STANLEYTOWN!!!

It weighs 35 pounds...until you pick it up.

I can't help but think back to 1997 at times like this. I remember it well. In Grass Lake there was a nasty storm that knocked the power out just before the start of the second period. The whole family took the 10 minute drive to grandma's house to watch the rest of the game on CBC in their RV. I spent that whole night listening to WJR's post game interviews until they finally stopped at about 4 in the morning. In 1998 my family didn't have cable and the antenna reception wasn't very good. I spent most of the playoffs in my room listening to the games on the radio while banging a tennis ball against a wall and eating spearmint Lifesavers. I still remember Ken Kal's call of the last seconds against Philly. In 2002 I finally got to watch the playoffs from the comfort of my own living room to watch Scotty Bowman strap on the skates and take a lap with The Cup.

This year will be another great memory for me. I watched the game at the Roundtree Pub in Ypsilanti because we don't have a working television in my ghetto ass apartment right now. The whole bar held its collective breath as Hossa nearly sent the game to overtime. When that puck didn't cross the line and time ran out (time was out anyway but still) the 23 or so people in that little shithole bar went absolutely nuts. And I can say without losing any sort of manhood that seeing Nick Lidstrom take the cup from Gary (f-ing) Bettman nearly brought a tear to my eye.

This team was the definition of team. Yeah, the Wings have their superstars in Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Lidstrom but they are so much more than that. Holmstrom, Cleary, Franzen, Draper, Kronwall, Stuart, Flippula, Samuelsson, Maltby, Hudler, Helm, Drake, Chelios, Rafalski, are just a few of the role players, the blood and guts guys, who really make this team go.

Speaking of blood and guts...CHRIS OSGOOD!!! As I may have mentioned before, once Hasek was benched and Ozzie took over, there was a great debate raging about how good Chris Osgood really is. Well, the guy has now won two Stanley Cups and was arguably a contender for the Conn Smythe Trophy this year (which was very deservedly given to Henrik Zetterberg by the way). I will go on record right now and say, Chris Osgood is a Hall of Fame goaltender. Things were going very poorly early in the Nashville series and Mike Babcock wisely chose to go with Ozzie to turn things around. He slammed the door against Nashville, stood on his head in the sweep of the Avs (haha, bitches), looked unstoppable early in the Dallas series, and started the series with the Pens as strong as I've ever seen a netminder play. The way Ozzie played against this extremely talented Pittsburgh team was nothing short of outstanding.

Going into the season, everyone, myself included, thought the Wings would be a tough team who might make a small run in the playoffs and have a nice season. I never once thought during the regular season (especially during that dry spell in February) that this team, full of has beens and not yets, would be hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup during the first week of June. After winning the President's Trophy all I could think about was how it was a curse. When things went bad against Nashville it was like 1994 against the Sharks all over again. When Ozzie stepped in and the Wings won 10 straight with him in net, THAT was when I started to believe that something special was happening in the Spring of 2008. Sure enough, something special happened.

The Detroit Red Wings are the 2007-2008 Stanley Cup Champions!