I was a Cleary fan his first season with us, before he got awesome.Yes. I am an obnoxious OG Cleary fan. And I will usually take every opportunity to let you know that. But, there are times that it pans out for the better. And times when it makes me look like I actually know what the fuck I'm talking about when it comes to hockey in general and the Red Wings specifically.
And wouldn't you know it, we are currently right smack dab in the middle of one of those times. My boy Dan is riding a 5 game, 6 goal scoring streak. The best of his career. Also in the midst of a 7 game, 10 point streak.
Hockey players are fickle creatures. They get hot and go cold for only God knows what reason. Far be it from me to claim to be a God, but I am here tonight to tell you just why one player has the hot hands these days.
On November 3rd, the Wings were playing a game against the Calgary Flames. At 7:11 pm PST, approximately 13 minutes or so into the game, I said "Cleary's player of the night so far." With about 2 minutes left in the game, he did something that escapes me now, but prompted me to say "There's Cleary again. Best player on the team tonight."
And what happened after that game? Keep in mind, he only had 1 assist in the game.
I screen capped that shit.
You know why? Because he's my boy and I CALLED THAT SHIT. And I planned on doing this bragblog a while back.
But I didn't. I kept my gloating reserved to slight little tweets here and there. Nothing major, nothing really of note. Now, those of you who follow me and actually read the bullshit I put up on Twitter might know that I'm bound to just spout out silly little things that don't really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. This time, though, one of those 'silly little things' just so happened to turn into a fucking prophecy.
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| Nostradamus up in this bitch. |
That's me. At 9:47 pm PST (that picture above is in EST, by the way), saying to expect big things out of Cleary. That was on the 3rd. Right after that 1 assist performance against Calgary. November 3rd.
Two days later, the Wings played Edmonton. How's my boy do? 1 goal, 1 assist, +2, 3 SOG.
The next day, the Wings played Vancouver. How'd Cleary do in the loss? 1 goal, no assists, -1, 2 SOG.
On the 8th, we came home and faced Phoenix. Cleary? 1 goal, still no assists, +1 rating, 5 SOG.
The next game, an Edmonton rematch, and how'd 11 perform? 2 goals. No assists. +2. 3 SOG.
Against Colorado, just 2 days ago? Clears scored another goal, no assists, was +1, and had 2 SOG.
Here, let me break this down for you.
SEASON TOTALS: 7G, 5A, +3, 38 SOG
Before my tweet: 1G, 4A, -2, 23 SOG
After my tweet: 6G, 1A, +5, 15 SOG
Before I opened my mouth, he was shooting at a 4% rate. Since I said something, he's shooting 40%. Goals in 5 straight games. Before that, he hadn't scored since the season opener against Anaheim.
Is it a little cocky for me to take credit for this?
Yes, yes it is. Very much so.
Is that going to stop me?
Not a chance.
Lord help me if this post is a jinx.
I'm with you in the "Cleary fan from the start" band wagon. I liked him way back when he was in Chicago. I traded for him on NHL'98 and everything.
ReplyDeleteI get Hot and Cold too. I had 5 games in the last week in my Adult League. I went over a point per game average for those 5 games. before that I was more like .50 or even .25. Streaks come and go for hard working players. I play very much like Cleary, mostly work ethic based scoring, not overly technical or fancy. Sometimes you get points from that, other times you just don't get the same quality of chances.
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