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NHL Returns

Mar 1

Posted by EB in News | No Comments

Fantasy owners don’t forget to put in your players as the NHL schedule returns tonight as the Detroit Red Wings take the ice against the Colorado Avalanche.

Colorado is tied for first place within the Northwest division and the Red Wings look to catapult to the 8th seed within the Western Conference.

The teams, and the NHL, will take a week to get back into full swing but once they do, prepare for playoff like hockey as both Conferences are close and everyone wants a shot at this year’s Stanley Cup Champion title.

On another note, the trade deadline is only a few days away. HWB will do their best to keep you informed of trades, extensions and signings of all sorts.

Check back often and welcome back to action NHL.

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My Time At The Camp Randall Classic

Feb 9

Posted by Eddie in News | 3 Comments

Over the weekend I had the pleasure to embark on a “Guy’s Weekend” as I traveled to Madison, Wisconsin to attend the Michigan-Wisconsin hockey game dubbed the Culver’s Camp Randall Classic.

This was my view from my seat at Camp Randall. We were originally located near the giant tunnel on the right in the first row of people but we moved to enjoy a better view.

This was my view from my seat at Camp Randall. We were originally located near the giant tunnel on the right in the first row of people but we moved to enjoy a better view.

I had a great time experiencing a Big Ten college town, with all the features that come with it such as bars, restaurants, and people supporting their team.

My friends and I had no problems in terms of weather on the drive there. It snowed a little while passing through Chicago but nothing too severe. We arrived in Madison around 8:00. After some relaxing and getting a few necessary party supplies, we ventured out in our Michigan jerseys and sweatshirts as we went to check out the nightlife that Madison had to offer.

We encountered some playful heckling from the Wisconsin fans but we did take over the second floor of a bar with a rendition of Hail to the Victors with other pockets of Michigan fans. I also had the pleasure of hanging out with an alumni of my college (Ferris State) and saw three other Bulldog alumni that live in Madison. So my night went pretty good and made me more excited to attend the game Saturday afternoon.

When game day arrived Saturday, we decided to bar crawl around the State Street bars prior to the game. We eventually settled at State Street Brats, which is one of the best college-town sports bars in America from what I’ve heard and the plaques on the wall said. The food there was very good, as well as some of the local Wisconsin brews they had on tap.

The action at Camp Randall began with the Wisconsin women’s team taking on Bemidji State. The Badgers lit the lamp a lot as they won 6-1. I heard the goal horn several times as I was walking outside Camp Randall taking pictures and walking around.

Then, just as sunset occured, 55,000 fans packed themselves onto the lower bowl of Camp Randall, the men’s game was played. Before the game, there was a flyover of fighter jets. It was one of the first times I got to experience a flyover in person. It was pretty awesome!

My friends and I had tickets in Section A, row 21. If you look at the photo above, row 21 was among the first rows of people you see that’s closest to the ice. We were near the Zamboni entrance, by where Michigan entered the ice. We didn’t have that good of a view as we could only see from the waist-up of Michigan goalie Bryan Hogan. We couldn’t even see the first Wisconsin goal scored by Jordy Murray at the 3:04 mark of the first period.

During the first TV-timeout, we decided to “seek higher ground” to the place that wasn’t full: by the scoreboard on the other side of the stadium. The view was amazing, with the crowd in front of me and the Fieldhouse in the background.

The coolest part of the game was at the first stoppage of the third period when House of Pain’s “Jump Around” played. I was just about to take a picture on my phone when it blared through the stadium. I switched to video and shot some video footage. It’s a tradition that the crowd does at Badger football games. It looks good, so look for it on the Hockey World Blog page on YouTube.

Unfortunately the Wolverines couldn’t hold on to the lead as Detroit Red Wings prospect Brendan Smith scored two copy-cat power play goals late in the game. Both goals came in the same fashion when Michael Davies fired a pass from the left side to Smith, a left-handed shooter fires a shot from the point past Hogan. The first goal came at 14:28 while the game-winner came with 1:22 left in the game.

