In the past few days...

1. Wings' Czech madman goaltender Dominik Hasek has retired (for real this time):

"I know it's 100 percent the right time to say good-bye," Hasek said. "Physically, I feel great. It's all about passion and motivation. I just don't feel I'm ready to compete at the highest level. I don't want to disappoint anyone."

Say what you will about Hasek (and there's plenty to say), but his contributions to the Wings and to the position of goaltender itself, cannot be discounted. While his play did drop off this season, he still backstopped the team in part to the victory we've all been basking in. He combined with Osgood for the lowest GAA in the league even without looking as strong as he has in the past. And don't forget last year when he was the legitimate #1 and helped take the team to the Western Conference Finals. Dom even handled himself incredibly gracefully despite the disappointment of losing his job to Chris Osgood in the playoffs - which, don't lie, we didn't all expect. At any rate, I wouldn't have minded him sticking around another year if he'd decided to, but this is a good decision for him. The Dominator always wanted to be number one, and what better way to go out but on top, with another Cup-winning season as your last memories in the NHL.



2. Stanley Cup winning coach Mike Babcock has signed a contract to be back for three years. Babcock is the first coach to win 50 or more games each year for his first three with a team - and now he will have the chance to do it for three more. The Wings announced yesterday that Babcock signed a deal worth $1.5 million a season and loaded with bonuses, which makes him one of the highest paid coaches in the league - as well he should be.

Babcock is a Jack Adams finalist this season, and for good reason. Of course he has an amazing team to work with, but his coaching style itself is an absolutely huge part of the Wings' success. Says Ken Holland:

"I think Mike has been the perfect fit for our team. He's pushed our team to be harder, go to the harder areas. He's challenged our team to play harder every night and I think our team for the most part every night plays hard. A large portion of that credit goes to Mike.''

Very true. He knows when to push the team, when to back off, when to take them to resorts in Pittsburgh, and he seems to have maintained a good relationship with them on top of it. Every time you hear the players talk about Babcock it feels like genuine respect - and that's one of the most important things for a coach. And the man has a record, these past three years, of 162-56-28. 162-56-28! I for one am thrilled that he'll be back for another three years, looking to tie Scotty Bowman as the only coach to record four straight 50-win seasons. Here's to you, coach - I for one am hoping he can take it to six.

Plus, he has absolutely perfect hair.



3. (And the most important) Nick Lidstrom and Chris Osgood are bringing sexy (and Stanley) back:

Justin would be proud, boys (and how cute is Nicky Lidstrom singing "We're bringing sexy back"? Oh so very.)

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.

This is totally worth your time, I promise.

I'm going to maintain that we lost because we didn't have Pronger out there to want desperately to destroy. Sound good? Okay? Right then. I have clearly important things to say about this game:

• Thanks to Pookie and Schnookie's IPB game review of the last game in the series, and the number of times they mentioned it, I was paying a painful amount of attention to Dom's waterbottle and where he put it (not where it belonged, 90% of the time). Unfortunately or me this led to also noting Giguere's and all I have to say is: oh come on drink from your damn bottle like a normal person. Every time I saw him with that stupid looking STRAW I felt a new stream of unpleasantness slip from my tongue. I don't even know why, it just IRKED me. Of course that was my general mood in Giguere's direction for most of the evening. Give me Ilya!

• Looking at the Detroit News' photo gallery, I just want to state two things about this picture. First of all, once July happens and I nab that Hemsky Pardubice jersey (just picture it with less Bulis and more Hemmer) from friends slightly more Czech-bound than me, I will be way cooler that guy. Second and more importantly, the sheer fact that there are NO ads on that jersey is not helping the "Dom is so old" case. At all. Remotely. Have you seen the Extraliga lately?
  

• Possibly the guys cleaning octopi off the ice shouldn't have been so funny but come on, shovels? Dropping it? Someone needs a lesson from Al Sobotka. A+ to the guy who threw the first one though, the little ribbon was cute.

