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Jan 17 :: Oh, How I Loathe Them



WHAT’S ALL THIS THEN?

Red Wings vs. Blackhawks. Big Brother vs. Little Brother. Self-Made vs. Self-Important.
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?
1. The second of back-to-back games for both clubs. Who will come out with more jump?
2. My mom’s in the crowd, which means that Todd will score two because he knows I’m there by proxy.
3. I have no idea who is starting – there was no mention (surprise) before I crashed for the night…
NOW WHERE WERE WE?
The Wings and Hawks have met three times. The last two times were ugly. I don’t want to talk about it. It’s too painful. DON’T TOUCH ME THERE!
OH, HI AGAIN / MEMBA ME?! / BEST NAME NOMINEE
This has been covered, like yesterday, a handful of times.
 :: Hossa and Kopecky come back to the Joe.
 :: Cleary faces his former club (Jason Williams is still on IR)
 :: Dustin Byfuglien. What’s that about?
THEIR LAST GAMES
–Detroit was shafted, hard, in Dallas. Every time, but I guess the most recent time was Saturday.
–Chicago won a goaltending duel in Columbus, 6-5, on Saturday.
RECORDS
–Detroit Red Wings :: 24-16-7 (3rd in Central, 9th in West) :: 14-7-2 at home.
–Chicago Blackhawks :: 33-11-4 (1st in Central, 1st in West) :: 12-6-3 on the road.
BLACKHAWKS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Bolland :: Brouwer :: Burish :: Byfuglien :: Hossa :: Kane :: Madden :: Sharp :: Toews :: Versteeg :: Barker :: Campbell :: Hjalmarsson :: Keith :: Seabrook
EXPECTED LINEUP
When I was heading to bed, there was no word on starter, or if Ville Leino comes back in for Brad May. I gotta believe May comes out after Saturday’s game, but the Hawks are a bit chippy. Not that May would do anything about it anyway.

Zetterberg — Datsyuk — Bertuzzi
Miller — Filppula — Cleary
Draper — Helm — Eaves
May / Leino — Abdelkader — Maltby

Lidstrom — Rafalski
Meech — Stuart
Lebda — Ericsson

Howard / Osgood ??

Injuries
Andreas “Jonas Berggren” Lilja
Johan “Ulf Ekberg” Franzen
Jason “Jenny Berggren” Williams
Niklas “Linn Berggren” Kronwall
Tomas “Johnny Linden” Holmstrom

QUICK THOUGHTS
1. I’m too angry from Dallas to say anything intelligent about the Chicago game. I just want the Wings to crush the Hawks in every sense imaginable.
2. Good game for the leaders to step up: Nick, Pav, and Z are going to need to deliver big games if the Wings are to have any chance.
3. Whoever plays net will have to play lights out. Hasn’t been a problem for Jimmy. If it’s Osgood, I’m sure there’s some rust to shake off.
4. For the record, I’m aware you don’t measure players’ worth by whether or not they score in a given game. But I’m also aware it’s okay to point out when they miss the net by a mile or spend more time on their ass than that 800 pound guy from Maury (who MIGHT have been the baby daddy).
WHAT WE LEARNED vs. the Stars
Even IF the Red Wings deserved to win (which they did not), the League will find a way to manifest a loss.
HAWK WE COVET (JJ Special)
For the second game in a row, I asked JJ his thoughts. Here they are, slightly less prison rapey. Which usually means less funny. Not this time, though:

I narrowly picked Patrick “Spear of Testiclese” Sharp over Dustin “Fugly” Byfuglien last time, so this time I’ll go with the big Butt-ugly. He’s mean, he’s big, he stands up for his guys, and he’s no threat to Valtteri Filppula for best hair on the Wings. Also, I’ve never seen anybody get the best of Kirk Maltby as often as he has. That has to count for something, right?

4 thoughts on “Jan 17 :: Oh, How I Loathe Them”

  1. Andy

    Michael, you asked: :: Dustin Byfuglien. What's that about?

    Here's what I wrote about his name before the December game:
    "The name Byfuglien is definitely Norwegian. It's not extremely common here, but I know several people with that name, and no other language could bring forth that name. I'm always amazed that you don't pronounce the "ug" in the name, but hey, it's english, so you can all feel free to massacre a traditional Norwegian name. In Norwegian the name would be pronounced Bee-fuel-ian or something like that. The name consists of three words (+ an article):
    – By = city
    – fugl = bird
    – li = hillside
    – en = in itself this means one, but at the end of a word it is a definite singular article, like the english word "the".

    So the name can be translated to The City-bird-hillside. Nice."

    It should also me mentioned that among the notable Byfugliens in Norway right now we have a female bishop!

  3. Michael Petrella

    Andy, that's the single best comment we've ever gotten in regards to a Best Name nominee. Less because of the Byfuglien explanation than the Female Bishop deal.

    Italian, too. GL (or GN) is pronounced like LY (or NY). Still doesn't make Byfuglien BUFFLIN. It'd make it BIF OOLY AN.

    Baroque, oh how I mourn for those kinds of days, too. As far as I know, that's the only reason he's on this team…when he's not doing that, I can't figure out his purpose at all.

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