Tag Archives: Detroit Red Wings

Sports

Okay… a little sports…

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Well…it’s 9:04 and I have everything done that I was going to do today so I’m back here to do the sports one that I thought about earlier…there are some things I wanted to comment on before I forget…and that is happening more lately so I’d better get going…first up, the Lions…I was right to not get carried away about them this year even with the outstanding start they had…as always, no matter who is coach or who the players are, the Lions self destruct and go back to their old ways…I don’t think they will even make the playoffs this year and that will be a shame…one other thing…someone has to take Suh aside and tell him how an adult acts even playing the violent game of football….I think he is showing a lack of respect for himself, the rest of the team, and for the league that has made him a very rich young man….I do understand that is still a young man but he should have been taught right from wrong no matter what the context…and stomping on an opposing player is wrong…no shades of gray there.

Now, let’s get to the Red Wings…as you know, a month or so back I was quite disappointed with the play of the Wings and thought they looked slow and uninterested….that was when they had lost 6 in row and were almost at the bottom of the western conference…well…what a difference a month makes…after last night’s game, a 4-1 win over Nashville where we saw what the Wings can be, they are now in third in the west…only a couple of points out of first and riding a 5 game win streak into Tuesday…so, at least one of my teams is making me smile….oh, that’s not true…Michigan finally beat Ohio State after 7 years of losses…a nail biter of a game that had my heart racing at times and was so up and down that I think I used up a weeks worth of emotion in 3 and half hours….and I love Hoke’s comment at the end of the game…that the win wasn’t about him or how he felt..it was about the kids that played the game….classy…that’s about it for now….there are more sports to talk about but I don’t feel like it right now….

Sports

Quite a bad sports weekend…

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Well…it’s a pretty bad sports weekend when all of the teams you follow but one lose. The Lions game just ended with a loss to The Falcons….looked like the same old Lions to me and the mistakes are starting to make me believe that they are not the real thing; just pretenders that might not even make it into the playoffs…and that is too bad, too, since they were so exciting at the start of the season..oh, well….then we have the Wings getting pummeled last night by the Caps but the good news is that it is only the 6th game of 82 and there is plenty of time to get things fixed…and they get to have a bad day every once in a while so I’m not going to get too upset about it. The really bad surprise was the beating that Man U took at home against Man City…it was their worst loss at home since I’ve been alive and, as you know, that is a long, long time. I am really kind of glad that the sports are done for the weekend…I don’t know how much more disappointment I can take…but, the race is till on and the last 25 or so laps should be fun to watch…so I’m going to go back to it….probably not more later…

I am kind of glad that Michigan didn’t play this weekend…couldn’t have taken another loss…

Sports

Gonna do one on sports in a little while…

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Well…wasn’t planning on doing two of these today so the prospect of three is a welcome surprise….I’ll be back later to talk about some sports….even soccer just to warn you..

Okay…had to read the rest of the online papers and now I’m ready to go with sports for a little while…I am going to start with soccer since the EPL is now in full swing and my team, Manchester United, is at the top of the standings and looking like they are going to be the one to beat again this year with their 8-2 pummeling of Arsenal this past weekend…there are lots of new faces on the team that I haven’t seen before and the youngsters seem to be taking over which looks like a good thing. And, Wayne Rooney is looking better than I’ve seen in a long time…I’m not sure if they even need Berbatov anymore….Oh, I did find out something about Rooney that I thought had happened…he spent 50K on hair transplants over the off season…looks kind of strange to see him with hair…

Next….I have been getting sucked in to watching baseball again with the Tigers 6 games in front and playing well….I get nervous when Valverde comes in for the last inning, even though he has saved 40 games in a row….there is always some drama that happens that he works out of but sometimes it’s not pretty. I think they did well to get some help for Verlander when they traded for Doug Fister from Seattle…he looked great in his last start but I find it weird to have someone who 6 foot 9 playing baseball….I’ve always thought of baseball as the refuge for guys like me…just normal height…..I will keep watching and hoping we make the playoffs and they get off Leyland’s back…

What can you say about the Lions? I’ve been hoping for a good team since I was little…that was the last time they were any good….well…they did make the playoffs once in the 90′s I think….I do have to temper my enthusiasm a little and I should know that they will probably disappoint me by not living up to their potential….but, Stafford has looked remarkable in the first three preseason games and someone mentioned in the paper the other day that if we go back to the last four games of last season, the Lions have won 7 in a row…..is it okay to hope just a little? It would be so cool to finally see them in the playoffs with a real chance to win….

