Leaderboard

My sister passed away about 3 weeks ago from cancer. A couple of seasons ago she had a chance to go to a Wings game. My dad had been in contact with the Wings people and they were trying to work out who she might want to meet if she got the chance. It was up to me to ask her who she wanted to meet. Of course, we were trying to surprise her so I didn't want to just come out and say "Hey you're probably going to get to meet one of the players, who do you want to meet?" So i would ask, "Hey Care, if you got to meet anybody on the wings who would you want to meet?" "DAN CLEARY!" she'd exclaim. So a couple of days later I would ask again. "DAN CLEARY!!" was the answer I got again. She knew they were going to be going to the game when she went down to Ann Arbor, so I tried again, "No..Seriously....If you really got to meet one of the current Wings players when you go to the game, who would it be?" I could not have given her a bigger hint without flat out just telling her! "DAN CLEARY!" So she and my dad and uncle went to the game and had a good time. Then the game was over. As they are trying to 'leave' the building, my uncle is leading the way with directions on where to go with my dad and sister following him. She still has no idea. They end up in an area where she figures they aren't supposed to be. "Are we allowed down this way?" Finally they end up standing against a wall with a bunch of other people with a Wings/arena employee telling them to just wait where they are. "Are we meeting players?!" She had finally figured it out. While they were waiting she felt she had accidentally bumped into someone behind her. She turned to say she was sorry to them. But nothing came out of her mouth. It was Nicklas Lidstrom that she had bumped into!! (This was during his last season when he wasn't playing due to his ankle) He saw she was trying to apologize and told her it was no big deal. Other players like Pavel and Zetterberg had walked through the hallway where they were waiting. Finally Dan Cleary came out and asked "Are you Carrie?" I don't remember much of what else happened (I wasn't there, just heard the stories afterward), but he was super nice to her, took a couple of pictures, and signed some things. The jersey says "To: Carrie Best Wishes Your friend, Dan Clear 11" He also had a signed bobble head sent to our house a couple of weeks later. I always teased her about wanting to meet Cleary over anybody else, but she really enjoyed the whole experience

I'm certain Illitch has someone right now, working tirelessly to find out why they sold one less ticket last year. And I'm equally certain that said person will any day now make the connection between the unsold ticket and the Dan Cleary signing. Fingers crossed it happens before a new contract is agreed upon!! Seriously though, given the complexity of building a successful sports franchise and the almost unrivaled success achieved by the Red Wings particularly when faced with league constructed obstacles to hinder continued success, boycotting because of one marginally questionable descision that likely had no effect on the entertainment value of the on ice product, is bordering on ridiculous. Now boycotting because the water in the drinking troughs in the men's restrooms taste discusting is reasonable.

Sometimes its easy to forget that while Dan Cleary the player has long since outlived his usefulness as a Detroit Red Wing, that Dan Cleary the man is actually a great person and a wonderful ambassador for not just the Red Wings but professional athletes in general. That story above my post is a good reminder of that. In no way do I want him taking a roster spot up on the team anymore, but I'll always respect how he turned his career around with the Wings and his contributions to the team over the years.

Wait,..so you're saying you had the means and resources to go to games, but chose not to, because of Dan Cleary? Please tell me he's a jaded ex lover you don't want to run into because that's the only way that makes sense.

If I could like this post a thousand times, it still wouldn't be enough.

Well that's completely ridiculous

I'm only interested in another defenseman if he's a legit top pair guy. A game changer. A winner. The kind of guy who would throw some punk kid's track suit into the showers without batting an eye. But where would you find such a defenseman? Who could he be?

For anyone interested, I started a blog to follow the construction progress of the new arena, via my drone. http://wingsarena.tumblr.com

The only way this sentence could be more Canadian, is if it said "sorry aboot that" somewhere in there.

