BTJ 2008-2009 Season Preview
Later today, the Detroit Red Wings begin their 2008-2009 regular season. Finally! Despite having the shortest off-season this year, it seems like we had to go forever without hockey so it’s always exciting for it to start back up again. As Red Wings fans, we have a lot to be excited about. For starters, we get to watch the banner ceremony tonight as the Wings celebrate their eleventh Stanley Cup win in franchise history. The entire 2007-2008 team will be in attendance including recently retired goaltender Dominik Hasek and forward Dallas Drake. Now, this may be the awkward part for Marian Hossa, but hopefully he’ll get one of his own after this season. All the fans in attendance will receive a replica banner courtesy of Bank of America. So fans, players, and staff will be in a celebratory mood tonight and what better way to start off the season.
So the Wings lost two players. Period. And that was to retirement. And I don’t think any of us minded that these players actually retired. Our new additions include two former Pittsburgh players, backup goaltender Ty Conklin and a certain Marian Hossa. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him or not, but he’s apparently supposed to be pretty good. Now he is facing the possible Sports Illustrated jinx and the great expectations Wings fans have of a back-to-back championship, but I think Hossa is up for the challenge. Do I think he’ll have the same production level as he did with Atlanta last year? Not necessarily. Partnering with Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom may boost his point totals, but they don’t have to. The joy of the Detroit Red Wings is that we have so many great players that we don’t have to rely on one player for our offense. I mean some of our third liners could possibly be on another team’s first line. That’s depth my friends. Hossa doesn’t have to have a career season for the Wings to succeed. All we need from him is chemistry with Datsyuk so that Henrik Zetterberg can actually center the second line for most of the season. If we can get two ridiculous lines rolling with consistent offensive production, our team is going to scare the opposition.
Everyone else has made their predictions so what are my predictions for this season? I believe Detroit will win it again. I’m almost afraid to say it and (1) sound cocky or (2) jinx it, but on paper I believe our team is hands-down the best. Now a lot has to go right for the Wings to win it again. An injury or two to key players around playoff time would make a repeat pretty hard or impossible (if a certain Swede went down). But outside of that, I believe we have the right head coach and team mindset to ensure that we don’t have the Stanley Cup hangover. Hossa came to win the Cup. While we’d love to have him back next season, the cap is going to make it pretty challenging for GM Ken Holland to get him to stay and re-sign Zetterberg AND Johan Franzen. Holland has stated that we have a one-year window with this lineup. Drake’s presence in the roster was a huge motivating factor to the team come playoff time. I believe Hossa’s presence can do the same thing. He wants to win it. Bad. He was willing to give up tens of millions of dollars for a shot at the Cup. I would say that’s good enough motivation. Will there be challenges this season? There always are. But if any team can overcome the hangover, Detroit can. They were the last ones to do it in 1997 and 1998 and I believe they can do it again.
In terms of the Central, I think the Chicago Blackhawks will once again be a thorn in our side and even make the playoffs this year (hopefully they won’t be our first round opponent). Chicago was only three points out of the playoffs last season and I believe the improvements they have made this off-season (Campbell and Huet) will push them into the postseason. I even think Nashville could squeak in depending on how close the Western Conference race is this season.
While I was happy to see former assistant coach Todd McLellan get promoted to a head coaching position, he’s going to make the San Jose Sharks more of a challenge for us this season. This year, we were fortunate to not play them or the Anaheim Ducks in the postseason. While I hope that holds true this year as well, I think we’ll see the Sharks in the Western Conference Finals.
In the East, I’m going with the Cinderella pick of the Washington Capitals. A bit crazy, but I love the energized fan base over there and Alexander Ovechkin has a better supporting cast around him. It would be too easy to pick the Montreal Canadiens, although winning the Cup in the franchise’s 100th year would be a great storyline. And I know Penguins fans won’t agree with me, but I don’t think the Penguins will return to the Finals. They certainly are still a great team, but they lost a lot of solid players this off-season and then a couple key players got some injuries to start the season off so I’m not going to pick them for the Finals.
