Paige laments Swede-ness of Detroit
I can’t say I usually enjoy reading the Denver columnists because, well, they’re biased towards the Colorado team (and have you read Lincicome’s column?). Anyways, I went to read Woody Paige’s column in the Denver Post today and I can’t say it’s the best written column (because it’s definitely not), but it certainly was entertaining. I found myself even laughing a few times. I suggest reading the entire thing, but here are my favorite parts.
This isn’t fair. The Avalanche have only one Swedish hockey player, the Wings a baseball team. Nine.
Back in the good old days of the 1990s, the Avs were matched in the playoffs against those pleasant, polite, passive Soviets — Fedorov, Fetisov, Larionov, Kozlov and, of course, Konstantinov.
Oh, we pine for the Wizards of Ov’s.
The Avs defeated them occasionally.
But the Avs can’t touch the ‘Stroms and the ‘Sons of Sweden.
These Swede birds of youth have eight goals — and 22 total points — against the Avalanche in three games.
Not impressed yet? Not wowed? How about 43 points in nine postseason games? Fortytrippingthree.
The goal was by Pavel Datsyuk — how did a Russian make this team — but the assisters were Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom. They’re from Sweden.
I have become smorgas-bored talking about these Swedes. They’re too good. A million people from Swedish came to the U.S. early last century. It seems a million hockey players are emigrating from Sweden early in this century, and they’re all centers and wingers — and Wings.
Didn’t they idolize Forsberg? Didn’t they want to come to Colorado? Didn’t they want to end up on a U.S. stamp or a coin minted in Denver?
Game #3 Roundup
Here’s what people have been saying after Detroit’s 4-3 victory over Colorado last night…
Helene St. James @ Detroit Free Press:
After seeing him rack up five goals already in the series, the Avs spent a good deal of time talking about Johan Franzen after the morning skate, with Jordan Leopold pointing out Franzen needed to be kept an eye on and Kurt Sauer saying the Avs could hardly be surprised by Franzen, who’d been on fire since March. But still it didn’t take Franzen long to net his team-leading eighth goal of the playoffs, scoring from just outside the net to give Detroit a lead headed into the second period.
“It was another great goal by Mule and it got us going,” Zetterberg said. “Then we just kept going.”
Ansar Khan @ MLive.com:
Detroit’s domination of Colorado during the regular season has carried over into the playoffs. The Red Wings are one victory away from recording their first postseason sweep since 2000, after defeating the Avalanche 4-3 in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals at the Pepsi Center.
It was pretty much The Pav and Hank Show, as Datsyuk scored two goals and made a brilliant pass to Zetterberg for another.
“They played great tonight, scored some beautiful goals that are unstoppable for a goalie,” Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood said.
Franzen, aka The Mule, has been kicking the Colorado Avalanche in the lower body area ever since this conference semi-final series began. He did it to them again last night in Game 3, scoring the go-ahead goal some 58 seconds after Pavel Datsyuk tied the game at 1-1. This after Franzen roughed up the Nashville Predators in Round 1. He has a mind-boggling eight goals in the playoffs. He has Smythe (given to the MVP of the playoffs) written all over him.
Dave @ Gorilla Crouch:
Finally, the Mule kept his improbable goal scoring run on track. He scored another goal last night which brings that remarkable run to 23 goals in 25 games. He tied Dan Cleary for most shots on goal with 6 apiece. Anyone who follows sports knows about the old cliche that your best players have to be your best players. Pavs, Hank, Lids and the Mule were just that last night and as a result the Red Wings are one win away from making a return trip to the Western Conference Finals.
But now, After three games, it’s clear Detroit’s the better team this season. The Avs had no answer for the Red Wings PP, they took stupid penalties all series and Detroit does what great teams do, they take advantage. You look 5 vs 5 tonight and the Avs more than held their own, they probably even played a little better, but Detroit took their opportunities to put the Avs away.
