Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

12 Hours Out Of Mackinaw City, I Stopped To Have Myself A Bru-In

04/20/2014 at 1:21pm EDT

None of you have been able to really enjoy an Easter in close to 25 years. Blame the Red Wings for that. While fans of other teams have stress-free holidays every other year or so?

You dip your Easter eggs in cheap booze and wait for the puck to drop.

Today will be tougher. While the odds of winning Game 1 were low, taking this one is even more unlikely. You're already girding yourselves. Once the slaphappiness of Game 1 wore off, you went into a mode we're all too familiar with. You banished the thoughts of a 2-0 lead. Oh, they creep in but you bat them away like gnats flitting around a scab on the knee of a Blues fan after a trip through the gutter during a losing bout with Mad Dog on a Tuesday afternoon.

Like me, you're already thinking, "Golly it's going to be good to go back to the Joe tied at 1." You have to think that way because it's how we preserve our sanity. It's a defense mechanism we've honed.

1. We're steeling ourselves should evil creep in. Protecting our fragile psyches in the event of a loss.

2. We go into games like this expecting the worst. We expect Glenn Close to boil the rabbit today. Of course she will. She's bat-shit crazy. She's going to boil the rabbit and then we're going to have to find a way to kill her before she ruins the rest of this beautiful Spring.

Only you and I understand that talking about boiling rabbits on Easter is perfectly acceptable. Many millions of people would find that offensive and, worse, irrelevant. Not us. You understand that we can't think about a 2-0 lead over a 1 seed. You and I get it. We will not allow ourselves that kind of hope, because when you hope you set yourself up for bad visions, the ones Shooter talks about in the hospital, just a day before Chitwood sinks that jumper.

Don't even think of the insanity at the Joe on Tuesday should the Wings come home after having "stolen" the first two. Don't. You must guard your optimism. Swaddle it. Hide it. 1-1 is perfectly acceptable. It's what we wanted. It's all we asked for and now we have it. Take one of the first two and claim home ice.

Don't be greedy. Why should we expect more than anyone else? Nobody in the history of hockey would ever expect to go into a 1 seed's building and take the first two. You know that's true, so why should we be the ones who expect a miracle like that?

Because we're Wing fans, that's why. When you're a Wing fan, greed is good. Excess is expected. Parades are the norm. Cups are ours to be had, recaptured. 8 seed? Screw your 8 seed.

2-0 at the Joe. That's the goal. That's the expectation. Speed and smarts are better than brawn and stupidity.

It's a live blog, bitches. Temper yourselves, but, by god, expect the best because these are the Detroit MF'ing Red Wings.

15 to 12.

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About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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