Which off season movement(s) surprised you the most? (free agent signings/ trades/ retirements… etc)

– Derian Hatcher– I’m glad we got this hometown boy to play for the Wings. It was kinda expected after the Kariya / Selanne deal, which made it less exciting, but I was still pretty pleased. Too bad he had to get injured, but I’m hopeful he’ll be back before the playoffs.

– Dominik Hasek — I was initially mad at Dom for coming back the way he did, because he forced himself on the Wings and made for a bad situation for CuJo. But, I am more hopeful that it is for the better, with CuJo still recovering and Dom playing pretty well. He just better keep it up!!

– Kariya/Selanne — I truly felt sick to my stomach when I heard the news. It was like a dream or something. I still try to deny it’s real. But when I really think about it, it’s not as bad as it seems. They can run and gun, or at least try, all they want, but they still have Aebischer in net (the fact that I am inable to spell his last name reflects his mediocrity), and that’s a liability they’ll have to live with unless they make a major deal.

– Roy — I was extremely happy that Patty Wahhh retired, because I hate his guts and he’s always a big threat to the Wings when we play the Avs. It’s kinda sad to think I won’t see another Statue of Liberty, but I can live with that memory.

What do you think about the new ‘road white’ jerseys?

I like them, but it’s unfortunate for the fans that bought white jerseys to have to fork out money for the dark ones. But I guess the nhl needs the money the way they’re losing it now. But I realize it makes since for teams that want to wear third jerseys, since there are so many of them and this forced home teams to wear away jerseys in past seasons, making for a tough situation for the laundary crew.

More on jerseys. What’s going on with those third jerseys? Who has the ugliest?

I’d say one of the ugliest is the New York Islanders’ Alternate, nyi

Another bad one is the Mighty Ducks’ Alternate, anhm

Or Calgary’s Alternate, calg

Or any of the Predator’s jerseys, pred

Or the Coyotes’ jerseys, which I’ve never even seen…., coyote

Or Vancouver’s Alternate jersey, canuck

With so many significant key injuries this early in the season, how do you think this will affect the teams and how are the teams going to react?

Hatcher’s injury shouldn’t be too big of a deal for us, since he should be back by the playoffs at worst. I’m hoping Kariya is hurt badly now, and that St Louis will follow their annual tradition in having Pronger or MacInnis hurt before the playoffs start. If we can unload CuJo to a team that is in desperate need of a goaltender at season’s end, hopefully we can pick up a decent player.

This is something I’m going to start doing every week. The girls at Overtime have created a site called Forecheck Four. It’s a spoof of another site and is updated every Sunday with four hockey related questions. It’s just another thing to add to the content of a site so I’m using it.

Which off season movement(s) surprised you the most? (free agent signings/ trades/ retirements… etc)
– Derian Hatcher– I was pretty surprised that the Wings actually got him. The contract was surprising too, 5 years, $30 million for the Stars’ former captain. Basically makes him a franchise player for a long time. Pretty cool

– Dominik Hasek — Obviously this was a big surprise. The rumors were going around, for sure, but after seeing how vehemently he turned down 1.2 million fans flat, I didn’t believe them. Even up to the point of his press conference announcing his return, I didn’t quite believe he was coming back. But I’m darn glad he has.

– Kariya/Selanne — I was utterly shocked when I heard that news from my friend’s dad as we were playing basketball outside. I never saw that one coming and I still don’t quite understand it. I’m still hoping it will flop, too.

What do you think about the new ‘road white’ jerseys?
I like them. Just on more thing that makes the NHL look like the other pro leagues, which is always a good thing with their present situation. Another thing the league needs to do to look more legitimate is find consistency in their officiating. But that’s another issue altogether. Back to the jerseys, I also like the fact that that’s how it used to be and that they brought it back. Dark at home just looks better. I guess I’m biased because I watch and play football……..

More on jerseys. What’s going on with those third jerseys? Who has the ugliest?
I don’t know what’s going on with those third jerseys. I think they’re getting to be ridiculous. Honestly, the only 3rd jerseys that anyone should have are throwback sweaters. You can’t go wrong when you use the past (unless you’re the Vancouver Canucks…..the 80s was not a good time for them in terms of style). That’s why I like the Wings’ jerseys. Simple and old-fashioned, the best in the league (my completely un-biased opinion). The ugliest 3rd is the Predators’, in my opinion.

With so many significant key injuries this early in the season, how do you think this will affect the teams and how are the teams going to react?
I know with the Wings, Hatcher’s injury won’t have a huge impact because they still have 3 more defensemen than they had last year (Fischer, Schneider and Woolley), for most of the season. They have a lot of depth and will be able to cover fairly well for the regular season, at least. The playoffs are a different matter entirely. The good thing about some of these injuries is that those guys will be back when it really counts. Hatcher is almost guaranteed to be ready for the playoffs. Same with other players who are hurt.

