Archive for March, 2007

Mirtle on Tootoo

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James Mirtle has some of the best commentary on the Tootoo-Robidas incident I’ve seen yet. Those looking to defend Tootoo for what he did would do well to check out what James has to say. Pay special attention to the quote he includes from Robidas in which the Stars defenseman describes his own intentions on the play. Even without having read the quote, that’s how I read the guy’s body language.

I have to say that, on second thought, five games seems a bit light.

GameDay: @ Calgary (37-25-10, 84 Pts) 9:00 ET

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Update (8:35 PM): According to FSN’s pre-game, Johan Franzen (upper body) will play tonight and will take Darryl Bootland’s place in the roster. Booter has been sent back to Grand Rapids to make room. Also, Niklas Kronwall will wear a plastic shield now, and has resolved to keep it low over his eyes and nose so that it’s actually useful. - Matt

Tonight is the fourth and final game between these two teams this season. The Wings lead the series 2-1, with wins November 1 (3-2) and February 11th (7-4), both of which took place in Detroit. The Flames won in Calgary on November 17th, 4-1.

The Flames have had a bit of a rough month, posting a 3-4-1 record thus far in March after opening with a pair of wins that stretched a February win-streak to five games. They’ve lost their last three, including games in Colorado on the 14th and Dallas the next night. They returned to Calgary to play Minnesota on Saturday, but dropped the first of three home games, 4-2. Their only wins in March came over Edmonton and St. Louis (two separate occasions).

Calgary currently stands at 8th place in the Conference, but Colorado is nipping at their heels with a 8-0-1 record since losing three in a row back in February. The Avs are just four points back and have a fairly light week, with two games against an Edmonton team that’s fading fast. The Flames have a tough schedule to round out the season, with a game against Nashville later this week followed by two games in Minnesota and visits to Vancouver as well as San Jose and Denver before the end.

Predictably, Jarome Iginla leads the team in scoring with 82 points, 34 of which are goals. He has a point in each of his last four games (1G, 3A).

Miika Kiprusoff should be in net tonight for the Flames. He has a 2.49 GAA and a .916 save percentage this season (12th and 10th overall), but his numbers are 3.16 and .910 against the Wings. He is 5th in wins with 34.

Former Red Wing Darren McCarty is out with a hernia.

The Wings are 5-2-1 in March thus far, with two of their three losses coming exactly a week apart. They first dropped a home game to Colorado 4-3 in overtime on the 4th. A week later, they lost 6-3 to Boston and six days after that, this past Saturday, they opened their late-season trip to Western Canada with a 4-1 loss in Vancouver. The high marks of the month, though, have been their three wins over Nashville: March 6th (4-3 SO), March 13th (5-2), and March 14th (4-2).

They are currently 4th in the Conference, sitting one point behind Nashville for the lead. It’s a difference the Wings ought to be able to make up, as they have a game in hand and play teams like Chicago, St. Louis, and Columbus in six of their 10 remaining games, while the Predators face stiffer competition in the majority of theirs.

Pavel Datsyuk is the team’s leading scorer, with 77 points (22G, 55A). Pavel has scored at least a point in each of his last 10 games, for a total of 16, 13 of which have been assists.

As reported yesterday, the starter for Detroit will be Dominik Hasek. Dom leads the league in GAA at 2.14, but his .908 save percentage is only good for 21st. He is third in wins with 35.

Also yesterday’s news: Johan Franzen (upper body) could return tonight (the News says today he’s “likely to play”)while Dan Cleary (knee sprain) is definitely still out (the News says “probably”).

With Chris Chelios having flown back to Detroit on Sunday, the Wings’ six defensemen will include Andreas Lilja, who was a healthy scratch on Saturday to make room for Danny Markov’s return from an upper body injury.

Looks like Niklas Kronwall will be cage-free tonight, as the Free Press reports that it’s been retired two months after his nose was almost cut off by Marek Svatos’ skate. Rather than destroy the mask he had to wear a month longer than expected, Nik told Helene St. James he might frame it. Hopefully this will mean Kronwall, who had a number of tough nights since the cage went on, will elevate his play now that his vision will be less obscured.

The St. James piece also has the financial terms of Tomas Kopecky’s contract: $900,000 over two years.

