Pavel & Henrik, sittin' in a tree...

For all Mike Babcock says about Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg agreeing to be split up because both wanted to play center, Datsyuk appears a little broken up over it, when asked about his feelings on the matter:

"My reaction?" Datsyuk said Thursday after an informal skate at Joe Louis Arena. "I start crying. I can't sleep two days. But now everything is fine."

Datsyuk and Zetterberg were a dominant one-two punch when they played together last season.

"I help Hank, Hank helped me," Datsyuk said.

Datsyuk is taking a wait-and-see approach with the proposed break-up with Zetterberg.

"Every year we start like that (on different lines)," Datsyuk said. "It's not new. It's a long season. Nobody knows. I'm happy we're still on the same team. I hope we finish on the same team."

It seems Pavel is as skeptical as the rest of us about whether or not the move will last. It's great to see the comradery and chemistry between those two (as D-Mac said last year, "they're together"), as well as Datsyuk's always entertaining humor. (Okay, I admit, that was the real reason I wanted to post this.)

"We can still be friends."

Coach Mike Babcock has confirmed - "not maybe, for sure" - that the Eurotwin superstars Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk will be broken up for the upcoming season. Says Babcock,

"They're not playing together. It would be crazy to play them together. They both want to play center anyway."

While I've never heard anything on Zetterberg professsing the desire to play center rather than wing, they were both natural centers, told by Babcock when they were put together to decide amongst themselves who was going to play what, if I remember the story right, it certainly makes sense.

Adding Marian Hossa over the summer, and the breakout performance of Johan Franzen last season are the number one reasons the move is possible - and it's impossible to argue that with the new depth of the team, breaking up the stars isn't smart. Earlier in the summer the rumbling was that perhaps the big line would stay together, allowing for a second line of Hossa, Valtteri Filppula, and Franzen, but the plan for now is that Datsyuk will open training camp on a line with Hossa and Tomas Holmstrom, while Zetterberg will play with Franzen and Jiri Hudler, squashing all speculation of a Franzen-Filppula-Hossa line.

It's an amazing thing to see the team have enough depth to make a move like this, but questions remain. Will the new lines gel in the same way that last year's top line did? Not only that, but will Babcock stick to his guns? It's hard to doubt the man, but Babcock has tried on many occasion to split up the two and still, the standard philsophy these past few seasons has been whent he team struggles, put the Eurotwins back together and things will fall into place. While I hope the new lines succeed, seeing Datsyuk and Zetterberg playing together is something pretty special:



I for one am certainly torn - you always want to see the team succeed however possibly, and creating this much depth and allowing your best forwards to improve those around them is a great way to cement future success. With the talent the Wings have developing, it probably is crazy to put all your eggs on one line. But still, you have to love to see the sort of chemistry the Eurotwins possess. As usual, speculation is practically useless - everyone will have to wait until at the very least training camp to see the new lines, and the new Wings, at work for now.

"Another game against the Blue freaking Jackets." - John Keating (Hank 3, Jackets 1)

This evening I'm bored and sick of reading about African American Vernacular English - so here, have a liveblog as the Red Wings take on the Columbus Blue Jackets for about the billionth time this month:

7:00 pm Red Wings Live informs its faithful that Darren Helm will be playing again tonight - because Valtteri Filppula has a knee injury. This is the first I've heard of it, but I certainly hope it's nothing serious. They also tell us that Derek Meech will be playing LW this evening, instead of his usual position on defense. Hmm...odd. He's had a good year at defense so far, here's to seeing if it'll translate.

7:06 pm For those interested in his grooming patterns, Henrik Zetterberg seems to have shaved again. The other day they asked him what the deal was with that and he said he's just "a lazy guy."

7:10 pm They're now interviewing a 105 year old woman who saw the entirety of Gordie Howe's career. Not only is she adorable, but she knows her hockey.

7:25 pm I would like the references to Columbus as "C-bus" to stop.

1st Period

7:39 pm You know what is so sad about playing the Jackets now? The Joe sounds oh so empty without consistent booing of Sergei Fedorov. (It looks rather empty too...I know it's a Wednesday night game against the Jackets and not particularly exciting, but come on guys!)

7:47 pm This is really boring.

7:48 pm Chris Osgood makes a nice save after Brian Rafalski makes the smart play not to hook Rick Nash coming in on goal. Have I mentioned how much I love having my defensemen back?

7:50 pm Jared Boll just locked in on Tomas Kopecky, who avoided the hit, and wound up absolutely railroading Freddy Modin instead. That looked pretty painful.

