Posts filed under “The Team”

On Last-Minute Goals Against

Posted by on — No comments

We were with non-Wingnut family during the game yesterday so we only caught the last few minutes.

It was enough to see Joakim Andersson nearly stop the tying goal from behind Jimmy Howard. My initial reaction to the replay was of course disappointment that the break had gone the Kings’ way. Then it hit me: “why was Andersson out there?”

I’ve checked the play-by-play and there wasn’t a faceoff that I forgot about. Andersson was sent over the boards at 18:45 in live play, closing in on the final minute of a one-goal game. He was replacing Valtteri Filppula and joining Abdelkader and Miller, who had already been out there 43 seconds by that point. The Kings were pressing.

This is a kid with 7 NHL games under his belt. A good kid, who has done pretty well for himself with the Griffins. But not a kid who has any business being on the ice in the final minute of a one-goal game.

Guys like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg had been off the ice for nearly 1:20 at that point. That’s who you send out if you can manage a one-player swap when the opposition is pressuring.

These are the moments where I don’t understand Mike Babcock. I understand his interest in testing people in higher pressure situations, which is why you put Brian Lashoff on the penalty kill pretty much right off the bat after he gets called up. But the final minute of a one-goal game is when you put out guys that can hack it. It’s not the time to test a rookie.

That Jonathan Ericsson won the game with a trickle-through with 4 seconds left does not validate this strategy. That’s just luck.

Thank You, Homer

Posted by on — No comments

By now, you have to have seen the Tomas Holmstrom retirement presser. If not, here it is. It’s definitely the best of the recent Red Wings retirement press conferences.

It’s just not going to be the same without Homer around. I consider him to be one of the most important Wings of his era, despite the fact that he wasn’t a great skater or of much value on the defensive side of the puck. He was the focal point of the offense for years and we’ll be talking about who will be replacing him on the power play for years, I’m sure. It won’t happen, but I would not argue if his number were to be retired.

Because nobody’s going to come close to what he did every night. No one will be able to match the commitment and tolerance level he showed out front. Nicklas Lidstrom wasn’t the only once-in-a-generation player the Wings have lost to retirement, even if he was on a whole other level. I wonder if Homer was able to have such an unemotional presser because he truly knows he left it all on the ice.

Thank you a great career, Homer—good luck going forward!

1/20 Injury Update

Posted by on — No comments

Correction (9:31 PM): Per Chuck Pleiness, Ericsson’s injury is from practice, not the game, and Gustavsson’s injury is more of a typical early-season thing for him. - Matt

Ansar Khan has info on injuries from last night that go beyond Jan Mursak’s shoulder: Jonathan Ericsson and Jonas Gustavsson both suffered injuries of their own.

Gustavsson has a sore groin and is out two games. Thomas McCollum has been recalled. I hope that’s simply as a goaltender bench ornament because probably falls short of his potential even in charting faceoffs. Here’s hoping Jimmy doesn’t pull his groin, too.

This kind of thing is bound to happen with the short camp and non-existent pre-season. Another thing to thank the Lockout for.

Meanwhile, Jonny stepped on a puck, fell into the boards and tweaked his shoulder. Can’t blame that on the Lockout; that’s just Jonny. He calls himself questionable for the game tomorrow.

On the plus side, Jakub Kindl declared himself ready to go if necessary, though how true that is of course does not depend on him. The Wings may just have Jonny suck it up.

Khan does have an update on the result of Jan Mursak’s trip into the boards courtesy of David “Hit-In-The” Backes: it could have him out for a few weeks.

That opens up a spot for Patrick Eaves, who hasn’t played since November 2011, which is great for Patrick, but not so much for fans hoping for a Gustav Nyquist or Tomas Tatar recall.

One Swede Steps Forward, Another Recedes

Posted by on — No comments

Reports by Captain Obvious masquerading as various Detroit media personalities indicate that Henrik Zetterberg will be the next captain and that Tomas Holmstrom will retire.

Z getting the C has been the assumption since Lidstrom retired months ago. Still, it’s nice to get this semi-official (but unsourced) confirmation, even if it’s a reminder of strangeness of two formerly embattled sides coming back together like nothing happened. Congrats, though, Hank. Lead on!

As for Holmstrom, it’ll be a sad day for the organization when the official announcement is made. I’ll always consider him to have been a major cog in the Big Red Machine and a key to its success over the years. He’s been the point of the spear for so long, even if he’d gotten a little duller recently, so his absence will be felt. Formal goodbyes to come when the day comes, Tomas.

Fortunately, Mike Babcock and Co. have had a lot of time to prepare for this.

By the way, anyone notice anything mission from the media reports on these two stories? Nothing about anonymous sources in the organization…just reported as fact. A little different.

Wings Finally Finalize Deals With Abdelkader, Colaiacovo

Posted by on — One comment

Update (10:56 AM): Khan has the cap hit for Abdelkader at $1.8 million and has the payout breakdown, too. - Matt

Per team releases, the Wings have finally signed Justin Abdelkdader and Carlo Colaiacovo.

Justin gets four years and maybe $1.7 million a season, and Carlo gets two years and $5 million total.

I’m not totally sure I would have given Abdelkader four years, or that salary. But maybe he’ll up his game to match it.

