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rrasco

Reddit AMA: I used to work at Joe Louis w/Red Wings

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I need a break from the Olympic talk, so...

This is an absolutely great read for any Wings fan. Lots of stuff I've never heard of before. Some stories about Huds, how Lids was in contract for the WC Alum game before his announcement was even retired, abby is a hypochondriac (my words) and some superstitions.

http://www.reddit.com/r/DetroitRedWings/comments/1ya0wf/i_used_to_work_at_joe_louis_with_the_red_wings/

Here are some of my favorite tidbits:

Unfortunately, he was abnormally shy. Pasha, as most people called him, would go out of his way to avoid fans. The fastest route from the locker room to his car was through the Olympia Room (a restaurant underneath Joe Louis). Rather than walk through the restaurant, he would actually climb through the scaffolding beneath the lower level bleachers and out through a side door to avoid people.

If you are ever in sections 101 or 102, watch under your feet after the game and you just might see a sneaky Pavel Datsyuk hopping through the catacombs

Turns out Crosby isn't such a ****** off ice after. Rats.

Additionally, to elaborate on the 'most friendly' question, the answer is not one that many Detroit fans will enjoy. Of all the players I've seen come through Joe Louis, the undisputed king of friendliness and fan appreciation is

Crosby. I've never seen a player spend so much time greeting fans and signing autographs. He would even go out of his way to thank our staff for providing hospitality during the travel game. It pains me to say it, because I despise his style of play and integrity within the game, but he is such a damn nice person.

Just to add a bit more information for perspective:

After the games, there was generally a crowd of 50+ fans that would gather in the basement of Joe Louis outside the Zamboni Pit in a designated "meet & greet" area. After a Penguins game, Crosby walked through to a roar of unpleasant wings fans. A little kid shouted something rude towards Crosby (something generic like "you suck") and his parents promptly reprimanded their child. Crosby stopped, turned towards the family and approached them. The parents were horrified that their ~7 year old had been so blatantly rude, but Crosby stopped and talked to the kid. He asked him why he didn't like the Penguins, to which the little wing fan replied "cuz you're the bad guys".

To everybody's shock, Crosby gave the kid a little lecture about how important that kind of enthusiasm is for the game of hockey and refused to accept the apology from the parents.

Most players would have just walked past. Crosby stopped and talked to the kid. It's hard to hate the guy after I saw that.

Edited by rrasco

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Thanks for posting. Great read. I'll be honest. It really makes me hate Sid ALOT LESS knowing hes a truly nice guy...damnit. My inner wings fan wanted to hate him so badly.

Also its hilarious that Pashas shy to a strange level. And that Jiri Hudler got drunk n pissed on the team lounge floor.

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Now we know why Hudler was always in the doghouse

Hudler was absolutely insane. He may be Czech, but he drank like a Russian. A few times he had to miss practice because he was completely wasted beyond recognition, which pissed off Babcock more than you can imagine. One significant binge of his was right after the 2009 loss to lose the cup, where he never even showed up for the team & staff composite picture (I believe they retook it eventually, but I'll try to find our original). On a totally separate occasion, he was found passed out drunk in the player's lounge (a room connected to the locker room with some nice couches, fridge, tv, etc) and had relieved himself on the floor. On top of that, girls girls girls. For being such a little guy, he sure pulled in the ladies like it was his job. If you've seen the new movie Wolf of Wallstreet, just pretend that was Jiri Hudler and you've gotten a pretty good impression. For a brief stint, I'm fairly certain that he lost his drivers license because he started getting rides from the other guys and a few times I actually saw his parents pick him up after practice.

I don't mean any of this in a negative way. Huds was an absolute blast. The life of the party, and a genuinely cool guy. If Hudler and McCarty every showed up at the same party, I'm expecting the world to collapse.

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Awesome, awesome, awesome. Confirmed a lot of things we had suspected, shared a lot of new stuff, and made me projectile vomit at the thought of anyone actually having sex with Jiri Hudler.

10/10, would definitely recommend.

The article that is, not sex with Jiri Hudler.

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Some interesting anecdotes but he was also pretty vague on other things which make me question how much inside information he actually has. Working in Food & Beverages, how close do you really get to the team?

If all that about Hudler is true though it does explain Babcock's reluctance to give him icetime. It also sounds a bit too extreme to be true, missing practice because you're drunk isn't something NHL teams just let slide.

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It might not have happened much. I do know for a fact that he spent at least a few hours in Kent County jail for drunk and disorderly when he was a Griffin. He got kicked out of a bar, wanted to go back in for his coat, then told the police "you can't arrest me, I Hudler, I hockey player."

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It might not have happened much. I do know for a fact that he spent at least a few hours in Kent County jail for drunk and disorderly when he was a Griffin. He got kicked out of a bar, wanted to go back in for his coat, then told the police "you can't arrest me, I Hudler, I hockey player."

Hahaha... Little guy had an ego

Does anyone remember the Czech tabloids going crazy with Huds during that year he ran off to the KHL? I recall stories of booze, drugs, and prostitutes... And they had pictures.

