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.”
8/31 Quick Hits
Here are some quick links to relevant Red Wings articles and posts around the internet on this holiday weekend:
- Next Sunday (September 7), the Red Wings are hosting a Fan Fest. For just $5, fans will be able to play interactive games, take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Joe, act as a play-by-play announcer, and even ask questions to Yzerman, other players and alum. The event will last from 10am until 5pm. In addition, the Wings will be giving out prizes including signed jerseys and other merchandise. I think this is a great opportunity for the team to reach out to its fans (reminds me of the Blackhawks Convention this summer). I don’t know if there’s a limited number of tickets so you may want to buy the tickets in advance at Ticketmaster, JLA box office, or Hockeytown Authentics.
- Don’t buy the rumor that Mats Sundin is visiting Detroit this weekend and touring Joe Louis Arena. Does it look like the Wings have room under the salary cap for this guy? That’d be a no. The same article reports that Darren McCarty notified GM Ken Holland that he will likely sign the two-way contract with the Wings. Chris Chelios is also expected to make a deal when he returns to Detroit before training camp.
- Joe Pelletier at Greatest Hockey Legends, the best resource on the web when it comes to hockey biographies and historical moments, is counting down the greatest photos in hockey history. Coming in at #5 is Gordie Howe’s lying in a hospital bed with a fractured skull replying to fan mail.
- Kevin Allen at USA Today has his preseason picks for the upcoming season. It’s not too much of a surprise to see the Wings in the top spot.
- Abel to Yzerman has a series determining the Wings’ biggest rivals using six key factors. Today in Round #3, Bill looks at the Ducks also known as the Poultry over at A2Y. If I had to pick a team I personally despise the most, it’d be Anaheim. Between Chris Pronger (who I loathe), Brian Burke, the 2007 playoff loss to them, and then Schneider and Bertuzzi signing with them after said loss, there’s not much to like.
Vote Lidstrom at The Ace of Sports
Three days ago, I mentioned on BTJ that I wrote a bit on why Steve Yzerman should be voted the Detroit’s Best Athlete of the Decade. Well, I wasn’t going to admit it until Yzerman “lost” but I truly believe Nicklas Lidstrom has been the best athlete in Detroit since 1998. Unfortunately, Dave @ Gorilla Crouch was quicker than me in responding to Ace’s email so I ended up writing about Yzerman.
Anyways, Round #2 of the poll has begun and Nicklas Lidstrom has been faced up against Magglio Ordonez, outfielder for the Detroit Tigers. Now Maggs is most certainly my Tiger and I love the guy, but there is absolutely no way he is a better athlete than Lidstrom over the past decade.
Lidstrom has three Stanley Cup titles to his name (not including the ‘97 win), six Norris Trophies, and a multitude of other impressive stats. So go head over to The Ace of Sports and vote Lidstrom!
8/18 Quick Links
The Ace of Sports, a Detroit sports blog, is running a poll to determine the best Detroit athlete of the past decade. Each of the four Detroit sports teams have two representatives and fans are encouraged to vote for their choice for each team. The four winners will then move on to determine the overall best Detroit athlete. I contributed to the Red Wings portion of the blog and you can read my spiel for Steve Yzerman here. Yzerman is currently ahead of Nicklas Lidstrom with 62% of the votes.
Bill @ Abel to Yzerman has moved onto Round #2 of his Detroit rivals series. Today’s discussion? The St. Louis Blues. As usual, the entire post is a great read but here’s an excerpt of my favorite part:
And that’s where the fun started. 1996: The Captain picks up the puck at center ice after Gretzky bobbles it, glides up the boards a few strides then blasts one by Jon Casey and straight into history. 1997: The Captain again, with a speech for the ages; reminding the Wings that losing to the Blues, of all teams, would have been a defeat they’d remember the rest of their lives. 1998: Chris Pronger takes a puck to the heart, a scary moment, but thankfully one that didn’t define Pronger’s career. His dirty play, illiteracy, shady departure from Edmonton and his overall status as a frigging idiot did that. 2002: more Pronger and more Yzerman. This was classic Pronger. Takes a run at Yzerman, but is so immobile and lumbering that 19 turns it around on him, literally. Pronger leaps, wrecks his knee, stays on the ice long enough to take the slashing penalty that led to a Shanahan PPG, then limps down the tunnel. See ya Sasquatch.
