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As If They Needed This Reminder In Denver…
by IwoCPO on 11/23/08 at 09:52 AM ET
Comments (14)
Line of the day? In my opinion, nothing you read today will compare to this from the Calgary Herald. Scott Cruickshank led his game recap by mentioning the Flames faced a much different test last night then the one they’d passed earlier in the week against the Dive.
...even the Wings themselves know the edge they hold.
If they match the opposition’s energy, talent will carry the day - and, in that regard, the Wings are peerless. Losers only twice in regulation this season. Heck, the Wings have been outshot only twice.
The Avs they are not.
No. They are most certainly not. And for that we can all be grateful. In fact, this Thursday as we gather round a dead bird and pay homage to all that is warm and wonderful, somewhere on your list of blessings should be this: “I’d just like to give thanks to providence and sweet adorable baby Jesus that my favorite hockey team hasn’t ended up in the toilet like the Colorado Avalanche.”
I think that if you feed that line to the youngest member of your family, it will be a priceless memory everyone will be talking about for years. Consider it.
And consider this. The team that Detroit muscled up with, skated around and defeated fairly convincingly last night was the same one that led sobbing Dive apologist Adrian Dater to say this last week.
I was talking it over with some reporter brethren after the Avs’ sulfurous effort against the Flames, and the question crossed my head - was this the worst game I’d ever seen the Avs play?
Quite possibly, it was. I know there have been bigger blowout losses over the years, but this might have been the worst wire-to-wire performance this team has ever played since moving to Denver.
Personally? I find that offensive and I know you do too. A 4-1 loss to Calgary, the worst in “franchise” history? Now you wait one damn minute. I can recall at least two playoff punches right in the frigging face at the hands of a certain Dynasty that would rightfully rank above that.
So that was Dater’s reaction after a Dive visit to Calgary.
While this morning we read this:
Dave Dye
The Red Wings weren’t rattled Saturday night after a two-goal lead disappeared.
Been there, overcome that.
The Wings showed their poise and experience to take control in the final nine minutes for a 5-2 victory over Calgary at the Saddledome.
Ho. Hum. If you’re looking for a comparative means of illustrating just how good this Wings team has been and for just how long, take a look at the drastically different directions the two teams have taken since Patrick Roy was laughed off the ice in Detroit 6.5 years ago. Since that day, the Wings have won two more Cups, a few more President’s Trophies and have been given a permanent asterisk in the Central Division.
The Dive? Since the blowout Game 7 loss in ‘02, Denver’s won 213 regular season games and hasn’t made it past the second round. Detroit’s won only 45 more games, but it’s a bit deeper than that. Expectations. A season hasn’t begun since that Cup year that didn’t include a legitimate expectation that the Wings would be right there in late May. When’s the last time the same could be said for Denver?
St. Louis, Nashville, Columbus, Chicago, Los Angeles…they all lead Colorado in the Western Conference standings this morning. How the hell did that happen? Too much churn. While the Wings have kept character guys like Maltby, Draper, Holmstrom, Lidstrom? Denver’s held on to Sakic. No one else has stayed. Not the coach or the GM, no other players. Sure Foote and Forsberg came back last year, but too little and way too late. Their system has changed. Offensive potency has turned to impotence. The Cap cut them off at the knees while Detroit thrived on it. Their “genius” GM didn’t want to deal with it and gave himself a promotion that took him right out of the fire.
There’s no need to re-hash the Wings’ success at the draft table, or in the area of scouting which leads to draft table success. But you want to see a glaring difference? Check this out. An organization that used to be flush with home-grown talent? Back before they left a true hockey market for a fake one? Not anymore.
The Wings? The philosophy hasn’t changed in fifteen years. Not just on-ice. Organizational. While LaCroissant decided he didn’t want to deal with the “new NHL”, Ken Holland viewed it as a challenge.
No. I have no sympathy. Not for those fans who so quickly like to point to their quality of life in their self-proclaimed mountain paradise and arrogantly compare it to a state with a rate of unemployment that will lead the nation for the third year in a row.
