Red Wings Blogger Roundtable Part Four...

Hey look, I haven't forgotten how to do this "blogging" thing after all.  We're lucky I remembered my password after all this time.

Anyway, the latest edition of the Wings Blogger Roundtable has made an appearance over at The Triple Deke.  Head on over there for a discussion of who belongs on the back of the Wings' Mount Puckmore, players who may surprise us this season, and whether or not the Wings are the team to beat in the NHL.  The Roundtable will be making its way over to this oft-neglected corner of the internet later this week when I host the next installment.

Red Wings Blogger Roundtable Day Two...

Malik hosted yesterday's roundtable session over at Snapshots.  Head on over there for a discussion that centers around the Wings' newcomers and goaltending for the upcoming season.

Red Wings Blogger Roundtable Day One...

Last summer, we held a roundtable to keep ourselves from being bored during the long off-season.  Casey decided to set up a sequel this summer and kindly hosted the first set of questions at Winging it in Motown today.  Head on over to see a fantastic discussion that focuses on the Central Division.  Malik will be hosting tomorrow's edition over at Snapshots.  We'll be stopping at various places around the Wings blogosphere to chat about the upcoming season.  I like to think of it as a little bit of pre-season conditioning for us bloggers.  We have to work on getting our typing skills and snark geared up for the season.

I would write more, but I'm currently under attack from a ninja silverfish.  I'm not even kidding. It touched my keyboard.

Shanahanigans from the Wings Alumni Charity Softball Game...

On Saturday, Liz and I went to the Wings Charity Alumni Softball game. We were both pretty excited, but I don’t think either one of us were fully prepared for the events of the day. I don’t know how I haven’t made it to one of these things before. That truly is a shame.

The Wings/Tigers alumni roster featured Darren McCarty, Dino Ciccarelli, Joey Kocur, Dave Rozema, Jeff Daniels, Jason Wolley, Manny Legace, Steve Avery, Eddie Mio, Kevin Miller, Wayne Presley, George Bowman, Gary Taylor, Mike Krushelnyski, and Pat Peake. I think it goes without saying that D-Mac stole the show. He was pretty obviously the fan-favorite. I loved the fact that a grinder upstaged a recently-elected Hall of Famer. I also loved the fact that while most of the guys wore cargo shorts and sneakers, Mac came decked out in cleats, baseball socks, knee pads, and sliding shorts. He looked like he was having a pretty good time out there.

McCarty played third base, which made me happy because that was my primary position in my youthful days of fastpitch. It turns out that he’s a pretty good player. He turned some nice plays over there. He also entertained the crowd:

Another fun Mac moment came after the first game when he was eating a blue sno-cone. He was stopped for some autographs and had nowhere to put the cone cup, so he just held the edge in his mouth. When we walked by, he was standing there with blue sno-cone lips dangling the cup from his mouth. We laughed. A lot. Sadly, we didn’t manage to snag a picture of this.  Instead, I took one of him making some totally RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH party horns aka the two out sign:

Joey Kocur pitched all three games in between having seemingly endless cell phone conversations. He got lit up for a couple of home runs by a strapping young policeman in the third game, but it ended up not mattering as the Alumni team went on to sweep the tourney.

We also learned that Dino Ciccarelli can throw a mean fastpitch fastball. He was whipping pitches in pretty quickly when he was goofing around in warm-ups. We were impressed. He’s clearly done that somewhere before. It’s not the kind of thing you just pick up and do well.  Unfortunately, he didn't do so well at the plate.  I maintain that he would've gotten a hit if he'd taken our advice about which bat to choose, but he didn't listen.  By the third game, he was sitting in the dugout icing his shoulder with an entire party store bag of ice.  We were amused.

Speaking of pitching, during the second game, Liz and I decided to head over to the radar they had set up (They brought a radar speed rig that would normally be found on the side of the street and set it up behind the backstop on one of the diamonds.) to have our pitching timed. I was a mediocre pitcher back in the day and had never had my speed clocked, so this was mildly exciting. I think both of us regretted this decision the next day.

The highlight of the day came between the second and third games. Darren McCarty gave an impromptu concert in one of the tents. Liz and I sat in the front row. I know you’re jealous. Thanks to Mac, I’ve had ‘Ain’t that America’ (which I've just been informed is actually called "Pink Houses" for reasons that I don't quite understand [UPDATED: 8-11-10 15:25]) stuck in my head since Saturday. And yes, I did get his performance on video. You’re welcome.