Overall, it was a great atmosphere and a great game to attend. I’m looking forward to attending the Frozen Four in Detroit this April as well as attending The Big Chill: a game featuring Michigan State and Michigan in December at Michigan Stadium.

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Is Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock on the Hot Seat?

Feb 7

Posted by Matt in Soap Box | 2 Comments

Can Mike Babcock turn things around in Detroit before it's too late?

Can Mike Babcock turn things around in Detroit before it's too late?

Blown leads. Sloppy play. Lazy effort. All could be used to describe the Detroit Red Wings play thus far in 2010. While the Wings have had several injuries to battle through, this play comes at a time when the team has been nearly the healthiest it has been all year. Players like Filppula, Cleary, Zetterberg, Williams and Ericsson have all returned to the line-up and resumed playing lots of minutes in each game. But somehow, the Red Wings are struggling more now than they have all season. It’s become hard to watch. But who is to blame?

The high-energy puck possession game the Red Wings used to win the Stanley Cup in 2008 and reach the Stanley Cup Finals again in 2009 has all but disappeared. No one on the team blamed injuries, but fans were quick to use it as an excuse. However, it has become clear that the squad clearly lacks motivation at this point. This team has struggled gaining motivation not since losing the game 7 last spring, but since the Stanley Cup Finals began against Pittsburgh. While skill alone was enough to bring them within one game of back-to-back Championships, lack of energy, desperation and motivation is what broke the Wings.

Mike Babcock is arguably the best coach in the NHL. He has been to the Stanley Cup finals three times in only six seasons as an NHL head coach. In a week, he will lead the Canadian Olympic squad to Vancouver in an attempt to win a gold medal. But while he has been successful in the past, he has not been able to light a fire under the Wings since last season. The Wings need that fire in order to compete the rest of the season and make the playoffs.

After blowing a three goal lead to Los Angeles yesterday, Babcock was quite calm when interviewed after the game. “We made some mistakes, gave them two freebies, but other than that I didn’t mind our game,’’ Babcock said. “We had two power plays in the third period. The game’s on the line, we’d like to get one and win the game.’’ How can a coach be so calm after a game like that? Where is the energy? The passion and desperation to win? With only 24 games left, the Wings currently sit 9th in the west, with Dallas, Minnesota, Anaheim and St. Louis right on their tail. Now is a better time than ever for Babcock to light into his players and get them to play like they’re capable of, with or without injuries.

Is Mike Babcock on the hot seat in Detroit? If things don’t turn around soon, I would certainly think so. Perhaps a coaching change is just what the Wings need to change their tempo. The Penguins replaced Michel Therrien last season as the team slumped to a 27-25-5 start. The replacement, Dan Bylsma, recorded an 18-3-4 record after taking over, and eventually lead the Penguins to a Stanley Cup.

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Red Wings Enforcer Lacks Enforcer Qualities

Jan 30

Posted by Matt in Soap Box | 1 Comment

Brad May has been a disappointing enforcer for the Detroit Red Wings

Brad May has been a disappointing enforcer for the Detroit Red Wings

Throughout his lengthy NHL career, playing with seven different teams over the course of nearly twenty years, Brad May has been known as a gritty enforcer. He’s brought in not to score points, but to provide a physical presence on the ice and drop the gloves when necessary. This season, however, Brad May has been nothing but a bust for the Detroit Red Wings.

May has suited up for 37 games this season, only dropping the gloves in eight. He hasn’t been in a physical altercation in over a month. His last fight came on December 28th against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Even in the games May has fought, he is never choosing a time to bout that would benefit his team. Instead, he goes after records by fighting players like Krys Barch of the Dallas stars, who May has battled with twice this season.

The May vs. Barch fight on November 18th is a perfect example. The two talked during warm-ups, and shared a laugh at one point. Later, in the first period, May declined to fight. In the second period, they finally went at it, after Brad May had removed the visor from his helmet. Not a thing happened during the game that lead to this fight, the two just decided to go, for fun.

