#53 in your program, #1 in your hearts

The Free Press’s Helene St. James took note of the reason why Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider wears #53

One of the many reasons the Detroit Red Wings are so impressed with defenseman Moritz Seider is how good he is at thinking on his feet.

He did get caught though, a few years back, when he was with Mannheim in his native Germany — and that’s why he wears No. 53. It turns out he had watched the 1968 movie “Herbie the Love Bug” about a Volkswagen Beetle named Herbie that sports the number.

“I had a chance playing pro when I was 16 in Mannheim, and they were asking me and they caught me off guard,” Seider said Saturday. “I watched a movie the day before and it stuck in my head somehow. That’s why I’m wearing 53.”

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.

One thought on “#53 in your program, #1 in your hearts”

  1. I only saw the 3rd period of the Wings game tonite which was fortunate. I started to watch Seider. He not only is the best Dman but he doesn’t make the usual plays that are common place by most dmen. The 1st play seemed to be one to drive the puck aound the boards and pray. But Seider did not hesitate by making a play in the opposite direction, Oh Shit, Blashil is going to lose it. Nope somehow he knew there was a Wing a few Montreal players. Of Course the Puck ended up on the Wings player’s stick. He did the unexpected naturally the rest of 3rd. Never did I see bad passes, lost pucks just lovely plays. He played like this is what you are supposed to do, right. He is probably going to better, better than what? They lost but I felt good watching Mo play. I can just see all forwards trying to get on for a shit when Mo was on D. Only a couple of Forwards can do the jaw dropping things he does, once in a while. Then camera goes to him and there is no reaction but I would guess he is seeing/analyzing the other teams mistakes.
    I have watched a lot of hockey and at 20 most past DMen are behind him. When he learns more, the number of DMen ahead of him will be in single digits. Will he be a better overall DMan than anyone before him? I would not bet against him being the Best. Wings fan watched Lids play the game like it was easy, will MO53 reach or even move beyond Lids, all I will say is it he has a chance.

    Then the DMen change and it is time for me to do some things before he gets back on the ICE. He brings (some) of the enjoyment back to Hockey for me. Luckily I only watched one period of MO 53!

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