Stanley Cup Playoffs thread

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Mon May 01, 2006 9:55 am

Feanor wrote:
Leebo33 wrote:Thanks for bringing this up. What was the deal with this call? When calls this horrid happen in other sports the conspiracy theories start flying and even people who claim not to watch that sport invade threads posting about how bad the call was. I'm really surprised it took this long for that call to be brought up.
When did Dick Bavetta learn to skate??

Bennett Salavatore taught him on one of their romantic winter weekends in New Hampshire....

Yeah ....Ive been watching the Sopranos...

ubrakto · Post by **ubrakto** » Mon May 01, 2006 1:25 pm

You know, I may not even watch the Wings game tonight. It'll be too depressing if they lose and if they win I'll just have to sweat through a Game 7 in a couple of days. Absolutley now upside for me to watch it whatsoever. I can't put to words how disappointing the Wings performance has been in this series. I was a huge believer in Legace heading into this season and this playoffs, and I know it's only five playoff starts for him, but he's just no rising to the occassion.

If he weren't recovering from a mysterious groin (or was it hernia?) injury I'd just as soon see Osgood out there. No, he probably wouldn't change the results, but at least he's got the playoff experience and contributed to winning a cup.
---Todd

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon May 01, 2006 1:31 pm

Safe to say, I'll be watching. And screaming. And freaking. And fretting. And hopefully celebrating.

I respect your position, Todd, but I don't understand it. If you're a fan, don't you support your team in good times and bad?

Take care,
PK

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon May 01, 2006 1:56 pm

pk500 wrote:Safe to say, I'll be watching. And screaming. And freaking. And fretting. And hopefully celebrating.

I respect your position, Todd, but I don't understand it. If you're a fan, don't you support your team in good times and bad?

Take care,
PK

I find a lot of you are just bandwagon fans. Great if your team wins, and lousy the next day when they lose. Hey that's the beauty of a 7 game series, right? Come on cheer on your team!

laurenskye · Post by **laurenskye** » Mon May 01, 2006 2:23 pm

ubrakto wrote:You know, I may not even watch the Wings game tonight. It'll be too depressing if they lose and if they win I'll just have to sweat through a Game 7 in a couple of days. Absolutley now upside for me to watch it whatsoever. I can't put to words how disappointing the Wings performance has been in this series. I was a huge believer in Legace heading into this season and this playoffs, and I know it's only five playoff starts for him, but he's just no rising to the occassion.

If he weren't recovering from a mysterious groin (or was it hernia?) injury I'd just as soon see Osgood out there. No, he probably wouldn't change the results, but at least he's got the playoff experience and contributed to winning a cup.
---Todd

You belong in L.A.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:21 pm

I'm another one who sometimes won't watch my team play in the playoffs if I think a loss will be too depressing to stomach. Some sports losses really stick with you and make you wish you had just read about them, not saw them live. Like the Aussie umpire cheating New Zealand out of a cricket test win against Australia in 1987. Almost 20 years ago and I'm still pissed! If only they had neutral umpires back then like they do now.

JackDiggity · Post by **JackDiggity** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:26 pm

ubrakto wrote:You know, I may not even watch the Wings game tonight. It'll be too depressing if they lose and if they win I'll just have to sweat through a Game 7 in a couple of days. Absolutley now upside for me to watch it whatsoever. I can't put to words how disappointing the Wings performance has been in this series. I was a huge believer in Legace heading into this season and this playoffs, and I know it's only five playoff starts for him, but he's just no rising to the occassion.

If he weren't recovering from a mysterious groin (or was it hernia?) injury I'd just as soon see Osgood out there. No, he probably wouldn't change the results, but at least he's got the playoff experience and contributed to winning a cup.
---Todd

f*** that!!! I am a fanatic of the Red Wings. I firmly believe they can still win this series. If not I will still be a fanatic and wait for the start of a new season like a kid waits for Christmas.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:39 pm

You guys are missing out. Part of what made the Penguins' Cups great for me where all the losing seasons and a few playoff failures. The Steelers Super Bowl victory was even sweeter given the recent failures in championship games. One of these days within my lifetime maybe even the painful memories of Sid Bream beating Barry Bonds' soft toss and two decades of losing will be washed away with one magical October.

ubrakto · Post by **ubrakto** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:58 pm

10spro wrote:
pk500 wrote:Safe to say, I'll be watching. And screaming. And freaking. And fretting. And hopefully celebrating.

I respect your position, Todd, but I don't understand it. If you're a fan, don't you support your team in good times and bad?

Take care,
PK
I find a lot of you are just bandwagon fans. Great if your team wins, and lousy the next day when they lose. Hey that's the beauty of a 7 game series, right? Come on cheer on your team!

