The League has decided not to suspend Ville Nieminen for his hit on Brett Lebda Saturday afternoon. If I didn’t know not to expect justice from the NHL, I’d be shocked and angry. Now, I’m just disgusted. Once again, the League drops the ball on dealing out proper punishment. (via. Kukla’s)
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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.
Update (2:43 PM): James Gunner at 8 Feet points out that the slumping 8th-place Flames may have a rough go of it this week, with a game against the Wings as well as the Predators, while Colorado has it pretty easy, with two games against the free-falling Edmonton Oilers.
So, the scenario IwoCPO outlined is looking more and more plausible, especially with the Wings’ pretty much powder-puff schedule (with three big exceptions, i.e. a game each with Anaheim, Dallas, and Nashville) to the end of the season.It’s shaping up to be an interesting race for that final spot. - Matt
IwoCPO looks at the standings and proposes that the best first round opponent for the Wings would be the Colorado Avalanche, despite the fact that the Avs are one of the hottest teams in hockey. It’s hard to disagree, because such as series would probably bring out the best in both teams due to the presence of Todd Bertuzzi, and the Wings are their best are a good bit better than the Avs at theirs. So, Iwo hopes the following two things happen:
(1) The Wings need to secure the 1. (b) The Dive need to continue “never seeming to lose anymore.”
I agree. If the Wings are to take 1st place in the Conference, they’ll have to win to do it, which means they’d go into the playoffs hot and not complacent, as they have been in years they’ve had the first seed locked up in March. And if the Avs are going to make it, they don’t have much room at all for losing, as they sit outside the playoffs right now in the 9th spot, four points behind Calgary. Two teams fighting to rise in the standings right to the finish would be a much better matchup than a team already set in a seed just waiting for the other to grab their own.
Now, I don’t like that matchup if the Wings aren’t playing their A-game (in that case, Dallas or Calgary would be better, though still very dangerous), but if both teams are “on,” it would be a great series.
Still, I hate trying to figure out which opponents would be best for the Wings because they’ll all be tough and in every case, the Wings won’t get away with bad play. We can try to propose teams that would seem ideal, but it’s up to the players to elevate their play, not to hope for what seems like an easier matchup.
So all this depends on whether or not they go into the postseason awake. If they end the season lulled into complacency, the question is whether or not they can wake up in time. If not, it won’t matter who they’re playing. But if they actually show up to play, they stand a very good chance, I’m confident of that, even with the more “undesirable” opponents.
Dave of Gorilla Crouch has a recap of the WDFN interview with Todd Bertuzzi, something to which I have not yet been able to listen.
Dave at Gorilla Crouch links to an AP article that has a great Mike Babcock quote on the team’s playoff situation:
“Is there a team we want to play in the first round?’ No. They’re all too good. In the Western Conference last year, the top four seeds lost in the first round. Well, the West is even closer than it was last year.”
Way to put things in perspective, Babs. I’m glad the team has that attitude going in.
Dave has some more interesting links, so check out his post.
Christy Hammond has the details, as does James Gunner. Apparently, the Wings lobbied for the new system, which would help them get higher picks if they do end up getting eliminated in the first round. However, the condition that says regular season division title winners won’t get low placement kind of negates any advantage the team might have, if their history is any indication. Maybe they see a change in fortunes coming.
Great debut post over at Gloveside.net by Steve. Be sure to check it out.
Ansar Khan posted the recent THN GM rankings on his blog today. Ken Holland is on the top, a placement with which I couldn’t agree more, though I am a bit biased. Seriously though, he’s done a pretty good job, right?
Khan also points out the Forbes ranking of all sports GMs, which has Holland last of all the NHL front office bosses (90th overall). I guess that’s another reason not to go to Forbes for hockey-related content.
James Mirtle has also posted on the THN feature.
I don’t have this week’s THN yet because they get delivered to school and I’m at home for “Spring Break.” (It snowed last night. Real spring-like.)
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.
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.
