Detroit Red Wings Blog Posts

Inter-League Game Could Spell Bad News for NHL

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:06:34 EDT

Could an exhibition game really give bad publicity to a major North-American sports league?

The NHL has constantly been trying to show that their league is the best to the public all over the world. For the past few seasons, the league has sent four of their teams overseas to play in places such as Germany, Sweden and England. The teams usually open the NHL regular season a week early, playing two games in the country that they were designated. This season the league has decided to send the St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings to Sweden, and the Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers to Finland. Not only are these teams playing each other, but they will see time against some of the best teams of the chosen nation in pre-season play.

Why is this a possible threat to the league? The NHL holds themselves as the greatest hockey league in the world with the most powerful teams and the best players. There is almost no way of disputing that prestigious honor as long as the teams are playing against each other all the time and do not allow any outside teams to jeopardize that point. Allowing other teams from other leagues could harm the reputation of the NHL.

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Its Not Going to be Easy

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:27:56 EDT

The Detroit Red Wings, who just so happen to be the reigning Central Division Champions for the past eight seasons, might find it very tough to nine-peat this season.

The Red Wings are still considered by many to be the top team in the Central Division in 2009-10. With Pavel Datsyuk playing some of the smartest hockey in the league, Henrik Zetterberg putting pucks in the net more often than not and Nicklas Lidstrom stonewalling forwards more than his goaltender, the Red Wings will put yet another powerful product on the ice. But in order to retain these all-stars, the Red Wings have had to see their depth take a nosedive.

The Red Wings have had a very inactive off-season, which is not a big surprise to the rest of the league. GM Ken Holland did everything he could to keep his offensive firepower in tact throughout last season, signing Zetterberg to a 12-year, $73 million contract and workhorse Johan Franzen to a 11-year, $43.5 million deal. Both deals face a relatively large cap hit with Zetterberg's hit being around $6 million and Franzen being about $3.95 million. When adding in the large contracts of Datsyuk, Lidstrom and Rafalski, the team could simply not hold on to their unrestricted free-agents.

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Hossa wants bad luck to come to an end

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:54:47 EDT

The Chicago Blackhawks were probably the busiest team when NHL free agency opened and made the biggest splash when they signed Marian Hossa to an incredible 12-year $62.8m deal.

Hossa will be on his third team in three seasons and the Blackhawks have to hope he brings the best of his game from Detroit to the table this coming season or they could have just paid a lot of money for not a lot of product.

And they also have to pray that he does not complete an unwanted hat-trick having been on the losing sides in both of the last two Stanley Cup finals series, first after being traded to Pittsburgh in 2008 and then after signing with the Red Wings, losing to his former club a couple of months ago.

Hossa has been called a renegade in recent years, and the Penguins found it particularly sweet when they took him down in their Stanley Cup success, but this time Hossa finds himself in a different role – an old guy on a really young team.

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AARWICH PRIDICTIONS REVISED July 14th 2009

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:51:42 EDT

*revised

May 1st, 2009

The Detroit Tigers will:

win the Central Devision
record = 92-70
loose to the Red Sox in the ALCS
* watch Inge finish w/ 40 hr's & a .289 avg
* watch Thames hit 12 homers after the ASB
* watch Granderson steal 27 bases after the ASB
* watch Verlander finish w/ 21 wins & 281 K's

June 1st, 2009

The Detroit Pistons will:

draft Earl Clark (Austin Daye if Clark's gone)
release 'Sheed, Dyess & AI
sign Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva & Brandon Bass
trade Rip/Tay in a 3-way trade for

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Blues Sign Ty Conklin to 2-Year 26 Million Contract

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:55:28 EDT

Blues fans have been asking about a back-up goalie for starter Chris Mason. Ask and ye shall receive.

The Blues got a fantastic run out of starter Chris Mason last season, as he was the driving force for the Blues' run to the playoffs. The Blues sent former starter Manny Legace to Peoria of the AHL in February, which left the back-up role a question mark. Until now.

Ty Conklin, a 33-year old out of Alaska, was back-up to the Detroit Red Wings last season. He witnessed his starter Chris Osgood have an up and down season, seeing many spot starts and extended starts. His final record on the season was 25-11-2 with a .910 save percentage. Conklin has seen time with Edmonton, Columbus, Buffalo Pittsburgh and Detroit.

While the Blues did answer their question of who will back-up Mason, this was not the best back-up available in the free-agency market. Scott Clemmensen, a very capable NHL goaltender who stood in for Martin Brodeur last season, was available. He is coming off of a 25-13-1 season, accompanied with a .917 save percentage.

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Detroit Red Wings say Bye bye to Chris Chelios

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:51:21 EDT

The Detroit Red Wings announced that they would not be offering 47 year old D-Man Chris Chelios a new contract, ending his run with that team.