• Valtteri Filppula's growing some scruff after all! Nevermind that it took an extreme closeup to figure this out and even then it was questionable. Come on Jiri, you're next!
  

• Kyle Quincey. So cute. SO CUTE.
  

I'll try to have something more worthwhile tomorrow, but in the meantime, IPB has a great play by play (even if they do lean Duckwards) and Gorilla Crouch as usual has a recap up already as well.

Hey, at least the Pistons won?

Duck Season Officially Open

WINGS CRUSH DUCKS 5-0
Series 2-1 in Wings' favor
(What on earth was I on when this said Sharks? Remind me not to post at 3am)

First off, is that Valtteri Filppula using one of those sticks that Datsyuk's stirred up so much noise about? I haven't noticed it in the games - has anyone else? It's too late for me to feel like looking up pictures and checking right now, but I couldn't help but see at least that he was carrying one in these celebration pictures tonight.

On to the game - that was the kind of thing you don't expect to see in the playoffs. Especially by the time you hit the WCF. In a beautiful 5-0 effort by Hasek and the Wings, we moved up 2-1 for the series and showed that we can not only take a beating, we can dish one out like the best of them.

The Wings' offensive effort was brilliant, especially compared to the past couple games where it would have really been nice to see a little more. Babcock shuffled the line around a bit (and also gave Tomas Kopecky a chance to play, after being out injured since December 19th) and it looks to have worked like a charm - not only that, but once again our potential for scoring depth made a great showing. Franzen broke out with the first goal, followed up with a nice shot by Homer - a wristshot and not the sort of goal we're used to seeing from him, which only made it more satisfying - a tip in in front of the net by Bertuzzi, another Holmstrom goal, and finally to top off the evening, my other rookie Filppula stepped up and knocked one in to bump us up to five. Not to mention the statistic when you factor in assists - of the 18 members of tonight's roster, 10 notched points.

The Ducks, on the other hand, couldn't seem to stay out of the box, which really hurt their offensive chances - I'll admit, Pronger raging at the referees made me a little bit happy.

Make that face all you want, Prongs, it didn't get you your pants back and it won't make the refs take pity on you either.

He and Baby Nieds took a really nasty shot at Holmstrom, knocking him down and sending him back to the lockerroom with two cuts on his forehead. It looked worrisome for a bit, but luckily Homer was back in the third period. I'm skeptical on the call - Niedermayer got a five minute penalty for boarding and a game misconduct, but Pronger, that jerkbag, walked away with nothing.

As for goaltending, Dominik Hasek was brilliant in net tonight, notching him yet another playoff shutout. He made several excellent stops and even using some of his patented wandering out of the net, successfully poking the puck away from a couple different Ducks. The announcers commented that he must have been getting bored - and rightfully so; the Ducks were outshot 13-2 in the second.

J.S. Giguere, on the other hand, looked a bit shaky at the beginning, and (much to my delight) was pulled in the second, allowing Ilya Bryzgalov another shot at playoff glory.

Sure they weren't as cute as Luongo and Sabourin, but what can you expect from Ducks.

Unfortunately, he let in the first shot that was taken on him (though to his credit I don't quite know how the Ducks let Valtteri Filppula get quite so far into the zone to begin with). He didn't look bad, however, which made me happy. Duck hatred I may have, but I really do have a soft spot for Bryz and I'm not the only one:

Me: Okay Ilya like, spins. when he gets back up and they're moving the puck away he just sort of makes little circles and it's really adorable.
Elly: Ilya does this cute shoulder roll thing....so cute.

And there's even a Facebook group dedicated to his Score interview. The poor guy, this must feel like flashbacks to last year's WCF - I can just picture him sitting there in net, muttering to himself about closing the door. (To note, I really wish there were more Knob Hockey happening this year).

Now we just have to wait and see if the Wings can keep this up again in Anaheim Thursday - I have faith!

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Speaking of goalies I have odd attachments to, tomorrow could be Ty Conklin's last game of the season - by the looks of things, the poor guy isn't even getting to suit up and stop some pucks during practice over in Buffalo.

