Lidstrom & Osgood on The Tonight Show
Last night, Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Osgood made a brief appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. They brought along the Stanley Cup. You can watch the clip below.
George Malik @ Snapshots has more on their appearance at his blog.
Interesting notes from NYI Point Blank
I’m a big fan of ex-media relations guy for the NY Islanders and his blog, NYI Point Blank. In today’s post, Chris addresses two interesting topics to think about.
The first one is one that Wings fans have certainly thought about plenty of times and I even used this reasoning to explain why I wanted to play certain teams in the postseason.
In a related subject, an NHL higher-up told me earlier this season that the difference between the travel schedules of the Eastern (easy) and Western (insane) conferences is “practically scandalous.”
Just for a goof, estimate how many miles the Detroit Red Wings had flown this season compared to their rival in the Final, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
When you’re done adding it up, you’ll realize the Red Wings winning four Stanley Cups in 11 years is an even more remarkable accomplishment.
While the Wings schedule was horrific in terms of miles logged in comparison to their Eastern Conference counterparts, the MLB certainly has their schedule compressed and when you read the Mets recent game schedule you’ll be amazed (or at least I was).
That’s 21 games in 20 days, folks, and it gets even better.
Tonight, after flying 6 hours after the Padres game yesterday, would be the one night off before the Mets play another 9 games in 9 days - the last 3 in Los Angeles before a day off and continuation of another road trip. It would be the only night besides June 26 when David Wright and the boys could stay at home.
However, God bless them, it’s not.
Here’s the press release:
FLUSHING — The New York Mets today announced that Carlos Beltran, Ryan Church, Carlos Delgado, Aaron Heilman, John Maine, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana, Brian Schneider, Scott Schoeneweis, Billy Wagner, David Wright, and Mets Hall of Famer Tom Seaver have confirmed their participation in the Mets Foundation’s “Teammates in the Community” fundraiser Monday night, June 9 at Richards in Greenwich, Conn.
Incredible stuff.
It wasn’t until this year that I started to understand how much time and energy it takes on behalf of the players, coaches, equipment/medical personnel, and PR staff to make it through the regular season. It takes a lot of time as a fan to simply watch each game, but between travel and preparation for the games, it really adds up. The NHL season is truly a marathon, which makes a Stanley Cup victory even more enjoyable!
Wings keep Babcock for 3 more years
The Red Wings will hold a press conference tomorrow at 11am. It is believed that the conference is to announce that the Wings have extended head coach Mike Babcock’s contract for three more seasons. GM Ken Holland’s own contract expires in three years so he would not sign Babcock for any longer than that.
The deal is believed to average around $1.5 million a season. Babcock, 45, guided the Wings to the Stanley Cup exactly one week ago, when the Wings won at Pittsburgh, clinching their fourth straight series on the road.
I am a huge Mike Babcock fan and could not be happier that he will be around for three more years. He knows exactly which buttons to push, when to push them on the ice, and when to give them a day off or take them to a resort. And I’m happy that the deal was done so quickly preventing any further speculation about another team nabbing Babcock this offseason.
Wings to make announcement at 11am
The Detroit Red Wings have scheduled a press conference for 11am this morning regarding the future of Dominik Hasek. Reporters are speculating that the conference has been scheduled to announce Dominik Hasek’s retirement.
Dominik Hasek is expected to announce his retirement, a person in the NHL told The Associated Press on Sunday night. The Detroit Red Wings scheduled a news conference for Monday morning without revealing details.
A person within the league, who requested anonymity because the announcement was Hasek’s to make, said Hasek was expected to end his award-winning career.
What I don’t get is if you aren’t willing to say who you are and you know that this is something Hasek should say (and you admit that fact to the reporter), why would you say something? Just shut up and let the Dominator say what he wants to say without you blowing it for him (if he, in fact, does retire).
I will be at work in Chicago by the time the announcement is made so I’m going to quickly give my thoughts should Hasek actually retire. The last two seasons that we won the Cup, Hasek was in net for some part of the season/playoffs. In 2002, he was a big reason for our success in the postseason and I will forever be grateful for that. This season, he and Chris Osgood combined for the lowest GAA in the season. I don’t know this, but perhaps the splitting of goaltending duties like they did this year gave Ozzie more energy and stamina as the playoffs dragged on. Had Hasek stayed for one more season, I wouldn’t have been bummed about that. To have two goaltenders with such success in net can only do good things for the team. But Hasek’s time is almost up whether it’s today or after next season and why not retire after you win your second Stanley Cup?
His role was certainly reduced after the first four games in the playoffs, but he handled it incredibly well. I was really impressed with how he still prepared and practiced hard every minute, but didn’t really complain and thus make things more uncomfortable in the locker room. But Dom is the kind of guy who wants to be the No. 1 goalie and if he realizes that he probably wouldn’t be going into this upcoming season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him retire.
I’ll come back and update this post with quotes from the conference and what actually did happen.
Congrats to the 2008 Stanley Cup Champs!!!
