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Abel to Yzerman

A Night At Staples

by IwoCPO on 10/28/08 at 02:46 AM ET
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Reaction.  Great game, good crowd.  Nice arena.

Hossome.  The guy’s amazing.  Kenny?  Make it happen.  Whatever magic silly trick you have to learn.  Whichever salary cap cheat maneuver you have to develop.  Doesn’t matter.  Just get it done.

Ice girls.  King maidens skating, wobbling, twisting and stretching to scrape up shavings during commercial breaks.  Each of them young midwestern girls who headed to Hollywood, encouraged by unsavory agents who promised them riches and multiple lines in movies alongside accomplished thespians. 

A fine addition to the hockey landscape, in my opinion.  But according to the well-fed woman sitting next to me (yes, a Wing fan), they were disgusting at best.  “Oh, look at that one.  She can’t even skate!  I suppose she’s going to bend over now…yes, she did.  I called it.  Slut.”

Officiating.  Deplorable.  Zetterberg was assaulted several times. No call.  Samuelsson’s goalie interference penalty?  Ummm. Gary?  Can someone explain to me how a forward rushing the net can get called for interference with the puck on his stick?

Sammy.  You are the worst.  If you thought he looked bad on the point on tv?  Try it at ice level.  I’m telling you.  Terrible.  Missed the net?  Multiple times.  I believe he registered more shots on Osgood than he did on LaCarberera.

Lidstrom.  Not his best game.  At least three breakout passes he’d normally connect on were off the mark.  Other than that he was perfect defensively, but those three passes mean mediocrity in Nick’s world.

Kopecky and Filppula were outstanding.  Maltby, Draper, McCarty: largely invisible.  Nice story, the reunification and all that.  In real-world hockey terms: invisible.

Osgood.  Two of the three goals, at least, were weak.  Especially the first one.  Winning cures an .890 save percentage though, and he’s winning consistently.

Back to Hossa.  He’s the focal point every shift.  He’s a force in the corners and you can see by the way he talks to Datsyuk and Holmstrom in between whistles that he’s already assumed a leadership role.

Wings down 3-2, less than two minutes left…and there wasn’t a single sober person at Staples who didn’t think they’d tie it.  When Filppula scored, there wasn’t a deflated sigh in the crowd, just resignation to what they knew was coming.

Following Zetterberg’s majesty in the shootout, as the players gathered around Osgood…Maltby asked for the puck.  Once he had it, he found McCarty and gave it to him.  Maybe a souvenir for the return of the grind line, however brief that reunion may be.  Nice little moment though.

Talked to a couple of King fans walking out of Staples.  They thanked us for Kyle Quincey.  I thanked them for Brad Stuart.  It was warming.

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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: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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