RED HOT RED WINGS

On Sunday, April 6th my husband and I took an early flight at 8:30 a.m. from St. Louis and arrived in Detroit at 11:00 a.m. to attend the Red Wings last regular season home game against the Chicago Blackhawks. We picked up the rental car from the airport, arrived at Joe Louis Arena about 15 minutes before the game, just enough time to watch the teams practice. It was another meaningless game as the Blackhawks already out of playoff contention. However, this is my 2nd Original Six game. Last Christmas, we saw the game between the New York Rangers v. the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden. I still need to see the Toronto Maple Leafs v. the Boston Bruins.

Above is the statue of "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe #9 who just turned 80 last month. Howe played for 23 seasons, won 4 Stanley Cups, named to more than 20 All-Star games, a dozen of Art Ross and Hart Memorial Trophies combined and a Hall of Famer. Howe, together with Sid Abel #12 and Ted Lindsay #7, was known as The Production Line that led the Red Wings to the Cup in 1950 and again 1952.

Below are 10 Stanley Cup Banners on the rafters and #9 among other great players whose numbers were retired. The most recent number is #19 Da Captain Steve Yzerman.

Da Captain Nicklas Lidstrom (above) accepted the President's Trophy as the team with the best winning record. I read in a book that hockey players are mong the most supertious people. Players would not touch and definitely not carry any trophy or award prior to the playoffs. It was believed that such action could ruin a chance of winning the ultimate Holy Grail, the Stanley Cup.

Below is the banner showing young 18 years old Steve Yzerman chosen by the Red Wings as their #1 draft. Stevie Y. was named team Captain when he was only 21 and remained the longest active captain until he retired last year.

After the game we went to Chelios Bar & Grill for late lunch/early dinner. I was not impressed with the selections on the menu, the food was good but nothing worth praising. My husband enjoyed the special Chelios chilli. The atmosphere was typical sports bar that carry the names of famous players, large screen televisions, lot of sports related displays and autographed items on the walls. Most of the people there came for a chance to see Chris Chelios more than quality of the food.

We returned the rental car with more than an hour before our scheduled flight at 6:30 p.m. However, the flight was delayed until 8:00 p.m. because the plane could not get in from Orlando, Florida due to bad weather there. We finally got home around 10:30 p.m. It was a great colorful weekend - Blue, Blues and Red!