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.)

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...

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.

Wings 3 Ducks 4...aka SKATE WITH IT!

DUCKS 4 WINGS 3

Series tied 1-1

Well, my eyeliner had a good run, but all good things come to an end, it appears.

I made it down to the game this evening and as usual had nothing to actually write notes down on, so this is going to be a very objective sort of game review and I'm probably lacking a lot of information. First things first, I learned from Christy this afternoon that the Wings, as a Mother's Day special, were selling autographed pucks for $20. She couldn't make the game, but asked me to pick one up for her, so I made my way over to the table and snagged the last two - both signed by Bertuzzi - for us. We were also given rally towels and carnations for Mother's Day.

I hadn't been to a playoff game this far into a series in quite a few years, and I wasn't sure what to expect, especially at the Joe where we've been criticzed lately for the lack of sellouts and the lackluster crowd. I can tell you for a fact, there was nothing lackluster about the crowd at the Joe tonight. While the lower bowl had a fair amount of empty seats, the upper bowl was almost entirely full - just another bit of proof that it's really the high ticket prices that are doing us in. My seats were section 201, row 4 (the view from the picture above is ours) and priced at $158 a person - plus the $15 parking.


Before the game I was watching the Ducks warm up and looking for Ilya Bryzgalov (he and I have an illicit affair which we don't speak of because it means there's a Duck in the world I tolerate so shhh) - right before he skated off the ice he went to give Giguere a hug, or so it looked - but he ended up half-tackling him and knocking them both back into the goal. Cute. Also during warmup I was slightly surprised to see Kopecky skating around with the boys, and Meech as well. I wonder if my rookie Hudler is sulking about not getting to play - he wasn't out there at all.

The Wings and the Ducks looked fairly evenly matched throughout the majority of the game. The Ducks did outplay us in the first period, and through the start of the second (for the first chunk of the second it really looked like we didn't have any energy, any offensive power, our powerplay was downright anemic, until Maltby's goal, after which we really picked it up for the rest of the game).

Two of Anaheim's four goals were reviewed - the first of which we didn't get any sort of recap of except for the net-cam view, which didn't look remotely like it was in at all, but sounds like it was a fair goal from what I've seen elsewhere. The second seemed sketchier to me as Hasek had the puck and it didn't cross the line until he got pushed farther into the net - though looked more clearly like a goal on the view we were given.

The game really was either team's to win, and I don't believe this loss will have a major impact on us, especially if Hasek bounces back the way he usually does after having a less than stellar outing. Once the Wings found their stride they looked strong and more than capable of dealing with the Ducks, so long as they can keep it up. Our pp looked much stronger after Maltby's shorthanded goal, and both Lidstrom and Datsyuk notched a ppg before the game was over, not to mention our pk was as strong as ever and for the most part looked excellent.

Pavel Datsyuk looked a little off to me tonight - I hope it was just coincidence, and maybe even being shaken up a little from the first couple minutes of play where he took about three good hits in a row, but his skating seemed to have a lot less finesse than usual. He fell several times, didn't seem to have quite the control he usually does, and generally didn't skate with the skill he's shown he has. Then again, he wasn't playing necessarily poorly either, and he definitely had several nice moments.

There was a guy sitting behind us who seemed to know a lot about all the individual players and yet very little about hockey - he also had a tendency to be horribly loud and yell particularly random things at really odd times; "GET THE PUCK!" "SKATE WITH IT!", "CHARGE!", "ATTACK!" and "TODD!" being just a few. As odd as it was, it seemed to really apply overall - the Wings really did to do a lot more of all of those things (even including the Todd bit - I didn't see Bertuzzi making nearly enough impact tonight), and I hope they can pick all of them up by Tuesday's game.