When it comes to Red Wings player predictions, here are my thoughts:
- Breakout season: Valtteri Filppula. He is likely going to be centering the third line (with Dan Cleary and Mikael Samuelsson) and has a chance to really prove himself this season. However, he could always get bumped up to Zetterberg’s line and if that’s the case, I expect his offensive production to really jump.
- Proving it’s not a fluke: Johan Franzen & Niklas Kronwall. Franzen started off last season scoring like crazy before a leg injury took him out. He regained his offensive production in the final quarter of the season and would’ve won the Conn Smythe had it not been for a head injury. I think we’ll see Franzen consistently scoring like crazy in his contract year. Last season, we finally saw the Niklas Kronwall that management had predicted. Kronner kept getting injured in prior years and we never got a full season of his play. We finally did and we loved it. He’s a physical player reminiscent of Vladimir Konstantinov. Big hits (yes, he does leave his feet sometimes, I know) with an offensive touch. I think we’ll see more of this from Kronner now that he will be paired with Brad Stuart all season.
- Biggest worry: Goaltending. Fortunately for Detroit, our goaltenders don’t usually have to win games for us. We need them to be good and sometimes great, but we usually don’t need outstanding performances night after night. Our weakest area has to be goaltending with Chris Osgood and Ty Conklin. If they can share the load (Ozzie is looking at 55 games, Conklin 27 or so) and stay healthy, I think we’re good. If either one gets injured for a lengthier period of time, that could be a problem for our team.
- GR Player: If a forward on the Wings goes down with an injury, look for Ville Leino to make the lineup. He was the Finnish Elite League MVP that Detroit signed shortly after Fabian Brunnstrom signed with Dallas. He was fourth in offensive production this preseason and has the nose for the net according to Babcock. Hopefully some time in the AHL will help him quickly adjust to the North American style of play. The Wings’ depth is crazy so there are a lot of other exciting players to watch for in GR. Enough to actually make me want to drive to GR to take in a game.
Well, those are my thoughts on the upcoming season. What do you think about the season?
Puck drops tonight at 7pm on Versus. Go Wings!
Detroit News & Free Press previews
Thanks to the season opener tonight, both Detroit newspapers have their season previews out today. The Detroit News has a more extensive selection including profiles on Niklas Kronwall, Marian Hossa, Chris Osgood, Jiri Hudler, and Kris Draper.
As you know, my favorite player is Kronwall so I enjoyed his profile piece although his over the boards Q&A was more bland than others.
He packs such a wallop strangers are forever taken aback by his off-the-ice persona. Kronwall, 27, is 6-foot, 189 pounds, and owner of a yard-wide smile. He has the demeanor of a doorman greeting you at the Ritz-Carlton.
“What happens on the ice happens on the ice,” he explained following practice last week, underscoring his words with a shrug. “The so-called fighters on most teams are usually the nicest guys off the ice.”
Of little consolation to a forward, crumpled and sliding across a frozen surface, is that he was just leveled by a polite Swede who might be just the guy with whom to share a postgame glass of Cabernet (Kronwall’s favorite wine, by the way).
The Detroit Free Press section focused on season previews articles instead of individual profile pieces. Larry Lage believes the Wings are just the cure Detroit needs after a rough summer with the Tigers, the tanking of the Lions, and the struggling Wolverines football team. Add in the financial crisis and you have a city going through a really hard time
Wings send Leino, Helm, & Ericsson to GR
In an effort to reach the 23 man roster limit, the Wings have sent Ville Leino, Darren Helm, and Jonathan Ericsson to Grand Rapids. All three impressed the coaching staff during training camp and pre-season, but the Wings just have too much talent to keep everyone who performed well in Detroit. I’m sure that we’ll see all three of them up in Detroit at some point when a current forward or defenseman goes down with an injury during the long season.
While Holland was impressed by the many players at camp and confident that some of them would be ready for the Winged Wheel by next season, Ville Leino seemed to stand out. He was fourth in offensive points this preseason behind forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen and defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. That’s not bad company right there. He played in eight of the Wings’ nine preseason games with three goals, three assists, and a plus-3 rating.
“We’ve tried to wear him out,” said Detroit coach Mike Babcock. “We did that a few years back with Cleary, tried to kill Cleary. You’re trying to find out how mentally tough a guy is and how bad he wants to be a Red Wing. He’s had a real good camp and we’ll just have to make some decisions.” …
“The puck just follows him (Leino) around,” said Babcock. “He has the ability to hang onto the puck like Pav (Datsyuk) and these guys. He doesn’t skate like Pav though.”