7:54 pm Osgood makes a less nice save on a shot that I'm not convinced he ever saw....scary. Then he followed it up with a terrifying flurry of saves.

8:00 pm Boll took about three second shift before deciding that was enough. Kid really wrecked himself earlier.

8:02 pm The puck just deflected oddly after Osgood made a save, leaving an almost wide open net. Ozzie dove across the crease to stop the puck but not before Zetterberg snuck in and messed up the shot. I love it when Zetterberg makes those shiny defensive plays. I'm sure Osgood just loved it too.

8:04 pm Rostislav Klesla is SLOW.

8:07 pm Detroit takes a second straight offensive zone penalty as Kopecky goes off - can we please take a few more penalties? Please?

8:09 pm Dick Tarnstrom takes a huge slapshot and Osgood gloves it down - beautiful. We're told we have only 3 shots on goal right now and this upsets me.

2nd period

8:30 pm The period starts with the remainder of a powerplay that is completely useless, but the announcers then rave about Dwayne Roloson and that makes me happy.

8:41 pm A Blue Jacket (I missed who it was) absolute runs over Osgood. Brian Rafalski sort of trips over him and highsticks the guy in the process. Everyone's favorite Mick McGeough calls only the Detroit penalty - and somehow decides to put Nick Lidstrom in the box. Manny Malhotra scores to put the Jackets up 1-0 during the ensuing powerplay. Wow. Wow.

9:00 pm Not too much has been happening - an almost Wings goal and an almost hand pass that saved it, and then the Wings go back on the pp and give up a nice scoring chance to Columbus. Henrik Zetterberg has some nice chances, but nothing goes in.

9:05 pm I am certainly glad Chris Chelios saw fit to take a penalty with 2:14 left in the period when we are down by one. I am annoyed enough that I see fit to play with the appearance of my yahoo fantasy hockey avatar instead of watching the last bit of this period. Seriously.

3rd period

9:26 pm I think Zetterberg is getting frustrated at only scoring 3 goals in 17 games or something, he starts off the period with a couple really great moves and almost puts us on the board.

9:35 pm Henrik IS pissed, and now he scores to prove it - past two defensemen and the goalie ending an 8 game goalless streak and 108:45 minutes of shutout time for Fredrik Norrena.

9:47 pm Suddenly we seem to have some momentum. Funny what a goal will do for you (however, powerplay still failing).

9:51 pm Chris Chelios gets called for boarding despite vehemently protesting. At least McGeough picked the right offender this time. Still, absolutely terrible time to take a penalty, but Osgood makes a nice save on Rick Nash to keep the Columbus penalty woes going. After the third faceoff the puck skitters off to the side of the net and no one seems to notice it right away except Osgood - you can practically see the panic not only all over his face, mask or no, but just in the way he stares at it like he's debating diving on it

9:54 pm With 2:54 to go the Jackets take a penalty - not that this has helped us so far.

9:56 pm Pavel Datsyuk misses a pass that could have been a gorgeous goal. I make a noise the likes of which prompts my roommate to ask if I am indeed all right. This is replicated when, a second later, thanks to an absolutely gorgeous pass by Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg scores again! I am starting to think he should shave more often.

9:58 pm 35 seconds later, a turnover lands Zetterberg the puck yet again - Norrena comes out to stop him, but he misses, and Henrik pots it behind him for the hat trick, a natural, and the third of his career. I think my neighbors might wonder if I'm okay by now. Osgood picks up glasses someone threw on the ice and tucks them in the back of his jersey - Mickey Redmond remarks that he's got eyes in the back of his head. Har har.

Somehow that game starting absolutely boring, then got frustrating, and wound up spectacular.

Congratulations Henrik, and thanks for the spectacular show.

I Like a Little Hockey in my Fighting (Wings 2, Ducks 1)

I didn't count actual number of scrums that could have - and for the most part did - lead to full-blown fights in last nights Wings/Ducks battle - the third of the season - but it was a lot. Sorry, Finny, but the Ducks are an unnecessarily vicious team, as proven again in just the first twenty minutes of the game. (And have you noticed how evil they all look? Ryan Getzlaf? Chris Kunitz? I'm looking at you guys. I'm also beginning to think secretely they wanted to get rid of Dustin Penner because his big smiley bearlike self just doesn't seem to fit in with the theme.)

