Thanks! (And Let's Watch the Red Wings and the Coyotes)

First off (and off topic) thanks to everyone for their kind words and congratulations regarding my daughter and her academic scholarship.  A full ride at a 4-year university with a Division I basketball program for academics?  Way to go, kiddo.  Way to go.  And again, thanks to everyone for their kind words.

The Red Wings, seeking their 13th straight win at home, are flat-out kicking the snot out of tonight's opponent, the woeful Phoenix Coyotes.  Which would mean more than it does if the Wings weren't actually losing the game.  Which they are, 1-0 as a moment ago Radim Vrbata rifled a wrister over the right (stick) shoulder of newly-minted Detroit All-Star goalie Jimmy Howard.  Other than that, the Wings have been all over 'em.

8pm:  For the record, as Detroit looks to extend the old home ice win streak tonight, we note that the Wings team record for Most Consecutive Home Wins is 14.  They accomplished this feat 46 years ago between January 21 and March 25, 1965.  The streak ended when Toronto beat the Wings at Olympia 4-0 in the regular season finale.  In a cruel irony, the Wings that season, after winning regular season championship, lost to Chicago in the first round of the playoffs (there were only two rounds in the playoffs back in those Original Six days, as you know) when the Blackhawks defeated them in game 7--in Detroit.  It was the only home-ice loss for the Wings in the 1965 Stanley Cup playoffs and it was one too many.

Trivia: Who was the Wings leading scorer in that 1964-65 season?  (The answer later if I remember to post it...)

The period is over and I pissed off a couple of Coyotes.  I was a little mad at myself for getting caught in the mens room trying to beat the intermission run on the bathroom when the Wings tied the score 19:09--Valtteri Filppula, unassisted--and when I stepped out of the bathroom they were showing the replay and I blurted out (which is something, blurting, that I usually don't do) "Who the hell is #53?"  He was the Phoenix D-man who was standing there reaching halfheartedly (or half-some other body part) with his stick as Filppula fired.  I forgot that visiting players not dressed for the game sit in the section of the pressbox where I spoke up and one of them asked me, "Why, what do you think he did?"  I said, "I think he didn't block the shot."  Which he didn't.  He just stood there, looking terrible.  The player nodded at me but I think a couple of those guys were annoyed with me.  Add this to the fact that chances are good they were in foul humor to begin with what with the being healthy scratches and all, and now they are mad at me and thus I cannot, not matter how dire matters may be or may become, go back to the bathroom again until the game is over and they have left.  I'm going to cut back on the Diet Cokes (they don't work, anyway) and hope for a well-played, uh, efficient hockey game.  After One: Detroit 1, Phoenix 1.


I'm writing hurt tonight, I'll have you know.  All to keep you up to date with the latest info from here at the Joe Louis Sports Arena.  I decided that calling a high school game last night (Rochester United 3, Farmington Hills 2 for those of you who track these things), wasn't enough in the way of preparation for watching an actual NHL game, so I went out this afternoon and played some hockey myself.   It surprises some people that I still do that, but I do.  In fact, a while back somebody asked me if I was a retired person and I laughed and thought to myself, come on out to the Oak Park Ice Arena some Tuesday or Thursday and I'll show you how retired I am..."  Anyway, today, in addition to the usual office workers, policemen and firefighters with whom I play, some ringer who I was later told played pro in the NY Rangers system either in the American or East Coast Leagues, who knows, ripped a shot right from inside the rim of the circle to my left, right off my funny bone.  I mean, it was a blast.  I mentioned the guy played pro, didn't I?  Those guys can really bring it.  And he did.  I was pleased to have made the save (I forgot to mention that I'm a goalie, didn't I?) for about a nano-second before the pain came and I spent the rest of the game just trying to hold onto my goalie stick without much of any feeling at all in my hand since my entire arm went numb.  Right now, my elbow looks like a plum has been surgically implanted just under the skin.   It wasn't a league game or something; just a little drop-in. Why didn't I just let it go in?  Those words, "Why didn't you just let it go in?" are the best hockey advice I ever got.  I was showing the Red Wings trainer a bruise I gotten from some other slapshot in some other time and he was so impressed he called on some of the Wings themselves to join me in the Medical Room to inspect the damage.  It was nasty. I'd gone into the butterfly position (down on the ice, pads spread as wide as you can) and the shot hit me on the inside of my thigh and the resulting contusion had to be a foot and a half in diameter.  Mike Vernon, the Wings goalie at the time, looked at it, then he looked at me and said oh-so-matter-of-factly, "Why didn't you just let it go in?"

As I reminisce, the second period has concluded.  There was no scoring, although Cory Emmerton hit the post which flat on the ice which I am sure will be a highlight as it was The Best Play I've Seen Not Resulting in a Goal in weeks, and so it is still tied here after 40.  After Two: Detroit 1, Phoenix 1.


An hour after it was scored, they have added an assist on the Detroit goal by Filppula.  They gave it to Ian White.  I said, "May I have an assist, too?  It would be my first NHL point."  Hey, you at least have to ask!

9:25: I'd better give you the answer to Tonight's Trivia Challenge (who led the Wings in scoring the year they set a team record which still stands with 14 straight wins at home) pretty quick since it now appears that the Wings are going to screw this thing up, lose and see their 12-game home win streak end as Taylor Pyatt has just scored to give Phoenix a 2-1 lead at 3:02 of this here third period.  So, here you go:  Norm Ullman with 83 points.  Bonus points if you know that his 42 goals led that NHL in '64-'65.  More than Bobby Hull or Jean Beliveau or Gordie Howe or any of them.

9:36 Johan Franzen, in the greatest moment in hockey since Henderson scored to beat the Soviets in '72, has just scored to tie the game 2-2 at 10:03.  Goose bumps are everywhere as we move into the last half of the last period of the epic battle which rages on the pure white ice below.  Hey, I'm just trying to capture the flavor of the thing.

9:45 Well, you know how this goes.  I have to shut this thing down now and get to the room for post game comments, such that they are or may be.  Thanks for reading!