Indeed.  I saw Luke Glendening get his 7th goal of the season.  Sure it was with an empty net but it happened.  I loved it.  There isn't much to cheer about this year.  I have been to the LCA 3 times so far and I get why the seats are empty.  Who is there to cheer for?  Luke?  This isn't the new Star Wars.  I usually do a 3 vs 3 where I find three good things and three bad things about a game.  I am going to restart that soon, BUT.... What a great game..... Thanks Luke!!

These are my six takeaways from the latest Detroit Red Wings game.  I am committed to finding three positives and three “are you kidding me” moments.  In a season that has been difficult to watch there is an overwhelming amount of negativity amongst the Wings fans I know (at least through this site along with twitter) and love.  So instead of getting bummed out I am going to take it on myself to find the positive while also realizing that the “are you kidding me” moments are dominant.  I am extremely biased.  Things I will avoid 1. Management.  Like a coach I am working with the team they have given me.  By the way I probably will not manage to avoid the one thing I just said I would be avoiding.

I don’t want to freak out anyone reading this but I am a human being.  I am not a robot (or *bot* for you kids out there).  I don’t have strings.  I don’t get paid for my opinion although, in my opinion, I should.  I am also a human male.  Which, in general, means that if I am sitting in any kind of bar drinking any kind of ginger ale, I am watching the TV, commenting on any sport that is showing.  For example, I was in Birmingham Michigan yesterday at a bar.  I knew that the Red Wings were in Dallas and the Tigers were in Lakeland and the Lions were losing and the Pistons were playing a game soon.  So I wasn’t looking around for Justin Verlander or Z.  I was watching Golf and College Basketball.  I like College Basketball but I have no emotional investment in any team that doesn’t have the word Michigan in it.  And Golf?  That’s the thing where they hit something and then walk after it right?  But I watched it and I got into it.  There was one drive where it landed near a bunch of people and this (I’m assuming) drunk girl tried to get the ball and was choke slammed into the green.  Which actually means some polite lady asked her to back up a little.

Hello-  How are you?  I am fine.  No, really.  I am fine.  I. Have. No. Twitches. Based. On. Anything. Red. Wings. Related.  Background you ask?  Well I am a four time Stanley Cup Champion.  I have been to the playoffs 24 years in a row.  I have won six conference Championships and the Presidents Trophy six times as well.  What else?  16 Division Championships, Cool.  March 26th 1997.  Yea I was there, anything else you need to know about my background.  Well I am 35 and have been a Red Wings fan since 1990.  Was I a player or a coach or any part of the team during those years?  No.  The 19 people who are reading this understand.  To be a Red Wings fan is to be......No not to be.  It is life.  I remember the Dead Wings.  It wasn’t essential in my life at the time but I remember it.  My first real memories are watching Steve Yzerman play on Play (Comcast Play?) Network.  It was fuzzy.  Maybe it was CBC.  Rock 'em Sock 'em Hockey with Don Cherry.  However, my first real emotion was 1995.  The stupid lockout or strike or whatever.  It sucked.  I WANTED my Red Wings.  I was 14.  I got my wish and we destroyed the league.  Awesome.  And then we met the New Jersey Devils.  Wow.  4 games, really?  That was emotion to the 10th level.  I won’t go through anything past '95 because once again, the 19 know it.  When you fall in love with, well, anything at 14/15 it sticks with you for life.  No matter how much it breaks your heart.  Just ask the girl I was in love with at 15.  I still talk to her even though she is married with three kids. 

I have to admit, I am kind of bummed. I have always been proud to be a hockey fan.  We (at least us in the States) are a bit of an anomaly.  A community that sticks to their team with passion only found in the NFL after 5 hours of pregame beer and brats.  Or the NBA after dropping a few hundred bucks on some Jordan’s (or Kobe’s?).  And even during the best moments in the MLB (World Series), baseball has that pastoral picnic quality then we can jump in and out of during the course of 162 games.  If anyone doubts the pure passion hockey fans bring to the table, browse some of the archives posts of A2Y, Malik’s relentless reports or basically anything in the comments section of any post found here (seriously just pick any random post).  I am secretly satisfied whenever the latest controversy pops up in the other 3 major U.S. professional sports.  Who is the latest to cheat, break the law, talk bad about their team.  What insanely strong man has decided to "teach" his wife a lesson?  Who shot who?  Who got shot?  Money, drugs, fame.  I can’t pretend to understand the world of professional sports other than to know I am more likely to end up on the front page of the paper for doing something stupid then Pavel Datsyuk.  I know hockey isn't perfect.  We have our fair share of controversy.  I understand that the lack of most Americans caring about hockey probably helps damper the drama.  But still.  Hockey players are walking cliché machines.  They say the right things, they stay out of the spotlight.  They have foundations and charities and are saving the world one goal at a time.  Ok, maybe I wearing blinders.