friendship. Of course, the Wings went on to lose the game, further cementing my refusal to watch another Finals game at Hockeytown ever again. (I was also there for the 3OT disaster in ’08.)

When I decided to stop being lazy and write something, I chose this jersey foul because I’ll be wearing it when Liz and I go to the Wings Alumni Softball Game tomorrow. She’ll also be rocking a jersey foul. I figure mine won’t be terribly out of place there since it’s a Wings softball game.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Part One...

The Good

• Let’s start with the obvious. Herm 2 Hockeytown was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. The extent to which the Red Wings community reaches amazes me. Not only did we bring Herm here to watch a game, but we also raised over $5,000 for Children’s Hospital. Hanging out at Hockeytown, singing Happy Birthday to Jimmy Howard, the tin foil hats, post-gaming at the Town Pump, and visiting Greektown in the middle of the night were just some of the highlights of the night. When I first started blogging, I swore I’d never meet anyone off of the internet. Boy am I glad I broke that promise. There are some truly great people out there in Red Wings Nation.
• One of the best legacies of H2H was the creation of the #redwingscommune a little while later. None of that would have happened without the real life connections we made that weekend. We had Commune gatherings all over the Metro area during the playoffs, and I really think we helped each other survive. We ended up with a whole array of lingo like donut goalies, Drunk Lebda, and Homerbait and there’s nobody I would rather have been with at the end of Game Five.
• At one of our Commune gatherings, we came up with an idea to have a Tin Foil Flashmob at the Joe. Originally, we wanted to rally people to wrap the building with tin foil, but decided that that idea was impractical. Somehow, it evolved into a plan to recruit dancers while passing out tin foil hats outside of the Joe. It was an absolutely absurd idea, but we had a blast. It was crazy and miles away from anything I ever imagined myself doing, but I loved being a part of it.
• Jimmy Howard was a revelation this season. I don’t think many people expected him to perform the way he did. I figured he was a temporary solution until one of the younger goalies was ready for the NHL. He looked awful during the beginning of the season. He managed to turn things around, though, and took over the starter’s job. He was nothing short of brilliant on several occasions. Here’s hoping he can keep it up next season.
• The Olympics were phenomenal. I could’ve done with a different ending, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t glued to my TV for the majority of the tournament.
• The fact that Andreas Lilja was able to come back after almost a year on IR was great. I really thought his career was over and that Mickey Redmond was crazy when he started talking about Lils being close to coming back during one of the broadcasts. He provided a much-needed steady influence on the third pairing.
• Game Seven in the first round and Game Four in the second round were amazingly fun. Watching Game Seven at Kukla’s with the commune was a blast, and the Mule’s rampage in Game Four was one for the ages. They were definitely the highlights of the playoffs.
• Brendan Shanahan joining Twitter was one of the best events of the season. That guy makes my life. I expected him to just twitter boring things, but he’s been nothing short of entertaining.
• The Versus announcers once again created another fun new word for us. I’m a big fan of “danglelicious” and feel like a bit of a failure because I don’t use it more often. I’m going to work on that over the summer.
• Another Versus highlight was the addition of Darren McCarty as an intermission commentator. He looked pretty nervous at first, but seems to have settled into the job. It’s nice to have someone on there to make their intermission reports tolerable. If you didn’t already love him, the time they called him a homer and he said that he had four reasons to be a homer surely melted your heart.
• Watching Jimmy Howard go after Sidney Crosby was one of the highlights of the regular season. It even inspired Henrik Zetterberg to deliver one of my favorite quotes of the year: “I saw Jimmy coming in with his glove and Crosby wasn’t there anymore.” Perfect.
• The post-Olympic run that the Wings went on was a blast. We’d been waiting all season for the real Wings to show up, and this stretch catapulted them into the 5th playoff seed. It was the only real display of Red Wing hockey that we got to see all season.
• The NHL’s History Will Be Made commercials were fabulous. Some of the ones toward the end were a little ridiculous, but the initial concept was brilliant. The Datsyuk/Zetterberg one was my personal favorite, though I might be slightly biased in that regard. Other than the fact that it featured my two favorite current players, I liked the fact that it required a little bit of hockey knowledge to understand the “What if” question.
  
