We are here at the Joe Louis Arena to take in the Red Wings-Calgary Flames game--sort of a pump-primer for the Big Game tomorrow as the Lions host the Packers in the annual Thanksgiving Day Classic. I'm looking forward to that, indeed, I'll be leaving home for Ford Field and the game in a scant 14 hours or so. Meanwhile, here, Tomas Holmstrom has just tipped in a right point shot blasted by Nicklas Lidstrom to open the scoring. It's power play goal (PPG) at 6:14 with Juri Hudler getting the second assist. So, the Wings, a team at times running hot and at others not, will try to build on their 8-3-1 (.708) record when scoring first.
Right now, the Wings are running hot. They've won two in a row. This comes after the lost two in a row. Which came after they won four in a row. Which came after the lost six in a row. Which came after they won five in a row. And there you have the entire Wings season to this point. They are11-7-1 (23 pts.) which you can look at one of two equally valid, equally true ways. You could say, hey, the Red Wings are just four points out of first place in their division. You could also say, hey, the Wings are in a tie for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. As I say, both statements are true.
Sparky Anderson used to say (I don't have to tell you who Sparky Anderson was, do I? Hall of Fame Manager of the Tigers and Reds, etc.), "Let me see 40 games and I can tell you what kind of a team I have." 40 games is about a quarter of a baseball season. A quarter of a hockey season is, since your hockey season is half the number of games as a baseball season, 20 games. Tonight is game #20 for Detroit. Therefore, we should know after this one what kind of a hockey team we have this season. Which will be good to know because I have to tell you, right now I have no idea.
This is the second meeting between the Wings and Flames. Calgary came in here and beat Detroit 4-1 nineteen days ago. It was the last game of that six game losing streak which had everybody so concerned as the month began. Detroit is 6-2 since losing that game. Still 1-0 Wings with under four to go in the first. We'll keep you posted....
The period is over. Shots are 8-8. The Wings appear to be defensive-minded tonight which is good because it tends to give you the best chance to win. On the other hand, it tends to result in a less than thrilling evening at the rink. So, what do you want? Two points or goose bumps?
I read some of the Green Bay Packer Game Notes last night. I say some because they ran 122 pages. The interesting thing is that it was the Packers who invented Game Notes back in the '50s. It was the invention of their PR guy and it was called "The Dope Sheet." Which is what it was, a sheet. You know, as in a page. And now it's 122 pages. At any rate, what I gleaned from what I read is that Green Bay has some kind of an offense. I will give just one fact from "The Dope Sheet": The Packers are on pace for 568 points this season. The franchise record is 461 points in 2009 and the NFL record is 589 points by New England in 2007.
There's another interesting note, so I guess I'll give you two facts from "The Dope Sheet": The Packers will be the first undefeated NFL team to play on Thanksgiving since a 10-0 Green Bay team visited Detroit on Nov. 22, 1962.
They didn't mention this is "The Dope Sheet" so I'll throw it in for you. That game on November 22, 1962? Green Bay was 10-1 after it was over. That was the game--perhaps the most famous single game in Lions history--in which their defense sacked Bart Starr 11 times (still the Lions single-game record) at Tiger Stadium and won 26-14. The Lions might have been NFL champions that year had it not been for another one of their more famous games earlier in the year. This one, the first meeting of the season between the Lions and the Packers at Green Bay's City Stadium is more accurately described from a Detroit point of view as infamous, actually. 7 weeks before the upset in Detroit, the Lions were beating the Packers in 7-6 with under two minutes to go when Milt Plum, trying to run out the clock, threw an interception near midfield and the Packers returned to the Detroit 18 before Paul Horning kicked a 14-yard field goal with 26 seconds to go to give Green Bay at 9-7 win. The game is perhaps best remembered for Alex Karras throwing his helmet at Plum after the game in the Lions locker room in an attempt to do his Great Bodily Harm, an attempt which according to all accounts just missed. Most of the Lions, hell, most of everybody thought Plum, the responsible party as back in the day the quarterback and not the coach or the coordinator or anybody else called the plays, should have run the ball, forced Green Bay to use their last time out, and let Detroit's great punter, Yale Lary, pin 'em deep. But they didn't and so by the time they'd KO'd the Pack back in Detroit on Thanksgiving, the damage had already been done and the season was over in spite of their spectacular win over Green Bay.
Meanwhile, back here at the hockey game, Calgary scored a couple of quick ones--quick as in two goals before the second period was three minutes in--on Jimmy Howard (the second was soft as well as quick) but the Wings have answered as Flames goalie Mikka Kiprusoff let in one he should have had, too. So it's 2-2 and we are midway through the second period. As I was reminiscing about the Lions and all while all of this was going on below me, I have, actually, no idea, none at all, who scored the Detroit goal. They'll give me a sheet containing that information during the intermission. I can wait. Oh yes, I can wait. Under 8 to go in the second, 2-2.
Hey, wait. I do too know who scored that Detroit goal. I get a text anytime a Red Wings scores a goal. I am not sure why I do, but I do. It's a good thing, too. Some nights it's the only thing that reminds me I'm alive. It turns out that it was Ian White. The goal was described as a "47-foot wrist shot." See, I TOLD you Kiprusofff should have had it. 47-foot wrister, indeed.
I'd chastise myself and say I've got to get my head in the game except I got over self chastisement years and years ago, and besides, I'm bailing, pulling the chute, bugging out, whatever you want to call it, early tonight. The NHL scouts all leave with 5-6 minutes left in the game because apparently nobody ever does anything that is more worth their while than beating the traffic with the, you know, GAME ON THE LINE. Tonight, I'm with them. I have to be right back here downtown by 9:30 tomorrow morning and it won't any picnic, either. That's because it's a parade. On Thanksgiving Day now, you have to battle parade traffic to get to the football game. When they played in Pontiac, that parade traffic, due largely to the fact that in affected only downtown Detroit, wasn't nearly as big a factor as it is now that both the parade and the game occur within a few blocks of each other. So, I'll see enough traffic tomorrow that I feel I can blow it off tonight. Besides, there are no live radio shows tomorrow that need tape from this game, so I don't need any post-game tape. I did bring my recorder in case somebody scored 6 goals or died or something big like that, but it is increasingly apparent that nothing big is happening tonight. So when I leave you hanging this evening, remember, it's for a good cause...
Less than three into the third Holmstrom gets his second PPG of the night to put Detroit up 3-2. He was alone in front and spun around at the top of the crease to plant his own rebound with a backhand. It doesn't matter how long your legs are, and Kiprusoff's are among the longest, when a guy like Holmstrom can extend his reach with a backhand like that and you are down in the butterfly, you are going to be scored upon.
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