Game 4 Live Blog: Wings/Stars
Be sure to come back in less than an hour for a Game #4 BTJ live blog. The puck drops at 8pm. Go Wings!
Jacques Demers on the Wings
Joe here. In yesterday’s USA Today, former Wings coach Jacques Demers paid high praise to the Wings performance when it comes to balancing European and North American players:
Look at the Detroit Red Wings’ roster and you see names like Lilja, Franzen, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Samuelsson, Filppula, Holmstrom and Kindl. In fact, almost half of the team’s playoff roster hails from Europe or Russia. That the Red Wings have been able to blend players from such different backgrounds into a solid team is a testament to the management and coaching philosophies of Ken Holland and Mike Babcock.
But it didn’t start with them. When I was coaching the Red Wings in the late 1980s, our general manager Jim Devellano had the foresight to begin scouting in Europe and Russia because he knew that was the only way the team would be able to rebuild itself.
Penguins defeat Flyers, 4-1
Tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1, to go up 3-0 in the series. In an interesting turn of events, both conference finals are currently 3-0. While it doesn’t make for the most entertaining conference finals, I love it. I was recently hired as a paid intern for a top PR firm in Chicago this summer and I’ll be living in downtown Chicago from June 2nd through August 10th. So the earlier the Finals start (should the Wings not have an utter collapse this series), the better for me because I don’t want to have to drive back and forth between Chicago and Joe Louis Arena too much in my first week on the job with gas costing as much as it does. But I’m getting ahead of myself since neither team has closed out their respective series yet. I just wanted to briefly explain why I’m hoping for quick conference finals this postseason.
The Wings will get a shot to close out the series in Dallas tomorrow evening. My thoughts? If Dallas plays like they did in the first period on Monday night for the entire 60 minutes, Turco has a great game, and the Wings have a poor game, this series will go to Game #5. But this Detroit team is so hot, I think that entire combination has to happen in order for the Wings to head back to Detroit without a sweep in hand.
Out of the four remaining teams, the Red Wings-Penguins match up in the finals would definitely be the best for the league. You have the most recognizable NHL star versus the most popular team in the NHL. On a random side note, Mellon Arena (Pittsburgh) and Joe Louis Arena (Detroit) have the two worst press boxes in the entire league as well, which makes things interesting with the number of media that attend the SCF.
Anyways, I’m personally rooting for a Wings-Penguins match up and it certainly looks like that’s what we’ll see this postseason. It’ll be the Penguins first trip to the Finals since they won back-to-back titles in ‘91 and ‘92. Detroit’s last trip was when they won the Cup in 2002. Believe it or not, Detroit has actually advanced to the finals 23 times while only winning 10 Stanley Cups. Another interesting note, Scotty Bowman coached the Penguins to the Stanley Cup victory in 1992. Ten years later, he coached the Wings to their third title in seven years.
The Lions And Red Wings Have Something In Common
Joe here.
There was much comment about 9 months ago when the Red Wings announced that season tickets were available as they had exhausted their wait list. There was much hand wringing, and one thing that came up was that there was only one Detroit team (at that time) that still had a waiting list: the Detroit Lions.
That list is long gone. In fact, it’s so gone that they’re now offering half-season plans and single-season plans that include the Club level, which the Lions swore up and down would never be available (you had to buy Club Level seats as a three-year-minimum package).
I can tell you that when I canceled my Lions season tickets after last season, the person I spoke with made it abundantly clear that he didn’t care: that there were plenty of names on that waiting list who would love my tickets. Guess they didn’t want them as badly as I thought.
Game 3 Live Blog: Wings/Stars
Joe here. A heads up that I’ll be liveblogging Game 3 tonight starting at 8:00 p.m. ET. I’d like to be able to tell you about some dramatic sales point of this game, but it simply comes down to this: Do the Stars want to actually play one of these games, or are they simply content with hanging Marty Turco out to dry?
Follow along after the jump.
