McCarty/Lemieux Interview

The first interview with Darren McCarty and Claude Lemieux and they talk quite candidly about the various fights...very interesting to those fans that got to enjoy this rivalry.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Four More Wins

Bring on the Penguins…once again. The entire postseason I have watched the Penguins and hoped that someone would knock them off. Well, I guess the Wings will have to step in and do it once again this year.

Honestly if it was any other year and someone told me that Osgood was playing great going into the Stanley Cup finals I would say why bother playing the series, just give the Wings the Cup now. Eastern Conference teams just don’t see the tough defense like the Wings have, and the Wings can score as much or more than Eastern Conference teams against the tougher defensive teams of the Western Conference. However, this year is a little bit different and I have to say it is certainly not a lock for the Wings (ESPN says the Wings aren’t even the favorite).There are four strikes against the Wings that make this much more of a challenge then the typical Stanley Cup Finals (earlier I thought if we beat Anaheim the Cup was ours…now I think it’s still up for grabs).

1) Penguins again – We have to play the same team two years in a row, which means they have a team full of guys that don’t want to go through the agony of losing again.

2) Hossa – He was their top player from last years finals (I think) and turned down a lot of money from them to play for us for less money because he said he wanted to win a Cup…while this is added motivation for Hossa, it is also a lot of motivation for the entire Penguins team.

3) Wings Injuries – Injuries are piling up for the Wings. We are deep but I don’t want to have to play the Penguins without Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Ericsson and Draper. The Wings are great and the young guys have really impressed me, but I don’t want to have to fight battle with both arms tied behind our back.

4) Schedule – The NHL has successfully created the worst possible schedule for the Wings. With all the injuries and three overtime games in the previous series the Wings now have to play the opening two games on back to back nights…well there goes home ice advantage. Oh and they are considering an earlier start than 8pm on the Sunday game, which would mean the first two games at home for the Wings will be played in less than 24 hours. What the What!!!

If it were any team besides the Red Wings I would say they didn’t have a chance, but since it is the Wings I’ll still say they’ll win it. However, I expect a really long challenging series…though if the Wings could do a solid for a long time fan and sweep them it would really help me since my wedding is during Game 5, thanks.

Red Wings & Lady Gaga

Tonight the Red Wings got their 10th win of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which leaves six more needed. The Wings I think were out played for the most part. Samuelsson will get a lot of the credit for the win and rightfully so since he had a takeaway, resulting in a three on one, and ended with him shooting in a beautiful shot for the win in overtime. However, in my opinion the number one star has to be Ozzie...the Hawks had a ton of great shots on goal and Ozzie was a wall...OZZIE! OZZIE! OZZIE!

The Wings celebrate after the game winning goal in overtime.

Anyway, so why the weird title...well its a shout out to my friend Karen who not only has helped expand my music interests with artists like Rilo Kiley, Ladyhawke, and Lykke Li but has also helped me with my Red Wings reading. In a recent ESPN article it was noted that the Blackhawks hadn't won a Stanley Cup since 1961, which was before the world had heard of the Beatles. Then it mentioned that the Red Wings haven't won the Stanley Cup since June of last year, which was before the world had heard of Lady Gaga...oh yes I get that reference now and I recommend everyone just dance, it'll be ok...thanks Karen!

Game Seven

Since 1996 the Red Wings have won more Stanley Cups then played game sevens. Tonight they played their third since then and just like the previous two they won. Honestly even as the game came to an end I had to admit to myself that this certainly wasn't the most exciting. However that says nothing about how awesome this was...its just how can you beat a 1-0 victory in double overtime with a shot from Yzerman or beating the Avalanche so bad that Roy got pulled from the game. This one had somewhat of a different feel...it was close throughout but somehow even after giving up the two goal lead it was clear that the Wings were in charge. Who would have thought that Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hossa, and Franzen won't score but the Wings would never trail from start to finish in a game 7. I also have to give some recognition to Ozzie since he has been great throughout this playoff and I'll say it right now that he should be in the Hall of Fame.

1996 Game 7 - Western Conference Semifinals vs. St. Louis

2002 Game 7 - Western Conference Finals vs. Colorado

For Statue of Liberty Play in Game 6 start at 4:15
For Game 7 start at 4:45

2009 Game 7 - Western Conference Semifinals vs. Anaheim

Let's Go Red Wings!

Well done Wings...4 down, 12 to go.

Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images

Red Wings vs. Flyers

Last night I got to chance to go to the Red Wings game with a few of my friends...thanks Phil (and Jen). It was a lot of fun and we got to see Kirk Maltby recognized for having played 1,000 games in the NHL, Kris Draper recognized for playing his 1,000 game as a Detroit Red Wings (honestly thought there would have been more for joining the likes of Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio, Steve Yzerman, and Nicklas Lidstrom), and the Red Wings come back from a 2-0 deficeit in the second period to win 3-2. Here are a few pictures and videos taken before the game (fyi - our seats weren't this close...we just went down by the ice to watch warm ups).

Red Wings taking warm up shots.


Osgood getting warmed up.


Kirk Maltby Recognized for his 1000th game in the NHL.

Red Wings Report

Next year Hossa doesn't want to end up like this.

Photo by Jim McIsaac /Getty Images

If you haven't heard, the Wings signed Marian Hossa (yeah one of the Penguins top players) to a one year contract. Just thinking about having Brad Stuart, Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall and Brian Rafalski as our top 4 defensivemen coupled with four guys that are amazing at offense and defense (Hossa, Zetterberg, Franzen and Pavel Datsyuk) makes me so excited for next year. Sometimes things don't go the way you would expect them to, but I'm definitely liking our shot at a repeat next year.

Stanley Cup Champions

In spite of game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals being the only playoff game this year that I didn't get to see any of (had to be driving between Michigan and Chicago during), I won't change a thing (unless some how I could have changed history and made the Wings win in overtime of game 5). I'll even take the most "crap-tastic" game winning goal (as Trudi correctly referred to it as). Probably the worst part of driving during the game was due to the NHL's inability to market themselves I couldn't even listen to the game on the radio (I lost a station before I even got out of Michigan...seriously?!). However I have to thank Trudi and Jen for giving Demoree and I updates during the game. With all that said I'm really glad the Wings won their 4th Stanley Cup in the past 11 years...Amazing! Its going to be a fun year with the Cup being in Michigan a bunch and perhaps I'll even get to see it...everyone in Michigan better be heading to Detroit tomorrow for the parade...party it up. Congrats Wings!!!

Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images

So I think I could go on and on about how great it is to win this Cup, but I'm sure everyone that cares already knows (or they could just read other websites). Thus I shall keep it short and sweet.

Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images

One Game Away

Hopefully after tonight the Wings will have secured their 4th Stanley Cup in the past 11 years.

The game winning play for game 4 (ok, it should probably be the Hudler goal but this was in my opinion more important) and possibly the series defining moment.

Amazing

(sorry, Sherry for all the sports, but honestly until the Wings win the Cup I doubt I'll be talking about much else)

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Valtteri Filppula scored the above goal in dramatic fashion (if you couldn't tell by him being airborne) to give the Wings a 3-0 lead enroute to their second straight Stanley Cup Final victory (and shutout).

Bonus: Pistons have tied up their series with Boston...I think they can win the series as long as Billups stays health (though they are still underdogs in my opinion).

Puzzle, Movie, Sports

1) Puzzle

This past Friday Demoree and I completed our second puzzle...this one being much more difficult. The nice thing about this puzzle though is that it actually got easier instead of harder as we approached the end. In fact we from the right picture below it took us about 15 minutes to get from there to the finish.

A few pictures taken during the final stages of the Simpson puzzle.

The completed puzzle!!!

2) Movie - Prince Caspian

Great movie...its very rare that I sit through a movie that is over 2 hours long and then say I could see that again. Demoree and both said that when it got to the end. Its quite obvious that C.S. Lewis' stepson (Douglas Gresham) is a co-producer of the movie because its (A) holds to the original story very well and (B) clearly conveys the Christian message (at least if you are a Christian).

3) Sports - Red Wings

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

I'm glad to be able to say that there won't be a game 7 of the Western Conference NHL Finals...the Wings are Conference Champions!!! Now its on to the Stanley Cup Finals!!! When the Wings lost game 4 I wasn't too worried, but when they lost game 5 (looking quite bad mind you) I was a little concerned. Basically watching the Red Wings regularly for over a decade (I think I've watched the vast majority of playoff games since 1993) I have seen them go cold and suddenly they go from scoring 4 goals a game to 1. It made me nervous seeing them not score on a 6 on 3 to end game 4 and scoring only 1 goal in game 5. However, they surprised me by coming out of the funk with a 4 goal performance to finish out the series. Now that it is past us I think this will help the Wings a lot...had we entered the Stanley Cup Finals with a 10 game win streak I would feel that we would have to either sweep the Penguins or would probably loss the Cup (that two game funk would have happened and perhaps we couldn't have afforded that). Now I think the Wings will be ready for a challenging series that should be very exciting. It sure would be nice if we could get Henrik Zetterberg his first cup, Pavel Datsyuk his second (first as the go-to-guy), and Nicklas Lidstrom his first cup as team captain (we've never won it without Steve Yzerman or Scotty Bowman...in recent years).

