Red Wings (7) vs Anaheim Ducks (2) Preview... If That's What You Want To Call It

It's been a while, sorry... I'm back now though, just in time for the playoffs. 22 STRAIGHT SEASONS!

Here's what I want in this series:

Here's what I expect to see:

This is leadership... Well done, Anaheim

Prediction: Wings in 6

Let's Go Red Wings!

Wow... A Whole Lot Of Red Wings News!

A whole lot has happened in the first few weeks of the NHL season. A whole host of injuries, a .500 record and one point squeezed from one of our losses. A few call ups and one signing, and lastly, some expectations have not been met.

Injuries:

Injuries have sort of become a story of this season. Before game one, there was already a line to the infirmary. Bertuzzi had mono, except that he didn't. Helm strained his back lifting weights, had an MRI (nothing showed), played 1 game and the team looked good, except that he had a setback and hasn't played since. Gustavsson, like a whole lot of other Wings, has a groin injury. Colaiacovo has a shoulder injury, a product of his glass bones and such. White was cut by Jimmy Howard's skate blade and has a "laceration." Ericsson was gone for a few games because he stepped on a puck in practice. I could go on and on about the injuries. Awesome news today... Smith is out 3-4 weeks with a shoulder sprain.
Injuries can decimate a roster, and to some extent, they have done that to our beloved Wings. The crazy thing for me is that, on another team, this could make the team not function. I am not hitting the panic button just yet, I could be insane for that but it doesn't seem like the right time to do so.

Part of the reason that I'm not hitting that button is...

Call Ups and Signings

With injuries come call ups from the AHL. We called up Brian Lashoff, an undrafted prospect who was never really supposed to be good. Surprising all of us, he performed well and was becoming a very dependable defenseman, until Jakub Kindl came back from injury and took his spot. Kindl's time in Detroit is now in the "put up or shut up" phase. If he doesn't pan out this year, it could be his last in Detroit. On a day when we had five, yes FIVE, healthy defensemen, we signed Kent Huskins. Huskins is becoming a very reliable D-man. We had a scare when David Backes hit him hard in our 5-3 win over St Louis on Friday. Luckily, he's okay and it was more a scare than a legitimate threat.

This is me... I'm so excited, I just can't hide it -- Feel free to finish
that line in your head.

Just yesterday, Sunday, the Wings recalled Tomas Tatar and Petr Mrazek. I AM HAVING A HARD TIME CONTAINING MY EXCITEMENT ABOUT THIS!!!! (<--- don't know if you could tell...) Tatar has made some noise with his dislike of how much time he has spent in the American Hockey League. Mrazek has rocketed from the OHL to the NHL in a matter of four months. He's coming up to Detroit having just had is first AHL shutout. Tatar is arriving in Detroit, despite the fact that Gustav Nyquist is leading the Griffins in points. Tatar, I believe, was called up to be inserted on the 3rd or 4th line. Nyquist would not suit that role, which is the reason that he was not called upon.

Those Who Need To Step Up

Kronwall, Quincey, Cleary, and the third/fourth line.

Kronwall: I think he's trying too hard to be Lidstrom, and frankly, it's not working for him. He has at least one minor penalty in every game so far, so that needs to end and he needs to get back to this...

KRONWALL'D

Quincey: It's all bad. He's had one, or two, good games but.... 

Moving on:

Cleary: He's just been bad in all areas of the ice. It's not that Buckets is not doing well, it's just that he's not been the same since he injured his knees last year. I have a very distinct feeling that it's either he gets better really soon, and he stays, or he keeps going this way, and is gone relatively soon. 

OVERALL:

I think that the team will be fine. If injuries to a big chunk of the roster only gives us a .500 record, I don't think that it is panic time. I believe that the call ups we have and Kent Huskins, the signing we made, will prove to be a good thing for the team going forward. I have to believe that the team will step up and stop being so bi-polar or else I will go insane. I'm keeping the faith in my team.

