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Let’s Give The Tenth Back
by IwoCPO on 12/09/07 at 07:43 AM ET
Comments (24)
Man, this one crept up on me. Had I given it a bit more thought—imagine that—I’d have brought this up yesterday. Here’s the deal. Sit down Wing fans, because this is gonna hurt. Ready?
Carolina fans don’t like you. Some even despise you. If the Wings were playing in Raleigh tonite, the torches would be lit, the warnings would be rampant about “obnoxious Wing fans”, stampeding through their arena with the audacity to actually support their team. Oh, the horror.
But, there’s always the possibility that—since the game’s in Detroit—they’ll sit quietly, sip their moonshine, skin their possum and wait for the 5pm faceoff. Perhaps this time, before the ass kicking, they’ll wait until after the game to spew the bitterness that just won’t go away after the 2002 spanking. Whaddya think ya’ll?
Nope.
Dear Red Wings fans,
I see your IP addresses. You’re here hoping to hear me sling some good old-fashioned hate at your beloved Red Wings.
You’re hoping to see me drop an angerbomb or two about 2002, possibly wind up soiling yourselves with glee at seeing me rant nonsensically about how much I hate you personally, hate your team, hate your town…
About 2002. See. Here’s the thing. Why? Why all the angst? Did anyone, even in Mayberry, really expect a win? I mean a series win. You reached the finals that year. It was a glorious achievement. You were matched up against perhaps the greatest team ever assembled and you won a game. See? You did. Remember?
That, in itself, should be something you can look back at with great pride. Heck you guys put 16 shots on Hasek in Game 5. That’s good, isn’t it?
But instead, oh, the hatred.
I’m tired of the disrespect that comes with the attitude that everyone else should just roll over and die for the Mighty Detroit Red Wings–especially when that disrespect comes from frontrunning mouthbreathers that wouldn’t know Alex Delvecchio if he walked up to them on the street and cross-checked them. I’m tired of the frontrunning attitude, tired of the excusemaking and double-standardization associated with the attendance woes in Detroit, tired of little two-faced bitches like Mitch Albom that come here and enjoy our hospitality one day only to turn around and trash us the next.
Wow. Hurtful. Naturally the rant continues with the same old schtick. The “murder capital of the world”, the unemployment situation, the elitism of the fan base (the same fan base that would fill their “barn” if it were in Carolina tonite), and on and on and on. “Hated the Wings since I was a child…” Right. Slums in Detroit, self-important, owed our Cups..blah, blah, blah. It’s like a broken fan that you’re too lazy to turn off even though the sound of it is irritating.
Irritating but, in this case, funny. Always funny. That whole 2002 thing. You almost wish it didn’t happen. Five years later and the sadness remains. Ten Cups. We can give one back can’t we, if it means the good, god-fear’n Suthern folk can have their happiness back? Wouldn’t we be willing to make that sacrifice? We’d still have 9, and that gap where the tenth banner is? Heck, we’re gonna replace that one in June anyway.
Whaddya say? Give it back so that the 12 Cane fans who have the electricity required to read this can regain their self-esteem?
Nah.
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Comments
Yes, but how many people in this country know anything about ANY history at all? You can ask a dozen people when the War of 1812 occured and get eight different answers - maybe none of them 1812. If it didn’t happen in the past week and they didn’t see it on the internet, it’s ancient history and thus irrelevant.
This is why you hear the hyperbole about modern stars in any sport - or they are run down more than they deserve because of the “everything was better when I was young” effect, depending on the prejudice of the speaker.
Should be a good game, if Carolina isn’t too sluggish after the game against Montreal and the travel. At least they don’t have to cross a couple time zones, so they won’t have to adjust their internal clocks.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 12/09/07 at 11:00 AM ET
Damn, Bill, from the point of view of a Wings fan living in Raleigh, that was a money shot! Pretty good for short notice. If you had remembered it earlier, I’m certain the Pulitzer Prize for blogging would be in your trophy case soon(they have one of those, right:-)....
It’s really weird, I go to the grocery store, Xmas shopping, whatever, and every couple of hours I see someone in a Canes sweater. I get all excited, another hockey fan in the Dirty South!
Start talking to them about the game, as soon as I mention I am a Detroit fan, it’s like I spit on their mama’s flag or something. Most of them don’t quite know what to say, but on one occasion I got to hear about how very , very close they came to winning the Cup in 2002. Really. To my credit, I didn’t laugh out loud, until I had walked away.
I see a few games at the RBC Center here and there. Personally, I think a more modest goal for the Canes this season would be to teach their fans not to get up and head to the concession stand while the puck is in play. That would really swell, for a change!
Great post! A tip of my Mason jar to you!
Posted by dougie on 12/09/07 at 12:21 PM ET
Dougie
and
Nathan
Please email me at
hockeytowntodd at hotmail dot com
thanks
Gramps
Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 12/09/07 at 12:44 PM ET
Perhaps we should remind them of the Conn Smythe winner that year. He of the “Best Euro Ever” fame should certainly be able to bridge this historical gap. And all they would need to do is pick up the latest Hockey News or, even better, look at the beautiful ad on these pages.
