A Blast From the Past. Literally.

Here’s a great lil story about Bob Probert…one of my past heroes (until he got busted for transporting cocaine in his underwear from Windsor into Detroit…but that’s another story altogether).

Bob Probert, the former Detroit Red Wing and Chicago Blackhawk from Windsor, returned home Monday after joining a group of National Hockey League alumni on a tour to visit Canadian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

While there, he got an up close and personal view of what Canada's fighting best deal with on a daily basis.

"Our second night in Kandahar, they took us over to see the spy planes," Probert said. "We were in the one of the rooms getting briefed on the spy planes and all of a sudden the sirens start going off."

"They came in an escorted us right to the bomb shelter. The bunker, they called it."

While there, Probert looked around at his fellow retired NHLers and spied Dan Daoust, Mike Pelyk, Lou Franceschetti, Dave Hutchison, Dave (Tiger) Williams and Kevin Maguire, all of them former Toronto Maple Leafs and decided to add a little levity to a tense situation.

"I said, 'Apparently, they found out the Maple Leafs were here,'" Probert said. "That didn't go over too well."

As for the missiles, they missed their target.

Good on Probie. And I’ll bet those ex-Leafs kept their peace when Probert cracked wise about the Leafs being in Kandahar. There’s one thing you DIDN’T do back in the day, and that’s piss Probert off. I’ll give you a dollar to a donut that it’s still true. Why?

There was absolutely, positively no one, and I mean NO ONE, who could best Probert back in the day when he was known as The Heavyweight Champion of the NHL. I’ll quote the Wiki:

Probert will always be remembered as one of the NHL's toughest players, and many enforcers considered him the toughest and most feared fighter in the NHL.^[1] Several web sites, such as Hockeyfights.com, chronicle his long list of fights with other league enforcers. He saw it as his job to protect his teammates, especially Detroit captain Steve Yzerman. In a recent news story, he recalled a time that he sucker-punched enforcer Kevin Maguire of the Buffalo Sabres while Maguire was fighting with Yzerman.^[7]

Some fights in Probert's career:^[5]

· Two long fights with Craig Coxe of the Vancouver Canucks in the mid-1980s.

· A career-spanning series of battles with Tie Domi of the New York Rangers and other teams.

· A memorable fight on December 17, 1993 with former teammate Joe Kocur of the Rangers, during a brawl involving several players from both teams. Probert and Kocur had grabbed the nearest opposing player without realizing who it was, and continued trading punches even after they identified each other.

· A fight on February 4, 1994, against Marty McSorley, then of the Pittsburgh Penguins, lasting nearly 100 full seconds.

In his career, Probert took part in many other classic hockey fights against noted enforcers such as Todd Ewen, Troy Crowder, Tony Twist, Donald Brashear, Stu "The Grim Reaper" Grimson, Bob McGill, Dave Semenko, and "Big" Jay Caufield.

It would have broken my heart to watch Probert and Kocur mix it up. Those guys were known as “The Bruise Brothers,” back in the day when they were Detroit’s top enforcers. And what memorable days those were… Nobody ran the Wings’ stars in those days. The price to be paid for that was simply too frickin’ high.

But. It’s good to see Probert has grown up a bit and that he’s giving back. As for me, IF I were still in the Air Force, and IF I were in Afghanistan, I’d have been pissed to find out Probie was visiting the Canadian troops and not us fans from Detroit. And believe me, Probert had legions of fans in Detroit. Just sayin’.

Shocker

Bob Probert... Number 24... retired Red Wings tough guy and one of the NHL's all time great enforcers... dead at 45.  From the Detroit Free Press:

The news of Probert’s passing was especially sad for senior vice president Jimmy Devellano, who drafted Probert in 1983.

“It’s very sad, very, very sad,” Devellano said. “He was a pretty popular player in Detroit in the '80s, and certainly one tough guy with a lot of ability. But unfortunately we never got 100% out of him because of his off-ice problems.”

Probert was 45, and leaves behind a wife and four children.