Right off the bad, hardly more than five minutes in, one-time Wing Todd Bertuzzi ran Dominik Hasek over for no discernible reason. He was given an extra penalty for it (which balanced out the one Johan Franzen took defending his goalie - a completely acceptable one given how dangerous the play was), but you have to wonder what he was thinking, if it wasn't simply a blatant attempt to injure.

Shortly thereafter, Ducks captain Chris Pronger had a go at it with Dan Cleary - which he started off by not punching, but instead scratching Cleary with an open palmed-swipe at his face, ending up with the result of Cleary's eye swelling shut. He left the game and did not return - can't blame him for his few second of turtling. Before the end of the period, Doug Weight tried to drop the gloves with Brett Lebda as well, but Lebda didn't take the bait. The first period was ridden with penalties (a combined 34 minutes of them) and shots of the penalty box teeming with Ducks - four, at one point.

The Ducks seemed to settle down a little bit after the first period, but this didn't stop Sean O'Donnell and Aaron Downey from going at it. The level of physicality remained high, and it was nice to see the Wings retaliate well and not buckle under it, as they're so often accused of doing. (It was also nice, however, to see that Jiri Hudler has gotten a little bit smarter about picking his battles; at one point it looked like he was set to lay a monster hit on Pronger, before he slowed up and realized just maybe that wasn't the smartest idea in the world.)

The Wings capitalized on the several power plays provided by the penalty-fest only once, resulting in a Brian Rafalski goal - his 9th of the season, which ties a career record for him. The other Wings goal was from Val Filppula, who for whatever reason always seems to play some great games against Anaheim. Tomas Kopecky, who has seemed rather quiet lately, made a spectacular pass to him after Francois Beauchemin broke what seemed like he's twentieth stick of the evening to put the Wings up two. Unfortunately, Dominik Hasek's shutout bit was ruined in the third (I blame you, CC) when Chris Pronger managed to connect with the net.

FSN Detroit was having technical issues throughout the game, most noticeable toward the end when the feed froze on the last faceoff - I inferred that we won thirty seconds later when it cut back in to a lot of Wings jumping all over Hasek.

The Wings finished up the road trip 3-0, despite the absence of Henrik Zetterberg, but his absence is still worrisome, especially when his current claim is to feel all of "2% better." Luckily he has plenty of time to rest up through the All Star break before the Wings meet up with Tracy's Coyotes this coming Wednesday.

Other Notes

During intermission, the FSN Detroit crew interviewed former Wing-now Duck Mathieu Schneider about his time in Detroit. One of the things they asked him was what he missed most about the city. His response? "The pizza." To which the announcers prompted, "Little Caesars?" Schneider agreed. Mike Ilitch would be so proud.

Sports are notorious for throwing out odd, obscure stats - but sometimes they hit on some interesting ones. Like last night, for instance, when an announcer remarked that in his 16 years in the league, Nick Lidstrom has taken one roughing penalty. Wow.

Around the League

Elly passed this along to me this morning - I do believe everyone needs a little bit of cute, soccer-playing Conks in their life.

The league decided on four games in Europe for this coming season - Ottawa/Pittsburgh twice in Stockholm and New York Rangers/Tampa Bay twice in Prague. While I'm happy to see my favorite little Petr Prucha getting to play a game in (almost) his home, I'm started to get more than a little frustrated at all these Eastern teams. I know it was the Western Anaheim/LA match up in Europe last season, but come on, is there a reason it couldn't be 50/50? I'm not actually interested in either of these matchups - for the most part because neither actually impact my team. That's not great marketing, guys.

Dethroned (Wings 3, Kings 0)

All right - remember when I posted game recaps? I'm not sure if I do or not. I missed almost every Wings game for about a month thanks to working Bronco hockey and a night class - but here I am again...just in time for the All Star break. Great.

However, I've got two game with which to redeem myself, so here we go.

Yesterday night the Wings looked to keep up the precedent set in San Jose the other night, this time against the league worst Los Angeles Kings. The team was again without Henrik Zetterberg and proved one more time that while his presence is missed, the team can step it up without him. Chris Osgood got the start in net (he promises, for the record, that he only lost those couple games last week because "his hair was too long" - no, really) and wound up with yet another shutout.

The game itself was, well...kind of boring, when compared to what we've seen this season. The Wings, as expected, dominated, but not in a flashy way. If I had a dollar for every time the Kings thought they finally had the puck out of their zone only to see the ever present stick of Nick Lidstrom (© Versus) poke it back and stymie them once again, I could probably purchase the team myself. Still, it was great to see the team play well and keep the wins coming, especially when the team has a habit of falling to opponents who should be sure wins - ahem, Atlanta.

