I went to the Wings-Blackhawks game tonight at Joe Louis Arena West (formerly known as the United Center). During the opening faceoff, Justin predicted that the Wings would score in the first 1:50. At 18:16, Kyle Calder netted his first goal as a Red Wing.
Holmstrom added two more classic Holmstrom goals and Johan Franzen had an amazing spin-around goal that was worthy of a Datsyuk highlight reel. Pavel, meanwhile, had a quiet night statistically, but it is always a treat to watch him skate and handle the puck and a few of his passes tonight were pure van Gogh.
The 'hawks got a late pity goal with around a minute left in the game to make it a 4-1 final.
The crowd at the United Center is a shell of its former self. The nationwide hockey depression in general, and the specific woes of the Blackhawks organization over the past several years has taken its toll. When I first started going to games after moving here, it was always a full house and a raucous, hostile crowd. Whenever the pockets of Red Wings fans would start up "Let's Go Red Wings!", the cadenced gap in the cheer was filled with a booming response of "De-troit sucks!" It was spirited and lively and fun. No longer. I'd guess there were maybe 10,000 in attendance, and that's probably being generous. Of that, at least 4,000 were Detroit fans. There was nary a disparaging remark about Detroit to be heard, other than from one drunken and frustrated fan outside the stadium after the game.
But a 4-1 win for the good guys and great seats to watch it from make the concerns over not having profanities and beer hurled in your general direction rather minimal. Couple that with Michigan's impressive 67-56 win over MSU in hoops tonight, and I'll call it a good night.
Even if Blogger did eat the lengthy post I had meant to put in this spot after I'd spend about an hour and a half on it. Note to self: Do not hit the back button from Preview to try and resume editting.
A full rundown on my actual plans for the trip and how I got to this point is coming tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have some more answers and ideas, as I'll be taking another crack at penetrating the beauracratic walls of the Immigration Department in--oh gee, five hours...
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