Abel to Yzerman
Next entry: Homer-cam
Previous entry: Uncle Mike Goes League-wide
Thursday Digging
by IwoCPO on 12/13/07 at 03:49 AM ET
Comments (7)
0629: A quick note. The Dive sit, once again, in the 9 spot this morning. What a shame. And hey...how bad are they defensively? This bad. Of the 8 teams ahead of them in the West, 7 of those teams have scored fewer goals than Denver. Of those eight teams, wanna guess how many have let in fewer goals? Good job. 7.
0547: Updated below to include Gramps’ new additions to the HockeyTown Todd stable of writers and a number of stories from the Canadian media.
-------
Today’s a good day for the Diggers. A good day. Collectively they show a little spine, a little initiative.
Khan(!), still sad and confused about the lies Mike Babcock told him earlier this week, tries to redeem himself with a good piece on the ease with which thousands of people are taking their home-state Wings for granted. I read the article about fifteen minutes ago and it hasn’t been deleted from MLive yet, so that’s a good sign. Helene St. James causes a bit of an uproar with her interpretation of Uncle Mikey’s comments to the media yesterday and Ryan The Temp (John Niyo) returns to the Detroit News cycle of brilliance.
We’ll have those stories and more, next, on this edition of Thursday with the Diggers.
First of all, we head out of town, into St. Louis, the land of bitterness and dashed hockey hopes. Manny Legace’s the starting goaltender there. Were you aware of that? Not real fond of Manny in these parts, not around here. Didn’t like his martyrdom or his tendencies to run his frigging trap to the press. Talented? Yes. But just real dumb. Sound familiar?
St. Louis Blues goalie Manny Legace surprised the franchise’s front office Tuesday, saying he’ll probably need additional surgery on his right knee after the season.
“To be honest with you guys, I have to say I heard that for the first time tonight,” Murray said. “I have no idea what Manny was talking about.
“It’s possible he could require some minor surgery, but I don’t know where Manny was coming from.”
Team president John Davidson also said Legace’s comments came as a surprise to him.
“I would think that at the end of the season, he’d re-evaluate the situation and see if he needs surgery or not,” Davidson said. “As far as I know, I don’t think there’s anything in stone.
“Manny said what he said. If he thinks at the end of the year he’ll need surgery, he’ll have surgery.”
Woops. Kinda saw that coming didn’t we? It was around Christmas two years ago that The Mouth revealed an injury to the Detroit press then politicked with the Diggers to get his starting job back, letting Mike Babcock know through the media the condition of his injury. It was the beginning of the end. But as it turned out? That was just Manny being Manny. He likes him some microphones. Have fun Blues fans. The real Manny Legace just stood up.
On to Detroit, the hockey town that can’t sell out, the hockey town that Michigan forgot. Too strong? Maybe. Khan(!) does a nice job of recognizing some factors that have kept the Detroit sports fan away from the JLA this season. I’ve got my own reasons that we’ll get to in a minute.
Last week, on the same night the Red Wings played in Montreal for the first time in four years, the Tigers shocked the baseball world with a blockbuster trade that landed them Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. And the Red Wings’ current seven-game winning streak has been overshadowed by the Michigan football coaching search-turned-soap opera and the Lions’ collapse. If that wasn’t enough, the Pistons are also off to a hot start.
It’s a sound argument, one that carries a little more weight with me than “the economy.” Khan(!)’s telling us the attention span of the Michigan sports fan is a little too short to expect them to be able to focus on the Wings and all else that’s going on around town these days. Well? Who determines the priorities? Do you, the sports fan? Naturally, you have the final say so, but who sets the agenda? The columnists, that’s who. The guy with the big ears, the other one with the big gut, the bitter one who’s relegated to covering prep sports now. Albom, Wojnowski, Foster, Parker, Sharp, Rosenberg. Six columnists in Detroit. You may not agree with what they write, but you read it. And what you read affects your level of interest.