The Wings take on Anaheim tonight at 10:00 pm in the final game before the All Star break. Mathieu Schneider promises that Holmstrom is the only guy he's got a score to settle with - just kidding.

Oh and hey, LA - how come Jason LaBarbera is still allowed to wear black pads? I hope Ilya Bryzgalov and his new three year contract are protesting.

Trouble in Paradise

It hasn't all been coming up roses for the Wings though, despite the way the wins keep rolling in. Henrik Zetterberg is once again out with back problems. He didn't play yesterday and won't be in the lineup tonight either, though he is still with the team. It was a hit in San Jose that made his back pain flare up again this time - a bit different from the laundry bag that did him in last December. The injury has become a bit worrisome, even though it's been repeatedly said that it isn't a relapse of the disk problems that saw him miss 19 games last season.

Truly unfortunate is that for the second year in a row he'll be missing the All Star game. While it's great to see his commitment to staying healthy and contributing to the team, and while the All Star game is effectively meaningless, it's still disappointing, which Zetterberg has admitted to.

"Especially this year, I was voted in by fans. I was really looking forward to going. But it's best not to go, and we'll get this squared away and get healthy for the rest of the year."

Thanks, Henrik - we hope you feel better soon (and seriously, make Datsyuk do your laundry or something).

European Style?

The Wings went out and had a little fun participating in simulations with the Huntington Beach police on Monday. Players and their families (players' fathers came along for this road trip) were split into groups of three for the evenet, and most everyone remarked that it was a lot of fun and that they wished they'd been able to have more time, but what really got me was this quote from Pavel Datsyuk:

“I with Homer and Fill,” Datsyuk said. “We special KGB group, me and Homey and Fill. We have European style, jump in and everybody shoot. Ask later, who still alive.”

I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley - wonder if that style carries over onto the ice?

Other things are important too, even if they don't have to do with the Wings

Jamie McLennan, former Calgary backup of playoff spearing fame, has a blog about playing in Japan (and when I say 'playing in Japan' what I really mean is 'taking pictures of food and making fun of Tyson Nash'). It's hilarious, I promise - I literally laughed so hard I cried. Thanks Teebz for the link!

The Oilers were in Tampa Bay last night where they mounted quite the comeback against the Bolts before losing 4-3 - the game was broadcast on Oilers PPV, and I have to say, nothing made me laugh as hard as Gene Principe's little flub in talking about the team's rookies: "Craig MacTavish needs to keep having sex - er - success." (I was also a fan of the announcers trying to use the word 'shutout' as many times as possible in thirty or so seconds to jinx Johan Holmqvist - I thought the PPV games were supposed to suck? I was so entertained!)

Oh and I hear the Leafs fired somebody...

"Andreas Lilja's had a strong game, I think..." (Wings 4, Sharks 2)

Wings 4, Sharks 2

Edit 7:22AM Sat.: I'm not sure how I forgot this the other day, but I think the most important thing to be gleaned from this game is that I never need to hear "Joe Thornton's going to feed him a juicy one from back there" ever ever again.

Sorry this is late - I was iffy on staying up for the game at all since I had a monster Japanese test this morning, and even after I decided I would I was stymied by my computer overheating midway through the second and wrecking all my game notes to that point. And because of that, sorry if this is a little choppy - if I miss anything, Chisty (here at Winging it in Motown) and Matt (here at On the Wings) have my back, I'm sure.

We were told at the beginning of the game that despite the buzz about injuries to Nick Lidstrom (ribs) and Henrik Zetterberg (hip flexor), both would be playing - good news for us, especially since Zetterberg went on to continue his point streak at 8 games - a career best for him.

The first period was frustrating, and looked a bit bleak, with a penalty right off the bat leading to Mike Grier scoring the first goal and giving the Sharks their only lead of the night. The penalties continued and the wings spent 6 minutes on the PK in the first period, but the worst penalty-related issue of the game was the non-call on Kyle McLaren and his dumb yellow visor, who rode Dallas Drake into the boards before he even touched the puck. Drake immediately left the ice and was taken to the dressing room at the end of the game. He didn't return, and will be tested today to see just what the extent of he injury is. McLaren made his presence known again later in a fight with Aaron Downey, who's quickly becoming popular in Detroit. The announcers commented that it was nice to see him take his helmet off to make it a fair fight - something we've been seeing a bit too little of lately. Downey ends up shirtless in the penalty box (hmm, I don't think "Aaron Downey shirtless" is going to garner too may google hits yet...but I'll restate it just the same), and we're treated to an example of just how easily the new RBK jerseys do indeed tear. We're informed that "The Wings do carry an extra set of jerseys on the road...we think." Well they did - apparently they learned from Ottawa's mistake.

