Helene St. James reports that Fabian Brunnstrom has informed the Wings that he will not sign with them. He has apparently chosen Dallas instead. She speculates that the sticking point was playing time. The Wings wouldn’t give him a guarantee that he’d be in Detroit for longer than the first month of the season.
Archive for the 'Fabian Brunnstrom' Category
Ansar Khan reports that Ken Holland has not heard anything new on Fabian Brunnstrom, though a report out of Toronto indicated he’s going to make a decision tomorrow.
Also, the Maple Leafs, who just fired their head coach, have a press conference scheduled for 3:00 PM ET today. James Mirtle suggests that it’s possible they could be making an announcement that they have signed the Swede.
Update (4:50 PM): Kukla’s Korner has transcripts of the Dave Tippett and Marty Turco/Brenden Morrow calls. - Matt
Update (3:11 PM): Alanah at Kukla’s Korner has the transcript from Henrik Zetterberg’s conference call posted. It’s a long read, but a good one. - Matt
Bruce MacLeod reports that Valtteri Filppula (twisted leg) did not skate for the second day in a row. Filppula told Helene St. James, “I feel better,” and that he’ll try to skate tomorrow.
Although Mike Babcock is telling the media he expects Filppula will play Thursday, the team continues to prepare for his possible absence by using all new second and third lines. This is just prudence in action because Fil’s status for Game 1 is dependent on whether or not he can make the Wednesday skate. If he can’t, it looks like the team will have to go with the adjusted lineup and hope that three practices is enough to gel the units together. Given the experience level of all six forwards involved, that shouldn’t be a problem, however.
On the Stars side of things, Mark at Andrew’s Dallas Stars and NHL Blog, has an update here. On a semi-related note, my series preview is coming Thursday, early in the afternoon.
Paul Kukla has the NHL press release on the officials for the Conference Finals here.
Also, via Snapshots comes the latest on the Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes. Basically, we should know where he’s headed in a week to ten days.
Lastly, the NHL hosted media conference calls with Mike Babcock, Henrik Zetterberg, Brenden Morrow and Marty Turco, and Dave Tippett today. I expect transcripts to be made available soon. I’ll post them when they show up on the Media site.
James Mirtle is taking a cautious approach to all the Fabian Brunnstrom hype.
Bruce MacLeod has a brief post detailing his impressions of Fabian Brunnstrom, who he just met. It sounds like he may not be as full of himself as his demand to be made a top six forward suggests.
Update (3:57 PM): “Is the President’s Daughter Dating a Ranger?” asks Eric McErlain. - Matt
Update (3:49 PM): Tom Benjamin has more thoughts on the firing of Dave Nonis. Meanwhile, Nonis defends his actions as Vancouver’s GM. - Matt
Update (12:13 PM): According to the Washington Post’s Tarik El-Bashir, former Red Wing Sergei Fedorov will play between Alexander Ovechkin and Viktor Kozlov tomorrow night in Philadelphia.
Rookie Niklas Backstrom has been moved down to the second line. - Matt
Update (8:31 AM): George Malik has the latest on the Brunnstrom saga. - Matt
… The Sidney Crosby Beard Watch: Day 8.
… The Sharks avoided going down 3-1 in their series with Calgary last night with a 3-2 comeback win.
… And San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov continued his excellent post-season by … allowing two goals on ten shots. Maybe playing him in 77 games was a mistake, Ron Wilson.
… The Avalanche took apart the Wild 5-1 last night. It was the first time in the series that the game did not go to overtime. It’s now tied up 2-2.
… Anaheim staved off a Dallas sweep last night with a 4-2 win on the road. Ah well.
… The Caps are having trouble carrying through on their impressive regular season finish. They dropped another game to Philadelphia last night, falling behind 2-1 in their series. They must now win on the road and display some defensive ability in the process.
… Montreal did what we hope the Wings will do tonight: go up 3-1 in their series.
Update (8:12 PM): At the Globe on Hockey blog, James Mirtle has more on Fabian Brunnstrom. I’m starting to wonder if this kid isn’t overrated. - Matt
Update (3:21 PM): The guys at Orland Kurtenblog have been looking for the greatest hit in NHL history and after five months of polling, a consensus has been reached: Scott Stevens’ hit on former Red Wing Slava Kozlov in the 1995 Finals. - Matt
Update (2:58 PM): If you’re into hockey stats, check this site out. (via Mirtle) - Matt
Update (2:41 PM): I missed posting reactions to the Nonis firing from two of the biggest Canucks bloggers because I got distracted and then forgot. Sorry.
Alanah of Canucks and Beyond, and Orland Kurtenblog. - Matt
… The Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes may not be over after all: the Canucks fired GM Dave Nonis last night in a surprise move.
Brunnstrom had apparently narrowed his choices down to Vancouver, but this latest development has him reconsidering, as Ken Holland told Helene St. James.
