Everyone is sick of the Detroit Red Wings, even their family. Trust me, I asked every family member. They ask the same question that I do: Will you please stop being elite and downgrade to just being "decent", or God forbid, "slightly above average"?
I was just reading puck daddy's ten biggest hockey upsets of the last decade, and the wonderful Detroit Red Wings are featured on this list four times. Four times! Four of the ten biggest upsets in the last decade were against Detroit(and three of them weren't even NHL upsets, so really they're responsible for four of the top seven NHL upsets). So what do we learn from this? If the Wings don't make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, it's one of the biggest upsets of the decade. In fact, with the exception of 2007(and 2005), every year has finished this way for the Wings since 2001. Please stop. It's not fun anymore. You've won the Presidents' trophy four times this decade, and you were a tiebreaker away in 2007. Enough is enough.
I thought this season would be a little bit different with the departures of key players Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Jiri Hudler, Ty Conklin, and Tomas Kopecky(lol!!!!!!!!!!). My hope was even reinforced on October 10th when I heard the fantastic news that my twin brother Johan Franzen would be out four months with a torn knee ligament. Adding this news to the sluggish way they started the season, I was beginning to get high hopes about the way this year would finish. Well, a few weeks have gone by, and now the Wings are one of the hottest teams in the league, going 7-2-1 in their last ten games. They always have somebody stepping up, whether it's Zetterberg's 13 points and 44 minutes of puck hogging at Allen Park's rink, or it's Kronwall's 9 points, 15 hits and 12 "moneyshots" during the ten game span.
There's still hope this year for their streak of 8 consecutive central division titles to end, thanks to an improved Central Division and a powerful Chicago Blackhawks team, but I'm willing to bet we'll be witnessing more of the same come April. I just hope I'll be seeing another one of the top 10,000 upsets of all time instead of another lengthy playoff run for Detroit's finest.
I'd like to personally thank the Detroit Red Wings organization for taking my request into consideration. Since I posted this blog on November 15th, the Wings have gone 1-3-1, being outscored 12-6 in this short stretch. Their opponents: Dallas, Florida, Montreal, Nashville, and Atlanta. These teams aren't exactly the class of the NHL. In fact, they combined for zero playoff wins last season. Montreal squeaked into the final spot of the Eastern Conference Playoffs and was swept by the top seeded Boston Bruins. The rest of the teams on this list failed to make the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteThings are a little bit different this season, and by "a little bit different" I mean a little bit different. Currently the Predators and Stars hold the 6th and 7th seeds, respectively, while the others are on the outside looking in.
Thank you. Your team looks fantastic sitting right there in the 10th spot in the Western Conference. Your continued support is appreciated.
-Dacque