Guys I have watched every single playoff game the Red Wings have played since 1995, except two games in the series loss to the Kings in 2001 during which I was getting married and on my honeymoon. On the day of my wedding I had people leaving the reception hall to go find out the score for me. My groomsman cake had a big giant Red Wing on it. I watched every game of the 4-game sweep loss to the Devils in 1995. I watched the 6-game series loss to the Avs in 1996 in which Claude Lemieux turned Kris Draper's face into jelly. I watched the premature exits in '99, 2000, 2003 and 2004, in which the team was among the league's elite in the regular season and couldn't manage to get past the firs or second rounds.

I watch the few Tiger games I'm able to see, not living in Michigan anymore, but I read the results in the paper every day, including every single recap of the 119 loss season of 2003. I've watched every single Lions game, save maybe four or five, since 1989, and that team has the worst record in the NFL dating back the last five years, and I've paid to see those games via Sunday Ticket. I watched what Pistons games I could, well before Joe Dumars turned them into winners (again, being out of market), and again, read every online recap the next day from freep.com and detnews.com. I am *NOT* a fair-weather fan.

The fact is I've seen this Wings script before. And frankly, both my wife and kids are happier when I don't watch some of these games because I'll be good and calm a period or two, but then there will be a bad call or a puck will clang off the pipes or the Wings will make a monumentally bad turnover that keeps them from clearing the zone during a penalty kill and 15 second later it will result in a goal and I'll just flat out f-ing lose it. I'll yell, I'll rant, I'll throw couch pillows, waking my family up from their late-night slumbers, and then I'll go to bed pissed off, wake up pissed off and genrally be pissed off for a couple days.

It ain't worth it. If they win, I'll tune in for Game 7, but all Game 6 has to offer me is a stay of execution or a frustrated meltdown of monumental proporitions as I contemplate the sheer insanity that is a President's Cup-winning team exiting the playoffs in the first goddam round. I don't need the frustration and my family doesn't need me waking up them up in the middle of night because I can't keep my trap shut a second longer.
---Todd

EDIT: And the truth is, I'll end up seeing at least some of tonight's game. I wont' be able to help myself. I'll tell myself I'm only going to flip between 24 and the Pistons and then I'll go to bed. But I'll have to know what's happening, and I'll flip to the game, see that it's close and then flip away. Then I'll flip back for a little longer before flipping away. And so on, and so on, and then the game will go to yet another goddam overtime and I won't be able to flip away anymore and that OT will go to another double-OT. Maybe even a triple-OT. At which point my heart will just explode in my chest and my kids will go to college off my life-insurance policy.

REDITED (off the charts looniest party of my ranting): My point? Just don't call call me a goddam fair-weather fan. I f***in hate those people and I absolutely will not be lumped in with that crowd without a response.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon May 01, 2006 4:25 pm

Then just watch the whole game. Why deny yourself the agony and possible ecstasy of being a fan? It's why we follow sports, isn't it?

Take care,
PK

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Mon May 01, 2006 4:30 pm

ubrakto: you're one passionate fan... I can see that. But maybe you need to figure out a better way to deal with it? Don't take this wrong... I just think you can be passionate without all the anger.

ubrakto · Post by **ubrakto** » Mon May 01, 2006 4:48 pm

PK - see below.

James, that's the ever-lov'n point. In certain circumstances, no, I can't. I have well-acknowledged anger-managment issues. (From a rant and raving perspective, not a Bobby Knight one.) It's why I don't contribute more to this place than the odd post here and there because it would just be me calling this person stupid or that person stupid and that's just not cool.

I've been watching this stuff since I was two and a half feet tall and my dad started taking me to Michigan football games and Tiger games at the corner of Michigan and Trumbell. I'm crazy passionate about all things Detroit sports (and U of M), as Abner will surely vouch for if he reads this thread. I live and breath this stuff, but I also have the temper from hell and sometimes the only way to manage it is not to put myself in a situation where I know I'm gonna flame out if things follow this familiar, and all-too predictable script.

I don't hate the Wings for it. I'll be pulling for them all night. I just can't watch it. If they start losing, I won't be able to sit still thinking about the missed opportunity, the fact that we may already have seen Yzerman's last go-round on the ice (it's a gametime decision, last I heard), the fact that so many brilliant regular-season performances from guys like Shanny and Pavel and even Legace, are going to mean squat. That tomorrow I'll flip to detnews.com and freep.com and hear the same old refrain from the Rob Parker and Drew Sharp and Mitch Albom about post-season failure and how the team should be blown up (which is pure bullsh#t).

If I don't watch it and sweat bullets through the whole game I can deal with all the aftermath stuff with a level head. But if I'm watching it unfold and the game goes south there's going to be a Todd-shaped whole in the wall of my house, Looney Tunes style. Me not tuning in tonight from the opening whistle is how I "deal with it."

---Todd

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Mon May 01, 2006 4:50 pm

Leebo33 wrote:You guys are missing out. Part of what made the Penguins' Cups great for me where all the losing seasons and a few playoff failures. The Steelers Super Bowl victory was even sweeter given the recent failures in championship games. One of these days within my lifetime maybe even the painful memories of Sid Bream beating Barry Bonds' soft toss and two decades of losing will be washed away with one magical October.

Exactly...All the losses make the victories all that much better....

