Archive for the 'Mathieu Schneider' CategoryPage 2 of 3

1/27 Injury Update

Published
by
Matt Saler
on January 27, 2007
in Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek, Injuries, Jimmy Howard, Joey MacDonald, Kris Draper, Mathieu Schneider, Matt Ellis, Matt Hussey, Robert Lang and Valtteri Filppula
. 2 Comments

Ansar Khan reports the following:

… Chris Osgood broke a finger on his right hand during warmups last night and played through it. Apparently, it’s not serious, but it could keep him out of the action for a while.

… Fortunately, both Joey MacDonald and Dominik Hasek, who were down with the flu, are expected to dress tomorrow for the Colorado game. Megan points out that if MacDonald, Hasek, and Osgood end up not being capable of playing tomorrow, the best goalie the Wings have available is Stefan Liv, who will have played two games in a row after tonight (Jimmy Howard is out with an ankle injury). Not a good situation, though I’m sure Dom and Joey will be able to suit up, since they did practice today.

… Kris Draper, Valtteri Filppula and Robert Lang are also expected to be ready to go tomorrow after practicing today. Khan, though, is right to say that Matt Ellis and Matt Hussey should keep their cell phones on because they very well may have to drive out to Detroit tomorrow before the game.

… Apparently, Mathieu Schneider feels “great” and could possibly return tomorrow. Khan says that he’s more likely to sit out one more and return Tuesday, but says Chris Chelios hurt his shoulder in practice and if he can’t go, the Wings might insert Schneider earlier than planned. Chelios finished practice, though, and should play tomorrow.

… Mikael Samuelsson hopes to begin skating in a week, but there’s no further news about when he’ll be back in the lineup.

1/25 Injury Update

Published
by
Matt Saler
on January 25, 2007
in Henrik Zetterberg, Injuries, Josh Langfeld, Kris Draper, Mathieu Schneider, Niklas Kronwall and Robert Lang
. 0 Comments

Via Ansar Khan:

… Mikael Samuelsson’s right foot was broken Saturday night in Denver when he blocked a shot during the third period (I assume, based on the shift chart). It’s the first I’ve heard of it and apparently, the Wings themselves didn’t know until he had an X-ray taken today. The Wings will be without Mikael’s services for at least two weeks, Khan says, but have called up Josh Langfeld to fill in for now. It can’t be a very serious break if it took them this long to find out there was one and if the recovery time is so short.

… It looks like the inflammation and pain in Henrik Zetterberg’s wrist has subsided enough for him to forego another cortisone shot. The rest has done him a lot of good, apparently, and that’s great news for the Wings.

… Mathieu Schneider practiced today but will miss at least two more games. That puts his return at Tuesday night in Long Island, at the earliest. The Wings could use him back, but it won’t do them any good to rush it so I’m glad they’re taking their time.

… Neither Robert Lang nor Kris Draper practiced today due to the flu and Khan suggests that the Wings may call someone else up to cover for them in the game tomorrow night. I’ll keep an eye on the AHL transaction page in case they do.

… Lastly, as reported earlier this week, Niklas Kronwall will play tomorrow night, but will have a cage protecting his face, and could wear it as long as 2 months. He has a whopping 25 stiches in the cut across his nose from Marek Svatos’ skate and may want to consider wearing the visor a little lower once he drops the cage.

1/14 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on January 14, 2007
in Blackhawks, Chris Osgood, Dominik Hasek, Henrik Zetterberg, Mathieu Schneider and Peter Forsberg
. 2 Comments

… I didn’t catch the game, but the Wings won last night, 6-3 over Chicago on goals from Jason Williams (2), Tomas Holmstrom, Danny Markov, Kris Draper, and Robert Lang. Chris Osgood had 33 saves and looked good apparently, though he allowed two weak goals. They play Montreal on Monday.

… Helene St. James has suggestions for the Wings over the second half of the season:

  • “Win the Division” - She’d like to see the Wings avoid playing San Jose or Anaheim in the first round and this is the surest way to do that.
  • “Play Dominik Hasek Less” - I’ve been saying this for a while now.
  • Play Chris Osgood more - She thinks it’s a good idea for Osgood to get more playing so he can get in a rhythm. I agree.
  • “Improve on special teams” - A no-brainer, though the Wings seem to be doing that with every game.
  • Lastly, “Get Peter Forsberg” - Um, what? I would be shocked if this happened. I don’t even know who the Wings would trade for Forsberg, let alone why they’d go after someone so injury-prone, no matter how good he is when healthy. It’s been a Red Wings fan fantasy for years and may be more likely than ever now, but I still have trouble seeing it happen. Maybe if it were a Williams-and-Lilja trade, but otherwise, I can’t see them disrupting the roster just to get a player who could be gone this summer. Forsberg would fulfill their need for a big, strong forward on paper, but how it’d translate to the ice is a big unknown.

