I woke Saturday morning with the world’s worst headache. My mouth was dry, tasted like cotton wrapped in sandpaper covered in sawdust. I had a tiny paper American flag in one of my pigtails and a red white and blue streamer stuck to my flip flop. For a few brief moments I wasn’t sure where I was.
You might be inclined at this point to chuckle and perhaps nod in bemused understanding, perhaps as you pull an American flag out of one of your pigtails too, or wonder how you made it through 9 rounds of beer pong. But alas…
I didn’t wake up hungover from holiday festivities. I woke up with a splitting headache because I realized the Wings had not yet signed Filppula.
Nooooo- I am not as big a loser as this sounds. See, I was drunk and passed out long before fireworks on the 4th. What can I say, you start drinking champagne at a beach house party in Hermosa at 2 pm and see if you make it past 10 PM…. I dare you. I triple dog dare you.
Slight breach of dog daring etiquette aside,
July 5, 9:00 AM PST, The Wings had not yet signed Filppula…
I’m not saying I think he’s the most important piece of the Red Wing puzzle, but what the HEDHS- is Valtteri Filppula doing, 5 days after free agency still not signed…?????
Of course we knew going into July 1 that Filps was gonna look for offer sheets, but I naively thought that as the weekend approached without any word, that Filps would cave and be back within the fold in time for the annual Ilitch Family Barb-e-que.
By noon Saturday I was scrounging the web for rumors- and when I saw speculation that his agent had been talking to the Canucks, I was not pleased.
Detroit Fans like myself like to think our Wings are perfect, the team is perfect, the organization is perfect and no one in their right minds would even think of leaving just for money or ice time or a chance to be a star.
Not without good reason- I mean let’s face it, the Wings are perfect…
More so, I like to believe that for a professional hockey player, the only thing- the most important things are winning, the pursuit of excellence, and love of the game. Personally I can’t understand why anyone would want to leave the Red Wing organization.
Seems I always romanticize the Wings, wear my heart on my sleeve when it comes to this team.
One of the things that makes the Red Wing organization so great is that some of the best to ever play make sacrifices for the opportunity to be a part of it all. Everyone on the team makes monetary sacrifice, for the good of the team. Stevie Y did, Igor did, Brett Hull did, Nic Lids does, Ozzie does. Hank, Dats are underpaid by market standards. Stuart could have gotten more, so too could have Hossa. McCarty would come back if they gave him two sticks, a mouth guard and a roll of athletic tape, on a hand shake.
So I am disappointed in Filppula that he has taken it to this level.
But when a late offer sheet from Vancouver was rumored to appear one day ago, and now today as Filps exercises his arbitration rights, I am forced to realize that not everyone thinks like me.
So Filps goes to arbitration… sigh.
Foolish girl, get over it. Some would say I should be praising the kid for having the stones to take this to arbitration and try to get as much money/time as he can. That its just business. Except its not. I need to believe its more. Things like this remind me that its not.
Ken Holland’s reaction? He basically said “Valtteri protected himself, its fine, we’ll get a deal done end of July.”
Good thing Ken Holland is less emotional about the team than me.
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