But it is disappointing. We used to circle games with the Dive. Now? I have no idea when we play them and don’t care enough to look it up. In years past, if we lost to them in the regular season it would be reason to dive into a bottle and wonder what we’d done to deserve it. Now, if we lost tomorrow? It would be something to laugh off.
San Jose’s our new Denver. Chicago’s 10-4-5. Anaheim is despised.
Colorado? Not even a consideration and that’s too bad.
Thanksgiving…just around the corner. Our state is in a bad way. The Lions are a joke, the biggest joke in the history of professional sports, actually. UM lost to Ohio State for the fifth year in a row yesterday. MSU had a shot at a title and gagged. The Tigers, with so many expectations a year ago, have no money to improve and a roster that looks a lot older than we’d ever thought it would.
But at least we’ve got this going for us, and it’s a big, epic consolation prize.
The Avs they are not.
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Comments
Great post Chief; you should probably send a link over to Dater.
Ehhh, Who’s your daddy?!
Posted by Osrt on 11/23/08 at 11:45 AM ET
As a fan of all teams with the Michigan moniker, it has been a difficult few months. The Spartans have been a pleasant surprise but they still have miles to go. U of M and the Tigers can turn things around in a real hurry and I have faith that they will. The Pistons have been good for sometime now but I’m not a big NBA fan. As for the Lions, well, they’re dead to me. That just leaves the Red Wings. They have been the lone bright spot on a desolate landscape and I have no doubt that they will continue to be through at least this season. It would be easy to take the Wings for granted and I believe that there are some fans out there that do. However, if you remember the Dead Wings era at all, it should make you shudder to even consider that the Wings could one day be that dismal again. In this day and age where parity in the league means that a team can be a playoff contender one year and on the outside looking in the next, the Wings seem to be the exception rather than the rule. That being said, when I sit down to a big helping of bird this Thursday surrounded by my friends and family, I will say a private word of thanks to the Sports God for the anomaly that is the Detroit Red Wings. As I will be heading back to Michigan for the holiday this week, I doubt I’ll have an opportunity to join in on the live blogs this week. Here’s to you and yours this Thanksgiving. Hope everyone stays safe.
Posted by clemshady from Greenwood, SC on 11/23/08 at 12:01 PM ET
This, as well from the first linked article:
Big defender Andrea Lilja, anxiously anticipating his winter’s fourth point, steamed down the right wing and dished a lovely little back-hand pass to Maltby, who rapped it in at 4:26.
Who would have thought we’d be seeing their names together with “lovely little back-hand pass” in between. Christmas is just around the corner though, and someone is being too kind to us.
Somehow all this secondary scoring is making me nervous.
Posted by lilja4ever on 11/23/08 at 12:16 PM ET
They have been the lone bright spot on a desolate landscape
A. Men.
Posted by rwingscup19 from Dallas on 11/23/08 at 12:29 PM ET
Clem, this is Li’l Gary’s NHL and above all else, tradition must be quashed.
First, we lose the naming of divisions and conferences after historically significant members of the league.
Then, Li’l Gary does all he can to halt the WINNING tradition in Motown by changing the rules to try and stop the Organization.
And Chief, why do you subject us to the Blog Master-Dater when we aren’t even playing the Vagalanche? Why sully this fine site with such drivel. At least his readers remind him that 7-0 in Game 7 was the worst gang-bang the Vag has ever experienced. Did McCarty get a Roy mask last night, too? That would have been fitting as he was on the ice for our destruction of Wah in both Montreal and Denver.
Who would have thought we’d be seeing their names together with “lovely little back-hand pass” in between. Christmas is just around the corner though, and someone is being too kind to us.
If you were listening to the CBC broadcast, you would have heard Lilja being described as “swift footed” by Lee, which of course made me shoot beverage out my nose.
And, BTW, notice the quote, bitches? That’s right, first time in a month I am not posting on the iPhone, and I CAN QUOTE all you bitches on the stuff that makes me laugh again. That combined with a hockey-friendly work schedule means no more tape-delay blog for me, I’m all in for the immaturity of the live blog once again.
Will even be changing my avatar in honour of Lilja’s scoring “streak”... the end of days is surely coming.
