Playing Catch-up

Let's not lie, the summer is, well, (save for a few particular dates) slow in terms of good juicy NHL news. Still, the past few days have brought a bit of interesting news where the Wings are concerned:

• First of all Igor Larionov, who was eligible to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame last year, was elected this year. Larionov helped the Wings win three cups in eight season and gets referred to as the Wayne Gretzky of Russia - making this effectively a no-brainer. "The Professor" gave a quote, when asked about his time with the Wings, that I think really sums up the team, and the team's ideals as a whole - and just why they're as successful as they are:

"To play the style that I was taught to play back in Russia, which was back control, puck-possession and skating, and the creativity that you saw, and more important, to have a coach and an organization that was driving to win the Stanley Cup […] Those eight seasons with the Red Wings, I put in comparison with the eight seasons with the Red Army team and the national team. That was success. That was fun. It was unbelievable support from the fans. It was incredible.”

Congratulations, Igor, and best wishes for the future - it's an honor you completely and totally deserve.

• I didn't make it to the Darren McCarty signing after all, but NPI correspondent Lady did! Here's what she passed along to me:

"McCarty is a super nice relaxed guy. He said that morning he'd been driving all around because his son had a baseball game, but that every day is a good day when you win the cup. I should have paid extra and had him draw a heart around Osgood and write "No one messes with my Ozzie" by it. The Wings are adorable and full of so much amazing bro-love."

She also sent some pictures my way but as they're personal shots that she and her boyfriend are in, I'm disinclined to plaster them all over the internet. Looks like everyone involved was having fun though!

• This is the cutest video I've seen yet of the post-parade celebration at Cheli's - a big chunk of the team singing along to "We are the Champions":

My favorite part is Henrik Zetterberg holding up the mic for Nicklas Lidstrom - the Captain sure has been doing a lot of singing lately, hasn't he?

Finally there are plenty of upcoming events as well - of course the NHL Entry Draft is tomorrow and plenty of our fine blogger friends will be in attendance including Pookie and Schnookie (McCrotch) of Interchangeable Parts, Patty of Penalty Killing, Heather of Top Shelf, and Alix of the Humming Giraffe, so be sure to check out their respective blogs for coverage of the event itself, and stop back here for news of the Wings' draft selections!

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.)

A lolcat for every occasion

Re: Game 3

Go Pens

2-0? Someone get me a stiff drink

It's a dark road ahead, and being down 2-0 makes it even worse, however the real kicker is the lack of even a single goal for Pittsburgh. Are the Pens going to get shut out completely in the face of the Red Wings' oppressive style of play? Will Therrien be fired? Will Pens fans desert in droves and become Blue Jackets worshippers?

No, and while it's fun to make up outrageous tag-lines, the fans, and the team, are far from out of the hunt, and it's extremely heartening to see the online community (NHL.com included for the most part) supporting and not discounting the Penguins as they have so many times in the past. Yeah, the Detroit fans and some fence sitters are already planning their parade, but the loyalists are here for the long haul. It hurts to see the boys clobbered by Detroit, but one solid fact about this Penguins team is that they can come back anytime, and hopefully, anytime will be tonight on home soil. Yes, this is a pep talk, but after the giant kick in the nuts that was game 2, a little pepping can't hurt. Go Pens? Go Pens indeed.

Am I going to post links to all the great articles floating around? No, I don't have three hours free in my life right now, but I will say that tsn has a great spread, not only of the Penguins and Wings, but of the entire hockey world right now, and in particular this little gem which talks about past Cups and playoffs stats. Definitely worth a look.

So what would bring a sparkle to the eyes of Pens fans around the world tonight? A bit more aggressive D and not being pinned in their own zone for 56 minutes a game are some obvious ones, a goal would be nice, or seven, and some hard pressure on Osgood, but I think there is something even more obvious and to the core that Pens fans would appreciate....and it has been taken off of the internet. So here is a call to anyone that has it/remembers it/can find it/knows where heavy.com has put it: find the Hasek Knob Hockey. Put it up on your blogs, embrace the wonderful love of knob hockey playoff goodness (With permission, of course)! I hope they'll put out Penguins ones, I can only imagine what those would be like.

