It's a long walk to the Red Wings locker room at the farthest end of the arena tunnel, past the storage areas and the electrical wires, and past the benches where the players' wives sit and wait for their husbands.
So this is how you make history. You wait until after the midnight hour, double overtime, when the voices are gone and even the sweat glands are exhausted, then send a young Russian -- whose last name is easier to pronounce than his first -- charging down the ice, have him wind up and fire and . . . bingo! With a game so exhausting it took two days to play, the Detroit Red Wings finally jumped the moat and are outside the castle, banging on the door with an octopus.Knock, knock, Stanley.Guess who's coming for dinner?
CHICAGO -- As someone once said, if you're going to lose a game by forgetting your style, getting slammed on the boards, misplacing your scoring touch, half-hearting your defense, and generally lacking the speed, strength and desire that brought you your success, you might as well do it when you're up three games to none.
CHICAGO -- Here's one good reason the Blackhawks do not deserve to win this playoff series. They build this gorgeous new arena, and they don't have any seats for the Red Wings.I'm not kidding. It was a few minutes before Game 3, and I happened to pass Mark Howe, Martin Lapointe and several other scratched Detroit players wandering up in the press box, dressed in suits and ties, their hands in their pockets, like kids waiting for their moms in church."What's doing?" I said."No place for us," Lapointe said, glumly.
He remembers his goals. Both of them. You ask Kris Draper if he can describe the two times he scored during the regular season and he gushes, "Oh, yes, of course. . . . You want me to describe my assists, too?"
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.