• The speechless commercial that debuted during the Finals was pretty awesome, too.
• Johan Franzen didn’t quite live up to his mouthguard-snatching from last season, but I was a big fan of his diving pantomime during a game against Chicago.
  

On a personal note:

• Getting to know you crazy sunshines online and in real life made this season one of the most memorable ever, despite the frustration it induced. It truly was fantastic.
• Meeting Steve Yzerman in November was obviously one of my personal highlights. I still can’t really believe that actually happened.
• My friend getting her foot stuck in one of the seats at the Joe was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. She’s still a little bit bitter about the lack of help that she received from me and the fact that I wrote about it and mentioned the incident on TOV.
• I also managed to make it to more games this season than ever before. This included not one, but two playoff games. Sitting down by the glass with Sara and TPL Mom against San Jose was incredible.
• At one of those games, I got the opportunity to go out on the ice to participate in the turkey bowling game during intermission. I was an incredible failure at it, but my team still managed to win. We got free tickets to another game and got to keep our turkeys. This resulted in my little brother wandering around the Joe carrying a frozen turkey for the next two periods. The pictures we have are priceless.

Red Wings Stats and Trivia Geekfest...

I’ve never been much of a stat-head before. I think people tend to put too much stock in them a lot of times. I am, however, absolutely enthralled with the game notes packet I got when I was covering the suite event on Tuesday (and that Drew was kind enough to leave for me). I know it’s a little weird, but it is what it is. These were current at the start of the Edmonton game, so the numbers may have changed a little bit, and I’ve updated things like their record and points. I’m not messing with the percentages and decimals and things like that, though.

• In one-goal games, including the one against Edmonton, the Wings are an impressive 19-6-13 (Well, not so much the 13, but you get the idea.). Being able to win tight games like that is going to serve them well down the road. They don’t fare quite as well in two- and three-goal games (10-7 and 11-10 respectively).
• The Wings have a 22-29 record all time in the shootout. That’s one that I will never understand.
• This season, the Wings are 25-14-7 when outshooting their opponent. They’re also 13-7-6 when being outshot. I know at least a couple of those 13 wins that were Jimmy specials.
• They have almost identical records against the divisions in the Western Conference: 10-6-3 in the Central, 10-6-4 in the Pacific, and 11-6-3 in the Northwest. That’s consistency.
• This is one of my favorite breakdowns: March was their best month by far with 25 points. Next was November (Remember when we all thought that would be the turning point of the season?) with 17 points. December and January each brought 16 points (Side note: Edmonton didn’t have a single win in January. Ouch.). They only got 13 points in October. They picked up 6 points in February, but that was the Olympic Break so it doesn’t really count. I guess it’s good that they’re peaking at the right time.
• The boys have scored 62 first period goals, 70 second period goals, and 71 third period goals. In contrast, opponents have scored 59 first period goals, 67 second period goals, and 62 third period goals. (This one was updated to include the Edmonton game.)
• The Wings had outshot opponents 827-695 in the third period prior to the Edmonton game. The other period breakdowns aren’t that interesting. I like the third period shot differential though.
• The Wings rank second in the NHL in terms of penalties taken.
• The boys have been outscored 5 on 5 this season 130-140 (updated to include Edmonton). They’ve also been outscored 6-7 4 on 4. They’ve also scored ten empty net goals.
• Z is only 2 for 11 in the shootout. Even Jason Williams (Who?) is 3 for 8.
• Nik Kronwall leads the team in shorthanded points with four. Darren Helm leads them in shorthanded goals with three.
• As of Tuesday, the Wings had lost 300 man games to injury this season. Edmonton, in contrast had lost 464. That divides out to more than 5.5 whole seasons for the Oilers. Ouch.
• Jimmy Howard’s starting streak is the longest for a Detroit goalie since Tim Cheveldae started 29 in a row in ’91-’92.
• Prior to the Edmonton game, the penalty kill had been clicking at a rate of 94%. They’d killed off 63 of 67 penalties in that span. In the previous twelve games, they’d killed off 33 of 34 penalties for a rate of 97%. Where were those numbers during the playoffs last year?
• Datsyuk has had the team’s longest point streak this season. It lasted six games from February 13th to March 9th.
• Homer had the team’s last hat trick on the road in February of ’07 against Nashville.
• Brendan Shanahan was the last Wing to have a four-goal game in March of ’01 against Calgary.
• Sergei Fedorov was the last Wing to have a five-goal game the day after Christmas in ’96. That event was near and dear to my heart because I’d unwrapped a spiffy new #91 jersey the day before and was wearing it as I sat on the floor and watched that game. It was my first moment of belief in the Hockey Gods, as I was sure that he was scoring all of those goals for me. Little did I know that just a short while later he would fall from my favor. No Red Wing has ever had a five-goal game on the road.
• Valtteri Filppula has taken the team’s last home and last road penalty shots. He scored in December ’07 at the Joe, but missed this past October in Buffalo.
• Kirk Maltby is the last Wing to have scored two shorthanded goals in a road game. He did it against San Jose all the way back in October of ’02.
• The Wings are ranked 2nd in the NHL in shots on goal per game, averaging 33.3.
  