Earl Sleek over at Battle for California decided to use Bill’s rivalry idea and discuss the Wings-Ducks rivalry, which has certainly grown over the years. It really skyrocketed for me after they acquired Chris Pronger. Outside of Patrick Roy and Claude Lemieux, I hate Pronger the most so naturally whatever team he’s on, I develop an immediate dislike towards. Between that, the WCF loss to them, and the stealing of Mathieu Schneider and Todd Bertuzzi (which actually worked out really well for us so thanks!), the Ducks have become a thorn in our side. Plus, GM Brian Burke is evil. Period.
Earl picks five Ducks players whom Wings fans should dislike the most in this rivalry.
Combined, these five Ducks players made huge contributions in eliminating the Wings in ’95, ’03, ’06, and ’07, and it’s not a huge stretch to think if they hadn’t, Detroit might have won as many as four additional Stanley Cups by now. And really, who wants to live in that alternate reality? (Wings fans are insufferable enough as is.)
There’s still plenty of other reasons for Wings fans to hate the Ducks (I didn’t even mention the yappy mouth of Corey Perry), but I think this fivesome might prove as strong a rivalry argument as any. I’m hopeful that Detroit fans found this post as angering to read as I found it pleasing to write, because you know what that means. They’ll be licking their lips for the next matchup, their chance for postseason revenge.
8/14 Quick Links
This is my least favorite time of the NHL offseason. A majority of the Wings moves have been made and the remaining ones tend to come closer to training camp, which is still just under a month away. The football season is gearing up so more media coverage tends to go in that direction. Not to mention the 2008 Beijing Olympics drawing the media’s attention right now. It has now been over two months since a game.
I spent the past 10 weeks as a PR intern for an agency in downtown Chicago, which was fantastic, but I didn’t spend the summer working at the Joe so I haven’t been at the arena for work since June 9th. After a long and wonderful season working there, it feels like I’ve been gone for forever. And now I’m finally back home and was eagerly looking forward to returning to the Joe for another great season, but I had a minor knee dislocation last week, sprained my LCL, and may have torn my lateral meniscus so I’m on “bedrest” for the next two weeks and sadly must delay my return to the rink until I heal up. I’m getting antsy and just can’t wait for hockey to return.
Despite this time of the season, there still is some relevant Wings coverage out there so I’m going to touch on these items (including some items I missed over the past couple of weeks).
Aaron Downey close to signing with Wings
According to a report in the Detroit Free Press (hat tip to Kukla’s Korner), Aaron Downey is close to re-signing with the Detroit Red Wings. It is a two-way contract (as GM Ken Holland said it would be earlier this summer) for this upcoming season. He would make $100,000 with the Griffins and $575,000 with the Wings.
The NHL Players Association web site no longer lists Downey as unsigned. The web site lists Downey as a Wing with compensation of $575,000 for the 2008-08 season.
I spoke to Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill shortly before noon and he said “we’re very close” to signing Downey to a one-year, two-way contract.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll say this again. Yzerman is my favorite all-time player. Kronwall is my favorite current player. Downey is my favorite player to talk to (and the easiest to talk to). He is a great guy - down to earth and fun to talk to. His attitude was a great fit for the locker room and I’m happy to see him returning for another season even if he is in GR for a lot of the time.
Wings forward lines?
Dave @ Gorilla Crouch has his take on possible lines that Mike Babcock will use this upcoming season. You can read his blog post to view his reasoning, but these are the two top lines he envisions on the ice this year.
Filppula-Datsyuk-Hossa
Franzen-Zetterberg-Cleary
I find it hard not to get giddy thinking of the impact Marian Hossa will have on the roster. And how sweet do our top two lines look?
NHL Division Rankings
Adam Proteau at The Hockey News ranks the six NHL divisions and the Central Division comes in at number four.
4. Central. I know, I know, the presence of the Red Wings alone makes the Central a division to reckon with. The burgeoning Blackhawks and never-say-die Predators also help in that regard – and the fact that more than half of Detroit’s regular season losses came at the hands of teams in their division is a fact that’s nothing to sneeze at, either.
The Blue Jackets and Blues are playoff dark horses, but even then, both of those franchises have a handful of young talent to build around. In sum, there could be many more Cups bound for the Central Division and not just to Michigan. Just not for a couple more years.
Spector’s season prediction: Wings win back-to-back title
Spector predicts that the Wings will take home the silver trophy for a second straight season. It will certainly be a challenging season and injuries play a huge role in the success of a team so I wouldn’t say the Wings have got it in the bag, but I do like their chances for a repeat should the key players stay healthy come playoff time. Outside of injuries, the biggest challenge the Wings will face is the loss of Todd McLellan, __, and Scotty Bowman. Bowman’s absence will hurt the most, especially since he left for a division rival.
The defending champion Detroit Red Wings will likely be the consensus pick to become the first club since the 1998 Red Wings to repeat, although that was a considerably different version from the club that won it all this year.
