Signs it's Been the Offseason for Too Long: #1

The Detroit News, lacking any actual Red Wings news, as management is content with the current roster, has so little to report that they instead treat their readers to an article, photo gallery, and even audio that is essentially what Chris Chelios does on his summer vacation.

Paddle surfing: It isn't better, just different, Cheli says.

I encourage anyone interested in Cheli's surfing, biking, and uh, sitting at a friends' place on the ocean to check it all twenty three, yes, you heard me right twenty three, images. When does hockey come back, again? Those who like to rag on his age will find great material - personally I love the 74 year old workout partner.

I just wonder if the News realizes we have a perfectly lovely pair of pair of soccer playing Eurotwins who photograph a little better that they could be capturing the summer activities of. If only.

Meanwhile I just bumped down a great post of Elly's that has been killing me all afternoon, so make sure you check that out as well.

We age well. Like wine. Just go with it.

Dominik Hasek has made his decision about returning next season (thanks Christy for the tip), and Chris Chelios just signed a one year contract as well.

What does this mean for the Detroit Red Wings? Well, providing Hasek's decision is to return, it means a whole lot of breathing easier and the ability to go out and really start trying to resign a lot of other players, with the confidence that our goalie situation is settled. Hooray! (On the topic of Wings UFAs, this week's HLOG topic was a discussion of your team's UFAs and their situations - rather than crossposting I'll just link you to mine.)

What does this mean for everyone else? Still assuming Hasek stays, that we the viewers will not, after all, be deprived next season of such enlightened commentary as "the forty-five year old defenseman Chris Chelios plays the puck blahblahblah" (by the time this entire sentence is said Cheli probably no longer has the puck at all and in fact could be dead of old age) or of constant comments about the respective ages of both players and of the team in general during (but not limited to!) every Wings game. It also means the NPI game liveblogs will not go without their precious stats of just how many times each gets mentioned (hey let's make it a contest next year!). It also means that you non-Wings fans' lame player-based reasons to hate our entire team stay intact. Jerks :b

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It is also my duty to report that I have been given the task by Elly to inform you all that her recent absence is due to theraputic retreat to recover from the end of the season. Truth be told, we talked a little too much about Prongers' lack of pants and her computer imploded at the thought, or something along those lines. No really. Don't make fun of Prongs around your electronic devices, I've had a phone and a laptop fritz out on me. Either way, she's predicting a week or so until her timely return. Why timely? I don't know. Go with it.

DID YOU KNOW?

Hey guys, VERSUS, who are right now as I type this butchering what should be standard commentating on the Atlanta/Boston game, just wanted us all to know (this was brought about by a discussion of Scott Mellanby's contributions to his team which of course devolved into mentioning that he's doing good "for his age") that Dominik Hasek is 42.

I wasn't sure everyone out there had gotten that message yet, as it only gets mentioned three or four times every Wings game regardless of which channel is broadcasting it, so I just thought I'd pass that along for all of you (and don't forget, Cheli's old too!).

Honestly, this even needs to get talked about at games that are just about as far from hockey as you can get from Detroit now? Is it really the sort of thing worth being so focused on? I understand the mention of age in regard to it being impressive to see the level of hockey still being played by some of these guys - and sure, Dom and Cheli are great examples of this, and it is impressive to see that they've been able to condition themselves to still be able to play strong at an NHL level for so long. But does it need to be brought up every game? Do we need to be looking at them in terms of how good they are for being as old as they are? It seems like we've stopped being impressed and have just started toting those numbers around as oddities, as if we're just waiting with bated breath to see them finally fall, as a "can you believe it?" Guess what - we can! We do! We get it! Now stop.




(Also, I am pretty sure "plomped" is not actually a word at all, let alone a verb a goalie is capable of. Oh, VERSUS.)

Oh yeah, and GO LEAFS GO!

Update: Wings trade left wing Jason Williams to Chicago for right wing Kyle Calder, who had just been acquired from Philidelphia for Lasse Kukkonen and a 3rd round pick. Huh...we were just joking about what Williams ever did aside from score goals in shootouts at the game on Friday, but that's not what I would have expected.