And now for the fun player facts:

• Chris Osgood likes the Black Eyed Peas. He’s got some pretty questionable taste in music.
• Dan Cleary, on the other hand, likes The Killers, which I can at least respect.
• Derek Meech idolized Steve Yzerman growing up.
• This one is one of my favorites: Patrick Eaves lists Five Guys Cheeseburgers as his favorite food. I would have to agree with him that they’re quite delicious.
• Kirk Maltby likes Metallica. Bring on the jokes.
• Jason Williams (Who?) and Brett Lebda both list sushi as their favorite food. Ew.
• Lebda’s idea golf foursome would include Tiger Woods, Megan Fox, and Robin Williams. Go ahead and make your jokes now.
• Kris Draper’s favorite food is steak with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Now that’s a meal I could enjoy. Not only are we name twins, but we’re apparently food soulmates as well. Mmmm steak and potatoes…
• Henrik Zetterberg’s favorite sport other than hockey is kite surfing. He also likes steak and Bob Dylan. I’m not 100% sure what kite surfing is, but I can definitely get behind the steak and Dylan.
• Darren Helm’s ideal golf foursome would be Tiger Woods, Shaq, and Mike Myers. That’s quite an eclectic group.
• Todd Bertuzzi’s favorite musical artist is James Taylor, which I find surprising (assuming I’m thinking of the right James Taylor).
• Nik Kronwall’s hockey superstition is that he always puts his skates on in the same order. This amused both Drew and me because, well, there are really only two options for the order in which one puts on skates or shoes.

Interview with Guilherme from Red Wings Brasil...

Well, I'm off on vacation living it up in the warmth and sunshine, so SSDD's been left in the capable hands of Blogger's auto-post feature. Today kicks off a three-part series of interviews with Wings bloggers who live overseas. Check back throughout the week for the rest of the stuff I've set up for your reading pleasure.

My "guest" today is Guilherme from Red Wings Brasil. It's written in Portuguese, but I'm a frequent visitor thanks to the magic of Google Translator. I highly recommend that you check out their work.

How did you first become a fan of the Red Wings? Why did you choose them over other pro teams?

Like many others, videogames. I used to play a lot of Mega Drive, and chose the Wings because I liked the colors. That time the team was just "Detroit" for me, no franchise names. I didn't have cable back then, but some times I went to my aunt's house (with cable) and was able to see some games. The only one I can remember was March 27, 1996. Great game to grab a new fan. I finally put cable at my house in 2001, so the 2002 Cup was the first I ever saw.

How large is the community of Wings fans where you live? Are there a lot of other NHL fans?

I never met another fan in person. We gather at social networks like Orkut or Yahoo Groups. There are 2 communities on Orkut about the Wings (one with 470 members and another with 250), and the Yahoo group about the NHL have 245 members. Some members of those groups founded, in 2002, the online magazine SlotBR, where they write objetive articles about everything in the NHL. There are also blogs on the Rangers, Habs, Hurricanes, Leafs, Denver, Kings, Bruins and the Ducks.

What do you do to follow the team? Is it difficult to see games or find news about the Wings or the NHL in general?