Probie was one of my earliest hockey heroes and I've posted about him... or at least mentioned him... many times in the past.  His premature passing shocks EVERY Red Wings fan.

RIP, 24.  Thanks for the memories.

Hump Day. Yet Again.

An interesting thought posted by Erick at RedState:

Tonight was not a failure of conservatism, but a triumph of military voters who have made their home in the Republican Party because we are the party of a strong national defense.

In both South Carolina and Florida, they won it for McCain. In the grand coalition of the GOP, we've talked about social conservatives and fiscal conservatives. We've all ignored the military voters, except John McCain. And he won them big. His message resonated.

And the man still has an +80% conservative rating. I shed no tears.

That may, in fact, be true. It’s just that a “military vote” isn’t widely discussed, although it is mentioned from time to time. I remember hearing Fox News analysts invoking the fact that SC has the largest numbers of military retirees in the country and the polling (such as it is) indicated they were breaking for McCain. I heard the same sorts of comments about voters in the Tampa area, which also has a large number of military retirees and active-duty types. Not mentioned on any broadcast I saw was the Florida panhandle, which also has a large military and retired military population…think Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, and Destin. BIG military presence. So this could very well be true.

Strange, for a country with so few people who actually serve in the military these days. But, that wasn’t always so and there are a lot of former military folks from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s still around. That and the fact us retirees tend to live a lot longer these days. And we tend to vote Republican, although there are exceptions to each and every rule.

Old Farts are like that. See also Sir Churchill, Winston…False Attributions Dept.

―:☺:―

Truth:

Detroit Red Wings defenceman Brett Lebda lay in a heap on the ice, propelled head-first into the boards by a check from behind delivered by St. Louis Blues winger Ville Nieminen.

The incident occurred late last season and though Nieminen was ejected from the game and later suspended, in old-school fashion, he wasn't forced to answer for his crime within the arena.

In the press box, former Blues tough guy and current team radio analyst Kelly Chase scowled.

"When I played, I didn't have to call (National Hockey League commissioner) Gary Bettman to find out what the punishment was for running a guy from behind in Detroit," Chase said. "The punishment was (Bob) Probert and (Joe) Kocur." According to popular logic, the reason why this form of capital punishment is no longer delivered is the instigator rule.

Bob Probert and Joey Kocur, aka “The Bruise Brothers,” were mythic sports heroes in Detroit back when I became a hockey fan (that would be 1985, Gentle Reader). And “mythic” ain’t hyperbole in the least. Even I considered building an altar in my basement to these guys. I’m only half-kidding. Twenty years on the Bruise Brothers are still revered in Detroit and just across the river in Windsor, Ontario, where Probert lives today. And in certain parts of New Mexico, I should add.

I’ve written about Probert before, and probably should devote a post to Joey, as well. After all, Joey came back to the Red Wings and played on two of three Stanley Cup-winning teams of the recent era, most notably the ‘96 – ‘97 season, when Joey was signed as a free agent just before the play-offs began. Prior to the signing Kocur had been playing hockey in a seniors league in suburban Detroit. A seniors league! How’s that for a comeback, eh?

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: “Why I Love Japan.” Beer. In vending machines. On the street, unattended, 7x24x365. You pays your yen, you makes your choice. Note the Budweiser in the Suntory machine. I’ll have a Kirin, thankyouverymuch. Or I’ll walk down the block and find a Sapporo machine. There’s another beer machine in the second pic, lurking behind that pole on the right.

December, 1991. The Second Mrs. Pennington and I spent Christmas with friends in Japan that year, on our way home from Beijing. This street is near the apartment of TSMP’s girlfriend Junko. That’s the girl TSMP raised Hell with during her senior year in high school, and continued raising Hell with in the years to follow…although Junko became a married lady (with children!) and wasn’t into the Hell-raising biz all that much after becoming a mom. It happens like that.

Odds and Ends

Q: What does this…

…have in common with this?

A: There were 295 of the latter in the hold of the former when it nearly capsized off the coast of Alaska in July of last year.

