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Abel to Yzerman

Chicago In The Rear View

by IwoCPO on 01/03/09 at 05:54 AM ET
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First, since I’ve been a little (ahem) cynical about the whole deal for the past several months…let me give you a few final impressions of the event in Chicago.

Then?  Chris Osgood returns tonite.  First time he’ll have played in three weeks, since my birthday in fact.  And what to do with Chris Chelios? I have no idea.

Man, I loved the Tigers growing up.  I still like them, but in the 70’s and 80’s?  Crazy, mood altering obsessive behavior.  Steve Kemp, Jason Thompson, Ron LeFlore.  I saw the Bird pitch opening day in ‘77 ‘78 (thanks Al) and seem to remember Thompson hitting one into the lumber yard that afternoon.  Not sure now if that actually happened or not. 

I remember Sparky telling us all that Gibby was the next Mickey Mantle and to this day Kirk Gibson remains my favorite Tiger of all time.  The loss to Minnesota in ‘87 still ranks as one of the greatest disappointments in my life.  Seriously.  I was 18 when Darrell Evans got picked off third, but my childhood ended that very moment.

I tell you all that because I remember really wanting a Cub/Tiger World Series in ‘84.  Yeah, I was a Tiger fan. But even more than that, a baseball fan.  I was a young punk-ass who loved everything about it…the stats, the pace, infield practice, even the word “fungo”.  Growing up I read everything about baseball.  I knew more about Ty Cobb than I did my little brother.

So I recognized what a historic series that would have been. Going back and forth between Tiger Stadium and Wrigley. 

And the Cubs came close, but they choked a two-game lead away to Steve Garvey and the Padres.  And the Tigers laid waste to them in 5 games, as we all knew they would.  Shoulda pitched Sutcliffe in Game 4.  Dumbasses.  So, no Series at Wrigley.

But it was what could have been in ‘84 that came to mind a few times on Thursday.

Of all the camera angles we saw, the ones of the stands overflowing were the ones I liked the best.  I’ve never been to that park, but I know my baseball history and I know that was pretty frigging cool to see. 

My point?  I whined a lot about the game being held outside of Michigan. We talked about the Big House and Ford Field.  And that would have been cool. Still could be.  But Wrigley worked.  Hopefully hockey fence-sitters were paying attention to the atmosphere instead of the first-period officiating because the call on Hossa and the blown call on Lilja were disgusting.  Had the Wings lost, I’d still be talking about them now. 

So yeah.  Good job.  Faults? Sure.  But overall, a cool event to watch and one that was well-marketed and well-produced.  Still would have been nice to see Gibby breaking up a double play around the same spot Datsyuk started his “wind-aided” rush up ice though.

And you gotta feel for Tomas Kopecky.  Yeah, we all understand why Chris Chelios played.  And his presence in the lineup said more about the exhibition-like feel to this game than anything.  And, yeah, we know Lebda deserved to be in there too.  But Kopecky hadn’t missed a game all year, and then it’s got to be this one the kid sits for.  Too bad.

Dave Dye

“It was (disappointing), but it’s over,” Kopecky said Friday following practice at the Excel Energy Center. “I don’t want to think about it. It’s history. It was hard. What can you do? You’ve got to move on.

“I wish like hell to play in that game, but on the other side, I’m so happy for Cheli. He deserved it. It’s his hometown. I understood. But I couldn’t wait for yesterday to be over. I shut off my cell phone. People were calling me, texting me. I just didn’t want to deal with it. I just wanted it to be over.”

Chelios played a total of 1:57. Five shifts.  One in the second, for five seconds.  None in the third.  He told Dye that he believed the Wings tried to get the roster expanded, but apparently the request was made too late.  Whatever.  We all know what the answer would have been to that.  Thanks Gary. Ass. Bridgestone. Blow me. (Those of you who don’t understand that? Well you need to read the last few posts, particularly the comment sections.  Just further proof that I have no control over the content of this blog whatsoever. And I dig that.) 

The anti-digger was outspoken in his blog Thursday night.  It’s time to start wondering exactly what Chris Chelios is bringing to the table.

On the ice, Chris Chelios has become not a spare part, but a meaningless part on this team. Now that Andreas Lilja has taken over Chelios’ penalty-kill duties, Chelios doesn’t have much left. Off the ice, Chelios has a ton to offer this team. But playing 1:57 in this game highlights that Chelios isn’t going to be used. In a season when the Wings carry one player less than the 23-man limit because they’re so close to the salary cap, carrying another player who doesn’t have a role strains the roster. That said, I have no way to gauge Chelios’ contributions off the ice. It might well be worth the Wings’ while to keep him on the roster. Besides, it would be very un-Red Wings-like to not keep Chelios.

I’m going to leave the statement alone where MacLeod says he has no way to gauge Chelios’ off-ice contributions, since it would seem to me one way to gauge them would be to ask Holland or Uncle Mike or Lidstrom.  Of course you’d get the party line from them, but still.

So.  Back to normal tonite.  On to Minnesota, minus Gaborik.  Realistically the Wings should hold this team to less then 25 shots.  Realistically, the Wings—if they play anything like they did the last two—should paste the Wild.  But, reality is weird.  Reality tells us that the Wings will be in recovery mode from two emotional deals.  Reality tells us to prepare for a loss.

Unless…

Mike Babcock said goalie Chris Osgood (groin) will make his first appearance since Dec. 15.

“Not only do you have to get physically ready, you’ve got to get mentally ready (coming back from an injury),” Babcock said. “He’s had a good opportunity to do both.”

Here we go.  My opinion?  Osgood could have started either of the last two games against Chicago.  If not, you don’t have him in there as your backup.  You just don’t.  Uncle Mike’s playing mind games, and we frigging dig that.  He’s been holding Osgood out longer than necessary to send him a message: get your mind right.  Get it playoff-right.  Because you blow this one and we might be whipping the Conk out long-time.  Got it?

Oh, and Dye told us Zetterberg didn’t practice yesterday because of a tight groin.  Wasn’t it a groin thing that kept Osgood out for three weeks?  I know. A goalie groin and a forward groin are groins of a different feather.  Got it.  Zetterberg says he thinks he’ll play tonite.  Me?  I’ll bet he sits.

Uncle Mike? He’s talking PK. And he’s in rare form.

Khan(!)

“We’re doing dumb things. We give up a rush goal, or we don’t shoot it down the ice, or we lose a faceoff,” Babcock said. “Let’s just get after them like we always have. If they make three passes and tap it into the empty net, buy them a case of beer and face-off. Let’s get on with it.”

Obviously, every time our Uncle makes a beer reference he just cements his legacy.  But there was more.  Much more.

The Mike Babcock Consolidated Quote of the Day (MBCQOTD)

“That’s right Helene. Buy ‘em a case. Drink it with ‘em too.  Shotgun ‘em. Funnels.  Quarters in the room after the game.  Let the boys be boys Helene.  Here. Try this hat on Helene.  Wear it for ten minutes and tell me you don’t feel like kicking somebody’s ass.  No?  Well, here. Write this down. I wanna see this in the News tomorrow.  Oh. Right. Free Press. Whatever.  Write it down.  Joel Quenneville can’t beat me. Never has. Never will.  Not when I’m wearing the pimp hat Helene.  Oh, yes I did.  I said it.  Pimp hat.  Pimp hat.  Pimp hat.  Saskatchewan gangster is what I am.  Write. It. Down.”

Exactly.  Thanks Mike.

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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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