RIP Petr Klima

[WolvEagle]

A brilliant young player for the Red Wings whose time in Detroit was derailed by alcohol abuse. He was only 58.

He also was remembered for a playoff overtime goal for the Oilers.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/...d-wing-petr-klima-passes-away-58/70183772007/

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/s...wings-goal-scorer-dies-at-age-58/70183159007/

 

[Songbird]

 

[Jake from State Farm]

This sucks
Really fun player to watch
I hope his demons didn’t catch up with him

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I was at that one. Klima had like 12 seconds of ice time in the first 100 minutes. When he came on to score this goal, every other Oiler and Bruin was totally gassed. He was skating about twice as fast as everyone else. Not a happy life, though. RIP.

 

[Huggy]

I know a guy who was playing for Cleveland in the IHL when Klima was sent down for a conditioning stint by the Penguins. The stories he had about him were unreal, both in the IHL and what Klima told him he got up to in Detroit. He said he was light years better than anyone else on the ice - when he felt like it.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Klima was Probert’s drinking buddy
The story of how the Wings got him out of what was then Czechoslovakia is something out of a spy novel

 

[Ookpik]

RIP.

 

[Huggy]

Klima was Probert’s drinking buddy
The story of how the Wings got him out of what was then Czechoslovakia is something out of a spy novel

He said they'd drink at the airport so nobody would recognize them since the Wings were always on the watch for them. He was either in the car ahead or behind Probert when he got busted at the US-Canada border.

 

[Liut]

The story of how the Wings got him out of what was then Czechoslovakia is something out of a spy novel

Remember that story from Jimmy D and Roger Lajoie's book. Didn't it involve Nick Polano and Jim Lites?
The funniest was the Wings paying off some Russians to claim Vladimir Konstantinov had cancer so he could be released from the Red Army.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Remember that story from Jimmy D and Roger Lajoie's book. Didn't it involve Nick Polano and Jim Lites?

Yes

 

[Sea Bass]

Mainly remember the guy for two things: the goal in 1990 and his helmet.

 

[X-Hack]

RIP.

I loved Klima. He was the best when he wanted to be. His passing makes me sad. But that commercial made my week.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

The more I think about it I’m sure Yzerman saw a lot of Klima in Vrana — the good and the bad

 

[Starman]

The documentary on the Russian Five was pretty good on its own, but there could be a hell of a dramatic movie made about the Red Wings from 1987-2002, with a prologue chapter starting in the dungeon of the Dead Things era and an after credits epilogue including the 2008 Cup.

One of the main themes would be taking the most insular North American pro sport, NHL hockey, including hard living new generation Euros and eventually Russians, to build a dynasty.

Klima and Probert were kind of leading characters in the "long climb through purgatory" era in the 80s, when the team was no longer awful but still had a long journey ahead. The arrival of Yzerman and then the Russians elevated them to championship level. But Klima and Probert had to go before all that could happen.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Those relationships they built in Europe help them today, although you’ll never see talents like Datsyuk (sixth round) and Zetterberg (seventh) taken so low again since everybody scouts Europe
Lidstrom and Kronwall live in Sweden
Both saw a lot of Edvinsson and Kasper before they were drafted
If the Wings had gotten the No.1 pick when they hit bottom I’m positive Yzerman would have taken Tim Stutzle

 

[Starman]

On that topic -- players who are instrumental and even crucial to building up absolutely woebegone losing franchises to competitiveness and even contenders, who never make it to the glory days when the team finally wins -- I always thought of this lyric:

Little girl down on the strand
With that pretty little baby in your hands
Do you remember the story
of the promised land
How he crossed the desert sands
And could not enter the chosen land
On the banks of the river he stayed
To face the price you pay

So let the games start
you better run
you little wild heart
You can run through all the nights
and all the days

But just across the county line,
a stranger passing through put up a sign
That counts the men fallen away
to the price you pay
And girl before the end of the day
I'm gonna tear it down and throw it away

Probably the all time champion in this category would be Elgin Baylor, who was drafted in the final year of the once-dynastic Minneapolis Lakers, who had hit the skids hard and crashed into the cellar. As a rookie Baylor had probably the greatest rookie season of anybody before Wilt, and led the Lakers into the finals against the Russell Celtics.

His last couple seasons with the Lakers, and a month into the 1971-72 season, Baylor was eventually supplanted in the starting lineup by Jim McMillian, retired rather than take a role as 9th-10th man, and watched the Lakers roll to the greatest season in NBA history to that time and finally bust through to the title.

After the title, Baylor refused a championship money share and a ring, even though he fully qualified, because he felt he "hadn't earned it."

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Examples on other Detroit teams are Jason Thompson and Steve Kemp with the Tigers
Kelly Tripucka and Adrian Dantley with the Pistons

 

[Starman]

Yep, I was just about to throw Tripucka/Dantley in there. The Pistons draft class of Isiah and Tripucka was the first step from the dungeon to the mountaintop.

In the long-run-of-history department, when the internal situation between Dantley and Isiah blew up and they ended up shipping him off for Mark Aguirre, they might have been as well off had they reacquired Tripucka, who was having a couple big years for the Hornets.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

An example on the Lions is, umm, err... #TooSoon?

In New York, the most obvious (only?) example is Don Mattingly. Came up in '82, the year after the Yankees made the World Series, and had a too-brief Hall of Fame-caliber peak for excellent teams that finished second in the pre-wild card era. Then his back went, his numbers fell off and he was a worthy captain and the only bright spot on some truly bad teams. Finally snapped the playoff drought in '95 and retired, and the rest is history. He rejoined the team as a coach in '04 and remained thru '07 but never made a World Series. Accompanied Joe Torre to the Dodgers, who made the LCS three times w/Mattingly as a coach or manager but never the World Series. At least the Marlins probably won't break thru after his exit. Hopefully he finally gets some good fortune as the Blue Jays' bench coach.

 

[I Should Coco]

The first coach of this type who comes to mind — and there probably are many — is Doug Collins with the Bulls.

Lifted the team from its awful early and mid-1980s period (granted, with help from a certain draft pick or two) but they didn’t take the final step until Phil Jackson arrived.