Mazda has decided to scrap all 4,703 cars on the Cougar Ace cargo ship that nearly capsized off the coast of Alaska in July.

Although some of the cars appeared to be undamaged despite spending nearly a month tied down at severe angles, the automaker felt that the risk of future problems and the public relations fiasco that would follow was too great.

Bargain hunters were hoping that Mazda would decide to sell some of the undamaged cars at cut-rate prices.

The total bodycount: 2,475 Mazda3s (pictured) (ed: not.), 329 Mazda3 five-doors, 56 Mazda5s, 1,329 CX-7s, 214 RX-8s, 5 MazdaSpeed6s and 295 Miatas.

Scrapping 295 brand new Miatas. Right out of the box, so to speak. That’s almost enough to make a grown man cry. A grown man who’d like a new Miata, that is.

I’m sure more than a few grown men in Hiroshima burst into tears when they heard the news about the MV Cougar Ace. Losing nearly five thousand cars is a substantial hit to the bottom line…and that’s enough to make a grown man cry.

(source: Motor Trend blog)

I have no idea why memeorandum decided to dignify this post by including a link on this morning’s page, other than to illustrate just how frickin’ idiotic some of us are. This time Cheney is gonna blow up the Bay Bridge in SFO.

There has been a lot of threats of terrorist attacks coming form the government. Looks like they are preparing the public. Or else it could be their usual scare tactics.

On the other hand, Bush’s term is coming to an end. The public is pushing to ban voting machines. The power of the Bush administration is deteriorating with major figures resigning, almost daily scandals on the news and constant threat of impeachment. Their only weapon is fear, it’s their last hope. I can see them really desperately needing a terrorist attack in the near future. 911 did them a great deal of good. 911 was, of course, the work of the Bush administration, the Pentagon, and others connected tightly to the Bush administration. Osama had no authority to put the US Airforce on stand down. He would have never been able to rig the World Trade Center with explosives. If you still have doubts about 911 please watch Loose Change at www.loosechange911.com (ed: link removed)

[...]

So, the Bay Bridge is between a rock and a hard place. It would be very easy to imagine an investigation being made impossible if the bridge did get blown up by so called “terrorists.”

Having said all this I would like to hope that I am wrong, that it is indeed a legitimate bridge repair work. But if the bridge does get blown up in the near future don’t buy the “terrorist” story! Investigate, document, take pictures, samples of soil, water, anything and don’t let them institute marshal (sic) law or sign Patriot Act 3!

If you plan on driving across the bridge tomorrow or any time soon, please, bring a camera, still camera, video camera, film the top of the bridge while driving. You can take it home and play it frame by frame. If you get slowed down in traffic look up at the ceiling, take pictures, examine later. Look for boxes with explosives, look for anything suspicious. Email me any suspicious evidence: uncensored911@yahoo.com Post articles on Indymedia. The more we publicize it the less chance that they will have the nerve to do it.

Sheesh. This “Gypsy” person is seriously unhinged. I mean…seriously out of touch. And…Loose Change? That same Loose Change movie (and its idiot producers) that was completely and totally discredited by that History Channel program a couple of weeks ago? Oh, never mind.

It must really suck to be “Gypsy.” I mean, just how much eye-rolling can one person take when you walk into a room, ANY room?

Cannon will get a squadron of special tactics operators, as in combat air controllers and para-rescuemen, in addition to the expected C-130s of various flavors and CV-22s.

Cannon Air Force Base’s transition from a fighter wing to a special operations wing will include a special tactics squadron comprised of about 100 people, according to retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Hanson Scott.

[…]

The squadron will consist of about 50 support and 50 operational personnel. Its job is to secure landing zones for aircraft in hostile territories, Scott said.

“They’re air traffic controllers and combat-capable guys that come, jump in and control traffic and set up drop zones or landing zones for special ops aircraft,” he said. “They have all the combat skills, and they’re all air traffic controllers.”

The squadron will also consist of pararescue airmen, which is a legacy of the combat-rescue Air Force.

