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Abel to Yzerman

Get Lead, Lose Lead, Lose Game…Wash, Rinse, Repeat

by IwoCPO on 10/23/09 at 10:40 AM ET
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Here’s a little ditty that’s sure to ring a few bells.  Ready? I know that you are.

Khan(!)

“I went to steer (the puck) in the corner, it hit my stick and kind of ramped (up), took a bounce and hit my arm and went in the net,’’ Osgood said. “I feel really good, feel like I’m trending upwards, just can’t get a break right now.’’

Awesome.

After letting in that OT donkey punch?  Chris is “feeling good.”  No, he’s feeling “really” good.  Trending upward, can’t get a break.

What kind of break did you want that would have let you stop that puck Chris?  Know what’s funny? Dave Strader, a friend of the program, is still doing play by play for Phoenix.  Less than a minute after our potential Hall of Famer (ooops, sorry.  DAMMIT. No HHOF discussion here. Leave that to the Dive and Bubba) lost the game? Strader reminded us what Darren Pang has been saying about Osgood for years.  His blocker floats and he leaves a tremendous hole to shoot at and through.  I may be a pharmacist but I’m guessing that’s not exactly a state secret around the league.

But you know what?  Screw it. Osgood’s feeling “really good” about it.

Here’s what you can feel good about.  Unless shit gets turned around fast, we won’t be discussing division titles.  We’re going to be embroiled in something very few of us have any clue about…a battle to get in the playoffs.  One part of me wants to vomit my recently disposed of apple frigging fritter all over my desk.  Another part?  That part says bring on that kind of drama.  Bring on what the mediocre have to deal with every year.  Let me feel, because I’m every man, what my friends in Denver and St. Louis and Nashville have to endure every season: the stress that goes along with your team dealing with a playoff game every other night from mid-February on.

8 games.  Eight points.  8 games and how many blown leads?  I can count at least five but every one of you knows I’m not looking it up.  Plus, I’d have to go back to last season and include those games.

Why? Because it’s all the same.  What we’re seeing is one big steaming pile of regular season unfocused crap.  It’s disgusting and it’s offensive that this team thinks they can coast through regular seasong games relying on talent alone.  We’ve known it forever. We’ve known that every night last year would be a battle because of the target.  Well, it’s still there.  And the young teams, so dumb that they don’t know better, all they’re doing is hustling and hitting and plowing through the crease on an Osgood hunt.

Oh yes.  Let’s point some fingers.  Let’s start with the coach?  Sure. Ultimately you have to, don’t you? 

Nope.  I’ll pass on that and go right to the veterans.  The all-important, got-to-have-to-succeed vets.  Well, Nick?  Well, Drapes?  Are you feeling “really good” like your pal? 

Damn. That’s all pessimistic.  Yep. Sorry.  But you’re not?  I still can’t figure something out.  I, for the life of me, can not understand how this team didn’t come out of the gate breathing fire, clamping down, holding leads like ‘98. I expected them to be steely eyed, full of resolve.  Quietly seething.  You lost a Stanley Cup Final Game 7 at home.  And now you’re 3-3-2.  What an impact that must have had.

Yes.  I know.  The third goal was pathetic.  And this from George makes sense, as usual.

Snapshots

...the kind of goal that would never stand if Tomas Holmstrom were involved ended up costing them yet another third-period lead and yet another point.

Yep. Bad call.  Bad, bad, nasty, filthy call.  Guess what though?  Anyone who was surprised Phoenix tied it up needs a slap right in the face. Open handed just like the bitches do it.  Because the Wings were back on their heels, welcoming in the big bad maximum security fellas after the lights had gone out.  Just sitting there waiting. 

Outshot 12-8 in the third and probably 8-0 in the last five minutes.  And you stayed up for it.  You got a healthy four hours of sleep, five, six…so that you could stay up and watch another 55 minute effort.

Oh, but we’re waiting for Datsyuk to play better.  Yeah? He did. He played great.  But, when the circus is back together the puppies will come home.  Yeah, there they were.  Back together.  And what a force. Seriously. They looked awesome. 

Anybody else?  Danny? Bert? Val? Happy?

Woops. That slipped in there.  No oompa. 

Silver lining time.  55 minutes is the norm, maybe a little less.  The great majority of every game so far the Wings have dominated.  It’s the focus that’s lacking.  And that can be fixed…I think.

In the meantime,  all the automatic stuff we used to take for granted is slipping away.  Automatic divisions. Automatic playoff berths.  Automatic victories with a lead after two. Automatic saves on forty foot floaters. Oh.  Nevermind, that’s never been automatic.

But, hey, at least we’re “trending upward” right?

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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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