Jerry Green proposes an very interesting if highly unlikely idea in today’s Detroit News. His suggestion is that the Wings get the University of Michigan to let them use the Big House for their January 4th game against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. He points out that the stadium will be unused until the late summer of 2004 and that the Heritage Classic and the UM/MSU outdoor game were both huge successes. There is also the fact that the Wings’ fan base would be sure to fill the stadium to it’s maximum capacity and that the 700,000 requests for tickets to the HC is probably nothing compared to the response that would be seen in Hockeytown.

An outdoor game is a possibility here in Detroit and has already been thought about by Wings management, though the venue proposed was Comerica Park, not Michigan Stadium. I cannot see the Wings ever playing a game in Ann Arbor mainly because it is not a Mike Illitch venue, though it would be amazing and give a much higher number of fans a chance to go to a game. The fact that it would be against Fedorov and the Ducks makes it even more appealing. Still, that kind of thing takes a lot of planning and there is hardly even a month left to prepare for Green’s date. It is something to dream about, though.

Manny Legace (left) skates in to replace Curtis Joseph (right) during the first period last night

The Wings dropped a 4-1 decision to the Caps last night at the Joe in one of their worst displays this season. They were awful defensively and weak offensively, making it easy for the NHL’s worst team to get a confidence building win. Even facing a goalie in his first NHL start, the Wings could only generate one goal of offense after 39 shots.

Curtis Joseph was pulled in the first period after allowing three goals on nine shots. However, no blame should be placed on him because the rest of the team gave him zero support. Honestly, the Wings should be ashamed of themselves for their play in front of their former #1 goalie. I would hope they all apologized for their lack of defensive coverage and that they’ll get it together next time Joseph plays. It’s disturbing to me to see the difference in the Wings when Joseph is in net. It’s as though they don’t think they have to play hard because he’s going to be traded anyway and he’s not really their goalie. It’s sick. I’m really feeling bad for Curtis because the Wings completely left him out to dry last night. I’m glad the fans at the Joe had enough class to cheer him when he left the ice, knowing it wasn’t his fault. It’s too bad the Wings don’t seem to have that same amount of class.

The Wings were weak and unexciting offensively, with many slow and inaccurate passes causing repeated setbacks. Their power play was poorly executed and a total failure. For some reason, their strategy was to all stack on one side of the ice so that any rebounds would go to the opposite side, where there were only Caps players. This went on all night and was not corrected. They did their usual job of making the opposing goalie look good by hardly putting any pressure on the kid the whole night. Everyone looked out of sync and it makes me wonder how seriously Lewis and the Wings took the practices leading up to the game. They obviously took the Caps’ problems for granted and expected a roll-over win. That’s also disturbing to me because the Wings have usually been smarter than that in the past.

Ray Whitney once again did not play, making the game his fourth consecutive missed. He may miss some more, apparently. He participated in pre-game skate but still has soreness that is keeping him out.

One of the scariest moments of the season: sometime during the 3rd period, Nick Lidstrom took a high stick to the face. It was completely accidental but scared the crap out of me. I appreciated Kip Miller, the guy responsible, for being a total class act by making sure Nick was okay and sticking around, instead of skating away but I was still frozen for minute or two. Lidstrom was down on his hands and knees for a little while and I very worried that it was his eye. Thankfully, it was not and Nick just skated away, coming back the next shift. The Wings dodged a bullet there, for sure. If the Wings have one guy they cannot lose, it’s Nicklas Lidstrom.

I kept hearing over and over again on the radio and from people I talked to yesterday that “the Wings have an easy win tonight.” I kept telling them that the Wings would probably blow it, as they typically do in games like that. I even mentioned it in my game preview. I was right. I wish I wasn’t. Ugh.

I cannot think of any bright spots in the game last night. It was just a poor outing overall and a game I’d like to forget. It was completely embarrassing. The Caps played a good game but it was more of a case of the Wings handing them the win than anything else. Every time I start to think the Wings may be getting back on track, something like this happens. They need to figure out who they are and do it fast. Are they a championship team or a mediocre one? There’s no middle ground, in the end, here in Detroit. I’d rather see them have these problems now instead of later but I think it’s gone on long enough.

The Wings are now 11-9-2-0, just one point behind the Blues for first place in the Central Division. They’ll have a chance to pull ahead of the Blues on Saturday but they first have to get through the Oilers and Islanders. The Wings have pretty much squandered what should have been a light month of November. Up to this point, they’ve played the greatest concentration of below-.500 teams they will play all year and have ended up 7-7-1 against them. Scary.

