TO KEEP LIDSTROM, I’D MOVE MOUNTAINS

We Can All Be Proud Of How Red Wings Wore The Crown

by | May 20, 1999 | Detroit Free Press

ISHOULD SAY, from the start of this particular column, that it is not for outsiders. If you aren’t from Michigan, you probably won’t get it.

And if you’re not a hockey fan, you probably won’t get it.

And if you’re a journalistic wise guy, one who thinks the only good use of newspaper space is critical and negative use of newspaper space, then you, too, will probably not get it.

But most of you will. Because most of you saw what I saw these past few years, a hockey team that lifted the level of expectations in this city and then, remarkably, exceeded them.

TO KEEP LIDSTROM, I’D MOVE MOUNTAINS

So Long, Stanleyanaheim Ousts Cup Champions From Playoffs In 4 Straight

by | May 19, 1999 | Detroit Free Press

ANAHEIM, Calif. — And that’s that.

No repeat title. No championship parade. No Colorado or Dallas. No May. No June. No anything, really — which is what happens when you suffer the biggest no of all: no wins.

Four times the Red Wings took their pride and power onto the ice against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, a team with a laughable name and a nonexistent tradition, and four times they skated off humbled. Wednesday night was the final indignity, a night when the Wings vowed they would show what they were about.

TO KEEP LIDSTROM, I’D MOVE MOUNTAINS

On Guns, We’Re Closed Minded

by | May 16, 1999 | Detroit Free Press

First, I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I vote for people, not parties.

Second, I am neither a liberal nor a conservative. I worry about people, not ideology.

Third, I am not a gun owner.

Ah. Changes things, doesn’t it? I was safe on the first two, a common-sense type of guy. But as soon as I wrote that third item, some of you said,
“Friend,” and others said, “Enemy.”

TO KEEP LIDSTROM, I’D MOVE MOUNTAINS

Hoop Fates Intertwined For Hill And Dumars

by | May 15, 1999 | Detroit Free Press

IT WAS THE game he had to play in the game they had to have. Superstars don’t deliver every night, but they do when they must, or they’re not superstars for long. Grant Hill pushed the curtain aside Friday night and did what you’re supposed to do when your whole business is watching. Took the night over.

TO KEEP LIDSTROM, I’D MOVE MOUNTAINS

Victories Aren’T Supposed To Be Easy, After All

by | May 14, 1999 | Detroit Free Press

THE CZECH rookie had been having a pretty lousy time in Detroit. Fifteen seconds into Tuesday’s Game 3, he was slammed into the wall by Detroit’s Kris Draper and went flipping over, landing in the laps of his teammates. How embarrassing.

Then, early Thursday night, he was upended by Draper once more, landing on his back like a kid who falls out of the top bunk.

TO KEEP LIDSTROM, I’D MOVE MOUNTAINS

A Different Team Played The Palace

by | May 13, 1999 | Detroit Free Press

AN OBVIOUS question: Who were these guys?

These couldn’t have been the same Pistons who crawled under the tires of the Atlanta Hawks the previous two playoff games. The crushed-by-Mt. Mutombo Pistons? The can’t-break-70-point Pistons? Where’d they go? Who were these guys?

Who was this Lindsey Hunter? Not the Lindsey Hunter from Games 1 and 2. That Lindsey Hunter couldn’t buy a basket and couldn’t finish a play. That Lindsey Hunter heard his father call him up after Game 2 and say, in so many words,
“You were terrible.” And that was his father!