Archive for the 'Dominik Hasek' CategoryPage 5 of 7

4/4 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 4, 2007
in Blue Jackets, Dominik Hasek, Kyle Calder, Mikael Samuelsson and Playoffs
. 0 Comments

… The Wings were credited with a win last night over Columbus, but really all the credit should go to Dominik Hasek, who kept them in it four 2+ periods. Once again, they waited until the third period to show up to play and even then they weren’t as dominate as they should have been. Kudos to the Blue Jackets for not giving up and making this interesting with a number of great chances throughout the game.

… A big thank you to Kyle Calder for getting his teammates going by scoring the first goal of the game at :16 of the third period. I think he got a bit of an elbow into Hainsey on that hit, but it was a great effort through the finish. Probably one Norrena would like back.

… The win put the Wings within a point of clinching the Division. They have 110 points to Nashville’s 106 and both teams have two games remaining. As the Preds can only reach 110, either they need to lose a game or the Wings need at least an OT/SO loss to be sure. As far as the Conference goes, the Ducks also have 106 points, but they have three games left and can max out at 112, meaning the Wings would need at least a win and an OT/SO loss if Anaheim doesn’t lose again. Of course, the Ducks play San Jose tonight, so a loss is a possibility.

… If the playoffs started today, the Wings would face Calgary, which has become a much less desirable matchup over the last week and a half or so as the Flames have heated up big time. They trail Minnesota by four points and it looks like the Wild are falling off a bit, so it’s possible that they could pass them if they win their three remaining games. Their job will be made easier if the Wild lose either (or both) of their last two games.

… One thing I’ve noticed over the past couple weeks, but have forgotten to mention, is the decision of Mike Babcock’s to put Mikael Samuelsson on the point during the power play. I have to say that I like it. Sammy is definitely better there than Jason Williams was, and is one of the only forwards on the team that has a hard enough shot for the job. Of course, it’ll be come less necessary once Mathieu Schneider returns, but it may not be a bad thing to mix it up like that every once and a while.

… Be sure to check out Dave’s recap.

4/2 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 2, 2007
in Brett Hull, Dominik Hasek, Hockey Bloggers, Notes, Pavel Datsyuk and Sergei Fedorov
. 2 Comments

Update (2:30 PM): Helene St. James reports that Pavel Datsyuk “denies Hull’s claim,” about his relationship with Mike Babcock.

You might say, “Of course that’s what Pavel’s going to tell her. He can’t speak out against his coach now.” And that may be true. But, I’m inclined to think there’s nothing there and that if Pavel leaves, it’ll be because he’s offered more somewhere else, not because of a problem with the organization. Not that his leaving for money would be any easier to take, by the way. - Matt

… Well, I’ve got internet access again, but I haven’t got much to say today. I caught the game and was impressed with the Wings’ effort, but the most important thing about it was the fact that the win put them three points ahead of Nashville with three games left for both teams. That’ll be a tough lead for the Predators to overcome unless the Wings totally fall apart this week.

Dave at Gorilla Crouch has a good game recap posted. He was also interviewed by Christy for her Behind the Blog series.

… Anyone notice that the commentators for the game yesterday on NBC spent very little time actually calling the plays? It seemed to me like a group of guys getting together to have a few beers and talk about everything but what was going on down on the ice. Now, for a long-time fan, that’s okay because I don’t need a play-by-play man to interpret the game for me, but for a new fan or someone just flipping through the channels, I don’t they’re interested in three guys gaffawing at Brett Hull zingers.

… Speaking of Brett Hull, the man spoke out of his rear end yesterday and proclaimed Pavel Datsyuk won’t be returning to Detroit next season. Apparently, he has a problem with Mike Babcock. This coming from the man who never got along with a coach in his life. Hmm. Well, we’ll see what happens, Brett.

