The Red Wings preseason was not kind to the team. Out of eight games, only three were winners. Three other games were regulation losses and then there was one OT loss and one shootout loss. All of this went down against very competitive teams like Penguins (one win, one loss), Blackhawks (one win, one loss), Bruins (two losses), and Maple Leafs (one win, one loss). Even worse, the last three pre-season games were all losses. And who do we meet in the season opener on October 9? The Bruins.
I have to admit, I expected more to go down in the Red Wings off season to change things up. The past few seasons have not been great. Looking back since the last cup win in 2008, the post season stats a far from stellar. For 2008-09 we were back in the finals and that time the Penguins took home the prize. Since then, the Wings have been out in round one or two:
Looking beyond playoff performance, it’s been a challenge even to get into the postseason. Last season we scooted in as the wild card. It was similarly bad the year before (although in 2012-13 it wasn’t called a wild card slot). You have to go back to the 2010-11 season to find Detroit clinching the division.
I could try to dissect this whole thing by looking at years of stats and performance, but I admit to being a more casual fan than that. I expect team management to work on this sort of thing.
As I said above, I expected things to go down over the summer. When Pittsburgh, a team that’s been having better seasons than Detroit (even while not winning a cup), up and fired their head coach among others, I was braced for the same thing to happen in Detroit. Or to see some significant shifts in the roster. Or both. None of that came to pass.
Don’t mistake the last paragraph to imply that I’m not a fan of what’s in place. Mike Babcock is a great coach, the winningest in Red Wings history. Plus he’s got a couple Gold Medal hockey teams under his belt, too. I also love to watch so many of the players on the roster, both individually for their skills and how they play together. But what is happening these past seasons where the Wings can’t maintain a streak, narrowly get themselves into the post season and can’t even get to conference finals? More importantly, what’s being done to change the pattern?
I do appreciate that the team seems optimistic this season. In a Wings press release from October 6, Goalie Jimmy Howard, who has publicly remarked that he’s expecting a much better season for himself this year, said “We’re a pretty underrated bunch of guys right now. I don’t think a lot of people are expecting too much out of us this year but we know what we’ve got in this dressing room, we know what we’re capable of and I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people.”
Maybe Detroit will find their wings and fly. I do love a good surprise. Here’s hoping it’s a season full of them courtesy of the Red Wings.
Jeff’s regular PuckBuddys beat includes the Red Wings and reviewing fiction that features gay hockey players. In addition, he’s the author of the Hat Trick series, which chronicles the romance of Simon & Alex, two hockey players who fall in love during high school. Hat Trick 2: Playing the Rebound was published in July and he’s at work on the third installment. Another hockey romance short story, Rivals, will be out from JMS Books this holiday season. You can follow him on Twitter at @hockeyguynyc.
April. The cruelest month. Mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with Spring rain.
How do we put this? There just wasn’t a whole lotta Captastical in “America’s Hockey Capital” this season…even if that motto doesn’t send you screaming out a window.
How bad was it? Not even Red Rally Balloon (or blimp) could have saved this squad this season. Face it: our defense was weaker than wet Kleenex, our five-on-five as shriveled as Donald Rumsfeld’s conscience, and our goalie-go-round more confused than Chris Christie in a SweetGreen.
Moar? How about a sclerotic front office? Asinine line switch-ups? Trades and acquisitions more tone-deaf than Alec Baldwin at an ACT-UP meeting, inconsistent play, no Olympic medal for Ovi, crappy t-shirts and I’m waiting in line for 20 minutes and you’re just now telling me you have no hot dogs. TED Y U NO HAVE HOT DOGS?!?!
In summa, this season was a swift one to the nads. Over, and over again…hard, swift and directly to the giggleberrys. Just one giant bad touch of a season.
Now to be fully honest, it’s not like the entire hockey season was without moments of happy. Torts got canned and flamed out way out west…so that was a special little snowflake of schadenfreude, yah?
Scandinavian good guys Sweden and Finland overturned the Olympic apple cart and brought home some sweet metal – even Nicky finally got his – even if crybaby Crosby snagged yet another blah blah please start shutting up about Crosby it’s not ruining my feels. And how many Wings won a bit of that?
Speaking of, how about that Winter Classic? Scotty Bowman coaching at the alumni game? Red Kelly? Ted Lindsay? Mr. Hockey freakin’ Gordie Howe? And the game itself – Wings v Leafs, original six, out in a blizzard, at the Big House?
I wasn’t there but I can still taste the cocoa, the kishka, the iced beer. I can hear, once again, the amazing amplitude of being there, in Michigan stadium, cold as a Ryan budget…the roar that can only come from a humongous hole in the ground with 100,000 vocalists shouting in the world’s largest theater-in-the-round? Mmmm. Can you tell from my swelling pride that I’m a native Michigander? Detroit to be specific.
Sure, Toronto won. Just. But what a cherry pie.
And what about that Caps-Wings home and home match-up earlier this year? First game in Detroit; hard fought at the Joe, the place on its feet for overtime, and a lightning bolt of a shoot-out win for 1 for the Wings.
Then two days later, here in your nation’s crapital, the arena electric with dueling Wings and Caps tribes, the game teeter-tottering like a Hollywood movie, maybe this, maybe that, only then after OT and another shootout and a lazer shot that wins it for the Caps…
(exhale)
Two teams. Two games. Each witha thrilla win at home; each with three points. Best.
So…looking back, here in the Mirkwoods of playoffs, what path does a Wings-transplant/Caps-transplantational patient take?
It’s right there. Capitals, love you, go golf and figure yourselves out. Wings?
I can pivot.
If the United States government with all its whatnot and Humpheroo and phoofehrah can pivot from something…we think Iraq, or Afghanistan, someone?… to Russia,or to South East Asia and the…um we really don’t know what we’re doing and really just need to stop here because confused
I am pivoting.