Wings sign Finnish winger Ville Leino
With all of the attention on the Wings trying to sign Swedish player Fabian Brunnstrom, the Wings signing of Finnish star Ville Leino appears to have gone relatively unnoticed. Leino had 77 points in 55 games (28G, 49A) in his last season in the Finnish Elite League. He finished with a +34, second in the league.
The winger signed a one year entry level contract and is competing for a Wings roster spot, not the Griffins.
“I haven’t seen him, but (assistant GM) Jim Nill and our new Finnish scout have seen him and they think he’s a good player,” Holland said. “He wants to come over to North America. He’s got good hockey sense, he’s got skill, he’s got good hands.” …
“If he can’t make the team, we’ll probably send him back to the Finnish League,” Holland said. “I think if has to go down (to Grand Rapids) for a couple weeks to get acclimated, he’ll do that. The plan is he’s coming to North America to try to play in the NHL.”
James Mirtle has a post about Leino up on his blog and he commented about a conversation he had with a Finnish hockey writer:
A couple weeks ago, at the height of the Fabian Brunnstrom madness, I was chatting a bit with Risto Pakarinen, a Finnish hockey writer based out of Stockholm. What I really wanted was a sense of what those who had seen Brunnstrom play thought of him, and where they pegged him as a potential NHL player.
Pakarinen was relatively muted in his praise of the young Swede, but he was keen on another player. Good Finn that he is, Pakarinen wanted to let me know about a countryman named Ville Leino.
“Brunnstrom is not the hottest player around here,” he said. “This guy is.”
Osgood, Ribeiro, and Ott handed fines but no suspensions
You have probably already heard by now abut the Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood and Stars center Mike Ribeiro altercation at the conclusion of last night’s 2-1 victory. If not, you can see what happened in the clip below.
The league has handed out fines to Osgood, Ribeiro, and Stars Steve Ott, but no suspensions. It is unknown the dollar amount on those fines.
Here’s my take: Chris Osgood’s stick end did get in Ribeiro’s face and he wouldn’t have slashed Ozzie like that had the stick-in-the-face incident had not happened. Was Ribeiro’s slash worse than what Ozzie did? In my biased opinion, yes. Could both players have been given suspensions? Yes. Since the NHL only gave Chris Pronger a one game suspension for his nasty hit on Tomas Holmstrom last postseason, I can’t say I’m suprised at all that Ribeiro got nothing. And with the roll Ozzie is on (and the team’s play in front of Ozzie), I would rather have no suspensions then Ribeiro and Ozzie both getting ones. If Ribeiro had gotten a suspension with Ozzie still playing, we’d have one pissed off Dallas team on our hand. I’m quite content with the Wings looking to seek revenge on the Stars and not physical revenge, but sweet victory revenge.
While I hate seeing the Stars lash out in frustration because I don’t want to see one of our players get injured, I enjoy seeing the frustration because it shows that the Wings’ play is getting to them. And that’s a good sign after only two games. We still have two more games to win and this could definitely become quite the series in Dallas so I’m not writing off the Stars by any means.
Game #2: Wings 2, Stars 1
Photos taken by my dad during Game #2, which ended in a 2-1 victory for Detroit. Tonight’s win marked their eighth consecutive playoff win (with Chris Osgood in net for all 8). This ties a franchise record for most consecutive playoff wins. I believe the last one was in 1952.
Yes Chelios, that was a penalty.
The price Homer has to pay each and every game.
Stuart tries to tip a puck past Turco.
The called back goal from the first period.
Oh Don Cherry…there are no words when it comes to your suit…
Game 2 Live Blog: Wings/Stars
Joe here. I’ll be here tonight at 7:00 for Game 2 of the Wings/Stars series. Tonight’s blog will actually be live, instead of that “delayed by two hours because Joe had dinner plans” thing from Thursday night.
Follow along after the jump.
5/10 Quick Links - Kronwall Edition
Due to the number of recent Niklas Kronwall articles and the fact that he is the BTJ favorite, here are some quick links to these articles. Be sure to come back to BTJ later today as Joe will be live blogging Game #2, which starts at 7pm!