Next up: vs. Edmonton, tomorrow, 7:30 EST

Freep | News | ESPN | Box Score

Lines-
Maltby-Draper-Holmstrom
Thomas-Datsyuk-Hull
Shanahan-Yzerman-Devereaux
Rivers-Mowers-Bootland
Maltby-Draper-Bootland
Maltby-Draper-Mowers
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Thomas
Yzerman-Datsyuk-Hull
Holmstrom-Yzerman-Hull
Shanahan-Yzerman-Thomas

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

4 on 4-
Maltby-Draper
Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Chelios

PP-
Shanahan-Yzerman-Holmstrom
Thomas-Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider
Woolley-Chelios

PK-
Maltby-Draper
Shanahan-Yzerman
Datsyuk-Hull

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

Net-
Curtis Joseph (pulled 1st period)
Manny Legace

The Capitals, who were supposed to be the worst team in the league, turned out to be an inspired group that capitalized on Red Wings’ defensive breakdowns in the first period, leading to a 3-0 early deficet and CuJo taking the hook for his teammates’ lack of support. The Wings were off all night. A clear sign is that despite taking 39 shots to Washington’s 19, the Wings couldn’t put the puck into the net until Draper scored with 14 minutes left in the game. The main reason for this was that the Wings couldn’t get bodies in the right places in front of the net. On a dozen shots or more, the Wings had rebounds off Rastislav Stana, making his NHL debut, but couldn’t get people to get on those pucks. The best line of the night was the Bootland line, which reflects their hardnose play. But for balance, a team has to have some offensive output or hardwork is pretty much in vain. It’s kinda like watching a Draper breakaway over and over again; the guy puts his best effort through, but it’s probably not going to be a goal. And we have plenty of guys who need to be capitalizing on shots. It’s definitely an off-night when repeated attempts by Shanahan and Hull on the power play miss and miss again.

Tonight is the first of two meetings this season between these two former Stanley Cup finalists. The Caps enter this game with the NHL’s worst record and have really struggled this season. They are 2-5-0-1 in their last 8 and have lost consecutive one goal games. Compared that to the Wings’ 5-2-1-0 record for their last 8. Detroit is 6-2 at home while the Caps are 2-8-1 on the road. The Wings’ problems seem very small when seen in the light of those in Washington. They are a team going nowhere fast and it’s not for a lack of talent.

Curtis Joseph will start again for Dominik Hasek, who’s still out with a groin injury and should be back later this week. Ray Whitney is questionable for tonight and Darren McCarty will not be back this week for sure.

This should be a good opportunity for the Wings to get a win. Typically, lower-tier teams step it up to play the Wings but the Caps may be too messed up to do even that. Of course, I’ll probably be wrong and the Caps will play their best game of the season but honestly, the Wings should have an easy win, if they don’t blow it themselves.

The Hockey News points out an interesting factoid in this week’s issue.

We all know the NHLPA is dead-set against the NHL’s proposed $31-million salary cap. We also know that the players are not opposed to giving back some of their money to NHL owners, proven by their recent offer to reduce every player’s salary by 5%. However, although the players may be willing to give back some of their money, they have a limit, as should be expected.

A major reason that the NHLPA is so against the $31-million proposal is because, from their point of view, it gives back too much. There is some truth in that, it’s not just the players being greedy. THN says that, if the average payroll in the new salary-capped league would be around $27 million,

“……owners would spend a combined $810 million on player salaries — a reduction of nearly 40 per cent from what players are earning today.”

Forty percent is a huge drop. I wonder how many commercial industries would tolerate that kind of reduction in pay. Not very many, if any, that’s for sure.

THN also has a player poll with the question “What will you do if their is an NHL shutdown next season? Play overseas? Play in North America? Wait it out?” 43% of the 30 players polled said they would play overseas. Not surprising. 31% said they’d wait it out, 13% said they’d play in North America and the other 13% said they didn’t know. There are some interesting quotes from the players.

“I’m not sure where, but because of my age, a whole year out of hockey would be a big loss for me.”
–Dan Cloutier, Vancouver

I’m a little surprised Cloutier would say that. If he thinks he’s too old at 27, I wonder what a lot of guys on the Wings and other older teams are thinking.

Chris Chelios said he’d like to play in the WHA, if it gets off the ground but said

“I still don’t believe there’ll be a lockout. They all better wake up and do what’s best for the game.”

I know Bobby Hull, the WHA’s comissioner wants Brett to play in the league as well. It will be interesting to see whether the WHA works out or not.

“I’ll be in a lunch line somewhere.”
-Steve McKenna, Pittsburgh

McKenna has a $400,000 salary.

Curtis Joseph makes the save with Andrew Brunette (left) and Antti Laasksonen (right) hovering nearby

The Wings avoided losing their second straight last night with a well-played win over the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul. The Wings went down 2-1 before coming back and pulling out the 5-2 win.

