Abel to Yzerman
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34.7? Nothing But A Footnote
by IwoCPO on 06/06/08 at 08:22 AM ET
Comments (59)
Listening to Mike and Mike yesterday morning, Greenberg made a point I find hard to argue with.
“I think we’re looking at a dynastic situation here.”
Now. Is Mike Greenberg, employed by the network that will run second-round coverage of the Kemper highlights twenty minute before hockey, a credible judge of an NHL dynasty? No. But, he’s right.
Dave at Gorilla Crouch has a great look at it, and we’re gonna get to that in a bit. First, it’s time to assess.
It’s taken me about twenty hours to write this post. And I have no idea why. I’ve read everything, watched everything, seen every highlight, every interview. I saw Osgood and Mac and wondered the same thing as you. Was that a beer? No, an energy drink. Don Cherry pissed me off just like he did you. It’s time Don. It’s time to go. You’re an outright bigot, a buffoon and a disgrace. I know that’s mild. Sorry.
I read other things. I saw that there’s a bit of a controversy over Dave Guralnick drinking from the Cup. Seen this yet? Wyshynski first brought it to our attention that the frigging shrivs at Sports Journalists Dot Com have an issue with the best hockey photog in the newspaper business sipping suds from Stanley after the Cup was passed his way.
According to Greg, and I paraphrase because I can’t access the Shriv Elitist Dot Bitter Bitches Dot Org site anymore, the whining stiffs said Guralnick was “fan boyish” because he didn’t pass on the opportunity. Let’s set the record straight. Guralnick’s been shooting every home Wings game at the Joe for several years. Every night he climbs up into the rafters, sets up his remote cam. That’s how you see those kick ass overhead shots. Then he goes between the benches, or sticks his lens through one of those little holes in the glass, or wherever else he goes to get us the kind of stuff we’ve enjoyed from him.
He’s taken pucks and sticks to the face. He’s followed that team all over the country during the playoffs and worked his ass off every step of the way. The Cup comes his way? Guzzle it. That’s what I say. Drink up Dave. You earned it.
I’ve read the game reports and the features. I’ve read the Delicate Genius and Wojo and Drew and Michael. And I didn’t even feel like ripping them. All their stuff has been good, even Sharp’s.
Steve Yzerman stayed upstairs in the Wings’ executive guest suite at Mellon Arena. Ilitch and Holland begged him to join the ensuing celebration on the ice, but the former captain-turned-team vice president declined.
“It’s their opportunity to get all the attention,” he said.
It was commendable. It was classy.
Yzerman had his day. He had his time basking in the spotlight.
This was Lidstrom’s moment.
So, I’ve been reading. But I haven’t written much, and I don’t really know why. All year long, for two years, the littlest things could generate a post, a tangent, a rambling, cliche-ridden manifesto. But since Wednesday? It’s been weird, but it just hasn’t been there. A while ago, a few months I guess, Gramps posted something over at Hockeytown Todd’s. He said he was taking a break because it seemed like whenever he felt the urge to write about something, he’d read about it somewhere else. I guess I had a little bit of that going on.
So rather than cut and paste and point you other places, I gave it some thought. I’ve read every one of your comments and I agree with every one of you on a few things.
First, the class of the Pens fans who have come back here to say congratulations. I’ll tell you this. I’ll be watching next year. I’m sure Little Gary’s Versus will be carrying roughly 50 Pen games, and I’ll be watching. I want that team to do well because those fans have earned it. I also wouldn’t mind seeing Gary’s Baby Boy get run a few more times. That’s just fun for the whole family.
Next. A lot of you have made comments about the community we’ve formed here at A2Y, and how it’s made this season even better. Let me add a bit to that. I started this blog back in 2005, around Christmas time. The reasons were my own. I was a message board guy, mainly at MLive. I loved talking about the Wings and didn’t mind the occasional debate. I also had a burning distrust and disgust for the mainstream media, especially in Detroit.
That dislike has since turned to a humorous animosity. But it prompted the formation of Abel to Yzerman. By the way, since I was in Tennessee, the original name of this blog was “Hockeytown South.” Paul, who had pushed me toward blogging in the first place, told me that HT was copyrighted and I might want to consider changing it. Because he was the Godfather, even back then--before I was part of the Empire--I listened. No idea how “Abel to Yzerman” popped into my head, but it did. And, no, it’s never gonna change to Abel to “Zetterberg”. Frigging alphabet gurus.