We are seeking a reset of relations with the Wings. We still believe in the innate greatness of the Capitals as an ideal; our founding ideas. And yet, we can recognize the much older nobility of a culture that preceded us; namely, the Red Wings. Home sweet home.
This is not a battle of old vs. new; of east vs. west. This is a recognition of all that we share and agree on. That hockey matters. And that I really really really need a Cup this year.
WingsNation: please please please. Please. Start by humiliating the filthy B’s.
– Sincerely, Doug
PS: Oh hellz yeah. BTW: looks like Wings Nation extends far across this nation.
What unites Alaska, Alabama, Washington, Tennessee, Louisiana, TenneTucky and the Great Lakes State?
Yup. America – north and south, rich and poor, pooter and critter – knows hockey. And they are Detroit Hockey Nation.
Oh, and look who we’re picking to go all the way!
Red Wings look good, but shut out
The Detroit Red Wings that showed up Thursday, January 16 at Madison Square Garden looked good. Even though some marquee names were missing, the guys that showed up were ready to play.
The stars of the night were definitely the goalies. Jimmy Howard and Henrik Lundqvist were outstanding. Time and again these two turned away shot after shot. While I’m not a fan of the Rangers, both teams looked great and it was a fun, spirited game to be in attendance for.
As the third period opened, it was clear this would be a one goal game. Unfortunately, the outcome was against the Red Wings as Rangers Mats Zuccarello got by Howard with under six minutes to go in regulation.
What made this even worse was that Zuccarello was attempting a pass, not a shot on net, and the puck deflected off Detroit D-man Brian Lashoff to scoot by Howard.
If the game had to go to the Rangers I suppose this way was a blessing. During second intermission I feared the teams were going to not score during game play and we’d end up in a shoot out. With SO proving dismal this year for the Wings, at least I didn’t have to sit through that pain (and perhaps this SO issue is turning around since the Wings have won their last two, against L.A. and Chicago).
Quick January recap and look ahead for the Wings…
January has not been good for the Wings, racking up four losses, two regulation wins and one shoot out win (that’s as of the January 20 St. Louis game). The most brutal of those losses was likely the Winter Classic on their home turf. At least the Classic made for some good TV (although as Eric pointed out, it wasn’t always so great for those in person). The other losses were either shutouts or by three goals — and neither of those is a good way to go.
Currently (as of Wednesday night’s Blackhawks game) the Wings are out of playoffs, sitting one place out of a wild card position. Will this be the first season in more than two decades they don’t make the post season? I’m not feeling confident with the team’s inability to be consistent. I know it’s been hard with so many injuries, but the guys need to to find what it takes to close more games.
The contests that are left before the Olympic Break—Montreal, two with Florida, New Jersey, two against Washington, Vancouver and Tampa Bay—look to be more of the same where they will squeak out a win and then lose the next game. Eighteen points are on the line. Nothing would be better than to take them all (or at least the majority of those points). However, with the current state of play my prediction is they’ll be lucky to pick up half.
Frozen Tide Crush Auburn for Fourth Iron Cup Win
Back to my hockey weekend… After Thursday night at MSG, I was on a Birmingham-bound plane Friday morning to catch the Iron Cup games.
The score across the three games tells the very lopsided story. University of Alabama’s Frozen Tide pummeled (and then some) Auburn with a 25-2 total score. For the UA football diehards, that probably doesn’t completely make up for November’s disastrous Iron Bowl, but it had to help.
Over the best-of-three competition the score broke down to 9-1, 3-0 and 13-1. The Tide schooled Auburn in puck movement throughout the weekend. It was beautiful watching the team routinely setup shot after shot on the War Eagle goalie.
The Frozen Tide has done a great job bringing in new talent this year after several players graduated at the end of last season. They are currently 13-9 for the season with four critical SECHC games left in the season. As I’m writing, this week’s SECHC standings aren’t out yet (before the Auburn games, they were 1-3 in SECHC play).
The Tide was hopeful to move up a position coming off the Auburn wins. These final four games need to be won as the team wants to secure one of the top two SECHC slots so they’ll lockup a trip to the ACHA Division 3 finals, which play March 11-15 at Florida Atlantic University. Even if they don’t lock up the trip, there’s still regional playoffs where they can earn their trip… but it would be far better (and cooler) to get it during regular season play.
As Iron Cup MVP Bryan Puffer, who had four goals and six assists for the weekend (including a hat trick in Sunday’s game) told al.com after Sunday’s cup presentation, “Whenever you play Auburn, it’s easy to get motivated, and we wanted to really come in and dominate. Now we need to continue it as we play our next games. We need these kinds of wins for the standings.”
Yes they do!
After watching the games the Tide put on the ice this weekend, I’m confident they’ll do it. They play with a confidence and skill that should get them the trip to nationals they’re on the hunt for. I wish I could get down there to watch the final four games, but I’ll be satisfied following on Twitter. Roll Frozen Tide Roll!
Jeff covers the Red Wings and reviews fiction that features gay hockey players for PuckBuddys. In addition, he’s written a young adult novel, Hat Trick, which details the coming out of two high school hockey players. He’s currently working on two sequels to that book. You can follow him on Twitter at @hockeyguynyc.
The Winter Classic is all about endurance and grit and surviving the insanity of a 14 degree blizzard through three periods, overtime and a shootout. It’s about paying five dollars for a tiny hot dog with a bun so dessicated it could be used as a puck. It’s about waiting in line for a poorly ventilated bathroom where the floor is covered in liquid you hope is melted snow but you know is one hundred percent urine.