Curtis Joseph made the start for the Wings. After allowing a weak goal on Richard Park, he settled down and played a good game. He didn’t have a very high opinion of his game, especially of the Park goal, but I think he’s just being hard on himself. The Wild’s first goal was soft but he rebounded nicely. I think it’s good to see a guy as unwanted as CuJo playing so well. He’s had a great level of professionalism in all this, at least to us outsiders, and his play is a reflection of that. I really hate to see this happen to the guy and every game that Dominik misses because of that groin injury makes me feel worse about it. So far, the Return of the Dominator has been pretty much a failure and has laid all this stress on the team for nothing. I just hope that Hasek will heal 100% very soon or realize that it really is over. I’m getting tired of waiting for him and I’m about ready to just stick with Joseph.

Pavel Datsyuk finally scored on Roloson. After failing on last week’s penalty shot and at least a couple more great chances in the two games played in Minnesota, he pulled a different move from his bag of tricks and scored a beautiful half-breakaway goal with two seconds left. It seemed like it was Pavel’s revenge for a robbing of a goal by Roloson earlier in the game where all Datsyuk could do was shake his head and smile. Instead of going from backhand to forehand, Pavel did a double take on the backhand, sending Rolosson to the deck and the puck into the net. Another amazing goal by an amazing player. The line of Thomas-Datsyuk-Hull was the best on the ice by far, which is no surpise considering everyone who plays with Datsyuk seems to play better, especially Brett.

Steve Thomas got his first assist as a Red Wing when he dished off the puck to Mark Mowers , who in turn fed Brett Hull, who went down on one knee and scored a slam-dunk goal from the side of the net. Mowers, who also got his first assist of the season, has been impressive in his few games with the Wings. He is playing in place of Ray Whitney, who may practice today and could be ready for tomorrow’s game against Washington.

Bootland continues to impress with his energy and physical play. Though Darren McCarty was scheduled to skate today, he is not quite ready to go yet so “Booter” will continue to be in the lineup for the injured forward.

Devereaux finally justified his being on the ice and scored a goal, which just happened to come 23 seconds after the Wild scored their go-ahead goal. It was an important goal, for sure, but Boyd has been a real disappointment so far this season. He’s whiffed on a lot better chances than one he scored on last night and it was probably more dumb luck than anything else. He also needs to watch out where he’s going. That collision with The Captain early on in the first period was scary and I’m sure made many hearts in Detroit skip a couple beats. Not something I want to see. Thankfully, Yzerman came back soon after and finished the game.

I flipped back and forth a lot between the Wings game and the Heritage Classic and I probably would have been better off choosing just one to watch because a lot of the games were lost in the changing of the channels. Still, I enjoyed both games and I’m very impressed with the Oilers and Habs players, playing in those temperatures and in such an energetic game. It was good to see something like that happen and I’m glad the NHL went through with it. Even Gary Bettman can’t make mistakes all the time and last night was one example of that. I think the scheduling of the game may have been a little unfortunate, considering how important this weekend was in college football and how many people were watching that instead but you can’t have everything. It’s also too bad no American networks broadcast the game but that’s just a result once again of college football. CBC does a great job anyway and there’s no way I would have watched Gary Thorne and Co. announce a game as important to hockey as that. Hat tip to the Oilers organization for thinking that idea up and I hope we’ll see more of those games in the future. Perhaps one in Comerica Park……Hmmmmm…..

The Wings are now 11-8-2-0 and have just one loss in their last 6 games. They are most definitely on the mend but also equally definitely not all there yet.

Next up: vs. Washington, tomorrow, 7:30 EST

News | ESPN | Box Score

Lines-
Maltby-Draper-Holmstrom
Shanahan-Yzerman-Devereaux
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Devereaux
Thomas-Mowers-Hull
Thomas-Dastyuk-Hull
Rivers-Mowers-Bootland
Shanahan-Yzerman-Thomas

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

4 on 4-
Datsyuk-Hull
Draper-Maltby
Thomas-Yzerman

Woolley-Dandenault
Lidstrom-Chelios

PP-
Shanahan-Yzerman-Holmstrom
Thomas-Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider
Lidstrom-Woolley

PK-
Draper-Maltby
Datsyuk-Hull
Shanahan-Yzerman

Lidstrom-Chelios
Schneider-Dandenault

Net-
Curtis Joseph

Tonight is the second of four games between these two clubs this season. The last game was a 1-1 tie and was played last Saturday night, also in Minnesota. The Wings will look to avoid losing two in a row after being shut out by the Jackets 3-0 on Thursday night. The Wild have just one win in their last four games while the Wings have just one loss in their last six.

Dominik Hasek is still out with a groin injury and Manny Legace started in the two games last so expect Curtis Joseph to get the start. Ray Whitney is questionable for tonight with a groin injury of his own. Mark Mowers will play in his spot once again.

I’ll be flipping back and forth between this game and the Heritage Classic tonight, though it sounds like the outdoor game may not happen after all, at least not tonight. The old-timers game will begin at 4:30 on CBC as scheduled but the temperatures in Edmonton are so extreme today that the regular season game between the Oilers and the Habs may be called off because of safety concerns. That’d be a real shame. If the game does in fact go on, it will be begin at 7:00 and will be aired on CBC.