Abel to Yzerman
Wednesday Seems Like a Good Day To…
by IwoCPO on 04/04/07 at 09:05 AM ET
Comments (0)
...rub a little salt. Now, as you know, I’m not one to take enjoyment from another fan base’s pain. It doesn’t excite me to consider the fourteen remaining hockey fans in Denver who are trying to temper hope with reality. Five points back with 3 games remaining against Bubba, AlanaH’s Nucks and Calgary. And if they squeek in? A matchup with certain despair. And Bubba? Oh dear.
How awful it must be to look at that crown jewel of a division title all year, only to see it snatched from you in the final month by a team you hate almost as much as the cousin who married your sister. And our friends in Columbus? Our little brothers and future-current-past rivals? Buckeye nation is reeling from their latest defeat at the hands of Florida so the pain from yesterday is obviously dimmed.
So back to my premise. Do I enjoy the pain of our rivals? Most certainly I do not. I empathize with them, and I think you know that. All I can do is read and react. Read and react. Which is what we’ll do this morning as we tour the opposition DD’s.
First, to Columbus…a town in conflict as they ponder the thought of losing Greg Oden, the only freshman athlete in school history who actually appears intelligent enough to succeed at OSU, yet who is bound to leap to the prison waiting room known as the NBA. A hot topic in Columbus, naturally. But not one on the mind of a certain imbalanced Euro-goalie.
Let’s go back to Sunday when Hasek, with a decidedly Nashvillian topic on his mind, brushed aside the BJ’s before heading to Wrestlemania. The Wings hurried out of Columbus to ensure Dom had his front-row seats at Ford Field, but not until our crazy Czech threw this jab at the little BJ’s.
1 April, Columbus Post Dispatch
“Well, let’s put it this way—it wasn’t like two days ago, when we were playing the Stars,” Hasek said. “It was what it was. They (the Jackets) are one of the worst teams in the conference.”
Why Dom, why? Oh, but he wasn’t finished. After last night? More of the same.
“We have to play hard for the whole 60 minutes. Maybe against a team like Columbus, it’s good enough, but against the better teams it won’t be enough.”
Hasek’s a funny guy. Maybe his grasp of English subtleties just isn’t there after twenty years amongst us. Or maybe he just enjoys jabbing Columbus. If it’s the latter, we appreciate it. It’s not like he’s going to be around in ten years when they’re good enough to make us pay the piper for his comments.
And, heck, it’s not like he just decided over the weekend to slam the BJ’s. He’s made a year of it. I take you back to December, immediately following a 5-0 decimation of our friends from Ohio. You’ll recall this was the tail end of a home-and-home, after the Wings let one slip away the night before.
20 December, NHL.com
“We know we’re a better team,” he said. “And if you want to be a contender, a top team in the NHL, you can’t lose two games in a row to a team like Columbus.”
Why, Dom, why? Because it’s easy and it’s fun. I apologize on his behalf.
Speaking of fun. Oh they’re having plenty of it in Nashville today. Because the playoffs are around the corner and the state is in a hockey fervor? No. Basketball again. UT won their 28th straight women’s title last night, so Bubba took a back seat, the way back in fact. Did they play? Does it matter? Yes they did and no it doesn’t.
The Predators have lost three in a row — all at home — but they still have a chance at the Central Division title.
With a point in the overtime loss, Nashville has 106 points. Western Division-leading Detroit has 110 points, courtesy of a 3-0 win over Columbus on Tuesday.
If the Predators won their final two regular-season games and the Red Wings lost both of theirs in regulation, Nashville would take the title by virtue of the first tie-breaker, which is most regular-season victories. Each has 49 wins now.
“We have got to do a gut check and get our heads in it for the last two games,” said Predators goalie Chris Mason, who is 4-2 in shootouts this season. “That’s all we can do right now.”
Yep. Better get hot on those gut checks Chris. Oh, and are you starting when the playoffs start? Do you know? Does anyone in Nashville know who their starting goalie is? Is that important?
Speaking of women’s basketball…I see the Duke coach skipped town, headed to Texas. I heard on the radio this morning the Blue Devils are looking at a Dukie, a player from a few years ago. Kinda reminds me of Bo in ‘89. I’m sure Duke’s looking for a “Duke man” to lead that team.
Tasteless? Of course.
Back to hockey and the VW van full of fans left in Denver. Ahhh…the best for last. A victory over Calgary last night. Hope springs eternal in the land of banners.
A win in Calgary and Adrian Dater was in rare form.
Avs coach Joel Quenneville used another pop culture reference to describe his team’s resiliency:
“The Bee Gees - ‘Stayin’ Alive,”’ Quenneville said. “We’re on a good roll. It might be too late, but we’ll try to keep it going.”
A Dive coach quoting Barry Gibb. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
Thankfully, after Dater’s soulful duet with Coach “Q”, he found some reality.
Through all the jubilation of how well the Avs are playing right now - and that is very well - the situation is tempered by this knowledge:
“We still need some help,” Sakic said. “It would be great to play (Calgary) in the last game of the year and have it mean something. It would be an amazing building. But all we can do is keep looking at the next game only, and we have to win all of ours still.”
I can think of very few things that would make me happier than Dive fans having a chance to get in on the last day…only to see it slip away with a loss. That, my friends, would be fun for the whole frigging family.
Ok..enough. Enough of the easy prey. On to some tougher topics. Those Flames who lost to the Dique last evening? Still don’t want ‘em. Don’t want anything to do with that province right now, thank you. Who do I want?
I want the State of Hockey. First, they have to be disposed of quickly because if the Wild hang around too long that State of Hockey thing is going to wipe the novelty of Hockeytown right off the map. I love that…“The STATE of Hockey.” Dammit. So we need to get rid of it quickly. Nothing underscores a cool PR slogan like a long playoff run.
Also, we’re 3-0-1 against the SOH. It’s a team we match up well with and a team I could foresee a fairly quick dispatch of. Naturally, I seem to vaguely recall referring to Dwayne and his pals in the same fashion about this time last year.
If the playoffs started today….
...it would be Calgary, of course. But, Minnesota sits only only four points ahead with a Flame game in hand. Do-able. Another reason to pull for Calgary on Sunday, other than the pain a Flame win vs the Dive would cause some Nugget fans.
Once again, my sincere apologies to the fans of Columbus, Denver and Bubba. Read and react. That’s all I do. Take what the diggers give me.
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