This is the only picture I like of a Detroit player. Hasek = Legend. It was either that, or I put up a picture of the city of Detroit. And let's face it, its Friday, nobody wants to start their weekend with that.
Detroit wins! Detroit wins! Oh how I remember Bob Cole saying that back in the 90's. Back when I used to laugh and applaud Detroits victories. But something funny happened over the years. Detroit kept winning. And winning. And winning some more. Soon they won so much that they became the standard for winning amongst NHL clubs. All you heard was "We want to be like Detroit, we want to be more like Detroit". You heard this from fans. You heard this from the media. You even heard it from the management of the teams themselves. Detroit set the bar for winning in the NHL.
It was a far cry from the early 90's. Back then, they were like the Sharks are now. Regular season beasts who looked amazing during 82 games, but once playoff time came, they found any possible way to lose. You enjoyed watching them because they didn't make you feel bad about your team because at the end of the day you could just go "Oh well, they'll choke in the playoffs like usual."
Remember Osgood choking against San Jose in the 93-94 playoffs? Or if you're too young for that, remember googling Osgood's name and seeing how he lost in 93-94?
Osgood went out of his net and gave the puck away along the boards. San Jose scored. San Jose won the series in 7 games. Interesting to note, this picture was taken from a screen cap for the top 10 worst playoff goals ever.Guess who was number one? Come on. You know the answer. Dan Cloutier. Yep. Dan Cloutier.
Back in the day, Detroit was harmless. But somewhere along the way, they grew up, and decided to win the cup. Several times. Repeatedly. They made that step we wait for Vancouver to make every year. The one Chicago made last year. You know the step, right? The one where the team implodes during the playoffs but next year, vowing never to make that mistake again, they come flying out of the gates in the playoffs and make a respectable run for the cup? Yeah. That one.
But like I said, Detroit kept winning. And the thing is, when teams do that? They should be easy to hate. It should be really really easy to find things to dislike about them. A team that plays that well over a 10 year period, where they enter into the infamous "Dynasty" discussion, you will usally have the fans that LOVE them (mostly because they win and some people find it easier to follow a winner. Less chance of heart disease or stroke) and you have the fans that hate them and can't wait to see the champ taken down a peg. A whole peg.
"I've been taken down a peg... A whole peg!"
New England Patriots? Easy. Cheaters. They video tape your practices. Their coach is unlikeable. They can play a boring style of football.
New Jersey Devils? The trap. Trap trap trap. They ruined hockey.
Dallas Cowboys from the 90's? I'm sick of hearing about America's team. Over rated. Barry Sanders is better than Emmitt. Irvin is a coke head. Aikman has no flair.
Tiger Woods. He sleeps with random women. He gets hit in the face with golf clubs.
Winnipeg Jets. Ha. Just kidding.
It's very easy to find things to hate about winners. But with Detroit, it was always kind of hard. Their tough guys played the game right. Their stars played the game with respect and class. Their goalies were really bad so that would allow you to beat them on occasion. They were basically perfect hosts. When they beat you, you didn't mutter to yourself about cheating or a-holes or this and that. You usually ended up saying "Damnit I wish our team was more like Detroit."
Even their fans are decent. Sure you'll run into an occasional Detroit fan that no longer owns a house and loves to throw it in your face about how good their team is ("OSGOOD BELONGS IN THE HALL OF FAME BRAH, HE'S BETTER THAN ANY GOALIE YOU'VE EVER HAD. STEVIE YYYYYYYYYYYY. Can I borrow a dollar?"), but on the whole, their fans are pretty laid back. Could you imagine if Toronto had their team? I am pretty sure BC would have to seperate from Canada at that point to get away from the explosion of ego that would occur.
So overall, Detroit makes it hard to hate them. I try everyday, but man, Henrik Zetterberg is just so smooth out there. Pavel Datsyuk, while looking like he could be a serial killer in his off time, is an amazing two way player. Lidstrom, one of the best d-men to ever play the game. Stevie Y beat us on one leg, putting in the kind of performance we saw from Linden in 94, how can you not respect that?
Seriously, he looks like he just murdered somone and is thoughtfully pondering if he took enough time exploring the victims soul.
So while some may be counting down the days that Detroits age finally catches up to them (And I won't lie, I enjoy watching them lose in the playoffs occasionally), I will raise my glass and give a toast to the Wings for being a team I wanted the Canucks to be for so many years, and for them not rubbing it in our faces how much better they are then us.
And I still stand by my statement that if Osgood gets near the Hall of Fame, I will vomit several times.
Keys to The Game:
-Edler has become the backbone of this defence. He logs more minutes than any Canuck, and he is playing amazing. Has to remain consistent as we rely heavily upon him. He has kind of stalled in his development the last couple of years in my opinion, as he hasn't really made a leap forward like he did in his rookie years, but if he can keep up his consistency like he has so far, he will finally be closer to grabbing that official "#1 NHL d-man" we've all been waiting for him to do. (Number #1 d-man on a team, not the NHL, mind you)
-Goaltending. Rollie Melanson seems to have had a great positive effect on the Canucks, so it's nice to see some stability on our backend, regardless of who starts the game. I am interested to see how Luongo and the team handle the challenge of the Red Wings. Luongo needs to not flop and stick to his deep in the crease net play!
-Hank and Dank need to continue to provide the bulk of our offence, whether it's the powerplay or not. They have been magical so far, so now it will be fun to see if they raise their games agains the Wings
-Burrows has to get in game shape. He started off strong but so far hasn't found his groove yet, but that is to be expected
-Samuelsson. Wake the F*** up buddy. This guy only seems to play hard when he's challenged, but it gets a bit worrisome that it always seems to take a kick in the pants to get him going. Regardless, he needs to get it going as he is the weakest part of the 2nd line. Kesler was a beast last game, but Raymond seems stuck in speed racer mode, and Sammy, well, Sammy just looks like he is playing for Canucks alumni already.
-Torres, Manny and.....Janny? 3rd line has been amazing. Keep up the good work!
-Ballard, get more ice time! More! More more more!
-I want to see the showdown of Kesler vs Datsyuk. I still think Kesler should have won last year, but that is based purely on blatant homerism. It seems Kesler is playing with a bit of an edge these days, so I hope he can piss a few of the Wings off.
-Fourth line as usual needs to stay off the ice.
Alright, see you at gametime!
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