As IwoCPO’s readers have pointed out, Datsyuk is building a house in Birmingham, he has a leadership position on one of the league’s elite teams, plays with one of the best young players in the game in Henrik Zetterberg, and has chances to win that he wouldn’t have in a place like Washington. I think Pavel wants to be back in Detroit, but I admit his chances aren’t so great as long as he gives his agent, Gary Greenstin, such a free hand in negotiations. That guy could very well ruin all.

… Writing on the new AOL Fanhouse NHL blog, Eric McErlain has a question about a player who, as his wandering habit has become more pronounced, has become a little bit of a concern for me over the past couple weeks: Dominik Hasek. Eric asks whether or not Dom is the Wings’ weakest link and points out that he has the save percentage of Olaf Kolzig. Eric’s right, one of the ugly truths about Dom this year has been his save percentage, and his corresponding penchant for giving up a backbreaking goals in the midst of strong defensive efforts by his teammates.

Still, I don’t know that you can necessarily call Dom the Wings’ weakest link. He is a goalie who thrives when he is busy and the downside of the Wings’ system is that he’s often spending long stretches of the game bored. However, when the defense isn’t so good and he is getting work, he’s generally been very good. So, when the defense isn’t playing up to snuff, Hasek generally covers for them, and vice versa. It just gets ugly when neither are playing well.

I think, in some backwards sort of way, the thinning of the Wings’ defense may be a good thing for Hasek, as he’ll see more action, and thus be less bored and prone to wandering.

If you’re looking for a weakest link, look at Robert Lang or Andreas Lilja.

… Eric also answers a question of Paul Kukla’s about a former Red Wing, one of the best ever to wear the Winged Wheel. Couldn’t agree more, Eric.

Ansar Khan’s injury update

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 12, 2007
in Chris Chelios, Chris Osgood, Dan Cleary, Danny Markov, Dominik Hasek, Henrik Zetterberg, Injuries, Kris Draper, Links, Mathieu Schneider, Pavel Datsyuk, Robert Lang and Todd Bertuzzi
. 0 Comments

Ansar Khan has an injury update posted on his blog. Summary:

  • Chris Osgood will start instead of Dominik Hasek tomorrow night. Hasek was supposed to start both games, but his thigh injury changed that plan. He will play Wednesday night instead and will do the back-to-back games on March 29th in Nashville and March 30th at home against Dallas.
  • Danny Markov (upper body) is slated to be back Saturday against the Canucks.
  • Johan Franzen (upper body) and Dan Cleary (knee sprain) could return on the 20th in Calgary. If so, they’ll miss the March 17th game in Vancouver.
  • Mike Babcock officially said that Henrik Zetterberg (back inflammation) and Todd Bertuzzi (back) will not play until after the Vancouver/Calgary trip. So, a March 22nd debut for Bertuzzi and return for Zetterberg, at the earliest.
  • Pavel Datsyuk, Kris Draper, Robert Lang, Chris Chelios and Mathieu Schneider did not take part in the optional practice today, but all will play tomorrow night, according to Mike Babcock.

The injury problems the Wings have been going through should put losses like yesterday’s in perspective. Sure, it was bad, but they’re missing some key players and other guys are either playing hurt or just recovering from injuries. And yet, they’ve been winning more often than not. Once everyone’s healthy, they should play better and more complete games.

3/8 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 8, 2007
in Brett Lebda, Chris Chelios, Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek, Injuries, Mathieu Schneider, Mikael Samuelsson and Tickets
. 11 Comments

… Ted Kulfan reports today that Dominik Hasek could start tomorrow against LA, not that he will. Ansar Khan, on the other hand, says that Mike Babcock expects Dom and Mikael Samuelsson to play.

So, it’s possible that Hasek will be backing up Chris Osgood, but probably not likely. I’m sure the team would like Dom to get a game in before the home-and-home series with Nashville next week.

