I always thought that reason was garbage.  Wings fans know hockey well enough to appreciate Hank and Pavel.  Anyone who’s been living in the state in the past few years knows the economy is in the toilet and money is tight everywhere

Posted by Defenseman from Grand Rapids on 11/22/07 at 11:06 PM ET

This truly breaks my heart to see the economy of Detroit is at the point where the good news and feel-good stories of the Wings, Tigers, Pistons, and the Lions have to suffer for it.  As stated, the consumer pie is becoming more competitive but no one’s making enough money to even afford to go to the games.

Taking the Wings for granted is a load of BS.  Every year that I’ve followed the Wings (since 1980), it’s a long ride of frustrations and joy.  I can’t wait for the season to start every year.  For that article to imply that Wingnuts take our team for granted is a load of crock, Chief.  It’s completely unfounded.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 11/22/07 at 11:30 PM ET

Golly Gee, Duke...I had no idea you were so well-read.
Now that you are quoting student newspapers on your blog, I will have my grandaughter email you her 5th grade edition.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd from upset when blogs don’t live up to my expectations on 11/22/07 at 11:38 PM ET

Gramps: is it possible you’ve become more caustic since firing your blog back up???  You crack me up…

Posted by Hoser from Downer Peninsula, Michigan on 11/23/07 at 04:19 PM ET

Hoser:
quite possible

“I was older then, I am much younger than that, now.”
Bob Dylan

Posted by HockeyTownTodd from upset when blogs don’t live up to my expectations on 11/23/07 at 04:46 PM ET

Thanks Gramps. Riveting quote from Dylan.  Deep stuff.

Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 11/23/07 at 05:16 PM ET

I’ve never taken the Wings’ success for granted during the sixteen years that I’ve followed them (I was a late-bloomer, what can I say?), but I expect them to succeed each and every year because I believe that the team can continue to spoil us rotten because it’s built well, regardless of transvestite Avs fans’ statistics, and I think that being spoiled rotten is a wonderful, wonderful thing. 

I can honestly say that this season, the Wings have become so exciting to watch that it’s like their skill level is at the echelon occupied by the Cup years--Babcock successfully transformed the Wings from a soft, slow, puck-possession-only team into a lightning-fast forechecking monster which uses an extremely aggressive forechecking system that alternates between dump-and-chase and puck-possession forays into the offensive zone, where the Wings grind the puck out down low and along the boards, sustaining possession and control in order to wear defencemen down by both hustle and surprisingly tenacious physical play.  Their speed allows them to prey upon turnovers between the bluelines, their transition game is exquisite because the Wings’ puck-carrying defencemen lug the puck up ice and spring forwards on odd-man rushes, and even the Wings’ backchecking system is aggressive, using wingers which rotate back to support their defencemen while using active sticks, skates, and smart positioning to block shots and funnel opponents to the perimeter.  Add the Wings’ high skill level to the equation, and when the Wings are truly on their game, they play at a fast-and-furious pace which belies a tremendous sense of patience and poise with the puck. 

Only Babcock seems to consistently mention that it’s Datsyuk and Zetterberg’s ability to keep up with Holmstrom’s jam in the corners and along the boards, kicking and jabbing at the puck to win battles and cycle like a line of grinders, which generates the slick plays they create with their high skill level, and all three players have learned to backcheck with a tenacity that allows them to both shut down the opposition’s top lines while outscoring them.  Samuelsson’s been a revelation, Cleary is coming along, Draper and a rejuvenated Kirk Maltby have been rock steady, Hudler shows flashes of brilliance, Ellis and Downey have outperformed Drake by an order of magnitude, and Kopecky, Franzen, and Filppula are works in progress with significant upside. 

On the back end, you’ve got the seamless play of Lidstrom and Rafalski, Chelios’s extraordinarily steady play, the somewhat inconsistent offensive skill and defensive acumen of big-hitting Niklas Kronwall, who might be the fastest player on the entire team while exhibiting a nasty physical streak, Brett Lebda, who, at his best, is a running back-like puck rusher and subtly steady defensive player, and then there’s the extremely inconsistent Andreas Lilja, who can be a dominant defensive defenceman with a physical flair or a lockout dinosaur who hooks, holds, and coughs up the puck with alarming regularity, and you never really know which Lilja you get from shift to shift...but Derek Meech has been Mr. Dependable in the few games he’s spelled Lilja, and his surprising ability to separate players from the puck with his understated physical skills have established him as someone who could take over the #6 spot pretty easily. 