… Henrik Zetterberg was the only other Red Wing named to the Western Conference All-Star team. Mathieu Schneider got snubbed again. I’m glad Dominik Hasek didn’t make it because the last thing the Wings need is for him to pull his groin in a fake game. Congratulations to Hank, though!

Schneider out at least two games

Published
by
Matt Saler
on January 9, 2007
in Chris Chelios, Hockey Bloggers, Injuries and Mathieu Schneider
. 0 Comments

Ansar Khan reports that Mathieu Schneider will sit out at least the remainder of the road trip with a strained MCL. Apparently, his knee will be looked at again when the team gets back to Detroit on Friday.

To help fill in the gap, Chris Chelios will be rushed back into the lineup after missing six games. He did hook up with the team today in Denver and will play tonight against the Avs.

It’ll be great to have Cheli back in the lineup, but the Wings are going to miss Schneider at both ends of the ice. Their power play will suffer from not having his shot from the point and from being without his strong defensive play, which will make them a little more vulnerable in their own end. Chelios will certainly help with the latter, however.

Khan believes Jason Williams will be back in the lineup tonight, which means Jiri Hudler is a likely candidate to join Josh Langfeld wherever healthy scratches go during road games.

Also, a big congratulations to Christy for her great week. I will admit I was very jealous when I read her latest post, but she certainly deserves recognition for her work on Steve Yzerman Retirement Night. If we bloggers had an awards mechanism, that post would be up for Best of the Year.

Where’s Schneider?!

Published
by
Sarah Baker
on November 9, 2006
in Mathieu Schneider
. 0 Comments

Megan and I were looking at the shift chart from last night’s game and we noticed that Mathieu Schneider did not play for the last nine minutes of the game. Where did he go? According to the play-by-play, this is around the same time that he was hit in the face by the stick of Raffi Torres (which seemed like it ought to have been a penalty despite the stick not necessarily being high…). There have been no reports of Schneider being injured and he appeared to be ok following the play. He did seem quite upset, however, with the way the officiating had been going in the game He’d taken three penalties himself at that point and was demonstrating a level of frustration not commonly seen from him. So perhaps Babcock just elected to keep him out for the rest of the game.

11/07 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 7, 2006
in Evgeni Malkin, Injuries, Mathieu Schneider, Notes, Pavel Datsyuk, Steve Yzerman and Valtteri Filppula
. 0 Comments

… Update (9:30 AM): The Free Press’ Steve Schrader points us to a quote by Evgeni Malkin in today’s paper:

“Always I was following for Pavel Datsyuk. I was following his game, the way he’s playing. I’m not trying to copy him, but I’m trying to be same leader as Pavel Datsyuk.”

From the outside looking in, I sometimes find it hard to see Pavel as a leader, but that’s not the first time I’ve heard him called one so apparently there’s some truth in it. It can’t just be that he’s an offensive force and leads by his skilled example. I’d like to hear a more concrete explanation of his leadership, like whether or not he’s vocal in the lockerroom or on the bench, etc. (via Snapshots) - Matt

… Because he was awarded with the Lester Patrick Award yesterday, both papers have pieces on Steve Yzerman today.

It sounds like his new life as a team vice president is going well. He has a flexible schedule (can arrive at work any time between 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM), goes to most of the home games as well as some road games here and there, gets to read scouting reports, and has input on trades, according to Helene St. James.

His former teammates, apparently, have had trouble adjusting to his new role:

“They don’t recognize me as the vice president of the Red Wings — we’ll leave it at that.”

He does occasionally go down to the lockerroom to see the guys, however, though he apparently wishes there was a little less familiarity from them outside of the lockerroom. Ted Kulfan quotes him as saying,

“But I do think it’s best that if somebody wants to ask me about something, they’ll ask me as opposed to me kind of barging in and saying, ‘This is the way it should be.’”

Kulfan’s piece has some multimedia features in the sidebar that include a slideshow, some audio files, and a video.