[…]

New aircraft coming to Cannon
24 Unmanned Air Surveillance Predators — 2008
12 MC-130W’s — 2008
10 MC-130P’s — 2008-2009
8 MC-130H Combat Talons — 2008-2009
8 AC-130H Gunships — 2009-2010
20 CV-22s — 2010-2011

The information about the Predators conflicts with earlier reports, which stated only the operations personnel would be located at Cannon; a decision had not been made to relocate the actual Predator aircraft to Cannon from Nellis AFB, Nevada.

I think there’s only one person who reads EIP (besides YrHmblScrb) who will find this of more than passing interest:

Meeting his favourite hockey players has been on Tim Johnson's wish list since he was a kid.

He never imagined that wish would come true in the Afghan desert, amid insurgent attacks and grenades flying overhead.

For the 26-year-old corporal, meeting Bob Probert, the former Detroit Red Wing and Chicago Blackhawk from Windsor, was one of the highlights of his six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, otherwise marked by dangerous missions, sleepless nights and tragic losses of comrades and friends.

[…]

Johnson first met Probert when the retired player joined a group of National Hockey League alumni on a tour to visit Canadian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan in late April. Dan Daoust, Mike Pelyk, Dave Hutchison and Dave (Tiger) Williams also made the trip, among others. So did the Stanley Cup.

Probert did not forget Johnson. He attended Sunday's party to welcome him back to the area and wish him well.

"It's amazing what (the soldiers) go through," Probert said. "It was great to go and see that for myself. They just invited me to go back, so I'm looking forward to that."

Good for Probie. It’s very, very pleasing to see him doing good, looking good, and (as far as I know) being good. Frequent readers know that Bob Probert is one of my heroes.

(Photograph by : Nick Brancaccio, The Windsor Star)

Game Two

“Colorado coach Joel Quenneville, center, and the Avalanche look glum on their bench after Johan Franzen scored his third goal of the game, making it 5-1 and sealing the victory.”
(Detroit News photo and caption.)

Yesterday:

The gloves hit the ice, albeit delicately, and the Joe Louis Arena crowd practically jumped to the roof.

Darren McCarty and Colorado's Cody McCormick engaged in the old hockey warrior's tribal dance -- slowly circling, then gradually moving toward each other, one tempting the other with the question all have waited to be asked in this young series.

Do you want to go?

But in the new NHL, you must first politely request a skirmish with your potential adversary.

"I had to ask him again," McCarty said. "Are you sure? Then let's go."

The pair staged a pugilistic throwback Saturday, reminding us that although the majority of names have changed on the sweaters, there remains an inner hostility when it's the Wings and Colorado on the ice in the playoffs.

The Wings are forcing the fight, applying relentless pressure on the Avalanche and precipitating an avalanche of rapidly falling Colorado intensity and discipline. The Avs already are gasping for breath, and they're a mile down at sea level.

The Wings assumed a 2-0 series lead with their 5-1 win.

But because it's the Stanley Cup playoffs where momentum change is often one unfortunate bounce away, everyone must resist the urge to immediately take a shovel to the Avalanche's chances of making this an interesting series.

The Avs are beaten down physically and mentally. But wasn't Nashville as well two games into the last series?

[…]

Franzen has been this series' star with five goals in two games, including the Wings' first playoff hat trick since McCarty did it six years ago against the Avalanche in the conference finals.

"That's pretty cool," said McCarty, told he had the previous hat trick. "But (Franzen's) caught me now, so that means I've got to do it again."

McCarty perfectly performed his role. This was precisely why fans wanted him back. He's the old-school policeman trying to find his identity within a league that now frowns upon frontier justice.