Since I have not had the opportunity to post anything for the previous two atrocities, I'll catch up with a lolgwins (Go there. Feel the love) that expresses my emotions for games one and two:

Let's just forget that's Phoenix and make it red and white.



GO PENS.

Well, I'd take him around the back nine.

Ales Hemsky wants you to go golfing in the Czech Republic, and he wants you to use PowerBilt equipment. As a matter of fact, what has to say is:

"S kvalitním vybavením značky PowerBilt se mi hraje velmi dobře, věřím že bude i Vám."

Which, if you care to trust my admittedly rusty Czech skills, means something like, "With PowerBilt brand superior quality equipment my own play has greatly improved and I believe yours will too." (I uh, think.)

I didn't actually see a single golf course for the entire month I spent in Prague, but apparently Hemsky's had enough time over the summer, when he isn't playing inline hockey with his brother Petr or soccer with Jaromir Jagr (does that picture worry anyone else?), to work on his golf game. Maybe he used those extra few months that the Oilers spent not in the playoffs. Personally, flipping through the catalog, I'm a fan of this one. It's too bad Hemmer doesn't seem to be as big a fan of gaudy neon pink as me. Seriously, boring black, really Ales? And couldn't you have gone for a clothing line, or something? You and I (or perhaps your dad, since "Golf Hemský" sound peculiarly like another certain business of his that would seem to be named "Foto Hemský" - how totally creative) are going to have to have a talk about further business endeavors. Where's my I heart Hemsky t-shirts? My Hemsky mugs a la Zetterberg? You're going to have to grow the curls back if you want me to forgive this lack.

Oh and can I get some free samples here? And a demonstration?

Yessssssssssssssssssssssss!

Whoo hoo!



link from The Pensblog.

And in keeping with my in-depth, insightful posts...

All I want for Valentine's Day, lover, is.....Rod Brind'Amour crying in the corner as the Penguins hand out candy hearts to the 'Canes that say 'stfu' and 'U R my bitch'.

Oh, and some Belgian chocolate.



Pittsburgh 4-3

Go Pens.


EDIT: Lover, why did you have to get me a box of chocolates someone else had taken a bite of each of them? That sucked. Seriously. You get to sleep on the couch.

Re: Superbowl Pats v Giants 2/3/08

(image from cbs.sportsline.com)

Oh snap.

Oh no....oooooh no..

Dear Ty Conklin,

If you are in net against the Hurricanes tonight, I wanted to give you some words of comfort and support in facing your old demons:

You are not the only one scared of Rod Brind'Amour's face. Or his wraparound scoring technique. Please for the love of god stay in the net.

Lots of love,
Elly


p.s. I like the new pads. Flashy.

15 minutes

Steph, my lovely co-blogger, is famous!

But first, a little back story.

As any of you who have spoken to me lately may be aware, I am in deep psychological pain over the fact that Ty Conklin, the man who has become something of a long-standing running joke on NPI (in the most loving of ways, of course) is basically now filling the bright yellow pads of the starting goaltender role for my most beloved Penguins...and doing a fine job at it, to boot. Conks, who's stats so far this season are finding him solidly leading the Pens and undefeated, had puck handled his way into Steph's heart early last year with his tenacity to stay in the NHL (and Syracuse) and keep on playing, even for a myriad of teams. Meanwhile, I chorkled at the thought of him, once more, playing in the NHL post-season, and cried as the Oilers that spurned him rattled around at the bottom of the well. I made comments that I hoped that when they played the Islanders, that MAB stayed far away from Miller. And now, after being signed by my own team (something which made me wail louder than a long-tailed cat in a rocking chair factory), he is saving the very team I swore would never start him.

Steph, bless her heart, meanwhile made sure to rub it in at every available opportunity - and rightly so, since she never gave up on his little goalie self, even going so far as to make amusing and funny signs for him when she went to see Syracuse play...and now, due to his sudden, and deserved, popularity, incriminating photos of these humorous signs have shown up on The Pensblog, which is the best place to find great photoshops and people with painful signs. I'm sure more will be appearing soon, and I'm even thinking of submitting one of Conks myself....but I'm not sure I can pony up to admitting that maybe, just maybe, he might actually be good for the Pens. I'll give him this, though: he really can handle the puck. I just wish he'd do it without leaving the net in ulcer-inducing spurts and bounds.

