5/7 Notes
Some quick notes before I head off to class in Ann Arbor…
1) We still don’t know for sure if Brett Lebda will return to play after suffering a sprained ankle in Game #5 of the Calgary series. If he is not ready to go, Derek Meech will play.
2) The Detroit News has a cool article about Red Bird II, the airplane used by the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers for all their travel needs.
3) Mathieu Schneider apparently fractured his wrist in multiple locations. It also looks like Niklas Kronwall will definitely be out until the Stanley Cup finals at the earliest.
The bone in Mathieu Schneider’s left wrist was shattered. He’ll have surgery this week and will be in a splint for eight weeks or so. Has he played his last game as a Wing? Schneider is an unrestricted free agent. The Wings tried to sign him to an extension during the season but made no progress with his agent, Mike Gillis. They’d still like to sign him before he hits the open market on July 1. The question is, how much do you pay him? He turns 38 on June 12 and earned $3.3 million this season. My guess, which is always subject to change, is that he’ll be back. He’s moved around a lot in his career but he really likes it here.
Niklas Kronwall (fractured sacrum) said he hopes to begin skating at the end of next week. Wings general manager Ken Holland said the earliest Kronwall could return would be for the Stanley Cup finals. Even that might be optimistic.
4) Bruce MacLeod has a nice article about Schneider pulling Lebda aside before leaving for the hospital to talk to him.
Schneider’s wrist was throbbing. He was checked by San Jose’s Patrick Marleau not long before and used his arms to cushion the impact. Schneider’s wrist was thus broken on a harmless looking play.
Before going to the hospital, Schneider saw Lebda in street clothes in the locker room, watching the game. Lebda was close to returning from an ankle injury that kept him out for two weeks.
Schneider, 37, pulled Lebda, 25, aside, closed the door and started to talk. Schneider knew that his injury meant the end of his playoffs. Lebda was going to go into the lineup in his place.
It was a moment that touched Lebda. You could see his motivation as he suited up for Sunday’s practice at the HP Pavilion.
“Between me and him, we had a heart-to-heart, (telling me) what to do now,” said Lebda. “I don’t want to say passing the torch because this is a huge loss for our team. But he gave me some words of wisdom and it really touched home with me. … Just little things of what to do and what to expect. He knows the way I play.”
5) The Plymouth Whalers got spanked last night by the Sudbury Wolves, 7-3, in Game #2 of the OHL Championships. It’s the worst I’ve seen the Whalers play or get outplayed all postseason. The team allowed four goals in the second period. Three of those goals came within a stretch of six minutes.
“They beat us quite handily,” Whalers coach Michael Vellucci said. “I’ve been telling anyone that would listen that Sudbury is a good team.”
After an even first period, Sudbury chased Whalers goalie Michal Neuvirth with three goals in less than six minutes to take a 4-1 lead. Vellucci inserted backup goalie Jeremy Smith.
“It was mostly to change the momentum up,” said Vellucci, deflecting the blame from Neuvirth. “Our defense struggled from moving the puck to positional play.”
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May 7th, 2007 at 9:24 am
[…] Christy over at Behind the Jersey has some notes posted over at her website, along with an update on the Plymouth Whalers playoff series. The Plymouth Whalers got spanked last night by the Sudbury Wolves, 7-3, in Game #2 of the OHL Championships. It’s the worst I’ve seen the Whalers play or get outplayed all postseason. The team allowed four goals in the second period. Three of those goals came within a stretch of six minutes. […]