What the hell was that?  How are you going to blow a 5-2 lead like that?  I was seriously thinking until about halfway through the third period:

“They’re not playing too bad, this is more like what I’m expecting out of this team”

Let’s talk about the first 80% of the game.  Detroit didn’t look too bad.  They had a little bit of secondary scoring out of McCarty.  Franzen netted one from Hudler and Samuelsson.  Osgood looked alright

And then, the shit.

Datsyuk falls apart, forgets that there’s 12 minutes of hockey left - whoops, make that 17.  Even lidstrom looked shaky during the end there.  Penalties, traffic in front of the net.  Horrible.  Simply horrible.

Alright, so I’m not sure how to solve these defensive problems we’ve been having, but they’ve been across the board.  You wouldn’t know it from the record but this is ugly.

A few immediate concerns:

1. I gave Dan Cleary a hard time but he did have blurry vision in one eye a litle while back and it clearly hasn’t gotten better since he’s scratched with an “eye infection.” In order for the team to do well, they need reasonable production out of guys like Cleary, Filpulla, Samuellson, and Hudler.  it’s just not happening consistently enough.
2. Zetterburg’s talent is being wasted.  He needs some time rotated onto the first line.  He need some time with either Datsyuk or Hossa.  Franzen is fine if you want to keep him next to Henrik, but rotate Datsyuk or Hossa into the spot occupied by Cleary/Filuplla/Hudler/Samuellson once in a while.  Just try it.  Jeez.  Switch up Homer and Franzen.  Juggle up that first line, do something, Henrik is getting the shaft

Did anyone else notice Kirk Maltby getting time on the second line during that last game vs. New Jersey?  Does that speak about how well he’s playing or how relatively unimpressive Dan Cleary and Mikael Samuelsson have been?

And how about Brett Lebda getting scratched again?  Well, that’s probably not as much in the mass hysteria category.  I wonder how much he was shopped around at the beginning of the year.  There’s a lot of teams that he could be a second liner on, but Detroit?  Not so much.

Quick recap of the rest of the Wings/Devis game:

1. 20 minute fight
2. Hossa is awesome
3. Stick save osgood
4. Hossa is awesome

So, I’m watching the Detroit - LA game on FSN Kings or whatever this is on center ice.  They’ve got these robotic cameras at the Staples Center and they make me feel like I’m actually there in the arena watching the game.

I feel like I’m sitting in really shitty seats and so drunk that I can’t move my head fast enough to focus on the play

The cameras are making this game borderline unwatchable.  There’s two cameras over each goaltender that only give you a good view when someone is in a corner.  When players are behind the net all you can see is the top of their heads.  Every view of the action is either from directly above or zoomed out so far that you can’t read the numbers on the back of the players’ jerseys… Let alone see the puck.  There’s also a camera over the glass at center ice that’s constantly behind the play because it’s being controlled remotely.  The fact that the cameras are clearly being controlled by someone watching a tiny screen on the other side of the stadium is made worse by the jerky robotic camera movements.

This is insanity.

So, with the 5-6 shootout win last night, we’re 8 games into the season.  I was hesitant to make any real decisions about how I felt about everyone’s play until we were a few games in but I think we’re about there so here goes.

I feel pretty good that they’ve been netting a lot of goals, but not so good that they’ve been giving a lot up as well.  I’m not really blaming either Conklin or Osgood - I think they’ve both played acceptably.  I think the team is getting out of them what they expect.  When you’ve got less than 1.5 million locked up in your goaltending and you’re getting what we’re getting out of these guys, I think you can’t not be happy.  Would it be nice to have a superstar goaltender?  sure - but I’d much rather be where we are than where a lot of teams with pricy fancy goaltenders are.  Chicago?  the Islanders?  No thanks.  I think if you rank “overall goaltending situations” instead of salaries and performance and everything else individually, Detroit’s near the top of the league.

Moving back to defense, I’m not impressed with the second defensive pairing’s play so far this year - especially Brad Stuart.  Are they just getting bad matchups?  Stuart is a -4 right now, I don’t think these guys are dominating quite as much as they did last year.  I’m a bit worried (just a tiny tiny bit) that we’re going to see more of the Brad Stuart that kings fans knew and loved.  Ok, he didn’t play horrible last night, but if things continue like they have, Babcock would do well to consider moving Lilja up to the second pairing with Kronwall.  Andreas has played pretty well this year.  I guess having your job on the line has that affect - well, sometimes.  Brett Lebda is a -7 right now.  Rotate Meech in a little more often, it definitely couldn’t hurt.