It becomes very aggravating, especially during the Wings recent struggles, that Brad May offers no high energy playing when he’s on the ice. He doesn’t skate hard and make crushing hits, he doesn’t pick a fight to set the tone for his team and send a message to their opponent, and when he does fight, he does it for the wrong reasons. He’s just a sub-par player getting five minutes of ice time during the games he plays. At best, he is a step behind the Red Wings previous enforcer, Aaron Downey, and that really isn’t saying much.

While the Red Wings really enjoy coasting along without a true enforcer, it would certainly benefit them to sign a player with qualities like Jordin Tootoo by next season. Tootoo is a player that everyone hates, except the Predators and their fans. However, he’s the kind of guy that you would love to have on your team. He works hard every day, makes big hits, creates energy, fights to get his team going and send a message, and gets on the nerves of the opposition. That’s the kind of enforcer the Detroit Red Wings need.

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Coyotes in Detroit

Jan 26

Posted by EB in News | 1 Comment

Tonight the Phoenix Coyotes visit Joe Louis Arena to go against Conference competitor the Detroit Red Wings. The two teams have met three times already with Detroit taking two out of the three.  Will the Coyotes clip the mending Wings, or will Detroit fly away with the “W”?

Detroit is coming off of a tough loss to the Los Angeles Kings. That loss has leap frogged them the wrong way. The Wings are currently in 8th place among the conference with 58 points, due only in that the Calgary Flames are sinking fast within the Conference (1-8-1 in last ten).

A ray of hope shines for the Wings as defenseman Niklas Kronwall returns to the lineup. One thing to look out for though is every time an injured player comes back to the Wings lineup, another person goes down.

Phoenix sits 5th within the Conference at 63 points. Looking pretty good right now, however goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov is showing possible signs of wear and tear with only 4 wins and a 3.38 goals against average in the last month. Not to worry though as the offense has scored an average of 3.6 goals in their last 5 games.

Tonight I will be in attendance with Tony A., a long time reader, responder and a Barbie doll collector. Hopefully we can agree to disagree on the outcome.

On a different note, rumors of where Ilya Kovalchuk will land before the trade deadline are circulating. Yet no rumors of possibly moving to Phoenix? Hmm…  Phoenix does have the largest cap space currently and would be able to afford Kovalchuk’s expected of 10 million plus salary a year. They also have two first round draft picks. Just throwing it out there. But who knows, maybe there is room for only one Ilya on the team. I’m crossing my finger regardless.

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Datsyuk and Bertuzzi Make Niemi Look Foolish, Wings Lose Shootout

Jan 17

Posted by Matt in Media, News | 6 Comments

The Detroit Red Wings have now lost consecutive games in shootouts, yesterday to the Stars and today against the Chicago Blackhawks. While yesterday’s shootout was filled with controversy over Steve Ott’s phantom goal, today featured a couple highlight reel goals from Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi.

Datsyuk pulled a move out from the book of Linus Omark, and certainly did not disappoint. He lobbed up a real soft shot that completely fooled Antti Niemi. Later, Todd Bertuzzi pulls off some magic as he went for the spin-o-rama and buried it beautifully. While a couple of the Red Wings stars came up big on national tv for the shootout, they were not fortunate enough to win. The point will certainly help as Detroit hunts for a playoff spot, but they narrowly missed two more points this weekend and they could have desperately used each one.

Here’s a video of both goals from today in case you missed them:

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Referee’s Blow Two Calls on Same Night

Nov 19

Posted by Eddie in Soap Box | 5 Comments

As someone who is a hockey official, I’m not one to be critical of the referee’s. Lord knows we have one of the hardest and most thankless jobs out there. But when you get to a level like Junior, College, or the Professional ranks where you have instant replay, you have to use that in your advantage to get the call right.

This morning I do my usual morning routine of watching SportsCenter and listen to local sports talk radio to see what the news of the morning is. The topic on ESPN was about a blown call in a soccer game that cost a team a chance of going to the World Cup. The topic on the radio was about a blown call in a hockey game.

