Two things before we get started. 1. Donate. This is the time of year to do it. Paul is tireless and he does this for you guys. Donate. 2. Carolina. If the Wings are done after two more games, you can look back to a Friday game against Carolina as the real culprit.
Rumor has it that Sergei Fedorov was on the training table in some dressing room, maybe St. Louis or even Denver, in '97. Steve Yzerman, a man some would consider the greatest Captain of any team in the history of organized sports, hobbled in and pretty much called him a name typically reserved for felines and 63 percent of all Denver males.
Yzerman, according to lore, informed Fedorov (the original Enigma) that pain is pain and men are men and that pain doesn't stop a man from doing the job other men need him to do.
I don't remember how Fedorov played the rest of that series but I distinctly recall thinking he should have won the Conn Smythe that year instead of Mike Vernon.
Henrik Zetterberg returns tonite. Reports conflict as to how much he'll play but the latest I saw was that we could expect "limited minutes." Having observed Zetterberg for greater than a decade I'd guess "limited" will equal 18-20.
But what he does on the ice could be minor compared to what he should be doing this minute, and that is establishing residency inside Franzen's head and needling his strange brain with barbs. He should be reminding Franzen what he's capable of and what a shit show he's become.
Zetterberg needs to pull an Yzerman to Franzen's Fedorov. The challenge should not be as tall, considering they're most likely close friends. I do not sense Yzerman and Fedorov shared that type of relationship.
Franzen could very well be hurt, as Fedorov probably was in '97, and as Yzerman was in '02 and Shanahan was in '98, as Zetterberg undoubtedly was last year and in '08, as almost every hockey player is during the playoffs. Every single year. No athletes play through the kind of pain hockey players do during the playoffs. Didn't a hero of Franzen's almost lose a testicle in '09? I don't remember. So, yeah, he's probably hurt. Got it.
So play through it. I know it's easy for me to say but guess what? I don't make the millions Franzen does to be a hockey player who lives up to his potential.
Tonight has got to be it. And, I'm sorry George, but I'm not buying the glove theory.
12 goals in '08. 13 in the '09 playoffs. No more than six in any playoff since then. Johan Franzen is living off the reputation he established for himself over two postseason years.
Marian Fuching Hossa. Jesus, Kenny.
So here we are. This is, indeed, the live blog, bitches. If you look back about a week and consider who gave the Wings a shot to win, cut that number in half. This morning on Sirius, Mick Kern and Mike Rossi asked Dennis Potvin if the Wings had even the slimmest chance of winning this series. Potvin said absolutely not. Even if Boston falters, the Wings can't compete in any area. None. They're done.
We'll see. If the Wings lose, this series is indeed over. But...if it gets all crazy and Detroit pulls this one out?
We shall see.
As stated, it's a Live Blog, bitches. Oh..and in the Zetterbergian fervor I almost forgot to mention...
...there will be a serial killer on the ice tonite, for what it's worth.
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