More Inanity...

As I struggle to get through the summer, I find myself spending more and more of my life on youtube and assorted NHL blogs in order to get my hockey fix. It’s sad. I realize that. But on those slow news days of summer, I’m forced to scrounge around the internet for whatever Wings stuff I can get. As a result, I stumbled across this collection of scans from the Wings yearbook. I’d never seen it before, and I’m not sure how one would go about acquiring a copy, but they’re pretty awesome. Some of the pictures are downright hilarious. Especially Maltby. I don’t really even know what to make of his picture.

I also found myself browsing the NHL online store. As usual, there was nothing worth buying in women’s sizes, but that’s another rant for another time. On the other hand, if I were a man, I would totally need to buy these. Why is there no female equivalent?

In other news, it finally came out that Hossa was hurt during the playoffs. I suspected that there was something wrong with him all along, but this doesn’t sound like it was serious enough to have caused his complete disappearance. Some people are reveling in the irony of Chicago spurning the notoriously fragile Martin Havlat to sign an injured Hossa to a twelve-year deal. Ironic? Maybe. But worthy of revelry? I don’t think so. As much as I would’ve liked to have Hossa in a Wings uniform come October, I still can’t begrudge his decision to take Chicago’s offer.

There was a really nice article in the News about Jiri Fischer the other day. It’s such a shame that he can’t play any more. It sounds like he’s doing a great job with player development, and it’s good to see that he’s still able to play a role in the organization.

And for one final bit of randomness, the New York Daily News confirmed what we've known all along: The Wings have the "all-time coolest uniforms. Not that there's any doubt in my mind about that, but I was a little surprised to see a hockey team on top of the list, let alone two in the top five (the Blackhawks were ranked fifth).

So Long, Cheli...

So no more Chris Chelios. I have to say that even though I'm not remotely surprised, I'm a little torn about this. On a personal level, I'm much more likely to survive the next season now that my blood pressure won't be spiking every time he sets foot on the ice. On the other hand, I have a lot of respect for the guy, and I think he's one of the last great "old school" players out there. Every time I screamed, "Chellllliiiiiiiiiiii!!!" at the TV during his playoff appearances this year, there was a little voice in the back of my head that was telling me that I should be nicer to him. I would never dream of apologizing for my words or actions during the heat of a playoff game, but sometimes I did feel a little bad. I certainly hope he ends up somewhere next season. Guys like Cheli deserve to go out on their own terms. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if he ends up as the 6th or 7th man on a young team that needs a mentor for their D-men. He did a pretty good job working with Kronwall and Jiri Fischer back in the day.

Seriously, one of the highlights of my high school days was when his son played travel baseball in the same league as my little brother. I got to meet him at games a few times, and he was just a straight-up nice guy. He actually reminded me of my dad a little bit. The last time I saw him was at the end of the second round in the '02 playoffs. He was listening to the Colorado-San Jose Game 7 on a Walkman (yeah, an old-school Walkman. In 2002.) waiting to see who the Wings would be facing. He was sitting in his son's dugout and someone asked him who he'd rather face. He said, "San Jose," without any hesitation. I remember finding it funny because earlier I had read the standard, "we don't care who we play, blah, blah, blah," quote from him in the newspaper (Quick nostalgia moment: remember when we used to get papers in Detroit?).

So anyway, I really do hope he ends up somewhere. I wouldn't even care if that somewhere was Chicago. Maybe then his mom could get rid of that god-awful franken-jersey she was wearing during the playoffs.