Kronwall of pain - A Bob Wojnowski column [Detroit News]
“Any time a team comes into your building, you want them to know it’s gonna be tough to beat you,” Kronwall said Friday as the Wings prepared for Game 2 tonight. “I’ve always enjoyed the physical part of the game. It gets the adrenaline rushing a little bit. After that one (on Miettinen), it took a couple minutes to settle down and go back to work.” …
“He’s an intelligent, intelligent player,” Babcock said. “He sees when a guy is vulnerable and he’s got that ability to hunt you down. It’s important that he and Stuart are always on the hunt because it makes (the other team) nervous.”
Punisher! Wings’ Niklas Kronwall delights in crunching opponents - A Helene St. James article [Detroit Free Press]
“It gives us so much more energy,” forward Henrik Zetterberg said. “It’s unbelievable to see Kronner do it night in and night out. It’s nice to see him healthy and playing good in all situations. He makes huge hits and nice plays, so he’s a pretty complete package.” …
Kronwall denies he’s cursed and said his past doesn’t affect how he plays. But teammates are just a little cautious: Kris Draper held off on his usual towel-full-of-shaving-cream-in-the-face birthday surprise last January when Kronwall turned 27 for fear such action might cause Kronwall to lose an eye.
Kronwall sparks Red Wings to win against Dallas - Ansar Khan article [MLive.com]
“Last year people don’t realize how much we missed him,” Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood said. “He plays great, not only defensively, blocking shots, but offensively he makes great passes and good plays. He’s a threat for us (physically), like Vladdy (former defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov) was, he makes that big hit, makes players aware he’s out there.” …
“I love to watch the videos of (former hard-hitting New Jersey defenseman Scott Stevens) and guys like that,” Kronwall said. “It’s just a matter of timing, sometimes it’s there and sometimes it’s not. I’ve always enjoyed that part of the game.”
Scott Burnside - ESPN.com
The playoffs are where careers are made or broken. Thursday’s Red Wings’ victory provided another showcase for the emergence of Niklas Kronwall as an impact defenseman. And we use that term both literally and figuratively. Once again Kronwall was in the thick of things for the Wings all night. His open-ice hit on Antti Miettinen was a classic in the Scott Stevens mold. He also added a fine break-out pass to Mikael Samuelsson that led directly to the Wings’ third goal by Valtteri Filppula. That was after adding a power-play assist on the second Wings goal and nearly scoring on a 2-on-1 as he stepped from the penalty box. Kronwall now has 10 assists in the postseason and leads all defensemen in postseason scoring.
Dan Rosen - NHL.com
It’s not surprising Kronwall is making this postseason, and this series in particular, his personal crusade. He missed the playoffs last season with a broken bone (sacrum) in his lower back, an injury he suffered March 30 against the Stars.
“When we lost him,” Babcock told the Detroit News, “I was sick to my stomach.”
Kronwall is doing well in making up for his one lost spring.
His 10 points on 10 assists is tops among the League’s blue-liners – not an easy thing to do when Lidstrom is your teammate and plays more minutes. Kronwall is averaging 22:30 ice time per game, is a plus-4, and has a team-leading 25 hits.
And his last name IS Kronwall and not Kronvall as the NHL would suggest.
The Red Wings defenceman with the 55 on his back is Niklas Kronwall, and not Niklas Kronvall as the NHL indicates.
The league uses Kronvall in its printed stats and on game scorescheets.
“In my passport, it’s with a ‘V,”‘ he explains. “We never bothered to change it (because) you have to go through paperwork and all that, but our family has been using a ‘W’ for four generations now.
“We just never bothered changing the passport. All my papers and bank accounts back home, it’s all with a ‘W.’ I guess the NHL goes by the passport.”
It’s Kronwall over his dressing room stall and in printed team material.
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” says the hard-hitting Swede.