Having made that startling claim, I’ll give you something else to think about. Of the last 65 columns written by Albom, Wojo, Parker, Sharp or Rosenberg...guess how many have been Wing-related.
Yep. Zero.
And here we are, full circle. Time for my yearly rant. The columnists in Detroit can all kiss my ass. April hockey writers..all of them. Who the hell is Bob Wojnowski to even discuss Red Wing hockey on the radio when he won’t waddle down to the Joe to write about the best team in hockey--by a long shot. We won’t even dwell on The Delicate Genius. Maybe Oprah can pry a few Wing observations out of him next time they’re crying together on TV. Rosenberg? That’s the biggest disappointment because I like the way he writes. But...too bad, because he ignores your Wings too.
Best team in hockey. Arguably three of the five top players in hockey. A dynasty. The most successful sports team in the state’s history. Zero columns out of the last 65. And that’s just as far back as I looked. It’s not like 66 was devoted to the Wings. I’d be surprised if that number wasn’t closer to 100. You want a reason for Wing fan apathy, take a look at that gaggle of “journalists.”
John Niyo? He’s not included in that. I like that kid. You know who he is? He’s frigging Ryan from The Office, the funniest show ever invented. He’s Ryan the temp to Ted Kulfan’s Michael Scott.
Niyo’s the occasional Wing writer, and it’s too bad that’s not more permanent. I think he avoids it because he doesn’t want to be associated with the Diggers, but he pops in from time to time like he does today--discussing the fact that the Wings have stolen from Bubba to cure some woe.
Times are tough. Tough enough, in fact, that the Red Wings, the standard-bearers for success in the NHL the last two decades, have turned to a teetering expansion franchise for help.
In an attempt to halt sagging attendance at Joe Louis Arena and reclaim the “Hockeytown” crown Sports Illustrated unceremoniously bequeathed to the Minnesota Wild last week, the Wings have hired a new vice president of business affairs. Enter Steve Violetta, who leaves a similar position he held with the Nashville Predators?
“It’s Hockeytown instead of Honkytonk town, right?” Violetta joked Monday, shortly after meeting the staff at Joe Louis Arena.
Idiotic joke from Violetta aside, it’s a good article that betrays the Kulfan style of Digging. Niyo actually, sit down, talks to more than one person to write his story. Fans, Pistons execs, Wing staffers...real digging, instead of the surface garbage Michael Scott throws at us thumb tapping his stories from his couch on his Blackberry.
Helene St. James had her speakerphone going yesterday, listening in on the Babcock press conference. Man, a Digger’s dream. News coming to you. Can’t beat that. She posted part of the transcript last night and this statement’s causing a bit of a ruckus.
Kenny often jokes about it, the day Nick retires, he’s going to have a press conference about six seconds after him to announce his retirement. Nick drives the bus here.
Comments at the Freep from genius readers lead me to believe a few think Uncle Mike may have been serious, that Ken Holland has tied his future plans to Nick Lidstrom’s. Logical? Perhaps. But, let’s remember a couple things: (a) who was doing the talking and (2) who was doing the talking.
More to follow later today. Edmonton in town tonite. Live blog? Most definitely. Rumor has it the Oil bloggers may be dropping in.
-----
A few updates for you, because I like you all. First, let’s head to Gramps’ place where the cranky SOB has gone ahead and stolen more A2Y readers.
Nathan’s been a valuable contributor to the A2Y wit machine for several months. Now he writes for Gramps. Neat.
You know who I used to hate? The Edmonton Oilers. I’m not old enough to be upset at them for keeping a budding Steve Yzerman out of playoff history (at the time, that is), but I sure as hell will never forget the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs where some snaggle-tooth from Eastern Europe kneed the puck into the collective face of Wings fans across the globe. And before the comments come pouring in, I’m well aware that the Wings have more than a few Europeans with dental problems of their own.
Now though? Not so much hate. You could say that I am grateful for the Oil for a couple of reasons…
First, anything that had any impact on kicking Manny Legace out of town is noble in my book.
