At least one Detroit area sports team won its respective championship this year. For those that are out of the loop as far as sports goes, the Detroit Red Wings captured this season's Stanley Cup. It is probably the most coveted trophy in all of sports and the oldest in existence, too. After seeing the Tigers start off to a very disappointing beginning to the Major League Baseball season (and it doesn't appear they have righted the ship quite yet, either) and seeing the Pistons fall, once again like the past two seasons, in the Eastern Conference Finals in six games to the Boston Celtics, seeing one professional sports team from the Motor City persevere is great to see. And I don't think prior to the playoffs starting that a lot of the media experts had the Wings winning it all. So that was really a nice surprise to see the Wings proving a lot of people wrong. Many believe that this team is too old to compete at a championship level. Seems to me they did quite well against the upstart Pittsburgh Penguins, wouldn't you say? I believe the 2008 championship is the first in the new era of Wings hockey. I say that because I still find it strange not seeing Steve Yzerman as the team captain. It was quite surreal to see Nick Lidstrom be the first one to lift the cup after the clock expired. Not that he doesn't make a good captain, but no one can ever replace Stevie Y.
When a team wins a championship, it's always nice to see one member of the team be a part of the complete group effort in winning it all. I am extremely happy to see a former member of the Northern Michigan University Wildcats win a Stanley Cup for the first time in his career. That member of this season's Red Wings was Dallas Drake. We've known Dallas here in the Upper Peninsula even before he became an NHL star. He helped lead the Wildcat hockey team along with coach Rick Comley (who is now the head coach of the Michigan State University Men's Hockey Team) to the school's first division I NCAA Ice Hockey Championship in 1991. Gosh, that is over 15 years ago already but for many people around here, it seems just like yesterday. It was an epic game, lasting three overtimes before the Wildcats finally scored the winning goal. I remember watching the game with my mom at home and not being able to keep my eyes open until the game was over. Then, my mom woke me up as the Wildcats were celebrating on the ice. It's one of those games a person will never forget and it remains as the biggest moment in NMU hockey history up to this point. And Dallas Drake was an integral part of it all. It's so nice to see him being able to lift the Stanley Cup over his head after 16 years in the NHL.
I'll be honest, I haven't followed the Red Wings like I have in the past. I remember during the 1996-1997 season when the Wings won the cup for the first time in some 40+ years, how exciting that season was. I followed every playoff game from the start until the end and it was such a monumental season. I never witnessed the Wings winning a Stanley Cup prior to that season, so that experience was entirely new for me. Then we were spoiled by back-to-back cups the following year. A break ensued, but the Red Wings were finally back on top at the end of the 2001-2002 season. I was just as excited in 2002 as I was during the previous two Stanley Cup runs in the late '90's. Then came quite a few early postseason exits for the Wings, then the lock-out that cancelled one entire season, and my interest for NHL hockey basically vanished. What basically saved the sport for me was seeing Steve Yzerman back on the ice the following year for his last season with the team before he retired. It was disappointing not seeing the Wings win it one final year for Yzerman, but it just goes to show you that sometimes things just don't work out as planned. This season, I followed along and heard how well the Red Wings were doing but didn't watch many of the games. I knew they were having another spectacular year and had a good chance to go quite far into the playoffs. But knowing their recent struggles in the playoffs had me a bit leary. However, once the Red Wings really got rolling with their second round series against the Colorado Avalanche and the great goaltending of Chris Osgood, I knew they were poised to go all the way. And sure enough, even though they should have won the cup in game five at Detroit in the Stanley Cup Finals, they finally captured the title of being the NHL's best team at Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.
All I have to say is, thank goodness for the CBC! We're close enough here in the U.P. to get the Canadian Broadcasting Channel through our cable company - who covered the post-game celebration the best out of all the options we had up here. NBC's coverage ended just after 11:00 PM and they didn't interview too many people from the Red Wings, let alone follow everyone who had their victory skate with the Stanley Cup. Then FSN Detroit, who usually always broadcasts the post-game ceremonies of all the Detroit sports teams even if they didn't cover the game, had a replay of the Tigers loss earlier in the day to the Oakland Athletics. What the heck was that? At the bottom, they finally displayed a crawl that basically congratulated the Red Wings on their feat and said it would be covered on Friday for a special program to be broadcasted that night. Two days later and they are finally recognizing the Wings' accomplishment! Needless to say, I was disappointed that they didn't have any coverage of the post-game festivities, but I did hear that the station underwent new management earlier in the year and probably wasn't able to do the same things they once did. That is a complete shame and hopefully they will make a better effort at covering these important events in the future.
All I can say is that it's definitely great to be a Red Wings fan this year. Go Wings! And may we look forward to more Stanley Cup Championships in the future.
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