Wings to retire Yzerman’s number
Steve Yzerman will have his number retired in a pregame ceremony on January 2nd, 2007. The ceremony will last one hour and conclude right before the start of the game against Anaheim. Yzerman will be the sixth Wing to have his jersey number immortalized in Joe Louis Arena.
“For a long time, there was no doubt in ownership’s mind that Steve Yzerman would play his entire career with the Detroit Red Wings and that his sweater would fittingly go up into the rafters along with the other all-time greatest Red Wing players,” senior vice president Jim Devellano said.
“As to picking a date, we wanted to be sure that this will be a very special evening and with that, it takes a lot of planning,” he said.
Let’s just say I’m going to do whatever I can to get to that game and I think many Wings/Yzerman fans will agree. I also like that the game is during most school’s winter breaks and when a lot of people take time off.
Update: Well I just ordered my birthday present early. 
My dad and I have been planning to go to a Wings game for my birthday like I did last year. Anyways, I just bought two tickets for the Jan 2 game in section 114 (next to the zamboni pit), row 10 on StubHub. While I wish I was on the glass like last year (which was amazing), I just can’t miss this ceremony and it’s only 24 days before my bday!
Update #2: Wow…when I bought my tickets on StubHub, I got two tickets in the 10th row in the lower bowl right next to the zamboni pit for $275 each. There were plenty of upper bowl tickets available. Anyways, there are only 7 tickets left on StubHub with each ticket asking $1,104.00. I can’t believe that! I guess I got pretty lucky by buying my tickets within an hour of the announcement.
Update #3: The Detroit News has an additional quote from Jimmy Devellano about the event.
“It’s in the early planning stages at this point — we just wanted to get the date out there to let people know,” said Jimmy Devellano, the Wings’ senior vice president, Wednesday. “But I can tell you this: It’s going to be an extravaganza. And it will be a night to remember.”
John Niyo writes in his blog that Devellano “told me earlier today fans can expect something on the order of what Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky got for a send-off in New York.”
Update #4: Paul at Kukla’s Korner has an update about the ceremony via his blog’s forum. He’s on a mini vacation this weekend so it didn’t make it to KK, just the forum.
Jimmy D. was just on Leafs Lunch, talking about the Yzerman Retirement Day. He is catching some flak about the date of the ceremony, some thinking it should have been scheduled when an original 6 team was at the Joe. Jimmy D. stated Steve never played in the original 6 and this is not about who the Wings are playing that day, it is about Yzerman.
He was asked if Steve was close to being traded; Jimmy D. said twice. Once early in his career to Buffal for LaFontaine and then again in 94 to Ottawa for 2 very good players, two young players and some picks. He said that deal broke down but there was serious talk.
Michigan football season previews
Due to the fact that the University of Michigan football season starts next Saturday at noon, many blogs are putting out previews of the upcoming season as well as reviewing the sad 7-5 season of last year. Boy it sucked losing to OSU AND Notre Dame, yuck. Anyways, here are what the various blogs are saying about the 2006-2007 season. Go Blue!
MGoBlog is always the first place I go for UM football coverage and their recent post brings back bad memories from last season, which they refer to as the “Year of Infinite Pain.”
It would be easy to dismiss the above as plain bad luck if Michigan didn’t scrape past the teams it did manage to beat. The Iowa and Michigan State games were won in overtime; Penn State was defeated at literally the last second. Even games against Northwestern and Northern Illinois were not cakewalks. Without huge, momentum swinging turnovers in both games they would likely have gone down to the wire. No, Michigan 2005 largely deserved the ugly record they collected with their play on the field. They could neither run nor stop the run. They could not pass. They elected to not block the punt gunners. Twenty-seven-yard game-winning field goals were to be missed by the fat little kicker. Opportunities to put the game away by converting on fourth down were eschewed in favor of fifteen yard punts. The defense was incapable of stopping opponents on first drives or last ones. Were it not for the magic of the wide receiver screen, Michigan may have set records for offensive futility.
The post went on to talk about this season’s offense and makes a few predictions, which include “I Heart Hart t-shirts are hot sellers by the ND game.”
Michigan Sports Center has been spending a lot of time talking about recent player commitments, but they did make a comment about the team’s pre-season rankings (14th).
Coming off of a 7-5 season, some may say that Michigan should be ranked lower than 14/15, but I feel that it’s just right. If the Wolverines had made it to the top 10, then I’d be the first to say that that is way too high, just as if they weren’t ranked at all, then I’d say that’s wrong too. I’m very happy with the #14 ranking as this is just another thing you can add to the list of comparisons with the 1997 season. Coming into the eventual national title season, the Wolverines were rated as the #14 team in the nation in most preseason polls. I’m not saying that this season will turn out the same as 1997, but it certainly is something to think about.