After the mini-concert, we got a chance to meet him and take some pictures.

Other things:

• When we stopped to have pictures taken with Rozema, Liz was kind enough to bring up the time he got my dad kicked out of a Hooters at Tigers Fantasy Camp by throwing ice cubes at the waitress.  His response?  "It's Fantasy Camp. You have to do stuff like that."  Oh fun times.
• Rozema was also entertaining people when he ran the bases.  He was making safe calls and waving his arms around.  I'm not entirely sure what he was doing, but he seemed like he was having fun.
• We enjoyed the fact that the base coaches took their beers out onto the field with them.  It was literally beer league softball.
• There was a drunk guy claiming to be Taylor's son who came and stood by us when we were taking pictures up against the fence.  He decided to lean into the field through the open gate to inspect the bats.  He spilled his beer on them.  I was amused.
• People are obnoxious.  I knew that already, but Saturday reinforced it.
• Jeff Daniels does a mean Mr. Peanut pose.

The rest of my pictures are over at Photobucket.

Adventures of A Red Wings Packrat: Jersey Foul Edition...

I just so happen to be the proud-ish owner of a Red Wings jersey foul. I say “proud-ish” because after all these years, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. I’ve had it for at least eight years (it was an integral part of my ’02 Cup celebration), but I’m not exactly sure when it came into my possession. I have no idea where my mom found it. It’s a baseball-style jersey that says “Red Wings” on the front and has Shanny’s name on the back. It’s officially licensed stuff, so I’m not 100% sure it qualifies as a foul. Either way, it’s awesomely bad.

Back in ’02, I was but a high school sophomore. The Wings were kind enough to win the Cup the night before the last day of school/final exams. The next day, I wore the jersey foul since wearing a real hockey jersey to school in June would’ve been a poor life decision. One of my best friends happened to show up in an Yzerman semi-jersey that day, too. Somehow, in our excitement, we ended up nicknaming each other after the players on our backs. I became Shanny and she became Stevie. This was ironic because my favorite player was Stevie and hers was Shanny.

That day was also the end of the year pool party for a school club. At the party, we assigned Wings player names to all of our friends. An extremely studious friend became Igor Larionov. A talkative one became Brett Hull. Someone else became Sergei Fedorov because we felt like he had to be represented at the party and nobody else fit. I think there was also a Luc Robitaille. Nobody else there had the slightest idea what we were talking about. I’m fairly certain that most of them wouldn’t have known the Wings had won the Cup if we hadn’t shouted it at them multiple times. That didn’t stop us from finding a silver-ish bucket and making them pose for celebration shots like the team did on the ice. We also discovered that the people who were hosting the party owned an autographed Gordie Howe stick which they let us take pictures with, but that’s not really the point. In more on-topic news, a red and white jersey foul paired with a turquoise beach wrap with killer whales on it makes a fantastic outfit.

Those same jerseys were worn down to the city a few days afterward when my dad took us to the celebration parade. It was the first we’d been able to attend. It was sweltering. Once again, the Shanny jersey foul saved me with its short sleeves and breathable fabric. I’m fairly certain it was almost seven years before the jersey foul made it out of my closet again to see the light of day.

Last spring, when the Wings were in the Finals, that same friend from high school and I decided to watch one of the road games down at Hockeytown Café. I’d worn most of my Wings shirts already, so I decided to throw on the Shanny foul for nostalgia’s sake. Imagine my surprise when my friend showed up at my front door wearing the very same Steve Yzerman semi-jersey she’d worn for our fake celebration all those years earlier. It was an awesome moment in our friendship. Of course, the Wings went on to lose the game, further cementing my refusal to watch another Finals game at Hockeytown ever again. (I was also there for the 3OT disaster in ’08.)

When I decided to stop being lazy and write something, I chose this jersey foul because I’ll be wearing it when Liz and I go to the Wings Alumni Softball Game tomorrow. She’ll also be rocking a jersey foul. I figure mine won’t be terribly out of place there since it’s a Wings softball game.

Adventures of A Red Wings Packrat: Lidstrom Beer Bottle Edition...

