James puts Lidstrom up there with Jagr and Kiprusoff. We couldn’t agree more.
Archive for the 'Nick Lidstrom' CategoryPage 4 of 4
Ansar discusses the idiocy of some recent comments by Anaheim GM Brian Burke, who always seems ready to take a shot at the Wings either directly or indirectly, about his defenseman Scott Niedermeyer being “the best defenseman in the league by a wide margin.” Uh, Mr. Burke, I beg to differ…
The Freep reports that the five Swedish Wings will be participating in celebrations in Stockholm and will not be back in time for tomorrow night’s game in San Jose. They will be back for the Anaheim game the following night, however.
Filling in for Samuelsson, Lidstrom, Kronwall, Zetterberg and Holmstrom will be Jamie Rivers, Mark Mowers, Brett Lebda and Tomas Kopecky, who was called up from Grand Rapids. They’re all capable players but they can’t quite fill the holes left by the Swedes.
According to A2Y, all of the other Olympian Red Wings have returned, except Pavel Datsyuk, who is having some issues relating to travel (and so, I’ve read, is Evgeni Nabokov, the Sharks’ goalie.)
TSN reports that players who have not returned could face loss in pay for the number of days they are gone. The NHL expects all Olympians to return no later than tonight and have not made any allowances for the Swedish players, despite the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation reportedly making a special request for an exception.
I don’t mind our guys going to a celebration in Stockholm; they earned the right to kick back a little bit and bask in their nation’s glory. Still, tomorrow’s game against the Sharks isn’t a blow-off match and the Wings may be hard pressed to pull out a win with such a depleted roster.
I expect the Swedes to be ready to play (they have nothing if they don’t have momentum now) when they get back because this is the most important stretch of the season. Let’s hope the final standings don’t come down to two points. The point will be moot if the Swede-less Wings just win tomorrow night but that remains to be seen.
Maybe we ought to blame the security at the Games for keeping those guys away. Helene St. James reports that the team wanted to hop right on the plane and fly to Stockholm last night but the airport was closed for security reasons and so it didn’t work out.
Also, IwoCPO has a depressing outlook on what may be the results of Sweden’s triumph here.
And, I just noticed mLive.com has a more standard Red Wings blog to complement Ansar Khan’s blog-like thing. Looks like it’s been around for a few months. Welcome anyway, George Malik!
Kukla reports Mike Babcock told Detroit sports radio that Nick Lidstrom will not play in Tuesday’s game in San Jose (via. A2Y)
As the 2005 year draws to a close, it’s time to take a look back on the past year. Since this is a Wings hockey blog, I’m going to do a list of the top 3 of the year in a variety of categories with Matt’s help. All categories are in regard to the Detroit Red Wings, not necessarily the NHL, in the year 2005. Feel free to leave comments saying what you would change on these lists!
Top 3 Scary Moments
3. Niklas Kronwall tears his ACL and MCL after what was supposed to be his breakout season
2. Kris Draper gets hit in the face with a puck / Nick Lidstrom gets hit in the face by the puck against the Blue Jackets Dec. 20th
1. Jiri Fischer collapses during a game (On the Wings had in depth coverage of Fischer’s press conference)
Top 3 Games
3. Detroit beat the Washington Capitals after a hard fought game, 4-3
2. Wings beat defending Stanley Cup champs Tampa Bay, 6-3
1. Wings extinguish Flames, 6-3, in Darren McCarty’s first game in Hockeytown on an opposing team
Top 3 Former Wings Moments
3. After a drama filled 2003-2004 season in Detroit, Curtis Joseph moved on to Phoenix, where he is having a good season
2. Dominik Hasek is one of the reasons why Ottawa is the best team in the league. When Hasek has something to prove, he is a hard one to beat.
1. Brett Hull retires after short stint with Phoenix and is now being offered a job with Dallas
Top 3 Goals
3. Pavel Datsyuk’s near end to end goal against Tampa Bay
2. Henrik Zetterberg’s breakaway goal against Pittsburgh
1. Steve Yzerman faking out Devils goaltender Scott Clemmensen earning the final goal of the night
Top 3 Suprising Moments
3. Pavel Datsyuk actually signs with Detroit
2. Manny Legace wins 10 games in October earning a league record and defensive player of the month honors / Darren McCarty signs with the Calgary Flames
1. The Wings go 11-1-0 in October to start off the season with a bang
Top 3 Surprising Players
3. Chris Chelios for being so silently strong at the age of 43 (just 10 PIM since November 6th)
2. Jason Williams suddenly becoming a point machine with 10 goals and 24 assists as of December 30
1. Mikael Samuelsson has a breakout offensive season
Top 3 New Wings
3. Brett Lebda re-joined main roster and is playing very well to help bear the burden of Jiri Fischer’s absence
2. Mikael Samuelsson / Johan Franzen, the “Mule,” doesn’t score a lot but works as hard as anyone on the ice, very solid
1. Mike Babcock comes in as new head coach
Top 3 Team Moments
3. Wings visit Children’s Hospital in Detroit
2. 9 Wings were selected to represent their country in the 2006 Olympics
1. Father and son southeast road trip. While the Wings performance during games on this trip wasn’t solid, both the players and their fathers/mentors got a lot out of this trip.
Top 3 Defensive Players
3. Johan Franzen
2. Chris Chelios
1. Nicklas Lidstrom
Top 3 Offensive Players
3. Jason Williams (34 pts)
2. Henrik Zetterberg / Brendan Shanahan (38 pts)
1. Pavel Datsyuk (42 pts)
Top 3 Players Overall
3. Brendan Shanahan - was on a point tear that was only recently halted
2. Manny Legace - very good when not injured, though it has been a while
1. Henrik Zetterberg - two-way force
Top 3 +/- Ratings
3. Robert Lang / Pavel Datsyuk (+11)
2. Andreas Lilja (+13)
1. Mikael Samuelsson (+16)
Top 3 NHL moments
3. 2005 NHL Draft day / Sid the Kid finally heads to an NHL team.
2. Wayne Gretzky, “The Great One,” becomes head coach of the Pheonix Coyotes.
1. Opening night. Every single NHL team played on October 5, 2005, which is quite a way to start the new season after a yearlong lockout.
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.
Helene St. James takes a look at the Wings’ seven Swedish players