Joe @ Mile High Hockey:
Overall, the Avs failed to take the body on Detroit’s forwards as they entered the zone until the 3rd period, which resulted in plenty of opportunities for a healthy Detroit team to take advantage of a depleted Avalanche squad. When they did try to get the physical play up, it usually resulted in borderline hits that weren’t called (luckily) or power play opportunities for the Red Wings. Quenneville also seemed to have the caution flag out for long stretches of the 1st and 2nd periods as the Avs looked content not to lose badly at times rather than putting the Red Wings on their collective heals. Osgood had a pretty easy night, with the only real pressure coming in the 3rd, and even then he wasn’t seeing sequences of shots, but one-offs, dump-ins, or bad angle shots.
Game #3 Liveblog: Wings/Avs
Come back later tonight at 10pm (EST) for a BTJ live blog! Joe is out of town and I’m not working so I’ll be doing the honors tonight.
Peter Forsberg and Scott Hanan are “probable” for Colorado tonight while Ryan Smyth is out after he suffered a foot injury blocking a shot in Game #2. Detroit’s line up should remain the same as Game #2.
Game #2: Wings 5, Avs 1
Game #2 of the Wings-Avs series had a little bit of everything for Wings fans as you can see with the photographs taken by my dad below.
Plenty of scoring.
A Darren McCarty fight.
Franzen scores three goals.
Fans celebrate by throwing their hats onto the ice.
Laughing at the linesman for picking up an octopus with a glove on.
Solid goaltending from Chris Osgood.
Seeing Jose Theodore pulled and Peter Budaj finishing the game.
Fortune: You Did Not Watch That Wings Game On NBC
Joe here. Imagine, if you will, working in the NHL Public Relations office when you get a call from Forbes magazine. They want to do an article on Gary Bettman, road warrior.
(Stop laughing.)
Thrilled with the idea, you set up the interview. They come out to take a picture of Bettman at the offices, everything sounds great.
Fast forward to the issue of Forbes hitting the newsstands, and there’s the article! Let’s see what they wrote…
Going to 60 hockey games a year might sound like fun, but for Gary Bettman it’s just another day at the office. In 15 years as NHL chief, he has more than quadrupled revenues to $2.5 billion, added four teams, and changed the rules to speed up the game. But America’s fourth major sport is still without a network TV contract after the 2004-05 lockout, and attendance is well below pre-strike days. That keeps Bettman, 55, on the road shaking hands, doing deals, and catching scores on his cellphone. Fortune caught up with him in his New York office to see how he pulls it off when not on home ice.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! No network TV contract? Attendance down? I mean, it’s one thing to say that Bettman is quite possibly one of the worst commissioners in the history of professional sports, but even my wife knows those two facts are wrong. And not just mildly wrong, but flat-out, black-is-white, sun-rises-in-west, Toronto’s-about-to-turn-it-around wrong.
But here’s where things get odd. Search for the article online and you get this: (emphasis mine)
Going to 60 hockey games a year might sound like fun, but for Gary Bettman it’s just another day at the office. In 15 years as NHL chief, he has more than quadrupled revenues to $2.6 billion, added four teams and, more recently, signed TV deals with NBC and Versus, and led the league to record attendance levels even after the 2004-05 lockout season.
But meeting with team owners, business partners and season ticket holders keeps Bettman, 55, on the road shaking hands, doing deals and catching scores on his cellphone. Fortune caught up with him in his New York office to see how he pulls it off when not on home ice.
Boy, maybe things have changed from when I went through journalism class, but I remember hearing about this thing called a “correction” that newspapers and magazines would publish when they printed an error.
All attention on the Mule, Johan Franzen
With Detroit’s first hat trick since Darren McCarty’s on May 18, 2002, Johan Franzen has deservingly garnered the attention from media everywhere. BTJ favorite Niklas Kronwall isn’t afraid to spill the beans about his roommate on the road.
