Big Red Machine

This will be quick, as I’ve got to go run to the grocery store, bake a cake, and head off to a friend’s for dinner… which means I’ll be missing most of the game as well.

The Red Wings haven’t won a single game against the lowly Oilers this year, something that I hope they’ll take into consideration tonight.  Babcock told the Freep:

“We get beat like a rented mule,” coach Mike Babcock said Monday. “They just slap us around every time we play them. We’re usually down two after about 6 minutes.”

Well, maybe bring out the (non-rented) Mule tonight and hope that he can do some damage against the Oilers and turn the table on them.

Helene’s also reporting that Meech will be joining Eaves and Helm, which moves Draper up to center Miller and Williams (I have the worst time remembering about Williams.  Whenever I’m running through lines and the roster in my head, I’m constantly missing someone, and without fail, it’s J-Wills).

It sounds like Cleary will be taking a longer time to come back from this aggravated groin injury of his, as to make sure it’s fully healed this time around.  That said, he still doesn’t have a time table for return.

Jimmy is starting again, for the 23rd time in a row, which leads me to believe that we will not ever see Osgood between the pipes again, unless Howard falters in the playoffs.

Playoff Implications
If the Red Wings win this, they will move up to 93 points, to sit one behind Nashville, so long as the Preds lose to the Kings.  That’s a bit of a crappy game right there, and one you can only hope doesn’t go to OT.

The Wings have won 5 straight–can they make it 6 against a team that’s had their number all season?

*title idea credit goes to @mserven, who tweeted on Saturday: “#H2H now stands for Herm 2 Hangover”

My voice is completely shot; vocal chords stripped.  I am still exhausted from Friday.  I woke up Saturday with an absolutely wrenching hangover and was completely useless for most of the afternoon as my brain tried to piece itself back together and I attempted to prevent from doing an R.S.V. while staring into a bowl of soup at American Coney.

I’m pretty certain these are all clear signs that Herm to Hockeytown was a rip-roaring success.

Herm made it from Braszil?  And he’s real?  Check.

The rest of us also made it to Detroit in one piece?  Check.

No one got arrested or had to post bail?  Check.

Detroit stomped Minnesota, ensuring that this wasn’t potentially going down as the largest gathering of GameWreckers in history?  Check.

The Red Wings organization rolled out the red carpet for Herm and treated him like a superstar?  Check.

The A2Y 19 converged for the first time in one location and Hockeytown Cafe (and the entire city of Detroit for that matter) was still standing at the end?  Check.

Red Wings fans online and in person donated to Children’s Hospital for a total of over $5500?  Check.

Herm got to meet his personal god Darren Helm, get his jersey signed, and receive a stick?  Check.

I got into Detroit on Thursday, with Petrella, and we met with Serven, Hollis and Jen, along with TPL Mom (thanks for the sandwiches!) at DTW.  I had a brief awkward moment where I debated about saying something along the lines of “nice to meet you” because, well, we already know each other.  It felt like telling a college friend you haven’t seen in a while “it’s great to meet you.”  That’s just weird.

From the airport we loaded up the #drunkbus, picked up a Helm jersey for Herm, and met him and Osrt over at the Joe Louis Arena for a tour.

Herm with a “Hockeytown No Limits” sign autographed by the entire team

Herm rocking his new Darren Helm jersey and chilling in front of the entrance to the Red Wings dressing room.

You have to admit, seeing Kris Draper’s name with the likes of Fedorov, Yzerman, and Datsyuk for Selke winner is pretty amusing.  One of these is not like the others…

Yeah, I held Zetterberg’s stick. And Pavel’s. At the same time. No, I did not want to let go.

Being able to tour the JLA was just awesome.  It may be a shabby arena, and kind of a dump compared to the newer places, like the ACC and all that, but it’s our dump.  It was awe-inspiring to walk past the walls where the championship teams and award winners are all painted on the walls.  There’s a lot of white space left for more, you know…

Thursday evening we trooped over to Old Shillelagh to kick off H2H weekend officially.  Sadly I don’t have any photos from the evening, but Jennemy has several posted on her Flickr, including a ridiculous one of myself and Herm in Sara’s massive Mathieu Dandenault jersey.  I also got to meet the Triple Deke boys Brent, Tyler, and Fake Herm, and Sullyosis, all of whom are just as hysterical, if not more so in real life than online.