Curtis Joseph practiced with the Wings today. He was recalled from the Griffins after one game in Grand Rapids. Dave Lewis and Ken Holland said CuJo will likely play during the Wings’ four game trip coming up. Leiws: “I’ll talk with Jim Bedard, and maybe sometime this week or next week we’ll get him into a game. It’s close.” Something I’m not clear on: can the Wings carry three active goalies at one time or do they need to send one down? I ask because, while Joseph and his huge salary may pass waivers, Legace likely wouldn’t. If anyone can answer that, I’d appreciate it.

Like Matt, I didn’t catch the Red Wings / Rangers game either. But I did catch the Crap Wings / Rangers game though. The Wings looked pretty awful and it makes me wonder how we let ourselves get beaten by a bunch of has-been losers (who else could this be but the mighty Rangers?)! Maybe this shows just how important Yzerman is to the team, as he sat out as a precautionary measure for his reconstructed knee. And that really bothers me, because there are many other “leaders” on the team that should step up in that kind of situation. Shanahan and Lidstrom’s names come up for me. I know the Wings were on the second night of back-to-back games, but a 25% effort could’ve beaten the Rangers. Heck, the crowd was dead, as 99.9% of New York was watching game 6 of the Word Series, while .1% was watching the Rangers. So it wasn’t really an “away” game, i.e. the home crowd could be counted in the dozens.

Yeah, the last shift looked more like the Wings were protecting the empty net than trying to score a goal. And they interestingly failed at both. Hopefully the Wings will play better Wednesday against St Louis. They need to earn the money they insist they deserve in the NHLPA. If salaries were based on effort night-in and night-out, maybe we’d see something different on these kind of off-nights where it seems like there’s no reason to play hard. (I’m sure we’d have seen a different Sergei Fedorov all those years, since he needs to keep up his buy-a-new-Ferrari-and-crash-it fund)

Again, I was not able to watch any of the game last night so I can’t really say much about it. Obviously, the Rangers did not live up to their reputation as underachievers and what has become the Wings’ annual New York blowout, did not turn out like it has for the last 7 games between these two teams.

The Wings apparently looked tired (it was their 3rd game in 4 days) while the Rangers, who hadn’t played in 4 days, played hard and earned the win. It’s a pretty sad thing that the Wings couldn’t pull of a win but they can’t win ‘em all, I guess. I hope the Wings were just tired and didn’t play poorly just because The Captain didn’t play.

Mathieu Schneider scored the Wings’ only goal and the Rangers’ 3rd goal was an empty-netter.

Why Dandenault and Woolley were the two defensemen on the last shift, I don’t know. You’d think Lewis would have put slightly bigger guns out there in an effort to tie the game. Guess not. Nice decision, Dave.

Next up: St. Louis, Wednesday, 7:30

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Lines-
Maltby-Zetterberg-Whitney
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Hull
Rivers(Jamie)-Draper-McCarty
Devereaux-Williams-Holmstrom
Devereaux-Datsyuk-Hull
Whitney-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull
Shanahan-Williams-Holmstrom
Maltby-Draper-McCarty
Maltby-Draper-Holmstrom

Lidstrom-Schneider
Fischer-Chelios
Woolley-Dandenault
Fischer-Dandenault
Lidstrom-Chelios

PP-
Whitney-Zetterberg-Hull
Zetterberg-Dastyuk-Whitney
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull
Shanahan-Williams-Holsmtrom

Lidstrom-Schneider
Whitney-Lidstrom

PK-
Maltby-Draper
Zetterberg-Whitney
Shanahan-McCarty
Shanahan-Datsyuk

Lidstrom-Chelios
Fischer-Dandenault

6 on 5-Hasek pulled-
Whitney-Zetterberg-Holmstrom-Hull

Woolley-Dandenault

Net-
Dominik Hasek

The Wings will face their old Original Six rivals for the first and only time this season tonight at Madison Square Gardens. The Rangers have lived up to their reputation so far this season, though they are on a three game unbeaten streak. We’ll see fewer big names than usual tonight, as Bure, Leetch and Lindros are out with various injuries. Dom is expected to get the start, even though he played last night. Steve Yzerman will not play and will rest his knee instead. The Wings have lost 2 of 3 away games so far and will try to get it going on the road like they have at home. The Wings have won 7 straight over the Rangers since 1999 and I expect them to continue on that string tonight.

Last night was CuJo’s first (and probably only) game with the Grand Rapids Griffins. Strangely enough, it was against the Stars’ AHL affiliate, the Utah Grizzlies. The Griffins won 4-1 and Joseph apparently looked good. Read all about it here.