Abel to Yzerman
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Opportunity Lost
by IwoCPO on 09/25/07 at 03:43 AM ET
Comments (14)
I can only find one reference to it, and it’s far from definitive.
Tonight could have marked the return of former Wing Brendan Shanahan to Joe Louis Arena, but no such drama.
Shanahan was in the lineup Monday when the Rangers played the New York Islanders in Long Island.
Like many NHL teams, the Rangers prefer not to play veterans on consecutive nights in the exhibition season.
Just come out and say it Ted. Shanahan’s not playing. He doesn’t say so because he doesn’t know, and he doesn’t know because he didn’t ask. Ted Kulfan assumes Brendan Shanahan’s not playing, and that assumption is probably correct. But I guarantee he didn’t make the phone call to find out, because if he had he would have written this: Brendan Shanahan won’t be in the lineup for the Rangers tonight.
Kulfan doesn’t know if Shanahan’s playing tonight so he wrote around it. He says “no such drama.” He tells us Shanahan played last night then, “the Rangers prefer not to play veterans on consecutive nights.” But he doesn’t say it with any certainty because certainty has no place in the lives of our Diggers. No phone call. No numbers in the five except for the ones John Hahn told him to load. Kulfan simply assumes Shanahan’s not playing because he played against the Islanders last night.
Is it a pretty safe assumption? Yeah. Do Wing fans who want to know for sure before they shell out the bucks deserve more certainty than that? You’re damn right they do.
Is Brendan Shanahan going to play in Detroit tonight? We don’t know. Not yet. Nothing in the New York papers either.
I hope Shanahan plays tonite for another reason other than how fun it would be to see Kulfan’s laziness exposed. I’d like to see Shanahan return to the Joe because I’m real curious how the paying customers are going to treat him. And if he doesn’t play tonite, Little Gary’s ensured us the opportunity to witness that reaction may never occur.
Because, naturally, the Rangers don’t come to Detroit this year. Oh, we played in New York last year so the ASSUMPTION would be that they visit Detroit this season. But assumptions where Bettman’s concerned only make you look as idiotic as him. In fact, the only thing you can assume is that if there’s a way to miss an opportunity, Gary will find it.
So it’s all hypothetical if Shanahan doesn’t play, but I’ll bet this is how it would play out if he did. He’d be treated like a returning hero, a hero of three Cups. Shanahan would be hailed as the wayward son who’s returned. There’d be a little video tribute. There’d be a standing O and the hypocrites would sob and genuflect.
You know where I’m going with this and I won’t disappoint you. Brendan Shanahan may as well be from Bay City. He was adopted by Wing fans as one of their own and could do little wrong. Outspoken, gregarious, friendly to the fans. He fought more than his teammates, which is still not much. He scored some goals and we all loved the Irish Jig.
Then he left because the team was “going in a different direction.” Shanahan took the same money from the brighter lights and took off. I’ll easily admit that I don’t know all that went on to cause his departure. I have a feeling he, admirably, held back with his statements and I’m betting there’s a story to be told about him, Steve Yzerman and Mike Babcock. But here’s the bottom line: he could have stayed and he didn’t.
But if he played tonite, all would be forgotten. He’d be cheered loudly. He’d be welcomed home.
Unlike other players who have left the Wings. Or at least, unlike one.
Sergei Fedorov had more to do with the Wings winning three Cups than Brendan Shanahan did and we re-pay him for those Cups by booing him every chance we get. We’ll never know how Brendan Shanahan would have been received, if Ted Kulfan’s lazy assumptions are correct. But we can guess.
So, yeah, I hope Kulfan’s educated guess that is supposed to read like fact is proven false. I hope Shanny plays tonite. If I were at the Joe, I’d stand up and cheer for the guy because I believe he’s owed that for what he helped bring our city and us, as Wing fans. But I’ll tell you this: I’d sure as Hell cheer for Fedorov too.
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Comments
“no such drama” should go in the glossary. The definition should be “Deep Diggers doing their job? no such drama.”
Posted by Aaron in PHX on 09/25/07 at 08:53 AM ET
I think the difference with Feds and Shanny is that Fedorov left for more money to a team that just beat us in the playoffs the year before. At the time I saw him as a greedy SoB who only played hocey for the money. But as I got older I had to realize that those probably weren’t his only ambitions and so what if it was. The fact of the matter is he was great in Detroit and we were just upset that he didn’t want to play with us anymore. I miss both these guys dearly and would love to see both in a Wing jersey again but it probably not going to happen. But I do have a feeling that Shanny would get a better reception.
Posted by Josh from Mich on 09/25/07 at 10:54 AM ET
left for more money to a team that just beat us in the playoffs the year before.
