Victory! Irony! ROUND TWO!

WINGS WIN SERIES 4-2!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we hope you enjoyed the Tour de Franzen.
(I swear McLean said it and if not he certainly should have)

I have a cat named Jiri. I'm not kidding (oh shut up, Elly has one named Sidney and if that's not worse I'll eat uh...something nearby and generally inedible, I'm too happy to be clever) and he even acts sometimes painfully like his counterpart. I just picked him up and spun in circles around the room (which he hated, for the record), telling him that it's okay, even though he was scratched (you bastards!) and couldn't help, we still won. And then I did a happy "we're going to Round 2" dance. I then proceeded from there to tell my roommate (who could not possibly care less about hockey) the entire story of the Franzen/McLennan saga (her completely improvised impression of McLennan had me actually on the floor, having spat out ice tea from laughing so hard). And now, finally, I am capable of making a post. Why so excited? Well folks, we didn't choke! A little much? Probably, but I had a lot of energy and welcome to Round Two, guys!

So thanks to that beautiful outcome, I'm feeling particularly thankful. For what, you ask? For all of these things!

• Johan Franzen for being amazing and ending that game in double OT on a note of hilarious irony.

• The Red Wings in general for realizing that I'd be horribly upset if they had to play the deciding game on Tuesday night during one of my finals and winning that for me, and for including cute things like this in your game notes:
• After losing two games at the Saddledome last week, the Wings switched up their stall assignments in the visitors' dressing room Sunday.

• Blogs like Gorilla Crouch who have game recaps up already for me to direct you all toward (bonus points for the absolutely golden Ted Leo reference) and all my other Wings blogging friends like Behind the Jersey (good luck with the paper, Christy!) and On the Wings.
  

• The best co-blogger I could ever ask for, Gator Elly, for staying awake through the game with me even though it was "boring" (I admit, I said it too) for three periods, and for not cheering too loudly for Kipper (at least in my direction), and for not telling me who won even though my feed lagged behind about a minute - oh and for not calling me Lupul...too much. Um.

• All the people whose TVs I filched during this series to make up for my lack of cable (even though we kept losing when I did it) and who I dragged out to bars with me for the same reason. Thanks for making nights like these happen, let's do it again next round!

• Mike of Bitter Leaf for allowing me a place to make a correct (probably my only one of the sort!) prediction with regard to my Wings.
  

• My always entertaining buddy Chapel for this post-game gem:
• Chapel: well played
  Me: I'm making my "I told you so" rounds now.
  Chapel: The Flames were a sexy pick, the Penguins of the West if you will
  Me: Shows how well sex appeal holds up in hockey?
  Chapel: FIGURATIVELY

• Jordi for holding my hand and cheering my Wings and promising me we'd win - and for all that victory-inspiring pre-game fantasizing about Ethan, Jussi, and hot chocolate - I'd never have been able to pull it off without your help

• HG for staying my friend and making it a whole week without saying anything too mean not followed up with -aroonidooni. I knew we could make it! Celebratory S383 pie and slurpees for everyone! (Soooo...you're going to cheer for us now, right? We're red, it's almost familiar!)

• CapsChick for not minding too much that I couldn't help her out and lose tonight. I'm sorry!
  

• The Flames corner of the hockey blogosphere for being awesome this past series - it's been fun, guys, it really has. Hope to see you all around still.
  

And everyone I forgot! Now, we hope and we pray that Vancouver crashes and burns (I know, I know, it hurts me to say it too, I'm sorry Roberto!) because I'd sure as hell rather face the Stars next series than the Sharks (okay I lied, really I'd rather SEE us face the Sharks but I like our chances better with the Stars)....and we wait and see. Go Wings!