Monday, April 18, 2011

For Wings Fans Only...



Interesting vid, that.  FWIW... I labored through the lean years as a Wings fan, coming to the party in 1985 and leaving it... physically... when I moved from Detroit to Rochester, NY in 1996.  True to form, the Wings won their first Cup in 40-something years the next season, and I had to watch it on teevee.  Worse, one of my BEST friends had to send me pictures of her and her honey at a local dive-bar (one of my FAVORITE watering holes) drinking from the Cup while we were stuck in Ra-cha-cha.  (Sigh)

No matter.  We remain a fan of the Winged Wheel, wherever I might find myself.  Which is not to say there haven't been glorious moments in the interim, like that night in SFO in 2002 when the Wings eliminated the Once-Hated Avalanche (now I feel only pity for a once great club fallen on hard times) in Game Seven of the Western Conference Finals and went on to take the Cup.  The BEST moment of that playoff year?  Sitting in a sports bar in SFO with other Wings expats while watching a beleaguered Avs fan rip off his Patrick Roy jersey and stomp it when the horn sounded to end Game Seven of the Western Conference Finals.  The Wings won and were off to the SCF... everything after that moment was anti-climatic.

So here we are... about three hours from face-off of Game Three, and here I am... hanging on every moment.  God, but I LOVE this time o' year!

H/t for the vid: the inimitable Kukla's Korner.

6 comments:

  1. Totally off topic here but I thought you might enjoy this, Buck:

    http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2009/07/babysans-world-rip-bill-hume.html

    Mr. Hume would've been a good wing man for your Japanese adventures.

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  2. Your hockey enthusiasm is almost catching.

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  3. The Bruins still live!

    If you have not seen it:

    http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/29/sports/MASKS.html

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  4. The Wings may be one of the few non-NorCal pro teams that get any attention in our house. That is because there was no real hockey before about '92 in NorCal and Grandma Skip's from almost Detroit. The brothers-in-law are fans and they can't quite understand why I don't get upset when the Sharks don't advance. Probably it is for the same reason A's losses don't bother me. They're relative newcomers. It must have something to do with growing up with the team?

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  5. Moogie: Yup... the playoffs have been VERY good!

    Anon: Thanks for the Hume link. His stuff was still circulating among the troops when I first went to Japan back in '68, believe it or don't. It was GREAT to see it again!

    Lou: You know me: I'm a hockey missionary... trying to bring truth and beauty to heathens. ;-)

    JR: Thanks for that mask link... there's some seriously good work there!

    The brothers-in-law are fans and they can't quite understand why I don't get upset when the Sharks don't advance.

    I get a SERIOUS attack of schadenfreude when the Sharks go out, that's because of what they did to us in the first round of the '94 playoffs. I tend to hold a grudge. ;-)

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.