“He had me over for dinner this one time and it didn’t work out that good,” Kronwall said. “But I’m not that picky with food; really, I can eat pretty much anything. He was more the one that said, ‘You know what, this meat is awful.’ “
Franzen also, according to Kronwall, “sleeps a lot; really, it’s amazing how someone can sleep that much.”
But he’s also well-informed and a lover of nature. “He’s maybe the most intelligent person in here,” Kronwall said. “I don’t think he comes across like that a lot of times, but when you talk to him, you know that he knows his stuff.
“He likes to be out in nature. Back in Sweden, he’ll take the bike out for a ride and come back with a bucket of blueberries.”
Game 2 Live Blog: Wings/Avs
Joe here. A friendly reminder that I’ll be liveblogging today’s playoff game. And if you’re on the fence as to whether you’re gonna watch the Wings game or the NFL Draft, here’s the simple decision maker: you can either watch Matt Millen make a mistake, or listen to the Wings fans chant “FIRE MILLEN!” after they announce the draft pick.
See if the Wings can put themselves up 2-0 after the jump.
Quick laugh before Game #2
Before the stress of Game #2 completely kicks in, here’s a little humorous blurb I meant to post a couple of days ago, but didn’t get around to until now.
Chris Osgood loves to tell the story of how the Dallas Stars ice girls once voted him third-sexiest goaltender in the NHL, behind the Islanders’ Rick DiPietro and Colorado’s Jose Theodore.
We guess this adds another dimension to the debate of who’s the better goaltender.
“As Ozzie would say, you have two of the three sexiest goaltenders in the league,” Kris Draper said. “So that’s the new twist.”
Game #1: Wings 4, Avs 3
Last night, the Detroit Red Wings took an early 3-1 lead in the first period. Franzen scored just over a minute into the second period to give the Wings a 4-1 lead. Despite playing without Peter Forsberg, who pulled his groin during the morning skate, the Avs made it interesting with two more goals in the second period. Neither team could score in the third period leaving Detroit with the 4-3 victory.
You can view photos of the game taken by my dad here in this Flickr gallery.
Upon Karen Newman’s completion of the national anthem, a large octopus was thrown onto the ice. Thanks to the office twirling ban, the linesmen had to scoop it up. However, they really took their time doing so which only made it worse. You need to quickly pick it up so that any “matter” does not remain stuck to the ice.
After they picked up the octopus, they gave it to Al in the zamboni pit. He then twirled it like crazy and still was able to get the crowd pumped up.
Zetterberg, who was just named a finalist for the Selke earlier today, scored first for the Wings (and less than a minute after Stastny’s goal). It was just the goal that Detroit needed to stop the momentum the Avs had just earned by scoring.
Zetterberg is a Frank Selke Trophy finalist for the first time. He led Red Wings forwards in average ice time per game (22:04) and ranked second to Datsyuk among Detroit forwards in plus-minus with a +30 rating. Zetterberg led the Red Wings in face-offs taken (1,210) and was second on the club to Kris Draper in face-off winning percentage (55.0%). The Red Wings posted the top defensive record in the NHL with 184 goals-against.
Zetterberg’s goal in the first period.
Of course we saw the work from the Norris finalist, Nicklas Lidstrom, all night. My favorite photo that my dad took last night was this beauty of Ryan Smyth giving Lidstrom a hard time in front of Osgood.
Joe Hass will liveblog Saturday’s game for BTJ readers so be sure to stop by BTJ during the game tomorrow!
Game 1 Live Blog: Wings/Avs
Joe here. Join me at 7:30 p.m. ET tonight from my exclusive remote location for tonight’s Wings/Avs game. Why an exclusive remote location? Because I’m one of those people who won’t pay $20 for the digital tier, so I have to work from someplace that does have it.
How many times will we see the 11-year-old footage of Lemieux turtling? (I’ll pause here while you do the math and discover how old that makes you that night.) A little-known fact: Poor Mickey Redmond was in an elevator down to ice level for the intermission interviews and missed the whole thing.
Join me in the conference room after the jump.