My Sports List
I decided I wanted to make a list of things I wanted to do before I die…in the sports world. I would love to hear what you guys want to see or do so please leave a comment! My list may be added to depending if anyone else brings up something I wanted to do, but forgot!
NHL Related
1) Attend the Stanley Cup Finals ganes (w/ the Wings in it)
2) Attend the Wings playoff games at the Joe
3) Obtain Wings season tickets
4) Meet Steve Yzerman (at an autograph signing would be just fine)
5) Visit Hockey Hall of Fame
6) Go on a road trip following the Wings, much like JJ’s Canucks trip
7) Touch the Stanley Cup
Catch a puck during a Wings game
9) Go to the Winter Olympics and watch the Ice Hockey gold medal game
10) Attend the NHL All-Star Game
Other
1) Go watch the Tour de France (I have religiously watched the Tour de France for the past 4 years during the summer. Even though Lance Armstrong, my second favorite athlete behind only Yzerman, will no longer be racing - it still is an exciting sport and I’d love to check out France anyways.)
2) Rose Bowl (w/ University of Michigan in the game)
3) Attend a Pistons playoff game
4) Attend a Lions’ playoff game (if they ever make one)
5) Attend the Super Bowl
6) Go to the Summer Olympics and watch the 100m dash and 4×100m relay (I ran varsity track in high school before my knee got really bad and those were my events. Plus, I love watching track and field - just wish it was on TV a little more).
Ben Wallace vs. Steve Yzerman
Now in my eyes, there is no comparison between the two captains of the most successful Detroit teams (Detroit Pistons and Detroit Red Wings) although the Detroit Tigers have gone 5-0 to start the season (a miracle).If you live in Detroit or its suburbs, you know that Detroit Pistons fever is sweeping southeastern Michigan. A recent Detroit News article talked about the possibility of Detroit becoming Hoopstown now that the Pistons have better ratings on the regional Fox Sports Net than the Wings. From personal experience, attending Detroit Country Day for high school was awful from that standpoint. From April on, all anyone could talk about was the Pistons. And they just blew the Wings off - very upsetting, indeed.
Anyways, last night at the Palace of Auburn Hills, captain Ben Wallace snapped. According to the Detroit News, this is what happened:
After being taken out of the game with a little under 8 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter (and the Pistons down by 8), Wallace “stormed to the end of the bench uttering a torrent of unprintables directed at Saunders.” After head coach Flip Saunders explained why he took Wallace out (perhaps that he had played the entire second half at that point), Wallace waved him off. When asked to go back into the game, Wallace refused to “even look at Saunders” and firmly sat in his seat. When the Pistons had an opportunity to get a win, Wallace was asked once again to go back on the court. “Again, Wallace waved him off and stayed seated at the bench, not even getting up to join the huddle during timeouts.” Afterwards, Wallace said he’ll play against the Pacers and that this was not an injury.
In the clear light of a new day, Wallace will regret what he did. To refuse to enter a game is so beyond his character, it’s hard to believe it happened. He is a captain and a leader on the best team in basketball. His identity — and thus the identity of this team — has been forged on the principles of going to work every day, having your teammates’ backs and relentlessly fighting through all the bumps and hurdles life throws at you.For him to have hung his teammates out to dry like that, for sure, will be tough for him to swallow today. Already, the team was without Richard Hamilton, who was in Coatesville, Pa., attending a family funeral, and Rasheed Wallace, who left in the third quarter because of back spasms.
My thoughts…
I have a Ben Wallace jersey. As I mentioned earlier, the Pistons were really popular at my high school and my friends would take me to games (for free) throughout the year. So I bought a jersey to support the team when I was at the games. But now, I’m embarassed. I don’t care if Wallace was sitting out to protest the team’s “garbage” play of late. Especially as a captain, you have the responsibility to respect the coach (especially in public), encourage your teammates, and play with the best effort you can give. Wallace threw those responsibilities right out the window.You would never ever see Steve Yzerman pull something like that. I don’t believe you’d see Nick Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan, or Chris Chelios try something close to what Wallace did last night. Veterans and leaders have responsibilities. Disagreeing with a coach’s call is alright, but Saunders explained his reasoning and then after a couple minutes rest, allowed Wallace to re-enter the game. If a team is down a couple of key players and the game is on the line, I don’t care if you have the best record in the league, you go out and play.
In a recent post, IwoCPO at Abel to Yzerman talked about a comment Berry Melrose made regarding the Wings. And while I despise Melrose from the bottom of my heart, he actually said something I wouldn’t mind posting:
Detroit is another solid team right now. The Red Wings are such a professional team, year in and year out. What I like most about them is that there’s never any controversy with them. You never hear a player publicly bad-mouthing his teammates or coaches. It’s a tribute to the veteran players like Brendan Shanahan, Nicklas Lidstrom and Steve Yzerman.