Motown Sports Revival, a great blog about all major Michigan sports teams, posted their 2006 season preview.
The last time Michigan was ranked this low in the pre-season, Michigan went on to win a National Championship. I certainly am not predicting a repeat of 1997 but in the one case that Michigan came into the season under the radar, they proceeded to exceed expectations. On a much smaller scale, I think the 2006 Michigan Wolverines will exceed expectations. As I stated in my New Twist on the College Football Preview, this is by far the weakest college football season in terms of caliber of highly rated teams in a long, long time. If Michigan played USC or Texas at home in September, I would actually expect Michigan to win. Those teams have zero experience at quarterback. The Trojans and Longhorns are just two of a slew of highly rated teams with big-time issues on offense or defense. So, Michigan gets better by simply staying the same.
The Blog That Yost Built has some complaints regarding the “Maize Out” promotion and that they shouldn’t rely on the fans, rather they should give away free t-shirts. I fully support that idea…
It doesn’t strike me as a very good promotion when you depend on the fans to do everything. If your entire marketing campaign for the year revolves around “Go Blue, Wear Maize” then why not try to facilitate it? It’s like they’re trying to do things half-assed. They’ll promote it, they’ll put it on the schedule posters, the press releases, on WTKA, but when it comes down to it, they’re depending on the fans to make it work. Either go all out, or don’t try and have the thing every year.
iBlog for Cookies has a great visitor’s guide to Michigan football with where to stay (hotels), how to get to Michigan Stadium, and places to check out. They also made a few predictions for the first two games against Vanderbilt and Central Michigan.
Michigan wins big both games.
Michael Hart has 300+ yards through 2 games.
Steve Breaston has 3 TDs.
All is well.
If Michigan loses either game, I may choose to stay abroad.
Maize n Brew has an interesting discussion about the suckiness of Big 10 mascots.
Michigan got an incomplete, as no one has had the balls to put a live wolverine on the sidelines in over 50 years. This is not a bad thing.
However, since we can’t have a live mascot on the field, is it really a good mascot to have? LSU puts a live bengal tiger out for everyone to see. Colorado runs out a live 900 lbs buffalo every game. Baylor, despite sucking, has a live man-eating bear. No team in The Big Ten sports a mascot as cool or deadly as any of those on-field mascots. Even worse, there isn’t a live mascot in the conference. Shouldn’t the mascot match the team?
They gave U of M a new more modern mascot, the Ford Explorers.
Overpriced. Overhyped. Situated in the heart of Michigan, it guzzles down more than your expectations. The Explorer takes three tanks to get from one end of the field to the other. It will let you down in new, never before fathomed ways. Tends to crap out during the end of the winter or the end of the fourth quarter. Once the crown jewel of college football/auto world, a series of setbacks have shown all of its flaws. Poor design work was exposed in a number of fourth quarter collapses and product recalls. You’re never really going to be sure what’s wrong with it until the warranty runs out or it hits the third game of the season. At this point your University of Michigan Ford Explorer could be one of two things: 1) A big ass behemoth capable of running over everything in its path; or, sadly, 2) a behemoth that is just as likely to blow a tire/engine/transmission, flip over, and kill everyone inside, taking your hopes, dreams, and football program along with it.
He goes on to give a more modern mascot for all of the Big 10 mascots. Check the post out, it really is a great and entertaining read.
Michigan Against the World has their preview for the next season out and take a look at all the key positions / lines as well as the overall season prediction.
As always, Michigan has the talent to compete against anyone. But, they have some ghosts that are looming large again this year. 0-7 in their last 7 road openers. 6 straight seasons with a September loss. 1-3 in the last 4 against Notre Dame. 1-4 against Jim Tressel’s OSU teams. The Wolverines start 2006 with 2 gimmies, Vanderbilt and Central Michigan. There are 2 weeks to get ready for what I think is the season’s most important game, the trip to South Bend. Michigan will have the opportunity to exorcise 2 of those demons in what should be an extremely hyped national matchup with a highly ranked Irish squad. If they can pull that one out, the confidence they get should be able to take them through to Columbus without a loss, where they will be in for an incredible test. Call me crazy, but I like our chances against an OSU team we could have beaten last season without Hart, and with 9 starters that they have departed from defense. We will have no problem with Penn State, and Michigan State, and potential trap games exist with Wisconsin and Iowa. If they lose the Notre Dame game, we may be looking at another 8-4, 9-3 season going into the bowl. Call me crazy, but I’m betting on the former. I don’t know where the loss will come, but I’m not predicting an undefeated campaign.
SEASON PREDICTION: 12-1; Big Ten Champions, Rose Bowl Champions
Stadium and Main gave reasons why the Notre Dame game is more important and then why the OSU game could be more important. Nick believes that the Ohio State game’s outcome is the more important of the two.
