Well…I wanted to cool off for a while before I wrote this one given the events in the Wings game the other night…and I wanted to wait to see what Shanny was going to do before I weighed in…but, now’s the time to get in my two cents…in case you didn’t see it, after the end of the game Wed night, Shea Weber…the thug defenseman for the Preds, slammed Hank Zetterberg’s head into the glass so hard that he broke his helmet…the kind of nonsense that I thought the league was trying to take out of the game to protect the players…unless it is a Red Wing getting hit, I guess. The worse thing about it was that Weber didn’t get anything but a paltry fine…no suspension…oh, they did give him a 2 minute penalty….that can never be enforced…and they said “bad boy, don’t do that again”….that punishment will keep him from doing that again….yeah, I laughed at that one, too. Then, in practice yesterday, we see Weber and one of his thug teammates joking and laughing while re-enacting the hit. One of the themes that has been repeated in this series is that the Preds wanted to build themselves to be just like the Wings…and they may beat us in the series, but these no class punks will never have the class of the Wings players and organization….that is something that is earned by being classy and respecting the other players and the game of hockey…
One last thing…keep your head up Weber…payback will come…maybe not tonight, but hockey players have long memories…where is Darren McCarty when we need him?
Well…it is the start of playoff season in the NHL and my team goes off tonight against Nashville in what makes me feel really uneasy for the first time in the past 20 years….and yet, there is a component of excitement, too, that I quite enjoy….nevermind that almost all of the sports commentators pick the Preds, anything can happen in the playoffs. Oh, crap, I’m now spouting cliches instead of just talking about this wonderful time of the year…a time when I put everything else on hold, get my workouts and bike ride in early, and switch into the gear in the middle of the afternoon….the past couple of playoffs have been different with the group scattered and tending to the new phases of their lives but I am slowly getting used to it…getting used to following the game with a few of us by text as the thing unfolds but still sharing the good and bad…and that is a good thing, just different…but times and lives change and we need to be able to roll with it…I’ve gotten better at it lately…crap, this one was supposed to be about the Wings…not my life…so let’s get back to it….I am a little encouraged that we will have everyone back but Helm for tonight’s game but I think some of the guys aren’t quite up to speed from their injuries….I will predict this, and probably look ridiculous tomorrow, Frantzen will get a hat trick tonight and we’ll win 4-3…..I will try to keep up with commentary after every game so look for it tomorrow….Let’s Go Red Wings!!!
One last thing….the Tigers go this aft with Verlander on the mound and the last undefeated record in the majors…should be a good one against the Rays….
What you never want to be….