Let the bodies hit the floor
For more entertaining images from tonight's game against San Jose check out our photo gallery:
http://multimedia.detnews.com/pix/photogalleries/sportsgallery/redwingssharks1109/
Pre-game San Jose
The Sharks will be without captain Rob Blake tonight. He sustained an upper body injury in Columbus Wednesday and was put on the injured list.
The Wings' defense will have two it's top six players back. Jonathan Ericsson and Brian Rafalski will skate after missing the game Tuesday with the flu. Brad May and Derek Meech are the Wings scratches.
Mike Babcock talked about Team Canada a bit after the morning skate. He,Ken Holland, Steve Yzerman, Kevin Lowe and Doug Armstrong -- pretty much the selection committee -- met Wednesday night for the first time since the Canadian Olympic camp to evaluate the roster and streamline the scouting.
"We talked about the 46 players we invited to camp and the guys who are the flavor of the week -- the guys playing well right now -- and, I don't know if we crossed people off the list, but we prioritized a group that we are going to continue to watch."
Babcock, the coach of Team Canada, said it would be hard but not impossible for somebody not on the original 46-man tryout roster to make the team.
"I don't know if there's anybody that has a legitimate shot that wasn't among the original group," he said. "It's great to say a guy is playing good, but then ask yourself, who's job is he taking? The other guys aren't giving those jobs away."
I don't know how much hockey fans around here care about Team Canada, but I am telling you, north of border there is no bigger news. Everywhere we went in Canada, Yzerman and Babcock were swarmed by the media, asking about Team Canada. It's like the regular NHL season is just a showcase for players hoping to make Team Canada. Yzerman was on TV up there more than President Obama is here. I can't even imagine the reaction if somehow Canada gets knocked out of the tournament early.
Talked to Andreas Lilja after the skate, too. He's feeling a lot better since seeing a specialist in Vancouver. The headaches have lessened, he's practicing harder and for the first time he sees a light at the end of the tunnel. He still won't put a timetable on his return, but you can tell he's getting closer. There will be a more detailed story in the paper tomorrow and at detnews.com later tonight.
Category: NHL power rankings
Posted by Dana Wakiji (The Detroit News) on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 1:05 AMPower rankings, week 5
There is some movement in the rankings, with the San Jose Sharks getting their act together and the New York Islanders showing quite a bit of improvement. Carolina, not so much. Last week's rankings are in parentheses after this week's.
1. (2) Pittsburgh Penguins (12-3-0): Only two other teams have double-digit wins (San Jose, Colorado) and only one other team (New Jersey) is 7-0-0 on the road.
2. (1) Colorado Avalanche (11-3-2): Goaltender Craig Anderson got his first night off and Peter Budaj picked right up where he left off in a 4-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes.
3. (7) San Jose Sharks (11-4-1): The Sharks are on a roll. They've won six straight games and lead the league with 55 goals, 10 of which belong to Dany Heatley.
4. (5) Buffalo Sabres (9-2-1): The Sabres continue to be a stingy bunch. They've allowed a league-best 24 goals in 12 games this season. No other team is close to that.
5. (3) Washington Capitals (8-3-4): Even with Alex Ovechkin sidelined with an upper-body injury, this team has enough talent to win. But they need to stop taking third-period penalties to do so.
6. (6) Los Angeles Kings (9-4-2): With Alex Ovechkin out, people are going to have to start paying attention to Anze Kopitar, the 22-year-old who leads the league with 24 points in 15 games.
7. (4) New York Rangers (9-6-1): The Rangers are starting to fall further back of the Pittsburgh Penguins, mostly because they are struggling on the road, losers of four straight away from MSG.
8. (13) New Jersey Devils (9-4-0): After a slow start to the season, the Devils are picking it up of late, having won three in a row. Like the Penguins, they're 7-0-0 on the road.
9. (12) Phoenix Coyotes (9-6-0): The NHL owns the Coyotes for now. The team continues to keep all the off-ice stuff off the ice.
10. (22) Vancouver Canucks (9-7-0): Don't look now but Mikael Samuelsson has eight goals, which is what fellow Swede Tomas Holmstrom has for the Wings.
11. (9) Chicago Blackhawks (8-4-1): Captain Jonathan Toews has missed four games but practiced with the team Wednesday. Former Red Wing Marian Hossa could be back in three weeks.
12. (8) Calgary Flames (8-4-1): Including the game-winner in overtime Wednesday, captain Jarome Iginla has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his last five games.