… Everyone’s talked about how Henrik Zetterberg hasn’t been scoring enough, but I haven’t seen anyone talk about Niklas Kronwall’s lack of scoring. Until today. The News takes a brief look at Kronwall, who has been getting chances and believes he’ll get it going soon.

The paper also points out that he is #3 among Wings defensemen in minutes with an average of 20:31 a game. Not bad.

… The Freep reports that Mathieu Schneider should return to the lineup tomorrow night against Edmonton after he participated in practice yesterday. I like the quote the paper has from Mike Babcock:

“I thought he was going to be more careful today than he was. He didn’t look like he was careful at all.”

Hey, well, if he feels good, why should he take it easy, Mike?

… One negative aspect of keeping Valtteri Filppula is that he is just one of three skilled rookies on the team all competing for ice time. George Sipple reports that Babcock is set on giving them all meaningful minutes, which will be tough given the fact that one of the three will have to sit out every game.

Based on what minutes they’ve been getting so far, it looks like Filppula (11:21 in 5) is going to be in the lineup more consistently, with Hudler (10:28 in 10) next, and Kopecky (7:02 in 11) perhaps being the odd-man out more often than not.

10/30 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on October 30, 2006
in Chris Chelios, Mathieu Schneider, Notes, The Team and Valtteri Filppula
. 0 Comments

Update (7:50 PM): … Helene St. James reports in a blog post that both Brad Norton and Mikael Samuelsson are ready to return to the ice. Samuelsson expects to play Wednesday against the Flames, and Norton just needs to be cleared by some doctors. Norton still has not been taken off the IR, but when he does, the Wings will be over the 23-man active roser limit, meaning Valtteri Filppula’s stint in Detroit will probably soon be over. That is, of course, unless the Wings decide to send someone else down, which would most likely be Norton, if anyone.

… The Calgary Sun has a piece by Randy Sportak today that provides more details on Darren McCarty’s bankruptcy. For anyone thinking Darren brought this on himself by throwing money away, there’s this:

“It sounds as if I blew $6 million, which isn’t the case. A lot of it had to do with a couple of properties that we owned and I signed my name to. It’s not as if I was blowing the money.”

Apparently, it was more a case of being stabbed in the back by a business partner than anything else. (via Snapshots)

… When Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Fedorov both went down with injuries, I was in need of a center on my fantasy team so I traded Kari Lehtonen for Marc Savard and David Aebischer. It was probably a dumb trade then, but I feel really stupid now, after reading this. - Matt

… In the Freep’s Wings Corner today, George Sipple focuses on Chris Chelios, who will tie Wayne Gretzky in games played on Wednesday when the Wings play the Flames at home. Gretzky currently holds 12th place on the all-time list with 1,487 games (over 20 seasons) while Chelios obviously has 1,486 games (over 22 seasons).

Cheli will be able to pass Gretzky (how unlikely does that sound?!) on Thursday when the Wings travel to Chicago to play the Blackhawks.

… In his Red Wings Notebook, Ted Kulfan writes on the contrast between the Wings’ three game slide during their West Coast trip, and their three-game win-streak since. They’re making mediots like Damien Cox look pretty dumb, though, granted, it is a long season and they’ve only been able to string three together so far. However, I think they’ve got it together now, and I wouldn’t expect any more three-game losing streaks.

… Kulfan also has a quote from Mike Babcock on why the Wings’ power play went 0-for-5 Saturday night:

“We wouldn’t shoot the puck. We passed it around, passed it around, passed it around and wouldn’t shoot. I don’t know why that happened.”

Well, Mike, it was that, and the fact that the guys seemed to revert back to the power play strategy of last season. You know, the one that didn’t work any more and the one you had the players work on last week? Why does the PP focus on the defensemen at the point again?

… Mathieu Schneider, a popular player around here, was interviewed by The Sporting News’ Ray Slover this weekend. It’s not very long but definitely worth a read.

I like this part:

SN: Tomas Holmstrom scores from the dot. Did you guys about fall over on that one?

Schneider: He never ceases to amaze me. He finds different ways to score all the time. He still gets heck. I think he had a goal like that in the Olympics, but most of them are obviously inside the crease. But he’s just a great presence in front of the net. He doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being able to handle the puck and move it outside the top of the circles.

Link via Snapshots.

… Ansar Khan looks at the coming roster problem in an article for Booth Newspapers today.