It has no bearing on tonight’s game, but Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail wrote last night that Kris Draper believes Todd Bertuzzi will be in the lineup Thursday night against the Blue Jackets. While the Detroit writers did say that was a possibility, they suggested the Wings may instead wait until Saturday so that Bertuzzi can practice again with the team on Friday (they have Wednesday off). Who’s right? We’ll find out soon enough.

It’s important that the Wings get back in the saddle tonight and pull a good effort out, if not a win. They looked bad in Vancouver as they put on one of their worst mental performances of the season. They cannot allow themselves to become so emeshed in penalty troubles and they need to show a better effort as a whole. If he sticks with his habit, Dominik Hasek should have a good game after a poor outing Saturday. The rest of the team needs to follow his example by wiping that game from Hockeytown’s collective memory with an A-game performance against the Flames similar to the one they put on last month.

Tootoo Suspended

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Update (9:24 PM): I just noticed something and so did Gabriel, who pointed it out in the comments:

“If my math is correct, that means his fifth game missed will be against our Wings. That’s good for our team as the playoffs are right around the corner and we can’t afford to lose a defenseman like Schneider to some idiot in shoulder pads.”

Couldn’t agree more, Gabriel, though it’s too bad Bootland won’t get another shot at Tootoo, even if Darryl’s still on the roster by then. Oh well. There’s always next season. - Matt

Followup on yesterday’s Notes post: Jordin Tootoo was given a five-game suspension for this slug to the face of Stephane Robidas:

Five games seems about right, I suppose. I just hope it’ll be enough to get Jordin to tone his game down a bit and show a little more respect. There’s nothing wrong with being a hard hitting, energetic player, but Tootoo goes over the line. I hope for his opponents’ sake, but as well as his own, that he learns his lesson. If not, he’ll either seriously hurt someone someday, or be seriously hurt himself when he pisses off someone bigger and nastier than himself.

Wings re-sign Kopecky

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Update (5:45 PM): Ansar Khan has his own angle on the story, saying that the team will evaluate Kopecky around the end of the month and decide whether or not he’ll be able to play.

He also has a few more interesting items from practice:

  • Chris Chelios was sent home early to rest, so he won’t be in the lineup tomorrow. It’s a pre-arranged thing, though, so no worries.
  • Johan Franzen (upper body) may return tomorrow, but Dan Cleary (knee sprain) definitely won’t.
  • Dominik Hasek will start tomorrow, but Chris Osgood will be in net Thursday against Columbus.
  • Apparently, Todd Bertuzzi probably would be ready to play Thursday, but the team may hold off until he can get in another practice since they won’t skate on Wednesday. So, it looks like Saturday, after a Friday practice, is the most likely return date for him.

- Matt
Update (4:47 PM): Helene St. James, using the same Babcock quote she used in another piece (which I borrowed below), now suggests in a blog post that Kopecky could be a regular rather than a reserve player when he returns.

I may just be mis-reading her, but if not, I like her first conclusion, that Kopecky will be in the lineup on “rotation,” rather than as a regular feature. I think the team is too deep up front for him to do much else beyond subbing with one of the other young guns. Unless, of course, he tears it up when he gets back - Matt

Update (3:55 PM): Whoops, forgot the link to the Detroit News blip about the signing. Here it is and now it’s also where it should have been. - Matt

According to the Detroit News, the team has re-signed Tomas Kopecky to a two-year contract. No details on the financial terms yet. The team had signed him to a one-year deal in July 2006 and it was due to expire July 1st, making him an unrestricted free agent, but they’re confident enough in his future to bring him back.

Kopecky has been out since he went shoulder-first into the left wing boards on December 14th in Chicago and broke his collar bone. He’s been skating for a while, however, though he still can’t do full-contact drills (unless it’s with Kirk Maltby, he jokingly told Helene St. James.). He hopes to return before the playoffs, which would make an already bad log jam in the forward corps even worse, which isn’t such a problem, really, since it just means more depth.

He’s with the team on their current road trip and has apparently looked good in practice. Babcock will give him a shot at making the roster, as Kopecky is, “a great big guy who can shoot the puck and take the body. That’s a playoff guy for me.” He looked pretty good in the 26 games he’s played this season and his return will give the Wings yet another weapon to use in their fight to get through the postseason.