Red Wings Bring Stanley Cup back to Hockey Town

<!–[endif]–>About a week ago, I watched as my Detroit Pistons bowed out of the NBA playoffs once again.  Sure, they had just appeared in their sixth strait Conference Championship series and over that same period of time they had played in two NBA Finals, winning the Championship in 2004.  However, something has happened in the pro game of basketball that leaves me feeling like I smoked cigarettes, drank skunky beer, ate hot wings and woke up without a toothbrush.  I cheer for my Pistons but I had a feeling of indifference when the season ended for them.  It felt like the finals match up was as contrived as a WWE match and nothing was going to stop a reunion tour of the Lakers/Celtics.

Fast forward to this past Monday night and game five of the Stanley Cup Finals.  My Red Wings found themselves on the doorstep of winning the Cup only to have their best laid plans foiled with 34 seconds left in regulation time.  On to sudden death overtime and then a second and then a third.  Over 110 minutes of hockey played at the Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit.  The game ended at nearly 1:00am eastern time with a power play goal by the Penguins.

It was like a dagger to the middle of my chest that barely missed any vital organs.  I felt a pit in the middle of my stomach that I couldn’t cough up like a hair-ball.  NOOOO!!!!! The Wings outplayed the Penguins in almost every facet of the game with the exception of goal tending.  My desire to celebrate would have to wait at least a few more days.  In the meantime, I worried.  You do not want to give a wounded dog a chance to lick his wounds.  That intangible that we call momentum had most definitely swung the pendulum in the opposite direction and the youthful team from the steel city felt new life.

Over the past few days, I listened to hockey analysts speak about that same momentum and the effects of losing the game in the fashion that the wings did.  Would the younger Penguins have more energy being back in their own building?  Would the older Red Wings show the signs of both mental and physical fatigue after such an emotional finish?  Youth versus Experience?

As sports fans, we invest so much in our teams.  Why was my investment so much higher with the Red Wings than it was with the Pistons?  I don’t know for sure but I do know that I wanted that dagger pulled from my chest and I wanted that huge hairball to be spewn from my throat.

I sleep walked my way through work yesterday in anticipation of last nights game.  I wore my black Red Wing game jersey yesterday and noticed the many people who donned their Detroit schwag.  Our city was pumped and ready to swing octopuses over our heads in excited jubilation.  We were ready for a parade down Woodward Avenue and a rally at the Joe.

I worked late and got home about an hour before game time.  I would be watching the game at home with my wife…but she would eventually scamper off to the bedroom to watch the home shopping network or some cooking show (my wifes favorite part of a sporting event is paying $5 for a hot dog and $8 for a beer).  I could go to my dad’s house or a friends or I could have invited someone over to watch the game with me but if it were another five hour marathon, I didn’t want to be stuck away from home and I didn’t want some drunk sleeping on my sofa.  So I settled in by myself.

I won’t recap the game or the scoring or the deciding play.  I will refrain from giving game analysis or talking about bad calls.  I will just say that my Red Wings prevailed in a very exciting game against a team with a great deal of promise.  For the fourth time in 11 years, the Stanley Cup has returned to the City of Detroit.  Only the Montreal Canadians (24) and the Toronto Maple Leafs (13) have won Lord Stanley’s Cup more times than the Red Wings (11) and we could see a few more with their current core group of players.

What is it about our home team winning a championship that makes us fans feel as though WE have accomplished something.  Do we live our lives vicariously through these athletes to the point that winning a championship is energizing or revitalizing?  I know that I stayed up until after midnight again just watching the ceremonies and the interviews.

There are always the side stories that go along with every championship team in every sport.  Darren McCarty, who had won three Stanley Cups with the Red Wings in 96/97, 97/98 and 01/02 started the season out of the NHL.  He was recovering from substance abuse, out of shape and playing senior league hockey when Wings GM Ken Holland called him.  McCarty skated himself back into shape and spent a few months with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL.  Darren McCarty who is infamous in Detroit Hockey history for his epic fight with Claude Lemieux was all but finished with professional hockey.  Yet as fate would smile on D-MAC, injuries to the Red Wings would prompt a call to the Griffins asking for the veteran wingers services.  Back with the team that drafted him in 1987 Darren McCarty would once again hoist the cup over his head and take a victory lap.

How about Dallas Drake?  Also drafted by the Red Wings in 1989…Drake spent two years in Detroit before stints with Winnipeg Phoenix and St. Louis where he was team captain for two seasons.  Finding himself a free agent after last year, Drake had very few options and not a lot of offers when Kenny Holland came calling.  The Red Wings are a fine blend and mixture of youth, experience and veteran leadership.

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NHL tradition calls for the league commissioner to present the Cup to the winning teams captain and then there is the first “hand-off” of the Cup.  After Gary Bettman presented Stanley to Wings Captain, Nick Lidstrom…the hand off went to Dallas Drake, the 16 year veteran who had never felt the adrenaline rush from hoisting that prize above his head.  Dallas Drake who at 38 years of age and still diving in front of slap shots.  Dallas Drake who had nearly a minute in the penalty box for every game he had played in the NHL was now a Stanley Cup Champion.

Finally there is Chris Osgood.  The baby faced, 5′10″, 36 year old goal tender from Peace River, Alberta.  Ozzie and any other goalie in Detroit is as scrutinized as any Detroit Lions Quarterback and when the team doesn’t in, much like the Lions fans blame the QB, Red Wings fans blame the goalie.  During the 96/97 season, Chris Osgood was the number one goalie only to be sat on the bench during the playoffs for the veteran Mike Vernon.  The Wings won the cup and Vernon was named MVP with the Conn Smythe trophy.  The following year, Osgood stayed in net all season long and through the playoffs.  The Red Wings once again won the Cup but Chris Osgood was dubbed “The WORST Goalie Ever to Win the Stanley Cup”.

Through all of this, the quiet and humble Osgood remained the consummate pro and never complained or questioned his role with the team.  Yet when the Wings aquired Dominik Hasek in 2001, Osgood became expendable and the Wings left him unprotected and the New York Islanders picked him up in the waiver draft.

Ozzie would spend two years in New York and another two in St. Louis before returning to the team he never wanted to leave.  Chris would play in the back up role to Hasek and Manny Legace for the most part.  However, during this season…Hasek would suffer another in a long list of injuries and Chris Osgood would step to the forefront playing in 43 games and amassing a 27-9-4 record en route to a starting spot on the All Star team.

As if reliving a bad nightmare, Osgood would sit down again for this years playoffs but not for long.  After two shaky starts followed by two horrendous starts in net, Dominic Hasek was pulled for the Wizard of Oz.  That could have been the turning point for the Detroit team as Chris was masterful throughout the remainder of the playoffs.  Pitching three shutouts including the first two games of the finals, Chris Osgood was back home in Detroit and the fans took every opportunity to thank him.  No longer will he be known as the “Worst Goalie EVER to win a Stanley Cup.”  How could you when he’s wearing three rings?

I drifted off to sleep well after midnight but it wasn’t easy.  My team had won and I am once again a champion.