Hockeytown Has Harsh Words for Red Wings

All is not well in Hockeytown.

“No repeat title,” wrote Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press after Wednesday night’s 3-2 Mighty Duck victory completed an improbable first-round sweep of the Red Wings. “No championship parade. No May. No June....

“Four times the Red Wings took their pride and power onto the ice against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, a team with a laughable name and a nonexistent tradition, and four times they skated off humbled. Wednesday night was the final indignity, a night when the Wings vowed they would show what they were about.

“Here’s what they’re about: They’re about home now, done for the year, the first team eliminated from this year’s playoffs. The team got dressed. The plane took off.

“And that’s that.”

Trivia time: How many times in his 20 NHL seasons did Wayne Gretzky score more than 106 points, the number scored by Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche this season to win the scoring title?

And in other news: Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, incredulous that newspapers in Kansas City and Raleigh, N.C., this week played basketball Coach Roy Williams’ move from Kansas to North Carolina more prominently than the war in Iraq: “Coming next week: Christiane Amanpour shares her ESPN moment.”

Magnificent seven: Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, making a case that no other franchise in NBA history could field a seven-deep all-time all-star team as formidable as the Lakers’ Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant:

“You have to like a team that can bring Shaq and Kareem off the bench.”

Turning a blind eye: Kevin Mulligan of the Philadelphia Daily News, on CBS’ coverage of the Masters: “Did you notice Nick Price, quoted earlier in the week saying Augusta is ’10 years behind the times,’ got no TV time? Showing Price even finishing at 18 would have put Jim Nantz in an awkward position, no doubt.”

.667 batting average: Of his career with the Boston Red Sox, former USC pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee told Fox Sports Net: “When I came to Boston, my dad said, ‘You are a Roman Catholic, and you drink a lot. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut and you’ll do fine.’

“Well, two out of three ain’t bad.”

Looking back: On this date in 1962, Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics matched his own NBA playoff record by pulling down 40 rebounds against the Lakers. Chamberlain, playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, broke the record April 5, 1967, taking 41 against the Celtics.

Trivia answer: 14 times, including 1985-86, when he scored a record 215.

And finally: The Chicago Cubs are in first place after a 7-3 home stand, and one of the reasons is the hitting of their new second baseman Mark Grudzielanek. “Now, I don’t know a lot about him,” comedy writer Alex Kaseberg says, “but I would guess, based on his name, that Grudzielanek descends from a long line of eye-chart makers.”

Yes, and former Dodgers who catch fire after they leave L.A.