But that doesn’t fit into the media’s highly romanticized version of what is essentially an incredibly expensive (and as it turned out) dangerous game to attend. The outdoor guys calling the game like Doc will talk about how they don’t have a heater, but they at least they have a heated bench and people to bring them hot cocoa and a golf cart to take them off the field to a nice safe warm bathroom. They aren’t thrown to the wolves. Heck the players even get heated benches.
The only thing the media, players, and fans have in common is that they have to go through several layers in order to pee. I don’t want to give the impression that we had a horrendous experience, quite the contrary it was a thrilling atmosphere ruined by incredibly poor planning. Perhaps I’m being too harsh. It’s not as if they had two years to work out the details …. oh…. right…
Certainly, the weather has its own agenda and won’t be bullied into submission. While the continuous snow made for a wondrous backdrop, it also made for dicey driving. On our way, Long Suffering Partner (or LSP) and I saw six vehicles that had spun into a ditch. Or each other. Once safely there and on our way to the stadium, we passed several tailgating groups some of whom seemed to be approaching Rob Ford levels of drunkeness (BAM! Topical AND Canadian!) We skipped the Fan Zone set up outside the Bridgestone Winter Classic. We had pretty much the same experience at Comerica Park except for the free Advil they were handing out (popular with the party crowd).
Even inside the stadium’s concourse, it was cold enough that I broke down and purchased a Wings toque and scarf (a mere $65!) from one of the hundred outside merchandise tents since the heated store had a ten foot line. Most likely because it was the only warm place available. Why weren’t their warming zones other than the ones outside the stadium? Did I miss those? Could they find no one to sponsor one? Was I supposed to buy cheesy fries and warm my hands over them?
Granted, we never made it all the way around the stadium but we tried to huddle inside the concourse area for warmth as much as possible. Besides the aforementioned five dollar hot dog, LSP and I got hot chocolate that was already tepid by the time it got to us. Although it came in a lovely commemorative cup for only ten dollars.
For an extra six dollars, you could get a shot of Baileys in it. Baileys? Hot chocolate is already sweet. The perfect accompaniment to hot chocolate is Peppermint Schnapps. Everyone knows this. I’m sorry if you believe differently, you are wrong. Maybe if Baileys had sponsored a warming zone, I might have purchased some. But with the driving conditions unlikely to improve, no way was I drinking alcohol. I didn’t want to be a cautionary tale. About drinking and driving that is.
The crowd was amped up even before warmups with the alternating “Let’s Go Red Wings!” “Go, Leafs, Go” chants. Occasionally you could hear “No, Leafs blow!” which was quite amusing to us. There was plenty of good-natured ribbing between fans of these two long time rival teams. Both mighty franchises have struggled lately so there’s been plenty of fodder. I saw a family of five all decked out in Leafs gear save for a (middle?) daughter in Wings merch. I asked them if they really knew the girl or if she was just following them. They all laughed and the father mock whispered “She’s adopted.”
The view from our seats was a beautiful snow covered panorama. That is after we dusted the two feet of snow of them. Special seat cushions were on each seat, but they also had snow on them and were obviously very cold as well. Better than the metal however. Inside the pocket of each cushion were a packet of trading cards. Both our packs had a Tyler Bozak card. How I hate you, prophetic fate.
As entertainment (?) after warmups the NHL provided Mayer Hawthorne. I wasn’t certain if they were playing live or just faking it to a track. I can’t imagine that a cymbal would sound as rich in that brittle snowy environment, but in that stadium I mostly heard the rhythm section which was probably for the best.
Speaking of poor musical choices, the Tenors (are they trademarked?) sang the Canadian anthem. I say “sang” but it was more like intoned by monks. It was a glacial tempo more befitting a state funeral than a celebration of hockey. The crowd wisely ignored them and chose their own tempo. (Canadian Comments behind us: “Whoa. This is slow, eh?” “Are they singing that part in French?”)
Even the over the untrained mob, I could hear the lack of proper training of the Tenors. The lead in particular was terribly flat. You would imagine that a group on a worldwide arena tour would be used to singing in larger space acoustics. But here’s the dirty little secret: if you have a group of tenors, someone’s gotta be the baritone. And we all know what that means. (Note to my mother: I really have no idea what that means).
The Zac Brown fared better as they opted not to sing the American anthem like a dirge. Bonus points for nailing the interval of “what so PROUD-ly we hailed” since if that gets off, it’s pretty much downhill from there.
Anthem Recap: The Tenors – well groomed (and marketed) but fairly poor musicianship. Zac Brown Band – look ready for a bar fight (and they would win) but hold a tune and actually respectful to the spirit of the anthem. Also, the first time I have ever seen fireworks in a snowstorm. And I really didn’t see them that well.
Oh right. The Game itself. Certainly, the first period was a slogfest as players watched the puck get trapped in a snow bank while they skated forward. There were several offsides (where we were subjected to yet more ads) until the teams decided to dump and chase into the zone or in the Wings’ case, just give it to Pavel Datsyuk to stick handle into the zone.
The ice needed to be shoveled constantly otherwise you couldn’t even see the blue line. The crew was quite proficient at this, but at the end of the rink where they dumped the snow there were two people constantly shoveling snow out of the way to make way for the snow off the ice. Why a snowblower wasn’t used is beyond me. Maybe there’s some snow shoveler’s union at the University of Michigan – if so, I apologize.
I have now come to the darkest part of our adventure: the intermission. Our plan was to meet up with actual operatic tenor @DylanHayden at the break. In retrospect, this was a enormous mistake as everyone else had the same idea. Once the horn sounded, every pathway was blocked with people seeking bathrooms, concession stands, or just a warmer spot. In the concourse, the crowd was just an unmovable mass all trying to head in completely different directions pushing and shoving from all sides.
More insanity after the jump.