Last night, EB and I were at the Detroit-Dallas game. We sat behind the Red Wings’ goal, so we were on the opposite end of the arena when the Brad May goal happened. When the play happened, we saw a big scrum behind the goal and players celebrating but no red-light or goal horn. When the review happened, I just assumed it was a regular video review at Joe Louis Arena and it was a no-goal. It wasn’t until a few minutes later when I received numerous text messages from friends saying it was a obvious goal.

I didn’t see the play on Youtube until 20 minutes ago. When I saw it, I thought both the officials and the NHL War Room in Toronto blew this call. It ovbiously went in the net. That’s why we have cameras in the net and behind the net atop of the glass. I’m going to give the ref the benefit of the doubt and say he couldn’t see the puck because of the apron covering the bottom of the net blocking his view. But in a day and age where we have HD replay ability in football and instant replay in sports, you have to get the call right every time.

Now onto the soccer story. International teams go through a 3+ year qualifying process for the World Cup. Teams play around 20 or so games in order to make the final tournament in South Africa next summer. In Europe, teams went through group play where the winners qualified for the finals and the second place teams played a 2-game series to take the remaining allotted spots. In one of the series, France played Ireland. Both teams had to play overtime in game 2 because of a tie in goal differential. Had the game remained tied, Ireland could of advanced because of away goals. Look at the video and tell me this official did not blow the call. I dare you to tell me the ref didn’t blow it. Even French star Thierry Henry, who touched the ball with his hand before the goal was scored said “I touched the ball, but I’m not the ref.”

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Hockey Hodge-Podge: Minors, College, Juniors

Nov 13

Posted by Eddie in News | 1 Comment

It’s the time of the year when football is starting to wind down for the colleges, the professionals are mid-way through their season, and hockey is starting to find its way. Teams in the NHL and other leagues have played anywhere between 15-20 games. At this time of the season, teams are starting to figure out who they are and what they can do to improve.

Looking across the hockey landscape, here’s some interesting things I came across:

Minors:

  • Grand Rapids Griffins goalie Daniel Larsson is one step closer to playing for the Detroit Red Wings. The big club called up Larsson today to backup Jimmy Howard as Chris Osgood has missed the last two games with the flu. The Red Wings played Wednesday and Thursday night and the recall happened this morning. This could mean Osgood might be out for a while.
  • On February 20, the Syracuse Crunch and Binghamton Senators are playing an outdoor hockey game. It’s the first in the history of the AHL, and a politician is trying to make it an annual event to “bring luster to central New York”. Can we say a P.R. move to gather votes for 2010? Charles Schumer (D-NY) is up for re-election next November.
  •  Everybody and their brother has now seen the video of Louisiana Ice Gators head coach Brent Sapergia throw everything in sight on the ice in protest of a call. I think I would he just as angry if I found out I had to coach a hockey team in the Southern Professional Hockey League. I do give him credit, his team was down 5-1 at the time before a rally of goals resulted in a 5-4 loss.

 

College:

  • Defending national champion Boston College is 2-5 and 1-4 in conference play this season. That’s not good for the Eagles. Last season, they had six overall and five Hockey East losses all season.
  • Miami is showing why they are the no. 1 team in the nation as they swept Michigan last weekend. Wolverines head coach Red Berenson was so disgusted that he said  “I’m embarrassed.” “We played like a bunch of spoiled brats, and we’ve gotta suck it up.” When your team takes 51 penalty minutes in the third period of Saturday’s game, that’s what spoiled beats who need to suck it up play like.
  • My alma mater, Ferris State University, is off to its best start since the 2002-03 season. That year, Chris Kunitz was a Hobey Baker finalist when he led the Bulldogs to the CCHA regular reason championship and a first-round win in the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs swept three straight home series for the first time in school history when they swept Bowling Green. The team is 7-3 overall and will play at Miami this weekend. Tonight’s game will be shown on the NHL Network at 7:30.
  • The second-largest college in the nation is letting its students in for free because they struggle to fill the seats at its over-sized arena. Ohio State plays in the 17,500 seat Value City Arena. The attendance so far has been averaging 1,604 fans. For those keeping score at home, that’s 9.2 percent. When the NHL franchise in the same town is in competition for the hockey dollar a fringe hockey market, you play second fiddle. Maybe the Buckeyes should play the first month or so on the road, so they will get people to come when football season ends and the Blue Jackets are in last place.

