8/18 Quick Links
The Ace of Sports, a Detroit sports blog, is running a poll to determine the best Detroit athlete of the past decade. Each of the four Detroit sports teams have two representatives and fans are encouraged to vote for their choice for each team. The four winners will then move on to determine the overall best Detroit athlete. I contributed to the Red Wings portion of the blog and you can read my spiel for Steve Yzerman here. Yzerman is currently ahead of Nicklas Lidstrom with 62% of the votes.
Bill @ Abel to Yzerman has moved onto Round #2 of his Detroit rivals series. Today’s discussion? The St. Louis Blues. As usual, the entire post is a great read but here’s an excerpt of my favorite part:
And that’s where the fun started. 1996: The Captain picks up the puck at center ice after Gretzky bobbles it, glides up the boards a few strides then blasts one by Jon Casey and straight into history. 1997: The Captain again, with a speech for the ages; reminding the Wings that losing to the Blues, of all teams, would have been a defeat they’d remember the rest of their lives. 1998: Chris Pronger takes a puck to the heart, a scary moment, but thankfully one that didn’t define Pronger’s career. His dirty play, illiteracy, shady departure from Edmonton and his overall status as a frigging idiot did that. 2002: more Pronger and more Yzerman. This was classic Pronger. Takes a run at Yzerman, but is so immobile and lumbering that 19 turns it around on him, literally. Pronger leaps, wrecks his knee, stays on the ice long enough to take the slashing penalty that led to a Shanahan PPG, then limps down the tunnel. See ya Sasquatch.
Earl Sleek over at Battle for California decided to use Bill’s rivalry idea and discuss the Wings-Ducks rivalry, which has certainly grown over the years. It really skyrocketed for me after they acquired Chris Pronger. Outside of Patrick Roy and Claude Lemieux, I hate Pronger the most so naturally whatever team he’s on, I develop an immediate dislike towards. Between that, the WCF loss to them, and the stealing of Mathieu Schneider and Todd Bertuzzi (which actually worked out really well for us so thanks!), the Ducks have become a thorn in our side. Plus, GM Brian Burke is evil. Period.
Earl picks five Ducks players whom Wings fans should dislike the most in this rivalry.
Combined, these five Ducks players made huge contributions in eliminating the Wings in ’95, ’03, ’06, and ’07, and it’s not a huge stretch to think if they hadn’t, Detroit might have won as many as four additional Stanley Cups by now. And really, who wants to live in that alternate reality? (Wings fans are insufferable enough as is.)
There’s still plenty of other reasons for Wings fans to hate the Ducks (I didn’t even mention the yappy mouth of Corey Perry), but I think this fivesome might prove as strong a rivalry argument as any. I’m hopeful that Detroit fans found this post as angering to read as I found it pleasing to write, because you know what that means. They’ll be licking their lips for the next matchup, their chance for postseason revenge.
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August 21st, 2008 at 3:06 pm
[…] days ago, I mentioned on BTJ that I wrote a bit on why Steve Yzerman should be voted the Detroit’s Best Athlete of the […]