Watching Chelios in the last couple of years was amazing, here is a guy, virtually my age, banging away with the best and the youngest of them in the NHL. I am sure that, if he wanted to, he could find a slot on another team, but should he? I think no.

Chelios has a chance to go out virtually on top. While the Wings did not win the Stanley Cup this year, he still played a decent number of minutes and proved what a person could do when motivated and driven to stay in shape. He is an inspiration to not just athletes, but to anyone approaching or just past middle-age who thinks getting out of the bed in the morning counts as a sit-up.

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NHL Finals Recap and Award Predictions

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:56:41 EDT

The NHL season hasn’t even been over for a week and I already miss it. I have a fever and the only cure is more blaring goal horns. This season left a much better taste in my mouth than the previous one because not only did the Blues make it back to the postseason, their biggest rival didn’t win the postseason. The Red Wings had everything going their way. There hadn’t been a home team that had lost a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in 38 years. The road team hasn’t won a championship in a Game 7 in any professional sport since the Pirates did it back in 1979. So Detroit took that fact and dominated the first period. Pittsburgh outshot the Wings 10-6 in the first, but it didn’t feel that way watching it. But then Detroit let them off the hook.

With no score after one frame, Pittsburgh had taken hold of the momentum. They got a turnover deep in the Wings’ zone in the first and a helpful bounce to take a 1-0 lead. Maxime Talbot was the culprit picking up his third goal of the finals. Just under nine minutes later, the Pens got an odd-man rush and Talbot struck again, firing a laser past Chris Osgood. It was a nice shot, but Osgood could’ve had it. If he stops that, it’s a completely different game. The Wings’ fans were still in the game after getting down 2-0, so staying within one likely would’ve allowed them to come back and win it. After all, they did manage to beat Marc-Andre Fleury once. Speaking of Fleury, he was a superhero for the Penguins in the third period, especially over the last two minutes. The diving save he made with about four seconds left was nearly as miraculous as Santonio Holmes’ catch to win Super Bowl XLIII. What a way to win the Stanley Cup. The Steelers got their rings last week, by the way. They weigh nearly a quarter of a pound. Now that’s some bling!

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Wings Suffer Crushing Blow in Game Seven

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:50:12 EDT

The agony of defeat!

After a serious battle in which the home team dominated play in every game but the last in the series, the Detroit Red Wings fell to the Pittsburg Penguins 2-1 in the final NHL game of the year. Pittsburgh was obviously hungry for the Cup, and they played a great game and a great series to win it!

Suffering from a number of injuries, the Wings just couldn't pull it off - although it actually came down to the last few seconds of the game, as Detroit continued to put pressure on Fleury right up until the end. Detroit was exhausted by the end of the series and was running on fumes. A lack of goals from a number of key offensive players, combined with Pittsburgh's stifling defense sealed their fate as the final seconds ticked off the timeclock. It's amazing that after well over 100 games, it can all come down to a few seconds in time.

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Hossa Perfect Fit for Islanders

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:18:10 EDT

"It was a really tough decision for me to make," forward Marian Hossa stated last July. "When I compared the two teams, I felt like I would have a little better of a chance to win the Cup in Detroit."

How wrong he was.

Marian Hossa watched as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman handed the Stanley Cup off to Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sydney Crosby Friday night from the Detroit locker room. Just one year ago, Hossa watched from the Pittsburgh locker room as Bettman handed the Cup to Red Wings' captain Nicklas Lidstrom. To Pittsburgh fans, this was the sweet irony that they had wanted since Hossa rejected an offer from Penguins' management last summer to play with the Red Wings. To Red Wings fans, it was all about the anger of Hossa's poor effort and lack of goal scoring in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals.

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Penguins win at home to force Stanley Cup Finals Game 7

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:59:58 EDT

The Pittsburgh Penguins squeaked by the Detroit Red Wings by a single goal to take Game 6 by a score of 2-1 on their home ice. As has been the precedent, the team having home ice advantage has taken every game so far in this too-close-to-call series. The Red Wings will be glad to come back to play Game 7 at Joe Louis arena where they rarely lose. They have an 11-1 record so far this year on home ice in the playoffs - and have outscored Pittsburgh 11-2 so far at home in this series.

After suffering a devastating 5-0 loss at the Joe in Game 5, Marc-Andre Fleury rebounded in typical fashion, playing some stellar hockey. He stopped 26 shots in the game and fought off some quality scoring chances late in the third period. The only goal he let in was that of Kris Draper in the second period, after Detroit had gone down by a two goal deficit. Chris Osgood was also excellent on the other end of the ice, stopping some key shots by Pittsburgh's dangerous offensive machine and finishing with 31 saves overall.

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