Stevie

Pretty much everyone has already done a tribute to Stevie, there's nothing new I can offer but I feel the need to say something. Like all of you, Stevie is larger than life in my head. I believe he can do things normal people can't, even to the silly point of once asking: Who would win in a fight, Gordie Howe or flying Steve Yzerman? This led to a whole belief in my family that Stevie can, in fact, fly and that he uses this power to guard the Red Wings and straighten the banners during games. Crazy? Yes, but that's the power Stevie holds over us.

I had to wait until today because I couldn't even read a blog tribute or an article about him without tears coming to my eyes. The really good ones or ones that echoed my exact feelings actually made the tears flow freely down my face. Melodramatic? Probably. But again, the power of Stevie.

The power of Stevie has kept fans who might otherwise have turned to other teams faithfully supporting the Wings for years. Stevie took the weight of our collective hopes and pain and skated with that on his shoulders until he finally led the team to the Stanley Cup. The power of Stevie led us to not just that first Cup, but 3 as a player and he was there for another as an exec. There are achievements he reached that I probably don't even know because, and I admit this hesitatingly, I'm more of an emotional hockey fan and the kind who remembers stats. I do know the awards he won, and was in complete awe of them when they were placed next to each other on Steve Yzerman night earlier this year. It was amazing to be in the presence of those trophies, yes, but knowing that Stevie had touched and won each of them? So much better. I stayed with my cousin and brother for five minutes just staring at the Stanley Cup standing proudly among the others. Amanda and I had to go back to see them again, and the next trip got us a view of Stevie's gold medal. I felt so honored that he would share that with us. I have a neighbor that's actually won an Olympic gold for weightlifting and have seen it before. That was cool but seeing Stevie's gold was almost a religious experience. That's what he means to me.

Actually, that doesn't cover half of what he means to me. I don't know the words to describe what Stevie means to me but I don't have to, you all feel the same way. I doubt any one of us could be his biggest fan, we all love him so much that I don't think any particular person could be singled out as the biggest one.

I only have one good picture of Stevie that I've taken and it's kinda blurry, but I'm sharing it with you guys. It was taken during a pregame ceremony honoring the Olympic medalists when we played Vancouver in March, I hope you like it.

I've now lived two days without Stevie as an official Red Wing and it's weird. I refuse to call him a former Wing, you can't un-Red Wing someone like him, not when the Winged Wheel is in his heart. Tampa Bay, I hope you know just how lucky you are.

A really late recap of pictures

Game 4 against the Sharks was amazing. It was also a long time ago. Since I have pictures from that game that need to be shared, we're gonna ignore the delay and pretend I didn't take forever to get these up. Sound good? Thought so. We're also going to skip over the fact that our season is over. If you need a season recap, I can recommend some wonderful blogs that will take care of that for you. Pretty sure you already read those, and you should.

Before the game I asked if Ritola would be the Answer, I don't know if he was or not, but here's one of him just in case.

How about some more Swedes? Here's Lilja looking like an angry Viking.

For Natalie, how about some Homer?

Dena can't think straight when Kronner is too close. I think he's remembering her reaction and smiling, kinda creepily, about it here:

According to Amanda, I was a lovely shade of green before the game started (I was a little nervous...) and I think Miller was worried when he saw me.

This next one just makes me laugh, probably because it looks like the puck is about to hit Abby's butt...

Here are some random pairings of guys...

I'm sure Danny Cleary is a sweet guy, but he sure looks like a creeper in pretty much every picture...

Nick was very happy in warm-ups, this is the closest I got to a picture of him smiling though.

And now, since Mule was on fire, here's some Mule pics

Pretty sure he's concentrating on all the shoot he's going to make in this one.

Also, I'm nearly positive Mule's thinking about Dena here :)

Almost forgot this one- Raffy sporting his playoff hair. Or just Raffy and his beard, you can't really see his fuzzy head with the helmet on...

And to finish up, here's Mule practicing making shoot.

Nothing new...

I can't bring myself to do a recap of my pictures from game 4 or a wrap-up of the season just yet, but I promise one will show up soon. I've got some player tributes planned for the summer too, just need to make them. Also, next week I'm having some minor surgery so I'll be on IR for about a week or so making posts even more sparse than they are right now. Hope everyone enjoyed the season while it lasted, I'll be back soon :)

#42

Unless everyone is wrong, Mattias Ritola will be in for J-Willy tonight. Andy has believed for months that he is The Answer, even calling him that for reasons any Hitchhiker's Guide fan will quickly realize. In the spirit of hoping The Answer will be the kick/shake-up/insert-phrase-here that we need, here's basically every picture of him that I have from the game the half Griffs/half Wings played against Chicago in December.

And from the game itself...

This last one, borrowed from @DetroitRedWings, sure makes it seem likes he's been ready and waiting to be The Answer since the Black Aces first got called up. Let's hope everyone's right about this

Random Game 6 pictures

Tonight's game plus a bunch of stuff I found on the internet has left me feeling down and I'd rather not go to sleep feeling this way. I won't have any new pics for a few days, but I thought I'd share some random ones from Game 6 against the Coyotes, aka the last game I was at. Sorry if this all seems a bit disconnected, I'm really tired right now.

To start things off, here's a frustrated-looking Mule and angry-looking Nick with a little bonus Homer head.

Sparty on. That's all that needs to be said about this picture.

Stuie looks intrigued by Fil's stretching...

My picture of Pav decided it wanted to focus on Drew Miller instead.

Finally, Tuzzi is looking a bit rough in this last one...

Here's hoping for a happier ending on Thursday

For anyone who hasn't heard...

There is going to be a tin foil flash mob tonight at 6:45 on the steps of the Gordie Howe entrance to the Joe. You don't need tickets- I certainly have none- since we're meeting up somewhere later to watch the game. You don't even need a tin foil hat, we have at least 200 and are making more by the minute. Just show up, have fun, and join in the dance if you're feeling brave, which you should be. More details on twitter, comment if you need a link.

This event is meant totally for fun, so just ignore all the haters trying to call us crazy. Yes, we probably are crazy, but not because we're donning tin foil and dancing the hustle outside the Joe. That just makes us awesome.