There are more than a few statements in that post I wish I’d come up with myself, which is the most fantastic compliment I can give anyone ever in history. Good catch Gramps. Nathan’s a huge addition.
Dougie? He’s been there for a few days.
On a blog where I can operate without the need to be particularly insightful, deal with statistics, think deeply, use more than four syllable words, or be “nice” three days in a row, ya know,this might work out OK.
Add Baroque’s frequent manifestos and Gramps’ statistical pessimism and all of a sudden HTT has become a force to be reckoned with. Dammit.
Plenty of Canadian praise headed to Hockeytown today, most resulting from the Uncle’s presser yesterday. Read shockingly similar stories at the links neatly listed below:
Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal
Filed in: | Abel to Yzerman | Permalink
Comments
I didn’t realize exactly how much I have begun to rely on websites and blogs for my sports coverage until about two days ago…
...when I actually realized that I couldn’t give you the record for the Pistons or any other NBA team, or even tell you how many games they have played, or where anyone is in the standings (although I could bet the Spurs are doing well and the LA Kobes are probably cranky). For someone who doesn’t like basketball, that is a very pleasant revelation.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 12/13/07 at 07:24 AM ET
Thanks for the kind words and the quotes. We appreciate the support.
To me, the reasons the MSM and Diggers are giving for the drop in attendance couldn’t be farther from the truth. The list is more like this:
1. The schedule (60%)
2. The arena (35%)
3. Everything else (5%)
I look forward to the Oilers game, and hopefully I can get back on my newfound blogging trail and provide some sort of reaction to what should be a 3-1 Wings victory.
Posted by Nathan on 12/13/07 at 09:05 AM ET
Nathan, congrats and good luck with your new role. I do, however, have to disagree with you on the attendance issue...there was too sudden a shift to attribute it to either the schedule or the arena. Not selling out playoff games was the first sign something else was going on.
I give maybe 60 or 65% to one single factor: an Yzerman hangover. When Stevie retired, it wasn’t just him leaving the ice. He took with him the history of the Wings overcoming the “Dead Wings” years and a star power that I don’t think can be matched (just yet) collectively by Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Lidstrom. I think people just felt like the heart of the team left. And, unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to take more than superior hockey to bring them back.
Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 12/13/07 at 09:39 AM ET
Gabe, very good point. I will agree with you there, I hadn’t really thought of that, because as an obvious die-hard hockey fan, that was never an issue for me. I was always going to watch this team, no matter what names were on the back of the sweaters.
I guess my personal reasons for not going to games all that often would be the schedule and the arena. Last season I went to more playoff games than regular season games simply because the matchups were better than in the regular season, and with the importance of the games, it’s a lot easier to overlook the oversized bathroom known as Joe Louis Arena.
Posted by Nathan on 12/13/07 at 10:10 AM ET
It is funny, I remember when the Joe was new…
I do not use the MSM for hockey news anymore. I rely on the blogosphere and it gives me much better information. Just as a side note, the Avalanche are having a horrible time with attendance out here. I went to the Avs/Flyers game last week and fifteen minutes before game time there was no one there. It did fill in but it was far from full. The Avs are using the Wings game on February 18 as part of their “holiday pack” of tickets. A wings/Avs game not sold out already? Unheard of here. Granted the Avs play is wildly inconsistent this year and not up to the caliber of the Wings but it is still a decent team.
Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 12/13/07 at 12:30 PM ET
The Wings marketing plan has always been were good come and see us. Lame as it is, the Fire on Ice program could be a start. But the lack of effort is obvious. Perhaps an analogy is in order. Residing on the left coast, anywhere south of San Jose, you are considered a Ducks fan by the NHL. Once, maybe twice a year, I schlep up to the Honda Ponda when the Wings are in town. Purchasing tickets through the Duck website has resulted in a non-stop deluge of e-mails from Orange county’s favorite team. Pronger this, kids nite that, Niedermeyer had a bowel movement, yada, yada. Last year I was in Deetroit several times and caught a couple of games at the Joe. Same deal, tickets through the website, yet, I get nothing from the Organ-I-zation. Similarly, my sister has a concession out at the Palace. I bought something there and get tons of spam on/from the Pistons. Notwithstanding the fact that I hate basketball, I must say their marketing is relentless. The Wings...not so much.