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Friday was the big day.  Serven took Herm to morning skate while the rest of us made sure everything was in order for the party at Hockeytown Cafe.

I have to give a big shoutout to my parents, who volunteered to man the door prize table and sell tickets for chances to win a signed Dangle Dangle stick, or Zata failed shootout stick, along with signed Eurotwin jerseys, the first intermission Zamboni ride, and seats in the penalty box for warmups.

Thank you so much to everyone who donated to raise $605 at Hockeytown Cafe to add to our total and kick us well over our goal.

I know I’m forgetting people, but it was so fantastic to meet everyone from A2Y and from Twitter who were able to make it out.  From The Obstructed View: Chris, Petrella, George, Casey, Tyler, Matt, Kris, Jessie, Discher, Kyle, and other fellow bloggers Natalie and Brian, Sara Neuie.  And so many of the 19–VooX, Okie Jeff, Anne, Lola, Baroque, Calquake, Osrt, Sullyosis, Andrew from Ann Arbor, Jennemy.  The Tweeps–Sara S., Norm, Dena, Jenn, Amanda, Adrienne, and again, I know I’m missing a ton of you, and I apologize.  There were just so many who I wanted to talk more with and meet and didn’t get a chance to do so, like Animal Drew.  It felt like I could have had hours long conversations with everyone there.

Kris and Herm

Hollis and Herm

MOWings, Okie Jeff, Rambo, Chief, and Jen

Petrella, Norm, and Hollis looking sad that Bill could only be with us in spirit.

VooX and Chief-on-a-stick, standing appropriately in front of the Hasek.

Osrt, Chief-on-a-stick, and Malik

What really struck me was when I met Kris from over at Snipe Dangle (I think.  To be honest, it could have been Sara Neuie, but I think it was Kris.  Maybe one of them can clarify this for me), and I said “don’t touch my dream with your dirty hands” regarding… something or other.  Who knows, now.  Basically I could have said it to either of them, because the point is that I could make that reference to anyone at Hockeytown Cafe that day and not be looked at like I’ve got lobsters crawling out of my ears, or not have to even explain myself.  They just get it.  Everyone just inherently understood each other, in regards to this Red Wings Nation connection.  And I love that.  We may have called each other fake friends, and people roll their eyes at you when you say you’re going to go meet a bunch of people from the internet, but whether we’ve been talking for years or only recently, there’s still a common thread between us all that brings us together.  It’s indescribable.

The actual game was ridiculously awesome.  After a less than stellar first period, Herm went up the press box to chat with Ken and Mick.  I can’t even imagine what Herm was feeling when the Wings scored their first goal and he couldn’t cheer in the press box.  But, maybe it was good luck (that, or Lola’s tinfoil hats), because the Wings just steamrolled the Wild after that point.

Herm with Ken and Mick in the press box

I’m fairly certain the people around our sections were wondering who the heck these tinfoil hat wearing whackjobs were.

This was far and away the most fun I’ve ever had at a hockey game, period.  I wasn’t even drunk–in fact I didn’t leave my seat once because I didn’t want to miss anything.  But being at the Joe with the 19 was so much fun, I really wasn’t even able to give my undivided attention to the actual game, proven by the fact that I had no idea Backstrom had to come in for Harding in the 3rd period until I was reading recaps the next day.

I will admit, at the start of the game I was a little concerned that there was going to be a riot and that the pitchforks and torches were going to come out when the refs somehow thought that the Wild scored.  The entire 2 sections we occupied leapt up and were emphatically motioning for a no-goal.  Had that not gone in Detroit’s favor, then it’s entirely possible that we would have had to pay bail for a few of the 19.  Thankfully, and for the sake of everyone around us, the goal actually was waived off.  Other than that brief scare, and the absurdly awful second goal that Jimmy let in (right after the 19 finished singing him Happy Birthday, no less), it was a perfect game for Herm’s first experience.

