Pathetic Part 2

As Avalanche fans, it's just not possible for us to root for the Detroit Red Wings. The rivalry may have died out a bit, but there's just something about America's Worst City™ and their hockey team that rubs us the wrong way. So, despite some misguided remarks in previous posts, we must once again reaffirm our complete distaste for the Dead Wings. We definitely don't want them to advance to the second round of the playoffs.

Now, that out of the way, we must also reaffirm our distaste and disappointment in the Calgary Flames, who stayed true to form with another horrendous, pathetic performance on the road. Detroit kicked the crap out of them. Utter and complete domination.

Some teams take a beating with grace, and keep their focus on playing good hockey and turn their frustration into something positive. Even down three games to one, the Islanders played clean hockey as hard as they could, and had only six penalty minutes in their Game 5, series-ending loss to Buffalo. They acted like adults and just played the game, win or lose.

Not Calgary. The Flames, whose captain Jerome Iginla has been a total no-show for the entire series, have resorted to nasty, dirty cheap-shots. The worst example has to be backup goalie Jamie McLennan's completely unprovoked slashes on Johan Franzen, who wasn't even in his crease at all when the attacks came. McLennan had to skate out of the crease and away from the net to hit Franzen, who went down like a sack of potatoes. While we support rough, physical play at all times, and would oppose any ban on fighting, crap like McLennan's slashing doesn't belong in the game and neither does he.

If we had our way, neither Detroit nor Calgary would advance to the second round. Neither deserves it. Both are incapable of winning on the road and both play dirty. Instead, we'd advance both Dallas and Vancouver, who both have earned the right to keep playing. It will be sad to see either Marty Turco or Roberto Luongo go home early after Game 7 of their series---both of them have proven themselves to be the epitome of class and determination. Calgary and Detroit couldn't even come close.