… Ted Kulfan also reports that playoff ticket prices will remain just as out of reach for Joe Fan as they were last year:

Regular-season prices from $22-$85 will rise to $63-$144 in the first round, $72-$153 in the second, $99-$270 in the Western Conference finals and $135-$450 in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Oh well. What would watching the playoffs be like without Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond’s commentary, anyway?

He says that the team has not announced a sale date to the public yet.

…  In Helene St. James’ Wings Corner daily, Mathieu Schneider and Chris Chelios address the final standings question. Chris Chelios believes that finishing first is important because it secures home-ice advantage,

“I think the biggest thing is if you ever get to a seventh game you’d much rather play at home. I’ve seen that before with Colorado when we blew them out.”

Chris Osgood told Ansar Khan much the same thing, but went on to say that playing well down the stretch is more important than where the team finishes,

“We’re trying to get our guys healthy and be playing well the last month of the season. To worry about what where we finish and who we play, we’ll figure that out when we get there.”

Mathieu Schneider agrees, as he told St. James,

“We’ve said all along, and I’ve come to believe this: We just want to get better as a team …

…. “Where we end up in the standings, we may not have control over that, but we just want to become a better and better playoff team. I think we’ve done that. We’re competing every night. In hard-fought games, we seem to rise to the occasion.”

After the Wings were eliminated in the first round by #8 Edmonton last year, I felt that it might be better for the team to finish in the middle of the pack. I thought that fighting for a playoff spot rather than coasting to the finish would be beneficial, because they’ve run into so many teams that were playing their best hockey down the stretch that their complacency couldn’t overcome it. As this season has gone on, however, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this team’s tenacity and think that finishing 1st wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

However, that’s only because of the tight race with Nashville.  The Predators are making things difficult for the Wings and that’s something new. In previous years, they had the division and the conference virtually in the bag by this point in the season. This year, they’re fourth with four weeks left.

I agree with Chelios that home ice is desirable, but I’m more with Osgood and Schneider on this one. The team needs to focus on playing well, getting healthy, and not becoming complacent or comfortable. If they do that, home ice will be an added benefit, not an excuse.

Home ice will help the team if they had to fight for it and they are already playing well, and even then it’s not the guarantee it used to be. Any team the Wings face is going to be tough, whether they’re playing at home or on the road. That’s why maintaining a top level of play to the end of the regular season is so important.

… Lastly, Ted Kulfan points out that Brett Lebda will not be suspended for his slash on Scott Nichol, which broke a bone in the latter’s hand. Nichol basically said he wanted Lebda suspended after the game, but the League obviously decided it was not a bad enough incident, Nichol’s testimony to the contrary.

I didn’t see the play, so I can only offer my uninformed opinion on it: a malicious slash does seem to be against Lebda’s character so I’m inclined to believe it was accidental.

Hussey and Howard sent down

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 7, 2007
in Darryl Bootland, Dominik Hasek, Griffins, Jimmy Howard, Josh Langfeld, Links, Matt Ellis, Matt Hussey and Mikael Samuelsson
. 2 Comments

Update (5:15 PM): Ansar Khan confirms that we can expect Mikael Samuelsson and Dominik Hasek back Friday night. - Matt

According to the AHL transaction wire, Matt Hussey and Jimmy Howard have been returned to Grand Rapids. So, it looks like Mikael Samuelsson will be ready for Friday, and Dominik Hasek will at least back up Chris Osgood.

To send down Hussey rather than Darryl Bootland, the team must have been really impressed with Darryl’s effort last night. Good to see that he’ll get another game in. Bootland, by the way, had 9:15 in ice time last night, which was almost three and a half minutes more than Matt Ellis, Josh Langfeld, and Matt Hussey had combined (2:32+2:08+1:09=5:49, via the NHL’s Official Super Stats).

Hussey was originally called up after Henrik Zetterberg went down with his back injury. If the Wings were sending down the player that was covering for Samuelsson, Josh Langfeld would be driving across the state on I-96 today. They can’t send Langfeld down, however, because he wasn’t on the Griffins’ clear day roster and cannot play for them again this season.