Congrats Conks, and Steph as well, I hope you both enjoy the fame good goaltending and a great sense of humor can provide!

Deep, insightful recap

Can I get a hell yeah?
Hell. Yeah.

Congratulations, Geno!

Eat, Drink, and be Merry

In the past week, the Red Wings played the Kings (a 6-2 victory that I watched while enjoying Jumbo Margarita Night - Kms2 talks about it here), the Blues (a 3-2 loss I caught with Kathy that nobody talked about and I think that's fine - damn interdivisional games), and the Wild, (a 5-2 victory that Kirsten witnessed while I caught the Leafs on CBC, took pictures for me at, and later documented here).

Now the league is quiet for a few days; no games, no trades, nothing. Fortunately, the Wings at least realize we're going to suffer for a little while and wanted to entertain us.

Not only do they have a Season's Greetings video for us (Pavel, I love you, but "Merry Christmas" was probably enough - thirty seconds of Russian later I have no idea what you were saying), but they also gave us a set of entertaining articles in the Detroit Free Press listing different players' wishlists, gift ideas for teammates, and Festivus grievances. These are some of my favorites:

Tomas Kopecky on what he wants for Christmas: “A remote-control car.” (We're still rookies after all...)

Pavel Datsyuk on what he'd get for Kirk Maltby: “I buy him a Starbucks card, as joke, because I know he likes Caribou." (Cleary, who is apparently nicer, promised to buy Malts a real Caribou card.)

Nicklas Kronwall on what he'd get for Johan Franzen: “I would get Mule a French-language tape, because when we went to Montreal, the only thing he kept saying for three days was, ‘Je m’appelle.’ ”

Brett Lebda's grievances regarding Swedes Kronwall and Henrik Zetterberg, (whose lockers adjoin his): "I get stuck in the middle of these two all the time, and they always talk in Swedish, and I never know if they're talking about me or not. It gets to me. It hurts me as a person, deep inside. I think it's going to be a New Year's resolution of mine that I'm going to start learning Swedish, and then I'm going to come in and they're all dead when they start talking in Swedish." (That one's for you, Kirsten).

Nicklas Kronwall on Valtteri Filppula: "I think Fill should start working a little harder when it comes to our two-touch games after practices. He needs to put more effort into it." (I'm glad they're picking on his soccer abilities - very important for team betterment, of course.)

Chris Osgood on Jiri Hudler: "I really wish Hudler would be an inch taller." (Stop picking on my rookie!)

Finally, they also ran an article on Christmas traditions which also garnered some spirited (literally, from Datsyuk) answers:

Nicklas Kronwall: “The TV show Donald Duck, which is on at 2 o’clock in the afternoon on Christmas Eve back home. Donald Duck and his friends celebrate Christmas. It’s about an hour and a half of cartoons. When I think of Christmas, that’s what I think of."

Pavel Datsyuk: “When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to drink a lot on Christmas and be drunk.”

Sounds like the guys are going to have a fun (alcoholic) Christmas break - enjoy, everyone, you've certainly earned it! And Happy Holidays to all our readers as well, we hope you all have a good enough time to make up for the lack of hockey.

Last but not least, the Oilers want you have a great holiday season too - Laddy Smid could you please be any cuter? Awwwwwwwww. (Decided lack of Hemsky, however - speaking of whom, he still needs your vote! Souray? Psh. Hot-Off Champion or bust!)

It is, indeed, Hemmertime.

Me: 1
Elly: 0

Upset of the year. He does these things for me, you know.

Three days late and a half a bag of marbles short

I have the answer.

The reason that the Penguins lost so abysmally to the frickin' Flyers is....Chris Pronger.

Why is this Prongs' fault? Let me guide you through the quick and easy equation of: 'Seven Degrees to Why Everything is Chris Pronger's Fault'.

1. Start with the reason for your problem.
Well, in this case, it can be pinned down to two points: The Flyers got lucky, scoring hat tricks and all that (which would be Lupul and Umberger, but Lupul was the more frustrating and early pain, so I'm blaming him primarily), and the Pens had some horrific goaltending in Sabourin and (ack) Ty Conklin. Leaving aside the fact that Karma is most likely biting me in the ass for my incessant teasing of Lupul and Conks last season, we'll stick to the three people mentioned above.

