Posted on 06/13/2002 2:17:15 PM PDT by Hillary's Lovely Legs
Watch out for the Octopus tonight, they will be flying fast and furious. The key is to not get 'slimed'.
I will be at the game, but I know that you guys will be able to carry on without me. This thread is in your hands.
I hope you appreciate my restraint in not being too happy for the fabulous Wings. It's killing me to hold back.
Detroit vs. Carolina, 8:08 p.m. tomorrow, Game 5, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit. TV: WTAE.
History suggests that any suspense about the outcome of the Stanley Cup final vanished when Detroit won Game 4, 3-0, Monday. And that it shouldn't take long for the result to become official. The Red Wings are the 27th team to take a 3-1 lead in a Cup final; 25 of the previous 26 went on to win the series. Fifteen of those closed out their series in five games, six went to Game 6 and four needed a seventh game before wrapping up their championship. The lone exception was the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, who rallied from a 3-0 deficit against the Red Wings and ran off four victories in a row. Detroit officials don't expect Carolina to do anything like that. Police there already have announced plans to close most of the freeways leading into downtown Detroit if the Red Wings have a lead going into the third period of Game 5 tomorrow, and officials of the city and team have been meeting to work out the details of a celebratory parade. Red Wings players are predictably cautious about proclaiming the series to be over -- "Certainly, the excitement is there, but you have to bury it and really get focused," LW Brendan Shanahan said. "You can't think too far ahead" -- while the Hurricanes are publicly defiant, as expected. "It's 3-1, but it's not over yet," Carolina G Arturs Irbe said. "I know how different people feel, but it's for us to decide if it's over or not. It's going to be decided deep down in our gut."
There was a time when many in the NHL believed Detroit RW Brett Hull was too selfish, too offense-oriented to be part of a championship team. That perception has faded over the years, especially after Hull won a Cup while playing solid two-way hockey with Dallas in 1999. But he remains a goal-scorer with few equals. He leads these playoffs with 10 and has joined Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Jari Kurri, core members of Edmonton's dynasty in the 1980s, as the only men to get 100 in their playoff careers. "It's quite a group, and I am very proud to be a part of it," Hull said. His teammates aren't surprised that he has joined that club, even though he failed to score in the first five games of the first round. "He's played pretty tenaciously, but mostly, he's a finisher," Detroit C Steve Yzerman said. "That's his trademark. He scores big goals."
While much has been written and said about how tightly the final has been called, the officials missed the most flagrant foul of the series, when Detroit D Jiri Fischer cross-checked Tommy Westlund of Carolina in the mouth in the third period of Game 4. Westlund lost an undisclosed number of teeth and needed five stitches to close a wound near his mouth. And while Detroit associate coach Barry Smith contended that "it wasn't done intentionally," Westlund disagreed. "The play was dead," he said. "I didn't expect him to cross-check me in the mouth. I can't see why there wouldn't be a penalty." That Fischer wasn't penalized doesn't mean he didn't get punished. The league reviewed the incident and suspended Fischer for Game 5 tonight.
Detroit dominated faceoffs in Games 1 and 2, and the Hurricanes believed that changing that was critical to their chance of winning the series. Well, they got the better of the draws in the subsequent two games, including a 43-20 edge Monday, and lost both. "Sometimes, you lose faceoffs most of the game, and nothing really bad happens," Detroit C Sergei Fedorov said.
Carolina might genuinely believe it still can win the series, and the Hurricanes might convince a few other people to share that feeling if they would actually put a puck past Red Wings G Dominik Hasek. They have scored just six goals in four games, none in the past 127 minutes, 13 seconds. Carolina Coach Paul Maurice shuffled his two top lines in Game 4, putting Sami Kapanen with Erik Cole and Rod Brind'Amour and moving Bates Battaglia into Kapanen's usual spot with Ron Francis and Jeff O'Neill, but those moves failed to jump-start his offense. Probably because not all of Carolina's problems are self-inflicted. "Their defense makes excellent plays, excellent outlet plays," Maurice said. "They move the puck so well from their back end. They play a really good five-man defensive game. That's so overlooked. Their defensive game is outstanding."
Mike Wilson, a Detroit fireman, was pummeled by a half-dozen or so Carolina fans after he threw an octopus onto the ice at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Raleigh late in the third period of Game 4. Some might suggest that Wilson invited that kind of reaction by doing something so inflammatory in an opposing team's rink, and Wilson didn't complain about his treatment. Anyone willing to spend hours with an octopus stuffed in his pants -- Wilson figured his crotch was the best place to conceal it from the security people -- can be expected to see things a bit differently from most folks. Even his brother, Harry, seemed impressed by Wilson's ability to maintain an intimate relationship with the octopus for most of the evening. "The really heroic thing was how he sat with the octopus for the whole game," Harry Wilson said. "That thing really stunk."