3/5 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 5, 2007
in Avalanche, Darryl Bootland, Dominik Hasek, Hockey Bloggers and Notes
. 2 Comments

Update (6:17 PM): TSN reports that the Wings have called up Darryl Bootland to fill in for Tomas Holmstrom. On the surface, that could make things interesting tomorrow night, when the Predators are in town, but I think it’s more likely Booter will be on a short leash. Mike Babcock is not his biggest fan. - Matt

… The Wings lost 4-3 in overtime to the Avs yesterday in one of their most uninspiring performances of the year. They looked completely flat through two periods, and though they got it going in the third period, the outcome never really seemed in doubt. Just a bad game overall, for just about everyone. The Avs’ game-winner was a the Wings’ performance in a nutshell: uncharacteristic mistakes by normally reliable players, on which Colorado easily capitalized.

Other than that, I haven’t really got a lot to say about it. See Gorilla Crouch, who’s always got good, succinct game reactions, and Abel to Yzerman, whose post I actually agree with completely, for once, if you want more.

… More great news, which actually didn’t come from the game: according to Ansar Khan, Tomas Holmstrom will be out for a couple games with an upper-body injury sustained during the third period of the Chicago game Friday night (remember how he left the game with six minutes left?). He played through it yesterday, but is now listed as day-to-day. Babcock told Khan on Saturday that there were no injuries during the game the night before. Hmm.

A forward will be called up from GR, but the wire doesn’t list anyone yet.

… Khan also says Dominik Hasek is due back later this week, which means he’ll miss tomororw’s game against the Predators, but could be back Friday night to play the Kings.

3/3 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 3, 2007
in Blackhawks, Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek, Game Reports, Hockey Bloggers, Injuries, Jason Williams, Jiri Hudler, Mikael Samuelsson, Nick Lidstrom, Robert Lang and Tomas Holmstrom
. 4 Comments

Update (10:43 PM): Just a clarification on my last update: Holmstrom’s last shift ended around the 14 minute mark of the third period. I apologize for wording it so ambiguously before. Thanks to Justin for pointing that out.

Also, Ansar Khan informed me via email that neither Robert Lang nor Tomas Holmstrom practiced today. Mike Babcock told him there were no injuries during the game against the Hawks, however. - Matt

Update (6:35 PM): I just remembered something I’d meant to mention earlier: Tomas Holmstrom left the game around the 14 minute mark and didn’t return, as pointed out by the FSN crew, who had noticed he wasn’t on the bench.

I haven’t seen anything indicating he has an injury, so it may have just been a case of Mike Babcock resting his top line, as neither Pavel Datsyuk nor Valtteri Filppula took any shifts from about 16:00 on, after they had helped kill of a penalty with Danny Markov and Nicklas Lidstrom. (via the shift chart) - Matt

So, I got home on the Detroit side of the state last night (for “Spring Break”) at around 2:30 AM after watching the game in Holland, thanks to terrible weather until around Lansing. Then I slept about four hours longer than I meant to, and now I’m way behind the eightball on the day. So, some links to people more on top of things than me, with a little commentary:

… The Wings won last night, 6-2 over Chicago. I watched the game but don’t have a heck of a lot to say about it, except that it’s nice to see the Wings can produce offense without Henrik Zetterberg in the lineup. However, as Dave at Gorilla Crouch has pointed out today, the Blackhawks aren’t exactly a Grade “A” opponent, so the jury’s still out.

For a reaction to the game from someone who was there, see Steph’s report at No Pun Intended.

… Jason Williams scored twice on his former team, prompting Mike Babcock to give the quote of the year:

“It’s good to see him score, too. What the heck.”

(via. Abel to Yzerman)

… It looks like the Wings having taken such a vested interest in rejuvenating the second line has awakened Robert Lang, who had four-point night and was as involved in the offense as he’s been all season. The Free Press wins the award for most lame headline today, with their story on the game: “Lang time coming: Center leads Wings past Hawks.”

… Nicklas Lidstrom scored his 200th career goal (finally) in the third period, and Christy Hammond of Behind the Jersey was there to cheer him for it.

… The FSN crew made a big deal out of the fact that Jiri Hudler came out for warmups wearing his red helmet last night. Apparently, he was thrown off by the fact that the Wings usually wear red at home, but were wearing white so that the Hawks could use their black jerseys. Ansar Khan reports that Robert Lang finally told him, after the whole team had a good laugh. Jiri scored a nice breakaway goal later in the game, making that the most memorable thing he did last night, rather than than the helmet thing.

… It looks like Chris Osgood will get another start, as Dominik Hasek will not be able to return tomorrow against the Avalanche, according to Ansar Khan. The Wings, needless to say, are taking every precaution with Dom and will not be rushing him back. Khan also says that Chris Chelios will be a game-time decision tomorrow.

… The Free Press reports that Mikael Samuelsson skated yesterday, though not with the team. He’ll still take some time to get back into game-shape so don’t expect to see him too soon.

… Lastly, non-Wings related: James Mirtle has been blogging about the Cam Janssen elbow on Tomas Kaberle last night, a vicious hit which knocked Kaberle unconscious and out of the game. Janssen has been suspended for three games, a verdict with which I wholly agree, as those kinds of hits should have no place in the game. However, it’d be nice if the League were more consistent in dealing out such penalties for those types of hits. A shoulder to the head is about as bad as an elbow, NHL.

Kulfan on Dom’s wrist

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 12, 2007
in Dominik Hasek, Hockey Media, Injuries, Links and Quotes
. 2 Comments

Ted Kulfan wins the Optimist of the Week award with this bit from the “Burning Questions” feature:

Q. Is there any reason to be concerned about Dominik Hasek’s right wrist injury?

A. Yes, given Hasek’s history with injuries. He doesn’t like to play if he isn’t feeling 100 percent.

The Wings knew it was a bit of a gamble signing Hasek, but so far they’ve been lucky. Maybe their luck is about to run out.

It could make for an interesting week.

Um, thanks, Ted. I was doing a pretty good job of not freaking out about the injury before that little confidence builder.

Hasek out with tendonitis

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 10, 2007
in Chris Osgood, Danny Markov, Dominik Hasek, Injuries, Jimmy Howard, Joey MacDonald and Stefan Liv
. 0 Comments

Ansar Khan reports that Dominik Hasek has tendonitis in his right wrist and that he will not play tomorrow against the Flames. Apparently, the belief is that he hurt it while trying to make a poke-check during the Coyotes game on Wednesday. Khan says it’s not broken, but if the pain hasn’t subsided by Monday, Dom may be given a cortisone shot.

Khan only says that Joey MacDonald will be in net tomorrow, but it seems likely to me that Joey may very well play Monday as well since Chris Osgood is not ready to return from his finger injury and neither Jimmy Howard nor Stefan Liv are really NHL-ready. However, one of them will be brought up to fill in as a back-up, at least. We’ll know who it is later tonight after the Griffins’ game against the Iowa Stars.

Well, this is an interesting development. It should be something that can be taken care of, but a wrist problem was the last health issue I ever thought Dom would have.

Also, Bruce MacLeod of the Macomb Daily posted on Hasek’s wrist at Red Wings Central message boards. He didn’t say much of anything different than Khan (except that he and I apparently agree that MacDonald may get two starts), but he has a tidbit on Markov: “Markov skated and felt ok. He won’t play Sunday, but is possible for Monday.”

2/10 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 10, 2007
in Danny Markov, Dominik Hasek, Flyers, Henrik Zetterberg, Jiri Hudler, Joey MacDonald, Nick Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Pavel Datsyuk, Peter Forsberg, Tomas Holmstrom, Trade Rumors and Valtteri Filppula
. 2 Comments

Update (4:00 PM): Taking a page from James Mirtle’s book, I’ve added a section the sidebar (”Other reading”) that will display links to hockey-related items of interest that don’t get blogged here (or that I haven’t yet had time to mention). It’s through Google Reader and is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but it wasn’t very easy to implement on WordPress blogs until recently. - Matt

… Chuck Gormley continued his “Forsberg watch” for the Courier Post yesterday with another installment. Nothing very new, though Gormley expands on his idea that Forsberg would like to come to Detroit, saying that it’s because

“two of the Red Wings’ top four scorers, defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and left wing Tomas Holmstrom, are from Sweden.”

I see your point, Mr. Gormley, but three of their top four scorers are from Sweden. Not sure how you missed Henrik Zetterberg.

Anyway, he goes on to say that the Wings may be interested in dealing either Andreas Lilja or Niklas Kronwall as part of the package. Personally, I think that if the Flyers are dumb enough to take a Lilja package (perhaps with Williams), it wouldn’t be such a bad deal. But if they demand someone like Kronwall or Hudler, I’d hope they’d say “no.” There is little use in throwing away two key pieces of the future for a player who may only be with the team until July 1st.

The story that was being reported earlier in this saga was that the Wings would demand that Forsberg sign a contract with them as part of any deal, and that may still be one of their stipulations. However, it doesn’t look like Forsberg would be willing to do so, as there is talk that he’d look to return to Philadelphia after a playoff run with another team. The Wings may decide Forsberg is worth the short-term benefit and hope that they could convince him to stay afterwards, but I think it would be foolish to give away one or more of their future stars in exchange for a player that could retire (if he does sign a long term contract) or bolt (if he doesn’t) at any moment.

Peter Forsberg certainly has the ability, if healthy, to make a huge impact on the team, as Nick Lidstrom told Ted Kulfan yesterday, but, given the likely asking price, it doesn’t seem to me that the Wings have the organizational depth to pursue a deal without really hurting their future.* Now, if Forsberg works out some kind of Hasek-like deal with Philly (”Don’t take too much from them, I want to be able to win.”) or the Flyers get conned into taking Lilja and Williams, it’d be worth it, if he were healthy. That’s a pretty big “if,” in my mind, even though he seems to have found a solution. My question is: will it last or will it be like the other “solutions”?

… George Sipple reports that Joey MacDonald will get another start in the coming back-to-back series. It will almost certainly be Monday night in Philadelphia as Dominik Hasek ough to be in net tomorrow against Calgary. Joey is still looking for his first NHL win and hopefully his teammates will show up to play this time around. He’s played extremely well in almost all his games this season, but hasn’t gotten the support he deserves from the skaters.

… Sipple also says that the Wings are concerned about their slow starts in the last nine games. I am too, though I have been impressed by their comeback ability and determination not to give up. Still, they’ll have a much harder time pulling off such comebacks in the playoffs, so hopefully they’ll find motivation to play hard from the first drop of the puck to the buzzer at the end.

… There is some variety to the reports on the nature of Danny Markov’s injury: The Freep calls it a “contusion in his middle back” and claims Piet Van Zant’s authority; the News calls it a “sore shoulder, ribs”; and TSN just calls it a shoulder injury. All three say he’s listed as day-to-day.

*There are those fans who dislike Niklas Kronwall, Jiri Hudler and even Valtteri Filppula for mistakes they make and for their lack of production. This is because we were spoiled by Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg making an immediate impact. We have forgotten that most young players need years to develop and that they aren’t likely to be stars right off the bat. Kronwall, Hudler, and Filppula are very likely to be big names in the League in years to come, but they aren’t going to be that immediately, though I personally think they’re pretty good even now. So, that’s why I say the Wings would be mortgaging their future if they trade any of them away, even though they might not seem so valuble now.