My guess is he’ll still opt not to come to Detroit for the same reason he was rumored to be headed to Vancouver: guaranteed playing time. The Wings still can’t give him that, but whoever takes over in Vancouver may be more amenable to the idea.
… Reactions to the Nonis firing: James Mirtle, Tom Benjamin, Eric McErlain,
… Elliotte Friedman discusses the speculation that Brian Burke could return to Vancover to fill the vacancy left by Nonis.
… I thought the Senators hit a low point with that mural near the visitor’s lockerroom. I was wrong (video here).
… Speaking of the Senators, Pittsburgh is on the brink of eliminating them from the playoffs after last night’s 4-1 win.
… Marty Turco’s not a fan of asking the crowd to wear black tonight in Dallas.
… The Avalanche/Wild series went to overtime for the third straight game. Minnesota came out on top for the second time to take a 2-1 series lead.
Update (4:18 PM): Ansar Khan has more on Fabian Brunnstrom’s decision to spurn winning in favor of playing time. - Matt
Update (4:16 PM): Mike Chen provides some perspective on the Avery Rule. - Matt
Update (3:54 PM): Further followup: the “Sean Avery Rule” is now official. - Matt
Update (12:39 PM): Highly-touted Red Wings prospect Dick Axelsson has gotten in trouble with the law in Sweden. As a result, he’s been kicked off the national team for the world championships and it looks like this may hurt his chances of coming over to North America this summer. (via Snapshots) - Matt
Update (11:27 AM): Followup: Bettman says the League will look at making what Avery did unsportsmanlike conduct or goaltender intereference.
Good. Just so long as they don’t do anything further to limit proper screening as practiced by Tomas Holmstrom. - Matt
Update (11:17 AM): Followup: Ken Holland confirms that the Wings are out of the running for Fabian Brunnstrom. - Matt
Update (10:11 AM): A new low for the Senators. (via Going Five Hole) - Matt
… Over at Abel to Yzerman, IwoCPO is considering taking a more serious tone. The result is about what you’d expect.
… James Mirtle comments on the latest Sean Avery shenanigan.
Judging by that replay, Avery has completely foregone the whole team concept. He basically took himself completely out of active participation the power play with his mimicry of Brodeur there.
… The Flames staged a major comeback last night in San Jose. I have to say, I loved reading that this morning.
… Kulka has footage of the hit that helped change the momentum in favor of the Flames.
… The Devils were one of two teams that avoided going down 3-0 in their series yesterday. They beat the Rangers 4-3 in the first overtime.
… The Bruins also avoided a 3-0 hole yesterday by defeating Montreal 2-1 in the first overtime.
… Philadelphia evened up their series with Washington yesterday with a 2-0 win on the road. During the period and a half or so that I was able to catch, Martin Biron was incredible and the Caps were more like a bunch of individuals than a team.
… Steve, the Media guy at Kukla’s Korner, has some hard words for those who say NBC’s coverage of the Wings/Predators game yesterday was biased in Nashville’s favor.
He presents a good argument, but as someone who watched the game, it was hard not to come to the conclusion that the NBC people were disappointed the Predators didn’t win.
… The Ducks are in trouble after losing 5-2 at home to the Stars last night. They are down 2-0 in their series. Awesome.
… Not so awesome: apparrently, Fabian Brunnstrom is about to become a Canuck. Obviously, I’d love to see him come to Detroit and add to our Swede total, but if the kid wants guaranteed playing time, I can’t blame him for chosing Vancouver. Even if the organizaiton leaves much to be desired.
… “The Red Wings are ripe for the pickin’,” says Aaron Portzline. That guy really hates Detroit, doesn’t he?
… With the Griffins wrapping up their season with a pair of wins, the Wings have called up a group of players to help sharpen things up in practice: Jimmy Howard, Jonathan Ericsson, Jakub Kindl, Kyle Quincey, Cory Emmerton, Darren Helm, and Matthias Ritola.
Emmerton and Helm, by the way, looked great Friday night.
The coaching staff and equipment manager have also been called up.
Update (28. Jan, 9:45 AM): George Malik has a follow-up post on the situation. Basically, no official agreement has been reached, if Ken Holland is to be believed (why not?), though there is a good chance that the Wings are at the forefront of the race for the guy. - Matt
Interesting blurb from the Freep’s Helen St. James today:
The Wings are, however, believed to have secured the services of Fabian Brunnstrom, an almost 23-year-old forward who’s become a star in the Swedish Elite League. They’re on a level playing field with other NHL clubs as to what contract can be offered, but have the advantage in offering him a locker room filled with seven countrymen.
What exactly does that mean? That first statement is pretty, but she then ends with a statement that gives the impression that the Wings only have a greater chance of signing him due to the presence of so many Swedes. Which is it?
(via Snapshots)