13. (10) Dallas Stars (6-3-6): What would the Stars do if they could actually win a game in overtime? They dropped another one Wednesday night against Calgary when the Flames scored a power-play goal in overtime.
14. (15) Columbus Blue Jackets (7-5-2): Blue Jackets forward Raffi Torres knocked Washington's Alex Ovechkin out in the Blue Jackets' 5-4 victory but they couldn't knoch out the Sharks in a shootout.
15. (16) Philadelphia Flyers (7-4-1): The Flyers have scored 11 more goals than they've allowed but they're stuck behind Pittsburgh, the New York Rangers and New Jersey in the Atlantic Division.
16. (21) Detroit Red Wings (6-4-3): The Wings have gotten better goaltending from Chris Osgood in two straight wins, including Osgood's 50th career shutout. It's still going to be tough without Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula.
17. (14) Edmonton Oilers (7-7-1): The Oilers continue to be plagued by the flu bug, which they very generously gave to some of the Red Wings when they were in town.
18. (11) Ottawa Senators (6-4-2): It's probably not a coincidence that the Senators have lost two straight and center Jason Spezza has missed those two games with back pain. But Spezza said he feels better and might play Thursday.
19. (25) New York Islanders (5-5-5): The Islanders took a while to win one but this past week they won four straight before getting shut out by a very stingy Buffalo team.
20. (24) Nashville Predators (6-6-1): The Predators have won three in a row but now begin a four-game road swing out on the West Coast. Up first, the struggling Anaheim Ducks.
21. (20) Atlanta Thrashers (6-4-1): The Thrashers lost Ilya Kovalchuk to a broken foot but they have managed to win their last two games, including a 5-4 victory in Montreal Tuesday.
22. (19) Montreal Canadiens (7-8-0): Tomas Plekanec has 14 points in 15 games, including five in his last five games. Their next game is against Boston, a team that hasnt' scored in a while.
23. (23) Tampa Bay Lightning (5-4-4): The Lightning are second in the Southeast Division behind the Washington Capitals and may be able to give Tampa Bay fans something to watch other than the woeful Buccaneers.
24. (18) Boston Bruins (6-7-1): The Bruins finally saw their odd streak of alternating wins and losses come to an end Tuesday in Detroit, when they were shut out for the second straight game. They are struggling to score goals.
25. (29) Florida Panthers (5-7-1): Goaltender Tomas Vokoun has two straight shutouts and the Panthers have three straight wins.
26. (17) St. Louis Blues (5-6-1): The Blues got back captain Eric Brewer last week after he had missed 10 months because of back and knee surgery. But the Blues still aren't winning.
27. (27) Minnesota Wild (5-9-0): A two-game winning streak is nothing to sneeze at, especially when those wins are against the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers.
28. (26) Anaheim Ducks (4-7-2): There's no shame in losing to the Penguins, but there is shame in a team with this much talent only getting 10 points in 13 games.
29. (28) Carolina Hurricanes (2-9-3): Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice saw better things against the Florida Panthers, but you can't sugarcoat the fact that the 'Canes have lost 10 in a row.
30. (30) Toronto Maple Leafs (1-7-5): The Leafs are still stuck on one victory but Phil Kessel returned Tuesday night with 10 shots on goal and goaltender Jonas Gustavsson is playing well.
Wings not interested in Forsberg
There's been some chatter on the internet hinting that the Red Wings were among the teams in Sweden this week to scout Peter Forsberg, who is healthy again and competing in the Karjala Cup tournament.
The Wings may very well be scouting that tournament, but I just exchanged emails with Ken Holland and he very clearly said the team had no interest in Forsberg.
Category: Red Wings
Posted by Dana Wakiji (The Detroit News) on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 2:07 AMThis week: Boston, San Jose, Toronto
The Red Wings have an interesting week coming up after their long, West Coast road trip. Original Six member Boston comes to town Tuesday, San Jose will be here Thursday and the Wings visit Toronto Saturday. The Sharks are finally where everyone expected them to be -- back on top of the Pacific Division with a league-leading (tied with Washington) 52 goals. The Bruins are in a similar situation to the Wings', hovering around the .500 mark. Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs have one win. The Wings just need to play like they did in Calgary and make sure everyone stays healthy for a change and it can be a good week.
May stays behind
Brad May stayed in Calgary Saturday night while the rest of the team flew back to Detroit. May got poked in the right eye by the flailing stick of teammate Jason Williams while May was on the bench in the third period.
We talked to May afterward and he said he would be fine. He went to a Calgary hospital just as a precaution.
The Wings are off Sunday. May is expected to be at practice on Monday.