Some wags started mooing like cattle, but that’s not an apt metaphor for the situation. Cattle have a clear chute to the abattoir and it can’t be a stampede if there’s no movement whatsoever. It was amusing to hear comments like “This is just like the standings. We never move!” (applicable for both teams) but disheartening to hear “I have a small child here!!! Please stop pushing!!!” while you are trapped in a mass of humanity. Eventually after ten minutes of trying to get through the crowd Tetris style, we gave up and managed to sidle over to a gate facing the street on the concourse where it was only partially dense.
And there I saw it. I saw large, pasty buttocks. Then I realized they were attached to a squatting man pooping into a clear plastic bag. Some things cannot be unseen people. True, he was trying to hide behind a garbage can, but it was too late. The thin veneer of society had already been shattered.
Guys started peeing through the gate on the concourse down to the street level. And not attractive guys either. The smoking ban was completely ignored. Someone was even smoking a joint. He was popular. When a stadium worker finally walked by, he merely said “There’s no smoking. You have to put that out” in a school-marmish scold. He obviously knew he was outnumbered and didn’t want trouble.
Why was this allowed to turn into anarchy? Why isn’t there an NHL Department of FAN Safety? (I’m looking at you, Patrick Burke. Maybe you can wear the Curtis E. Bear outfit). Once the crowds finally abated enough to venture back, we walked along a path of lone gloves, scarves, hats, blankets, even seat cushions all trampled and covered in filthy slush – a scene of forlorn desolation like the aftermath of a violent diaspora. The only mitigating factor was that I didn’t have to hear Mayer Hawthorn perform again.
We missed around ten minutes of the second period (and we will never speak of it again – I saw a man poop in a plastic bag, people) but we made it back in time to see the first goal of the game. I was glad it was Alfredsson, he’s been a favorite of mine for a while even when he was with the Senators. Or maybe because he was with the Senators.
Anyway, suddenly the contest grew more exciting as players remembered there were two desperately needed points on the line. The pace picked once everyone became accustomed to the conditions and started using them to their advantage.
I could go through the game but frankly, as the snow fell harder it was impossible to see it clearly. If you didn’t move every ten minutes you looked like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining. (Full disclosure: Every Puckbuddys writer is required to make at least one Kubrick reference each year. Please note I have filled my quota early.)
You watched the game anyway, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. We don’t need to rehash the Bozak business or the Zetterberg breakaway stopped by the buzzer in overtime so they could change sides. Whatever. Everyone knows he would’ve scored. Even the guy wearing a Flyers jersey at the airport the next day. Everyone knows. So, there’s that. If you want to see the game, they will play it on the NHL Network every now and then, presenting it with a wistful air.
But that’s how I will choose to remember it. I won’t want to remember the monstrous traffic snarl caused by the lack of planning by the city of Ann Arbor. Well, they had a plan. It was to treat it like any other home football game they hold. Well, guess what? It wasn’t like ANY other game at that stadium.
A city official went so far as to blame the NHL for not educating the fans on how to exit the stadium and the town. That’s what the police are supposed to do. Why don’t you just shake your fist at the sky and blame the snow for not listening to you either, you pathetic old coot. I’m sorry. He deserves worse language than that, but my mother reads this.
What I am going to remember is the incredible adventure that my Long Suffering Partner and I had where we saw our team earn a point. But we also saw some guys dressed as the Hanson brothers from Slapshot.
We danced and sang along with a hundred thousand some people to the like of the Beastie Boys and Franz Ferdinand. (Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” will be a long cherished memory) I watched people drink nine dollar beer slushies with ice in their beards. I was with a mass of humanity enduring the coldest Winter Classic ever. We even saw a guy go shirtless before the shootout to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Yes, he was a Leafs fan, but he was still kind of cute.
Eric Pinder is an actor/writer/director/sometime hoofer originally from Detroit suburbs. He does not know Eminem, please stop asking. His tweet about a man pooping in a bag quickly went viral and earned him twenty new followers. He was promptly unfollowed by half of those people when they read the rest of his tweets. Follow him @operahockeyguy.
As part of our Whirlwind Winter Classic Vacation™, we had to check out the Coke Zero™ Fan Zone™ at the Sirius/XM™ Hockeytown Winter Festival™ on Saturday. (Pretty much everything in that last sentence is trademarked except the word ‘Saturday’).
It turned out to be the perfect day to visit as it was a balmy 47 degrees. In fact, it was so unseasonably warm that they had to delay the start of the Great Lakes Invitational™ three and a half hours so the sun would be lower and the ice would have a chance to firm up.
The Coke Zero Fan Zone™ was free to folks with tickets to each day’s events, but you could get in for a five dollar fee. I would venture that is was worth four dollars. Certainly the atmosphere was festive, what with plenty of stands selling State Fair type cuisine (Elephant Ears!) and firepits set up for roasting marshmallows (marshmallows not included in ticket price). Wings and Leafs fans mingled freely without incident. Even the guy decked out in Ohio State gear remained unmolested.
Our first step was to visit one of the many merchandise locations to purchase appropriate headgear for Dwayne (AKA Long Suffering Partner or LSP) since as Floridians we don’t normally have a need for a toques. And it was only $30! The Leafs locker room trailer provided a terribly unthrilling up close look at various player’s jerseys whereas the Wings locker setup was much better. (Full disclosure: it was the same experience, but my pro-Wings bias wins out here)
There were plenty of events for kids like a pick up street hockey rink, synthetic ice surface open skate, and a Red Wings goalie mask bounce house. (All requiring signed waivers to participate) Also, “Snowzilla” with the official explanation “It’s like sliding down a snow-covered hill and is the only one of its kind in the U.S.” Since it was a five dollar upcharge, and I had plenty of actual snow-covered hills in the area from which to choose, I opted out of this experience.
