My Dad and sister attended a big game in Detroit last week — the Red Wings' 2-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers, which clinched the President's Trophy for Detroit and made Manny Legace the first Red Wing goalie to post seven shutouts since
Roger Crozier did it in 1965-66. I tried to spot them on TV, but they were on the press-box side, so I couldn't pick them out.
For Detroit, already having won the Division title and chasing only the President's Trophy, this was a fairly meaningless season-ender — except that Edmonton was, last week, still fighting for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff slot, which would make them Detroit's first-round opponent. (If you're keeping score, the Oilers weren't a sure thing for the postseason until Thursday, when they beat Anaheim. They might have claimed the seventh-place spot as late as Saturday, when the Avalanche earned it with the point they got in an overtime loss to Vancouver.)
I've enjoyed watching Edmonton teams of the past few years, and here's why:
In the "new" NHL, everybody plays a speedy, end-to-end, run-and-gun style game — some teams just play it speedier than others. But Edmonton was playing this style before it was cool, and I appreciated that. All of hockey fandom is now awakened from the trance we'd been put under by the neutral-zone trap and its many succesful but boring variations. But it wasn't very long ago that the Oilers' young legs and all-out, come-skate-with-us, puck-pressure game made for some of the best watchin' in the League. Even if it didn't really win them anything other than a place in one of the bottom couple playoff slots (and some years not that much).
Note: Among friends, I used to like to proclaim the Oilers the "team of the future." This was sufficiently long ago that I can now admit that future has come and gone, and I was mistaken.
I also enjoyed seeing a couple native Michiganders on the same team. Doug Weight and Mike Grier might have been the beginning of an excellent Great Lakes line, but it never happened, and both are long gone now. This year's Edmonton roster boasts just one native Michigander, defenseman Matt Greene from Grand Ledge. From the OMGWTF Dept: At the end of February, Greene got
hit by a truck. He was fine; the truck was totaled.
So Weight and Grier are gonesville, but the Oilers still have plenty of talent — some of it the kind of electrifying talent fans love to watch, too. Gritty left winger Ryan Smyth is all Oiler, never having played for another team in his 11-year NHL career, and he's irrepressibly fun to watch. How does a guy get to be a veteran of over a decade, having seen it all at every level — wins, losses, injuries, good breaks and bad ones — and remain infused with his kind of driving competitive spirit? It's a total mystery to me, as I've been a lifelong quitter.
And how great is it that Chris Pronger, almost 2,000 miles from St. Louis, once again finds himself in perfect position to have his postseason ended by Detroit? Of all the gin joints in all the world, the Red Wings have to skate into Rexall Place!
Also entertaining for those who read lips: coach Craig MacTavish. Either he's got the filthiest mouth in the League, or he just enunciates clearer than most. I've never seen two consecutive closeups of the Oiler skipper where he wasn't clearly mouthing the most profane of all saxon oaths. Seriously, the FUCKs just explode off his face. It adds interest to every Edmonton telecast.
Anyway, those are some of the reasons both substantive and trivial that I've enjoyed watching Oilers teams of recent years when I've had the chance. I'm glad they clawed their way into the playoffs, and I'm almost sorry I'll have to root against them in their very first round.
But I certainly will.