Fortunately, The Chief and his brethren have stepped up to provide a constant flow of Wing facts and figures to the faithful in a most entertaining fashion. (That whole “New Zealand” thing notwithstanding)
Be that as it may, when I am in town the Wings are on the must see list. I surmise it is probably the same way for the other 23 million Michiganders who are living out of state. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why attendance is down.
Posted by Rumbear from Sandy "There's white stuff on the mountaisn!" Eggo on 12/13/07 at 02:30 PM ET
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Most Recent Blog Posts
Create Your Own Headline For The Wings/Habs Live Blog
Mellow Is The Man Who Hosts About 120 Live Blogs Per Year
“Faux”…Interesting. Do You Use “Faux”?
Detroit Media: Zero Outrage. Fedorov? Plenty
Well Gary? Your League Is A Joke
Gambling In Havana? Hiding In Honduras? Dad? Get Me To A Live Blog…STAT
About Abel to Yzerman
Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that. Your suggestions and critiques are welcome:
A2Y Stuff
-----------------------------
Wanna Feel Smart?
Does confusion make you sad? When you read words like "enigma" and phrases like "Thanks Gary. Ass", do you wonder why mean people speak in languages you don't understand? Fret no longer friend! The A2Y Glossary will bring you great joy and enlightenment.
-----------------------------
How Others View The A2Y 19
"Hell, I guarantee the content co-opters at Abel to Yzerman were about to link this article under the heading “Bitter Blues Fans” again right up until they just read that last half-sentance. Thanks but no thanks, you Kukla hangers-on."
--St. Louis Game Time
"I realize it’s the slow summer season, but can this guy tone down the tough-guy histrionics? His posts are fatiguing on an otherwise excellent site."
--A2Y Fan, Eternal_Fields
"I constantly marvel at how Bill (IwoCPO) and his disciples at Abel To Yzerman can be so pompous and full of themselves throughout every regular season, but come playoff time they collapse into wavering puddles of stress and nervousness as they anxiously await the impending and unavoidable collapse of the Red Wings in the post-season."
--Mile High Hockey
"I hate them because they are better than us. Of all the frigging teams…"
--In The Cheap Seats
"It's just a shame that the most classless, uneducated, lowbrow fanbase in the league gets this sweep. Red Wing fans don't deserve their team."
--Thhom
"I really don’t care what fans or bloggers think."
--Drew Sharp
"Why is it you Detroit fans are still so classless when you have such a classy hockey team, with such a professional GM and gentlemen players? I understand that the author of this blog is a manner-less cad, but the rest of you should be better."
--A2Y Fan, Jeff Beaumont
"Have you ever *read* A2Y? Its the most opinionated, juvenile stuff i've read."
--Paul Nicholson
"I actually like the Detroit team and have a sh&% load of respect for them, but their fans are the biggest douches next to Canadians."
--KStewy, PensBlog Commenter
"Just when it looks like we have bottomed out, the 19 hit a new low."
-A2Y legend, Hockeytown Todd
"And for the record, I don't hate the Red Wings, I hate their fans."
--Douche Bag at Puck Daddy who isn't Wyshynski
"You’re nothing but a douchebag ****, c3po. Go f**k yourself, and learn something about hockey in the process. Nothing ruins my day more than seeing your byline on the kk page."