As far as I’m concerned, I think they should keep Valtteri Filppula up and send Norton down, but only if Babcock is able to give Filppula an appropriate amount of ice time. The problem is, that will be difficult once Mikael Samuelsson returns and picks up the 15-16 minutes in ice time he was getting before injuring his shoulder. If Valtteri were covering for just Norton, it would be no question, but with Mikael coming back soon, it may not be the best thing for him to stay with the Wings. I know the Griffins could use him.

Sending Norton down isn’t the Wings’ only option if they’re looking to keep Filppula on the roster. According to Khan, Brett Lebda is a player the Wings could send down to make room for Valtteri since he wouldn’t have to clear waivers. Haha, very funny, Ansar (to be fair, he does say it’s unlikely). Another option would be sending extraneous third goalie Joey MacDonald for a two-week conditioning stint.

… The Wings aren’t the only team that is proving the hockey media wrong. The Colorado Avalanche, who also have been picked to fall by the columnists, have won four in six, including a big one over the Minnesota Wild last night.

4/10 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 10, 2006
in Chris Osgood, Henrik Zetterberg, Injuries, Mathieu Schneider, Predators, Robert Lang and Valtteri Filppula
. 0 Comments

…. Ansar Khan reports that Robert Lang was hurt during the early stages of practice today and is questionable for tomorrow night’s game against the Oilers. It’s another mysterious but non-serious “upper body” injury and is a new thing, not a reaggravation of a lingering problem. He’s gone in for tests as a precaution.

…. Khan goes on to say that Henrik Zetterberg did not practice today. He skated for 15 minutes, though, and confirmed how he was injured. Apparently, Holmstrom was right, it was a puck.

…. Khan also mentions that Mathieu Schneider may not play until Saturday, perhaps even later than that. Apparently, he’s had something of a setback in recovery from his groin injury. This contradicts the report by Ted Kulfan in today’s Detroit News, which said, “Schneider should return sometime this week.”

Because of cap restraints, the Wings are only able to call up one player from Grand Rapids (Valtteri Filppula) and if both Hank and Lang cannot play tomorrow night, they’ll only be able to suit a maximum of 17 skaters.

…. Wings fans who have expressed a wish that the Predators would fall to 8th place in the West because of their sudden loss of goalie Tomas Vokoun will be disappointed. The worst they can finish is 7th and since the Wings will finish #1 in the West no matter what (thanks to San Jose’s win over Dallas last night), they cannot face Nashville in the first round.

…. The Freep posted an interesting fact today. With another win, Chris Osgood will have his 20th, making it the third time in Red Wings history a goalie tandem has had at least 20 wins each. The two previous instances also included Osgood:

Osgood won 25 games and Legace 24 for the Wings back in 2000-2001
Osgood won 39 games while Mike Vernon won 21 for the Wings in 1995-96

The feat has been accomplished 37 times before and has already been done by two tandems this season (Ryan Miller and Martin Biron of the Buffalo Sabres and former Wing Dominik Hasek and Ray Emery of the Ottawa Senators).

Red Wings to be well-represented at Olympics

Published
by
Matt Saler
on December 22, 2005
in Canada, Chris Chelios, Czech Republic, Henrik Zetterberg, Kris Draper, Mathieu Schneider, Mikael Samuelsson, Nick Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Olympics, Pavel Datsyuk, Robert Lang, Russia, Stefan Liv, Sweden and USA
. 0 Comments

Today, the Czech and Swedish national teams named their Olympic rosters, adding five more Detroit players to the list of athletes going to Turin to play hockey this coming February.

Sweden

Four of the Wings’ seven Swedes will represent Sweden:

Nicklas Lidstrom
Henrik Zetterberg
Mikael Samuelsson
Niklas Kronwall

Red Wing goalie prospect Stefan Liv was also named to the roster.

Sweden’s coach, Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, included Kronwall, who will be a first-time Olympian, despite his ongoing recovery from a torn ACL. The CP quotes him saying,

“He’s been on ice and is back in training. The question is if he’ll be ready for the Olympics. We have done this to avoid eliminating another player from the squad if Kronwall can play. If he can’t play we’ll pick another player.”

Kronwall told the Free Press that,

“It’s still too early to say. Hopefully in a couple of weeks It’ll be able to practice with the team. I don’t want to risk anything. The Olympics would be awesome, but I have to listen to the trainers.”