2. Blame these problems on Chris Pronger.
Let's go individually down the list.

-Lupul: This one is easy. He came from the Pronger trade (along with Ladislav Smid) to Edmonton, and then because he wasn't producing and only scoring in bars with the bunnies, got traded to Philly with Jason Smith. The reason for the trade? I can only imagine it was to try to rectify the gaping wound left by the fall of the 2006 Cup run and the stinging ache in Edmonton's collective testicles by the kick Pronger bestowed on that fair city.

-Sabourin: An acquisition from the Canucks this season, he has shown up remarkably well in net for the Pens so far. His last game was against his old team when he came in to relieve a wounded Fleury, which he went on to win like he was playing on PCP. I'm sure the high after of winning in his old house was great...and probably brought back the memories of his last game between the pipes up in Vancouver, a playoff game he stepped in to relieve Luongo for, against, you guessed it, Anaheim. I'm sure the stress of having to relive that moment of Pronger-ness drove him to sleepless nights and therefore made him unfocused in net.

-Ty Conklin: Ahh Conks. What to say here. His first time wandering between the pipes for Pittsburgh, and against his old captain, Jason Smith. The last time he got to see him up close and personal was (barring the Blue Jackets game last year) during the Cup finals of 2006, which was a particularly horrible time for him. This horrible time also involved Pronger, who shortly after made his Escape to LA. Coincidence?

How much is that little doggie in the window?

The Thrashers, bless their little heart, have opened up their arms for the season of giving and taken Recchi off waivers. He's expected to play Sunday. I do believe that this might be 'fare thee well' for #8...although this is hardly the first time the fans have bid him adieu. Fourth time's the charm?

Good luck, Recchi! Say hi to Thorburn for us!




EDIT: In the interest of not having three posts from me in the space of 24 hours all stacked up like snarky pringles, I'll put this bit into here. Don Cherry, the blinding, make-your-eyes(and ears)-bleed icon of the CBC once more told the world how much he hates the Penguins by talking about the Recchi trade. While I'm not surprised that he spoke about the lack of class shown by the Penguins management in dumping Recchi like Jared threw off his fat pants through Subway, can he really blame the Penguins for wanting to build a better team? Yes, they could have handled it different, looked for a better way to go at the beginning of the season, but he played well last year and was worth trying for another run, even if it was for his cohesive power in the locker room.

Cherry, you know I love you, you know I'll always listen, but please, for the love of the rest of the known world, tone down the Canadian nepotism. I love Canada too, but to stumble over well-known European players? I've overlooked the raging man-crush on Tucker, but at least give the credit where credit is due, even if it's grudgingly. Canada rocks. Hockey is on. Life is good.

P.S. Who would have thought that Auld would get the nod instead of Rask? Go Boston! Also, Crosby is on After Hours. Surprise!

P.S.S. Anyone seen those Reddenbacher's 'flavor shakers' commercials? Surprise! Love it.


So, in conclusion, I think we all must ask ourselves the big question about Recchi's departure: Will Jordan Staal still live in his guest house (he does still live there, right)? Who will he ride to the rink with? Inquiring minds.


EDIT...EDIT?: Alex Auld was a beast in net. Wow. Also, the sky robin's egg blue inside of Cherry's latest wrap = sexy. Anyone else think Alberts played a good defensive game?

"Now you're gonna get it Bobby..." (Wings 4, Habs 1)

The Wings played the Canadiens this evening. The game was on Versus, and though I hear there was a neat pregame ceremony, we were unsurprisingly not shown any of it - it was nice to hear the Habs cheering Chris Chelios at the end of the evening, though.

I have a huge presentation tomorrow and thus while I watched the game I didn't take notes or have much to say except that the Wings played a strong game and the Eurotwins as usual were beautiful - you can find the official recap here, and I'm sure others will have theirs up soon. Check back! Actually I was sort of thankful I didn't have to pay attention because after hearing, in the first 8 minutes, two "Price is right" cracks from the VS announcing staff (nhl.com snuck one in there too - let's not all be so clever, guys) all I could think of as we led for the rest of the game was:

I'm glad we won so I had the opportunity to post it. Ignoring that actually I guess it might have been more apt if they'd come back and won it - but I'm not complaining.