Most experts will point to the Wings keeping their Cup-winning roster practically intact while adding more offensive punch in winger Marian Hossa as the reason they’ll win it in 2009. Some might even be tempted to suggest the Wings could become the first team in over a quarter century to win three consecutive Cups.
Recent winners Anaheim, Carolina and Tampa Bay lost too many key players to free agency, leaving their respective front offices scrambling for affordable replacements that ultimately proved ineffective in bolstering a return to the Final.
Wings sign McCrimmon and McKittrick to staff
The Wings filled out their coaching staff with the signings of Brad McCrimmon and Keith McKittrick. For more details, you can check out my blog post at Winging It In Motown. In keeping with tradition, both of these guys have the “Mc” prefix in their last name. It has done well for the team in the past so I don’t mind continuing this trend.
6/29 Quick Links
Here are some quick links regarding recent Wings news…
The Wings selected Derek Meech as their rookie of the year putting him in great company with the likes of Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, and Jiri Hudler.
Steph at No Pun Intended has a great post up recapping how last year’s Detroit draft picks have fared over the past year.
Dan Cleary gets the Cup tomorrow and he had to hire a public relations firm to handle the demand by the media. His firm has given 94 press credentials, including the big Canadian publications, to cover his activities with the Cup.
He’ll pick up the Cup at St. John’s International Airport on Monday and will visit Janeway Children’s Hospital before taking it to his hometown of Riverhead for a private event with his family.
He plans to share the Cup with as many people as possible Tuesday, which is also Canada Day, a national holiday. …
Cleary has a daylong celebration with the Cup planned at a local ball field. “It’s all about the town and the children,” he said. “It’s like a festival. There will be children’s activities, a beer tent, musical acts throughout the day and fireworks at 10 o’clock.”
Ken Holland penned the cover story for The Hockey News with nine reasons why his team has been so successful in a piece called How We Did It. I’ll be sure to look for that issue on newstands this week and hopefully snag a copy.
5/21 Quick Notes
- Last night, the Detroit Pistons lost game one of their Eastern Conference against the Boston Celtics, 88-79. For postgame thoughts, check out my favorite Pistons bloggers at Need4Sheed and Detroit Bad Boys.
- Speaking of the Pistons, games three and four of their playoffs and games one and two of the NHL playoffs overlap in Detroit on Saturday and Monday evening. I wrote more about the problem at Winging It In Motown.
- Chris at The NHL Arena Program did an email interview with me yesterday and you can see what we talked about at his blog.
- Pride of Detroit, a Detroit Lions’ blog, reports that a Lions’ ticket employee dropped the F-bomb in an email in reference to a ticket holder who had just canceled his season tickets. The email was then accidentally sent to that ticket holder instead of the intended ticket employee. So if the abuse of watching a team suck year after year isn’t enough, this ticket holder was given the F-bomb as well. Way to go Lions. Way to go.
5/06 Quick Links
Until I post my conference finals predictions sometime Wednesday evening, here are some quick links:
Valtteri Filppula did not practice today with the team due to a knee injury suffered during the last round. Bruce MacLeod is reporting that Mike Babcock believes Filppula will play in Thursday’s game, but if Filppula can’t practice with the team tomorrow, Babcock’s plans will change.
Jamie Samuelsen at WDFN interviewed Kris Draper about playing in overtime in the playoffs and the Detroit-Dallas match up. You can listen to it here.
The Detroit Free Press Twist section did a nice piece on Leslie Winfield-Baker, who makes meals for the players, DRW staff, and the media.
Her moment at center ice: When she turned 40, team members assembled on center ice and beckoned to Leslie to join them. “They all started singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, and then I got a face full of shaving cream,” laughs Leslie. “I’ve pieced it together. It was (Kris) Draper. Plus, a couple of guys told me it was him.”
A team’s affection: On her 20th anniversary on the job, the team called her into the dressing room, where Draper announced that because of all she did to take care of them, they wanted to give her a little something. It was a necklace with a Stanley Cup image and inscribed “Love, the boys.”
Ansar Khan at MLive.com writes about how Aaron Downey is staying positive despite being a healthy scratch for the entire playoffs.
“You can sit back and feel sorry for yourself because you’re not playing, (but) you know what, the situation is we got good players in this locker room and I knew that coming into camp,” Downey said. “I said if I make the team I might be lucky to play 40 games, and I played 57. I’ll take that, and I was happy. Playoffs? We’re halfway done and I could still get some games, but if not, I still feel a part of it. … Doesn’t matter what I got to do to win a championship. If I got to fill water bottles, doesn’t matter to me.”
