Gave: Wings-Leafs rivalry should be fun for teams, fans
The new Red Wings season is about to get interesting -- and maybe even fun -- really fast.
If a home-and-home series with the Toronto Maple Leafs, their once and future best rival, isn't enough to get both these teams and their fans going, nothing will.
In just their third game of the year Wednesday night, Red Wings players blamed lethargy, and possibly fatigue, for a lackluster performance in a 3-2 shootout loss to Boston. But they earned a precious point thanks only the thievery of goaltender Jimmy Howard, who is making good on his commitment to being a better version of himself than he was last season.
In three games, all at home, the Wings have scored just six goals. An optimist might say, "Hey, those three were against two of the best teams in the NHL. They took three of four points in two games against the Bruins, and they got hosed by a generous non-call in the final minute against Anaheim."
Coach Mike Babcock surely wasn't ready to spin it that way. He didn't mind saying how disappointed he was seeing his players lose battle after battle against a Bruins team that looked at times like men playing boys.
"I didn't think we were very good," was about the best thing Babcock could say about his team. And he seemed puzzled that some players said they felt tired despite a rather cushy, week-long start at home and a 35-minute practice the day before. If all these young legs are tired now, how will they feel in mid-March, when every game is Armageddon as they fight for a playoff spot?
The perfect tonic for what ails the Wings is a good old Norris Division tussle with the Leafs -- tonight in Toronto and a Saturday night rematch at The Joe. Now they can see how they measure up against similar competition. The Leafs, too, are a middle-of-the-pack club that will need to scratch and claw for points to make the playoffs. In fact, don't be surprised to find both these teams fighting it out in a pack for the last couple of playoff spots in the East next April.
But for now, we'll get to see what this Detroit offense is capable of against a team that doesn't mind opening up the game a bit. Or maybe a lot. In four games, the Leafs have given up a whopping 14 goals. With or without Pavel Datsyuk making his season debut, the offense should find some breathing room after three games against stifling defenses.
At the other end, the Detroit defense may find itself under siege. Toronto also has scored 14 goals in those first four games, including six at New York against the Rangers in its first win of the season.
This series should be very entertaining. But that's how it's always been between these two clubs -- no matter where they were in the standings. In fact, in the years just before the Wings started this 23-year playoff streak, Detroit and Toronto often were duking it out, quite literally at times, for the final playoff spot in the Norris Division -- back when 16 of the league's 21 teams made the post-season.
Because for of the division's five teams advanced, all the Wings had to do was beat out one team, and it was often Toronto. Those home-and-home series in the late-1980s, with Jacques Demers behind the Wings' bench and black-hat-wearing John Brophy and his famous choke sign behind Toronto's, offered up some of the most thrilling hockey we've seen since they opened the Joe in 1979. A young Steve Yzerman captained Detroit; a younger Wendel Clark captained Toronto. It was a beautiful thing to witness and write about.
The rivalry between two of the league's weakest teams spawned headlines across two continents. One NHL executive snickered at it, comparing it to a kind of puppy love. Then-Wings GM Jim Devellano couldn't disagree, but he put it perspective for all of us: "It may not be all that interesting to anybody else," he said, "but it's pretty important to the puppies."
And so it is today. Which is why renewing this ancient rivalry is among the very best things about Detroit moving to the Eastern Conference.