Watching the games is a story in itself. Hockey was very popular in Brazil during the 90's, even bigger than the NBA. But in 2002 or 2003 ESPN International started dimming coverage. Games that were live on primetime began to be broadcasted in-tape at times like 3 a.m. Playoffs were still live, but that was it. During the lockout ESPN International changed bases: they started offices here in Brazil, so the programming was chosen by brazilians. ESPN turned in to a soccer-oriented channel (weird, since we already have ESPN Brasil, already soccer-oriented). NHL broadcasts stopped after the lockout.

Following the team then was only possible through the internet. For some years I only checked sites like nhl.com, espn.com or Yahoo!, but recently started to read blogs, both team specific and NHL in general. Watching the games is hard, we have to rely on illegal streaming and bumpy broadband, so a lot of times I'm left to online radios.

What made you decide to start blogging about the Wings?

This one will probably be best answered by Humberto. I just joined the blog this offseason, after I spent the last playoffs commenting everything Wing-related. My comments might be simple "who's on first line" or well developed texts, so the guys decided to invite me.

Have you ever had the chance to see them play in person?

Unfortunately not. Yet.

What is your favorite hockey memory?

The first Stanley Cup I ever saw, the 2002. It was the first time I could watch all the games, and the Wings had that ridiculous Hall of Fame roster, it was amazing. The best moment is probably the empty-netter by Brendan Shanahan, and him and Steve Yzerman copulating on the ice after it. Awesome.

Who is your favorite player on the roster right now? Why?

Absolutely Darren Helm. I got to know hockey through videogames, and Helmer is the prototypical cyberplayer: faster than hell, throws his body around, wins faceoffs, is vibrating, faster than hell (yes, again), and now he's getting confident he can score. I also like Zetterberg, and my only jersey is a #40. (by the way, I coined the phrase "Helm is God")

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Just to thank for the opportunity. And I have to say I really like your blog, and while I envy all of the North Americans with hockey on TV, I envy you the most because you met The Captain.

Confessions of a Red Wings Fan...

The Wings’ current injury situation has become downright farcical. In light of the epidemic, I can only assume that we, the citizens of Hockeytown, have done some things to offend the Hockey Gods. Somebody out there spent the summer punching babies and it’s about time we got to the bottom of that. We need to take this opportunity to confess our sins so that we can atone for them and return to those days of sunshine and joy when the Hockey Gods smiled fondly down upon us from the rafters of the Joe. I'm coming clean about some things I've done that may have invoked their ire, and I'm joined by some other Wings fans in the hopes that we can appease the Hockey Gods.

Now I know the last couple of games since I started working on this post have been alright and the Wings seem to have escaped injury, but there have still been a couple of close calls (Rafalski and Helm took pucks to the face and Lebda looked like he might've been hurt for a while.) and I'm not willing to take any more chances.

So here goes nothing:

I, Kris, tormented my puppy during the playoffs by doing things like strapping a stuffed Al the Octopus onto her back (Look how defeated she looks here...poor Penny Lane.), putting red and white pompoms in her collar, dressing her up in a Shanny baseball-style jersey, and trying to train her to bark when the Wings scored. I may also at one point taken away all of her toys except her squeaky penguin chew toy so that she would be forced to gnaw on that one during the Finals. There was literally nobody happier to see the playoffs end than my dog.

I also admit to making fun of Valtteri Filppula’s hair. All the time. I’m truly sorry.

Over the summer, I clicked on a shortened link on Twitter and accidentally ended up on a puck bunny website. I sincerely apologize for this horrendous mistake and promise that it will never happen again.

At Hockeyfest, we sat on the bench and jumped over the boards like we were doing a line change. I’m pretty sure that this upset the natural order of things and was simply unacceptable. The fact that my sister can’t even skate and was pretending to take a shift at the Joe had to be deeply upsetting to the Hockey Gods. I’m so sorry for encouraging this type of behavior.

@RedWingsQueen19 chimed in with this confession:

I confess that I had so much hate towards Todd Bertuzzi and wished he was never aquired. I regret it, he proved me wrong so far

@jennbikegirl admitted to wishing injury on Brett Lebda:

My confession: when I heard about Raffy's back, my 1st thought was, why not Lebda? Basically wishing injury on him = bad!