Wings/Avs Rivalry

Tonight the Red Wings and the Avalanche get to play some more playoff hockey against each other. I've been watching some clips of the rivalry and it is getting so excited, especially for game 2 when my parents, Demoree, and I get to go (I think...I never got final confirmation but I'm assuming right now). I just love this rivalry so much because they use to fight so hard to win (both sides) and unlike other top teams neither side wanted to avoid each other. As a Wings fan I always wanted to have to play the Avalanche even though they were so good because it wasn't enough to win the Cup we wanted to play right thru them. I know I already posted a video today but I've got to post this as well...it gives me chills and gets me very excited.

Sports Talk with Brian

A few comments on tonights games...

1) If the Wings win the Stanley cup Thomas Homstrom deserves the MVP...I'm rather confident that if we didn't get him back during the San Jose series we wouldn't be in the playoffs right now.
2) While listening to the game (not on regular television) I was torn with the thought of whether I would have rather been at this game or the last one. I decided I would rather be at the one I went to...while it would be a lot of fun watch the Wings just kill the Ducks, I honestly think I would rather see an intense well played game by both sides.

3) Coach Babcock finally impressed me (yeah I sure he'll be glad to hear that he finally gained my approval). Honestly it is great that he was able to change up the lines and have such a positive effect. We really haven't seen this kind of result since Scotty Bowman was at the helm and he always seemed to be able to change the lines to turn around a series.

Now for the Pistons...

4) Seriously guys....seriously. I think all Detroit fans need to write articles and send them to the team telling them that they suck. Seriously because once everyone starts talking about how great they are they stop playing hard...its as if their main goal is to prove people wrong (even if they are saying you are great and should win). With this loss ESPN has started talking about the Bulls taking this to game 7, which makes me feel better because that should be enough to get them to play hard once again.

Red Wings!!!

So obviously I'm pumped to see the Wings take it to San Jose in game 5, which gives them the 3-2 lead in the series. One thing that always seems constant with the Wings is once they smell blood they attack...once they got the second goal I was pretty sure they won't lose it, but then in typical Wings fashion they put the game away with goals 3 and 4. Now lets just go to San Jose and finish off this series...I maybe wrong but I think this series may determine the Stanley Cup winner.

Now on to the Pistons game...Sports!!!

Go Wings!!!

Tonight I was at home planning on writing about the effects of roughness on skin-friction measurements in a turbulent boundary layer when I got a call from a buddy saying that some friends were watching the wings game a BW3. With the dilemma of should I work on a paper or watch Red Wing playoff hockey there was only one solution…Wings!!! Now I did wait until the end of the first period to go so I could get started on the paper…so I didn’t totally bail on my objective.
Originally I planned on listening to the game on the radio since not even the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is playing the series. That didn’t bother me too much since (to be honest) I really thought we were going to lose this game…sorry but San Jose is very fast, strong, and the Wings don’t match up well against them, which made me think it would be very difficult (not impossible) to get a win on their ice when they have the momentum. It was so nice to see the Red Wings play hard tonight…we now have a completely new series. It’s now a best of three with two of the games at the Joe.
On my way home all I could think about was how much I would have been kicking myself if I hadn’t went and watched the game…it would have been torture to listen to that game on the radio. For those that didn’t get to see it the Wings were down by one with under a minute to play in the game. At the one minute mark we pulled our goalie and then at 33.1 seconds left on the clock Robert Lang (dad you had the right guy for the wrong game) scored to tie the game and put it into overtime. Then in overtime the Wings looked like they were the better team playing that game (something that hasn’t been the case for this entire series). My main concern was that San Jose was going to get a lucky goal and win the game. But then Matthieu Schneider scored a power-play goal to end the game…seriously it was sweet!!!
I was also glad to see Holmstrom back on the ice for the Wings…not to mention that sweet goal with only a few second left in the second period. Honestly that was pretty impressive to see him swat that right out of the air…hopefully with Holmstrom and the momentum the Wings can take control of this series.