Perhaps the most important event of the night, however, was me coming fully into my hatred of Chris Pronger. That's right, I couldn't, before this, even though I tried. I kept looking at him and seeing Chris Pronger, my playoff hero (okay, after Pisani), the guy who took that ridiculous penalty shot and made it. But after seeing him there, live and in person and hulking over everyone else on the ice, wincing everytime he took one of those laser shots from the blueline, hearing it rocket off the glass, worrying every time he got the puck during a pp, seeing that stupid gap-toothed grin and he celebrated with his little Ducklings, knowing just what an impact he has on a team and constantly thinking about how that impact, that god damn fucking puck moving defenseman impact, could have been Edmonton's all season instead of working against us right now, I hated him. So there. I booed him every time I saw him. I yelled, I cursed, and I hate Chris Pronger. You win, Lauren.

See everyone Tuesday night - GO WINGS!

Whip your Conk out!

"Cocklin" was first discovered and put to use (okay shh I am aware this is full of inaccuracy and exaggeration) by the drunk guys behind me at the Crunch game (where it ranked slightly more clever than Popperle/"Potpourri" and Pushor/"Pushover" and light years beyond Methot/"ME HOT"), but it appears that the magical world of Facebook is now horning in on their creativity with yet another play on words linking Ty Conklin to a particular bit of anatomy. Granted the Facebook group seems just a bit less hateful... I, of course, had to join, and then felt it was also my duty to spread around just how little it takes to amuse me. Especially seeing as how I couldn't come up with anything clever for his March 30th birthday.

Look, he shaved! Just as I was just coming to terms with the scruff and even admitting it wasn't bad looking, ask Elly!

That said, this is the post where I say I hate the Sabres. Or no, I don't even hate them, I just feel nothing toward them. I don't particularly dislike them, but I have no reason to cheer for them either. And they're within mere fractions of points of my Wings' President's Trophy. But okay. You got me. Fine. I love Ty Conklin. And if the damn Sabres take that trophy, like they're poised to do, I'll be content in having won in the West, in having at least smited the stupid Ducks and their stupid Chris Pronger, because I'll be thinking of happy little Ty Conklin getting another chance - maybe - and hopefully not fucking it up. (Although, CapsChick has assured me that she'll be cheering for her boys to pull of a win, so I totally don't need to be worrying, right?)

That said, I still haven't entirely forgiven you Conklin. Don't push my love.

Randomly, why is it that he continues cycling through all my friends' teams? From Skye's Magic Wands - er, Blue Jackets - to Drea's Sabres...what's next, one of 'ly's Pens come this summer? (I'm so lucky she's in Pittsburgh right now, she might literally implode at the thought).

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And while we're on the topic of ex-Oilers, Lauren Pronger ruined our season, did you hear? I mean I've been saying that since the beginning (just ask Elly!) but hey, now I have whole newspapers rallying behind my spiteful little opinion! I think Covered in Oil sums the whole thing up the nicest, but I do feel the need to echo - why on earth is all of this showing up eight months afer the fact like some new brilliant discovery? And sure, we were all pissed too, but I wonder just what's going to come of that beautiful little divorce-advocating quote. Good plan, that one.

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Happier news exists as well today, though - in the form of Pavel Datsyuk signing a shiny new 7 year contract with the Wings. Christy has a collection of reactions, both her own and those of most of the rest of the Wings blogosphere - all I can offer in return is approval of the move and confidence that those floundering playoff years aren't anything to be worried about.

‘’This contract was extremely important to me,'’ Datsyuk said. ‘’Especially since I have been a Red Wing since 2001."

Isn't it nice to have players who want to stay?

Go(lf) Leafs Go(lf)

Okay seriously now. We never believed the Leafs were going to be some completely dominating force this year. We were never that deluded. In fact, we were as stunned as the rest of the hockey world when they somehow landed themselves third in the league, (and behind Anaheim and Buffalo who continue to hold on to their respective one and two positions), even as we didn't believe it would last.

And last it hasn't. Sundin returned from IR, and the team collapsed around him. Raycroft hasn't won a game in six (excluding the one that Aubin played which was another loss) despite looking exceptionally well right before that. He hasn't been playing particularly well, but then again, he hasn't exactly had any help from the rest of the guys around him either. The team seems to have forgotten how to skate entirely. They're playing messy, sloppy hockey, and it shows. They played about two minutes of good, strong hockey when the game started tonight, and another two after McCabe's goal. Four minutes out of sixty.

