Out in the Heartland, a Rivalry Reborn

Back for the summer in Detroit, I paid close attention to the Western conference finals. The matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks was the Original Six rematch so many fans and perhaps even the NHL wanted, and while it was not a particularly close series, I think it marks the restart a wonderful rivalry. As Chicago closed out their series against the Vancouver Canucks, fans chanted, "We want Detroit." Sports talk radio lit up with callers talking about how they wanted to destroy the winged wheelers and closed out every call with the Chicago chant of "Detroit sucks." The only problem with their enthusiasm was that Detroit had not even advanced to the conference finals yet. While Chicago was excited for the series against their one-time rival, Detroit didn't particularly pay much attention to the young Chicago team. Detroit sports radio didn't shy away from talk of the next series, though. It focused on how to annoy Chicago ...