And Then There Was One...

Classic Kirk Maltby.

Kirk Maltby called it quits on Tuesday instead of spending the year in Grand Rapids, thus making Kris Draper the one remaining member of the famed Grind Line. We're one step closer to the end of an era. This makes me feel really old. Maltby's always been a favorite of mine. I really can't remember far enough back to a time when he wasn't part of the Wings' roster. As much as we loved watching him play, other teams hated facing him. I challenge you to find someone in the league who gave a better facewash than Maltby did. He'll go down as one of the legendary Wings not because of his goal-scoring prowess (though Mickey Redmond loved to remind fans how Maltby scored 50 goals in juniors back in the day), but because of his loyalty and dedication to winning. He was a team guy, and we were lucky to get to watch him for all these years.

I keep thinking back to last season when his perfectly-timed shoulder surgery happened to clear up just enough cap space to alleviate the Wings' crunch. I don't doubt that there was a problem with his shoulder, but I will always suspect that he probably could've held out until the off-season if the Wings hadn't had to fit under the cap. It stuck me then as the ultimate act of team loyalty and (as we all knew it would) that loyalty has been repaid with a scouting job in the organization. I love the way the Wings take care of their good soldiers.

Ritola Claimed Off Waivers...

Mattias Ritola is headed to Tampa Bay after he was claimed off of waivers. This vindicates my decision to skip him in my player profile series. Granted, that decision was made more out of laziness than any actual savvy, but it makes me feel good. I know there are some out there who are really disappointed to see him go, but I guess I don't really care that much.

I think the thing people are hung up on is letting go of Ritola's potential. But that's all it is right now: potential. He's got a lot of it, to be sure, but he failed to develop at the rate the Wings hoped and he was out of options. This pre-season was his chance to earn a spot on the roster, but he wasn't particularly impressive. Ken Holland chose to hang onto Patrick Eaves instead, and I think it's the right decision. It's always hard to give up players who show that potential to develop and you definitely don't want to mortgage the future for the moment (ahem, Toronto), but I think Eaves can be part of the Wings' future. He won over a lot of Wings fans last season with his play and his hustle and you can't deny the chemistry he had with Darren Helm. In a perfect world, I would've loved to have seen Ritola pass through waivers and spend time in Grand Rapids, but that's not the way things work.

2010-2011 Player Profiles: Kirk Maltby...

Hey, kids, guess what? Hockey's almost here. That means it's time for me to get back into this whole blogging thing that I've neglected during the off-season. Since I lack the creativity to come up with a new gimmick, I decided to continue the Player Profiles series I did last year leading up to the season. I'll be taking a look at a different player (almost) every day between now and when hockey starts. By my count, there are 11 days until the Wings open the regular season. Get excited. Today's subject:

Kirk Maltby

2009-2010 Regular Season: 52 GP, 4-2-6, +/- 1, 32 PIM

2010 Playoffs: N/A

Season Highlight: Scoring a nice goal in his last game of the season.

Season Lowlight: Shoulder surgery that ended his year.

There was a lot of discussion this summer about whether or not Maltby would be back with the Wings again this season. I was sure the Wings would make him an offer, but I didn't know if he would take them up on it or not. His season ended last year with shoulder surgery in what I interpreted as one of the great acts of team loyalty I've seen in pro sports. I'll remain convinced as long as I live that his shoulder could've held out for the rest of the season if the Wings hadn't been facing a cap crunch from players returning from injuries.

Now he's back on a two-way deal for what is almost certainly his farewell tour. He's fighting for a job with younger grinders, and I expect him to spend the majority of the season in Grand Rapids. He's looked good so far at camp and in the pre-season, but I don't think that's going to be enough to earn him a job with the Wings right off the bat. Younger guys have come up and taken over his role and it looks like we're going to be seeing the end of an era this season.


What he needs to do to make me smile: Work hard when he cracks the lineup and keep aggravating other teams.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Part Three...

The Ugly

• There was more ugly this season than I care to remember. It was a rough year for the team and us fans.
• Brad May’s no-goal was the most ridiculously bad call I’d ever seen at the time. Of course, Jim Joyce had to go and one-up him a few months later (Can you tell I’m still bitter?), but this was disgraceful and bungled by the NHL. Objectively speaking, the May call was worse than the one in the perfect game because of its sheer ridiculousness even though in context it mattered less. This was a perfect example of officiating incompetence by the NHL and makes a compelling argument against the intent to blow nonsense that has been plaguing the league.
• That was the worst incident by far, but the officiating all throughout the playoffs was a joke. It wasn’t just the Wings-Sharks series. I don’t think there was a single series that wasn’t influenced by lousy calls and pathetic excuses for refereeing. Not that any of us should be surprised. This is the only measure of consistency the NHL has.
• The Wings didn’t suffer from an injury bug this season. It was a full-blown plague. There were several stretches when the team was fielding a roster that was half Griffins. The Wings didn’t lose the most man games of any team in the league, but I would argue that they lost more important man games than anyone else. They weren’t losing grinders; it was the stars going down. November, December, and January were absolutely brutal. A casual fan probably wouldn’t have even recognized the team they were fielding during that stretch. Ugh.
• Doanface and Crosby’s Golden Roar were two of the most disturbing images I’ve seen. *shudder*
• Of course neither one of them can hold a candle to the Shetuzzi. This is the stuff of nightmares. Behold it in all of its glory:
  
• NBC and Versus continued to provide astonishingly bad coverage. The announcers are pathetically bad, and at one point, NBC missed a Wings goal right off of a faceoff because they were showing nonsense. These are the NHL’s broadcast partners. I can’t stand when they pick up Wings games.
  