These lists seem fairly equal, but the timing of the OSU game (end of regular season) and the fact that they’re our #1 rival make “The Game†just a bit more important to me virtually every season. Some of my feelings about which game is more important have changed over the past few weeks, and will definitely change once the season starts. If ND loses at least one of its first two games and still beats Michigan (as I’m predicting), it will be ten times worse than it was in 2004, when they lost to BYU(?!) and still took us out. But, if Ohio State beats Texas (which I’m predicting, although I’m not sure why), and can survive a tough night game at Iowa, a victory over the Buckeyes to close the regular season will be indescribably sweet. So I’ll stick with my “must win at OSU†stance, for now. But both games are obviously incredibly important, for the reasons listed above, and many more.
Now if Maize and blue makes you sick, Rob at The Cheap Seats started up a new project called the Spartan Blog.
As part of my efforts to blog more and about the Wings, NHL, and other sports/games that interest me, I plan on writing post-game comments as well as linking to many of the blogs above. Go Blue!
New on ZetterbergFan.com
I have now joined Chris at ZetterbergFan.com, which is dedicated soley to Henrik Zetterberg. Anyways, I wrote a short article about why Zetterberg could be named captain and we know he will be, it’s just a matter of when (this year or a few years down the road?).
I plan on writing for the website whenever I can and more specifically, I hope to start working on a Behind the Jersey: No. 40 feature article.
Chris also posted an article today called “Who is Henrik Zetterberg?”
Who is Henrik Zetterberg?
The answer isn’t as easy as; “He is a 25 year old, Swedish born, professional hockey player.†Anyone who is reading this article should already know that. The real question is; what does Henrik Zetterberg mean to the Detroit Red Wings?
So… Who is Henrik Zetterberg? Let’s start from the beginning…
Nashville signs Dumont
JP Dumont did not sign with the Wings (but who really thought Holland would actually sign him?), but with Central division rival, the Nashville Predators. He agreed to a two year deal worth $4.5 million, which means he took less than the $2.9 million he was awarded during arbitration which the Sabres then turned down.
“This was a guy who was not on our radar when the offseason first came about,” Predators general manager David Poile said. “But because he was made a free agent he became very attractive to us. The Buffalo Sabres thought they lost a really good player and a really good person.”
“Nashville is a team that has been moving forward the past few years,” Dumont said. “Joel told me good things about Nashville, the town, and the organization.”
James Mirtle wonders why the Preds’ GM didn’t go after someone for the blueline instead of signing another 20+ goal scorer.
Given that three of those ‘losses’ are defencemen, I would have thought GM David Poile would be more concerned about his blueline. Youngsters Shea Weber and Ryan Suter are pegged for big roles next year, RFA Dan Hamhuis remains unsigned and the No. 6 slot could go to any number of unheralded options (Mikko Lehtonen, Nolan Yonkman, Kevin Klein, Greg Zanon or Ryan Parent come to mind).
If Nashville struggles to compete in their division with Detroit, their backend will likely be the reason why. Adding yet another 20-goal, 55-point winger doesn’t change much — and it remains to be seen whether Dumont can keep up the scoring pace he put up last year riding shotgun with Daniel Briere.
And with Anson Carter’s agent saying that “he won’t be a bargain” and that they are willing to wait to make sure Carter gets the salary he’s worth, it looks like the Wings won’t be signing any 20+ goal scorers by the time training camp starts.
Personally, I would’ve preferred for Holland to have signed Dumont instead of Greg Johnson, but it didn’t happen so I guess we’ll have to see how things go this season…
Wings release local broadcast schedule
The local broadcast schedule has been released today for Detroit Red Wings coverage.
Three Wings pre-season games will be shown on Fox Sports Net. I don’t remember any of the pre-season games being on TV last season, but I could be wrong about that…
Click on the link above for the list of the complete radio and TV schedule for the Detroit area.
Cincinnati lead 34-7 at half
The Cincinnati Bengals are beating the Green Bay Packers, 34-7, in a Monday night preseason football game. At the end of the first half, quarterback Carson Palmer threw three touchdowns and his knee held up. Tonight’s game was his first back from his ACL/MCL and kneecap dislocation back in January when the Bengals lost to the Steelers. His performance tonight will let the team know if he can handle the season opener on September 10th.
“Just getting the rust off felt good,” Palmer said in a third quarter interview (he was pulled at the end of the first). “It felt good to know that my knee can withstand the big hit…that’s when you know you can be confident in your knee.”
My therapists and fellow PT patients will probably be very happy and I’ll be hearing all about the game tomorrow when I’m in Cincinnati for my strength test, wish me luck!
Detroit Shock reach finals
The Detroit Pistons and Detroit Red Wings both failed to reach the finals and the Detroit Lions most certainly failed to reach the playoffs. But there is one Detroit team that is making a strong run at the title and that team is the Detroit Shock.
The Shock defeated the Suns in three games and will face the defending champs, Sacramento Monarchs, in the best of five series in the WNBA finals. In 2003, the team went from worst to best under the guidance of former Pistons bad boy Bill Laimbeer winning the franchise’s first WNBA championship. Four of this year’s starters were actually on that team along with two other players on the team.
“This team makes me look good every now and then,” Laimbeer said. “You could tell from the locker room before the game started that they were focused and ready to play basketball.
“We came out of the locker room (for) the third quarter with the determination that this was our game and that we were going to the Finals.”
Laimbeer did have a bad boy moment when he started screaming profanities with 5.7 seconds left in the first half resulting in a technical foul. ESPN had to cut the sound to eliminate the swearing. Oops! From personal experience, I’ve seen the wrath of the Laimbeer rage. His daughter could wring out any person who upset her. Thankfully, we were just friends.
Go Blue!
This upcoming Labor Day weekend will be a great way to start off the school year.
Maize Craze - a tailgate party on Palmer Field on Friday evening.
A football game Saturday at noon even if it is against Vanderbilt.
And then most importantly, a blood drive/bone marrow testing on Sunday. As many of you know, I had a tissue transplant this summer and over the past couple of years I’ve been a volunteer for Gift of Life Michigan and helped start the Students for Organ Donation Michigan chapter (UMSOD).
Anyways, a former UM quarterback named Tom Slade was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2005. He’s been waiting for a bone marrow transplant for three months now and has yet to find a match in both the national and internation registries. Sunday’s event is hoping to find a potential match for Slade while getting people to donate blood. A simple cotton swab is all it takes for a bone marrow test. I will be there sometime during the day for a two hour shift to man a booth for organ/tissue donation by UMSOD.
If you live in the Ann Arbor area, please come out and donate some blood!
To make an appointment to donate blood, donors should go to www.givelife.org, click donate blood now and fill in their email address, birth date where indicated, and the sponsor code, which is goblue. The donor will then have to fill out a registration page, click the bottom button and will then be directed to the U-M Blood Drives. Listed in the U-M Blood Drives will be the Junge Family Champions Center. Donors will click the radio button next to the blood drive where they would like to donate and then make their appointment on the page that will appear.
No appointment is necessary for the bone marrow test.
Where: Junge Family Champions Center (between Michigan Stadium and Crisler Arena)
When: September 3rd (Sunday), 8am-6pm
Why: Donate blood & bone marrow testing
Go Blue!
Undershute heads to Wings camp
There was an article in the Medicine Hat News about a local player, Kevin Undershute, who will be attending the Wings training camp in Traverse City. His teammate Darren Helm will also be attending.
“I was really excited,†said Undershute, who said he talked to Wings assistant general manager and Tigers alumnus Jim Nill, “I always wanted to go to an NHL camp. This is the first one. I am really excited and really looking forward to it.â€
“I have been talking with Darren, and it is going to be pretty intense,†said Undershute, whose WHL club opens rookie camp today with player registration at the Medicine Hat Lodge. “You have to be ready all the time. He (Helm) said it was just a lot of fun.â€
Undershute was selected 132nd overall in the 2005 NHL Draft.
More positive drug tests with sprinters
As if it wasn’t bad enough that sprinter Justin Gatlin failed his drug test, more of coach Trevor Graham’s athletes have tested positive. Gatlin actually “escaped” a lifetime ban by agreeing to cooperate with the investigation and Graham has been banned from U.S. Olympic Committee training facilities. In fact, Nike has terminated their contract with Graham.
Sprinter LaTasha Jenkins tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in July, a source familiar with the results told The Associated Press on Thursday. Only the “A” test has been conducted, said the source, who asked not to be identified because the results have not officially been made public.
The test was done in July by the International Association of Athletics Federations in Europe. If the second “B” test is positive, Jenkins could face a minimum two-year ban from competition.
After many many years of competition in the pros, Marion Jones has finally tested positive. Can’t say I’m surprised - her ex boyfriend and the father of her child had both already failed drug tests. Her “B” sample will be tested sometime this week.
The “A” sample from the June 23 test was positive for the banned endurance-enhancer EPO. If the second test is positive, the five-time Olympic medalist could face a minimum two-year ban from the sport.
“I don’t expect we’ll have the results right away,” said attorney Howard Jacobs. “It will probably take a couple of weeks.”
Dogged by doping suspicions for several years, Jones vehemently has denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs.
The June 23 positive test came after her victory in the 100 meters at the nationals in Indianapolis, her 14th U.S. title but first since 2002.