Don't Quit Your Day Job

It's no secret the right now the Toronto Maple Leafs look to be, well, on the road to another really awesome April/May...golf tournament. As thus, there seem to be rumblings among the organization that perhaps greener pastures await. Former Leaf goon (shh, don't tell him I said it) Tie Domi was first rumored to be appearing on TV, but current agitator Darcy Tucker was shortly after said to be making his acting debut as well. With both shows now having been aired, it falls to us to decide who has the more promising acting career and who shouldn't hang up their skates quite yet - I conveniently broke down the standings for you:


The Show:
One of the most important factors in the matter is, of course, the show each was featured on. You certainly can't tell me a guest-starring role on a primetime drama doesn't garner more attention that a two minute spot on an afternoon soap. So how do the pair's acting debuts stack up against each other?

Domi: Domi is featured in an episode of the (hilariously) crass Rent-A-Goalie, now in its second season. The half-hour show follows "Cake", as played by Christopher Bolton, a "recovered-from-everything" guy living in Toronto and running a rent-a-goalie service out of a cafe in Little Italy while trying to live by a particular Code of ethics that becomes particularly difficult when dealing with the rag-tag bunch of goalies he's collected. Occasionally ridiculous, always amusing, and oftentimes offensive - but a great time (if you're me, anyway).

Tucker: Tucker, meanwhile, picks up a spot on CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie, another half hour sitcom focusing on the Muslim population of the fictional town of Mercy, Saskatchewan. The humor is much less crude, but the show itself is charming, and the pilot episode drew a surprising 2.1 million viewers.

Advantage: DRAW. Domi's got the quirkier, more fun show, but Tucker's definitely got the network advantage - CBC certainly draws more viewers.


The Role:
Okay, the premise of the show might be important, but what really matters more is the specific role each played, right? Both actors played themselves, but the episodes themselves put the two in some spectacular situations.

Domi: Episode 2 of Season 2, Domi Daze. Domi requires a goalie to play in his charity game, Cake supplies, somewhere along the line they throw down the gloves, two characters argue over the goon vs. enforcer archetype, and no less than two statues of Domi get built.

Tucker: Episode 5 of Season 2, Mercy Beet. Tucker endorses Mercy-made beet juice in a post-game interview, the town is thrown into an uproar as beet stocks soar, he is then absent for the rest of the episode until he holds yet another press conference at the end where it's revealed that he is now supporting a vile-sounding energy drink.

Advantage: DOMI. He gets upset over next to nothing, throws a bitchfit, fights a guy who seems a fair bit less adept at fighting who really does nothing wrong...so you know, basically he's Tie Domi. Tucker...drinks beet juice and gives stilted interviews about it. Um.


Sex-Appeal:
Don't lie, you know it's important.

Domi:

Tucker:

Advantage: TUCKER. Please don't tell me you require an explanation. Hate him or love him, you can't argue his good looks - even Margee understands.


Popularity:
Fanbase is important!

Domi: Don Cherry explains Domi's popularity like this: "People love guys who give 100 per cent and will drop them every once and a while." He also states, "He was the most popular in Peterborough. He was the most popular in New York, Winnipeg and Toronto." I suppose that's saying a lot.

Tucker: He's the #10 most popular player on Facebook's Hockey Fan application.

Advantage: TUCKER. You don't argue with the Facebook masses.


The Big Scandal:
Every actor needs a good scandal or two under their belt - nothing else grabs attention as well. So how do these two match up?

Domi: Domi's latest and greatest scandal is of course the Belinda Stronach incident: accused of cheating on his wife Leanne who then filed for divorce. Supposedly he also threatened to leave his wife penniless if she hired a lawyer - classy!

Tucker: Tucker, on the other hand, recently got a bunch of attention after his scrums with Sean Avery over his allegations that he was incensed by Avery making comments about teammate Jason Blake's cancer condition.

Advantage: DOMI. Adultery beats out libel.


Acting:
Of course the most important factor is....actual acting talent. Do either of them have any? You decide.

Domi: Those in Canada can check out the episode of Rent-A-Goalie here - for the rest of you, just imagine what you expect Tie Domi acting would be like...and you're probably pretty much right on.

Tucker: Tucker starts off, well...bad, and then it gets, well, a hell of a lot worse:

Advantage: DOMI. His acting was equally bad, but he at least got to spend half of the episode playing hockey and beating people up - which he does much better than either of them act.