 

Juniors:

  • This year’s World Junior Championships will be held in Saskatoon and Regina, Alberta beginning December 26. For our friends in Saskatchewan, you will be able to enjoya ticket to the United States-Switzerland game December 27 in Saskatoon with purchase of a pre-tournament exhibition game between Switzerland and Austria in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan December 21.
  • In an effort to get women to hockey games in Saginaw, Michigan, the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit is hosting a “Ice Hot Girls Night Out” tomorrow night vs London. The event will feature a fashion show, prize packs, and display tables from local salons and spas.
  • The PEI Rocket of the QMJHL has to postpone gamesthis weekend vs Baie-Comeau Drakkar and Shawinigan Cataractes because a number of players showed symptoms of the H1N1 virus. Hockey fans might have to get used to this as the season progresses. While players and teams are trying their best to sanitize and keep the players as healthy as possible, once a player or team staff contracts H1N1, it will be a matter of time before it spreads due to the close quarters hockey players are in.
  • The holiday season is around the corner. Several junior and minor league teams will hold various charity drives and fundraisers to support the local community. One of my favorites is the Teddy Bear Toss, where when the home teams scores its first goal, fans get to throw a stuffed animal on the ice. The toys are then collected and donated to charity,usually a childrens hospital. Where else can you throw something on the ice during a game and not get kicked out? No where! I’m personally making a note to attend the Plymouth Whalers’ Teddy Bear Toss game vs Sault Ste. Marie on December 5.

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Cam Ward and Jason Williams Bit by Injury Plague

Nov 8

Posted by Matt in News | 10 Comments

Cam Ward, of the Carolina Hurricanes, is out indefinitely after Rick Nash's skate lacerated his leg

Cam Ward, of the Carolina Hurricanes, is out indefinitely after Rick Nash's skate lacerated his leg

Despite all of the great hockey we have seen in the 2009-10 NHL season so far, one tremendous downfall continues to plague the league. This season, some of the NHL’s most notable stars have been injured, along with dozens of role players as well. In addition to the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Johan Franzen, Daniel Sedin, Simon Gagne, Marc Savard, Sergei Gonchar, and Valtteri Filppula, two more players have now been sidelined with injuries.

First we have Cam Ward of the Carolina Hurricanes. While Ward is having a sub-par start to his season, his career numbers are good. He helped lead the Hurricanes to the Eastern Conference Finals last season where they were swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins. In 2005-06, Ward lead the team to a Stanley Cup Championship in a 7-game series over the Edmonton Oilers. He went on to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs as well.

Against Columbus, last night, Cam Ward’s leg was lacerated by the skate of Blue Jacket Rick Nash. Ward left the game and was taken to the hospital. He remained in the hospital Saturday night, and did not make the flight home with his teammates. There is no timetable for his return, so Carolina will be forced to give Michael Leighton the starts in net. Beyond that, they will either have to call up a goalie from their minor league system, or begin to look at possible trade options to provide added depth.

Just as things we’re beginning to look up for the Detroit Red Wings, winning three straight, they took another huge hit. In the second period of last nights game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Jason Williams suffered a fractured fibula when he lost his balance and fell wrong on the ice. This injury will put Williams out for at least two months. Detroit is already without forwards Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen, and another injury obviously hurts the team.