Aaron Downey has been placed on waivers for 24 hours. If he clears, he will be assigned to Grand Rapids as well and we’ll know that by tomorrow. Darren McCarty and Jimmy Howard have been placed on the injured reserved list with Chris Chelios for their respective injuries (sore groin and broken finger).
According to Ansar Khan, the Wings are trying to trade Kyle Quincey. They would ideally like to trade him before the season opener on Thursday, but the team is under the cap so it’s not like they absolutely have to. Once McCarty and/or Chelios return, the team will then have to trade him, but they have bought some time for now.
Wings create their own blue ocean
I recently started reading a book entitled Blue Ocean Strategy, which is a book that discusses and explains the importance of competing in blue oceans instead of red oceans in the business world. Before I relate to how this got me thinking about the Red Wings, let me first explain the differences between red and blue oceans.
“In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here, companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody.” [p. 4]
Essentially, red oceans are industries that already have rules and constraining factors. You have to compete with others in the industry to gain greater market share whether it’s by lowering the price or increasing the quality. However, you can offer a product at a low price with high quality by creating a new market space, which is called a blue ocean. By creating a blue ocean, you are no longer competing with other companies in a specific industry. Instead, you have defined the rules and have something so different that it’s in its own market. According to this book’s authors, you can do this through value innovation.
“Value innovation is the cornerstone of blue ocean strategy. We call it value innovation because instead of focusing on beating the competition, you focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for buyers and your company, thereby opening up new and uncontested market space.” [p. 12]
The first example provided in the book was Cirque du Soleil. Before that, people could attend the circus or a theatre performance (ex. Broadway show). The creators of Cirque du Soleil took elements that they admired from both of those entertainment options and sold it at an attractive price. They created their own blue ocean to compete in and have reaped the benefits from doing so.
So how does this relate to the Detroit Red Wings? If you view the NHL as a red ocean with teams competing using the same rules and competitive strategies (whether it’s on or off the ice), I am going to argue that the Wings have been so successful over the past 17 years in part because of their ability to create their own blue ocean giving them an advantage over the opponents. Now as another blogger at MarketingProfs points out, this strategy of creating a blue ocean essentially gives the company (or team) a head start. Soon competitors will catch on and try to jump into the ocean eventually turning it red, but giving the original company an unfair advantage.
Since you always take sales away from someone (whether a direct or an indirect competitor), and being that you will always be surrounded by businesses striving to increase sales, once your Blue Ocean Strategy works, sooner or later someone will copy or even improve your already-successful model.
One must credit the writers that they are not blind to this fact. In an interview with W. Chan Kim posted on www.businessinnovationinsider.com on October 2005, he said very openly: “After a while the first copycats will arise, competing on the very same value points as you. That’s completely normal; however it forces the entrepreneur to find a new strategy every several years.”
In other words, the most brilliant BOS will grant you with no more than a limited, relatively peaceful, period of time. Does this mellow promise of the BOS express maximal possible achievement? Naturally, you can guess that my answer is no. Introducing the Unfair Advantage.
Back in the 1980s, the Wings were competing in the red ocean and failing. They were doing so bad that the team became known as the “Dead Wings” and owner Mike Ilitch would give cars away at games and still struggle to sell out the arena. In comes Jimmy Devellano. I believe that his strategy of drafting top talent and making solid acquisitions over the years (including the signing of Scotty Bowman as head coach) is what turned this team around. If you look at their drafting, the team has stayed on the cutting edge competing in their own blue ocean.
First, they targeted Russian/Soviet Union players before it became common or even popular. In 1989, the Wings drafted Sergei Fedorov and Vladimir Konstantinov who would become key components of the Russian Five unit. The unit, which also consisted of Slava Fetisov, Igor Larionov, and Slava Kozlov, defined the Wings style of puck possession play and played a large role in their success in winning the 1997 Stanley Cup after a 42 year drought. The Wings were not the first team to draft a Russian hockey player, but they took considerable risk since there was no agreement in place to ensure that their drafted Russian athletes could actually come to the US. In fact, Fedorov got to the US only after defecting from the CKSA Moscow Team before the 1990 Goodwill Games. Detroit drafted two of the only fourteen Russian players drafted that year out of 252 selections.