In the front, I’m warming up to Datsyuk and Zetterberg being split up.  Hossa is starting to get comfortable and we’re beginning to see some production with him.  On the second line, Franzen has had some mediocre shifts but generally has looked pretty good.  Samuelsson has settled into the second line during the past few games and he’s playing ok there.  It would be really nice if Filppula could fill that role on that line, but maybe he’s not quite there yet.  Unfortunately it looks like Franzen’s now going to be out a month because of last night’s knee sprain.  Dan Cleary will need to step up and play in Franzen’s spot; he’s shown he can do it but he can be streaky sometimes so it’ll be interesting to see how the line plays out in the next month.  The checking line with Draper, Maltby, and Kopecky has been alright I guess.  There were hopes that Kopecky could fill Dallas Drake’s shoes, but it’s not happening.  Maybe McCarty will be able to take on a little more of that role.

Speaking of Darren McCarty, he was put on and cleared waivers.  I was a little surprised by that.  I guess in the salary cap world teams are more adverse to taking on a risk like him.  It seems to me that a guy like him pulling in league minimum might not be a bad gamble.  There must not be a lot of teams hard up for a checking line forward.  What exactly does that mean anyway that he was put on waivers you ask?  If he plays less than 10 games or before 30 days is up, he can be sent down to grand rapids to free up cap space.  I’m not sure I understand the strategy since McCarty stayed with the Wings - maybe they were opening that option in case an emergency happened and they needed some space.  In any event, he remains with the organization.

Bruce said Lieno was called up but then backed off the claim.  Maybe we’ll get to see him once Franzen is put on long-term injured reserve (I hope).  I’ve been looking forward to seeing what the kid can do.  If he’s not called up and Helm is instead I won’t complain.  Darren played well in the two games he was called up for a week or two ago.

LA tomorrow.  Keep an eye out for Kyle Quincey.  If you go by stats alone, he’s outplaying Brett Lebda.

Some pre-game news from TSN, Kyle Quincey has been places on Waivers.  Kind of a bummer that Detroit couldn’t get at least a pick for him.  I’d be surprised if Tampa or Los Angeles don’t pick him up; we’ll find out Monday at noon.

Update: Quincey’s been picked up by the Kings.  I can’t say I’m surprised that he didn’t stay in Detroit long after the season started given all the talent on the Detroit blue line; what I am surprised about is that he was lost to waivers.  I guess Holland’s hand was forced since Detroit is so close to the cap and needed to move him so quickly.  Kyle did a great job two years ago when he was called up during the playoffs after Kronwall and Schneider were sidelined.  Not a bad free pickup for the Kings - and I’m sure Kyle will enjoy it out there

Well, my 401k was in the toilet today and I’ll most likely be spending my retirement years eating macaroni and cheese out of a box but it doesn’t matter because it’s HOCKEY SEASON AGAIN!!!!111ONE ONE ELEVEN

It’s kind of a bummer that they had to go and lose the first game of the season… Against a team that’s ranked at the bottom of the league… On the day that they raise their cup banner - but!  I guess it’s a good reminder that it’s a new season and the cup from last year is completely behind them now.

A few highlights from the evening:

• Almost having a heart attack watching a player with a “1” and an “8” on their jersey laying on the ice after taking a puck to the leg… Until I realized it was Kurt Maltby.  PHEW.  I was ready to write a scathing post about how giving some young guys an opportunity to play with Maltby on injured reserve wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but he did give Jason Blake a good shove during the second period while Blake was slashing at Osgood, so I’ll cut him some slack FOR NOW.
  
• Watching Jiri Hudler jump into the middle of every scrum on the ice.  Jiri’s something like four feet tall and he cracks me up every time he skates up to give a guy a facewash for shoving Zetterburg.  I love it.  They clearly have no use for Aaron Downey as long as Hudler is on the ice.
  
• Wondering why Mike Babcock insists on splitting up Datsyuk and Zetterburg, especially when we have Marian Hossa now.  I understand breaking up the best line to make it tougher for the competition to match, but Zetterburg+Datsyuk+Holmstrom and Hossa+Franzen+whoever are two pretty friggin tough lines.  Datsyuk and Zetterburg play well together.  Put them together.  Please.
  
• Watching Osgood score an assist on that first Toronto goal.
  