Lidstrom and Zetterberg have both played in the Olympics before. Lidstrom has participated three times and Zetterberg made his Olympic debut as one of two non-NHL players on the Swedish squad in 2002, the year before he came to Detroit.

It will be the first time Samuelsson, whose strong performance for the Wings this season got him notice from his country, will go to the Games.

Despite his value on the power play, Tomas Holmstrom will not have a chance to represent his country. The Free Press credits this to his skating skills, which are somewhat lacking. With the extra ice in international competition, Homer wouldn’t be as effective.

Czech Republic

Robert Lang was named to the Czech roster today, the only Wing to be so honored (not surprising given he is the only active Czech player on the roster), though former-Red Wing Dominik Hasek will be one of the Czech goalies. It will be his fourth Olympic Games. He already has a bronze (1992) and a gold (1998) medal, though he wasn’t so lucky at the 2002 Olympics.

Jiri Fischer surely would have been named to the roster as well were it not for his current heart condition.

Canada

Team Canada announced its roster yesterday but only included one Red Wing: Kris Draper, despite his poor season offensively. It’s surprising that they did not pick Draper’s partner in crime, Kirk Maltby, to go as well but it is easy to see that the Canadians are going more for skill than anything else and Maltby would have just been taking up a slot that could have been given to a shooter.

That said, it is also surprising that Brendan Shanahan did not make it. He is on pace to have a great year offensively and has been white hot lately. He would have brought some good leadership to the table and still has a great shot. He’ll have to settle for his gold in 2002, apparently.

His wife must be happy. Shanny had joked about her expecting to go somewhere warm during the NHL’s Olympic Break.

USA

The first Red Wing players named to any Olympic roster were Chris Chelios and Mathieu Schneider, who will once again represent the United States.

Chelios will play in his fifth Olympics and will be captain for the third time.

Schneider played in Nagano, back in 1998 and was a lock for a spot this time around.

One-time Red Wing Derian Hatcher will also patrol the blueline for the US.

Russia

They haven’t released their roster yet but it is certain that Pavel Datsyuk will be named to Team Russia.

On one hand, it’s great that so many Wings will be able to represent their countries in the Olympics but I’m a little worried about the extra work their bodies will be getting heading into an important stretch of the NHL season. Beyond even the ususal wear and tear that accompanies playing high-level hockey, there is the increased chance for real injury.

All of these men were named to their respective nation’s rosters for a reason: they’re very good players. They are also very important to the Wings and they can ill afford to lose any of them in the last leg of the season.

It didn’t seem to hurt in 2002 but that’s not too reassuring.

The upside to this is that we’ll get to watch some very high-quality hockey and know that nine, probably ten, of our guys are a part of it.

Update (23. Dec): The Russians have released their roster and it looks like youth will be the order of the day. The team will have 11 first-time Olympians, including Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin.

As expected, Pavel Datyuk was named to the team. Former-Red Wing Dmitri Bykov was as well and will be one of four non-NHLers on the squad.

Schneider & Chelios selected to US Olympic team

Published
by
Christy Hammond
on December 20, 2005
in Chris Chelios, Mathieu Schneider, Olympics and USA
. 0 Comments

Two current Red Wings players, Mathieu Schneider and Chris Chelios, were selected to the US team for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy. This time around with be Chelios’ fourth Olympics (1984, 1998, 2002) in his 44 years, two of those times he was named captain of the American squad. “I feel very lucky at my age and am looking forward to the challenge,” Chelios said.

Wings GM Ken Holland told Chelios yesterday that he had been selected to the team.

“There’s no doubt the intangibles Chris Chelios brings to any team have to be discussed,” said Holland. “We brought him back for his ability to play, but also because of his leadership and competitiveness. When he’s on your team, he believes your team is going to win, and he has an impact on the players around him.”

Schneider has played in one other Winter Olympics back in 1998. He seemed to be a sure selection for this Olympic squad with his 28 points in 23 games placing him fourth among NHL defensemen. He is second among defensemen in scoring (10) and power play goals (7). Schneider also averages 24:05 of ice time

“With his ability to skate and handle the puck … the way he played two years ago and this year, it became pretty obvious that he had to be on the team,” Holland said.

GM of the US Olympic team, Don Waddell, is pleased with his defensive selections including former Wing, Derian Hatcher, and former MSU player John-Michael Liles. “We think our depth on defense is as good as it’s ever been,” Waddell said.