Michael Petrella from The Production Line, however, had the most significant confessions to make. I think after reading his first story, all of the “intent to blow” nonsense will make sense:

I played hockey for a long time: I started skating as soon as I could stand up, and played competitive hockey all the way through college. I like to think of myself as a good sportsman, albeit one with a filthy mouth that never stopped running. Two stories stand out as examples of things I may have done to anger the Hockey Gods -- perhaps bad enough to create this rash of injuries to the team I love so dearly.

During a game I was playing in high school, I ended up on my butt, right along the goal line as a goal was scored against my team. It was so obviously a goal, and I figured everyone knew, that I reached in with my hand and angrily threw the puck back toward center ice in anticipation of another faceoff. But, it was must have been LaRue officiating because the ref skated over, waving emphatically "NO GOAL! NO GOAL! NO GOAL!" In my head, I'm thinking "really?" because I threw the puck only after I figured it was so apparent that everyone in the building saw it. Evidently, only I had seen it, and I didn't say a word. What I did amounts to no less than cheating, and I'm sure the Gods have had it in for me ever since. (P.S. the goal wouldn't have mattered as we lost by a good margin anyway...)

While in college, I was much more of a role-player, in the Kirk Maltby-mold, so I didn't get a ton of ice-time at that level, but cherished the few minutes I received every night. During the last weekend of the season (of my Junior year), we were playing in Wisconsin. We played back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday nights, as is pretty common in collegiate hockey. On Friday night, a senior who had played his heart out for our team for four years was injured by a fairly dirty hit. The kid got two minutes, but with a pretty severe knee injury, my teammate was going to miss his final game of collegiate hockey. I'll never forget his face - he was so upset because he never missed a team function, and now he was going to have to watch the last game of his college career from the press box. The following night, I spent every second of my ice-time aimed at retribution. I was offside more in that game than the rest of my collegiate career combined, because I didn't pay attention to the puck, only #21 in black. At one point, I even broke a stick on the back of his knee. As the final horn went, I took another three or four steps and tried my best to put him through the glass. He was about eight inches taller than me, so I ended up on the ice. I'll never forget what happened next because, even though these two stories aren't indicative of the kind of player I was or man I am, it taught me an important lesson. He took off his glove, and extending his hand to me, helping me back up. He said to me, "I know what you were trying to do, and I would have done the same. You played me hard, good game." Even though my teammate was the one on crutches, I couldn't have felt any worse.

I played hockey at some level for nearly twenty years, and it's fair to say that these two examples are the only ones I'm not proud of. And I'm just superstitious enough to think that the Hockey Gods noticed...

So there you have it, Hockey Gods. We’re all very sorry for the many things that we have done to offend you. We take full responsibility for our actions and hope that you can forgive us. Now can we please get back to our regularly scheduled programming of dominating performances and an elite roster? And, if it’s not too much trouble, could you throw some puck luck our way? We sure could use it.

Sincerely,
Hockeytown

So Long, Mac...

So Darren McCarty officially announced his retirement today (which was odd because I had been under the impression that it already was official, but that’s not really the point). Somehow, back when he announced it the first time, the news somehow got lost in the shuffle here at SSDD. But Mac deserves better than that. I always loved him, even in his bizarre goatee, weird colored hair, and Grinder days. He was one of those guys who you just loved to love because he always seemed like he was having a great time out there. It felt like every time he stepped out on the ice was the best moment of his life.

I was absolutely thrilled when he returned to Detroit for a shot at redemption. Remember in ’08 when he scored that goal in the first round against Nashville? Just try to convince me that you didn’t want to reach through your TV and give the man a hug. I could watch that goal celebration over and over again. Maybe it was just me, but that goal carried with it more than your usual excitement over a Wings’ playoff tally. I was proud. Really proud. It’s one of those little moments that hockey gives you that makes you keep coming back night after night no matter how rough things are. (And maybe, just maybe, someone out there who’s through some of the same things McCarty went through might find that goal meaningful.)

But that wasn’t even his most memorable goal. Oh no. He gave us this little beauty that went down as the game winner for the ’97 Cup.