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Some interesting anecdotes but he was also pretty vague on other things which make me question how much inside information he actually has. Working in Food & Beverages, how close do you really get to the team?

If all that about Hudler is true though it does explain Babcock's reluctance to give him icetime. It also sounds a bit too extreme to be true, missing practice because you're drunk isn't something NHL teams just let slide.

Yeah, I'm kind of not buying some bozo in food and beverages was "in" on what Nick Lidstrom's career plans were. It's not like it was unexpected shocking news. But to say he "knew" that Lidstrom was retiring. Sounds a little too far fetched. I just get the feeling that this person is overstating his importance. Even his "insider" pictures don't really seem that "behind the scenes". My feeling is if he did work at the Joe, his stories are probably second/third/fourth hand as opposed to first hand accounts.

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If all that about Hudler is true though it does explain Babcock's reluctance to give him icetime. It also sounds a bit too extreme to be true, missing practice because you're drunk isn't something NHL teams just let slide.

I've actually read some pretty interesting stories about how guys in the NHL with upper-body injuries are occasionally just hangovers, it wasn't in reference to the Wings though. I don't remember where or who it was about, so take that as you will, but I don't really find it that far-fetched.

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Hahaha... Little guy had an ego

Does anyone remember the Czech tabloids going crazy with Huds during that year he ran off to the KHL? I recall stories of booze, drugs, and prostitutes... And they had pictures.

Maybe that's why he didn't get to go to Sochi. I thought he was an odd omission, but if they'd need to have a babysitter, it might not have been worth the trouble.

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Yeah, I'm kind of not buying some bozo in food and beverages was "in" on what Nick Lidstrom's career plans were. It's not like it was unexpected shocking news. But to say he "knew" that Lidstrom was retiring. Sounds a little too far fetched. I just get the feeling that this person is overstating his importance. Even his "insider" pictures don't really seem that "behind the scenes". My feeling is if he did work at the Joe, his stories are probably second/third/fourth hand as opposed to first hand accounts.

It could be true, Lidstrom may have told some people that he was going to call it quits after that year, or at least was leaning that way, and maybe it didn't stay secret inside the organization. I actually heard that Rafalski was going to retire 3 months before he did, and I heard it at my neighborhood bar. The guy who told me was friends with a guy who did high-end home renovations, and Rafalski had some work scheduled for that summer. He ended up cancelling the project because he wasn't going to have the money coming in anymore, because he was going to quit playing.

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"[]GregLouganal 1 point 49 minutes ago

Do you know whatever happened to the guy that ran their Twitter account, Jake Duhaime? I heard he got canned because he creeped out the players and the coaches when he was in the locker room, especially near the shower."

This Jake guy sounds like my spirit animal.

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What a great read. Damn first I've had to defend Kane (a Blackhawk) and now after reading this I have a lot MORE RESPECT for Crosby (a Penguin), most players would have definately walked by and never looked back. The end is near of at least close.

Sadly I think most of us fans knew it, when Nick looked pissed after the loss against the Predators. The story about Hudler is just too good sounds like he was enjoying the NHL lifestyle way too much for Babcocks liking :-) waking up with a bunch of girls in a first class lounge isn't the worst thing in the world *lol* Dmac + a Hudler at a party sounds like a nice party to be part off

I'm not surprised about the Pasha story the guy is shy nothing wrong with that, he's a magician on the ice and for me that's all I care about.

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"Politics has a lot to do with player selection, but its mostly in a sense pertaining to comradery. A very notable russian was considered in trades back in 2012, but it was going to be Datsyuk's responsibility to keep an eye on the (very arrogant) guy. Datsyuk didn't want the hassle, so they scrapped it completely. Skill was rarely the most important quality in management's minds."

Hmmmm...

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"Politics has a lot to do with player selection, but its mostly in a sense pertaining to comradery. A very notable russian was considered in trades back in 2012, but it was going to be Datsyuk's responsibility to keep an eye on the (very arrogant) guy. Datsyuk didn't want the hassle, so they scrapped it completely. Skill was rarely the most important quality in management's minds."

Hmmmm...

He might get a little more credibility if he could spell "comradery". In any case, I'm not going to form an opinion either way based on these posts. I mean, I know everything on the internet is true of course, but......a guy who works in catering has inside info on trades and personnel decisions? Datsyuk is shy, Huds is a partier, Management likes character guys over skill (well, besides Dan Cleary of course). Just seems like fairly basic information.

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He might get a little more credibility if he could spell "comradery". In any case, I'm not going to form an opinion either way based on these posts. I mean, I know everything on the internet is true of course, but......a guy who works in catering has inside info on trades and personnel decisions? Datsyuk is shy, Huds is a partier, Management likes character guys over skill (well, besides Dan Cleary of course). Just seems like fairly basic information.

I'm not commenting on the truth of his information or not. But this is a thread to discuss the AMA, so we might as well discuss it. It's an interesting distraction, and the piece I quoted got me thinking about who he could be referring to. Sometimes, things don't have to be gospel, they can be fun. It's not going to influence how I feel about the Red Wings one way or another.

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