That’s Drew Sharp, writing in today’s Freep, and note the highlighted bits. D-Mac ain't just an enforcer, to make things perfectly clear. But when it comes to fighting... McCarty can hang in there with the best of 'em. Joe Lewis Arena literally erupted when McCarty and McCormick went at it yesterday, and although the fight was a draw, it certainly energized the crowd. Interestingly, McCarty gets the honor of being in the Wings’ first fight during these play-offs, and yesterday’s fisticuffs at The Joe was just the fifth fight in ALL play-off games to date. The NHL on NBC commentators threw out some fast facts about play-off fights to illustrate just how much the NHL has changed of late. Their first exchange drew knowing chuckles from both color guys… both of whom are ex-players… who began their discussion by mentioning the Wings were “a very different team back in ‘87… when Probert and Kocur were still around.” I’m quoting from memory here, but I seem to recall the announcers saying something to the effect there were 17 fights in the first round alone that year, followed by some astronomical number (that I don’t remember) for the entire play-offs. As for today? Well…this ain’t your father’s NHL. I’ll not get too nostalgic — it’s sufficient to say I miss the old league.

The bigger story, of course, is the Wings’ dominating performance in yesterday’s game, not the least of which was Johan Franzen’s previously mentioned hat trick. Franzen’s nickname is “The Mule” but he’s more like a horse, in that the Wings have saddled him up and rode him to victory in these first two games of the second round. Franzen is also tied for the most goals in the play-offs so far (seven, along with the Flyers Briere)…and to say he’s been stellar in the play-offs so far is an understatement of massive proportions.

Franzen’s performance is just one of the things that make this year’s Wings so dangerous for the opposition, along with guys like Zetterburg, Datsyuk, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Draper, McCarty…yadda, yadda. And let’s not forget great goaltending… Osgood’s 1.09 goals-against-average is third in play-offs (as of today), and first amongst starting goalies. So, yeah…the sticks are falling the right direction. It looks like the intangibles are there, too, but that remains to be seen. The next two games in Denver will reveal a lot… if not everything… about how far the Wings can go this year.

As for the Avs? Only a fool would count them out, but it sure ain’t looking good for them right about now. Everyone seems to think the Avs will be a completely different team when and if Peter Forsberg gets healthy and returns to the line up. But Forsberg is just one guy. Yeah, he’s good… great, even. Yes, he’s a leader. Yes, he’s a motivator. Yes, his performance has been a key factor in the Avs’ past successes. But Sakic and Foote, just to name two guys, were also “keys to success” in the past, and they haven’t shown up in this series…so far. As I said: all (or most) will be revealed next week at the Pepsi Center. Some guys in Denver ain’t optimistic.

Highlights from yesterday’s game. All the goals, some of the hits, and a brief view of the fight:

Another NHL Retirement...

My heroes are all leaving the NHL. I guess that's a function of their ages... and mine.  No guessing to it, actually - it's just the natural progression of things.  This year we've seen two guys go that I respected a lot, one as a worthy opponent (Joe Sakic) and another (Brendan Shanahan) who was an integral part of three Dee-troit Stanley Cup teams.  It pained me to see both those guys go.

But yesterday another former Wing announced his retirement and this one hurt... a lot.  I've been a Wings fan since 1985 and during that time I've bought a bit of Wings paraphernalia... hats, tee shirts, coffee cups... and I've been gifted with as much stuff as I've bought.  But in all this time I've only bought ONE Wings jersey (yeah: I'm cheap like that).  Wanna guess whose number is on the back?  Not Yzerman.  Not Probert. Not Federov.  Not Lidstrom.  Those would all be good guesses, but they'd all be wrong.  Nope... it's 25.  And Darren McCarty announced his retirement yesterday.  From the Wiki:

Drafted in the 2nd round, 46th overall, by the Red Wings in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft, McCarty scored 26 points in his rookie season as the Wings won the Central Division title. In the 1996–97 NHL season, McCarty scored a career best 19 goals and 42 points as the Wings swept the Philadelphia Flyers for their first Stanley Cup in 42 years. McCarty scored the Cup-clinching goal in Game 4. This goal, scored on an inside-outside move around a Flyers' defenseman and goalie, was honored as one of the best goals of the year.

From the 1997–98 season until his departure from the team, McCarty was part of Detroit's famous Grind Line with center Kris Draper and winger Kirk Maltby, which was often matched up against the opponent's top offensive line.