Posted by VooX from Behind the Bar in the Hasek Club Car on 11/23/08 at 12:51 PM ET
I almost feel bad for Colorado fans…in the same way I feel bad for anyone caught up in a whirlwind romance only to watch their significant other completely let themselves go after marriage. But then I remember Claude Lemieux, and I realize that this organization is simply dealing with karmic issues. According to this amazing spreadsheet technology I got from Thhhomas, it appears that Colorado will miss the next…(doing calculations)...87 playoffs due to bad karma brought about by extreme douchebaggery.
But it’s interesting to hear that Pepe Lemieux is waging a comeback with the Shark’s AHL affiliate.
San Jose’s our new Denver.
You don’t say…
Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 11/23/08 at 03:04 PM ET
Geez one day can’t go by without being smacked inbetween the eyes with even more gems. That Thanksgiving prayer I will copy, enlarge, put on an 8x11 paper and a frame and have up for Thanksgiving dinner to share with my 2 daughters. (edited)
“I’d just like to give thanks to providence and sweet adorable baby Jesus that the Detroit Red Wings haven’t ended up in the toilet like the Colorado Avalanche.”
epic. our soul must be passed on to future generations and this, I vow, will be on the wall for my daughters to view, read, and absorb for Thanksgiving.
Yes “Lee” at the CBC West has always given me gas, although he and Crawford just could not avoid singing the praises of the Red Wings organ-I-zation all night long. He is an unabashed any Canadian team over any USA franchise cheerleader, as much nonsense as that is to us non-Canadians.
Will this paste? I’ll take a picture of it instead. We were discussing points versus ice time last night, as Hudler always seems way up there. These stats are the complete last season 07-08, not this year. The right hand column will tell you how many “minutes played per one point scored”.
I should do one for this year.
Posted by RWBill from the Land of 12 in 12. on 11/23/08 at 03:50 PM ET
Okay my Bitches, this is enough brain smoldering research for one day. Here is your updated fresh off the Calgary ass-kicking “Minutes of Ice Time for every 1 point scored” chart for some of your favorite Red Wings players for this season. Seeing that a considerable portion of the minutes played by Datsyuk is shorthanded, and for some it is harder to score when the other team has one more player than your team does, I went to excruciating work to include a column showing Minutes of PK played.
I know, the next thing you will want me to do is show Minutes of 5x5 TOI per 1 point scored by subtracting shorthanded minutes from total minutes and then using that TOI figure, oh wait, then you will want me to also subtract the Power Play minutes, oh just F You.
Posted by RWBill from the Land of 12 in 12. on 11/23/08 at 04:23 PM ET
<———-
<———-
Damn!! That is inspiring.
I’m not as good as I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was.
Posted by RWBill from the Land of 12 in 12. on 11/23/08 at 04:39 PM ET
Nice work Bill, but where is our new hero Lilja on those lists?
Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 11/23/08 at 05:03 PM ET
The quality of hockey coming from the Crapalanche now matches the writing coming from their bloggers. How appropriate.
(Eat me, Gobbles).
Posted by O-Joe on 11/23/08 at 05:21 PM ET
The Lions are a joke, the biggest joke in the history of professional sports, actually.
Well, being a Kansas City resident (albeit not a football fan of any sort).. I must say the Chiefs are certainly giving the Lions a go for that title but not quite there yet. Carl Pederson is nearly Millen’s equal. Then there’s the lowly Royals who consider a season with less than 100 losses to be a success?
That drivel from Adrian last week made my freaking day… but I too miss the days of circling dates on the calender when we played the Dive.
I have no sympathy.
Sympathy is in the dictionary between shit and syphilis.
Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 11/23/08 at 05:49 PM ET
Thanks Chief, that warmed my heart here in Diveland.
That prayer will be passed on to my children.
We will still rub it in on Dec. 27th at the AssCan. It is how we roll.
Posted by Jeff from Loveland, CO on 11/24/08 at 09:07 AM ET
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For all of MI sports woes, there is this from yesterday too Chief:
Posted by Jeff OKWingnut from Quest for 12 on 11/23/08 at 11:29 AM ET