The past 48 hours have been absolutely amazing and I am just blown away with how blessed I am right now. I can’t really talk about what I did today at the Joe, but I can say that I had my photo taken with 3 other interns and the five big trophies at center ice of the JLA. And the fact that it was right after Yzerman, Holland, Jimmy D, and Nill went made it even sweeter.
I try not to talk much about my internship because I don’t really want to bring much attention to that fact and that’s not what this blog is about, but this past season has been amazing. To see all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes from the sound guy Ricky to the zamboni driver Al to the marketing director to my bosses in the PR department to the coaching staff to the front office to the players themselves, has been an incredible learning experience. I have enjoyed every single minute of it and I truly mean that.
I obviously enjoyed the previous Cup wins, but I was 10, 11, and 15. I couldn’t attend the parades because I couldn’t drive myself down to Detroit for them. I didn’t attend a single Wings game in any of those seasons so I only watched from afar. This season, I worked every single home game but one including the preseason, regular season, and postseason games (around 50 in total). Sports PR is a lot of long hours, but it’s so worth it. I have no complaints about my experiences this season and the Detroit Red Wings are truly a world class organization. To have worked so much and seen what goes on behind the scenes and have interacted with the players all season, this Stanley Cup win has been absolutely amazing and incredibly rewarding. I never dreamed how it would feel to win with this kind of involvement with a hockey team and I certainly have not been disappointed.
Congrats to your 2008 Stanley Cup Champs, the Detroit Red Wings!
Update:
Four of the PR interns posing with the five trophies at center ice.
Best. Day. Ever.
I am on such a high right now, it’s absolutely ridiculous. I “worked” the parade today and was surrounded by my coworkers, the players, and their friends and family all day. No complaints whatsoever. Thanks to my VIP pass, all-access pass, and my staff t-shirt, I could go anwhere I wanted outside of the stage (which I went on after they were all done).
I got to…
- Be escorted by police in the staff bus to Hockeytown Cafe.
- Attend the pre-parade VIP party at Hockeytown Cafe where I mingled with coworkers, players, and their families and friends.
- Drive a red Corvette in the parade. I drove a Detroit city councilwoman named Brenda.
- Go in the VIP tent after the parade.
- Sit with the players’ family and friends in front of the stage during the presentation.
- Celebrate with coworkers and players!
I am sharing my photos from the day, which you can view in its entirety on Flickr. But here are some of my favorites below!
Me with the Conn Smythe and its 2008 winner, Henrik Zetterberg.
Me with BTJ favorite Niklas Kronwall.
Me with Aaron Downey, the most talkative player to the interns, and two other interns.
Me with Kirk Maltby, two interns, and Nicklas Lidstrom.
Me driving the red Corvette during the parade.
Another intern and I in front of the stage before the presentation.
Updated: Here are a couple more from my friend’s camera…
Pretending to lick the Cup like a certain Heroes actress.
In Hockeytown Cafe for the VIP party before the parade.
I’m going to the Stanley Cup parade!
So I get to work at my internship in Chicago Thursday morning and my bosses ask when the parade is. I tell them and they ask if I’m going. I said that no, I’m working here. After a discussion amongst themselves, they decided they would be mad if I didn’t go. So I took the 5.5 hour train after work from Chicago to Ann Arbor. It’s 7:10am on Friday and I leave for Joe Louis Arena in half an hour. I’ll be front and center at the parade and I couldn’t be more excited!!
Basically, I’d like to apologize for a lack of posting especially after such a fantastic victory, but I’ve been a little busy and getting home to work the parade was a bit more important than blogging. Sorry! Whenever I get back from the Joe, I will be sure to make some decent posts or two this evening. But until then…I’m celebrating in Detroit!
P.S. I’d like to remind everyone that I picked the Wings in six this series. Spot on baby.
Stanley Cup Champs!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve been celebrating if you can’t tell and the Wings are Stanley Cup frickin champs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ll have more post game analysis when I get off of work and am of sound mind. Haha. But go Wings!!!!!!!!
Update Thursday Morning:
I’m about to head off to work so no actual game analysis until later. Until then, here’s a couple photos to hold you over.
BTJ favorite Niklas Kronwall lifts the Cup. / Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
Chelios and Franzen cart the Cup out of the arena on a pile of Miller Lite boxes. / Photo courtesy of AP Photo.
Game 6 Live Blog: Wings/Penguins
Joe here. Join me tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET for Game 6.
Because, really, what else are you going to watch?
Follow along after the jump…
Thanks Knob Hockey for needed laughter
It’s been a depressing day just thinking about the game and the 34.7 seconds that kept us from the Cup. But then I find out that KnobHockey has created some new clips and the two below got me cracking up so thanks to the brains behind Knob Hockey for providing some much needed laughter.
I was bummed to learn that I can’t seem to find the Dominik Hasek one from last postseason that was absolutely hilarious on either YouTube or Heavy.com. If you have a link to it, please let me know!