Archive for the 'Opinion' CategoryPage 2 of 2

More on Dom

Published
by
Matt Saler
on August 1, 2006
in Dominik Hasek and Opinion
. 10 Comments

A2Y has a sober reflection on the Hasek deal up. He likes it. I’m still not a big fan of it.

Sure, it could be great. In a perfect world.

Hasek is going to go down with a groin injury. Does anyone really believe he won’t? The only question is when. Will it be 20 games into the season? Or will it come halfway? Say he pulls his groin in an All-Star Game shootout.

“So what?” you say, “They can always make a trade for a goalie, right?” Sure. Holland had a perfectly good goalie market this summer and couldn’t find it in himself to send a precious player from the inviolable roster in order to get it done. He’ll have to get over such sentimentality if he wants to swing a trade at the deadline.

Maybe Hasek’ll make it until after the trade deadline and injure it in a meaningless game after he’s already locked up the Vezina and the Wings have locked up the Conference if not the League. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

It could happen at any time, early or late in the season.

We’ve seen Dom go through both early and late (well, mid-season) groin injuries and he made it back from neither. Maybe this time will be different. Maybe not.

Will it have been worth it if Hasek carries the team to the best record once again but hurts his groin down the stretch and misses the playoffs? Maybe, if you’re satisfied with another President’s Trophy.

If Hasek’s ready for the playoffs, great. In that case, the Wings could go all the way. But they ought to lock him in a cryogenic chamber between now and the end of March, 2007 or else they could be stuck with *gasp* Chris Osgood (horror of horrors!) and end up right back where we were before yesterday when Hasek was still a UFA. Where’s the gain in that? My point here is, if that’s what ends up happening, we’d have been just as well off going with Osgood all along and saving the $750,000 for, say, a forward.

Maybe they should have signed Dom mid-season a la Steve Thomas. My concern is that the healthy Dom will be wasted on the regular season, which no self-respecting Wings fan gives a squat for any more.

I fully expect Hasek to be excellent. He proved last year that he still can be great. But I don’t want Vezina Trophy candidate Dom. I want Conn Smythe candidate Dom and you’ll have to forgive me if his last tour in Detroit put a damper on my hopes for seeing that.

If Hasek end up being healthy all season and through a lengthy (if not successful) playoff run, I will look back favorably on this move. That is an enormous if, however.

More on Roberto Luongo

Published
by
Matt Saler
on June 19, 2006
in Hockey Bloggers, Opinion and Roberto Luongo
. 17 Comments

James Mirtle disagrees that the Wings would be risking losing Luongo after just one year:

For one, there’s no way any team trading for Luongo is going to do so with the notion that they’ll only have him for one season. A pre-negotiated long-term deal will likely accompany any deal simply for the fact that it will give Keenan something he doesn’t have at the moment: leverage.

The scenario James lays out in the rest of the post is much more soberly thought out than my initial reaction to the idea, which he quotes.

Still, it’s hard to decide which is worse: throwing $7 million a year and a couple of our best young stars at an overrated, only semi-proven goalie but having him locked up for, say, five years for better or for worse. Or making a similar trade at Luongo’s current salary and losing him after a year.

Maybe Luongo is exactly what the Wings need. Maybe he’ll be a force for this team for the rest of his career. Maybe he’ll carry them to three Cups and re-establish their dominance. Or maybe he’ll totally bomb after he finds that on a skilled team, the goalie doesn’t have to make 57 saves a night and he isn’t expected to win every game for them singlehandedly.

The list of alternatives isn’t overly impressive, as James points out. Luongo is certainly the biggest name out there. But this isn’t Dominik Hasek in the summer of 2001 (just to mention the last big goalie trade-to-sign deal the Wings made). Dom had proven he could take a team, any team, to the Finals. Furthermore, he wanted to play in Detroit. All Luongo wants is to get out of Florida and get some team to pay him a ton of money before he’s done anything.

I don’t want to see the Wings stuck with a flop of a goalie that happens to have an enormous salary. I think there’s a reason Detroit goalies are always derided by the fans: we generally don’t have the best and when we do, they often don’t perform up to expectations. Think Curtis Joseph. The only exception I can remember is Dominik Hasek, who was a pretty exceptional goalie, in that first year. Even without the best goalie available, the Wings won two Cups. Their historical strength has not been goaltending, it has been skilled skaters backed by strong goalies (just not the “best”).