The NHL Network™ tent let you make a video about “Your Goal In 2014™”. LSP and I decided our goal was to not freeze our asses off at the game. Said video has a chance of appearing on the NHL Network. My guess is it’s a snowball’s chance in hell. We didn’t see any point to visiting the Verizon tent as I have seen enough of their ads touting NHL GameCenter™ on one of their many tablet devices.
In fact, my big complaint is that the Fan Zone™ was really one enormous ad where you had to fill out forms with email, physical address, and phone number to get anything. Certainly that was the purpose of the Bridgestone® tent – a huge tire display with wintry pine trees and TVs blaring the joys of treads while you waited in line to take a photo in Winter Classic jerseys. Note in this photo, I am shooting left handed. I would be a right hand shot (if I had the slightest idea what I was doing), but for photo-op purposes, I switched for better staging.
We could’ve tried the Slapshot Challenge™ but someone had already hit an 88 mph shot and seriously, if I had attempted it, I most likely would’ve hit myself with the stick somehow. And I would have filled out a waiver meaning I couldn’t sue.
Even the Molson CANADIAN HOCKEY HOUSE™ with its table top hockey games and local bands (of dubious quality) was really a glorified beer haus.
Although, they did have one of three Alumni Autograph locations which at the time was occupied by Kris Draper – my favorite of the famous Grind Line. Dino Ciccarelli was in the Red Wings Experience tent, but has not aged as well as one might have hoped. Drapes, being a ginger, has fared far better. Inside the Red Wings Experience™ (which sounds like a cover band to me) was a stage where they were holding a trivia contest. In our fifteen minutes in the tent, not one of the three contestants answered a question correctly thus mocking the idea that it was a Fan Zone™.
But for me, the crowning jewel of the Festival was the Hockey Hall Of Fame™ (also trademarked) tent displaying memorabilia (a Patrick Roy Canadiens jersey! BOO! Red Wing pucks from their Stanley Cup victory over the Penguins! YAY!) and various trophies like the Conn Smythe, Ted Lindsay, and Rocket Richard.
The Stanley Cup wasn’t in attendance. It wouldn’t appear until Monday, but that’s okay as it was an extra five dollar charge to get a photo with it and LSP and I already have a picture with the Cup we took for free at a Lightning game. As a matter of fact, there’s also a photo of Other Gay Hockey Friend and I beveling next to the Cup like Price Is Right™ showgirls. And really, isn’t that what photo ops are all about? (Oh, and have I mentioned my Dad drank from the Stanley Cup?)
Now while we would love to watch one of the Alumni Showdowns, we are from Florida and are not about to stand outside in 18 degree weather two days in a row. We would rather save hypothermia for the Winter Classic. And anyway, on Tuesday, I’m dragging LSP through the Henry Ford Museum™ where we will ogle the chair in which Lincoln was sitting in Ford’s Theatre (no relation) when John Wilkes Booth so rudely interrupted the performance of “Our American Cousin©”. Because we are cultural gays. Hopefully, I’ll be able to tweet during the game without frostbite attacking first. Check back later for exclusive coverage only available on this site!
Eric Pinder™ (@operahockeyguy on Twitter) is a highly talented and employable actor/director/writer/hyphenate who is currently updating his resume. In his spare time, he tweets about opera, hockey and the plantar warts on the balls of his feet. He is working on a hockey opera, but isn’t sure which team should win.
On Monday the season is half over for the Wings as they play at Nashville. It’s tough to say how they’ll fare in Nashville. They lost to them earlier in the season. However, Nashville has a losing record and sits at the bottom of the Central Division. Since the Red Wings tend to do better on the road this season, which is very weird for them, I tend to think they’ll end up with Monday’s game in the win column.
Meanwhile, as I write this after Saturday’s Florida Panthers win (4-3) the team is 18-13-9. Sure, it’s a winning record, and a record that has them in fourth place in the Atlantic Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference. If the playoffs started now, they’d land a wildcard spot.
I suppose I should be happy with this. But I’m not.
Nine overtime losses! Six of those have been in shootouts (clearly this is something the team needs to work on). It’s blot on the record and exemplifies what’s wrong with the season. Granted, the team gets crucial points for these losses and it’s better to have nine puts than none, but it would be better to have 18 points.
Coach Mike Babcock has called it out a couple times on HBO’s 24/7: Red Wings/Maple Leafs: Road to the NHL Winter Classic. The team is often not moving enough and not playing up to the level that it can. This is costing the team regulation wins that they should be getting, plus that behavior spills into overtime, where they end up losing.
The team seems besieged a ton of injuries. Usually they start racking them up closer to playoffs, but in just December key players Jonathan Ericcson, Johan Franzen, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Henrik Zetterberg and Jimmy Howard have been out. Zetterberg and Abdelkader returned for the Panthers game, but there’s still way too many Wings out for my comfort. There is word that Howard may return for Monday night’s Predators game.
Red Wings/Toronto Match Up
As rough as the Red Wings have looked this year, Toronto is in a similar position with a 19-16-5 record, they sit right under Detroit in the Atlantic Conference standings. On the upside when you look at the match up for Wednesday, the Wings bested the Leafs in a shootout less than two weeks ago in their first matchup of the season. So, on the one hand Red Wings are ahead in the head-to-head for the season, but that means Toronto will be on the hunt for redemption.
Both teams will be looking for a win because they both need it. As the second half of the season gets underway it’s going to be all about locking up a playoff breath and neither have that assured right now. I’m hoping the competition for the win will have both teams coming to the ice hungry and putting their best games out. That would make a spectacular game on the ice for the hundred thousand or so at the Big House as well as the NBC and CBC TV audiences.
