11/03 Notes
Rename the Grind Line
You have from now until November 14, to login to detroitredwings.com or foxsports.com to submit your suggestions for a new name for the “Grind Line” of Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, and Steve Yzerman. The top ten choices will be posted for the fans to vote for the line’s new name on November 16th before the game against Calgary. So send in your idea and who knows, maybe you’ll be responsible for the creation of a new name! I am so bad at coming up with nicknames and the like. I would hate having to come up with headlines for my high school paper because I suck at that kind of stuff.
Manny Legace Conference Call Transcript
David Keon of NHL.com interviewed Legace in a conference call and here’s some clips of what they talked about. To view the entire transcript, visit NHL.com.
Q. What is the difference in Mike Babcock and Dave Lewis? Mike had this reputation in Anaheim as a defensive coach, which was carried a little too far. The personalities are obviously different. What else have you noticed? Â
MANNY LEGACE: That’s the big thing between Mike and Dave. Dave was here for nine years, and he was always that guy you went to. He was always that assistant coach where you could joke around with or if you had any problems, you went to. Great guy, great family man, great personality, great everything about the man. To jump into head coaching on this team, you know, it’s hard to flip a switch to be the guy to tell you what to do. To scold guys when he’s already best friends with everybody on the team, it was a hard situation for him.
Mike comes in, and he’s already in that position to be able to tell somebody, like a Shanahan or Yzerman, you’re doing this wrong, you got to get your head out of your butt. He was already in that position, where Dave could never comfortably get in that position. He was already good friends with people here. It was a tough situation for him to be in.
He did a heck of a job. We finished first in the year every time he was here. We finished both years top of our division, top of our conference. We just ran into two hot goaltenders in the playoffs, and that’s what hurt him.
Do I think he should have had another kick at the can? Yes, I do. I think he did a pretty good job as the coach here. Mike has come in and done a phenomenal job to get everybody on the same page. His work ethic is, bar none ?? I’ve never seen a coach work as hard as he does preparing himself and his coaching staff, preparing the hockey team. They do a great job.
Q. Wanted to get your idea, what you think and the players’ perspective on how the league has been re-embraced by the fans, the excitement level from you guys, what you see from on the road and at home.
MANNY LEGACE: We get kind of a different view being here with Detroit. Pretty much everywhere we go there’s been a lot of excitement this year. Its been that way in the past years, too, luckily being an original six team, wearing the Red Wing on our jerseys. Everywhere we go, people seem to come watch and excitement fills the arena.
Overall, talking to other guys, other cities and stuff, everybody seems to be getting back into the swing of things. I don’t know if it’s just luck or just we have great fans, but everyone seems to be enjoying the game, enjoying more scoring opportunities. The big thing we’re hearing is none of those boring hockey games, clog up the neutral zone after somebody gets up one or two goals, shut it down. People just flying through the neutral zone, scoring chances right and left. The people are just enjoying it a lot more.
Looking for Wings tickets
In totally unrelated news, I am trying to get my hands on 2 lower bowl tickets (reasonably priced) for the Jan 26 game against Vancouver for my birthday. If you have some you’d like to sell or have ideas on where I should look, drop me an email or leave a comment. Thanks!
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