Pre-game Calgary
Jonathan Ericsson is definitely out and Derek Meech in for the Wings tonight. He's got the dreaded flu-like symptoms, something the Wings feared coming out of the sick bay known as Edmonton. The Wings are now worried about the flu spreading, which it has done across the league.
Tonight's game marks the first-ever on-ice confrontation between the brothers Kronwall in the NHL. I was all set to do an early story about it, but Niklas wasn't much in the mood to get into any talk of sibling rivalry.
"It'll be something to look back on later in life," he said. "But right now all my focus is on getting these two points."
The reason the Kronwalls haven't played against each other before is because Staffan has been yo-yoing between the NHL and AHL the past four seasons, with Toronto, Washington and now, finally, getting more of a chance in Calgary.
"He's been trying to get a chance to break in with different teams," big brother Nick said. "He's doing well in Calgary. I hope it continues for him."
That's really all there was to get out of him on the topic.
Category: Red Wings, 2009-2010
Posted by Mike Wilkinson (The Detroit News) on Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 3:35 PMAdding injury to insult
With the loss of Valtteri Filppula to a broken wrist, the Red Wings are now playing without six of the their top 13 scorers from last year. Four were lost to free agency, including No. 3 scorer Marian Hossa, while Filppula joins Johan Franzen in the trainers' room.
The impact? Because of the Wings balanced scoring, the six players accounted for nearly half of the Wings goals last year -- 134 of 289. That's a lot; if Pittsburgh lost similar players (Nos. 3 (Hossa), 4 (Franzen) 7 (Jiri Hudler), 9 (Mikael Samuelsson), 11 (Filppula) and 13 (Tomas Kopecky), they'd have lost just over a third of their goals.
Then there are the 25 victories Ty Conklin had...
May talks fighting -- sort of
Brad May, who will be on the fourth line tonight with Darren Helm and Patrick Eaves, was asked about the growing number of players who love to lay big hits on guys, but steadfastly refuse to drop the gloves when challenged.
"We know those guys," he said. "We don't have to talk about that. They are still good teammates to their teams. I dislike playing against them, no question. But to talk about them and name names, nah. They are quality guys. That's why they have a job in this league."
May will probably have to drop the gloves at some point tonight. Either Zach Stortini or Steve McIntyre will challenge him at some point. May's last two fights haven't gone that well for him. In both, he wound up going at it at the end of his shift. He didn't have many bullets in his chamber.
"I don't like talking about fighting," May said. "My dad and my brother said. 'The minute you start talking about fighting you are going to get killed the next time.' So I don't want to say anything. You will always meet your maker. It hasn't happened yet, but I've got to keep my mouth shut and just do my job."
Mike Babcock is going to keep Valtteri Filppula centering the second line with Danny Cleary and Todd Bertuzzi. He's keeping Pavel Datysuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom together, as well, with Kris Draper centering the third line between Leino and Jason Williams. But look for Datsyuk (his foot is fine) to double-shift on that third line. Said Babcock: "I thought Drapes was good with that line and when we put Pavel with them they scored a goal, so it gives us a different way to look at things."
The Oilers will be without Mike Comrie and Lubomir Visnovsky, both out with the flu. Coach Pat Quinn, with his team scoreless for the last 141 minutes, shook up his lines. He put a slumping Shawn Horcoff (one goal, two points) back on the first line with Dustin Penner and Ales Hemsky.
The Oilers were shut out in their two previous games and hadn't had a five-on-five goal in 10 periods.
Category: NHL power rankings
Posted by Dana Wakiji (The Detroit News) on Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 1:56 AMPower rankings, week 4
The Colorado Avalanche are showing some unexpected staying power, in large part due to heroics by goaltender Craig Anderson. And the New York Islanders are moving up a bit in the rankings. Last week's rankings are in parentheses after this week's rankings.
1. (3) Colorado Avalanche (10-1-2): Goaltender Craig Anderson wins the 13-game MVP with his 10 wins, 1.97 goals-against average and .940 save percentage.
2. (1) Pittsburgh Penguins (10-2-0): The Penguins reached 10 wins first in the league, a few hours before the Avalanche did. Sidney Crosby had three goals against Montreal.
3. (10) Washington Capitals (7-2-2): The Capitals have picked up the pace lately, winning their last five games. Alex Ovechkin continues to dazzle, leading the league with 11 goals.
4. (2) New York Rangers (8-4-1): No team has more than the Rangers' 47 goals but an undisclosed lower-body injury to Marian Gaborik could spell trouble if it lingers.