We don’t want to see the teams that both Babcock and Toronto coach Randy Carlyle have dealt with in the first two episodes of 24/7 (I haven’t seen the third, which is having its first airing as I’m putting the finishing touches on this post).
It’s going to be interesting to see how the weather plays into the game too. It’s forecasted to be cold—currently the high is expected to be 17 and the wind chill could take that down into single digits. I can’t imagine that chill is going to be easy to play in. There’s a 30 percent chance of snow flurries too. The snow would be a cool addition—I loved the first Classic in Buffalo where it snowed all over the Penguins/Sabres 2008 outing.
This game will be won, and lost, by which version of these teams show up. If they both come to play, it’s going to an excellent contest. If only one of them shows up, it’s going to be a blow out like the uninspiring shutouts the Red Wings suffered recently against the Lightening (Dec. 15) and Islanders (Dec. 23). What if both teams show up for lackadaisical hockey? I doubt that will happen. I suspect the epic proportions of this game will keep that form happening.
PuckBuddys’ Tampa Bay correspondent, Eric (@operahockeyguy), will be in the Big House for the game and I’m looking forward to his in-person take on this mega event (and maybe he’ll snag me a t-shirt or something, too).
Shameless moment of self promotion…
Part of the Hockeytown Winter Festival, which has been going on in the lead up to the Winter Classic, was the annual Great Lakes Invitational moving from Joe Lewis Arena outside to Comerica Park. Since the University of Michigan plays in that, I decided to write a short sequel to Hat Trick that drops the lead characters into this special GLI. Hat Trick Overtime: A Classic Winter’s Tale is available as a free read on my website (just click the link and start reading). Since I couldn’t get to Detroit for all these awesome hockey activities, I’m glad I was able to send my characters!
I’m psyched with the realignment that’s come to pass. For the Wings it means fewer treks to the West Coast. The benefit here is two-fold as I see it. First, from a purely selfish point of view, it’ll make it easier for me to watch them because fewer games will have the potential to start at 10pm ET or later. For the Wings, I think it makes it the season a little less grueling too. They often seem to get road weary, and making it so they go out to Arizona, California and Western Canada less often should be good for them.
One more benefit for me: They’ll play the Rangers at MSG twice this season, once in January and once in March. When they were in the West, they’d get to MSG once every two years. Looking forward to the 2015-16 season, when the Islanders make their move to Brooklyn, that’ll mean even more chances to see the boys in red in my city. My only regret with the realignment is that the Wings are no longer in the same division as their mega-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Red Wings will need to be on their game this season to ensure a spot in the playoffs since there’s no guarantee that finishing fourth in their division can get them into the post-season. With the top three in each division getting the guaranteed playoff positions and the other two spots going to the highest placed teams in the conference, rather than the division, it will be more dangerous to be on the bubble.
And for people, like me, who have a hard time doing playoff math anyway, it’s going to making figuring out the playoff picture more difficult. Maybe I can take a remedial playoff math course between now and March so I’ll be ready.
From a player perspective, not much has changed on the roster. I’m hoping Darren Helm gets off the injured reserve list sooner rather than later.
That said, he needs to take care of his back to avoid re-injury. He’s been skating and is expected to participate in camp, so that’s a great sign. The roster currently carries two guys new to the team, Daniel Alfredsson from the Senators and Stephen Weiss from the Panthers (although Weiss is on the injured list right now too). Just last week, Danny Cleary locked up a one-year deal to stay as a Wing. This comes after a long summer of negotiations that saw him eyeing a possible move. The Wings are, however, over the salary cap, so there will be roster adjustments before the regular season starts October 2.
Meanwhile, off-ice, there are Pavel Datsyuk’s unfortunate comments regarding Russian LGBT laws (which Mike covered perfectly here). Those comments won’t change his skill as a player, as in potting one against the Pens Monday night and assisting for Almquist, but they certainly change my perception of his character.
As the season gets rolling, I’m hopeful the Red Wings will play to their potential and extend their consecutive trips to the playoffs. LET’S GO RED WINGS!
Editor’s Note: Read all about Jeff’s book, “Hat Trick,” a hockey romance novel, here. And buy it here!
Things got bad right off in the first round.
Looking at the East, only the Penguins made it through. Ottawa, given their season, seemed a good bet over Montreal. I was confident the Capitals would knockout the Rangers and that was a huge disappointment because a Rangers fan I am not. Toronto did almost take out Boston, but Boston alluded that fate and the team would go on to do even more damage to my bracket later.
I fared better in the West. The Blackhawks continued their excellent season and wiped out the Wild. Despite just squeaking into the playoffs, the Red Wings took care of the Ducks. L.A. dispatched St. Louis. However, I still don’t quite understand how Vancouver didn’t get past San Jose.
Of course, with such a bad first round, my second round was pretty screwed. In the East, I was still on track since Pittsburgh did move into the conference finals. For the West, predicating that Chicago would defeat Detroit was a difficult thing to enter into the bracket, but it seemed the right choice. In the days where it looked like Detroit might actually take the series I was thrilled and didn’t care that my bracket was going to get further pummeled. In fact, I would’ve preferred the bracket damage to the painful way Detroit ultimately exited. And, since I predicted Vancouver to take out L.A., my second round picks were further laid waste.
And then came the conference finals. As much as I love the Penguins, they certainly deserved to be swept given the mistake-laden play they displayed against Boston. At least Chicago persevered and I do have a bracket choice in the finals. Of course, I do have that big Penguins logo sitting in the “Championship” position and now that’s very wrong.
I am excited about the Blackhawks/Bruins series. The way these two teams played in the conference finals was great to watch and I envision many overtime games and a seven-game series. Certainly the triple OT of game 1 makes this prediction seem all the more correct.