After others realized their success, the Wings continued to scout in Russia but also turned their attention to Sweden where they found Nicklas Lidstrom (1989), Tomas Holmstrom (1994), Henrik Zetterberg (1999), Niklas Kronwall (2000), and Johan Franzen (2004). They also brought in fellow Swedes like Mikael Samuelsson and Andreas Lilja to round out the Swedish Seven, who won the 2008 Stanley Cup.
Despite getting low round draft picks, the Wings have used successful scouting to get top talent by looking in places that other teams hadn’t previously gone to or been willing to risk a draft pick on.
Since the Wings have been able to successfully draft top players despite low round draft picks, the organization has a solid foundation and then can add in the missing pieces via free agency like Brian Rafalski and Dallas Drake last season. By having confidence in their home-grown players, the organization can take risks on cheaper journeymen. In a ten-year span, forward Dan Cleary played for four teams including Detroit. Because of Detroit’s success, they didn’t need Cleary to come in and immediately start producing high numbers. Instead, Cleary was able to improve without a ton of pressure on him and he blossomed resulting in a five-year deal with the Wings. Similarly, Brad Stuart was traded to the Wings this year, his fifth team in less than a decade. He just re-signed with the Wings this off-season for another four years after winning the Stanley Cup. Forward Mikael Samuelsson joined Detroit’s roster after spending the past five seasons playing for four other NHL teams. Thanks to their blue ocean strategy, the Wings have been able to sign on risky journeymen-type players who then flourish under the Wings system.
Finish a Free Press cartoon about Wings
Detroit Free Press cartoonist Mike Thompson is asking for readers to submit entries that will finish the cartoon depicted in the image below. The winner will see his/her text in the completed cartoon in Friday’s paper.
Courtesy of the Detroit Free Press
All I could think of was how the commenters at Abel to Yzerman could have a field day with this (although it might not help them win the contest).
10/5 Quick Hits
FSN Detroit Season Preview
If you missed FSN Detroit’s half hour season preview show on Sunday, you can catch it on Monday (11:30am & 7pm) or Tuesday (7pm).
Zetterberg’s play keeps improving
This Thursday, Henrik Zetterberg will celebrate his 28th birthday and a certain banner ceremony before the Wings’ season opener against Toronto. Zetterberg finished the playoffs with 13 goals and 14 assists earning him the Conn Smythe trophy. In a contract year, Hank hopes to keep improving his play and teammates don’t see him slowing down any time soon.
“Just look back to what he did last year,” Niklas Kronwall said. “I don’t think there’s a limit to what he can achieve, what he can do. If you look at his work ethic day in and day out, it doesn’t matter if it’s on the ice, off the ice, in the gym, he’s always doing it 100%. He’s so good both ways — I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him score 50 goals.”
Even more encouraging is Zetterberg’s comment in the same article hinting that he’d like to stay in Detroit. It just seems to be a matter of agreeing on a fair price that can keep the Wings under the salary cap.
“I really enjoy it here, and it’s become a home for me,” Zetterberg said. “I can’t really see a better place to play hockey, so hopefully we can figure something out that can work for both of us.”
Datsyuk returns, Hossa out
Pavel Datsyuk returned from a groin injury to play in tonight’s 3-0 win over Buffalo, but linemate Marian Hossa was out with a sore groin himself. The injury came in Saturday’s game and while he doesn’t believe the injury to be serious, it did prevent him from playing in the third period and then caused him to miss the last exhibition game. It is unknown if he’ll be up to playing on Thursday.
4 players cut from Wings roster
The Wings have cut four players from their roster in an effort to trim the team down to the 23-man roster limit by Wedneday’s deadline. There will be more to come later this week. For now, we know that Justin Abdelkader, Cory Emmerton, Jan Mursak, and Mattias Ritola will play in Grand Rapids this season. Ritola was the only one of the four to have played pro all of last season so this next year will be a great chance for the other three to get used to the crazy AHL schedule and travel.