A bigger-name goalie is not the solution to the playoff problem. In fact, generally, the goalie seems to be one of the best players in most of the early exits I can remember. Their problem has always been lack of scoring and I think it’s unfair to pin the blame on the goalies by asserting the solution is a better goalie.

As far as I’m concerned, the Wings only need a one- or two-year veteran goalie who will help usher in the goalies they already have in their system. Such a goalie will not come at such a high price and would allow Holland to make other moves that would shore up the offense and defense with more grit and speed, which is what the team desparately needs.

Can the Wings go all the way?

Published
by
Christy Hammond
on April 8, 2006
in Opinion, Playoffs, Steve Yzerman and The Team
. 2 Comments

Can the Wings go all the way? Here’s a list of why the Wings could take it all and followed by a list of reasons why they won’t be able to win it.

Why the Wings could go all the way…
Personally, I believe this is the Wings’ year. I think that we’ve made enough changes since the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 playoff disasters to prevent an early round exit from happening. I’m really excited for playoffs to start because unlike last season, I really can see Detroit taking it. And that makes me very happy, but also very nervous. So why do I, Christy Hammond, have this much faith in my team?

In no particular order…
1. The Captain. Need I say more? It’s potentially his last year and I could think of nothing better than for Steve Yzerman to retire after a Cup win. Plus, Yzerman has been stepping up his game of late with 13 points in his last 10 games. According to IwoCPO @ Abel to Yzerman, it’s his longest ten game point streak since 2000. The Captain has a way to inspire his troops so if they see him blocking shots, scoring, and working hard, the rest seem to follow.

2. As James Mirtle pointed out, the team who is the hottest at the end of the regular season tends to perform pretty well in the playoffs (ex. Tampa Bay). And which team has the hottest record since the Olympic break? That’s right, Detroit.

3. Health. Now I realize that the Wings went from healthy for the most part to Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Schneider injuries. Datsyuk is supposed to return right before the playoffs. Zetterberg missed the second half of the Columbus game last night with an upper body injury (rumors: injury from a puck or the flu). Assuming that those three return in good health before the start of the playoffs, we have our core intact. Now if any of those three especially Zetterberg and Datsyuk remain injured, the rest of my points may just go out the window.

On the bright side, Niklas Kronwall is finally regaining normal form after a preseason injury resulted in knee surgery to repair his ACL and MCL.

4. Goaltending. Now don’t get me wrong, I am terrified of the goaltending we will face in the playoffs. It’s usually the opponent’s goalie that seems to screw the Wings over. However, I think that in Manny Legace and Chris Osgood we have good enough goaltenders to take us to the Finals. They certainly aren’t the best goalies in the league, but I’d rather have them than an unhealthy Dominik Hasek. Plus Manny is 5th in the league with a 2.22 GAA and 9th overall with a .912 save percentage.

5. Mike Babcock. I really believe that this guy deserves some recognition. Everyone gives credit to Carolina’s coach and Buffalo’s coach, but what about Babcock? Sure it doesn’t seem much has changed since the Wings are still at the top of the standings, but Babcock knows how to push all the right buttons.

Let’s take a look at Brendan Shanahan, for example. Under former head coach, Dave Lewis, Shanny notched 68 points in ‘02-03 and 53 points in ‘03-04. This season with 76 games under his belt, Shanny has 73 points with 10 more goals AND 10 more assists than last season. Personally, I believe Babcock is the one to thank for giving Shanny a chance and opportunity to improve.

6. Winter Olympics. After the ‘98 and ‘02 Winter Olympics, the Wings took it all. What’s to say it won’t happen again this year? The Swedish Five would have one pretty sweet year, that’s for sure.

Random Piece of Trivia: Did you know that “The last 18-year-old to score as many points as [Sidney] Crosby has this season was Steve Yzerman, who had 87 in 1983-84.” I read that out of the Sports Illustrated Players NHL Poll (on page 30 for those of you who subscribe). SI asked 346 NHL players, “Will Penguins rookie center Sidney Crosby end up being one of the 10 best players of all time?” 49.5% said no, 40.5% said yes, and 10% said they weren’t sure.