What a grueling work week it has been this week. Unfortunately (or fortunately), 
work has had little impact on the harshness. With the Wings up 3-1 in the Stanley Cup finals and the next game being at home on Monday, everybody and their brother had their victory cigars ready to go, the news stations were announcing their post game victory coverage, fans were practicing their octopi tosses for when Gary Bettman was on the ice, and the cup was being polished up. I was going to go the safe route and watch it in the comfortable confines of my house but Matt B. “shamed” me into watching it with a posse at his house. I’m glad he did because championships in any sport are tough to come by (read: Detroit Lions) and you have to make the most of it when they happen. Well….everybody was ready to party until 34 seconds remaining in the game when Pittsburgh rained on our parade. Three overtime periods later, the game was lost and the Tuesday work day was only about five hours away. Ugh!!!!! There wasn’t much talking in the office that next day but we all somehow go through it. 
After my sleep tank was replenished Tuesday night, I was ready to suck it up on Wednesday for game six, as were about ten others. The location for this gathering was Rich P.’s place, also known as “The Mansion.” Rich has my 57 inch TV screen beat by a bit. He has roughly a six foot projection TV screen in his garage. I would post a picture of it here but it won’t do it justice. The players are pretty much life size watching that thing. Crazy. In between periods, Matt (aka Mike Babcock) was putting on a basketball shooting seminar in Rich’s driveway. He was chucking them in from about thirty feet and even made a shot kneeling from the fire pit (see picture).
We split in the P-I-G shootout, even though Matt protested because I didn’t “call” my behind the back shot. Those hockey players are always trying to get an edge somewhere. The Wings did pull out the victory, although that last shot as time expired was a bit on the scary side. Matt does get the gold star for calling out that Dallas Drake would be handed the cup after Captain Nicklas Lidstom had his ceremonial skate with it. Drake has the longest league tenure on the team (16 years) without having won a cup. He looked pretty giddy with it in tow. Heck, who wouldn’t?
work has had little impact on the harshness. With the Wings up 3-1 in the Stanley Cup finals and the next game being at home on Monday, everybody and their brother had their victory cigars ready to go, the news stations were announcing their post game victory coverage, fans were practicing their octopi tosses for when Gary Bettman was on the ice, and the cup was being polished up. I was going to go the safe route and watch it in the comfortable confines of my house but Matt B. “shamed” me into watching it with a posse at his house. I’m glad he did because championships in any sport are tough to come by (read: Detroit Lions) and you have to make the most of it when they happen. Well….everybody was ready to party until 34 seconds remaining in the game when Pittsburgh rained on our parade. Three overtime periods later, the game was lost and the Tuesday work day was only about five hours away. Ugh!!!!! There wasn’t much talking in the office that next day but we all somehow go through it. 
After my sleep tank was replenished Tuesday night, I was ready to suck it up on Wednesday for game six, as were about ten others. The location for this gathering was Rich P.’s place, also known as “The Mansion.” Rich has my 57 inch TV screen beat by a bit. He has roughly a six foot projection TV screen in his garage. I would post a picture of it here but it won’t do it justice. The players are pretty much life size watching that thing. Crazy. In between periods, Matt (aka Mike Babcock) was putting on a basketball shooting seminar in Rich’s driveway. He was chucking them in from about thirty feet and even made a shot kneeling from the fire pit (see picture).
We split in the P-I-G shootout, even though Matt protested because I didn’t “call” my behind the back shot. Those hockey players are always trying to get an edge somewhere. The Wings did pull out the victory, although that last shot as time expired was a bit on the scary side. Matt does get the gold star for calling out that Dallas Drake would be handed the cup after Captain Nicklas Lidstom had his ceremonial skate with it. Drake has the longest league tenure on the team (16 years) without having won a cup. He looked pretty giddy with it in tow. Heck, who wouldn’t? Trail Head