FINAL VERDICT: DOMI.

While honestly I would be perfectly all right with never seeing either of them try to do any sort of acting ever again, I have to admit I'm happy with this verdict - Domi's retired and has nothing else to do anyway (although admittedly I'm not sure how many people will be particularly happy to see him all over their TV screens again), and Darcy, according to Cherry, is the "Leafs' best player" - and acting offers less chances for him to beat up Avery.

Either way, I think it really is safe to say neither will be on primetime again any time soon.

Guess that's why the call it the Blues (Wings 3, Blues 4)

Well, the division is certainly getting a little more interesting.

The Wings dropped a second divisional game straight last night, despite coming out strong and taking a two goal lead in the first period, neither of which made St. Louis' Manny Legace look spectacular. The Blues, unfortunately, stormed back in the second with a string of four goals, three of which came in a three minute timespan, and two of which can be attributed to rookie David Perron, who looked exceptional when I saw him on Friday, and only continued to impress yesterday night.

The Wings put up a good fight, pulled Dominik Hasek in favor of the still hot Chris Osgood, who has so far looked to be the better goalie this season, and mounted a strong comeback bid, but despite the efforts of players like Valtteri Filppula, who notched a timely goal to keep the Wings in the game, and Jiri Hudler, who was playing extremely confidently and who was absolutely stoned by Legace at least twice. Unfortunately it wasn't enough, and the last of the Wings' remaining streaks was put to an end - Henrik Zetterberg's, at seventeen straight games with a point.

For a good player-specific recap and some interesting (and not so exciting) statistics, head over to On the Wings. While the game didn't end great, it was a good effort, and no one's got any cause to be worried yet. At the very least save that for Saturday, in the case that the Blackhawks manage to stomp all over us yet again.

Team Bonding

Outside of the two losses, the Wings have had plenty going on lately. First, on Monday the team canceled practice...and went bowling. The original intent was to go skeet-shooting, but the weather was disagreeable, so bowling it was. The team broke into teams based mostly on line pairings, and the group of Brett Lebda, Chris Chelios, Valtteri Filppula, Mikael Samuelsson, and Johan Franzen came away with the victory. It was Jiri Hudler, however, who nabbed the high score for the day with 183. Huds claimed it was "natural luck," but Cleary insisted it was a fluke, and Maltby (who had the day's high score average-wise, with just under 180) had plenty to say himself:

"I choked in my last game," Maltby said. "I missed a spare on the ninth frame and then the 10th frame I left three pins up.

"I guess the first game where he bowled 183," Maltby said, "he had four strikes in a row, so sometimes when you don't know what you're doing, that's when you succeed."

Then on Tuesday, the team plane, the Red Bird 2, got stuck in the mud leaving the St. Louis airport yesterday when it slid off the runway and its right tires sank into the mud, leaving the plane unable to dislodge. Fox has a video of the plane's status - the latest update of which is that crews are still trying to determine how to safely get the plane back onto the pavement.

Czechmate! (Wings 3, Canucks 2)

Even in Vancouver, it seems we are still not all Canucks, as the Wings grab another victory, albeit a much closer one, over Luongo and the Canucks.

Nice try, but no cigar, Bobby Lu

I missed the first few minutes of the game watching the Oilers shootout, and a good chunk of the middle catching the Red Sox sweep the Rockies to win the World Series in four (go Sox!) but I caught the important highlights:

• The Canucks struck first as Matt Cooke potted his first of the season, but the Wings and Tomas Holmstrom struck back only twelve seconds later to tie it up. Unsurprisingly, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg both assisted on the goal, which brings Z's point streak to 12 games and 21 points. Keep it up, boys.

• The second goal came on a nice two-on-one rush where Valtteri Filppula managed to fake Roberto Luongo out of position before tipping the puck over to Mikael Samuelsson who tossed it in to put the Wings up again.

• While the Sox were busy winning the World Series, Markus Naslund evened the score up again, but Jiri Hudler came back with some nice stick work and a highlight-reel goal - unsurprisingly, it was right top shelf, just where he likes 'em. Way to go, kid!

