by Mitch Albom | Jun 4, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
There’s a buzz that Pavel Datsyuk might return to the ice tonight. Good. He can bring an oxygen tank for Henrik Zetterberg.
No one has felt Datsyuk’s absence more than Zetterberg, who is left to be 1) the blanket over Sidney Crosby, 2) the magic man of playmaking, 3) an integral part of the power play and penalty kill and 4) the inspirational youthful leader in the locker room.
After that, he cures world hunger.
I’m surprised he hasn’t changed it to Zzzzzzzzetterberg.
“Hey,” he said, laughing Wednesday, “I’m just happy to get the ice time.”
by Mitch Albom | Jun 1, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
The two flashiest players in these Stanley Cup finals are conspicuous by their absence. But only one of them, Pavel Datsyuk, is in street clothes. The other one is actually wearing skates, although compared to the way he usually plays, you’d never know it.
by Mitch Albom | May 31, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
That’s the way the puckie bounces Â
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around here.
What? You never heard of the famous shoot-it-off-the-boards-and-let-it-trickle-off-the back-of-the-goaltender shot? We use it all the time in Detroit. None of us was surprised when Brad Stuart scored the first goal of the Stanley Cup finals with that old chestnut.
What? You never heard of the shoot-it-off-the-boards-and-backhand-it-lightly-so-it-scrapes-off-the-goalie’s-leg maneuver? Of course Johan Franzen scored the second goal that way. We have fifth-graders who know that move.
by Mitch Albom | May 22, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
There is only one hockey player when you want to compare Detroit and Chicago – as sports towns, as food towns, as bar towns, and as hockey towns – and you know who he is.
Chris Chelios, 47, was born in Chicago and played nine years as a Blackhawk. He now lives in Detroit, where he has played 10 years as a Red Wing. He is the son of a Chicago restaurant owner; and Chelios now owns two restaurants of his own – in Detroit and Dearborn.
He has eaten pizza in both towns, drank beer in both towns, done the late-night thing in both towns, and been cheered and booed in both towns.
by Mitch Albom | May 18, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
You can’t blame the Red Wings for falling behind in the opening minutes Sunday afternoon. It takes awhile to put your teeth in, slide the orthopedic shoes on and get the walker out of the closet.
"With our legs, because we’re so old, like everybody says, you gotta loosen up in the morning," deadpanned Chris Osgood. "And we didn’t get a chance to do that."
He chuckled.
Then he put in his hearing aid.
by Mitch Albom | May 17, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
It’s a good thing the Red Wings have a game today. Otherwise, Dan Cleary’s skates might never touch the ground.
Several days after the toughest series many of the Wings can remember, Cleary still is flying from being the man who scored the final goal. Actually, he shoved, poked and jammed that puck under Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller with 3 minutes left in Game 7. He didn’t even see it cross the line.
“I got pushed back and was falling,” he said. “But I knew it went in from the noise.”
by Mitch Albom | May 14, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
When it comes to one funny bounce – and it has.
When it comes to one weird deflection – and it has.
When it comes to one ricochet, one shove, one screen, one stray skate blade, one well-positioned stick, one churning body, one annoying pest in front of the net – and it has.
When it comes to all of this – and with Game 7, it surely has – I’d look to Tomas Holmstrom.
If I could find him.
by Mitch Albom | May 11, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Long before the empty-net goal by Henrik Zetterberg, long before Darren Helm saw his espresso energy pay off with a red light, long before Pavel Datsyuk amazed everyone with a puck flip over the net as if he were tossing a pizza, long before Jiri Hudler bunted the puck over the goalie’s shoulder into the net – yes, bunted, in mid-air, I’m not getting my sports mixed up – long before all that drama and exhaustion and waiting and nail-biting and cheering and music and fireball explosions, long before all that Â
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there was Johan Franzen.
by Mitch Albom | May 4, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
In the sixth period of a three-period sport, anything can happen. Players are dog tired. Eyes are blurring. Legs are as heavy as soaked trees. The body doesn’t want to bend. Going over the boards feels like someone raised the wall a few feet.
by Mitch Albom | May 1, 2009 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
"Is it the nose?"
"No comment," Kris Draper says.
"The neck?"
"No comment."
"It’s above the waist, right?"
"Yeah."
"The elbow? The lower lip? The upper lip?"
"No comment," he says, laughing.
It’s nice to hear him laugh. He hasn’t laughed much lately. About three weeks ago, Draper suffered some freak injury that the Wings will only identify as "upper body." He hasn’t played since.
