Well, hockey is religion. Our man Neil Acharya — who's not merely a hockey play-by-play man from Newfoundland just like Hockey Night in Canada's Bob Cole but was also born in Carbonear in 1978, just like Detroit's Dan Cleary — intuited the Red Wings' dominant Stanley Cup run way back in January:
Now you know the rest of the story ...
"... with a vastly improved division this season, the Wings have chalked up all their losses to divisional foes. With the Wings having faced harder divisional tests throughout this regular season, they could be better equipped to tough it out in this season's quest for the Stanley Cup." — The Score Forecaster, Jan. 10, 2008
Now you know the rest of the story ...
(For anyone who's wondering, NBC reported a 3.8 national rating for Game 5 on Monday, the triple-overtime contest -- twice as much as Game 5 of last season's final, but lower than the same game from the little-remember Red Wings-Hurricanes final in 2002.
A post on the playoffs finally being over is up at Epic Carnival. You will probably hate it, but there were things in there that had to be said.)
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9 comments:
Was it just me, or was that not the dullest post-cup winning celebration ever?
Lance Armstrong's Tour de France celebrations have been more spontaneous.
Celebration was much better in the dressing room, Cleary holding the Cup for at least 5 minutes and having people drink out of it.
Best part was Osgood/McCarty talking about how they beat 4 teams in the playoffs.... and the refs. Chris Osgood even said "guess the guys in New York wanted a Game 7". Nice shot at the league office.
But since I was born in Newfoundland in 1979 I just enjoyed seeing Cleary winning. :)
Perhaps I should've stuck around to see the dressing room stuff.
Because like Duane and Neate said, that on-ice celebration was absolutely brutal. You would think they were just handed the president's trophy, for pete's sake!
It was like watching a movie about hockey, with the Red Wings being played by Hayden Christianson, Ben Stein and David Caruso.
"We won . . .yay."
"I just cannot believe it. This is amazing...truly...truly...amazing."
"I would really like to thank my wife, she worked so hard for this."
"Yay."
Uggh.
So it's cool to say I was left so cold by it I had to seek solace with back-to-back Chuck Norris movies on AMC?
"Braddock, don't step on any toes."
"I don't step on toes.... I step on necks."
Effin' rights!
It was fair commentary. Game five was very entertaining, but last night's affair was a little dull, and in general Detroit is a very boring team. (Their most colorful guy, Chris Chelios, was in street clothes for the Final.) The comparisons to Lendl, Holmes, and the San Antonio Spurs were very apt.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who found the post game "celebration" to be a bit stilted and dull. I think it was a combination of factors -- the fact that they won it on the road, and the fact that they were 35 seconds away from winning it two nights earlier. As a result, it was more relief than jubilation when they took it. It's also a more veteran squad -- guys like Lidstrom, Draper, and Osgood have done this gig a few times now.
At least Bettman didn't try to pull the Cup away from Lidstrom like he did with Niedermayer last year...
(Also, did anyone else notice that the Cup on its stand was taller than Bettman?)
The Red Wings' celebration reminded me of Frank (The Tank) Ricard in the first 30 minutes of Old School.
You need to hit this."
"No, I appreciate it, but I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. You guys have a great time."
"Big day? Doin' what?"
"Well, um, a pretty nice little Saturday. We're gonna go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring. Stuff like that. I don't know -- I don't know if there'll be enough time."
FWIW, "a pretty nice little Saturday" has become a mainstay of my lexicon since that movie.
My better half: I need you to go to Costco tomorrow.
Me: Oh, good. It will be a pretty nice little Saturday.
It hits real close to home, it does.
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