• The Def Leppard pre-game show.  Those guys look older than Ted Lindsay.  Maybe it was ironic.
  

Holmstrom looked good with his two goals, he’s clearly healthy again.  I think Cleary played well too.  Our gang of superstar forwards all had one or two moments but no one really stood out.  Hossa had an opportunity to get the first goal of the season early on but couldn’t connect.  That would have been a nice story.  Had it happened.  Instead of a LOSS.  Did you see Ron Wilson and the rest of the coaching staff after the game?  They looked like they’d just won the stanley cup OMG #$@^%

Anyway

Check out this article in Maxim about why you should care about the NHL this year.  Reason number one made me feel better.  Did they use the “D” word?

Update:

Bruce shows why he’s a better blogger than me and points out the turnovers that I forgot to mention.

Looks like the king of Sweden visited Detroit recently and got a chance to meet some of the Red Wings finest.

Franzen’s mom is going to be SO JEALOU - or, wait, not her, she already met him.  His other relatives though.  SO JEALOUS.

the 2008 preseason that is, tomorrow against the Habs.  I’d love to provide some hard-hitting analysis on who’s shining in training camp and who’s likely to emerge as filling spots those last few lines, but all that seems to be happening about a million miles away.  I’m probably not the most qualified to make those calls right now since I haven’t seen much of the action happening in Traverse City.  I can tell you this though, I couldn’t be more excited about the news I’ve read coming out of training camp

The red wings have depth.  I’m serious.  depth. You thought they they looked good last year?  If they can stay healthy, they’re going to dominate this year. dominate.

Some of the stories nick can’t wait to watch play out

The goaltending - Bruce says

Forget about outplaying Ty Conklin.  Jimmy Howard hasn’t outplayed Daniel Larsson ... and that’s a compliment to Larsson, not a slam on Howard. The Swedish netminder has come to camp ready and looks very strong. He’s an excellent position netminder, who looks much better than a No. 2 AHL goalie.

What? Since when do the wings have promising goalie prospects?  Where did this Larsson guy come from anyway?  Anyone else getting the feeling that there’s something in the Detroit drinking water that turns Swedes into superstars?  Wait - I’m getting ahead of myself, but I will say this - I’m looking forward to seeing the guy play.

The Defense -

Ken Holland has pretty much said “we’re trading a defenseman shortly after the preseason.” Where did he say that?  I dunno, it’s quoted in pretty much anywhere anyone has written an article about detroit’s defense.  I’m too lazy to look it up right now, but are you surprised?  Lidstrom-Rafalski and Stuart-Kronwall are given.  That leaves Chelios, Meech, Lilja, Quincey, Lebda, and Ericsson fighting for a 3rd defensive pairing spot.  A lot of people like to hate on Lilja, but I don’t think he’s that horrible.  He had a bad turnover against the Ducks during the playoffs a few years ago that he’ll never live down.  Ericsson is staying, Chelios is staying.  You other four?  One or two of you are gone.  Hope you haven’t been slacking off during the offseason.  Based on performance last year, I predict Lebda and Quincey are the most at risk.  Meech proved himself capable when he had to step up and play big minutes during the rash of injuries last year.  Lilja?  He’s fine as long as you don’t ask him to play top-4 minutes.

The Offense -

Another glut of talent.  Can Franzen keep up playing like he started to last year?  That was Conn Smythe performance until he got injured during the playoffs.  How awesome is Marian Hossa going to be?  Super awesome?  or just merely really awesome?  And what about all those guys fighting for those last roster spots? Abdelkader? Downey? McCarty? Helm? Leino? Where did that Leino guy come from anyway? There’s just too much going on here, I could write ten pages.  Detroit could fill two teams.

I can’t wait.

Joe Kocur was on the last episode of This American Life talking about a fight with Jim Kyte and pitching his and Bob Probert’s new book The Bruise Brothers.  The Prolog (and the rest of the radio show) is pretty good and worth a listen.  There’s an article about the book over on canada.com

In addition to talking about his problems with alcohol and drugs, Probert also provided an interesting perspective on his time in prison in Minnesota. After providing protection for so many teammates over the years on the ice, Probert benefited from having well-known Detroit mob boss Jack Giacalone as a fan who made sure the prison thugs didn’t try to find out how tough the Lakeshore resident really was.

While Kocur said his style was to take a few shots if necessary to get control of a fight and then land a bomb, Probert was a windmill of flying fists.

