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Divers and Dives
by IwoCPO on 02/02/08 at 08:53 AM ET
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Scott Hannan was pushed. Brett Lebda did it. I saw it. Dominik Hasek dove. I didn’t see that but I can assume it. Hejduk’s goal should have counted, but it didn’t. And all of that made me smile last night, and still warms me this morning. Somewhere in Denver the 6 remaining Dive fans angrily switched back to the Oxygen Channel, convinced the world is against them.
And we laughed at them.
Over at Mile High Hockey they raged against the officiating, Joel Quenneville, Hasek, Mickey Redmond, providence and all that is wrong in their world. Here’s a few snippets:
“Review that goal!!!!!!!!!!”...because when one exclamation point isn’t enough, press the key down with your nose until the tears make it slippery.
“Even Altitude said that call was horrible! and they NEVER talk about officating.”...again with the exclamation points. That device should be outlawed for all men, except in Denver of course.
“Even the Detroit announcers said it was a bad call. And they are the biggest homers ever (worse than the Calgary announcers)”...No, no, no. Mick and Ken are honest, responsible tv journalists just like all regional announcers.
“If the roles were reversed Detroit would have gotten the benefit or at least a review.”...Please. Really? How many times (even though the call’s not reviewable) has Holmstrom been shafted in similar circumstances this year?
There’s more. They hate them some Wings, really hate Hasek, etc, etc. Too bad. Your coach hamstrung your team with a gameplan that, honestly, almost worked. No Smyth, no Sakic, no Stastny. No joy in Denver. I honestly thought this game would be a blowout after seeing Datsyuk’s first rush up ice. I think he skated through every player on the ice, then zig-zagged up and down the bench, in between each Dive, slapping them on the back of the head as he went. So, yeah, I thought a four or five goal deficit was realistic.
But Budaj kept them in it, and luckily so. As for the Dive gameplan, Uncle Mike has some thoughts.
“That’s exactly how the first round of the playoffs will be,” Babcock said. “The top seed against a team that can check, check and check and that’s what (the Avalanche) did.”
Check, check and check. Three checks according to Teddy. But wait. George says it was five.
Sipple
“A top seed playing against a team that believes if they check, check, check, check check that they have an opportunity,” Babcock said.
MBCQOTD
“I like checking. I like to say the word. ‘Check…check, check, check, check, check, checkitty, check, check, check. Try it Ansar. Say it. Just once. I’m not kidding. I’m not saying another word until you say ‘check.’ Hmmm, hmmmm. Say it. You did it. I heard it. Good job. Wanna sing a song? We’ve got pigs in a blanket back in the room because it snowed today. Malts showed up because he said there’s no snow days in hockey. Love that guy. Sundin drop his no trade clause yet? I’d trade him for Maltby straight up. Straight up Ansar.”
Over on the Denver side, they were still all upset. Seething. So angry.
“It’s a goal,” Hannan said. “I don’t even think I hit Hasek. I hit the side of the net. He flopped like he flops and they wanted to call it.”
Hasek, naturally, claimed utter and total innocence. I think.
“He definitely inferred with me,’’ Hasek said. “It was a good call because I could not move.’‘
Yes. Inferrence definitely occured.
Uncle Mike says we should expect more of the same as the playoffs get closer. Mediocre teams fighting for the 8 spot, stacking their entire organ-I-zation throughout the neutral zone, making no attempt to create anything other than a log jam. Uncle Mike says that will make his team better and that he thinks they’ll have plenty more games like last night’s snooze-fest to deal with that strategy.
But maybe not tonite in Boston. Okie, the high plains drifting lawyer who keeps us all in the game-day loop on the KK Wing message board, posted an article from this morning’s Boston Herald.
The Bruins got away with a defensive approach in Thursday’s 4-1 win in Ottawa, a game in which the Senators had control of the puck a significant amount of time. That won’t work against Detroit. The best defense against their skill is to carry the attack.
“Against a team like the Detroit Red Wings you won’t be able to sit back and protect the lead,” said Julien. “They’ll tear you apart. You’ve got to take it to them all night long.”
Cool with us.
Oh, and for the record? Sipple was right. It was five “checks”.
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Comments
Oh, and for the record? Sipple was right. It was five “checks”.
Babcock also made similar comments during a mini-interview with that hair-gel kid in the tunnel before the third period. Maybe that’s what Kulfan is quoting?
As for the non-goal, it looks to me like Hannan got bumped, caught himself on the goal, and then gave Hasek a nudge with his right hand/stick. And then Dom embellished it. A marginal call? Sure. But not completely devoid of merit.