If the Wings have problems with teammates or coaches, it is addressed and discussed in private. The public should not know of Wallace’s dismay with the team and/or coach, much less they shouldn’t hear the team captain swearing left and right at coach Saunders. Yzerman has been known to speak up in the locker room when he sees something happening, but he doesn’t protest a coach’s move or leave the team out to dry.I was incredibly disappointed in Ben Wallace’s actions last night and it only has strengthened my loyalties with the Detroit Red Wings and their captain, Steve Yzerman.
Why the Wings could go all the way
Personally, I believe this is the Wings’ year. I think that we’ve made enough changes since the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 playoff disasters to prevent an early round exit from happening. I’m really excited for playoffs to start because unlike last season, I really can see Detroit taking it. And that makes me very happy, but also very nervous. So why do I, Christy Hammond, have this much faith in my team?In no particular order…
1. The Captain. Need I say more? It’s potentially his last year and I could think of nothing better than for Steve Yzerman to retire after a Cup win. Plus, Yzerman has been stepping up his game of late with 13 points in his last 10 games. According to IwoCPO @ Abel to Yzerman, it’s his longest ten game point streak since 2000. The Captain has a way to inspire his troops so if they see him blocking shots, scoring, and working hard, the rest seem to follow.
2. As James Mirtle pointed out, the team who is the hottest at the end of the regular season tends to perform pretty well in the playoffs (ex. Tampa Bay). And which team has the hottest record since the Olympic break? That’s right, Detroit.
3. Health. Now I realize that the Wings went from healthy for the most part to Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Schneider injuries. Datsyuk is supposed to return right before the playoffs. Zetterberg missed the second half of the Columbus game last night with an upper body injury (rumors: injury from a puck or the flu). Assuming that those three return in good health before the start of the playoffs, we have our core intact. Now if any of those three especially Zetterberg and Datsyuk remain injured, the rest of my points may just go out the window.
On the bright side, Niklas Kronwall is finally regaining normal form after a preseason injury resulted in knee surgery to repair his ACL and MCL.
4. Goaltending. Now don’t get me wrong, I am terrified of the goaltending we will face in the playoffs. It’s usually the opponent’s goalie that seems to screw the Wings over. However, I think that in Manny Legace and Chris Osgood we have good enough goaltenders to take us to the Finals. They certainly aren’t the best goalies in the league, but I’d rather have them than an unhealthy Dominik Hasek. Plus Manny is 5th in the league with a 2.22 GAA and 9th overall with a .912 save percentage.
5. Mike Babcock. I really believe that this guy deserves some recognition. Everyone gives credit to Carolina’s coach and Buffalo’s coach, but what about Babcock? Sure it doesn’t seem much has changed since the Wings are still at the top of the standings, but Babcock knows how to push all the right buttons.
Let’s take a look at Brendan Shanahan, for example. Under former head coach, Dave Lewis, Shanny notched 68 points in ‘02-03 and 53 points in ‘03-04. This season with 76 games under his belt, Shanny has 73 points with 10 more goals AND 10 more assists than last season. Personally, I believe Babcock is the one to thank for giving Shanny a chance and opportunity to improve.
6. Winter Olympics. After the ‘98 and ‘02 Winter Olympics, the Wings took it all. What’s to say it won’t happen again this year? The Swedish Five would have one pretty sweet year, that’s for sure.
Feel free to agree, disagree, or give me why or why not reasons for the Wings likelihood of making it to the Finals and possibly winning it all!
Random Piece of Trivia: Did you know that “The last 18-year-old to score as many points as [Sidney] Crosby has this season was Steve Yzerman, who had 87 in 1983-84.” I read that out of the Sports Illustrated Players NHL Poll (on page 30 for those of you who subscribe). SI asked 346 NHL players, “Will Penguins rookie center Sidney Crosby end up being one of the 10 best players of all time?” 49.5% said no, 40.5% said yes, and 10% said they weren’t sure.
Since my last post…
Sorry that I haven’t updated in just over a week. I had a 5pg group project stats paper, 20pg group project sociology of sport paper and a 20min presentation due this week. As my school year is winding down (my last exam is April 25), updates will probably be not quite so frequent since I need to do well on my exams. Additionally, I will be in Ft. Myers, Florida for 4 days starting April 26 and then I’m having major knee surgery (which is much needed) on May 3 in Cincinnati. During my vacation and surgery recovery, I’ll either have lots of time online to work on this blog or I’ll be too busy or in too much pain to update.
Unfortunately, this will be right during the playoffs but I need to get my surgery over with at the beginning of my summer to allow the longest possible recovery time before I return to the University of Michigan campus in late August. As IwoCPO said: “Christy, your knee problems are second only to The Captain’s.” It is so true, he’s actually my inspiration when I’m in a lot of pain. He played in the NHL playoffs worse off than my knee is and I can’t even fathom it when I have a hard time walking to class! Here’s to hoping that Yzerman gets to win the Cup one last time before retirement because if anyone deserves it, he’s the man.
Anyways, so what has happened since my last post on March 29? Here’s a list:
