Archive for the 'Dominik Hasek' CategoryPage 3 of 7

Osgood to start vs. St. Louis

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 20, 2007
in Aaron Downey, Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek and Matt Ellis
. 0 Comments

Bruce MacLeod reports that Chris Osgood will start in net tomorrow night versus the Blues. Why? To Mike Babcock (and most other people paying attention), it’s simple: “To me, he’s earned the right.” It’s looking more and more like IwoCPO’s right.

Dominik Hasek will start Thursday in Nashville after getting another day of practice with Jim Bedard, the goaltending coach.

Also, it looks like Aaron Downey will sit out after having a strong game Sunday. In practice today, he and Matt Ellis were the extra men on the fourth and second lines, respectively.

And some good news: the team practiced 5-on-3 defense today. As HockeyTownTodd has been pointing out, there seem to be more of those lately, so they might as well be prepared.

Lastly, I apologize for the dearth in posting over the past few days. School tasks have made it difficult to find time to attend to the blog, but I should be able to return to regular posting now. For a while, anyway.

Hasek to start versus Chicago

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 16, 2007
in Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek, Jimmy Howard, Jiri Hudler, Johan Franzen and Links
. 6 Comments

Kind of a non-news item, but Ansar Khan reports that Dominik Hasek will start tomorrow night. He may or may not be backed up by Chris Osgood, who had to skip practice today because of the flu. If Osgood isn’t better, the team will have to call up Jimmy Howard.

Also, it looks like Jiri Hudler is being rewarded for his production of late, as he skated with the second line today while Johan Franzen was relegated to the fourth.

I apologize for not posting yesterday. A slow day new-wise and a school/work responsibilities sort of dictated that.

11/6 Post-practice Update

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 6, 2007
in Aaron Downey, Chris Osgood, Dallas Drake, Dominik Hasek, Injuries, Jiri Hudler, Matt Ellis and Tomas Kopecky
. 0 Comments

… Bruce MacLeod, Ansar Khan, Helene St. James, and Ted Kulfan all report that Chris Osgood will be the starter tomorrow night against the Predators while Dominik Hasek will make his return from an aggravated hip Friday versus the Blue Jackets.

… MacLeod is the only one of the beat writers to go beyond the goalie story and report on other items of interest from practice. First of all, he reaffirms that Niklas Kronwall won’t be back Wednesday. Good to know (and to be reminded yet again of how injury prone Nik is).

He then suggests that Jiri Hudler could be a healthy scratch tomorrow, given that he’s been working with the first and second lines all week and hasn’t had reps with the fourth line, to which he was supposedly demoted Sunday. MacLeod’s suggestion is given added weight by the fact that Aaron Downey, Dallas Drake, and Matt Ellis have been the first group of forwards to represent the fourth line in drills lately, and that at the expense of Tomas Kopecky.

Assuming MacLeod’s speculation is correct, it looks like Babcock is gearing up for a physical showdown with the Predators by dumping some offense in exchange for toughness. I still think Hudler’s getting the shaft because he’s shown himself capable of playing against physical teams, but it does make sense to put the biggest and grittiest guys in there against a Nashville team that no doubt will be running and gunning for the Wings’ top line.

If Babcock does make these changes, it’ll be one of those rare instances in which the Wings throw down the gauntlet on physicality. I like it, despite the fact that I think it’s grossly unfair to Hudler.

11/5 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 5, 2007
in Andreas Lilja, Brett Lebda, Chris Chelios, Dan Cleary, Derek Meech, Dominik Hasek, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Lines, Links and Valtteri Filppula
. 2 Comments

Update (2:45 PM): Ansar Khan reports that Johan Franzen will wear a visor at least until the laceration (from taking the puck to his face off Brett Lebda’s stick Thursday) on his face heals, and maybe even after that, “to make his mom happy.”- Matt

… Bruce MacLeod reports that Niklas Kronwall (groin) did not practice today and will not be in the lineup Wednesday against Nashville. The Free Press’ George Sipple quotes Mike Babcock as saying, “He looks like he might be (ready) on Friday” for the game with Columbus.

More from MacLeod:

… Dominik Hasek (hip) has recovered and will be evaluated after tomorrow’s practice to determine the starter Wednesday.

… It looks like Jiri Hudler saw some time with Henrik Zetterberg today. He also practiced as part of the second power play unit with Dan Cleary, Johan Franzen, and Valtteri Filppula. So, his banishment to the fourth line does not extend to practice.

… On top of practicing special teams, the Wings focused on 2-on-2s and 3-on-2s.

… With Kronwall still out, Andreas Lilja will have the benefit of being paired with the smooth-skating Brett Lebda once again and Derek Meech will be paired with Chris Chelios for another game.

… Aaron Downey, Dallas Drake, Matt Ellis and Tomas Kopecky rotated on the fourth line. You have to wonder if there won’t be a change to the lineup with the team preparing to face Jordin “Hit High, Hit Hard, Run Away” Tootoo. Personally, I’d like to see Aaron Downey patrolling the ice Wednesday night.

Grigorenko assigned to UFA Salavat Yulaev of RSL; Howard returns to Grand Rapids

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 2, 2007
in Dominik Hasek, Igor Grigorenko, Injuries, Jimmy Howard and Links
. 0 Comments

The Wings announced today that Igor Grigorenko has been assigned to UFA the Ufa Salavat Yulaev of the Russian Super League and Jimmy Howard has been returned to Grand Rapids due to Dominik Hasek’s recovery from a sore hip problem.

10/29 Injury Update

Published
by
Matt Saler
on October 29, 2007
in Aaron Downey, Chris Osgood, Dallas Drake, Derek Meech, Dominik Hasek, Injuries, Johan Franzen and Matt Ellis
. 0 Comments

I was wrong in my assessment yesterday: both Ansar Khan and Helene St. James report that Johan Franzen and Dallas Drake will return to the lineup tomorrow night in Edmonton. Their return will come at the expense of Matt Ellis and Aaron Downey, who Babcock told Khan would be scratched. Sucks for those two, but their positions on the team are replacements, so I guess it isn’t really that big a surprise that they’d get pushed out once everyone’s healthy. Apparently, Franzen will center the fourth line with Drake and Tomas Kopecky on the wings.

Neither Niklas Kronwall (groin) nor Dominik Hasek (hip) practiced so they won’t be back tomorrow night.  So, Chris Osgood should get another start, and Derek Meech will get another game under his belt.

Hasek injured, Howard re-called

Published
by
Matt Saler
on October 25, 2007
in Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek, Injuries, Jimmy Howard and Links
. 0 Comments

According to Bruce MacLeod, Dominik Hasek is day-to-day with a hip injury. Chris Osgood will start Friday against the Sharks, and Jimmy Howard has been called up from Grand Rapids to back him up. Hasek looked fine to the buzzer last night, so I’m not sure what happened. The team has been extra careful with minor injuries to Dom in the past, so it would be an overreaction to hit the panic button. When he’s out for more than a couple games, we’ll see.

Osgood to start in San Jose; Zetterberg, Lidstrom possibly out

Published
by
Matt Saler
on October 17, 2007
in Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek, Henrik Zetterberg, Injuries, Links and Mikael Samuelsson
. 1 Comment

Ansar Khan writes that Chris Osgood will be in net against the Sharks, saying it’s a case of Ozzie being rewarded for playing better than Hasek.

He also reports that Nick Lidstrom (ribs) and Henrik Zetterberg (hip flexor) did not practice Wednesday and are therefore questionable for the San Jose game. He takes Babcock’s word for it when the coach told him he hadn’t really thought about possible lines if Hank can’t go.

If Zetterberg does sit, look for Mikael Samuelsson to return or for the Wings to go with 11 forwards. I doubt they’d call up a Griffin and fly him out to California. If Lidstrom can’t go, we’ll likely see Derek Meech’s regular season debut.

Losing either one of those players to injury would be huge. Losing both would really suck. Hopefully they got the rest they needed to be ready to go. We should find out sometime before the game.

Hasek’s status for Wednesday in doubt

Published
by
Matt Saler
on October 9, 2007
in Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek, Injuries and Links
. 0 Comments

According to Ansar Khan, Dominik Hasek has a bruise above his right knee from a shot he stopped in the third period last night. Dom said he’s not sure if he’ll play Wednesday against the Flames, but it doesn’t sound serious so no worries. Chris Osgood is ready to step in.

Hasek finally re-signs

Published
by
Matt Saler
on July 5, 2007
in Dominik Hasek and Roster Moves
. 12 Comments

Update (4:30 PM): Now it’s official, with the terms, as reported yesterday, confirmed. - Matt

Update (06. Jul, 7:11 AM): Looks like this isn’t official yet, as Hasek has not actually signed the contract. He’s agreed to it, however, and is expected to make it official today, though Holland still sounds somewhat tentative.

Also, if Winter’s comment below is a joke, it’s a bad one, as all media reports on the topic of the negotiations with the Wings’ UFAs (such as this one) had Holland bemoaning the fact that they all were making demands for higher salaries than the team was prepared to pay. That includes Hasek. So, excuse me if I don’t find Winter’s “joke” funny. - Matt

The Detroit News reports that Dominik Hasek has finally signed a contract extension: one-year, with a base salary in the $2 million range, with around another $2 million in playoff-related bonuses. How about this quote by Dom’s agent, Ritch Winter:

“We’ve settled. Dominik wanted to give the team room to have money under the salary cap. Let’s face it, he’s a $5 million-a-year goalie. We all know that. But I managed to talk them down to $2 million. It was a unique negotiation.”

So that’s how it when, eh? The Wings wanted to use up most of their remaining cap space on Dom rather than on filling another need, but Winter, out of the goodness of his heart, managed to dissuade them from that course of action by dragging negotiations out until they agreed to pay less? And here all this time I and everyone else in Hockeytown thought it was the other way around. Thanks for setting the record straight, Mr. Winter. Too bad you couldn’t convince the Wings to agree to these terms before the best options for a top-six forward signed with other teams. Ugh.

Welcome back, Dom, but that whole “I expect a raise” thing was not cool. You should have just taken a contract like last year’s right off the bat and given the team the cap space to go after a solid top-sixer. I’d think that you’d be bigger on winning than on money at this stage of your career.

(thanks Brian)