Baroque: Thinking historically is a learned art and one that is clearly untaught. I actually have students who said: “I don’t really remember 9/11: it happened when I was in, like, 5th grade, so whatevs”
I nearly shot myself after hearing that then decided that failing that student for sucking at life would be more appropriate.
Posted by srt on 12/09/07 at 01:02 PM ET
You’d think Carolina fans would be less bitter since they won the Cup in ‘06. I hated the Devils from ‘95 until we won the Cup in ‘97. Since then, I couldn’t care less about them.
Who cares if you lost to us in ‘02? Who cares if we hated on you like you hated on us? That’s the what the Cup Finals are when you have 2 passionate fanbases going at it.
Get over it, have a couple ginger ales and enjoy the game between the 2 best offensive teams in the league.
Posted by Defenseman from Grand Rapids on 12/09/07 at 01:41 PM ET
You can ask a dozen people when the War of 1812 occured and get eight different answers
It doesn’t just stop with history… oh, no. When I was teaching and would give out the course evaluations at the end of the semester, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 out of every 60 to 100 students would get <strike>his/her</strike>... ummm… it’s gender wrong.
Posted by BobTheZee on 12/09/07 at 01:50 PM ET
students would get his/her… ummm… it’s gender wrong.
LOL. Were you teaching in Denver?
Posted by srt on 12/09/07 at 01:56 PM ET
I’m sure you have all read this but just for emphasis:
“I’ve seen it on TV and all I can say is, I’ve made hundreds of similar poke checks back in Europe and also in the NHL, but this one was definitely the best one I ever made,” Hasek said.
That’s why the 08 cup and today’s game is ours. We had and have Frankenstein with triple the gonads on our team.
Posted by srt on 12/09/07 at 02:02 PM ET
Okay BTZ, how did you do that strike-thru, and can you show me how to do it on Blogger.
Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 12/09/07 at 02:03 PM ET
LMAO!!!!! I’m sorry, Chief, but that’s just hilarious. Defenseman from GR has it right. I used to hate on the Devils for beating our Wings in ‘95 but now I just want to play them because they have Brodeur in net. I love the competition he brings and I wish our Wings would see more of that fire in his eyes.
As for the Caniacs in Raleigh, NC? Puh-leeze…‘Hawks fans could turn them into quivering jellies.
Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 12/09/07 at 02:38 PM ET
Baroque, srt, I don’t envy you guys your jobs. Working as a teacher must be dip after dip of frustration, followed by the occasional high of making a difference for one student. I have as much patience as a weasel on speed (yes, that was a drug reference), and would probably shoot myself within a few weeks. Anyway, that was a backhanded way of saying that I admire you and salute your indefatigability.
Anyway, onto my point—I have a friend, a tough-as-nails Brooklyn guinea, whom his father tried to indoctrinate in the ways of the New York Rangers. He found them too slow and got disgusted with the way they would beef up their roster (I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone here that the Hew York Yankees of hockey are…the New York Rangers), so he made a conscious decision to support the Hartford Whalers (being from the hellhole that was Brooklyn in the 80s, he loved the genteel New England towns). Needless to say, it is now 2007 and he is a reluctant Carolina Hurricanes fan. Now THERE is a fan that the Canes should count themselves lucky to have. Anyway, we had our…differences…about the 2002 Cup, until I pointed out to him that the Flyers and the Caps were both swept—he’s proud of that one game in the Finals, and any residual bitterness was gone after the 2006 Cup.
And with bitterness comes the usual picking at weak spots. Average attendance at the RBC Center in 2006-2007: 14,268. So how’s the economy going in the ol’ Tech Triangle there? I hate to start going on about the dumb cliche about NHL hockey south of the Mason-Dixon line, but if you’re going to talk about attendance…eh. It’s not worth getting wound up over the rankings, the team, or especially the fans. Just take the game as it comes, wake up the next day and do what you did today. Save the life-and-death stuff for the playoffs.
See you in the Finals in June.
Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from the Roadkill Grille on 12/09/07 at 02:44 PM ET
the only thing i truly hate is bettman and the way he ruined my favorite sport. other than that i can, will,and do live with everyone hating on the red wings. since moving to the philly area it’s more of the same. it’s good to be the wings. lets go red wings!!!!!
Posted by kate from pa. on 12/09/07 at 02:54 PM ET
@ AndrewfromAnnArbor and PointsAllOverTheWorld, I’m not actually a teacher - not anymore, anyway. I spent several years as a teaching assistant when I made a couple of (unsuccessful due to personal reasons) stabs at getting a masters degree.
Biology is a fun subject to teach, though. The blank looks when you try to explain how to multiply by 10 without using a calculator made me feel like I was gazing at a lecture hall full of tranquilized goldfish. You are dead on about the frustration.