Yeah that one. The one that we still can’t believe he scored twelve years later. Even Steve Yzerman didn’t believe that he scored that goal (“We were celebrating and the first guy I see is Stevie Yzerman in the pile. His eyes were as big as saucers and he said ‘What the [expletive] was that? I had no idea.” --For the record, that's exactly what was going through my mind at that moment, except I was a kid and didn't use words like that.). But really, what Mac will go down in Red Wings lore for is this:



I’m pretty sure I’ve already written about 37,856 words about that one moment in hockey history, so I won’t bore you with that. However, if you don’t watch that video at least 3 times a day, I’m afraid that I can’t consider you to be a real Wings fan.

This comment (yeah, I know, it’s from an Avs fan) from that Adrian Dater post does a pretty good job summing up one of the things that endeared McCarty to fans so much over the years:

I have love for Darren McCarty. On March 23, 2002, the Avs played the hated Red Wings at the Pepsi Center... this was the game where Hasek tried to fight Roy, but ended up stepping on a stick as he skated in and ended up on his keester. Anyways, I went to this game. My dad took me for my 14th birthday, got some great seats in the lower bowl. We made sure to show up early (we got out to one or two Avs games a season only because tickets were spendy and hard to come by). We were seated on the Red Wings side for warm ups, and I walked down to the glass and stared in awe as guys like Lidstrom, Yzerman, Shanny, and so on made it look so easy before the game.

OK, so here's my real story: at one point, McCarty skated by the boards and pointed at me (having that guy point at you as a chubby, awkward 14 year old certainly gets your attention). On his next go round the ice, he skated up with a puck, flicked it up and bounced it off the top of the glass back onto the ice. Next time he came back, except this time picked up a puck and threw it as he skated by -- except this time it sailed to far and ended up in the hands of a guy 4 rows behind me. Finally, one last time he skated around, picked up a puck, stopped at the glass, pointed at me and tossed a puck over the boards into my hands.

That was awesome. He had no reason to go out of his way and insure I got a puck, but he did. I was even wearing an Avalanche black practice jersey, but it didn't matter; he still saw the look on my face and made sure I got a puck. I still keep that puck on my desk up here at school in Washington. For that, I will always have some love for Darren. I had always seen him as an enemy goon, but there was nothing goonish about the way he made my day. The Avs lost, but the real memory of the day came from before the game thanks to a "hated rival".

I wish him the best.

I’m not usually one who’s inclined to agree with things said by people who support the Avalanche, but that was kind of classic Darren McCarty so I'll make an exception this one time. He's always been one of my favorites. I really do hope that the whole Versus thing works out. Maybe he’ll teach them how to run a hockey broadcast.

Wings 3, Rangers 1: Post Game Snipes...

• The first period was quite frustrating. It was one of the better opening periods the Wings have played this season, but they came out of it down 1-0. Luckily they were able to turn things around.
• The second and third periods seemed to go in slow motion. For those of you who think the Wings should move out to play at the Palace: watch the game tape from tonight and ask yourself if you’re really okay with the Wings having to play on ice like that at home on a regular basis. The second period seemed like it lasted for three years.
• Leino finally got benched again. Lo and behold, the Wings won. I’m pretty sure the Wings won last time he had to sit out too, but I’m not willing to go actually look it up. I prefer to make up facts that support my points. I don’t actually think he’s the reason the Wings have been losing, but he sure wasn’t helping either.
• Mickey Redmond actually agreed with the refs on the penalty shot call against the Wings. I’m taking that as a sign of the impending apocalypse. It turns out that we don’t have to wait until 2012 for the world to end.
• During the second intermission, John Keating tried to sing a line of “Pinball Wizard.” I had to blast my classic rock playlist on my laptop to keep from vomiting.
• Fortunately, Shanny’s interview salvaged that intermission. I miss the guy. He was always one of my favorites and as my friend-assigned alter-ego, he’ll always have a special place in my heart. He looked right at the camera and thanked the city of Detroit. It was a nice little moment.
• There was a second there when we thought the Wings had benefited from a bizarre intent to blow call. It turned out that the puck was never actually in the net, so maybe that will counteract Mickey’s support of the referees and keep the world from ending tomorrow.
• Cleary’s goal was a great little lucky bounce. It’s nice to see the Wings get one of those for a change. Especially in light of that puck that trickled through the Rangers’ crease in the first period and somehow managed to not hit a skate and bounce in.
• Draper’s empty netter made me laugh. The Rangers won the faceoff in the Wings’ zone, but it went right out to center ice. A few seconds later, Draper buried it to seal the win.
• Zetterberg’s tripping penalty on Avery was ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as Avery’s dramatic performance to sell the call. He surprised exactly no one by not missing a single shift. Later in the game, he missed a wide-open net and I laughed. Karma?
• I’m not used to getting this excited about regular season wins.
  