Injuries in Detroit will give players such as Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Patrick Eaves and Ville Leino a great chance to step up and show what they’ve got. The young players bring a tremendous amount of speed and energy to the team, but they have yet to show much on the scoreboard this season. Leino, for example, was considered by many to be in the running for Rookie of the Year honors after netting five goals and four assists in thirteen games when he was called up last season from Grand Rapids.  In fourteen games this season, however, he has two goals and one assist with a minus four rating. If we are to see any more success in Detroit this November, these energy players must begin to produce.

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Turning Things Around

Oct 28

Posted by EB in News, Soap Box | 3 Comments

Micheal Grabner scores against the Oilers.

Micheal Grabner scores against the Oilers.

With six players currently on the IR list, winning three games in a row is not a regular occurrence for most teams. Lately the Canucks have beaten the Black Hawks, Maple Leafs and most recently the Oilers. Things appear to be pointing in a more opportunistic direction. Daniel Sedin sustained an injury during a win against the Canadiens on October 7th.Since then Salo Rypien and Wellwood have become causalities. More often than not such a myriad of wounded players is a hindrance to any team. Surprisingly this is not the case for Vancouver, who has only lost two of their last eight games. The list of injured players may soon be a tad lighter. Rypien could be back in the lineup for the next game against the Red Wings. Salo’s return might be much sooner than anticipated. Sedin and Hansen are both making steady progress. Unfortunately Demitra is going to be out indefinitely. Mathieu Schneider has already been removed from the IR as he made his Canucks debut on Sunday.

Vancouver’s last defeat was on October 19th 2-1 to the Oilers.So what can be attributed for this positive turn of events? In the last three wins the second line of Raymond Kesler Grabner has been very productive. Michael Grabner has scored two goals and two assists. Mason Raymond has two goals Ryan Kesler has two goals. The play of this line is proving to be a real workhorse, at times outplaying the first line. After an uneventful preseason it was no surprise to see Grabner sent back to the Moose. When he was recalled on October 14th, most people were scratching their heads and questioning why. He has really shown that he is a valuable member of the team; he’s been a great fit with Raymond and Kesler. Kesler a veteran player is proving to be the catalyst, for what is becoming the most prolific tandem currently on the ice for the Canucks.

For a while Henrik Sedin seemed to be missing his shadow Daniel.Henrik went on a three game scoring drought but scored the game winning goal against Edmonton on Sunday, with assists from Samuelsson and Hordichuk. Sedin played with Samuelsson and Shirokov on the first line. It’s customary to see Alexandre Burrows play on the top line but against the Oilers he played on the third due to the fact that the first had been struggling to find any real offensive production.

In the Canucks most recent game Luongo record his first shutout of the season elevating him to being the Canucks franchise shutout leader. When you consider that last season he recorded nine shutouts, he still has a little way to go before he beats that. Starting the season with a save percentage averaging around the .818 mark it is now in the region of .900. It’s not hard to see the transition is being made to the elite goalie that he is known for. Rather than the poor play he has demonstrated of late.

The next opponent to face Vancouver will be the Detroit Red Wings.The Wings generally would be considered a superpower in the NHL. Though this season they do not resemble that image. With three consecutive losses, Detroit is in a frantic battle to find a winning form. With injuries to Johan Franzen and Andreas Lilja they are facing some adversity. Franzen is Detroit’s expert screener and fore checker who could be out of action for at least three months. To make matters worse the main issue of concern facing the Red Wing’s is that of goaltending. Detroit is often out shooting opposition, but losing games because of the inconsistency of Osgood and inexperience of backup goalie Howard. As always playing Detroit will be an arduous task with the likes of Zetterberg and Holmstrom to name but a few, causing problems for any team.

For Mikael Samuelsson this game will hold some significance, as he will be facing his former Detroit teammates. On November 24th 2008 The Canucks faced the Red Wings in their first game of the season without Luongo .In the previous game he had incurred his infamous groin injury. The Canucks won 3-2 in OT. They may have more injuries currently, but if the last three games are an indication of what to expect, then the next may well be a hotly contested battle.

This article is a guest article from Hockey World Blog reader James C. Edgington and the assistance of  Wings blogger rocknrollnobody. Please visit them at PenaltyKill.net.

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