No fewer than 22 people -- among them two bankers and an engineer -- were arrested for scalping while the series was in Raleigh, N.C. More than 100 tickets, some of them stolen, were confiscated, and police seized more than $10,000 from scalpers before Game 4. North Carolina's attorney general, meanwhile, reached a settlement with Encore Tickets of Dallas, a broker that returned 100 unsold tickets and agreed to refrain from selling or buying tickets for future events in the state. Four of those tickets were for Game 4, and were turned over to a 9-year-old cancer patient, Kevin Sebring of Durham, N.C., and his family. The balance of the tickets are for Game 6, if necessary, and are to be distributed to a variety of charitable organizations.
Although having two off-days between Games 4 and 5 could turn out to be nothing more than a stay of execution for the Hurricanes, Maurice believes the break could work in his team's favor. "It can't hurt," he said. "The two days are important, I think, for us right now. We need a day to reset the emotional button and then we need a day to look at some different options that we have, technically."
Detroit D Steve Duchesne had six teeth knocked out by a puck in Game 3, but the idea of sitting out a shift or two so his injury could be treated apparently never occurred to him. "It's the playoffs," he said. "You just have to keep going."
Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos lives near Detroit and is a Red Wings season-ticket holder, and much of the money he made when the series was in Raleigh will end up being funneling back to the Red Wings. Karmanos, you see, has four seats at Joe Louis Arena, and each costs $450 per game for the final. That means that if the series goes seven games, Karmanos will fork over $7,200 for the privilege of having seats that he gives away to friends or employees.
When Hull, an unrestrcted free agent last summer, says that "literally, in August, I had nowhere to play," he's telling the truth. Sort of. The reality is that numerous teams, including the Penguins, would have been thrilled to add him to their roster. Those clubs just couldn't afford to offer the $3.5 million Hull got when he signed Aug. 22 with the Red Wings.
We had a crowd that they used to call the UN because we all had non-midwest accents.
I started the jinx by getting my Flyers beat for the first time in the last 25 games by the lowly Detroit team.
Seems every time one of our previous home town favorites (multiple sports -- basesball, football, and basketball also)came in the Detriot teams handed them their heads back in their helmets. None of the Detroit teams was very good, except the Tigers with Fidrich (sp?)"The Bird" pitching.
Moved to MD and broke another 25 game streak by the Flyers against the Capitals.
Four days after the hockey game a VP of a bank I believe was killed in the parking lot after a game for $2. Do you think we ever went to another game there? It was a really old stadium, a true experience. The new stadium is very close to where we lived, and some of the guys were hockey players from MA and Canada.
We are now Cleveland without the glamour.
Don't mess with Mayberry.
I just can not bring myself to cheat ;). I shall see you good folks when I return !
Lloyd Petit was the best hockey announcer ever in the game..." A Shot and a GOAL"...he would scream into my ear as I listened to the Hawks on my little Sears transistor radio back in...1967, Whitey Stapelton, Stan Makita and Bobby Hull...now there were some players...
GRRRRRRRRRollin'
Or the rivers that catch on fire!
I got stopped by a great police officer the first time I drove by the Silverdome for speeding in a snowstorm. He wrote me up for driving with an out of state license because otherwise he had to arrest me. I got my MI license (what a joke of a test) and the officer got me out of the ticket in court (He said he would, but the judge was more difficult than he expected.)
I believe the new hockey stadium is in Auburn Heights. I used to snake down to I-75 through UNPAVED back roads off Walton Blvd. What was more unbelievable was that there were unpaved roads in the county down near 8-11 mile road. I heard most have been paved.
The VP who was murdered was not my boss, and it was unreal he was killed for so little.
When I went back east I either left through Port Huron or south around DET, never even got to Windsor.
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Wow, how 'bout them Lakers, huh? |
Someday...I'll be a season ticket holder...someday.
I think my aunt and uncle will be there too. They won't sell me their tickets...since the Wings lose when I'm there, so I'll settle for a seat at the bar with my McCarty jersey.
Mike Wilson, a Detroit fireman, was pummeled by a half-dozen or so Carolina fans after he threw an octopus onto the ice at
Bwhahah. My uncle(not the tickey holder) is a Detroit fireman. I'll ask him if he knows him. He'd be the first to toss an octopus as well if he had a shot at it.
Prediction - McCarty gets the winner in OT, and the Cup comes back home!!
Unfortunately, they're up against the greatest team in hockey right now; but I'll bet those NC fans would love a Game 6!!!
I'm feeling a little sad because the season is coming to an end. Hockey is more than a sport!
It's a Canadian redneck extravaganza! LOL!
In honor of the last game, I'm having bacon for supper tonight, along with the barley sandwich. ;^)
Two things: Superstition keeps me from posting or IM'ing during the game. And you better have that sign! I'll be looking for FreeRepublic.com ALL NIGHT LONG! :)
Have Fun!!!
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