Archive for January, 2007

It’s official: no schedule format change

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Update (11:45 PM): Ansar Khan says there’s a positive aspect to the fact that the League is keeping the current format: it means the Wings will continue to rack up points in their powder puff division. Great, so we’ll see more short-term, regular season gains, rather than the longer-term, postseason gains that would come from playing tough teams more frequently. Didn’t we find out last year that a successful regular season padded by the results of so many intradivisonal games meant absolutely nothing in the playoffs? - Matt

According to TSN, the board of governors has decided to go with the current scheduling format for at least one year despite widespread hopes for change. Apparently, we were one vote away from seeing the League return to its pre-lockout format, as only there were only 19 of 30 votes for it, rather than the necessary 20. How typical. I’d like to know which governors voted for change and which teams voted against it.

So much for giving the fans a voice, eh? Well, we have one, they just don’t listen very well. That reminds me: has anyone gotten one of those NHL Fan Faceoff surveys lately? Neither have I. You could at least pretend that you had some input when you filled out one of those.

Update: I just went to the Fan Faceoff site and logged in only to see a short survey listed. They asked what I’d like to see more surveys on and then they asked whether or not I was satisfied with the service. Of course I said no and then I was asked why, so I told them. I suggest going there and filling out that same survey, if it shows up for you. - Matt

Grigorenko finally coming over?

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Snapshots, Gorilla Crouch, and Abel to Yzerman have been all over this, but it’s big enough news to repeat: according to Matt Wuest of Red Wings Central, the long-awaited arrival of Igor Grigorenko on North American soil will finally take place this summer.

Apparently, the Wings feel he’s ready for the NHL and are planning on signing him with the intent of giving him a chance at making the team. Take it with a little grain of salt because there have been reports like this before. Still, this time it seems to be for real, even with the fact that there is currently no transfer agreement between the RSL and the NHL. That is probably a good thing, though, since I believe the Wings would have lost the rights to Igor if there was one. Anyone know for sure whether or not that’s true?

Not since Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg has there been so much anticipation for a prospect, though his transfer to North America has been hampered by serious injuries sustained in a car crash, the lockout, and his long comeback from those injuries. After a couple slow seasons (during one of which he was demoted to a lower tier of the RSL), he’s putting up fair numbers again and, based on Wuest’s article, his future looks promising.

For whatever reason, he’s never been under the knife in the States, but he was here in September 2003 to see training camp and to meet with doctors. All of his operations have taken place in Russia and the feeling is he may be a surgery or two away from being fully restored if US doctors get their hands on him.

His speed is understandably down from what it used to be and he may have trouble in the speedier NHL, but the Wings have never been all that fast so he ought to fit in. I’ll always remember hearing him described as a tougher Ilya Kovalchuk* and look forward to finally seeing him, though it may be in Grand Rapids rather than Detroit. Hopefully it won’t be like the other times they said they were bringing him Stateside.

Sidenote: I got a laugh reading that old post there. I remember Henrik Zetterberg being compared to Peter Forsberg but I’d forgotten the comparison to Robert Lang.

*He played on a line with Pavel Datsyuk and Kovalchuk in the 2003 WJCs. For an idea of what he can bring to the table, he was second in tournament scoring (6 games, 6 goals, 4 assists) that year as Russia won the gold medal.

Some jersey mockups

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These have been floating around the internet for a while now and are probably some fan’s Photoshop work, but they provide a decent look at what’s possible. They look especially fake until you get down to the second Montreal set, but after that, they look pretty plausible and not half bad. The Red Wing version looks terrible, though, and I’d be disgusted if they look anything like that. I suspect they’d go more the Montreal/Toronto route, if these mockups are anything like reality. (via Southeast Shootout)

Mirtle on Peter Forsberg

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I’m against the Wings acquiring Forsberg because of his significant health issues and the likelihood of his leaving this summer to retire or to join another team. James makes a similar case (though better articulated) against any team taking a chance on Foppa, who does seem to be playing better lately. How long that’ll last is the question and given the fact that his ankle problem doesn’t appear to be truly solved, the answer is likely, “not long.”

ESPN’s Uniwatch on the new jerseys

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Paul Lukas has a long piece that discusses the NHL’s new jerseys on Page 2. I personally think the cut is fine, but I’m withholding final judgement until the Wings release their versions. Given the assurances that teams will have a ton of freedom on what they do, I’m relatively confident they’ll look good. Just as long as it’s not much of a departure for their current look.

Admin note: posting will be light this week due to the Break. We’ll return to regular programming on Friday, but until then, it’ll be mostly link posts such as this one.