I’m happy to view it as karmic payback for the dozens of uncalled stick/elbow shots delivered by Laperriere, Guite, Finger, McLeod, et al. Maybe Colorado should have spent more time actually trying to score?
Posted by shep from california on 02/02/08 at 12:03 PM ET
Hannan got bumped, caught himself on the goal, and then gave Hasek a nudge with his right hand/stick.
That’s exactly how I saw it, shep. That’s what I thought when I first saw it last night, and that’s what I think after seeing it again this morning.
Posted by BobTheZee on 02/02/08 at 12:45 PM ET
Somewhere in Denver the 6 remaining Dive fans angrily switched back to the Oxygen Channel, convinced the world is against them.
Your not kidding Chief. Yesterday, as I was putting together the GDT, the COL newspapers barely had a mention of last nights game; no preview, no recalling the days of intense hatred, nothing at all except for a few lines about Thoedore being replaced by Budaj. Of course rivalry implies some sort of competition, and thats not exactly what the ‘Dive have been known for the last few years is it??
Today, the Denver Post didn’t even bother to do a writeup on the game; they just used an AP article. You really could come the the conclusion the Blood Feud is dead; well except for the 6 fans left. Need further proof of the ‘Dive submission; The Rocky Mountain News, ran a nice “post-mortem” by Aaron Lopez:
The strategy, it seemed, was to lull the mighty Detroit Red Wings into a false sense of security.
Offer up an early five-on-three power play, get outshot by a 3-to-1 margin for much of the night and produce nothing on the power play.
Like some deranged version of the Jedi mind trick, it almost worked.
With Peter Budaj channeling his inner George Vezina, the Avalanche nearly pulled off one of the most unorthodox victories in franchise history Friday night.
And then Henrik Zetterberg and a crazy bounce foiled the plan.
Budaj stopped 34-of-35 shots, but Zetterberg’s wraparound goal with 2:20 remaining lifted the Red Wings to a 2-0 victory in front of a sellout crowd at Joe Louis Arena.
“The strategy was to come out hard and play them,” Avalanche defenseman Scott Hannan said. “You can’t be scared of a team like that. We played tentative for most of the game.”
Tentative would be a generous term.
The Avalanche managed only four shots on goal in the first two periods, threatening to break the franchise record of nine set on Jan. 18, 1981, back when Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios was a wee lad of 18 years.
Colorado finished with 15 shots against another Red Wings relic, goalie Dominik Hasek, who turned 43 earlier in the week.
“He could have been 11,” Colorado defenseman John-Michael Liles said. “We have to put forth a better effort than that offensively. We played decent defensively, but offensively we’ve got to put more pucks at the net and create more chances.” . . .
Despite the shot discrepancy, which at one point reached 27-4, the Avalanche nearly took a 1-0 advantage into the third period.
Milan Hejduk appeared to score with 8.7 seconds left before the second intermission, but the goal was immediately waved off by referee Greg Kimmerly. To the protests of Colorado, Kimmerly ruled that Hannan made contact with Hasek before the puck crossed the goal line.
“It’s a goal,” Hannan said. “I don’t even think I hit Hasek. I hit the side of the net. He flopped like he flops and they wanted to call it.”
Quenneville was upset that Hannan had been pushed into the crease by defenseman Brett Lebda before making contact with Hasek. Kimmerly agreed but said Hannan didn’t make an effort to get out of the crease.
“I didn’t see any contact,” Quenneville said. “It was a tough call. I disagreed with the call.”
The call turned out to be pivotal in the final period. Colorado took 11 shots in the game’s final 20 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Hasek from recording his 80th career shutout and his ninth straight victory against Colorado.
“We were looking to steal one there, given the circumstances,” Liles said. “But it’s got to be a full 60 minutes, especially against a team like that. It can’t be just 20 minutes. We were fortunate to be in the situation we were in.”
Hasek embellish??? You’ve got to be kidding, right???
Posted by Jeff OKWingnut from Quest for 12 on 02/02/08 at 01:01 PM ET
Dive fan? No one knows what that means except for a few in your blog club. You need a term dictionary so people can understand this site.
Posted by What is Dive? on 02/02/08 at 03:33 PM ET
It is already there friend….
http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/A2Y/glossary/
Posted by Osrt on 02/02/08 at 05:05 PM ET
You call us dives we call you douches
We also call you transvestites. Thanks for stopping by Darren.
Posted by IwoCPO from Sunny San Diego, bitches on 02/13/08 at 06:49 PM ET
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You’d think he missed Lang with all of those “checks”.
Posted by Tuba Guy from Royal Oak, MI on 02/02/08 at 11:31 AM ET