Hilarious.

from A2Y courtesy of LGW The picture we’ve all been waiting for.

It’s August and there’s not much hockey news to report on, especially in Detroit.  Anyone interested in a trip down memory lane?

Remember....

Mathieu Schneider?

Schneider Schneider Schneider.  What were you thinking?  Why didn’t you buy into the system?  Did you honestly think that the Ducks had a better chance than the Wings?  We’re grateful that your departure led to the signing of Brian Rafalski, but man, that’s got to hurt knowing you coulda been lifting the cup this year.  Especially since your fans in California don’t seem too excited in having you back.  Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll trade you to to the Kings where you’ll be able to take an early vacation when you miss the postseason.

Todd Bertuzzi?

Todd Todd Todd.  Thank you for not buying into the system.  I don’t hate you because of the Moore incident, it’s because you’re overrated and kind of a bum.  No picture - seeing Todd Bertuzzi in a red wings uniform makes me kind of nauseous.

Robert Lang?

Oh, Robert Lang.  How I miss watching you float around the ice like you’re half asleep.  this guy thinks you’re as good as Mats Sundin.  That’s pretty funny.

lolercoaster

Danny Markov?

I don’t think Danny cares he missed out on the cup.  He strikes me as a bit of a mercenary.  Markov’s played on like 10 hockey teams in the past ten years.  A google search turned up the picture that Carolina had taken at Sears after they acquired him from Phoenix

Kyle Calder?

What?  You don’t remember Kyle Calder?  He probably wasn’t even offered a deal after sucking it up off the floor in Detroit.  He’s playing spectacular in LA too.  I came across this when looking for pictures of him on google.  I’m can’t say I’m surprised

The Conklin signing and 2008-09 goaltending situation has been (I think) a bit overshadowed by the Hossa signing.  Let’s take a look at where we stand…

What needs to be said about Chris Osgood?  The starter role is his to lose.  Ozzy went 27-9-4 during the regular season with a .914 save percentage, during the playoffs he was a phenomenal 14-4 with a .930 save percentage.  There’s a lot of opposing team fans out there who don’t like to give Ozzy much credit, but the numbers speak for themselves.  Chris Osgood has proven that he can back this team up to a championship, and barring an injury or Hasek-like performance in 2009, it’s fairly certain that we know who our starter is going to be.  The real story of the 2008 preseason is who will be backing him up…

It’s probably fair to say that there’s been hopes in Detroit that Jimmy Howard would be the next Chris Osgood - He doesn’t need to be the next Roberto Luongo, no one expects him to be.  If he can pull average to slightly better than average numbers, no one will complain.  I had the opportunity to catch Howard’s first NHL start (and what TSN is telling me is his only NHL win) at the Staples Center in LA back in Nov 2005; he played well back then, and I think that despite his record, he’s played fairly when when he’s been called up (.926 save percentage on the wings last year).  Because we’ve been fairly solid in the goaltending department the past few years, Howard hasn’t had an opportunity to get a good shot at a more permanent backup role on the Wings.  This could be his year, but unless Conklin comes out with an Edmonton-esque showing (more on that later), expect to see Howard in wearing a Griffins jersey for most of the 2008-09 season.  He can still be sent down to Grand Rapids without having to worry about getting picked up by someone else on waivers, so even if a Conklin/Osgood pairing are tearing it up in the NHL, I’d still expect to see Howard play a few games in a Wings jersey.  If he plays well, no doubt he’ll have a more permanent role in 2009-10.

Ty Conklin is an enigma.  There were a lot of claims that he was a steal at 700k when he signed, and I don’t necessarily disagree that it was a great signing by Detroit - I’m just going to take a wait and see approach.  Ty had a great year in Pittsburgh last year - a great year.  He also had a bad year in Edmonton in 2005-06 - a bad year.  I emailed the guys at the pensblog to get a Pittsburgh opinion on him.  Justin offered this up:

Conk was a solid backup who stepped up big when Fleury went down. We figured he’d move in the off-season to a team where he could see more time and maybe win the starting role. Which with Chris Nogood between the pipes, is probably likely.

Makes sense, although I’m not sure who that Chris Nogood guy is.  I also emailed the some Oilers bloggers to get some Edmonton opinions, they were a bit milder than I thought they’d be.  Mike from Covered in Oil offered this:

Oilers fans have mixed feelings about Conklin, as throughout the 2006 neither he nor Jussi Markkanen could get the job done as a number one goalie, and he is mostly remembered for his horrendous late-game blunder in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals when he filled in for an injured Dwayne Roloson.