Until next time...

LET'S GO RED WINGS!

Patrick Eaves Cleared To Play

I woke up this morning to learn that Eaves was cleared for game action! Here's what I think of this news:

THAT IS ALL...

WELCOME BACK PATTY EAVES! :)

In Case You Were Forgetting... Part 2

This is the second week that I have decided to remember just what I, and presumably all of you out there, love about hockey. I know that what I love is the pace, the beautiful goals, the passing and the game. What I don't love is when the players and the owners are so dumb that they lost half of the season already and are on the verge of losing the entirety of the season for the second time in eight years. Another post for another time, I assure you...

Now, to the videos. :)

1. Patrick Roy Statue of Liberty play:

This should not be a surprise on the list. Roy was, and is, an integral part of my hatred for Colorado. There's more to it but, I hate Roy and you should too... This makes me happier. It never gets old, by the way.

2. Fight Night at The Joe:

I think this one is self explanatory. No more words, just video...

3. Darren McCarty... He Fights, He Scores:

OT Goal from March 26, 1997. Again, no explanation necessary.

{Side Note} I wasn't planning on this pattern of Wings/Avs moments but since we're already there...

4. Pasha Tried Something and Failed:
Pavel Datsyuk tried to flip the puck into the net from behind it. He failed because of some stick work from an Avalanche player but the fact that he tried is awesome in and of itself.

5.  Datsyuk Undresses Peter Budaj:

Once again, watching Red Wings highlights on youtube make me miss Pavel Datsyuk. This one is awesome.

Well, those are my five this week. Boo Colorado, Go Wings!

Until this stupid lockout is over, Go Griffins!

In Case You All Were Forgetting Why We Love Hockey...

Here's Some Videos To Remind You Why Hockey Is Awesome.

Every week, until this dumb lockout ends, I will give you guys some of my favorite hockey highlights, hockey porn as Michelle and Joseph like to call it. I will admit, I am very heavily biased towards Red Wings highlights but, here we go...

Video One:

Football (soccer) announcers are dubbed over hockey highlights. It makes me laugh every time, I think it's the Bernini sculpture reference. You should laugh too :) 

Video Two:
This one's for Michelle. She loves Loui Eriksson, I have to agree. He's one player I would give up a lot for. Debate me if you want, I'm open to all hockey discussion.

Video Three:

This one is in Swedish but it's a great Kronwall-ing. I really miss this. If you can, look at the guy on the bench, his face is priceless. If you can't see it, I'll give you a picture. I wish we could see this on Detroit ice soon...

Ouch! Look at the guy on the left...

Video Four:
This is probably my favorite "Jimmeh!" moment from the last few seasons... Kopitar penalty shot is denied by Howie and Howie just throws the puck away, like nothing happened. Jimmy Howard is a beast and I love Jimmy Howard, that's all I got to say about that.

Video Five:
Stick tap to Winging It In Motown for letting me know this exists... Datsyuk had a hat trick in the Russia vs. Czech game in the Channel One Cup. His first goal is great (2:30ish), his second goal is great (5:20ish), his third (8:00) made me laugh because someone thought it was a good idea to pass cross ice with Datsyuk on the ice. News flash: It's not -- He'll score 9.9 times out of 10.

Well, until next week... Those are my five. 

One piece of advice: if you truly miss hockey as much as I do, there are other places to find it than the NHL. Go to a few AHL games, it's the same game and it's just as much fun or more :)

Go Red W... Oops, Go Griffins!

December 7th... Griffins Win 3-0 and I Get Two Hockey Sticks

Going to a game at the Allstate Arena in Chicago means that you will most likely be one of a handful of Griffins fans, surrounded by Chicago fans. Let me tell you, it's always a great time at games in Chicago, especially if you aren't a fan of the home team.

Here's the rundown, along with some things that are fun:

The Wolves had a kinda cool pyrotechnics show for their players to skate out to. Of course, lots of cheering and lots of booing when the Griffins skated out.