It was a good night for Red Wings defense, with Nik Kronwall notching his first goal of the season to tie the game at one, Brian Rafalski picking up three assists on the evening, and Andreas Lilja even playing well - maybe he's heard the buzz about his actions as of late, because he certainly showed up, making two great shot-blocking plays and later on taking a really good penalty. Related to defense, Chris Osgood continues to look phenomenal - he looked extremely confident, coming far out of the net to play the puck a number of times, and stopped 23 of 25 shots including a few stand-out saves yet again, and has looked better thus far than Dominik Hasek, who is a notoriously slow starter and will hopefully pick his form back up soon.

The top line of Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom continued its dominance, being responsible for two goals, the second and fourth. Their combined numbers this season? 13G, 19A and a +/- of 17. The third line also looked strong last night, despite Draper's goal streak coming to an end, but the second line - the Money Line, though I haven't heard them called that lately, of Valtteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler, and Tomas Kopecky needs to step it up. Filppula was projected to have a great season this year, but so far hasn't put any points up - as mentioned by the announcers (complete with a nice little squiggly line graph of just where his shooting lanes were), he needs to stop looking for the pass and shoot the puck more. Maybe he needs to have a chat with Ales Hemsky? He did get a really nice chance, but the goalpost denied him. "What does this kid have to do," the announcers asked, "to pick up a goal?" You and me both. The other goal came from the unlikely source of Matt Ellis, who captained the Grand Rapids Griffins this year (Kopy gave a nice interview on how Ellis used to yell at him and Hudler for playing ping-pong in the locker room before games). It was his first NHL goal, and Hudler scooped the puck out of the net for him to keep - no hard ping-pong feelings, I suppose.

Overall the game was good, despite the sketchy first period - both teams looked good, there was a substantial amount of scoring, some nice plays, and a fair share of scrums and pileups, and it ws great to see the Wings dominance of the Sharks continue past last season's playoffs.

The next game is against Phoenix Saturday evening at 10:00 PM. It's Homecoming weekend at Western and I have to work hockey tonight, football tomorrow afternoon, and volleyball in the evening, so I might not get a chance to see most of it. As always, BtJ, On the Wings, and Gorilla Crouch will have any news I can't get to. Tracy of True Coyote Love will be covering the game from the other side of the pond - hey Tracy, we're coming for you!

Around the League...

• The nhl.tv feature has been an interesting new addition to all the teams' websites, even if it's very hit or miss. (CapsChick has a great preview of highlights and lowlights). Of course I checked out the Wings' and more specifically the video highlights of practice the day of Henrik Zetterberg's (who does, all you google searchers, appear shirtless along with Nick Lidstrom - come on guys I'm just trying to get you to try for things that aren't "Rod Brind'Amour's girlfriend") birthday. Kris Draper nailing him with shaving cream is great, but the best part of the video in my opinion comes from the follow exchange between Chris Osgood and Kirk Maltby:
• Osgood: It's Hank's birthday? Pav and Hank? Pav's going to dance for Hank 'cause they're in love.
  
• Maltby: Well if one celebrates, the other's gonna - they're the Eurotwins!
• Osgood: Pav and Hank are going to dance to Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Does your backup reference Bonnie Tyler in casual conversation?

• So I know there was a big (and rightfully so) hullabaloo about just how amazing it was that Kevin Weekes felt the need to include porno music on his website (why does his guy have a website?) when it was first discovered, but now I'd like to invite you all to check out the man's new pads. Um. What? Seriously?
  

• And speaking of players with their own website, Zetterberg's store is now open, full of lots of expensive black clothes, red T-shirts and sweatshirts, and free posters bearing intense photos of the guy. But someone tell me, where's my I (heart) Hank shirt?

• Elly's going to be away for the weekend yet again. She told me to mention "a different" Penguin. I'm working on it.
  

The Wonder Twins Strike Again: Wings 4, Kings 1

Having missed the last Wings game due to work (well, that's a lie, I came home just in time to see Robert Wing Killer notch the game winner, but let's forget about that), and not been able to catch anything else recently because, well, Charter you still suck, I finally got to sit down tonight and catch the Wings take on the Kings in the start of their first Western road trip of the year.

This particular road trip was a scary one last season, wherein the Wings dropped three of four games and couldn't score more than one goal in any of those losses. Unfortunately, the one team they did beat was the Kings, in the first matchup of the trip - but let's try not to think about that either.