I honestly thought we had seen the last of him in the NHL, as his Save Percentage was well south of what even a backup should have been. Last I remember, he had a tendency to overplay the shooter and has difficulty controlling his lateral movement. But then again, he completely rebounded last year with Pittsburgh so maybe his game has changed. It’s basically the last thing I ever expected.

Otherwise, he’s apparently a super-nice guy and great teammate, which is always a good thing for a backup goalie.

And Andy from Battle of Alberta offered this when I asked him if Edmonton would welcome him back.

Oh, definitely not. Conklin wasn’t a very liked man in Edmonton after this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKrDzJdgrsU&feature=related

That goal, in fact, pretty much sums up everything there is to say about Conklin’s time in Edmonton. Deserving or not, most Oilers fans think that play cost their team the Stanley Cup in 2006. Dude was dead man walking after that one.

He did go on to say, however, that he though that Conklin was a good deal for the price and that everyone in Edmonton was completely stunned by his performance last year.  I’d actually be surprised to see him return to his Edmonton form, there’s less pressure on him and in front of him than what he had when he was battling Markkanen for the starter role.  I think he’ll be able to get the job done.

Detroit’s shown the ability to get the job done without dropping tons of cash on goalies like Roberto Luongo - look how well that’s working out for Vancouver anyway.  I think we’re probably in a better position than we were last year given our previous starter’s age and history of groin problems.  I’m looking forward to seeing how things shake out

Scotty Bowman moves to a senior advisor position with the Hawks.

Scotty Bowman

this isn’t supposed to be how it works.  Detroit’s supposed to poach ex-blackhawk talent (Chelios, Hasek).  Chicago is supposed to get our leftovers that we don’t want any more (Lang, Williams).  It’s the natural order of things.

In all seriousness though, I wish Scotty the best of luck.  His son is working over there somewhere and Rocky Wirtz is building quite an organization.  The Blackhawks look like a pretty exciting team to be around for the first time in… forever - and it’s nice to see our division not sucking any more.  It will only make beating the Blackhawks that much more satisfying.

Bowman’s been around - I can’t say I’m surprised he’s moved on after some great years with Detroit.  The only thing that really pisses me off?  Toronto couldn’t get their shit together and pull Bowman out of our conference.

Detroit has finally inked Valtteri Filppula to a deal, $15 million over the course of 5 years.  I haven’t seen a lot of details, but assuming it’s a straight $3 million a year, I think it’s a pretty good deal.

Valtteri is coming off a solid 36 point season and a pretty respectable showing in the playoffs as well.  His game really developed this year; he was a lot more confident than he was during his rookie season, and really has nowhere to go but up.  Mirtle dug up some Holland quotes and builds a connection to where Zetterburg was a few years ago.  I see more of a connection to Datsyuk myself.  Valtteri at times shows flashes of brilliance that are indistinguishable from some of the moves that Pavel makes… Well, almost indistinguishable - Pavel is a little better at hitting the net, but I’ll cut him some slack.  He did just finish only his second season in the NHL.

Alright, let me back up for a minute.  I’m a big Filppula fan, but I’ll admit he’s probably not going to challenge anyone for scoring titles during the season.  He will, however, grow into a pretty damn good centerman with both solid offensive and defensive abilities.  He fits into the Wings system perfectly - and even if he does level off at 50 or 60 points a season, he’ll still be a steal at $3 million a year.

You know what the best thing about this signing is though?  What is says about the Wings organization.  Val signed for the distance at what likely will be a discount because he he wants to play in Detroit. Five years at 3 million?  He could have gotten a shorter deal, worked his ass off the next few years and then cashed in with the wings or (more likely) somewhere else.  The city of Detroit doesn’t have a lot of positive reputations, but it can easily claim that it’s one of the best cities in the National Hockey League to play hockey in.

While doing a little bit of research on what our roster might look like for next year, I noticed that Mark Hartigan has signed with the KHL. I was looking for his stats to defend a claim that he wouldn’t be back, but it looks like Mark anticipated my blog post and defected.

You might remember Hartigan as that guy who wasn’t very good, who replaced that other guy Matt Ellis who wasn’t very good, and then was later himself replaced by Darren Helm.

Anyway, the KHL continues it’s march toward poaching all of the AHL’s 2nd liners, and don’t you feel stupid for buying that Hartigan jersey last year?