dirtygames.ca

It’s back everybody. After much frustration last night I was finally able to make internet-based radio work and the dulcet tones of Philadelphian sports announcers filed my ears. Then Jeremy Williams scored and I almost came in my pants. I held off, mostly because I was at work, where that sort of behaviour is, I think, frowned upon.

Regardless, it was hockey. It was preseason hockey so it wouldn’t have mattered if the Red Wings lost. But they won, so it is absolutely a harbinger of victories yet to come. I can’t say I saw any of the game, and I can’t say I heard more than about 25 minutes of it, but regardless, the Wings emerged with a 3-1 triumph, a 1-0 record in the preseason and no new injured players, which when you’re playing a team that dresses Chris Pronger is like a victory all its own…

And we learned some things, not about the team, but about the nature of preseason hockey in general. Here’s how you know its an exhibition game:

• When Derek Meech has no goals and no assists but is named the game’s first star.  (Note: You can also file this fact under ‘how you know you couldn’t watch the game and had to listen to the opposing team’s radio announcers.)
• Andy Delmore touches the puck at a meaningful point in the game and Mike Babcock does not immediately leave the bench, grab him by the scruff of his neck and drag him back to where he can do no harm.
• An ex-Maple Leafs prospect scores!
• A Red Wings prospect fought somebody … and may even have won the fight. (Note: The last part is rumour, but it sounded like he got some good shots in. I’m just going to pretend it happened the way I saw it in my head.)
• Nicklas Lidstrom played nine minutes and 22 seconds of hockey. Meech played 18:49, Delmore played 12:03.
• Pavel Datsyuk played only eight seconds on the penalty kill.
• Someone, I don’t even want to know who, let Kris Newbury (another Leafs castoff) wear a Red Wings jersey and sit on the bench. A few times, Mike Babcock accidentally brushed his shoulder while walking by and he jumped on the ice. Babcock, being a polite Saskatchewan man, didn’t have the heart to burst his bubble so Kris Newbury played more than eight minutes of hockey with a Red Wings jersey on his back. THAT, my friends, is preseason hockey for you.

Next game: Tomorrow, against the New York Rangers at 7:30 p.m. I’m not promising anything, but since the game will be on the MSG network in New York, you might want to check your favourite streaming sites. Personally, I lean toward a-t-d-h-e.net (take the hyphens out of the name and don’t tell too many of your friends).