Before the Avs, a Nashville retrospective

Wednesday April 23, 2008 @ 02:48 PM EDT

Thorsten currently plays wealthy casino owner, Zach Slater, in ABC’s daytime drama, All My Children. For that role, he received a Daytime Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Lead Actor” in 2006. He has also appeared in films, The Silencers, Deadly Desire, and The Bone Collector. An avid rugby and hockey fan, Kaye will chronicle the Detroit Red Wings run to the Stanley Cup.


Wings/Avs.


I couldn’t be happier.


But before I get into the rivalry, what it means, and my own take on what to look for in Round 2, I have to first give credit to the boys for making it this far and again, credit to Nashville for the will they showed in this series.


As a matter of fact, I almost missed the game. I went so far as to cancel a flight with Northwest to be sure I could see the game, and after all that I’m on the phone screaming at DirectTV because I couldn’t find the game on TV… so I’m sitting in the middle of nowhere in the woods, calling these guys, trying to find the game, but because there was a golf tournament, and the Pope, MSG was carrying the game here in CT on MSG+.


When it didn’t start right away at 3:00, I got pretty heated.


Now, the Pope I understand. And if the Pope needs NBC, who am I to complain? God is a Red Wings fan anyway, as everybody knows, so I knew he wouldn’t do this to us.


Eventually, everything worked out and I was able to catch the game, and I guess I owe an apology to DirectTV, but this is playoff hockey. Emotions run high.


But to the game…


The first period was the big one and my hat is off to Chris Osgood. I’m so impressed by him. I’m sure it was a tough call, and we talked about it last week, but I really felt like you had to go with Osgood after Hasek’s play and it looks like it panned out.


I don’t know what’s going on with Hasek. Those were some soft ones he let in.


As the game wore on, I had to send the family into another room; I was too nervous to be around anyone. It’s amazing because here I am, sitting and watching the game, nervous as hell and you look and you can almost feel the calmness of Lidstrom and Rafalski, even Kronwall (who has been great) and Chelios, and their calmness almost makes you feel more confident. It must be something else to be on the ice with them.


That calmness came out in their interviews as well. And whenever they talk to coaches, as they do sometimes during the games (don’t get me started on that), I’m always impressed that the coach compliments the other team. In no other sport does the coach make a point to do that as routinely as in hockey.


Something else that is unique to hockey is one of my favorite acts in all of sports: the post-series handshake.


My daughter, who is 5, came in before the game was over (right when Hudler had that beautiful goal), and she stuck with me to watch. And I try to imagine what it must look like to her: I mean, she sees the fights, the hits, and you try to explain to her what they’re doing and why, that they all like one another, they have a tremendous respect for one another, but that they have to compete to win.


So then, they start shaking hands and talking to one another, hugging one another and she just watched. She’d never seen that before, so we talked about hockey players, how they’re so different, and needless to say, she was very impressed.


Watching that handshake, seeing the tradition also got me thinking about some other moments that made my hair stand on end. Without getting too sentimental about it, here are my top three hockey and, yes, Detroit Red Wings moments of my lifetime.


3. Champions the Third: As far as memories, go, it’s hard to beat the ones you actually experienced. Well, I was there in ’02 when the Wings won the Cup. At the time, it was probably my greatest sports experience, not just in hockey. I was in the arena, it me and my brother Patrick, which made it great as well. My favorite part was each guy grabbing the cup and doing his lap with it. That was incredible.


2. March 26, 1997. That date alone should be legendary in the Red Wings archives. The big game where Lemieux finally got his ass kicked, when McCarty got him. The game where Roy came out and he fought Vernon. The game where Larionov and Forsberg, two of the least likely guys you’d expect to start a brawl, started a brawl. What’s more, I think they had lost every meeting with the Avs that year, and from the playoffs the year before, you knew it was coming. Hockey players have long memories. And not that you need to fight to have a game remembered, but McCarty stepped up, the team stepped up and protected one of their own, and to cap it all off, then they won it in OT; and who else? Darren McCarty slammed it in. I was watching it on TV. I was in California by myself, and I didn’t think it was going to be a game like that. I thought, “Here we go again,” but you could see when that game started it was a little more intense, and obviously, that’s how it ended as well.


1. Curtain Call But my No. 1 Detroit moment is another when I was actually there. It was, of course, the Yzerman retirement night. It sends shivers up and down my spine even now when I think about it. My hair was standing up. I’ve been in the entertainment business a long time and I’ve seen a lot of great performances, but I have never heard a longer standing ovation for anyone in my life. Whenever he wanted to talk, it started up again. I just remember sitting there thinking, “That is what class looks like. That is a captain.” And now, I’m so glad he’s still with the organization. My hat is off to the Illitches – they did such a great job with that ceremony. Everyone in attendance, we got this cool thing, it’s a little banner and it had all his stats from all the years he played. There was a great program, as well, and it was such a great evening, made better by the fact that we went out and won the game.


So anyway, thank you for humoring me. If you have your own top-3 list, I’d love to hear about it so post to the bottom of the page and we’ll see which are the consensus picks.


Like I said, I’ll come up with a blog on the Avs before we play Game 1, a little later this week, because I wanted first to finish off the Nashville series properly.


This was a tough one for us – we have a good record against all Western teams except the Central Division, so it was good to get that out of the way early.


We dealt with probably the scrappiest bunch in the playoffs as well. It’s a classy organization they have over there, a great hockey city, with a lot of good young players, some great veterans, and one heck of a goaltender.


My hat is off to you, Nashville.


My gloves are off to you, Colorado.


Kidding – maybe.


Round 2. Upcoming.

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