The Unthinkable...

So I've had twenty-four hours to digest the loss...

In writing this little Blog about my beloved Red Wings, I honestly believe it gives me a chance to have some closure. Maybe even let out some of my disappointment through a few harsh words. Ultimately it's cathartic.

When I woke up Friday morning, June 12, 2009, I knew that the game would be lost. I had a dream - really a nightmare - that the Penguins won the Stanley Cup.

I wouldn't say that I am the most positive person in the world, but during these playoffs I continually told myself that good things would happen. It was an exercise for me. Practice for moving closer to a life of positive thoughts. During three-way conversations with my younger brother and my father, I routinely said, "let's keep it positive." My family still lives in the Metro Detroit Area and positive thoughts do not abound in the Great Lake State right now.

The Detroit Red Wings were providing a welcome escape for many residents in the Motor City and throughout the hard hit State of Michigan. Obama has taken over two of the Big Three Auto Companies, but that's a story for another time. Thousands have lost their jobs and many their homes as well. Things are not peachy keen for most people in "that state up North."

Did I mention that the Detroit Lions football team went 0-16? The Detroit Pistons aren't the Bad Boys of old and with the Tigers, who knows what you'll get? We can't even rely on Michigan's football program anymore. Even when all the pro sports teams were in the dumper, at least Michigan had a winning season and a bowl game... not this year.

I forgot about Kwame Kilpatrick, but he has moved on to Texas, so he's their problem now.

Sometimes you wonder what else could happen to Michigan. I hate to even ask for fear that something else might come along and kick 'em while they're down.

Just when you thought nothing good could happen, the Detroit Red Wings were keeping hope alive.

The Red Wings started out this playoff season beating my hometown Columbus Blue Jackets. No surprise really, but the CBJ had a young talented goaltender in Chris Mason that certainly had a lot of Wings fans worried. The Wings have a way of making a good goalie look great sometimes. Nevertheless, the Wings swept the Jackets and headed into the 2nd round of the playoffs.

Their next foe was a familiar and hated group, the Ducks. Two years ago the Wings were a few wins away from Lord Stanley when the cheap shotting Ducks put them out and eventually won the Cup. This time around the Ducks ousted the number one seeded Sharks to get to the Wings. The Ducks made the Wings pay at every turn. It was a hard fought series, but in Game 7 at home in front of hungry Wings fans, Dan Cleary scored late to propel the defending champions to the Conference Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks were a young, revitalized team and eventhough the Wings came into the series injury-ridden they beat the Hawks in 5 games. This set up a the rematch. It was time for the Wings to take on the face of the NHL... Sidney Crosby.

It's hard to like Sidney Crosby if you're a Wings fan. The Red Wings defeated "Sid the Kid" last year in the Stanley Cup Finals, but when you saw advertisements and promotions for the NHL over the past year, you would have certainly thought Sidney Crosby and the Penguins destroyed the Red Wings.

In the NHL world there is a strange form of predjudice that goes on. Some have even called it racism. No one likes to admit it, but most "purists" in the sport have never really embraced "the Europeans" throughout the NHL. The Wings happen to have found great success with those "soft" Europeans. When the Wings hoisted the Cup in 1997 for the first time in 42 years, legendary coach, Scotty Bowman, played the Russian 5 together and helped bring home the first of 4 Stanley Cups to the city eventually known as Hockeytown. Last year, Nick Lidstrom was the first European captain to lead his team to the promise land. But for some reason, the NHL chose to overlook the contributions of guys like Nick Lidstrom when marketing it's sport to North America.

The best player in the NHL happens to speak in broken English and probably isn't as pretty as Sidney, so Crosby's face is everywhere. Two of Detroit's top players most assuredly are in the top five talents in the NHL, yet you won't see them in commercials or anything else that promotes the game. During these Stanley Cup Finals, NBC had special cameras following "the Stars" of the game, Sidney Crosby and Evegeni Malkin. Sidney had one goal in the Finals. The European Evegeni Malkin who luckily plays in the spotlight with Sid, just so happens to be better than him and won the MVP trophy in the Finals scored twice.

This may all sound like sour grapes, but to most Red Wings fans, this is reality. You feel like Rodney Dangerfield... you get no respect. In fact, last night after Sidney won his first Stanley Cup, he neglected to shake hands with most of the Wings. A time honored tradition in the NHL, teams that just beat the crap out of one another for 7 games, meet at center ice to congratulate and shake hands with one another. Somehow, Sidney was just too darned excited to remember those darn handshakes.

He is only 22 years old, but for the face of the NHL you would expect a little more. A little more than one goal. A little more than two handed slashes and cross checks to opposing players and for goodness sakes, a hand shake after you win. But, he's a good ol' Candian boy, he can do no wrong.

When you add up all the things going against the Wings during this rematch, I can honestly say I am proud of everything they accomplished. Injuries are part of the game and many of the Wings best players were hobbled by all sorts of problems.

Whether you think there was an NHL conspiracy going against the Red Wings (and there was) or that you think they just didn't have enough left in the tank to beat the young Penguins (which they didn't), you can't help but love 'em.

Sure, the NHL scheduled back-t0-back games and gave the Wings just two days off between the Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup, but that doesn't mean the almighty Gary Bettman had it out for the defending Champs. You might wonder about some of the officiating and the imbalance in calls favoring the Penguins, but when it's all said and done, you have to play through those things to win the Cup. It is after all the hardest trophy to win in all professional sports. There's a reason the Wings were the last team to win it two years in a row in 1997 & 1998.

I took great joy in the boos that rained down on Gary Bettman when he awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for the MVP and the Stanley Cup. Trust me, they weren't booing the Penguins. You beat us as fair and square as possible. I kept hoping that one octopus would have taken flight and hit Gary Bettman squarely in the face, it would have been a thing of beauty. I think even the Pens fans could have enjoyed that.

I have been a Wings fan since I was 4 years old. My dad took me to my first game then I have loved them ever since. In my lifetime, I have seen the Red Wings head to the Stanley Cup Finals 6 times and win 4 of them. You can't ask for much more than that. Some people never see their favorite team win once.

The good news is, the Detroit Red Wings orginization is one of the classiest and best run teams in all professional sports and they will be back. No doubt about it.

There is work to be done, changes to be made and tough decisions coming this Summer, but for a few months this Spring, the Red Wings helped to ease the pain a little. It didn't have the story book ending we all hoped for, but I still love my Red Wings.