After the game, Herm got to meet his personal god.  David Guralnik has a very good photo of him shaking hands with Helm, along with a few others of Herm, over at the Detroit News.

Herm and Jen with some pucks and a Helm stick

After the game we headed over to the Town Pump, where I proceeded to consume a few too many Jameson and Diet Cokes, and a couple of Jagerbombs.

Which of course led to a miserable Saturday morning/afternoon.  A mix of being hungover, plus just completely wiped out, I don’t think there was much of an active braincell between myself, Jen, and Hollis all day.  We went to American Coney, in which I did not partake, and then wandered around towards Greektown and back.  There was also a lot of napping to be done, in just a heap on the pull out couch.

Eventually we dragged ourselves up and headed over to the Emperor’s house, who so graciously invited the 19 over to the real Kukla’s Korner to watch the Detroit/Nashville game.  Thank you so much Paul, for so kindly opening your home to us.

Halfway through the game we moved over to return to the scene of the crime at Town Pump and finish watching the game with some of the others who were still in town.  It was much fun watching that insane 11 round shootout with Sara N, Amanda, Dena, the Scrappy Octopi, Sara S, Kris, Petrella, Serven, and Jen.  I loved how more of the bar started watching and cheering along with us as it progressed.

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From George riding the Zamboni during the 1st intermission, waving around a cut-out of the Chief’s head on a stick, to trying to fit into Sara’s gigantic Mathieu Dandenault jersey with Herm, to touring the JLA, to getting the opportunity to sit right next to Mr. Michael Petrella, Todd Bertuzzi’s #1 Fan at Town Pump when he scored in the shootout against Nashville, to just getting to meet and talk face to face with so many of you, to seeing the look on Herm’s face, like he was about to pee himself when we first met him and he was presented with the jersey, the No Limits sign, and more, this was the weekend to remember.

Huge thanks to Michael Petrella and Rob Discher of The Production Line who really sparked the donations with their TPL pledges.  I don’t think we would have reached our goal without your creativity and initiative to turn the donations into something as fun and interactive as the pledges.

Thanks to the ever lovely Greta and Jim for toting our sorry asses around on Saturday, and generally making the weekend all that more fun by participating in all the Shenanigans.

Thanks to Jennemy, Baroque, Lola, and Gabe, whose creative minds were invaluable, from the t-shirts to the website, to the awesome nametags and the tinfoil hats and Chief-on-a-stick.

Also major props to Ryan Michael, Christy Hammond, and Nicole Yelland over at the Detroit Red Wings for rolling out the red carpet for Herm and giving him the rockstar treatment.  I can’t express enough the gratitude I have for them to care about H2H and make sure it was a successful and memorable trip beyond belief for Herm.

Thank you to Chris Hollis, Jen MacRostie, and Mike Serven for being cohorts in all this and for all the time, effort, and stress put into making this real.  It’s been a privilege and an honor to be a part of this.

Herm, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you this weekend and get to share your first Red Wings/Joe Louis Arena/Detroit experience.

Lastly, thanks to the 19–notably Bill, who was there in our hearts (and on a stick)–for their willingness to take a comment like “hey wouldn’t it be cool if…?” and turn it into a reality.  Thanks for your donations, both to bring Herm over, and to chip into the funds for Children’s Hospital.  To Red Wings Nation, and everyone who participated or donated, Thank You.  There’s no question that this is the coolest fanbase on the planet.  With about $5600 raised for Children’s Hospital alone, and then the roughly $2100 to bring Herm to Detroit, Red Wings fans have donated an astounding total of $7700.  Seriously, find me another group of fans willing to do something like that.

H2H has made me even more proud to be a hockey fan, and be a Red Wings fan after witnessing firsthand what you all are willing to do in order to make someone’s dream come true.  You are all incredible.

Until next year, eh?

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For more photos, check out my Flickr.

And all the TV coverage can be found over at the www.herm2hockeytown.com blog.

