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Abel to Yzerman

Western Swing After Action

by IwoCPO on 12/30/07 at 11:06 AM ET
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Another productive trip West.  A whitewash of our JV sisters from St. Louis, a grinding win over the mediocre Dive and last night’s slush-fest in Phoenix.  6 possible points: done.

Check this out:  counting OT and the now completely lifeless shootouts, the Wings have lost seven times on the road out of twenty games. 

Of those 7 losses?

6 have been against the Central.  The Wings are 9-1 against the vastly superior Pacific and Northwest divisions…in their buildings.  The one loss coming 15 October to the Poultry in Anaheim.

All of a sudden, the Wings know how to win out West where woe used to wait.  One more piece of evidence that this team is on a mission, one that began with ten minutes remaining in Game 6 of last year’s WCF.

Oh. Sorry.  For you Dive fans, “WCF” means Western Conference Finals.  It’s the last stage of the playoffs prior to the Stanley Cup.  I understand many of you are new to the sport after the bandwagon broke down last April.  Man. There I go again.  Smug. Arrogant. Dismissive.

Exactly.  I was remiss Friday in that I failed to post a comprehensive review of the Wing/Dive game.  Yeah…sorry.  It’s just that…well, what was I supposed to say?  Wings travel to Denver, another Detroit hidden draft gem (Filppula) outplays another crop of heralded Denver youngsters, another win for Dominik Hasek against the Dive.  Wings continue the domination of a team that hasn’t done squat since Patrick Roy was chased from the Joe in ‘02. Ho-frigging-hum. 

Everyone understand when I refer to the Denver hockey team as the “Dive”?  That’s fairly apparent, right?  I don’t have to explain it?  Oh, you’ve seen it elsewhere.  Got it.  Ever hear the term, “beige Wings”?  Yeah..didn’t think so.  Doesn’t exactly have a ring to it does it?  Not as catchy as AQ’s “axis of evil”, which I respect.  “Beige Wings”?  After years of beat downs preceded by a fierce rivalry that’s the best a Dive fan can do?

Jibblescribbits

Hell I call them the Beige Wings because, outside Chelios and Hasek, that red club has no discernible personality.

Oh.

That’s from a blog entry apparently written mere moments after the game Thursday.  Plenty of venom in that one, boy.  That’s cool. We like venom. 

The last 11 years or so I have hated them, as they have been an entirely hateable team. The Coward McCarty, “Picasso” Draper, washed up Cicarelli and their fans, well there’s no denying their fans are far and away the most insufferable in the league. I know I am biased, but even an impartial Sharks season-ticket holder, one who doesn’t hate anyone, hates Beige Wings fans. He says they are the most rude, obnoxious, narcissistic, and really not very bright fans on the planet. This isn’t from a biased Avs fan mind you, but a Sharks season ticket holder who went into hockey with no bias.

Darren McCarty’s a coward?  Oh that’s right.  Mike Keane said that after Mac beat down the turtle at the Joe.  Let’s put this one to rest.  Does anyone in their right mind actually think McCarty was afraid to go after Lemieux in Denver?  Does that make any sense at all?  It’s been almost eleven years, so there must be at least seven or eight Denver hockey fans left who watched it.  What would McCarty have been scared of?  Darren Garcia jumping out of the stands and joining two men grappling in front of thousands of people?  Don’t answer that.

I wonder if McCarty waited until the teams met in March, in Detroit, because (1) the playoffs were week away and he saw it as an opportunity to provide the team a lift—which we know he did, (2) he wanted to beat Lemieux’s ass in front of a Hockeytown crowd because he was a Hockeytown guy, or (c) that’s just the way the Dive cookie crumbled.  The stars happened to align. Larionov went after Forsberg.  Lemieux happened to be on the ice at the same time as Mac. Lemieux was in the vicinity so Darren beat his ass?

Back to the “Beige Wings” manifesto, written a few minutes after another Detroit victory in Denver before a quiet crowd buzzed on white wine.  A Sharks fan hates the Wings? Say it isn’t so.  We’re rude, obnoxious and narcissistic?  Exactly.  I don’t know what narcissistic means but when combined with rude and obnoxious, I’ll take it.  If you’re a Dive fan, yep…I’m rude.  When the Wings whip Denver, again, yes I will be obnoxious.  Hopefully it will happen in the playoffs so I can rub it in even deeper.  Naturally, you have to hold up your end of the bargain and, you know, get there.

I’m no beat writer. There are no community standards I have to live by.  I…don’t…like Avalanche fans.  Sorry. 

But hey, animosity between fan bases—even those with such significant disparity in volume and knowledge—isn’t going to hurt anybody.  Right?

Sure there’s still the occasional Red Wing know-it-all that feels because you have only had your hockey club for 11 years that somehow you are an inferior fan, but they are pretty harmless.

On the money in all respects. 

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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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