THIS WEEK @RWW - 10/30/03
HALLOWEEN BRINGS OUT THE LIGHTER SIDE
By Eva Gronowska

Believe it or not, Halloween is one of the Red Wings favorite holidays. Many have kids they take out for a night of trick-or-treating and others just stay home and pass out candy. This year, however, Halloween falls in the middle of a four game road trip and for the second year in a row the Wings wont have a team party.

Our schedules not really friendly, Jason Woolley said.

Its not a great social schedule.

Yet the road trips are part of the job and this year one will take trick-or-treating time from some of the teams fathers.

With dad gone, the Woolley residence makes sure to stay in the spirit of Halloween through multiple arts and crafts, like pumpkin carving and decorating the windows. The defenseman said that his wife keeps the kids busy making various arts and crafts, something that probably runs in her family. Woolleys mother-in-law puts together homemade costumes each year for the Woolley children. This year, for example, she made a pirate outfit for the eldest and two monkey costumes for the younger two. Last year, the older two kids wore custom made lion outfits.

Probably by the next three or four years, Ill have the whole zoo population taken care of, he joked.

Darren McCarty said he finds Halloween to be one of the greatest times to hang out with his kids. This year, his two girls will be dressed as Native Americans and his son Griffen will take on the role of Tony Hawk. McCarty, however, will be gone when this Friday rolls around.

It (too bad) that were away, McCarty said.

Its tough, Kris Draper said.

Those are the things that a lot of people take for granted, is seeing your kids dress up and going out trick-or-treating with them.

Two Halloweens back, little Kennedi Draper decided what her and father, Kris, were going to go trick-or-treating as. When McCarty was asked what was one of the funnier costumes hes seen a teammate wear, McCarty immediately smiled and said it was his linemates.

Drapes came over to my house last year with Kennedi, his daughter, and they were both dressed as Dalmatians, McCarty recalled.

We had a good laugh.

Draper has had his fair share of costumes over the years. The Dalmatian costume added to a Disney theme. Another year, Draper, Kirk Maltby and goalie Chris Osgood went as the Three Amigos. Draper even got stuck being the Wicked Witch when the Wizard of Oz was the theme.

I dont know how I drew that straw, he chuckled.

Drapers proof that its not just the kids having all the Halloween fun. The Wings try to get together each Halloween for a party, but the past two years have yielded no success. However, at the last party a couple years back the competition for best costume was fierce. One year, McCarty won by dressing as a Hooters waitress.

It was pretty funny. It was classic, he said.

Former Wing Sergei Fedorov posed as a bum. The center spent hours in a makeup chair to completely change the appearance of his face. The results were amazing.

He was like asking for change and I just blew right by him, Draper recalled.

I had no idea. It was unbelievable the make up that he had.

Yet, the costumes that everyone raved about the most, even to this Halloween season, were the Shanahans unique costumes. Shanahan found the easiest way to describe the costume to those that didnt see.

I was sitting in a cage and a gorilla carried me into the party, Brendan Shanahan said.

My wife was at the party. She was in another cage. I think a giant rabbit was carrying her.

When they walked in, I seriously thought they hired somebody to carry them around for the night, Draper recalled, laughing.

Along with the candy and the costumes come the proper horror films. McCarty prefered psychological plots in his horror movies over gore, deeming the Nightmare on Elm Street movies were scary because Freddy messed with the mind. Of course, McCarty didnt exclude the blood, guts and gore, claiming that slasher movies were here to stay. Some classics that he grew up with included The Hitcher, Sleep Away Camp, and then the Chucky movies that would eventually follow. The predictability of the stories is no problem.

You know its going to happen, but it still scares you, McCarty said.

One of Jason Woolleys most vivid freakish flicks was The Hand that Rocks the Cradle with Rebecca De Mornay.

Theres a scene in there where that freaky lady, I think its Rebecca De Mornay, takes the asthma spray out of the guys bottle and Im asthmatic, Woolley said.

I would go crazy if I lost that thing.

Of course, then there are some guys that dont particularly care for these types of flicks. Perhaps they were scary at one time, but no longer.

The ultimate, when I was a kid, it has to be like, for me itd be a toss up between Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday 13th, Maltby said.

They were scary, but to see them now, I kind of laugh a little bit.

This year, the Red Wings will be somewhere in the middle of Nashville and Edmonton on Halloween. There wont be any costumes to put on, or parties to attend, nor scary movies to cower from. There will only be victories to gather on the road and maybe even a little leftover candy when they return next week.