If it sucker punches like a duck, gets beaten down like a duck, dives like a duck, it might be Corey Perry….so shoot to kill, shoot to kill my Wingnuts, we ain’t huntin’ rabbits these days..
The Good: The Kapten and the Kill
Its quite something when the Detroit Red Wings can elevate their game to a level that surprises me. My expectations, based on the standard they have set over these last 18 years is already so high, and I have seen so much brilliance from this team that really, the idea that they can elevate their game beyond something I have already seen is unfathomable. And yet last night, there were a couple of moments that took my breath away. Namely the Kapten and the Kill.
The Kapten
No sooner had the cartoon talk bubble over my head (which held the following words ‘Don’t be so sure about OT, Vancouver hit it twice in the last 44 seconds of Thursday’s game”) dissipated, had Nic Lidstrom skated in with the puck, took a decent shot, WAITED patiently, got his own rebound and popped it over the stick side. It was so carefully crafted, patient and clearly executed, it was as if only Nic was moving at normal speed and some "Wizard" had slowed time down for the rest of us. Not another player on the puck or the D, just Nic, a spot light, the puck and Hiller yelling “NNNNNOOOOOOwwww”. Time stood still for all but Nico.
(Does anyone know if Ozzie was on the ice at this time? Maybe its a stretch to say Chris Osgood can manipulate the time-space continuum, but I'm just saying... pay NO attention to that man behind the curtain.)
Game Winner- The Captain. A beautiful shot. 50 seconds left. Kapten, Min Kapten. Nic was everywhere in this game. His presence has not so offensively been felt on the ice in a long time.
Confession time: I have been worried about Lids offensively this year, ever since the eye injury in September. In early October and November it looked to me like he was having trouble adjusting to the visor, his peripheral vision seemed to be off, his trademark wicked slappers from the point felt a little off to me, and he certainly wasn’t hitting the back of the net like we all expect a “Lidstrom Skarskild” to do.
Worse, I began to think that it wasn’t a good idea for Nico to take so many one timers from the point. (Go ahead, gasp.) Maybe something was wrong, maybe he was succumbing to age…I even told my brother once “Something is wrong with his eyesight, and it make me nervous when Nic is the guy always trying to put the puck on net, it usually means we aren’t gonna win the game.”
Go ahead, take a moment to curse me. I deserve it. Done? Good. Please, allow me to eat some crow.
For the most part I have kept such opinions to myself. Good lord, you don’t think I’d really say something like that aloud? It would be like saying “Stop throwing Octopi in the playoffs” or “Steve Yzerman’s back never really hurt him that bad.” Certain excommunication from Hockeytown.
Excommunication from Hockeytown is a brutal affair let me tell you. I have seen it, I know. Admittedly it used to be worse when Scotty Bowman was on the Judicial Affairs committee, (My god the stoning by frozen puck was a horrific sight) but the current incarnation is nothing to shrug at.
Mike Ilitch, Ken Holland and Steve Yzerman preside over the proceedings where they read your offenses to a crowd of millions congregated in Hart Plaza while everyone chants “Hey Hey Hockeytown” over and over while banging their sticks against the cement. They dress you in a make shift sweater, two pieces of jersey sewn together, one half a Patrick Roy Colorado Avs jersey, the other half a Chris Pronger Mighty Ducks jersey (sometimes it’s a Le Mew/Pronger jersey). They make you wear a Tim Cheveldae Goalie Mask (backwards) with Bob Probert’s hockey pants. This year they added the Winter Classic Leggings to the ensemble. Once your offenses have been read to the crowd, they tie you to the front of the Zamboni, prop your arm up pointing to the sky and put a goalie stick carved into the shape of a torch in your hand, forcing you into the Statue of Liberty Pose, and they drive the Zamboni up Woodward where the Hockeytown civilians throw Octopi at you for nearly a mile. They deposit you about 3 miles out, at 8 Mile Road, leaving you with nothing to wear but those leggings , jersey and mask (not sure why they take Probert’s pants back…) and a handful of used ticket stubs, pointing to I-75 and saying, “Chicago is about 280 miles, maybe they’ll take you in, but you are dead to us here in Hockeytown now.”
Thank goodness I have seen the error of my ways as these playoff started and thank goodness I had Nico to show me the way. “In Nico we trust” can be added to the list (In Holland we Trust, In Ilitch we Trust, In Yzerman we Trust”)
Nico was brilliant in the CBJ Series. He and Rafs are as symbiotic a team as Pavel and Henrik, and more so. And he is, as always, the most brilliant defenseman on ice ever. But in this first game against the Ducks, where B-raf is out, and Lilja is out, hamstringing our well-oiled defense, there were two people that had to be brilliant in this game: Ozzie and Nico.
