Gave: Behind Captain, Wings give fans something to cheer about
Any hockey fans in their right minds had to be checking their calendar as Henrik Zetterberg skated to center ice, holding his gloved hands in the shape of a heart, returning the love to another packed crowd at the Joe who couldn't seem to stop cheering even long after a breathtaking hockey game.
This could not possibly be mid-October, just five games into the NHL season. To anyone there watching -- from the stands, from the press box or in front of a TV set -- this felt more like April. Or May.
It even felt that way on the benches. Players on both sides in this overtime thriller said the game had all the trappings of a Stanley Cup playoff game. This is as good as hockey gets before Halloween.
"Let's go, Red Wings! Go, Leafs, go!"
It started the night before, four hours or so down the Highway 401 through Southern Ontario to the Air Canada Centre, where hockey season really got started for a couple of teams and their fans.
"Let's go, Red Wings!" For the last 25 years or so at least, Detroit hockey fans have traveled well. They show up at every hotel and rink on the road during the long NHL season. But for a game in Toronto? Wings fans have been known to fill trains heading out of Windsor. And they were there in force to see Detroit play its first game of the season away from the Joe.
"Go, Leafs, go!" Sure, long-suffering Toronto Maple Leafs fans lost their enthusiasm watching Detroit's stifling defense smother their team's high-scoring offense in a near-perfect, 4-1 road victory.
It would be different, both sides knew, in the rematch the next night on this side of river that separates two hockey-loving nations. It always is in the second of a home-and-home series on back-to-back nights.
And it was. From the start, both teams put on a marvelous show. The game featured a little bit of everything. Great pace and plenty of speed in end-to-end action. Quality scoring chances by both teams in every period. Some chippy play and a few frightening collisions. Acrobatic saves in either end. But not a single goal through 60 sterling minutes of play.
The decibel level just kept on rising as the alternate cheers serenaded both teams.
How shameful is it that it had been nearly 17 years, since 1997, that we hadn't witnessed a series like this between these two clubs? In an era not long before that -- before expansion forced Toronto to the East and kept Detroit in the West -- it would happen two or three times a year. Usually, the opener was at the Joe and the second game was at Maple Leaf Gardens for a "Hockey Night in Canada" presentation.
But on Saturday night in Detroit, when Zetterberg unleashed a vicious slapper that caromed off the goalie, off the post and in with just 9.9 seconds remaining in OT for a 1-0 Wings victory, fans exploded like they did in so many games in that magical spring of 1997. That season ended, of course, with The Captain, Steve Yzerman, waltzing the Stanley Cup around the Joe Louis Arena ice.
As exciting as this series was, though, we might remember it for something else. Zetterberg has served the franchise with honor as its captain since countryman Nick Lidstrom retired. But Saturday night, he really grew into the job.
Zetterberg openly talked about how disappointed he was in his own performance in the first three games, especially that ugly, 3-2 shootout loss to Boston last Wednesday.
So how did he respond? Like a captain: assisting on all four goals in the Friday night victory and scoring the game-winner in overtime in the encore performance Saturday.
Like The Captain, with capital emphasis, a title he earned in this series that ended at center ice saluting the fans for their stirring support. "Let's go, Wings!" indeed.
It's going to be a fun season, continuing Tuesday in Montreal (7 p.m. pregame, 7:30 face-off on FOX Sports Detroit) against another ancient rival. If we're lucky, the schedule-maker will slip in one of those wonderful home-and-home series with the Habs one day.