As for Colaiacovo, it’s far from exciting, even if he turns out to be better than expected. We’ll see just how much he shores up the defense, I guess.

I am concerned what this means for Jakub Kindl. He’s gotten off to a disappointingly slow start to his NHL career, but you see some flashes of promise here and there. But this makes him the 7th defenseman, essentially, because you know Brendan Smith won’t be last on the depth chart no matter what. As I suggested the other day, Colaiacovo is Kindl’s new Commodore. Beat him out, Jakub.

On Breaking New Ground in Holland Criticism. Or Not.

Posted by on — 9 comments

I only just today got around to reading this Thursday post by Graham at Winging It In Motown.

I’ll give it this much: it comes at Ken Holland from a novel angle, at least. There’s a little flak fired off for inaction this summer, to be sure. But the main concentration of fan shell airbursts centers on suggesting that Holland should have found an opportunity to uncover and draft a player capable of replacing a once-in-League-history talent in Nick Lidstrom.

So, basically, he should have drafted Ryan Suter, Drew Doughty or some other similarly talented young defenseman that, you know, got drafted by teams closer to first in the draft order than the Wings. Or, apparently, a player who conveniently (miraculously) was ready to make the leap to top pairing minutes in the NHL the day Lidstrom hung them up.

Graham freely admits that doing this was hampered by the Wings constantly finishing high in the standings, so it’s unclear how exactly Holland was supposed to accomplish it. Maybe he should have magically traded up?

I don’t know. I’m not going to pretend this is the outcome I was hoping for (Suter being that). But every new post claiming this off-season is The One for Holland to just prove he’s the best in the business (usually accompanied by contradictory claims that the author already believes he is—just prove it again, okay, Kenny?) is really just another in a long line of calls for him to wave a wand that he does not have.

I more or less went over this yesterday. No amount of demanding Ken Holland prove himself is going to make this list any better. No amount of claiming Holland can’t coast along on past accomplishments makes the trade market light up. Now no matter how much second-guessing there is about the Wings’ draft strategy over the years, it doesn’t change the fact that other teams had first dibs on the top talent.

Was Brendan Smith not drafted with an eye to this day? But we’re to the point even Smith isn’t good enough.

I too would love to see “something that will knock our socks off”. But if we don’t get that, it does not itself demonstrate that Ken Holland has lost it.

On Missing Out On Everybody

Posted by on — 4 comments

Yesterday, Alexander Semin signed a one year, $7 million deal with Carolina, dealing the Wings yet another free agent loss. Except they never really wanted him, so that’s debatable. Can you lose a fight for a guy you didn’t want? I guess it’s a loss if you were a fan clinging to the thought of Alexander Semin coasting in Red and White.

Then last night, the story broke that Shane Doan has been priced out of the Wings’ market by Eastern Conference teams going all out. One team supposedly offered him four years and a cap hit of $7.5 million a season. This is, mind you, for a guy who has cracked 30 goals exactly twice and who made $4.55 million last year. The Wings were looking at something like 3 years, $5 million per.

Not a paycheck that would make Shane Doan the highest paid forward on a team with Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk (Update: … who are well underpaid. But even if they were making whatever they’d earn if given a new contract today, $7.5 million for a player of Doan’s lesser calibre would be overpayment).

Yeah, you may say, the Wings have neither the met needs nor the lack of cap space to afford to be picky. I get that. There’s no denying that it is very frustrating to see desirable player after desirable player go elsewhere.

But let’s consider some of the history of this off-season.

You’ve got the Parise/Suter situation, where Parise was only ever considering New Jersey and Minnesota, and Suter was this close to signing with the Wings. If Suter doesn’t leave it all up Parise to push him over the edge to Minnesota, it’s probable he signs here, mitigating much of the anxiety now circulating Hockeytown’s citizenry. The Wings failed to land either guy, but not for lack of trying. Mike Ilitch doesn’t show up at a player’s front door every day.

Then we had the Weber situation. The Wings talked to the Predators about a trade as well as to his camp. Weber made it clear he wasn’t interested in Detroit. If he had been interested, they would have considered doing what the Flyers did. That would have meant an automatic match by Nashville, but the important thing to Ken Holland’s critics is that he appear to be going through the motions to their satisfaction.

On the trade front, there was Rick Nash. But the Wings had no way of trading with a Columbus team that flatly refused to deal with them.

Yesterday, they officially missed on Semin, a player who may have admittedly been an asset for this team, but one who stood a decent chance of becoming a big source of frustration. However overblown his poor reputation may or may not be, I can’t think he and Mike Babcock would have seen eye-to-eye. I wonder if the Wings maybe considered that?

As for Doan, at a reasonable price (read: not $7.5 million), he would be a strong addition. I hate the guy, but he would add something to this team. The Wings, however, don’t need to be getting tied into a guaranteed four-year cap hit of $7.5 million with an over-35 player. Not with Filppula and Howard up in one year, Datsyuk up in two years and a possible cap reduction coming.

It’s time to recognize that this isn’t about Ken Holland losing his touch or losing interest or losing sight of the situation or whatever. It’s about a League that is more competitive than ever, both on the ice and in the financial ledger. And this market sucks.

There are still options out there, such as Bobby Ryan or Keith Yandle. Not the first choice of a lot of people (except maybe in the case of Ryan), but that’s the situation.