Wolverines win both exhibition games
Michigan’s hockey team won both of their exhibition games this weekend in a 4-1 win over the U.S. NTDP U-18 team and a 3-1 victory over Waterloo. The Wolverines open their season at home against St. Lawrence next weekend and will start off with No. 2 overall and No. 1 CCHA preseason rankings. BTJ readers may see a few more UM hockey-related posts/comments as I am interning in the UM athletic media relations department right now, particularly with the hockey team.
10/4 Quick Hits
Wings dealing with injuries
Both Chris Chelios and Tomas Holmstrom missed last night’s preseason game due to knee injuries. While Homer hopes to still play this weekend, Chelios is out for 3-6 weeks with a fractured tibia. Pavel Datsyuk has been missing action thanks to a groin injury, but hopes to play this weekend because developing chemistry with linemate Marian Hossa is very important to him.
Wings defeat Toronto, 5-3
Last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs visited the Joe and left after a 5-3 loss at the hands of Johan Franzen & Co. Franzen scored twice including the game winning goal with just 1:57 left in the third period. In his four exhibition games, Franzen has three goals and two assists. Thus far, Franzen has been on the same line as Henrik Zetterberg and Jiri Hudler so that certainly helps with your offensive production.
ESPN the Magazine
Earlier this week, I was invited to answer some questions for ESPN the Magazine about the upcoming NHL season. You can check out my responses along with numerous other hockey bloggers’ opinions over at their website.
The Kronwall Brothers
Thanks to the tip from George at Snapshots, Staffan Kronwall was inspired by his brother’s success this past season. Like his brother, Staffan has had to deal with numerous injuries over the past three years and hopes to become a regular in the NHL. In last night’s game against Detroit, Staffan played on the third defensive pairing in just his third exhibition game this preseason.
“I kind of felt like it was me raising the Cup,” the 6 foot 4, 210 pound Staffan said. “We’re as close as brothers can be and I was so happy for him.
“It definitely gave me inspiration and motivation to work even harder. If I learned one thing it was how important you have to work as a team. There was no doubt after that first game which team was going to be raising the Stanley Cup.”
Congrats
Kurt @ Mack Avenue Tigers is a blogger by night, but a sports writer for the Mining Journal by day. We would like to congratulate Kurt, one of our favorite Detroit sports bloggers, for a job well done and certainly a deserving honor.
Mining Journal sports writer Kurt Mensching won the top award in the category for three columns on topics as diverse as the beginning of baseball season, Northern Michigan University football and high school sportsmanship at the Superior Dome.
Judges said Mensching’s writing was “funny” and “stood out as very clean.”
Mensching thanked the people of the Upper Peninsula for sharing their stories and for reading his.
“I’d also like to thank all my teachers at Manton High School, especially my English teacher, the late Diane Schimpke,” Mensching said.
Soap Opera Actor Cheers For Wings
During the playoffs, soap opera actor Thorsten Kaye blogged on NHL.com and attended games at the Joe. The NY Times printed a piece on Kaye’s loyalty to the Winged Wheel.
“Look at that,” Kaye said, pointing to an empty Champagne bottle signed by all the Red Wings after they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Stanley Cup last season. “I wish I was there to celebrate with them that night.”
Kaye saw three games of the finals in Detroit but could not make it to Game 6 in Pittsburgh, where the Red Wings raised the Cup. He was in the studio that day, but he watched most of the game in character, through his cameraman’s lens.
“My camera guy put the game on his viewfinder so that I could see it while we were filming,” Kaye said.
Still Friends
Despite Scotty Bowman leaving the Wings to advise the Chicago Blackhawks, Wings head coach Mike Babcock and Bowman will remain friends and continue to talk hockey. The two have already discussed how the Wings will be able to repeat. As you may recall, Bowman’s teams in ‘97 and ‘98 were the last to repeat as Cup champs.
“Why wouldn’t you call your friends?” Babcock said, sitting in his office while the Stanley Cup champions took a day off from training camp Thursday. “I’ve talked to him a number of times since he joined Chicago.
“A lot of the things we talk about are not just pertinent to the Red Wings, but to hockey. I can’t see that going away, I just can’t.”