The playoffs, despite the bracket trauma, managed to do what I was hoping for: getting me reengaged in NHL hockey. I’m already looking forward to the fall when everything starts over. My hope for the summer is that the Red Wings learn from the issues that cost them a 3-1 series lead against Chicago and that the Penguins sort out the disaster that was the Boston sweep.
The regular season has come and gone, as has the first round of the playoffs. Since dead week/finals week/Breaking Bad prevented me from doing an end of the year wrap-up or a playoff preview, here’s a first round wrap-up of sorts and a second round preview for you to digest. Speaking of digestion, isn’t it hilarious that some people actually thought that Ken Hitchcock and the Blues (JAY GALLON) would win the West? I think so.
What happened; In a battle of two future Conference III teams, the Chicago Blackhawks eliminated the Minnesota Wild 4-1. The Wild threw everything they had at the Blackhawks and only came away with one more playoff win than the Canucks. Josh Harding (more like Hard-work-ing, amirite?) started all 5 games in place of Niklas Bäckström, who hurt himself during warmups before game one. He played exceptionally well in the first three games of the series – stopping 103 of 111 shots – before sustaining an injury in game four and being replaced by all-world goaltender Darcy Kuemper in games four and five. Kuemper let in 4 goals on the 33 total shots he faced including the first shot he faced during game four. In other words, he was about as bad as you’d expect a backup goalie’s backup goalie to be.
The Blackhawks dominated the possession game by outshooting the Wild 33.5 shots/60 minutes to 24.3 shots/60 minutes. Chicago’s depth was simply too much for the young Minnesota defensemen to handle. Norris Trophy finalist Ryan Suter’s Corsi numbers could be summed up using phrases like “really bad”, “atrocious”, “laughable”, “worse than Doug Murray’s” and “-22.82”. With a PDO of 935, you would expect that number to eventually improve, but we can still laugh for the time being. There will come a day when young’uns like Jonas Brodin (-6.10 Corsi) and Marco “local grocery store/horrible STI” Scandella (-19.73 Corsi) have developed into legitimate NHL defensemen. But last week(?) is not that day. They were repeatedly worked over by the Hawks forwards and generally looked overmatched.
When your team scores 7 goals in 5 games, you’re probably not going to go very far in the playoffs. Matt Cullen led all Minnesota players with a meager 3 points. That should tell you everything you need to know about the Wild’s scoring problem. Zach Parise, brought in to help a team dependent on Dany Heatley (lol) and Mikko Koivu to score goals, had all of 1 point in those 5 games, which definitely seems like it would be worth $98 million. Look at it this way; Zach Parise is beautiful. Does that make up for his disappearing act when his team needed him most? No. Is it nice? Very yes. Speaking of absolutely invisible, Mikko Koivu, often referred to as one of the more underrated players in the NHL, had zero points. But he also had 8 PIM, so I guess he wasn’t completely invisible. Either Koivu was playing hurt, which I doubt he’d ever admit, or he’s “underrated” for a reason.
The Blackhawks may have dominated against a much weaker Wild team, but there was still plenty of room for improvement. They played strong defense throughout the series, including the relatively new pairing of Keith and Hjalmarsson. Their Corsi numbers were off the charts but the eye test also concurred that they played well. PDO suggests they will regress to some degree, but the fact remains the same.
Nick Leddy paired with Michal Rozsival is a good thing and I’m glad Quenneville hasn’t been stupid enough to pair him with Sheldon Brookbank instead. Rozsival has been a nice compliment to Leddy’s puck-moving tendencies and has provided a calming influence for the occasional yips (YAPP IT) Leddy still shows. Brent Seabrook’s Corsi is decent (12.26) but he benefitted from playing against weaker competition in the Wild and starting 2/3 of his shifts in the offensive zone. He’s looked slow all year and his play will need to improve in order to keep up with some of Detroit’s faster forwards. I blame all of those nachos.
The third line did the real damage in this series. Shaw, Bickell and Frolik combined for 11 points in those five games. Even when they weren’t scoring points they were major factors in each game. Frolik contributed invaluable minutes on the PK, which held the Wild without a power-play goal throughout the series. Bickell brought the physical element he tends to bring in big games, which gives him the space and the 30 seconds it takes for him to unload that wicked wrister of his. He’s going to get a LOT of money when another team decides to pay more than $541,667 this summer.
Full team #fancystats can be found here.
What’s happening; The Hawks will host Detroit on Wednesday at 7:00 PM CST (f*** Eastern time). I’ll be SRO so you should stop and say something. It doesn’t have to be “hi”; it could be “high”, for example. Moving on… after the jumpFor some reason, Quenneville has decided now is a good time to screw with the lines and subsequently, the fans. In years past, Q would always shake up lines if they weren’t producing, sometimes after only a few shifts.
In contrast, he’s kept the lines and the d-pairings fairly consistent throughout this year…until now. Stalberg has found himself in a familiar place; Quenneville’s doghouse. He didn’t have a particularly good series against the Wild, but why is now the time to play mind games with your players? What type of message is this supposed to send, if there really is one at all? It doesn’t make any sense to bench (or at least consider benching) one of the fastest players in the league against a team with defensemen so bad and slow that Jay Feaster just offered them each a 5 year deal worth $25 million.
Dave Bolland will dress for the first time in a couple of weeks. Whether he decides to show up for the game is a different story. Q previously stated that Bolland will resume his previous role as the third-line center, where he’s had plenty of past success. So naturally, Q changed his mind and currently has Bolland slotted between Sharp and Kane again, where he’s been absolutely atrocious all year (-100 billion Corsi or something close). I’d like to see Sharp put back at center with either Bickell or Stalberg taking over his spot at wing. That’d bump the lines to 20-19-81, 29/25-10-88, 29/25-36-67, 65-16-hopefully 28 (Ben Smith), but probably 13/52. Of course, that’ll never happen though because Joel Quenneville.