In case you haven’t seen this already, you must go here.  Darren McCarty and Claude Lemieux get together for the first time to talk about March 26, 1997, and the hit on Kris Draper for the first time on Off the Record with Michael Landsberg.  It’s really fascinating to hear the two together, and totally weird to see DMac agreeing with Lemieux on certain things.  Totally bizarre, but absolutely worth watching.

Also, I’m late on this, but the 12th episode of The Obstructed View is up, with Discher, Saler, and Casey, so make sure to check it out.  It’s great to have the podcast back up and rolling.

I’m back from not so sunny Florida, and can finally catch up on the Wings.  So happy to come home and see that the Wings managed to pull up 3 points on Calgary for a much more secure 8th seed.  I didn’t get to watch either the Minnesota game, or the Buffalo one, but I caught the last period of the Calgary game.  Great work by the boys to get the wins they need, and take their fate in their own hands for the final stretch.

In other non-Red Wings related news, I’ve accepted a job in Colorado, near Denver and will be moving out to Avalanche territory come mid-April.  Now I’m hoping the Wings somehow meet them in the playoffs so that I can go.  It’s also going to be weird trying to remember that games are on at Mountain Time, rather than Eastern.  Anyway, with packing up my life and moving in 4 weeks, things might be a bit sparse around here, but I’ll try my best.

I’m going to be down in Florida for a long weekend, and consequently will be missing the games tonight and Saturday. Family vacation and a half marathon to run means I’m going to be largely offline for the duration. So I am hoping to come back to good news on Monday that the Wings are back in the playoffs.

Don’t disappoint me, boys.

Look at that and tell me that this matchup tonight is not the most important games of the season for the Red Wings.

We saw them bring it last Thursday against Nashville in a huge game; can we officially shed them of the Jekyll and Hyde moniker after tonight?

That’s all I got.  They need to play like they did in the second period against Chicago.  I know it’s obvious, but if the Wings can bring that level of play for 60 minutes, we’re good.

I hate that stupid Fratellis song, “Chelsea Dagger.”  It makes me want to put a dagger through my eardrums, and I had to hear it 4 times this afternoon.

This game made me feel like an untreated manic depressive, almost entirely within the third period alone.  The first was pretty bland, the second was fantastic, and the third was just a mish mash of wild mood swings.  Matt had a great tweet that sums it up awesomely:

1st: ugh. 2nd: sweet. 3rd: ughwowyikesholycrapnoyesawesome.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Brian Rafalski (pp; Lidstrom, Zetterberg); Nicklas Lidstrom (Filppula, Bertuzzi); Jason Williams (Zetterberg, Rafalski); Valtteri Filppula (Bertuzzi, Miller); Pavel Datsyuk (unassisted)
Chicago: Duncan Keith (Seabrook, Kane); Andrew Ladd (unassisted); Andrew Ladd (Johnsson, Madden); Andrew Ladd (Keith, Madden)

- The Wings allowed Andrew Ladd his first career hat trick.  That says enough.  I mean, really?

- Afternoon games are ridiculous.  This game started at 11:30am local time.  No wonder the Wings looked asleep on their skates for the first period.  Quite frankly, I can’t even remember them getting 9 shots on net in that duration.

- Jimmy.  Please work on your rebounds.  Thanks.

+ Lebda actually does look like he’s been playing better with Lilja, interestingly.  He actually looks like an NHL defenseman.

- Almost immediately after I thought that, he overskated the puck, and forced Filppula to try and get it out, which resulted in a bad turnover and a Chicago goal.  As it turns out, going to Notre Dame doesn’t actually mean anything when it comes to hockey smarts.

+ The Wings really woke up in the second period.  I was half paying attention for a bit, working on some H2H stuff and being exasperated with how the game was going, when I realized that goals were going in at a rather alarming rate (in a good way).  Huet had a meltdown, unsurprisingly, and I’m wondering if the Blackhawks are wishing they’d picked someone up at the trade deadline.