Dom had a season-turning-around performance vs. the Preds, and Ozzie’s played some of the best hockey I’ve ever seen him play because his technical “toolbox” has increased to the point that he’s more fundamentally sound in his mid-30’s than he ever was during the Wings’ pre-Hasek Cup runs.

Moreover, while Zetterberg speaks in hockey cliches, he lacks a BS meter, Datsyuk’s dry sense of humour is beginning to show, Holmstrom’s a refreshingly grumpy and surprisingly articulate guy for a player who could barely speak English for the majority of his tenure with the Wings, listening to Draper, Cleary, or Maltby talk is like listening to a coach dissecting the game because they’re just so damn smart, especially assistant-coach-slash-skater Draper, Mikael Samuelsson is affable, Johan Franzen’s hilariously sarcastic and blunt, Hudler’s confidence and enthusiasm shine through, Filppula and Kopecky are humble as humble can be, Aaron Downey really does sound like the farm boy he is, Dallas Drake is an acerbic grump, and Matt Ellis is a salt-of-the-earth nice guy;

Despite his reputation as a Mr. Bland, Nick Lidstrom, when actually asked about hockey, is extremely articulate and exhibits an astounding level of hockey knowledge and “feel” for the game, and his blunt comments are without pretense, as if the guy’s just a player who loves hockey, not a man who earns over $7 million a season (and, having met him in person, I can confirm that his supreme confidence in himself is without a milligram of pretense or ego--he’s as genuine a human being as Ellis), Rafalski is a ridiculously intelligent blabbermouth who speaks quickly and enthusiastically while displaying the affect of a guy who would be a rocket scientist if he wasn’t a hockey player, Chris Chelios is, of course, the grumpiest and yet most affable Wing, a sometimes-cocky guy who can still charm his way through just about any situation while proving that he, like Draper, is more of a “playing coach” than a hockey player at this stage of his career, Lilja is actually a glib and funny guy, Kronwall’s frustration with his injuries belies a tremendous passion for the game, Brett Lebda is the classic “friendly jock,” Meech is a classic Winnipegger, understated and Western Canadian humble…

Ozzie has restored his reputation as a team leader in tremendously blunt assessments of the Wings’ play, and Dom is both batsh*t insane and a really nice guy, ego and all.

The Wings have only begun to allow these players’ personalities to be revealed with the “podcasts” and access to media scrums, and if they put an even half-assed effort to market these guys as three-dimensional human beings, they’d be as much “local heroes” as Stevie, Shanny, Vladdie, Drapes, Mac, Malts, Cheli, and Ozzie were during the Cup years--and, thankfully, we still know Drapes, Malts, Cheli, and Ozzie on that “personal” level.

How can Detroiters not love a guy who’s more than willing to do a blue-collar job that’s dirty and dangerous in Tomas Holmstrom, identify with a genuinely happy-go-lucky and tremendously approachable superstar in Zetterberg, the classic, “It’s always the quiet ones who are funny” Datsyuk, who’s just beginning to allow his personality to show, Happy Hudler, Stand-up Mule, poster-boy-looks-with-brains Filppula, Happy Hudler, salt-of-the-earth Nick, or any of the Wings’ other very North-Americanized Europeans?  They’re good guys, genuinely good guys, and some of them represent Detroit’s blue-collar ethic just as much as Maltby, Draper, and Chelios. 

If people want to tune out the Wings because so many of their birth certificates come from outside North America, it’s their loss.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 11/23/07 at 09:15 PM ET

yes

Posted by srt on 11/23/07 at 10:04 PM ET

Damn, George, looks like they could use you over in Marketing! Once you are working from the inside, see what you can do aboot the “Fire on Ice” thing.

Posted by dougie on 11/24/07 at 08:51 AM ET

Spose John Hahn has his own twist on the infamous Darryl Rogers quote ...  when he’s alone ... in the dark?

Posted by Hoser from Downer Peninsula, Michigan on 11/24/07 at 12:24 PM ET

I hate to say it, but Dougie, the Wings wouldn’t dare allow their players to be rendered in 3-D.  I sure as hell wish they’d give me a chance, but I have in fact spoken to the front office, and their opinion of me is that of an instigator and a pain in the butt…

Which isn’t a bad thing, but let’s just say that my chances of landing a job with the team, regrettably, are pretty low.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 11/25/07 at 02:31 PM ET