1/31 - Quick Links
Since I blogged last week, quite a few things have happened in the hockey world so here are some quick links to these stories.
Wings 3, Coyotes 2
Last night, the Coyotoes grabbed a 2-1 lead, but failed to hold on as the Wings came back to win thanks to captain Nicklas Lidstrom. Unfortunately, defenseman Niklas Kronwall was hurt during the game. According to the new Hockeytown Blog at DRW.com, Kronner had a CT Scan yesterday for his clavicle. It came back negative. He is expected to miss seven to ten days as a result of the injury. While it’s certainly positive to hear that it’s not a serious season-ending injury, it is disappointing to see Kronner make all this progress just to get hurt once again.
An Ode to Nick Lidstrom
Greg @ Out of Bounds wrote a nice post about the Wings captain and why he’s the best player to have ever played at his position. Here’s an excerpt from the post:
The Red Wings have had not only two of the game’s greatest players, but also two of the most humble. In Lidstrom and Steve Yzerman, I don’t know if you could drag a brilliant word about their own play out of them. The new captain is just as gracious and eloquent as his predecessor, conducting himself with the quiet grace that just adds more to his aura. They’re both like Gordie Howe in that way.
Howe, the greatest right winger of all time — and maybe the best player, too — and Yzerman, one of the top five centermen ever, are now joined by Lidstrom, who I’d say became the best defenseman ever about a year or so ago.
This fuddy-duddy, whose memory of watching athletes perform dates back to 1970, is willing to concede that a modern day player is the best, all-time, at what he does. I don’t do that very often. Usually, it kills me to even consider it.
But, as with everything else he does, Nick Lidstrom makes it easy.
Fabian Brunnstrom
Bruce MacLeod @ Red Wings Corner clarifies the whole situation regarding Swedish player Fabian Brunnstrom.
No team can negotiate with Brunnstrom before his Swedish season is complete. That includes any time at the World Championships if he’s chosen to compete there. That means that April or May is the earliest that Brunnstrom can sign a contract with an NHL team.
If I had to pick a team that Brunnstrom will sign with, it’d be the Detroit Red Wings. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like each team can only offer him an entry-level contract so everyone is pretty much even on that basis. Thus, it’s down to where would he like to play? Hmm. Let’s see. The Red Wings are the top team in the league AND have seven Swedish players on the team. What more could a player want?
Versus picks up contract option
Versus will be showing NHL games for three more years. Now, I don’t mind that Versus is showing NHL games, but that’s only if ESPN comes alongside too. Unfortunately, ESPN dictates a lot about the level of popularity for a sport and if the coverage isn’t there, but on a cable only channel, it’s harder to generate more fans.
Earlier today, I was reading the SportsBusiness Daily roundup regarding Gary Bettman’s 15th anniversary as the commissioner (don’t even get me started on that one) and came across this quote regarding the contract with Versus, which was originally in a Philadelphia Daily article.
“You can’t measure our success whether or not we’re on ESPN. Screw ESPN. Most of our television is local and we do very well in our local markets. We could have gone to ESPN. They offered us bupkus. Then they acted like they had us over a barrel, that we had no place else to go. I never liked the way they treated us.” - Philadelphia Flyers Chair Ed Snider
At a quick glance, it appears that at least one owner likes the attention Versus has given the league and is pleased with that decision. On second note, Ed Snider is also the chairman of Comcast. Versus is a cable channel owned by Comcast. Thus, this quote is completely biased as Snider would want the financial benefit of Versus obtaining the rights to show NHL games instead of a competitor like NHL. Outside of Snider and Comcast, I wonder how many owners truly believe Versus is the right choice in helping the game grow. Obviously, it was a better choice financially speaking for the league as the teams will be splitting $72 million each season for three years, but was it the right choice?
Sports Business Digest argues that the NHL is not making enough money from this deal to make it worthwhile to stick with Versus. Unfortunately, I don’t think the NHL even had a say in the matter as Versus picked up its contract option.
The initial deal between the NHL and Versus only had each team receiving $2 million per team from television revenue. This extension, based on reports, seems to be nothing more than a contract extension with an inflation increase. Seeing as how half of the teams in the NHL currently have an operating income in the red, it seems as though at the very least they should have been seeking a price increase with Versus (they really should had been taking strides to get back on ESPN, but at the very least, get more money from Versus!). I don’t really understand how this doesn’t put the NHL in a disadvantageous position for the next three years. Yes, they’ve seen revenue increases recently, but this is based mostly on an increase in ticket prices, and teams are still operating at a loss…so why would you not try to get a more lucrative contract?