• Chris Osgood looked excellent as usual up until the last minute when he tried to score a goal on the empty net, and ended up giving the puck right to a Canuck who nearly pushed it past him - he stopped the shot but was the pushed into the net, resulting in what the crowd thought was a goal, but it was waved off. Come on, Ozzie, you've got two assists already this season, don't be greedy.

For better coverage, Matt at On the Wings has a nice recap, as does Dave at Gorilla Crouch who also makes some interesting points about line shifting as players come back from injury. One thing they don't have to worry about any more is Igor Grigorenko - unable to crack the lineup, he returned to Russia, although he expressed interest in coming back next season and trying again.

Other News...

• Patrice Bergeron has been released from the hospital after the hit that left him lying motionless on the ice and saw him carted off on a stretcher with a neck brace Saturday evening. While there is no other new information on his condition, the word is it's nothing more than a concussion and a broken nose. Get better soon, Patrice, we miss you.

• A while back the lovely HG shared these extremely excellent only-in-Canada Chef Boyaredee masterpieces and proclaimed that, "I am willing to bet that the 15 minutes or so I spent exclaiming over the NHL shaped Chef Boyardee at Costco last night, wondering what it would be like to pick out all the Flames shapes and eat the rest TOTALLY led to the Flames' OT win in Dallas." If that's the case, then I bet my friend Sam in Edmonton's need to find and pick out the Oilers shapes just to photograph their existence TOTALLY led to the Oilers' shootout win over Anaheim:

I mean, how cool are those?

• Finally, a message to all eight-six of you out there who have dedicated yourself to scouring google for "ryan malone tattoos" and "malone tattoos penguins" - courtesy of Empty Netters, here you are. Happy? Okay. Now find something new to search, I like you guys much better than whoever it is still hopped up on finding out about "rod brind'amour's wife".
  

Recap Time

Thanks to work and night class I've missed two of the three Red Wings games thus far - and thanks to Charter extreme demonstration of failure, I still don't have the necessary Center Ice to watch anyone else's games, either. Needless to say, I'm feeling rather restless and hockey-deprived. A lot, however, has still been going on in the league:

• The Wings started off the season with a shootout win against the Anaheim Ducks which I did see - if I had to hear "the Ducks are just tired from their trip overseas" one more time I might have puked. They followed this up with a a shootout loss against the Blackhawks, and an regulation victory against the Oilers this evening. Henrik Zetterberg leads the team with seven points already. Meanwhile, the first injury of the year has struck, as Johan Franzen is out three to four weeks with a knee injury.
  

• This evening's game against the Oilers was interesting in that both Oilers goals came from former students of Michigan Colleges. Shawn Horcoff, who went to Michigan State University notched the first one, and Andrew Cogliano, whose U of M boys played my Western Michigan Broncos quite a few times last year and whom I yelled many an expletive at, potted the second.

• On the topic of players returning to old homesteads, Saturday night Jason Smith returned to Edmonton for the first and only time this year. The Oilers, the fans, and Craig MacTavish himself gave him a warm welcome in the form of a really nice tribute and a standing ovation that definitely had the gritty ex-captain sniffling. We miss you, Gator.
  

• This Sunday afternoon I was subjecting myself to the Lions game when the announcers happened to make a comment to the extent of "Look at the injury reports per week after three or so hockey games and compare it to the injury report after just one football game" - the goal seems to have been to insist that football is indeed the rougher sport withthe more devastating injuries. Perhaps the NFL doesn't much appreciate those Dallas Stars billboards?

• NHL.com's frozen moment today is one of those really beautiful shots of Roberto Luongo in the stands from last season.

• The Oilers' new roster photos are up - and a 300% improvement on last year's. Even my favorite chronically far from photogenic Ales Hemsky looks adorable this year! The Wings, however, have yet to get on the ball, except with....Dan Cleary? Huh.

• The Grand Rapids Griffins faced off with the Erie Monsters this past Saturday as well, facing off against NHL goalie Jose Theodore on a rehab assignment. The Griffins managed to win 3-2 which...well, I'll let that speak for itself. (I'd also like to point out the cheesy inclusion of "Jose, can you see" as the tagline for the event on the Griffins website.)
  

And that, everyone, is that. I'm looking forward to catching the Flames play the Wings - this early in the season it shouldn't even put too much stress on my friendship with HG. Here's to the Yankees failing (which they did!) and Charter getting their act together.