GP Answers:
1. There’s no word on the Wings’ starter as of now. Regardless of who is in net, will he be able to make enough saves for the Wings to win the game? That’s all we ask around these parts.
Absolutely. He stopped a penalty shot and kept the Wings in the game during their second third-period penalty kill. I’m still trying to catch my breath from watching the flurry of shots the Rangers had. He had a great game and it was a nice rebound from his previous outing.

2. There’s also no word on Brian Rafalski and his old-man back. Kindl’s been filling in admirably, so will he be able to keep it up if he’s called on again tonight? As I said in yesterday’s GP, I’m not entirely opposed to resting Rafalski as long a Kindl’s keeping things together.
Rafalski in. Kindl out. This question is irrelevant. Rafalski had a pretty darn good game, though. It didn't look like his back was bothering him. You know it's a rough season when you're excited about a Wing only suffering a short-term injury as opposed to a long-term one.

3. Will Datsyuk and Lidstrom decide to wake up and join the scoresheet today? Please.
Datsyuk scored a goal which Nick Lidstrom assisted on, and Lidstrom added another assist on the game-winner, so I guess the answer to this one is yes. Perhaps they sensed that the natives were getting restless because of their lack of production. Now they just need to keep it going.

4. How many saves will Brad Stuart make today? I kid, I kid…
None that I noticed, but he had another great game. And an awesome check on Anisimov. Mickey kept laughing at him for not having his head up.

5. Will the Wings actually show up to play for a change? This is a really depressing question to have to keep asking.
They actually looked awake during the first, which was a fantastic change of pace. They still found themselves down by a goal at the end of the period, but it wasn’t nearly as soul-crushingly depressing as a lot of the first periods they’ve played have been.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Jimmy Howard
See GP answer #1. I still can’t believe the Rangers didn’t score on that powerplay in the third.

Jonathan Ericsson gets the Golden Facepalm
Blown coverage led to the Rangers’ goal, and a hook that led to a penalty shot? Big Rig had a pretty rough game.

What I learned:
Basketball is the worst sport in the world.

Farewell Shanny...

I kind of missed the boat in terms of career eulogies for Brendan Shanahan on account of him choosing to retire during the busiest week of my life (See how I manage to deflect blame for it away from myself? That’s talent.) But I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t at least make a couple of comments on the career of the guy who was my second favorite hockey player for the better part of my formative years.

I vaguely remember being upset when the Wings traded away Paul Coffey. I have no idea why, but I’m assuming it had a lot to do with the fact that I was barely 10-years old and not particularly bright. I do, however, know that I took an immediate liking to the Wings’ new arrival. He could score and he could fight and a few of you might remember the little-known incident in which he clotheslined Patrick Roy. At some point after the ’02 Cup, he became know as my alter-ego. It was mostly because I wore a Shanahan walking-jersey-foul to school the next day when we went around bestowing Wings players’ names on all of our friends. It was okay though, because I was Irish (I say “was” because we recently discovered that we actually have Scottish blood, not Irish…) and I embraced it. I still miss hearing the Irish Jig blasting from the speakers at the Joe.

How many guys left in the league could put it all together like Shanny did? Not many. And I think we’re all a little worse off for that. He deserved a better ending than his break with the Devils prior to the start of the season.

As far as the jersey retirement debate goes…I don’t see it happening. If the organization had any intention of doing so, they wouldn’t have let the likes of Derek Meech take it. I would have no problem with the team choosing to retire it, but I’m not sure he spent enough time in Detroit to have earned a place in the rafters. He played too many games for too many other teams, and even though his strongest legacy will be as a Red Wing, I think that’s going to keep #14 in circulation. That being said, I would much, much rather see his number on a banner than Fedorov’s. This post from Malik has two articles from the Edmonton Journal that sum up why.