My favorite random Red Wings item is my Nick Lidstrom beer bottle. It’s been a fixture on my hockey shelf since 2005. It also has my favorite acquisition story.

The year of the lockout was my freshman year of college. That meant that it was the first year that I had to miss a winter break skiing trip with my family because our breaks didn’t line up. So, my family and some of their friends headed up to Treetops Resort in Gaylord without me. I was already upset at missing out on the skiing, so imagine my reaction when I received a phone call informing me that Nick Lidstrom was also staying at the resort with his family. But for an exam that week, I would’ve hopped in my car and flown up I-75 in record time.

My little sister got her lift ticket signed, and the family had encounters with him all over the place. At one point, my sister (7 at the time) was skiing with my mom’s friend when they both wiped out. My mom’s friend was unhurt, but laying in the snow laughing at herself. She was about to sit up when all of a sudden, my sister pounced on her and told her to stay down because, “he might come over.” Lidstrom, apparently, had stopped a little ways up the slope and was looking at them with concern, trying to see if Mrs. C needed any help. I’ve never been prouder of my sister than I was when I heard that story.

My family managed to run into the Lidstroms at the resort restaurant, too. This is how the beer bottle was acquired. My family and our friends got sat at a table right next to the Lidstroms’ right as they were getting ready to leave. The group was short one chair, so Mrs. C went over to the now-vacated table to grab one. While there, she also swiped the empty beer bottle that had been sitting in front of Lidstrom and stuck it in her purse to give to me. It’s been proudly displayed in my room ever since.

I've never been so upset about missing a family outing as I was that week.  Every phone call was like torture.

SSDD's Adventures Through History Contest...

One night, whilst the Commune was sitting around a bonfire, we began joking about the possibility of photoshops of Brett Lebda through the ages. Hilarity ensued, and the second ever SSDD contest was set in motion. In light of the Lebster’s departure for Toronto (an event which I am incredibly disappointed that I missed while on vacation), I decided to open it up to include all current and former Red Wings.

The goal is to place said players in the most amusing historical situations you can think of. I made a couple for my own entertainment based on what we discussed around the campfire. The first photoshop shows Lebda parting the waters on his way to Toronto. Or somewhere. Who knows. Below, we have King Bertuzzi snacking on a juicy turkey leg.

The contest will be judged by my mom and dad. First and second place will each receive some Red Wings goodies obtained from this spring's viewing parties. First place will get a reusable grocery bag with a Budd Lynch bobblehead, car flag, and a Red Wings Christmas ornament (my favorite because it's high-quality and doesn't have logos on it). Second place gets a Wings water bottle and a playoff pom pom.

I’m kind of a history buff, so this should be lots of fun. I'll leave the contest open until midnight next Tuesday. With any luck, I'll even get around to judging the contest in a timely manner this time around.

Adventures of A Red Wings Packrat: Voodoo Doll Edition...

I recently discovered that I have an entire drawer full of Red Wings merchandise. I also have several shelves in my room devoted to the Wing-related memorabilia that I’ve collected over the years (I’m the world’s biggest packrat). Some of the stuff is pretty odd, and since I have nothing better to do this week, I thought I’d write about some of them.

Many of you may recognize this little beauty. It’s the Patrick Roy voodoo doll that the Free Press printed during the Wings-Avs series in ’02. It’s the original newsprint stuffed with Kleenex and sealed with staples. It really is a piece of artwork. During that series, we printed off several copies of the voodoo doll and they were abused in various ways. One found a permanent home underneath the bedpost in my brothers’ semi-bunk beds. It was subsequently forgotten and discovered months later. Another copy was repeatedly thrown against the wall in the family room when the Wings were firing shots on him. If I recall correctly, one of my brothers went the traditional route and stabbed one of the copies with a pin over and over again. For my part, I had another copy that I just shook nervously whenever the puck was in play (well, right up until about halfway through the first period of Game 7).

This particular version, being the original, got treated a little better than the others. As the only surviving voodoo doll (that we know of…who knows what we’ll find in my brothers’ rooms?), it’s enjoyed a place on my memorabilia shelf for the last eight years. In related news, the fact that it’s been eight years since the ’02 Cup makes me feel really old. My personal favorite touch is the 666 on the back.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of my random collections. Next up is Nick Lidstrom’s beer bottle. How did I acquire that, you ask? Tune in next time I decide to stop being lazy and write another one of these to find out.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Part Three...