--Hector, A2Y fan, statesman, Pittsburgh Chapter of Jonas Brothers Fan Club President
"I can just imagine the kindergarten teacher’s reaction when the tyke blurts out 'Mommy says Gary Bettman is a f*cking f*ckface! He wants to give ‘Rosby the bad touch.' ”
--Bella, of the 19
"A2Y is what other blog sites aspire to be when they fail to grow up: intelligent immaturity for the juvenile genius set”
--Captain Dennis Polonich, of the 19
Head to Hockeytown
Blogs the Chief Likes
As somebody who is regrettably driving along without either a laptop handy or a Crackberry, I can tell you first-hand that a Red Wings win will get five minutes of talk on WDFN or “The Ticket” (WXYT), and the next fifty-five will be about Tayshaun Prince’s hangnail.
It’s ridiculous how the print, TV, and radio media in Detroit still take their marching orders from the New York-based conglomerates that own them, and that the Red Wings organization has never made a fuss of the fact that a town that seems to do just fine supporting an NHL team, an OHL team, a few college hockey teams, and a USA Hockey National Team Development Program that happens to have employed all those fancy U.S.-born names that are getting attention (like Patrick Kane), et. al. gets shafted because the sports editors must somehow come to an agreement that it’s time for the twenty-fifth column about how U of M talked to some guy from the University of Underwater Basket Weaving who doesn’t want to coach their football team....
But the Wings have never liked the media, since the days that Jimmy Devellano himself was the Wings’ PR department, and all he leaked really did stay in the Windsor Star, the Red Wings have never had a good relationship with the media. These days, anything that gets handed out, whether it be in the print, visual, or audio media seems to have to be hand-checked by Hahn (I’ve seen conference call transcripts that are published ten minutes after the calls are over, and it took the Wings something like three hours to give NHL.com the OK to post the transcript of Babs’ presser), the censorship of the media is aided by the fact that the Wings being such a pain in the ass to work with means that it’s usually not worth it to grind one’s hump to get a really insightful piece of commentary from one of the Wings’ refreshingly glib players or the coach who uses every bit of his master’s degree in sports psychology, despite the fact that he sounds like a Saskatchewan farmboy while doing it, when it either ends up on the back page, is swallowed up by 55 minutes of talk about the Tigers’ pitching situation in DECEMBER, or skipped because Bernie Smilovitz wants to show another “classic arcade” clip of the squirrel that learned how to water ski.
And, for the record, us bloggers are liked even less by the Wings’ front office than the media. We’re like the ninth circle of hell or something…
The Wings’ website is coming around in terms of at least posting clips of the post-game scrums, but ticket prices have shot right back up, save the few $9 seats they sell in person (that’s right, the Wings are charging an average of $54 for you to go down and see the Oilers tonight, all over again), the Fire On Ice commercials (while it’s great to see a commercial actually advertising Wings tickets on the 11 o’clock news and all) are as far as the marketing department has gone in promoting the players or team, and while the organization seems heartily content to have racked up its one open practice of the year, the media’s back to talking about how it’s terrible that Coachy the sock puppet from Nietzschean Sock Puppet Theatre University has admitted that this year’s performance of Franz Kafka’s “Das Urteil” is more important to him than coaching the University of Michigan’s football team for hours and hours on end.
On top of it all, Jimmy Devellano actually had the balls to tell Ye Olde Windsor Star that Violetta’s hiring had nothing to do with the Wings’ ticket sale issues.
Progress is progress, and the fact that the Wings’ website is much more than a placeholder is great and all, but there’s more work to be done, because the Wings were actually talked about on WDFN for about 20 minutes yesterday as Stoney and Wojo decided to ask fans whether they’d rather go see the Wings play the St. Louis Blues or the Pistons play, and a whole bunch of people not only said that they’d rather see the Pistons because the game’s more exciting, the game presentation is better and “involves the fans” more, they don’t have to pee in a trough, etc., but the disturbing part was that the vast majority thereof seemed either clueless to the fact that the Red Wings have actual players who really drop their gloves on occasion, that the Red Wings actually skate a fast, aggressive, fun-to-watch game, or they simply stated that the Wings’ players’ personalities weren’t apparent.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 12/13/07 at 05:42 AM ET