The Detroit Red Wings will travel the fewest miles of any team for the upcoming 2015-16 season. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2015/07/detroit_red_wings_to_travel_th.html#incart_most-commented_news_article Less travel is always good but how hard is travel really on teams now? They get to fly in a private plane that has a lot of perks for them. It is not like the general public flying.

Sharps a winger.

The feed stalls next to the water troughs are pretty disappointing too. It wasn't bad enough to sink so low as to have to eat little ceasars, but still.

You absolutely CAN boycott, I'm just saying I think that if Dan Cleary playing 20 games upsets you so much that you no longer enjoy going to the games, you're probably being unreasonable. I mean how much did that change the on ice performance? You would have gotten your money's worth had Dan Cleary not played? I don't even think he was the worst player on the ice. It's like boycotting Planters because they put one less peanut in their $10 bags. Does it make that big of a difference? I mean, because no one is complaining about real problems like how the other side of the restrooms have mirrors in front of the communial urinals, so everyone can see your junk.

I thought Sharp played the Wing? Either way, like I said earlier, his moves look good on paper but lets see if it translates to the ice.

That's not WATER!!!!!!

I used to love Dan Cleary and this whole situation has kinda turned me off towards him... but I certainly blame Holland as much as I blame Cleary... but this situation would never keep me from going to games.

That's the trick, isn't it? How do 'we' stop allowing it? Part of it is certainly that the fans are excited to get a new arena (and really, who could blame them?), but the other part of it is that there is very little recourse for the little people (which is basically all of us) to wield any meaningful power. Wish I knew the answer. It does temper my love of watching Red Wing hockey to know that this is how the business runs, even in a franchise that is held up as a gold standard... and I'm not even a Michigan taxpayer, so it's not my money, but I feel for those of you who are. This article breaks things down even more: http://deadspin.com/detroit-scam-city-how-the-red-wings-took-hockeytown-fo-1534228789 Seems like the trade off for the city is the removal of the direct revenue they received with the current deal at the Joe. I think sports teams and museums and things of that nature are good for a city, important to a city, even if they are potentially drains on the resources of the city at some level, because those are really things we should value... but it's harder to swallow when you are talking about billionaires (not to mention the corporations of billionaires, which have a much higher value than the one guy) who could fund these direct business developments themselves... The question, really, is if it actually revitalizes anything.

I remember something like that, and I think it was just the rest of the team stepping up.I remember being proud of Jurco, he wasn't scoring a lot, but he was playing like a bat out of hell.

http://www.generalfanager.com/players/753 Yeah, so his last contract was 1 year for $2,500,000. But last year he only had a cap hit of $1,500,000. So his $1,000,000 bonus for playing in 10 games last season did not count against lasts year's cap. Which means we already have $1,000,000 of cap hit against this years cap due to Cleary's bonus last year. They did the same thing with Alfie a couple of season ago.

Jet lag is jet lag. Change in elevation also affect oxygen perfusion to tissues. Private planes or not, you can't circumvent physiology of the body. It's still affected once the plane has taken flight.

Cleary isn't gonna be on the roster, do we really care how much money he's making? He also didn't stop any young guys from playing last year. I'm over the Holland/Cleary thing, plus after 2 years the jokes have gotten old and frankly kinda lazy. As far as loyalty goes, the Wings have always been loyal to their guys. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason Holland wants Cleary in GR is to learn the coaching aspect of the game, and join the GR staff next year.

What's to stop Brian McGrattan....ehhh, doing it wrong:(

I think he has a good point but Detroit is in a unique situation. A) it's more than just a new arena (it's a whole new neighborhood) and B) It's going in a blighted area. It's not just replacing something in the city, it's adding to the city. That is the difference.

Was just gonna post the same thing Kidding aside, I will never understand why grown ass adults STILL GET BEHIND THE WHEEL WHEN IMPAIRED. It's all fun and games when you hit a Tim Horton's, but when you are responsible for murdering someone the shine kind of wears off. Ryan, I am disappointed in you, your beard, AND your ridiculously adorable face and hot body. SHAME.