I noticed that the sun was a bit brighter this morning, the birds were singing a bit louder, and I was feeling more rested than usual--and then I realized it was an hour 'later' than normal. Damn 'falling back.' ;)
It certainly is good being a Red Wing fan on the morning after a win.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Hello! Is Anyone There?
For the past couple of years, I would watch and listen to all of the excuses made for the poor play of the Red Wings. And it was easy to let the excuses go by, as they would get into the playoffs and everything was good. Let's face it, there seems to be quite a few people more concerned about how many years in a row they make it into the playoffs than how deep they go. Anyway, the team would get a pass just because they made the playoffs.
Last year (the year before?) I remember thinking to myself after hearing for the three gazillionth time how "if they didn't have bad luck, they'd have no luck at all," or "they tried, but the puck just isn't going into the net for them," or any number of other excuses, that there is a problem not being addressed and it will come and bite them in the ass if it ISN'T taken care of. And it certainly is happening now. While some of the excuses were reasonable--bad reffing, injuries--it still didn't address whatever the REAL problems were. Does anyone remember the days when we would say "the Wings won again, despite the bad reffing" or "the Wings beat {insert team name} AND the refs tonight?" When is the last time we could say either of those?
While I'm hoping that these sorts of situations are as frustrating for the players as they are for us fans, I am not seeing it. Too much passivity from the players--Lidstrom is way too calm, but Zetterberg is no better, and HE'S supposed to be the next captain, so it will be business as usual after he gets the 'C'. The Chief over at A2Y said it much better than I ever could, but SOMEONE has to get mad and STAY mad--maybe it will light a flame under these guys. I certainly don't have the answers to what is going wrong with this team--if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here in my kitchen, that's for sure--but the problems HAVE to be addressed. And soon.
I almost have to wonder if this parity situation is such that a system like Detroit's isn't going to work anymore--a system that does very well and gets players through good scouting and allowing them to mature before coming to the big club. Do teams have to suck so bad they can get high draft picks year after year and pad their rosters just so they can have their day in the sun before they go downhill again? Is the solution for the Wings going to have to be a new look with a lot of new players--a complete and total rebuild? Whatever the answers are for this team, they have to be found soon, or they won't come as close to making the playoffs as they will to getting a very high draft pick for next year.
Last year (the year before?) I remember thinking to myself after hearing for the three gazillionth time how "if they didn't have bad luck, they'd have no luck at all," or "they tried, but the puck just isn't going into the net for them," or any number of other excuses, that there is a problem not being addressed and it will come and bite them in the ass if it ISN'T taken care of. And it certainly is happening now. While some of the excuses were reasonable--bad reffing, injuries--it still didn't address whatever the REAL problems were. Does anyone remember the days when we would say "the Wings won again, despite the bad reffing" or "the Wings beat {insert team name} AND the refs tonight?" When is the last time we could say either of those?
While I'm hoping that these sorts of situations are as frustrating for the players as they are for us fans, I am not seeing it. Too much passivity from the players--Lidstrom is way too calm, but Zetterberg is no better, and HE'S supposed to be the next captain, so it will be business as usual after he gets the 'C'. The Chief over at A2Y said it much better than I ever could, but SOMEONE has to get mad and STAY mad--maybe it will light a flame under these guys. I certainly don't have the answers to what is going wrong with this team--if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here in my kitchen, that's for sure--but the problems HAVE to be addressed. And soon.
I almost have to wonder if this parity situation is such that a system like Detroit's isn't going to work anymore--a system that does very well and gets players through good scouting and allowing them to mature before coming to the big club. Do teams have to suck so bad they can get high draft picks year after year and pad their rosters just so they can have their day in the sun before they go downhill again? Is the solution for the Wings going to have to be a new look with a lot of new players--a complete and total rebuild? Whatever the answers are for this team, they have to be found soon, or they won't come as close to making the playoffs as they will to getting a very high draft pick for next year.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Politically Correct
Name calling, insults, racism, etc, etc=NOT GOOD! But after the banana peel incident and Avery being called a fa**ot, I guess the biggest insult the players are going to be able to hurl on-ice from now on is "Your mother wears Army boots!"