I was going to do a Red Wings part of this one….okay, I think I will….it was really hard to see Kris Draper and Chris Osgood retire this summer…they were two of my favorite Wings and such underrated players….It is nice that they will both have places with the Wings in management and again shows the class of the entire organization….I wonder if it is the Ilitches that make both the Tigers and Wings such class organizations….if I ate fast food, I’d want to go out to Little Ceasars to support the family for what they’ve done for Detroit and our teams…I am going to savor this season a pay close attention when Nick Lidstrom plays since this will probably be his last one….it will be quite weird to not have number 5 on defense…but I guess things do have to change…

Sports

Nick wins another one…

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Well….I forgot that the NHL awards were on last night…they were on Versus, after all, and I hate that channel with all of my being since I missed almost half of the Stanley Cup playoffs that were on it. What are the people that run the NHL thinking when they moved any games to that little channel? But that’s not what this is about…I just found out that Nick Lidstrom won the Norris trophy for the leagues best defenseman last night for the seventh time in his 20 year career, tying him for second on the all time list! I feel so fortunate to have watched him for his entire career and to have him back with the Wings for one more season….I have to agree with the team mates who have called him the “perfect person” since he is as good off the ice as he is on it….so, congrats, Nick, let’s do it again this year!

Sports

Let’s go Red Wings!

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Well…this has got to be one of the most exciting days in sports for us folks here in Michigan with our Wings taking on the Sharks in Cali later today…I don’t know if I thought this day was possible when they started out with three losses but the comeback has been one of the most nerve-wracking, exciting, examples of teamwork I have ever seen. We love our Wings, but this performance, win our lose tonight, will keep me smiling throughout the summer but will be tinged with some sadness because we all know that it will be Drapes last season, and possibly Nick’s too. It is so great that I will be able to see this one and have the chance to listen to Ken and Mickey one more time…or maybe a lot more times, who knows? I will be back to add to this one as the day goes on and I get even more geeked than I am right now…don’t know if that is possible….

Okay…I think you’ve figured out by now that I won’t be doing a political one today….oh, there was one thing that I wanted to comment on…John McCain had an editorial in the Washington Post today where he calls…nope…going to make this a new one…look up

One thing I failed to mention was the fact that this will probably be Ozzie’s last year with the Wings, too, and I know that many fans never really warmed to him…but, you win two cups, doesn’t that deserve respect? I think so…more later…it’s later….this is going to be an all Red Wings night with Tuesday’s game being replayed at 6 and then a full hour long Red Wings Live at 8…then the game at 9…I hope I remember it since I’m going to get started with K for HH and that is going to make it a long night and a Friday I’m not looking forward to….but you do have to pay to play…

Misc

Going to wander around a bit…

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Well….I’ve read all the newspapers and still haven’t been able to come up with a topic so I’m just going to let the brain wander around a bit and see what happens…I have almost weaned myself from the NY Times since they went to a paywall model a couple of months ago…I guess the only thing that I miss is the commentary from their columnists that were commonly a trigger for my own thinking and writing…could be part of why I’ve been struggling lately and I really think it has been a slow news cycle….

There are more culture wars going on here in Michigan with the crazy right idiots spending time trying to vent their homophobia on the employees of universities here by withholding funding if they give health benefits to same-sex partners….this bill has been proposed by rep David Agema from here in west Michigan….all I have to say is this..Dave, where are the jobs? While you fiddle with this nonsense, more than 13% of the citizens here are out of work and you and your crazy religious nut allies try to impose your narrow minded agenda on the whole state. I grew up in west Michigan where the religious have always tried to impose their view on everyone….we even had the ONLY McDonalds in the world that was not open Sunday here in Jenison, and if you tried to mow your lawn on Sunday, they would call the police…not kidding…it’s like Westmichistan….

Hmmmm….oh, have to talk about the Wings and their inspired comeback last night…almost gave up on them when they were down 3-1 but then the texts from my friends started coming in with whoops and hollers and I knew something special was happening…so I put the computer back on and listened….it’s not like listening to baseball on the radio I grew up with…hockey is too fast to fit the radio format and I am glad I can watch the game at noon today…and they even shorten it by moving from perlod to perlod without any break….yep, you see it..misspelled period but if you’ve been here before, you know the reason….if not, leave a comment and I’ll explain again….