What’s gonna happen, probably; I’m just going to lay this out there; Original 6 hockey is not “better” than other hockey. Sure, it’s cool to see matchups featuring Original 6 teams but the hockey itself isn’t necessarily any different so let’s stop pretending it is. With that said, the Red Wings/Blackhawks rivalry is one of the best in the NHL and these two teams will go at it 4-7 last times before Detroit gets to stop whining about their travel schedule. Each game these two teams play is exciting and it should provide plenty of entertainment for all involved.
Keys to the series:
More first line production. In the playoffs, you need your superstars to perform like superstars. It seriously pains me to say it, but Toews needs to be better. Two points in five games against a bad Wild team is not acceptable. Saad wasn’t very visible either, registering only one point. Hossa was the only one who played well, tying Sharp for the team lead in points with six. On paper, the Blackhawks forwards should do very illegal things to the Red Wings defense corps. Toews and Saad need to live up to those expectations.
Continued success on the PK. The Blackhawks dominated five-on-five play all year and especially during the first round. That shouldn’t be an issue. They’ll need to stay out of the box against a Detroit team that averaged about 9.4 goals/60 minutes on the PP against Anaheim. The Blackhawks held the Wild without a PP goal but they will need to continue their lights-out PK against a strong Red Wing power-play.
Goaltending. Jimmy Howard has very mediocre numbers against the Blackhawks in his career. In 17 career games, he has a 2.79 GAA and a .905 save percentage against them. If the Hawks can get to Howard early and often, it may rattle his confidence against a team he’s already struggled against. Crawford stood on his head throughout the entire Wild series. He gave up two soft goals – one in game 1 and another in game 3 – but he played extremely well overall to the tune of a .935 even strength save percentage, a shutout, and a 1.32 GAA. Needless to say, if Crawford continues to play this well the Hawks should advance with ease.
I predict a riveting series that Chicago eventually takes in six games (I’m generous). Go Hawks.
The thing is, I haven’t been engaged. The return of the NHL in middle January was anti-climatic for me. I was ready for the season to start in the fall—I think we all were. But as the lockout kept going, the Winter Classic evaporated and the All-Star game fell, my enthusiasm went with it.
Even going to a Dallas Stars/Chicago Blackhawks game and seeing long-time hockey crush Jaromir Jagr play in person couldn’t quite spur me to get into the NHL. That game should’ve done it too since the game was within the first couple weeks of the season start.
As un-interested as I’ve been, I have paid attention to a few things this season:
The Red Wings: Of course I have to at least keep an eye on my all-time favorite team. However, to say they have not done well this season might be an understatement. As I write this they are fighting for their playoff position–a fight that got harder as they lost to the Flames last Wednesday and Canucks on Saturday (although that got them one point since it was a shootout loss). It’s sad to see this once dominant team struggling to get the eighth spot. Will the Wings get their 22nd consecutive trip to the post-season? I wish I could say “yes” with any kind of confidence, but their performance this season leaves me drowning doubt, especially since there’s no room for error in the final four games of the season over the coming week.
Perhaps the season connects back to Glee after all. The show’s fourth season has been extremely disappointing with very few bright spots… much like the Wings’ season performance.
Pittsburgh Penguins: On the flip side, my other favorite team had a great season. There was a healthy winning streak mid-season. They didn’t collapse when Sid came out of the lineup with the broken jaw. They added Jarome Iginla, another crush of mine, to the roster. These guys had a season that I regret not paying more attention to. If anything is going to get me excited during the post-season it’s the hope that the Penguins will crush the competition.
The Winter Classic: The loss of the Classic this past January was something I thought couldn’t happen. I was sure NBC would send a clear message to the NHL and NHLPA to get it together and make the game happen. All I got was more disappointment. Now it is set up again for the Red Wings and Maple Leafs to go at it in the Big House. I’d planned to go in 2013. I’m still deciding if I’m going to try to put the trip together for ’14.
Realignment: Some of the best news of the season, and I know not everyone likes it, is the realignment for 2013-14. I’m thrilled that Detroit is in the East. It’ll be easier to see games on TV. I’ll potentially see them live far more since they’ll visit New York teams multiple times a season instead of once every two seasons. It’s going to be more difficult to maintain equal standing for me between Detroit and Pittsburgh since they’ll be in the same conference, but that’s a small problem compared to the many advantages of the change.
While I haven’t been enthused by the NHL, there’s been hockey that has made me quite happy over the fall and winter.
University of Alabama’s Frozen Tide: The Tide finished the season second in the South Eastern Collegiate Hockey Conference, losing in the finals to Arkansas. The Frozen Tide also made a return trip to the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Division 3 National Championship tournament. While they didn’t make it out of the pool play, the Tide did win a game in pool play and that’s better than they did in the 2012 tourney. The season was another huge step in the Tide’s growth to become a dominant hockey force. I’m already looking forward to fall to see what this team does for 2013-14.
Road trip: I made my first trip to an AHL game when I went to You Can Play night at the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The game was a lot of fun. It was also, of course, inspiring to watch YCP in action during the pre-game talk back and with videos showing on the rink’s big screen before and during the game. Plus, getting to play in the scrimmage that followed was a blast. It was an honor to share the ice with Patrick Burke.
YCP: Speaking of You Can Play, watching them go from their first night at a pro game with the Sound Tigers to the organization receiving the full support of the NHL and NHLPA was incredible. YCP, along with the hockey community, are such a powerful force for equality. It makes me proud to be a hockey fan and hockey player.
Now I’ll spend the next week hoping the Red Wings get it together and psych myself up for some playoff hockey. Maybe the race for the Cup can fully get me back into the NHL fold.