I wonder if Schneider and Bertuzzi are going to get the same receptions as Feds?
Posted by cementslinger from Midland MI on 09/25/07 at 11:51 AM ET
I still have my Fedorov sweater. I miss him and I miss how he used to play hockey. He still shows those flashes of brilliance every once in awhile but not enough. I would still love to see him back in a Winged Wheel sweater.
Josh, if I remember right (and I’m not saying that I do), Anaheim actually offered Feds less money than Detroit.
Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 09/25/07 at 12:05 PM ET
I still have my Fedorov Jersey too. It wasn’t so much the money with Anaheim (it was with Carolina), but he wanted to be “the guy”, and you can’t be “the guy” while it was Yzermans team.
I haven’t, nor would I ever boo Sergei.
I think Shanahan would get a warm reception in JLA. Schneider probably, Bertuzzi definetly not.
What about Mowers? no such drama.
Posted by Aaron on 09/25/07 at 12:11 PM ET
I know I’m in the minority, but I always liked Fedorov more than Shanahan. Not a clue why.
If I recall correctly, Anaheim also offered a longer deal with several options for Fedorov to end the contract early if he wished. I think the flexibility appealed to him as well.
Bertuzzi would no doubt be booed, not just because he left for Anaheim (for $4 million a year, it was a no-brainer on his part) but he wasn’t around long enough to feel like a member of the team. Schneider was a part of the team longer, and that would also probably play into a bit warmer reception.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 09/25/07 at 12:26 PM ET
FYI: Bruce MacLeod has just posted the first of the Organ-I-Zations roster moves, noting which players were assigned to G.R. (among those Ference and Kindl) and which were released (Cullimore) http://redwingscorner.blogspot.com/
Posted by Jeff OKWingnut from Quest for 12 on 09/25/07 at 12:46 PM ET
Ansar Khan confirms that Shanahan and Avery won’t be playing.
http://blog.mlive.com/redwingsinsider/2007/09/cullimore_cut_ference_kindl_re.html
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 09/25/07 at 01:06 PM ET
According to Sam Weinman (NY Rangers beat writer):
“I was originally surprised to see Brendan Shanahan in the lineup tonight [vs. NYI] as opposed to tomorrow in his old stomping ground in Detroit, but I’m told that it’s rare for a player to make a return like that in an exhibition game. I guess we’ll have to wait until the Finals…”
http://rangers.lohudblogs.com/2007/09/24/too-much-information/
Posted by K24 from NYC on 09/25/07 at 03:38 PM ET
Hockeychic you could be right, it has been awhile but that is how i remember it. But maybe that was the reason he left even though we offered him more money. It may just because we were sour he didn’t want to play for us anymore. Whatever the reason we should be over it by now and i think the booing in the Joe is just fans booing for the hell of it. Lets hope it stops.
Posted by Josh from Mich on 09/26/07 at 04:52 PM ET
Lol just read my post and it doesn’t make much sense. For clarification when I “the reason” I am referring to why we are sore about Feds leaving.
Posted by Josh from Mich on 09/26/07 at 04:55 PM ET
I’d boo him.
Once, but I’d boo him.
I read Shanahan’s extremely public courting by the Habs and Rangers—while leading Kenny Holland along on the primrose path (Holland didn’t have a plan “B,” don’t'chya know)—and he did something very similar to what Sergei did; he saw that there wasn’t going to be any entitlement to becoming “the man” after Stevie over Nick (who knows what would have happened there), nor would there have been a “you’re the man now” contract, so he left for greener pastures and the same term where he could be a leader under his own terms.
Sergei wanted to leave for greener pastures after realizing that the Wings were neither going to just name him Yzerman’s heir apparent, nor were they going to give him the money he was looking for, so he left, thinking that he’d flourish as the go-to guy in Anaheim.
I don’t harbour much ill will toward my first favourite in Fedorov (I was 14, it happens), nor do I harbour much ill will toward Shanny, but I would have gotten my one big boo in for treating the Wings like another rest stop.
After that boo, however, I would not boo him again, even if we saw the Rags 8 times a year.
Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 09/27/07 at 03:14 AM ET
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Amen, Chief!
From your keyboard to the JLA crowd’s ears.
Thanks to litle gary (and barring injury), Red Wing fans at “the Joe” should have four opportunities this season to finally acknowledge Fedorov’s contributions to three Stanley Cups—as well as the innumerable thrills he provided during his career in Detroit. After that, who knows? With his age and the cap, it’s possible he may never play in Detroit again.
Posted by YzermanZetterberg from Saginaw, MI on 09/25/07 at 08:25 AM ET