+ Five unanswered goals by the Red Wings in the second period.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Just pure dominance by the Wings, and Pavel’s goal was an exclamation mark on the period.  The Wings proved to Chicago that they still have a long way to go in order to challenge Detroit’s position as alpha in the Central division.

+ On that note, Rafalski looked more like his Team USA/Olympian self rather than the pinching, turnover prone Rafalski of the majority of the season.  Good.

= Speaking of, whereas Datsyuk’s been pretty jacked since getting back from the Olympics, Zetterberg has seemed a little… off.  He didn’t have a very good Olympics, and that seems to have spilled into the re-start of the season.  I hope he resolves it soon, be it an injury or just being snakebit.

+ The Wings… we… they had a goal called off against them.  That is to say, in their favor.  I’m pretty certain I thought the Apocalypse, the Rapture, and the End of the World As We Know It was nigh.

– Bertuzzi apparently sustained a charley horse and left the game at some point (I want to say it was towards the end of the second period).  He had maybe one of the worst periods of play I’ve ever seen.  Pierre and Olczyk were just ripping on him.  But Bertuzzi came back with a really strong second, making plays and tallying two assists.  And immediately they start gushing about him like he’s the savior of the game.  Sigh.  Sounds like the injury isn’t very serious, and here’s to hoping he’ll be back in the lineup for Tuesday’s matchup.

– Pierre’s comment that Piet Van Zant was on the bench looking at a hurt Pavel made me almost scream NOOOOOO out loud.  Not even kidding.  Thankfully he was just stung with a blocked shot off the foot and came back after testing it during a TV timeout.

– After that ridiculous offensive output in the second period, the Wings promptly gave up a goal early in the third, and then another about half way through for Ladd to complete his hat trick.  Really, after the five goals in the second, this really never should have come down to a 1-goal game.  Curse of the three- and two-goal lead, I suppose.

+ I can’t remember exactly why, but Marian Hossa was whining to the refs about some call or another that didn’t go his way, and my entire Twitter feed, no joke, went “Shut up Hossa.”

+ Kronwall really had the save of the game.  There was a wide open net for the Blackhawks and he just planted himself in the crease to sweep the puck out, and then blocked the second chance.

+ Another incredibly important win, and 2 points in regulation.  Even better, two fairly strong outings in a row.  Can they keep it up?  Can they make it three in an extremely important game on Tuesday?

The Flames won against the Wild tonight, making them 1 point back of the Red Wings.  Nashville, having lost today, it only 1 point ahead.  It would not be hyperbole to say that Tuesday’s tilt is the most important game of the season so far.  Bring the killer instinct, put the skate down, and don’t let up, boys.

Well there’s one way to come back after the pathetic outing against Vancouver.  I’m pretty certain this was the first game all season that was labeled as a “must win” and the Wings actually came out and played like they knew it was important.  It was huge to get the 2 points in regulation, to prevent the gap between Detroit and Nashville from growing.  There are 2 massively important games coming up, tomorrow against Chicago, and then Calgary on Tuesday.  I’m hoping that the Wings have finally got their heads screwed on straight and won’t be playing Jekyll and Hyde any more (though that has been a theme this season) and bring it for these extremely important intraconference games.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Pavel Datsyuk (unassisted); Tomas Holmstrom (pp; Lidstrom, Datsyuk); Darren Helm (Eaves); Darren Helm (sh; Kronwall); Henrik Zetterberg (EN; Filppula, Cleary)
Nashville: JP Dumont (Sullivan); Joel Ward (Hamhuis)

+ What a sublime play by Datsyuk.  He didn’t just pick Klein’s pocket, he completely stripped him, deked Ellis and scored.  Pavel’s goal celebration was great–he looked like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders.  Mick kept going on about how Datsyuk doesn’t show an excessive amount of emotion when he scores. It’s probably been on every blog so far, but in case you haven’t seen it, here it is:

Gorgeous.

= Bert took a stupid penalty just a little over a minute into the game, but thankfully the Wings killed it off, and Todd made a hilarious play by receiving a pass while still standing in the box.