The Kapten did not let us down last night. All of the sudden he was everywhere, tons of shots from the point, smacking glass so hard I jumped in my seat 2000 miles away. His first goal just the lift we needed to get the jump on the Ducks, and his game winner a work of art.
In Nico We Trust, the Kapten is in it to win it at age 39.
The Kill
That second period kill on Homer’s even up penalty? Holy Shixa people, did somebody step on a duck?????….The way the Wings cycled in those 20 second shifts: jump on the ice, play monkey in the middle, toss the puck down the ice as if you didn’t have an opponent, back to bench, next line repeat….Wings completed at least 4 of these cycles- and they were brilliant. The Ducks didn’t get one shot on goal that entire penalty. I have never seen anything like that execution. Damn.
Finally, A Tip of the Hat to Jiri Hudler for coming back and playing in this game, and taking some awesome shots on goal. Gosh I just LOVE you Huds….I love your style of play, I love your contribution to this team, I love your skill and your heart and courage. Jiri Hudler, a true Red Wing, through and through.
The Bad and the Bad Ass: 10 stitches and A beat down
This is what I was afraid of. This is what I was afraid of. This is why I so desperately wanted San Jose to beat the Ducks. This is why I hate the f**king Ducks, this is why, this is why, this is why.
Intent to harm off the puck malicious thuggery. And anyone who doesn’t agree must be related to Chris Pronger or Claude Le Mew. Look, its really simple. On a street, on a football field, on a fricking Rugby field Dumbazz Mike Brown’s hit on Jiri Hudler is Assault and Battery. It’s a frickin’ crime. Intentional, malicious, looking to take someone out of a game or a series.
It was an elbow and a high stick, chipped up under the visor. 10 stitches way too close to the eye. No justification and no place in the game for this kind of play. Not even your most diehard “olde tyme” hockey fan can justify that “play”. Mike Brown thought he’d take a fucking cheap shot off the play against Hudler, who had been making his presence known earlier in the game, and Brown decided to teach a “pest” a lesson.
Brown tried to take Jiri out “Duck style”, which is to say “with intent to injure/maim and take a guy out, even at the cost of a career”.
It was like using a bazooka to shoot quail. Farm raised, hand fed quail in a fenced pasture.
And its illegal on and off the ice. Brown should be suspended at least 2 games. Not just because of the severity of the thuggery, but because otherwise, someone on the Wings team will seek revenge. Which worries me because Dmac isn’t on the roster. We don’t have a true enforcer. Kopy and Ericsson are the closest we get to ‘enforcers” these days.
Speaking of Johnathan Ericsson. Nice Job Kiddo taking down Corey Perry. You had him all the way bro, he practically “Le Mewed” on you. Of course I am not an advocate of the fighting, but Kid you are a bad azz, and you so clearly won that fight. It was brilliantly executed and you took out one of the most evil dudes in the NHL. Given what that team did to Huds, and given the perception that the Wings can’t stand up for themselves in a physical series, I am actually please by the fact you took on one of their biggest thugs and beat him down.
The Ugly: Where to begin...
Insert cheap shot at Pronger joke here. Or Parros, depending on how you feel about Porn ‘Stache.
Well the ugly was the physicality and the Intent to Harm mentality. Its why I will hate this series the entire time. Except that one thing is clear- if the Ducks get into penalty trouble, the Wings will make them pay.
Wings were 50% on the PP and 100% on the Kill- Suck it Ducks. Maybe you should think about this, long and hard, like the 3rd grade was on Pronger….
Damn it, sitting through this series may damn well kill me. Its as stressful as sitting through the Colorado series’ of old. Only worse, because we have to worry about injuries too.
Game 2, coming up, hopefully another serving of Cold Duck. Go Wings.
2 comments:
I actually kind of like Parros. I find him intriguing. Why would a Princeton educated guy with an economic degree be a goon? Obviously, so he can play hockey, but still. It's...interesting, all the same.
I have no opinion on him as a hockey player, tho, since I've never seen him actually play.
So wish the Wings would go back to playing this style of game. The last two have been flat, and full of us hitting them and focusing on the hit instead of them trying to hit us while we focus on the play.
Of course, they're gettin' some help from those guys in stripes too, but that goes without saying.
Wings need to start playing their game again and now.
Send them this post Juice so they remember what that's like.
Post a Comment