Sports

The Red Wings Sweep…

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Well…should have gotten to this one earlier in the day but, as you know, my brain has not been working as well as it should and I’m not sure of the reason….I really hope it’s not the slow decline that is supposed to come with age….it could be staying up late to watch the Wings or it could be the couple of cocktails…or I could be dying and I don’t know it…wouldn’t that be ironic…eat right, take care of yourself, get plenty of exercise and die anyway….okay, don’ know how this one got away from me…let’s get back to the Wings. It looked close for most of the game last night even playing without Hank and Frantzen but then the Wings had some hockey luck and a couple of good bounces and put the game away with about 4 minutes left. We did get some reasonable goaltending from Howard but he still let in three which is something we won’t get away with in the next round. Finishing our series first with a sweep is going to help with the injuries since we should get about 8 days off before the next round starts…but any time we have that long of a layoff I feel a little concerned that we’ll have to shake off the rust and the second round teams very seldom let you get away with that. On that note, I’m going to go through hockey withdrawal over the next couple of days and Netflix should be the tonic to help me cope. On to the second round!!

One last thing…it was just such a cool sight to see guys that were pounding on each other a few minutes earlier shake hands in the center of the rink after the game and even cooler was the salute the fans gave the Coyotes since it may have been their last game in Phoenix…possibly moving back to Winnipeg where they used to be the Jets…

Sports

Let’s Go Red Wings! 3-0

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Well…if you read this morning’s post, you’ll remember that I promised to do a Wings update today and this is it…I forgot to do the one I promised after the third game but it probably wouldn’t have been that good anyway the way my brain has been working lately…so, I’ll give it a try now and see what happens. The boys are up 3-0 with the last game being one of the best I’ve seen them play this year…and Phoenix is becoming pretty desperate with being so far behind, hitting Nick a couple of times that looked a lot like cheap shots…it’s one thing that Phoenix doesn’t understand, though, when you start messing with Nick or Pavel, the rest of the team just steps up even more and it showed with two goals in the first three minutes in the last game. I am a little disappointed that Hank has been out for the whole series but the rest of the guys have stepped it up; especially Pavel who I would pay to see practice…just one of the best forwards in the game today and I’d take him over Ovechkin or Crosby any day…..I do have mixed feeling about today’s game, though, since G has tickets for Friday’s game if there is one, and I predicted they would win in five; that would leave me with no hockey to watch this weekend….that said….sweep, sweep, sweep, let’s get the brooms out boys!

Sports

Red Wings update 2-0

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Well…this one should not have been as close as it was…the Wings won 4-3 but when they were up 4-1, they just about quit playing and went into cruise mode…just like they’ve done all year but today they were fortunate that they upped their level of play just enough to win at the end. I think the refs were trying to help Phoenix get back into in with the bogus calls for two penalties on us that gave them two scores. We almost lost Frantzen again and he ended up with 23 stitches in his face from getting slammed into the boards…I don’t understand why Kronwall didn’t make Doan pay for it later in the game but I guess it’s okay…don’t want to lose any more players after losing Hank. Pavel put on a show for us again today with a shot that no one else but he could make…and the rebound was hammered home by Helm….good to see him get another playoff goal. Now we move on to Phoenix for Monday’s game and it is going to be a chore since they don’t start until 10:30….looks like nap time Monday aft…Go Wings!

Sports

Red Wings playoff update…1-0

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Well…I don’t know if my lucidity has come back to me…probably not, but I’m going to write this one anyway. It was another bad start for the Wings last night, going down 1-0 in the first and looking like they were not awake yet. Not unusual for them if you’ve seen any of this season but still frustrating as heck. They did come awake in the second and took the lead and then poured it on in the third but let in a goal to make it a final score of 4-2. I was ready to have Jimmy Howard replaced after the first goal since it was a soft one, not unlike quite a few he let in during the regular season. But, he stood up in the 2nd and 3rd and looked okay….and we even got goals from Hudler and Frantzen who have been in slumps for more than a month. So, what do I think of the Wings chances? I filled in the survey on the Wings site the other day that the Wings will win it in 5…and I think that’s as good a guess as any….it will probably go 6 but I’m hoping for four….

One last thing, the game was supposed to be on Versus and that was the reason I went out and spent some money…but when it started, it was on FSD with Ken and Mickey…strange….okay, it looks like they’re all on FSD except for sat on NBC…coolness…