Let's talk about penalties. Fourteen minors in that sixty minutes, just from the Leafs. That means for very close to 50% of the hockey game, we weren't at full strength. The refs were calling a lot of ridiculous minors tonight, sure (that Hasek penalty for example. He gets tripped, can't balance on one foot, and falls over--and somehow this equals unsportsmanlike conduct. Little Jiri looked as perplexed as I was as they marched him off to the bench to serve it), but the Leafs were the ones letting them happen. And they certainly seem to not understand that this is a problem or that any of it is their own fault.

• Pavel Kubina takes a hooking call. Of course it isn't his fault--clearly Tomas Kopecky's to blame. Thus, for some reason rather than try to prevent further damage, Kubina attempts to rail on the Czech. This of course does no good. Maybe not a ridiculous penalty like some of these others, but going along to prove a point, at least.
  

• Period three, Kilger decides why check (...why yes I did initially write 'czech') one player when you can check two!? He thus takes out two Wings--beautifully, I might add--but as only one of them had anything to do with the puck, he's called for interference. Maybe he was homesick for the penalty box?

• Near the very end of the game, Maltby gets cross-checked, shoved into the goal, and essentially held there, or at least continually shoved back there, while Aubin looks on, entirely distressed that his net is occupied by a bunch of things that should not be there at all. But at least not a puck--not this time, anyway.
  

Every five seconds, yet another penalty. All five Detroit goals were on the PP.

This, folks, was some embarassing hockey. I'm not sure what advice to offer at this point--this was not a losing team at the beginning of the season, and something happened to make them fall back to what they were last year. And at this rate, they're just going to keep sliding down until they're resting neatly at the bottom of the Northeast division. Only one point is seperating them from Boston down there--and we've seen how well they've been doing against that team lately. They're tied with Ottawa now--Ottawa. An we've all had lots to say about how they've been playing this year too.

The Wings, on the other hand, are tearing it up again. Datsyuk could have played stronger (what happened to that idea about shooting at the net more? He's like the Ales Hemsky of the Detroit Red Wings, but he's missing a Petr Sykora), but overall, they saw what they'd been given and took advantage of it. It was nice to see the money line split up a little more (Kopecky especially played with a few different guys) but I still like the young line best together. I'd like to see Hudler and Lang on a line together at some point.

At any rate, I went out to this game dressed up and down in blue and white, sat in my fifth row seats right off of the faceoff circle in what was (miraculously) an entire row of Toronto fans, cheered my little heart out for Raycroft through period one, defended Tucker's honor against the guys next to me through period two...started cheering for Jiri Hudler around period three, bitched the Leafs out when they ran the poor little Czech over a few minutes from the end, and came home with a brand new Manny Legace jersey. And McDonald's wouldn't even give me vinegar for my fries. This blog will now go back to pretending the Toronto Maple Leafs do not exist until we are given reason not to.

See you at the Joe vs. the Kings on December 31st, I believe.

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And of course, Manny Legace update! The Blues have revealed that my poor goaltender got kicked in the head during the Edmonton game on November 16th--so this being his second head injury of the year, it's no surprise that they put him on IR so quickly. He could be back as early as December 13th, but considering the coach's statement that they're going to "take it easy" with him, I doubt that. This certainly isn't his year, especially after the one it followed. Feel better Manny, there are still fans who love you, even in Detroit. I will now go wear my jersey and pretend it helps anything.

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Last but not least, and very quickly, Edmonton game day against Chicago tomorrow. All things considering I think I can keep faith in the Oil. We are talking about the Blackhawks, after all. It's an away game, but considering their play on the road against Dallas yesterday, I think Roli might even pull off the 22 and some odd minutes of no scoring he needs to break his shutout record. Chicago is 6-5-1 at home, and Edmonton is 5-6-1 away--but without Smyth and Hemsky they've really picked it up a notch lately (thankfully, since we were all about ready to throw their season in the toilet as of last week). I'm going with a 4-1 Edmonton victory, Sykora gets two, Stoll, and Winny with one each. But my predictions tend to be utter guesses.