+ Congratulations to The Perfect Human, Nicklas Lidstrom, on his 800th career assist, which came on the Holmstrom power play goal.  Lidas is the 4th Wing in history to have 800 assists, behind Delvecchio, Howe, and Yzerman.

+ I said on Twitter after the first that the Wings needed to keep the skate to the throat of the Predators, and they certainly did a much better job in the second this game than they did in Colorado, where they’d sat back.  The Wings didn’t take it to Nashville as well as they had in the first, but it was still a strong effort.

+ Darren Helm.  I had lamented earlier to myself that he still can’t quite finish, but maybe he heard what Babcock had to say about him not being a goal scorer, because he went out and got two, including a shorty.  He had a phenomenal game.  I also love that the arena plays “Danger Zone” after he scores.

– Murph apparently knows his New Kids on the Block songs.  That’s utterly terrifying.  Ken Daniels said Murph should be ashamed of himself.

Well, Trade Deadline Day came and went, and true to his word, Ken Holland was fairly quiet.  The only moves he made was to ship Kris Newbury off to Hartford for Jordan Owens, and apparently also moved Andy Delmore to Calgary for Riley Armstrong.  I know nothing of either Owens or Armstrong.

On to the game.  I DVR’d this and watched it after, but once I realized the result, it felt like kind of a waste.  It certainly was a wasted effort by the Wings.  I, along with many others, I think, thought that Monday’s game was a sign that they were ready to really make a strong push in the remaining games and win those 15 out of 20.  Apparently not.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Jason Williams (Zetterberg, Bertuzzi); Henrik Zetterberg (Lilja)
Vancouver: Livonia Native Ryan Kesler (Raymond, Rome); Alex Burrows (D. Sedin, H. Sedin); Kyle Wellwood (Rome); Sami Salo (pp; Demitra, H. Sedin); Mikael Samuelsson (D. Sedin, H. Sedin); Ryan Kesler (pp; D. Sedin, Ehrhoff)

- According to TSN, the Red Wings have had 18 disallowed or waived off goals this season alone.  EIGHTEEN.  In 63 games.  That’s 1 every 3.5 games, or a goal called off in 28.57% of games.  With 19 games left, that means we can look forward to 5.4 more goals disallowed for the rest of the season.  Hooray.

- I realized that there are no Red Wings with 20 goals on the season yet.  That’s a hideously depressing stat.  Datsyuk and Zetterberg have the most, with 17.

- Kronwall  had an atrocious game.  He was in the box for 2 Canuck power play goals, one of them 5 seconds into the PP, and he also indirectly led to another goal after he stepped on the puck and fell in the Canucks’ zone.  The defense as a whole looked sloppy and disorganized, but Kronwall looked particularly out of sorts all game long.

+ Congratulations to Mr. Zetterberg for his 200th career goal!  It was a beauty, too.  He froze Luongo, and patiently waited to shoot in a pretty much open net from the side.  Lovely.  He also tied the game at 2-2, with the last Wings’ goal before Vancouver started running away with the game.

- I felt like there was a plethora of missed passes and pucks bouncing off sticks tonight.  It didn’t help the Wings get any sustained pressure, and towards the second half of the game, it felt like they had a lot of one and done chances.

+ Lilja got his first point back as a Red Wing.

- I was honestly kind of surprised that Howard got pulled.  With the reluctance Babcock has shown to play Osgood, I expected him to stick it out.  But I guess that’s what gut-check time does, and desperate times call for desperate measures.  In this case, it came in the form of Chris Osgood.

- Who didn’t really play fantastic.  He’s an old man coming in cold which doesn’t help, but getting beat by a Mikael Samuelsson no look shot?  Yikes.  Ozzie probably figured Sammy was going to go wide by a country mile, except he actually hit the net.  Do I think he played better than Howard?  He made 10 saves on 12 shots.  Howard had 17 on 21.

- What was with all the Vancouver fans in the Joe?  I heard a lot of “Looooooooo”s through my TV.  It was annoying.

+ I love having the Mule back.  Goals in the past 4 games for Franzen.

Some photos I took of the Red Wings warming up at the Dive in Colorado: