Around the NHL
So I’m taking a study break from organic chemistry because I think my brain might explode without some hockey talk. Here are some comments on random events/news from around the league including some Wings stories…
1) The rights to U of M defenseman Jack Johnson were traded to the LA Kings along with Oleg Tverdovsky in exchange for Eric Belanger and Tim Gleason. Many Canes fans seemed relieved that the drama surrounding Johnson has lifted, but also wonder if he’ll turn out to be a top NHL defenseman that they traded away or if he’ll turn into an Avery-like defenseman (my comparison) then they’ll have gotten out of an even greater mess.
2) Brad Norton made the Wings final roster this weekend becoming the extra forward for the team. The team also chose Jiri Hudler and Tomas Kopecky to fill in the other two roster openings.
“He gives us the physical dimension we were lacking,” general manager Ken Holland said of Norton.
“He showed during the camp his skills were much better than I thought. But the big thing is his size and toughness.”
The Wings season opener is against the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 5th (Thursday night). The new captain will be announced before the game and I think it’s pretty been all but said that Nicklas Lidstrom will wear the “C.”
3) Dallas Stars’ Mike Modano loses his captaincy. Was anyone else as surprised as I was to hear that he was demoted and Brenden Morrow was named captain? I don’t follow the Stars closely or anything, but when I read that online I was pretty shocked.
4) Andreas Lilja and Mikael Samuelsson just bought their own houses about 100 feet away from each other. We don’t know what city they ended up in, but I’m thinking it’s Novi.
They looked for homes in Northville, Novi and a few other surrounding communities. The Wings’ other Swedes live in that area, except Henrik Zetterberg, who lives in Birmingham.
“Me and Lils looked at 60 or 70 houses,” Samuelsson said. “That’s a lot of houses.”
“I wanted to live in Northville,” Lilja said. “So we started looking at some houses in Northville. We couldn’t find anything we liked, so we started looking in Novi.
“I thought I could find a house in a week. It ended up taking the whole training camp.”
Northville is a very nice place (it’s where I live), but Novi isn’t too shabby either. 
5) Both GM Ken Holland and assistant GM Jim Nill signed contract extensions with the Wings through 2011. I’m not so sure about Holland’s extension, but I love Nill’s. Hopefully one day, Nill will become the head GM but I guess it won’t be for awhile yet. Nill has no out clause with this deal.
“I’m thrilled I’m going to be here for a number of years,” Holland said. “The Ilitch family has been very supportive of me and our entire hockey department. I obviously love it here and don’t want to go anywhere.”
Holland also picks up the title of vice president, not that it will change his role. He joked that “they were throwing out VP titles, and I figured I’d take one,” a reference to Monday’s announcement that Steve Yzerman had been named vice president and would join the management team.
“They’ve made a commitment to me, and I’ve made a commitment to them, and I’m very happy,” Nill said. “Kenny’s very good. I have a lot of duties here, and we work well together. I get to manage a lot of things here.”
6) With the regular season upon us, it’s prediction time for many bloggers / reporters / fans.
- Mirtle picks Ottawa to win the Eastern and for Calgary to top the Western Conference. He does believe the Wings will win their division and places them second in the conference.
- On the Forecheck went through and predicted each divisional winner. He likes Nashville’s chances this season to edge out the Wings for the Central Division title.
- SI says Sabres and Ducks in the finals.
- THN columnist Adam Proteau picks Nashville to take the Western Conference and Ottawa in the Eastern Conference.
My Predictions…
* Caution * My dorm room does not get OLN so I was able to pretty much watch only the Wings games last season and I saw plenty of the Oilers and Canes in the postseason, but that’s it. So the division picks are pretty much who I’d like to win it who has a shot and there may be no rhyme or reason behind it…
Central - Detroit Red Wings
Northwest - Calgary Flames
Pacific - Anaheim [Mighty] Ducks (it feels to weird to just say Ducks)
Atlantic - New York Rangers
Northeast - Buffalo Sabres
Southast - Carolina Hurricanes
Western Conference: Anaheim Ducks.
Eastern Conference: Buffalo Sabres.
Stanley Cup Winner? Umm…let’s go with the Ducks.
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2 Responses to “Around the NHL”
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October 4th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Actually, IMO, it never felt anything but wierd to say ‘mighty’ & ‘ducks’ back to back. (Ford) ‘Escort’ & ‘GT’ being the only more oxymoronish duo I can think of.
I was surprised at Bucci’s Western breakdown; specifically how far he dropped the wings and that he had Nashville ahead of them. Not that it woulc be a bad scenario to have to play their way into the playoffs for once. Bucci thinks Nashville has better goaltending than Detroit. When did Ozzie become chopped liver???
October 4th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
Hoser- I don’t know if it’s because the movie Mighty Ducks came out when I was little that it’s ingrained in my head, but I keep saying Mighty Ducks instead of Anaheim Ducks.
And quite a few people are predicting the Wings to make the playoffs, but fall down the standings. I do think Vokoun is better than our tandem just because I don’t see him getting hurt (assuming the blood clot issue doesn’t come back). Whereas Hasek could easily get hurt and I don’t have that much confidence in Ozzie anymore…