Still with me? Take a break if you have to. We’ve got a ways to go.
So, that’s how it started. I liked writing about the Wings. Simple as that. But over the course of two-plus years, the real enjoyment of running this blog has shifted. Now, the real fun is reading what you guys write. There’s only 19 of us, so I’ve come to appreciate the different styles. I can tell without seeing the author who’s written what comment. I know what kind of post will generate what kind of reaction from each of you. I know who is going to make me laugh, who’s gonna make me think. And I know that when I post an opinion, who will agree and who will push back.
You’ve strayed into politics, family, biology. You’ve joined me ripping on Bubba, Bubba Jr., the Dive and all their “fans”. It’s been funny, obnoxious, always juvenile (except you Baroque). But, the core of the discussion, the real root of it, has always been a collective devotion to that team in red and white. Tranplants, natives, newcomers, veterans. Young punks like Osrt or old timers like O-Joe and Gramps. One common theme. The Cup for the Wings.
And now we’ve got it. All thanks to a group of guys who must have been crushed flying out of Detroit earlier this week. I honestly have no idea how they came back from that. I’m still shaken by it. In fact, I think that’s more than a little bit of the reason I’ve had such trouble getting my thoughts together. Talbot’s goal was like a kidney punch. I haven’t watched a replay of it and I have no intention of doing so. Not yet. No matter the celebrations that followed Wednesday’s win, or the parade today, or the summer trips Stanley will make....34.7 was horrifying.
But, somehow, they overcame it. While I couldn’t muster the courage to even read about it, they set it aside.
And we owe them for that. Because if they hadn’t, I’m telling you the world as we know it would have changed. The undercurrent of that game would been there for twelve more months. Every success would have been tempered by it. It would have been mentioned by every out of town beat writer, replacing the “Chelios is old” theme. You would have been reminded of it on a daily basis. I don’t know what that would have done to you. But it would have crushed me.
And I’m not so sure it wouldn’t have impacted this blog. I’m telling you right now, that had the Wings lost this series after being so close, after coming so damn close in front of a roaring, hysterical crowd in Detroit, after having the Cup ripped away at the last second? I mentioned it the other day, and I still think I may have had to take a year off from hockey altogether.
But the Wings overcame that, so it’s nothing more than a bad nightmare replaced by memories of Hank Zetterberg skating the Cup in front of 17,000 Pens fans, his voice eerily singular in a quiet arena. Now we can think about a puck that took an hour to move two feet, creeping toward the goal line, inching it’s way there while most of the players and all of the crowd thought the play was dead.
And another puck going horizontally, behind Osgood, riding the rail, moving through the crease but not in.
Because those guys came back from what must have been a devastating personal disappointment, we don’t have to think about 34.7 anymore. We can remember absolutely laying waste to the Dive. Punishing them. We can think back to Bubba Jr. and remember the Stress Train filling up to the rafters after Game 4. We can look back at Smack Head Ribeiro’s slash to Osgood and laugh at it. Nice series Mike.
They crushed the stereotypes, didn’t they? The anti-euro thing from the Canadian (en) press. Screw you. Screw you Cherry and Douche Canoe and Milbury. Get yourselves a poster of Nick Lidstrom, wearing a C, holding the Cup aloft. Hang it in your office and eat your crow in front of it. Watch the tape of Hank Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen battling all comers. Call those Euros soft Don. Whine about it some more you frigging dinsosaur.
Because they could leave 34.7 behind, we’re allowed to think of the great stories of this team. Darren McCarty coming out of nowhere, then on to Flint, and Grand Rapids, on to Detroit and then his fourth Cup. We can remember the discussions as to whether Abbadabbafriggingdoo was going to play in the postseason. We can talk about the revelation of Darren Helm, and his future in Detroit, the heir apparent to Kris Draper.
We can slam Lilja and laugh about it, instead of cringing. We can wonder if we’ll ever really rip on the Oompa Loompa again because he has this little tendency to prove us wrong when we least expect it.
Because 34.7 has been overcome, you can look back happily at the aftermath of Nik Kronwall. You can remember him blasting victim after victim. Leaving his feet, jumping into hits, illegally punishing people. Yes, illegally in many cases. Whatever. Keep it up Nik. Make them think.