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Having finally been home for a playoff game, I took a bunch of pictures and was finally able to have something to submit to the Japers' Rink View From Your Playoff Seats project - they were nice enough to feature my favorite on their page, so I wanted to take a minute to pimp the project in general for anyone who hasn't heard about it yet.

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Finally in a quick Tigers update just because this is getting called our biggest win yet and I can't help but be happy over it, the boys took on the Red Sox in Boston tonight and upset them 7-2. Verlander had a strong evening, pitching for 7 2/3 innings and and my boy Magglio Ordonez lit up the stadium with a home run that brought in three. Go Tigers!

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.

Red Wings Post-game/Pre-game Bonanza!

Following yesterday's innocuous little win over the Phoenix Coyotes, the Wings have moved into prime position to steal the Central Division title away from the Nashville Predators (and return balance to the universe). It was a game that might have had us worried for just a few minutes in there, but like the Red Wings fans we are, we remembered that scoring first against us means literally next to nothing, and stood strong. I saw the game but didn't get a chance to do a good full review of it - Matt of On the Wings has it covered though, if you're so inclined (and you should be!). I do seem to love to hear myself talk though, so here are a couple points I can't resist bringing up about the game:

• I can't remember a time span in my life in which I have yelled "DOM. NO." with such frequency. I mean, I give Dominik Hasek a ton of credit - he's been damn good this season. He plays like a crazy man, sure, but we've come to accept this and (when he pulls it off) even love it about him. I admit I've even found him strangely endearing thus far this year (something that may have been helped along by such uncharacteristic and oddly cute things as sending Joey MacDonald encouraging text messages and taking his defensemen and PK teams out to dinner for his birthday - oh sorry, "because he's had a few shutouts"). And there's something to be said about a goalie who can make a play like this one and get away with it. But we all know that Dom still sort of, well, sucks at playing the puck. I think the guy just gets bored in net (he certainly doesn't seem interested in the Islanders girls) and wants to wander a little. And admit it, you love seeing him rush out and take some poor innocent defenseman out at the ankles. But the sheer amount of times that hasn't worked lately is reason enough to stop trying it once per game - and the end result of tripping up your own defenseman and causing a ridiculous empty net goal like this should only serve to reinforce that.

• During the game, Ken Daniels mentioned that Wayne Gretzky said something about Henrik Zetterberg being one of the most underrated players in the league. And after seeing what the one-two Henrik/Pavel team have been doing lately, I don't think there's anyone willing to debate that, especially after these past few games. It's nice to see him getting a bit more credit at least within the Wings club if not the league - even if it took Yzerman and Shanahan leaving.

• Our announcers just make me really happy sometimes, and last night was very much one of them. Most especially when they were interviewing Draper, who is still getting over some kind of illness and is thus still having problems with his voice - "Let's be honest, it's from all that chirping at Brendan wasn't it?"
  

As for tonight, we take on the St. Louis Blues to pass up Nashville, take over the lead in the Central division and the Western conference and tie Buffalo (who has a game in hand on us right now) for the number one spot in the league. Overall this season, my sheer loyalty to and love for Manny Legace has led me to spitefully want to see the Blues run us over. But by this time in the season, and with the race so close, I now find myself instead hoping they for some godforsaken reason start Sanford tonight (oh come on, I have to at least a little cater to my Manny love) and we steamroll them. Earlier in the season I might have expected as much, but Manny's come out strong against us, and the Blues might be looking to treat this game as their last ditch playoff-making effort, so they'll come out hard. We'll be starting Joey MacDonald, who has had some rough luck when it comes to wins, but not through any real fault of his own - let's hope things turn around for him tonight. Maybe Dom will send him some more text messages.

My (completely unbased) prediction is 5-1 Wings, two for Datsyuk, two for Zetterberg, and one from someone on that fourth line (I'd say Hudler but it'd make me look biased, wouldn't it?). Look for a recap at some point after the game.

Go.......Leafs! (Come on it's in everyone's best interest to see them nail the Preds right now!)