5. (4) Buffalo Sabres (7-1-1): The Sabres have still only allowed 17 goals this season in their nine games and are 4-0-0 on the road.
6. (14) Los Angeles Kings (8-4-1): Led by 22-year-old Anze Kopitar, the Kings are on a four-game winning streak and Kopitar has more points (21) than Alex Ovechkin (19).
7. (8) San Jose Sharks (8-4-1): The Sharks appear to be coming into their own, especially holding off the Kings in a shootout Wednesday night.
8. (5) Calgary Flames (7-3-1): The Flames lost to the Avalanche Wednesday night but losing by one goal to Colorado and goalie Craig Anderson is nothing to be ashamed of these days.
9. (12) Chicago Blackhawks (7-3-1): Captain Jonathan Toews won't play Thursday against Nashville after getting leveled by Vancouver's Willie Mitchell last week.
10. (15) Dallas Stars (6-2-4): The Stars won a game in overtime! OK, it was only Toronto, but the Maple Leafs were coming off their first win with rookie goaltender Jonas Gustavsson.
11. (7) Ottawa Senators (6-2-2): Ottawa defenseman Filip Kuba is back after missing eight games with a lower-body injury. He had two assists against Florida Wednesday night.
12. (6) Phoenix Coyotes (7-4-0): Just when you thought Ilya Bryzgalov was playing well, Jason LaBarbera comes along and stops 31 shots against Columbus, lowering his goals-against average to 1.59.
13. (17) New Jersey Devils (6-4-0): The good news for the Devils is they're 5-0-0 on the road. The bad news is they aren't winning at home, falling to 1-4-0 after Wednesday's loss to Buffalo.
14. (9) Edmonton Oilers (6-5-1): Ladislav Smid has the H1N1 virus and is one of several Oilers who have exhibited flu-like symptoms. Tell the Wings not to breathe near them in Thursday's game.
15. (13) Columbus Blue Jackets (6-5-0): Columbus goaltender Steve Mason has given up 20 goals in his last five games, including four to Phoenix Wednesday night.
16. (18) Philadelphia Flyers (5-4-1): They have the same record as the St. Louis Blues, but they play in a tougher division (except for the N.Y. Islanders).
17. (19) St. Louis Blues (5-4-1): The Blues won another road game Wednesday night but it was only the Carolina Hurricanes so they aren't getting giddy.
18. (16) Boston Bruins (5-4-1): The Bruins are ranked 27th on the power play, having converted just six of their 31 chances.
19. (22) Montreal Canadiens (6-6-0): Despite getting pulled in a 6-1 loss to Pittsburgh Wednesday, backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak has out-performed Carey Price.
20. (11) Atlanta Thrashers (4-3-1): The Thrashers don't deserve to drop nine spots but losing Ilya Kovalchuk for a month with a broken foot will do that to you.
21. (20) Detroit Red Wings (4-4-2): The Wings are still kind of treading water but got a boost from goaltender Jimmy Howard, who relieved Chris Osgood on Tuesday in Vancouver.
22. (21) Vancouver Canucks (6-6-0): After losing to the Red Wings, the Canucks lost goaltender Roberto Luongo to a rib injury. He'll miss at least the rest of the week.
23. (23) Tampa Bay Lightning (3-3-3): It hasn't been a bad week for the Lightning, beating the San Jose Sharks and losing in overtime to the Buffalo Sabres.
24. (27) Nashville Predators (4-6-1): The Predators have the worst power play in the league but did get a power-play goal in their win over the Minnesota Wild Wednesday night.
25. (29) New York Islanders (2-4-5): Things seem to be looking up for the Islanders as they won their first game in regulation Wednesday and beat the Rangers in the process.
26. (26) Anaheim Ducks (3-6-1): The Ducks still need more production from Ryan Getzlaf, who has just one goal in the Ducks' first 10 games.
27. (28) Minnesota Wild (3-9-0): The Wild just can't get any breaks on the road at all as they're 0-8 and Wednesday they couldn't win at home against the Predators.
28. (25) Carolina Hurricanes (2-6-3): The Hurricanes have lost seven in a row and still haven't won a road game (0-4-2).
29. (24) Florida Panthers (2-7-1): The Panthers are tied with the Predators with the fewest goals (22) and losing Detroit native David Booth to a concussion won't help that department.
30. (30) Toronto Maple Leafs (1-7-2): The Maple Leafs have the Ducks to thank for their first and only win this season as the Ducks gave them 11 power plays and plenty of 5-on-3 time.