And now? Now we can talk about what’s to come. Had 34.7 defined this team, the future would be too difficult to consider. Weeks of recovery time, at least, would have been required. Therapy, in my case. Instead, today, we can talk dynasty. And, yeah, that’s what it is. Oh, they’ll hate reading this in Denver and St. Louis, Nashville and Anaheim. But here we are: four Cups in 11 years. And, don’t tell anyone, but this team isn’t as good as it will be next year.
Anyone not picking the Wings to win consecutive Cups is in denial.
34.7 wouldn’t have doomed our Uncle Mike. But it would have damaged him. Instead, he’s a frigging icon. He won’t win the Jack Adams but no one can argue too strongly with this statement: he’s the best coach in the NHL. He is a mastermind at finding matchups, and he’s even better at getting this team to play the right way, the Babcock way. Doubters of Babcock beware: you’ll find resistance here.
There’s a parade in Hockeytown today. The Stress Train will be nowhere to be found. No need for it anymore. Parked until April. But we’ve made a modifications. Disconnected the Hasek from the body. Expanded it. Added a few things, like Stanley Cup posters and beer mugs. The Hasek will stay open for business all summer long.
Just drop in when you feel like talking hockey.
2007-2008 Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wing hockey. How’s that sound, bitches?
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Comments
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Great write up Chief.
I took a ton of slack about the Wings after 34.7. Everyone around here seems to be a Pens (or just Golden Boy) fan, so I was hearing it left and right.
Then yesterday, as I walked into work, all I heard was “shut up don’t even say anything.” And I just smiled. Knowing what this team has been through, and the barriers they’ve broken, it just makes me all the more proud to be a Wings fan.
At the start of the playoffs, I made what seemed to be at the time an idiotic bet. $20 on the Wings winning the Cup. My buddy had a 15/16 chance of winning this little bet, but I took it anyways. He told me there was no way the Wings could survive the playoffs. I knew better.
Onto next season, I’ll be here with the rest of the 19. I just hope I can fit in. First back-to-back of the new millenium? I like the sound of that. We were the last back-to-back winners of the previous millenium.
GO WINGS GO!
Posted by Alex in Cambridge, Ontario (Canada EH!) on 06/06/08 at 04:02 PM ET
(my back yard is about six square feet of grass and 1000 of flower beds, otherwise I’d offer)
Do you love weeding or just hate mowing?
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/06/08 at 04:07 PM ET
A2Y 19 Stress Train Fest Summer 2008?
Wouldn’t be able to make that - and considering what I saw of the heat out there just TODAY, not sure I’d want to - but I’m starting to think about making a trip to see the banner raised in October.
If anyone’s up for a drink before, after, or throughout the game, that would be cool.
Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 06/06/08 at 04:31 PM ET
Sounds amazing, I’ll be checking in and lurking like usual and posting irregularly and always loving every minute of great DRW coverage.
Posted by Bryan from Columbus, OH on 06/06/08 at 05:04 PM ET
How’s that sound bitches?
Sounds good Chief..........’cuz that’s the way we motherf*&*in’ roll.
Posted by WINGS_FAN_IN_KC on 06/06/08 at 05:12 PM ET
We need to have Bill get an official blog post about the A2Y 19 Summer Sress(less) Train Bash of Juvenilicityousness up and restrict comments strictly to those people that would be interested in attending. If we get enough interest, then we can start throwing out suggestions on places in the metro area
Sounds like a plan to me. That and/or an A2Y game sometime next season.
Posted by Nate A from Dark side of the moon on 06/06/08 at 06:57 PM ET
That and/or an A2Y game sometime next season.
Sounds amazing. It should be against the Blues.
Posted by Nathan on 06/07/08 at 09:30 AM ET
Sounds amazing. It should be against the Blues.
in St. Louis.
Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 06/07/08 at 04:58 PM ET
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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:
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We need to have Bill get an official blog post about the A2Y 19 Summer Sress(less) Train Bash of Juvenilicityousness up and restrict comments strictly to those people that would be interested in attending. If we get enough interest, then we can start throwing out suggestions on places in the metro area (my back yard is about six square feet of grass and 1000 of flower beds, otherwise I’d offer).
Posted by Nathan from Jonny Ericsson's ice cream truck on 06/06/08 at 03:21 PM ET