Double Header: Game Two

Detroit is Hockeytown USA. And Yzerman is Detroit. He's 'cooler than the other side of the pillow' - ML... Retired that you are Stevie, but you will always be a warrior poet... Longest serving captain in NHL history, fought through a knee injury that eventually cost you your career, sacrificed to block shots resulting in 2 broken ankles, 6th all-time in points, 8th all time in goals, a 10 time all-star, and led your team to 3 Stanley Cups... you bleed red buddy!... Now I don't personally, but I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that want to have your babies. And Detroit is not post-Steve Yzerman just yet. The core of guys were around when he was there. He's still there somewhere in the front office. The team is set up to have the older guys bring the younger guys into the mentality and lifestyle... so Yzerman wore off on these guys. And it shows. They bring lots of skill and just enough grittiness to go deep into the playoffs each year before an even grittier team like the Anaheim Mighty Ducks knocks 'em out. And I mean literally knocks 'em out.

And ya, Anaheim is gritty... and their mentality runs through their entire system all the way down to East Coast Level. Gotta play tough... gotta fight, gotta be on the edge, gotta skate, and at the same time you gotta have skill. Bertuzzi, Getslaf, Weight, Pronger, even Perry's been known to throw his weight around... pretty intimidating when even your top players will drop the mitts. Brings back the good old days(?) of Eddie Shore, Bobby Orr, or the 'Gordie Howe hat-trick' (1 goal, 1 assist, and 1 fight). Plus they have 3 (maybe 2 now) legit heavy weights on their team. Doubled every other teams' fighting majors last year... Yay 'old-time hockey'... ... Last year's playoff run? Minnesota got it pretty bad. Couple concussions, couple injuries. Detroit too. Couple injuries, a concussion. A 2 game suspension for a cheap hit doesn't really match up when the other player is out for the season... I don't think.

The game was hockey at it's best. The two best teams in the league right now. Skill and Determination vs Skill and Intimidation. Hits, fights, speed, emotion, bad blood from last year's playoffs... patches of bad camera work cause it wasn't CBC, and decent commentary cause it was still TSN. Anaheim was all over Hasek, always in his face, and ran him over a few times... At the other end Pronger and company hurt the Detroit forwards enough to make sure they kept away from the Ducks net... You'll win more than you lose if you control both net fronts. Detroit held strong tho, Cleary stood up to Pronger in a fight even though he gave up about 5 inches... tho he didn't play the rest of the game. And Downey matched O'donnel just a little bit later. There were scrums after every whistle. Big hits all over the ice. An early taste of the war on ice that is to be the NHL playoffs come this April. Detroit won it on skill, a PP, and a broken stick... but you have to wonder if they can hold it all together through 7 games of that stuff come playoffs.