***NOT in anyway excusing what was done/said. This is just an attempt at cutting the tension...
***NOT in anyway excusing what was done/said. This is just an attempt at cutting the tension...
Monday, September 26, 2011
Questioning
A few days ago, the Red Wings and Flyers played an exhibition game. The score was tied at the end of overtime, so it moved into a shootout. During the shootout, someone threw a banana peel on the ice. Anyone with even a slight awareness of hockey knows that things are thrown on the ice all of the time--octopi, hats, rubber rats, slabs of beef, etc. Now, other than the NHL powers-that-be, things thrown on the ice are pretty well tolerated by everyone--until the banana peel incident. And why was this different? The player on the ice at the time was the only black player for either team. And someone decided this was a racist incident--which it probably was. And the (hockey) world exploded for several days.
While I would never argue that racially motivated acts are okay, I do have some very serious concerns about this entire affair. First of all, this game was a pre-season game. That in itself meant that not a whole lot of people were watching it. There was no audio or video broadcast of this game--other than to an area in and around Philadelphia. So, the fans in the arena and the (relatively) small viewing audience were the only people who actually saw this happen. And I question how many people saw this, even if they were at the game--several players were questioned about this later and they weren't aware of what happened until they were told. But, someone DID see this and ran with the story. I don't know where it first appeared--Twitter, a news story, a blog--but someone made a story out of this. And once it was out there, it became fodder for opinion pieces, blogs, newscasts, Twitter, Facebook, etc, etc, etc. This was reported and talked about ad nauseum for several days.
As I said, I would never advocate for a racially motivated act. I also don't believe society is benefitted by sweeping unpleasant topics/acts under the rug, BUT... And there is the problem. The person responsible for this was never found, so we really don't know what his motivation for throwing the peel was. I'm NOT saying there wasn't a racial element to this, but I'm saying that the assclown who did this probably had a bigger reason for his actions: PUBLICITY.* And he got his share of publicity. This is pretty much the only thing that was 'talked' about for several days.
Now, we come to my question. Is this something that should have been ignored? This could have flamed out very quickly, because of the small amount of people who saw what happened. Actually, it would barely have been a spark if it hadn't been reported. Have we become a society so politically correct that we have to 'make a big deal' out of everything, even if the intention was nowhere close to what others perceived? We are finding in all areas of our lives where huge stories are (manufactured?) from small, insignificant incidents--from politics to our personal lives--and it doesn't seem to help do much more than inflame. I do have to wonder who is benefitting from this--other than the 24-hour news sources and the assclowns who want publicity.
*I realize that I am publicizing this just as much as everyone else did, but I don't reach a big audience, so I don't think my little blog matters. ;)
While I would never argue that racially motivated acts are okay, I do have some very serious concerns about this entire affair. First of all, this game was a pre-season game. That in itself meant that not a whole lot of people were watching it. There was no audio or video broadcast of this game--other than to an area in and around Philadelphia. So, the fans in the arena and the (relatively) small viewing audience were the only people who actually saw this happen. And I question how many people saw this, even if they were at the game--several players were questioned about this later and they weren't aware of what happened until they were told. But, someone DID see this and ran with the story. I don't know where it first appeared--Twitter, a news story, a blog--but someone made a story out of this. And once it was out there, it became fodder for opinion pieces, blogs, newscasts, Twitter, Facebook, etc, etc, etc. This was reported and talked about ad nauseum for several days.
As I said, I would never advocate for a racially motivated act. I also don't believe society is benefitted by sweeping unpleasant topics/acts under the rug, BUT... And there is the problem. The person responsible for this was never found, so we really don't know what his motivation for throwing the peel was. I'm NOT saying there wasn't a racial element to this, but I'm saying that the assclown who did this probably had a bigger reason for his actions: PUBLICITY.* And he got his share of publicity. This is pretty much the only thing that was 'talked' about for several days.
Now, we come to my question. Is this something that should have been ignored? This could have flamed out very quickly, because of the small amount of people who saw what happened. Actually, it would barely have been a spark if it hadn't been reported. Have we become a society so politically correct that we have to 'make a big deal' out of everything, even if the intention was nowhere close to what others perceived? We are finding in all areas of our lives where huge stories are (manufactured?) from small, insignificant incidents--from politics to our personal lives--and it doesn't seem to help do much more than inflame. I do have to wonder who is benefitting from this--other than the 24-hour news sources and the assclowns who want publicity.
*I realize that I am publicizing this just as much as everyone else did, but I don't reach a big audience, so I don't think my little blog matters. ;)
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