Going into tonight, the Wings had won thirteen of their past fourteen games against the Kings - a nice feel-good stat that made me even feel good about Chris Osgood getting the start tonight. Luckily that stat has improved to fourteen of fifteen, and Ozzie had a brilliant evening. Midway through the first period he made a flurry of amazing saves where just about every player on the ice was swarming his crease, and kept it up all night long, absolutely robbing Michael Cammalleri, who did eventually net the only Kings goal, at least twice.

The Kings goalie of the evening, Jonathan Bernier, looked pretty solid for the first few minutes, only fumbling the puck once on a second one-timer from Lilja (lucky goalie; he held onto the puck with a little bounce-move that if he'd stumbled over would have almost definitely been a goal, as there were two or three Wings waiting there to tap it in), and even looked all right after recovering from the tag team Eurotwins PP goal. Unfortunately for him, he started to crumble a little a after Kris Draper, who is currently red hot, notched a shortie on him after he went down too early and couldn't move across the net fast enough to stop it.

With those two, the Wings started the game off with a 2-0 lead, the first , which has been a scary number for them lately - and after Andreas Lilja took an untimely penalty that gave the Kings (who had scored seven PP goals to this point) a two man advantage for twenty second, allowing Cammalleri to move the Kings within one, it looked like that might be the case again. Luckily for us, the hero line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom decided they weren't standing for that. Despite Babock's goal, at the start of the season, to keep the duo of Datsyuk and Zetterberg on seperete lines, injuries to Johan Franzen and Mikael Samuelsson have forced them back together - and what a show they are. Holmstrom scored a beautiful tic-tac-toe goal that proved he's not only a grinder and that he can work with finesse sometimes too, putting one right past Bernier to lift the Wings ahead by two again, and Zetterberg added the fourth shortly after on a brilliantly patient wraparound play. Datsyuk assisted on both, bringing their totals for the night as a line to 3G, 5A. Think that's impressive? Individually on the season their numbers look like this:

• Datsyuk: 1G 6A
• Zetterberg: 4G 8A
• Holmstrom: 5G 2A

Think they're making a damn strong case for staying together through the season, much?

They weren't the only three making an impact tonight - in the first period Babcock ran the gritty line of Dallas Drake, Matt Ellis, and Aaron Downey, inserted with the injury to Samuelsson, quite a bit, and the Money Line (two Czechs and a Finn!) from last year of Val Filppula, Jiri Hudler, and Tomas Kopecky were together for a good chunk of the night. None of them broke onto the scoresheet, but Babcock commented that they were effective in the postgame.

While the game was enjoyable, I was disappointed with the lack of Jack Johnson, having been excited to see him again after watching him play my WMU Bronco's with U of M last season. I only even heard his name twice! Hey Kms2, where was your boy tonight?

Bronco Hockey

Last night was the first game of the season for my WMU Broncos - well, an exhibition game to be precise, but exciting nonetheless. They took on the U of Windsor Lancers, and while they got off to a 0-2 start, they rallied with the help of freshman Max Campbell who led the team with two goals and an assist and ended up winning 5-2. Considering we lost our number one rookie from last year, Mark Letestu, to the WBS Penguins, seeing someone step up to that role was a relief.

As usual the game was a good time - between Jeff LoVecchio chatting with us from the penalty box and helping us cheer on Frank the Tank and Jonathan Lupa getting a game ejection for a great fight, the season started off great.

Other Miscellany

• Elly told me to mention the Penguins while she's off in Ontario. So could Ty Conklin look a little more ridiculous in this year's Baby Pens roster shot? (Oh and the Pens won with what looks to have been a good 6-4 showing at the ACC yesterday night, too.)

• Petr Hemsky, forgotten brother of Ales (read: he failed out of the OHL), scored the game winning goal 4:59 in to overtime for his current team Srnsi Kutna Hora (home of the Sedlac Ossuary - possibly the coolest thing I saw in the Czech Republic). Way to do something, other Hemsky!

• Looks like Jason Smith really does love his Timmy's - and also like he's very disinterested in, well, Lupul's existance.
  

• Some sports recap of some football game (yeah, I was paying a LOT of attention to my TV) just used the phrase "He throws like Ernest Hemingway writes." Best. Sports metaphor. Ever.
  

Tomorrow night the Wings take on the Ducks - presumably not even before I get home from my night class, so here's to hoping the road trip continues the way it's started.

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!)