One of McCarty's most infamous moments was in the famous "Fight Night at the Joe" on March 26, 1997 (ed: Happy Birthday to me...  What a present that was!), where a massive brawl broke out between the Colorado Avalanche and Red Wings. McCarty fought Avalanche right winger Claude Lemieux with a blistering punch, and continued punching Lemieux while Lemieux "turtled" his body to avoid damage. The fight was also considered what had broken the curse over the Red Wings, as they went on to win their first Stanley cup in over 40 years. McCarty also scored the winning goal in overtime, a 6-5.

In the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs, McCarty registered his first hat-trick in Game One of the Western Conference Finals against the Colorado Avalanche's Patrick Roy. McCarty scored four goals in the series, a career best. Detroit won the series and eventually a third Stanley Cup in six years.

McCarty was the workingman's hockey player... a journeyman, never considered a star and a doubtful Hall of Fame candidate.  But he showed up every night, he played hard, he took care of his team mates, and he scored some spectacular goals in his career when they counted most... chief among them his goals against the hated Avalanche in the 2002 Western conference finals.   But the goal I'll always remember him for is this beauty:

That was the game winner in the final game of the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals... a four game sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers.  And a prettier goal you never will see, as well.   I was in a sports bar that night in Rochester NY, with two good friends... the three of us Detroit expats... and we literally EXPLODED out of our seats when McCarty scored that goal.  That goal... that game... ended a 42-year Stanley Cup drought for Detroit.  It sure got drunk out that night... 

Thanks, Darren.

Wherein We Flog Dead Draft Animals, Yet Again

Said draft animal bein' why hockey is superior to ALL other brands o' professional sports.  A couple o' few excerpts from an article at FoxSports.com:

In a year the NBA’s image was supposed to be napalmed by a prolonged lockout, the league instead salvaged a decent chunk of this season and then stumbled ass-backwards into Linsanity. Knicks guard Jeremy Lin is more than a good underdog basketball story. He has become a cultural phenomenon.
Hockey desperately needs that kind of buzz infusion, and will not get it.

I am going to make a glaring geographical stereotype now as I try to explain why. Hockey is too bleeping Canadian. And Canadians are too bleeping nice.

No, really, they are nice to the point of almost being boring.

There is a reason you do not see "Real Housewives of Montreal" and why hockey players for the most part remain virtually anonymous. Do not bother emailing me about how I am generalizing and how you are offended. I recognize not all of y’all are nice. I am sure there are some real jerkholes up there. Although, off the top of my head, all I can come up with is Nickelback (and their biggest crime is against music) and Sean Avery (of course).

The NHL, to its great detriment, plucks extensively from this frozen tundra of nice — which helps in finding Lady Byng candidates and kills them when trying to sell hockey down here. This is partially why there is no Igin-love.

The rest o' the article focuses on Jerome Iginla, Calgary's captain, star player, and the source of many, many trade rumors.  But we're on about the introduction, which is all about "nice."

OK, there IS a point to be made in that introduction, which basically comes down to hockey players being bona-fide role models our kids can look up to and emulate.  We shall skip further sermonizing about drugs, thugs, and ugly mugs in the other pro sports.  If you've been reading EIP for a while you KNOW this is a recurring (if not frequent) topic o' conversation in these parts.

I do take issue with Ms. Floyd Engel, though.  Hockey might be nice and hockey players might be nice enough when viewed at a macro level.  OTOH, there's this:

That would be Number 24, the deceased Bob Probert (and a one-time hero o' mine), in a fight with Troy Crowder in 1991, during the Golden Age o' The Enforcer.   Bob was a nice guy off the ice but he was a holy terror when you either crossed him or took a run at Stevie.  And then he wasn't so very nice.  

Fighting is a hot topic in and around the NHL right now, mainly because it ain't NICE (and because of the spate o' untimely deaths among enforcers last summer).  But fighting is an integral part of the game and I would miss it if it went away.  I suppose that makes me not nice... but it is what it is.