Thoughts? Additions?

Wings 0, Blues 1: Post Game Snipes...

• I missed the majority of the game tonight thanks to a variety of unfortunate circumstances. I guess I didn’t miss a whole lot though. You know, something like a goal…
• Cleary managed to get hurt during the five minutes of the game I was able to watch. This was exactly what I needed to make my day more enjoyable. At first I was hoping he just got the wind knocked out of him, but I don’t recall seeing him on the ice afterward. In his post-game interview, Babcock said he was being tended to in the training room. I don’t know what that means, but the way things have been going this season, it’s probably a serious upper-body injury that’ll keep him out of the lineup for three months.
• Nick Lidstrom apparently hit two goalposts tonight. Seriously.
• The Wings second line tonight was Bertuzzi-Abdelkader-Cleary. Yeah, I said “second.” Not fourth. This is really what it’s come down to.
• According to the box score, the Wings had six powerplays. And scored on exactly zero of them. That’s just not acceptable. The fact that the PK killed off four penalties is a small consolation, but it doesn’t make up for the fact that the powerplay couldn’t find a way to finish.
• The box score also tells me that they had 42 shots on net. And scored on exactly zero of them.
  
• I saw the replay of that no-goal call when Bertuzzi and Rafalski knocked it in after it was covered by Conklin’s pad. I would have loved it if they let the goal stand, but I’m not particularly surprised by it. It was probably the right call, and even if it wasn’t, it was far less obnoxious than some of the other ones we’ve seen recently. Or maybe I’m just too jaded at this point…
  

GP Answers:
1. Abdelkader will be centering the second line tonight, which is not bad for a guy who was supposed to be in Grand Rapids this season. He’s played very well over the last stretch of games. How will he look after getting bumped up to the scoring lines?
I don’t know. The five minutes of play that I did see didn’t tell me much. There wasn't a whole lot of scoring going on, though.

2. Datsyuk and Lidstrom got points on Sunday against the Rangers. Will finding the scoresheet wake the two of them up from their offensive slumps?
Well, that’s a big, fat no.

3. Jimmy Howard has created a huge, giant, enormous goalie controversy here in Hockeytown!!! Now that he’s the shiny, new, official, media-anointed starter how will he look tonight? Having to ask that question every night is no fun (but to be fair, I always ask the same of Ozzie), but he still terrifies me in net sometimes.
Guy let in one goal all game. You can’t expect much more from a goalie in the NHL. The Blues didn’t have a ton of shots, but he made enough saves to give the Wings a chance to win. When you only give up one goal, your team ought to at least get a point out of the game.

4. The Wings haven’t exactly been tearing it up at home recently (1-4-1 in their last 6 home games). Can they turn things around and make the home crowd happy?
No. It turns out that they couldn’t even score a goal. There was nothing to celebrate at all. They're now 1-5-1 in their last seven (got it right this time!), including three shutouts.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Jimmy Howard
I don’t know if anyone else was on their game tonight, but Howard only gave up one goal tonight, and I’m of the belief that no starting goalie who limits the opposition to a single goal deserves to take a loss.

All of the skaters get the Golden Facepalm
Okay, Ty Conklin played well tonight. That's no excuse though. Even with all of the injuries, the Wings still have enough talent that they should be able to put at least one puck in the net every night. Three shutouts at home in the last seven games? Inexcusable. Unacceptable. Disgusting. I don't care what adjective you want to use, that just can't happen.

What I learned:
The fun never stops during Finals week. Never ever.

Wings vs. Blues GP...

Wings vs. Blues @7:30 PM

1. Abdelkader will be centering the second line tonight, which is not bad for a guy who was supposed to be in Grand Rapids this season. He’s played very well over the last stretch of games. How will he look after getting bumped up to the scoring lines?
2. Datsyuk and Lidstrom got points on Sunday against the Rangers. Will finding the scoresheet wake the two of them up from their offensive slumps?
3. Jimmy Howard has created a huge, giant, enormous goalie controversy here in Hockeytown!!! Now that he’s the shiny, new, official, media-anointed starter how will he look tonight? Having to ask that question every night is no fun (but to be fair, I always ask the same of Ozzie), but he still terrifies me in net sometimes.
4. The Wings haven’t exactly been tearing it up at home recently (1-4-1 in their last 7 6 [Thanks to @EtchedInCold for pointing out that apparently nobody bothered to check to see if I could count single digit numbers before they let me into grad school. On the plus side, though, at least I'm still qualified to be an NHL ref.] home games). Can they turn things around and make the home crowd happy?
5. Leino's benched again. In what way will he fail to live up to our expectations for a healthy scratch tonight? It'll take some effort, but I'm sure he'll find a way.

I’m going to be missing at least the first period tonight. I can’t imagine that my group meeting will be done before 8, so I’ll be joining in progress. Also, if anyone wants to steal me a zamboni toy, I would love you forever.

Random side note: Word claims that ‘zamboni’ isn’t a word. This is what the spellchecker suggests instead: hambone, bambini, ambones, mamboing, and sambaing. I had to look up what an ambon was, and nearly got sent back to kindergarten because it took me three tries to realize that mamboing was referring to doing the mambo (and not pronounced mom-boing) and that sambaing was the same thing but with the samba (and not pronounced Sam-bang).