That’s why I work in a laboratory. My family puts the over-under at me throttling a parent of a student at three days (and everyone seems to take the under!) It’s safer for everyone else and less stressful for me if I don’t attempt to teach.
@ srt: Just think about how many students don’t remember when there was a Soviet Union or a Berlin Wall.
And if you haven’t read it, you have GOT to get the book Non Campus Mentis by Anders Henriksson. It’s a slim paperback volume with history bloopers from college students. Here are some examples:
“An angry Martin Luther nailed ninety-five theocrats to a church door.”
“Frederick William the Electrode fought on both sides of several wars.”
“Marie Curie won the Noel Prize for inventing the radiator.”
“Rasputin was a pheasant by birth.”
“The Civil Rights movement turned around the corner with Martin Luther Junior’s famous “If I Had a Hammer” speech.”
And one of my favorites:
“The Parthenon was Pericles’ greatest erection.”
Absolutely hilarious. 
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 12/09/07 at 04:08 PM ET
P.S. All the above misspellings were completely intentional. Just in case there was any doubt.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 12/09/07 at 04:12 PM ET
If this Cane fan hates everything about Detroit, someone should remind him who owns his favorite team and where some of his favorite players played in their minor days. If he hates Detroit and anything related, than he should hate the Canes as well.
Posted by Tuba Guy from Royal Oak, MI on 12/09/07 at 04:22 PM ET
Him? Wow, guess I should change my name to M. Butterfly and let my gynecologist know that I won’t have to come in for my annual pap test anymore, because Tuba Guy’s got me pegged.
:rolleyes:
As usual, you mooks Just Don’t Get It—but if it makes you sleep better at night to believe that I never knew anything about hockey until five years ago, then far be it for me to stop you. If it makes you feel better about your own flagging attendance to take potshots at our attendance (which I never claimed was top of the pops, by the way), and if it makes you feel better to think that the RBC Center only sells out when a bunch of frontrunning morons show up to cheer for a team that they didn’t even know or care about until 1996, then far be it for me to stop you.
Posted by AcidQueen from Raleigh, NC on 12/09/07 at 05:15 PM ET
Uhh, thanks AQ. The reverse superiority complex thing sure put us in our place.
This Perthenon stuff sounds impressive… small wonder we haven’t seen it advertised in the thrid period of HNIC’s west game.
Posted by Hoser from Downer Peninsula, Michigan on 12/09/07 at 05:44 PM ET
Canes, Habs, Bolts…whatever, all means the same to me…2 easy points.
Posted by Jeff on 12/09/07 at 07:36 PM ET
then decided that failing that student for sucking at life would be more appropriate
Funny stuff, right there. Wanna hear some scary stuff? About 99% of these people end up with drivers licenses.
Posted by cementslinger from Midland MI on 12/09/07 at 08:06 PM ET
@ cementslinger:
Oh, I have better.
My father retired a couple years ago, and teaches a couple classes a semester of chemistry - Chem 101 or 121 or whatever number the introductory class is.
All the exams are multiple choice and on the computer at the campus testing center.
A. If you were going to cheat, and you knew that the record of your scores was going to have both THE START TIME AND THE END TIME logged into it, don’t you think you would at least spend more than 5 minutes so it was plausible you might have actually done the exam properly?
(Plus each time a student logs in, the questions are ordered differently. Heh-heh-heh.)
B. Would you think of asking for partial credit on a multiple choice exam because the correct answer was choice D, and you picked choice C, so you were only one letter off and should get a half-point for that?
(Actually, now that I think about it, three days before throttling someone would be way over. Especially since I kind of enjoyed making students cry sometimes - but only if they brought it on themselves!)
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 12/09/07 at 08:20 PM ET
Gramps…
Done. Why? Guess I’ll find out. Just try not to send me a virus or any Bob Dylan songs, okay?
Posted by Nathan on 12/09/07 at 08:39 PM ET
“The Parthenon was Pericles’ greatest erection.”
Wow, and before Viagra even! I would love to see the reaction when someone tells them that parts of it have been shipped to various museums in Europe. oy vay…
“An angry Martin Luther nailed ninety-five theocrats to a church door.”
Probably just before he broke out with the MC Hammer song! I actually wish the student and I were right…it would sure be easier to get their attention.
Posted by srt on 12/09/07 at 09:38 PM ET
srt… Nope, Michigan, not Denver. Maybe in Denver it’s more like 1 in 10.
HTT… I just tried the html tags “strike” and “/strike”. It worked in the preview so I went with it. Don’t know if it’ll work in blogger… I’ll head over there and give it a try.
Posted by BobTheZee on 12/09/07 at 11:56 PM ET
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Can’t say I disagree with the statements about bandwagon Wings fans that don’t know who Delvecchio is… and I definately agree with any statement that sheds Mitch Albom in a negative light.
Posted by Nathan on 12/09/07 at 10:25 AM ET