The Ugly

• There was more ugly this season than I care to remember. It was a rough year for the team and us fans.
• Brad May’s no-goal was the most ridiculously bad call I’d ever seen at the time. Of course, Jim Joyce had to go and one-up him a few months later (Can you tell I’m still bitter?), but this was disgraceful and bungled by the NHL. Objectively speaking, the May call was worse than the one in the perfect game because of its sheer ridiculousness even though in context it mattered less. This was a perfect example of officiating incompetence by the NHL and makes a compelling argument against the intent to blow nonsense that has been plaguing the league.
• That was the worst incident by far, but the officiating all throughout the playoffs was a joke. It wasn’t just the Wings-Sharks series. I don’t think there was a single series that wasn’t influenced by lousy calls and pathetic excuses for refereeing. Not that any of us should be surprised. This is the only measure of consistency the NHL has.
• The Wings didn’t suffer from an injury bug this season. It was a full-blown plague. There were several stretches when the team was fielding a roster that was half Griffins. The Wings didn’t lose the most man games of any team in the league, but I would argue that they lost more important man games than anyone else. They weren’t losing grinders; it was the stars going down. November, December, and January were absolutely brutal. A casual fan probably wouldn’t have even recognized the team they were fielding during that stretch. Ugh.
• Doanface and Crosby’s Golden Roar were two of the most disturbing images I’ve seen. *shudder*
• Of course neither one of them can hold a candle to the Shetuzzi. This is the stuff of nightmares. Behold it in all of its glory:
  
• NBC and Versus continued to provide astonishingly bad coverage. The announcers are pathetically bad, and at one point, NBC missed a Wings goal right off of a faceoff because they were showing nonsense. These are the NHL’s broadcast partners. I can’t stand when they pick up Wings games.
  

Thoughts? Additions?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Part Two...

The Bad

• There was plenty of bad to go around this season. It was by far the most stressful one in recent memory. We really did get to see how the other half lives.
• After this season, can we all just agree that the shootout needs to go? The Wings were absolutely miserable at it all season long. There’s really no good explanation for this either. They should really be a lot better what with all of their talent. If anyone out there has an idea, let me know. Aside from that, a shootout on the final day of the regular season determined which team got into the playoffs. Not cool.
• The much-hyped trip to Sweden to start the regular season turned out to be a bust. The Wings came home with an 0-2 record and not a lot to show for their travel. Little did we know that the event was going to be a perfect preview of what most of the rest of the season was going to look like.
• Remember how excited we all were to see a whole season of Jonathan Ericsson? Big Rig didn’t quite live up to the promise he showed during the playoffs last season. He seemed to devote this year to turnovers and giving Wings fans heart attacks.
• This shootout goal that won the game for Dallas was an absolute joke. It wasn’t the most ridiculous event of the season, but it was up there. It was just another one of those moments that makes fans hate the NHL. And of course it had to be "scored" by Steve Ott.
  
• Todd Bertuzzi.
• In January, Brett Lebda managed to break Tomas Holmstrom’s foot during practice. Just when we thought the injury plague was going away and some of the guys were coming back, another one went down. That was definitely not RAAAAGHHHH.
• Remember when we thought Nick Lidstrom would never score a goal again?
• The powerplay was pathetic for a long stretch of the season. Like most of the events of this season, this was unusual and difficult for Wings fans to adjust to.
• The Brad May experiment was clearly a failure. He was useless for sticking up for his teammates. Last time I checked, that was his only purpose for being in the NHL. There’s a reason he ended up finishing the season in Grand Rapids.
• Patrick Eaves’ shootout attempt during the H2H weekend was the stuff of legend. It was like his own little gift to our party. It even spawned the #Eavesed hashtag. Since the Wings ended up winning the game, it’s easy to laugh about now. It’s one of those moments the poor guy is never going to live down. Watch and enjoy:
• During a home game, a section of the lower bowl had to be evacuated because a couple of guys had found their way up into the rafters. It was…interesting.
• NHL scheduling during the playoffs once again baffled everyone involved. Was it really necessary to take a lifetime off before the Finals?
• The Wings’ early playoff exit was a major disappointment. After the way the season went, it wasn’t particularly surprising, but it hurt nonetheless. Not as much as the end of last season’s playoffs, but still not fun.