Watching The Rams lose in the postseason in 74,75,76,77,78,79,80,83,84,85,88,89 and then be the worst team in the NFL 90-98 made that 99 SB so freaking sweet...

I wouldnt miss any of the losses though they are painful at the moment I kinda remember em with a strange sorta fondness later...Though I am still waiting to find something good about the loss to the Pats in 01...

ubrakto · Post by **ubrakto** » Mon May 01, 2006 5:12 pm

XXXIV - Do you really think I don't know that? To the extent that family events didn't conspire against me (was out of town to see parents and spending time with them during all but the OT periods of Game 1 and my son's first birthday paryt was during the game on Saturday) I've watched every bit of this series I could. Yes, losing makes you appreciate the winning; hell I was a weepy mess when I watched The Captain hoist the cup in 1997, and I was a weepy, sloppy mess when they wheeled Vladdy onto the ice to hold the cup in 1998. But me not watching one Game 6 elimination game because I know what losing will do to me isn't a cop out.

Not to mention, watching football playoff failures just isn't the same thing. As a Lions fan, I know. That's one game and out. You watch the one game, you get angry or sad or whatever for a few days and then you start thinking about the draft and next season. It's ripping the band-aid off your skin instead of going all slow and painful. Hockey, basketball and baeball and their best of seven series are a grind. Your hopes for the championship aren't just dealt a swift crushing stroke, they're piled on a little bit by little bit. Just another brick in the wall.

If this thing goes to Game 7 I will be tuned-in from the opening whistle. What I'm talking about, and getting lampooned for here, is avoiding one game, in which there's very little for me to gain personally from watching it and everything to lose. I don't ask for people to get it. You all don't really know me and I understand that. What I'm reacting to is the fair-weather fan comments. I understand why what I wrote could generate that impression, but it's just not even close to reality. I can live with a lot of things in terms of how I'm perceived, but I absolutely will not be called a fair-weather fan of Detroit sports and not respond to that. (Obviously.)
---Todd

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Mon May 01, 2006 7:08 pm

ubrakto wrote:If this thing goes to Game 7 I will be tuned-in from the opening whistle. What I'm talking about, and getting lampooned for here, is avoiding one game, in which there's very little for me to gain personally from watching it and everything to lose. I don't ask for people to get it.

I'm with you 100%, man. You're not a bad fan for not wanting to watch a game where a win would just force game 7 and a loss will be a complete f**king disaster. The only thing I'd say to you is that if the Red Wings do lose tonight you can always think back to their three recent Cup victories. I'm a big fan of the Suns, the Flyers, the All Blacks and the New Zealand cricket team so the last time one of my teams won an important trophy was 1987.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Mon May 01, 2006 7:39 pm

ubrakto wrote:XXXIV - Do you really think I don't know that? .)
---Todd

I was replying to Leebos post ...Im sure you know that...

I have a friend that is both a Cubs and White Sox fan and he wont watch the games when their opponents are batting as it stresses him out...He cant stand to see the other teams score...So obviously it doesnt make him any less of a fan...

We all have different ways of looking at things and different ways of doing them...

laurenskye · Post by **laurenskye** » Mon May 01, 2006 8:03 pm

holy crap are you guys watching this pregame. Brent ghilcrest taking shots in the groin and Shannahan saying they can hear him screaming 5 rooms down. then he kept playing until the muscle just seperated from the bone. Good god, kinda makes those other sports athletes that can't play with a hang nail look like major pussies.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Mon May 01, 2006 8:05 pm

laurenskye wrote:holy crap are you guys watching this pregame. Brent ghilcrest taking shots in the groin and Shannahan saying they can hear him screaming 5 rooms down. then he kept playing until the muscle just seperated from the bone. Good god, kinda makes those other sports athletes that can't play with a hang nail look like major pussies.

Saw it...I think its out on DVD...The History of the Stanley Cup or something like that...Great stories and images...Leary was the perfect host.

Gangrel · Post by **Gangrel** » Mon May 01, 2006 8:33 pm

Go, OIl, Go.

I will shortly be adorned in my Oilers Jersey, and have a Keith's in hand.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon May 01, 2006 10:15 pm

Now I thought that was a dirty hit by Peca and Manny is letting the chants get to him...

Sudz · Post by **Sudz** » Mon May 01, 2006 10:34 pm

u see that PK?

go OIL!

HipE · Post by **HipE** » Mon May 01, 2006 10:47 pm

HEMSKY!

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon May 01, 2006 10:47 pm

By far the best game of the series. Good win Oil. I feel for Stevie Y.

Sudz · Post by **Sudz** » Mon May 01, 2006 10:50 pm

AWESOME COMEBACK!!!

GameSeven · Post by **GameSeven** » Mon May 01, 2006 10:50 pm

WoW!

Grats on the comeback Oil fans... PK, are you still breathing?

Wings fans, shame the season closed the way it did. As a Devils fan, I admire the successes over the past decade shared between the Devils in the east and the Wings in the west. Better luck next year.

-G7