First Period: McCollum made some great saves and I was pretty impressed with his goaltending, maybe Mrazek is keeping him motivated to improve. I must admit though, when I found out it wasn't Mrazek, I was a little disappointed. It was much the same disappointment as when I found out Conklin would be in goal on my birthday last year, we won that one too. The Wolves' one and only power play of the game came when Mini Chicken Parm, Ferraro, got booted for interference. The PK went to work and shut it down. Grand Rapids really carried the play the first period and I was sitting by their bench, so not much was down by me. I took that as a great thing because down by me was Tom McCollum and the place where I wanted no hockey puck to end up, the back of the Griffins net. There was an ALMOST goal late in the first, would have made it 1-0 good guys, Joakim Andersson appeared to have scored but, turned out he kick it in and you can't do that if you want the goal to count. GR also had a PP in the first, nothing came of it and at that point it really seemed that goalie Matt Climie was keeping Chicago in the game. By the end of the first, GR had outshot the Wolves 15-5.
End 1st period: Nothing but a couple of goose eggs :)

Second Period: 50 seconds into the second frame, Chicago took a penalty and ten seconds later they paid for it. Nathan Paetsch fed Adam Almquist and Almquist took it from there, one timed it past the goalie and in after deflecting off a Chicago defender. Same story here, Griffins carried the play this period and Chicago didn't get a shot on goal for 10 minutes.
End Period: Good Guys 1 - Chicago 0

Third Period: The Griffins had a shot advantage of 26-9 going into the final frame and they were not going to let that stop them from adding to their lead. Four minutes and some change into the period, Andersson found Ferraro who shot the puck right into the goalie, Andersson went in for the rebound though and it paid off for him. 2-0 Griffins. Brendan Smith got checked in the corner, broke his stick and was disgusted with the fact that it happened. He got a new one and all went on from there. A mere two minutes after the Griffins drew blood the second time, they got a third on a beautiful play by Nyquist and Tatar (The Souse - Thanks Kevin). Sousequist made it 3-0 Good Guys, and I got to gloat to the not so nice women beside us.
End Game: Griffins 3 - Chicago 0

Lets talk about my favorite players:
Nyquist: Great all night, looked like a true NHL player. Darn lockout!
Tatar: Man, am I impressed with him. That guy is a serious difference maker out there! All night I was looking at my dad every time there was a great play and then I realized that most times Tatar was right in the middle of it!
Mrazek: He was charting face-offs all night... :(
Smith: He played very well. Made good defensive choices and didn't try to stretch himself too far. He was really disgusted with his broken stick.

Here's all my not so good pictures... I tried

Fun Stories:

• Near the end of the second period, the GR equipment manager said after the game he'd give me a stick and started pointing out sticks. I must have nodded extra vigorously when he pointed to Smith because he decided on that one. The thing is though, it broke in the third period. He looked at me all sad and mouthed "it's broken, still want it?" and of course I said yes. He taped the two pieces together and tossed them over the glass. Broken B. Smith stick now in my possession? YEAH!!! 
• The woman sitting next to us said she wouldn't want the Brendan Smith stick as her kids were so jealous. My dad goes, that's a Brendan Smith stick, without the lockout, he'd be an NHLer. She goes "pfft, I still don't want it." My thought: Your loss, and you're dumb!
• B.Smith and Nyquist both smiled at me... No pictures of either one but, it happened I swear :)
• The equipment manager obviously felt bad about the fact that the stick he promised me was broken because the next thing I knew, Souse's stick is coming over the glass to me. I could not stop smiling and the kids next to us were jealous again. Ferraro had thrown them a puck but, a puck is not the same as two, TWO(!), game used sticks! My mom looked at them and, being her adorable self, said "You don't want that, your mom said so..."
• After the game, Chicago fan told me to go back to Grand Rapids... The thing is though is that I'm not from Grand Rapids, I live here. Whoops! I guess I just know who the better team is.