Red Wings vs. Lightning GP...

Red Wings: 14-7-1

Lightning: 11-10-2

Season Series: 0-0

Red Wings Zen:

Point and Laugh:

Video Candy:

This is, indeed, a thing on the internet.  You're welcome.

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Nineteen...

Caption Mondays: TimFill scored a double win this week, nailing both the caption and the trivia.

Turns out Lightning fans don't strike the same section twice.

Trivia Tuesdays:

This week's question: The Wings were involved in the longest overtime game in NHL history. Who was their opponent? Who scored the game-winner that night?

The Answer: They played the Montreal Maroons on March 24, 1936. Mud Bruneteau scored to break a scoreless tie at 1:16:30 of OT.

Caption Mondays Volume 19...

In honor of the international contingent of Wings fans preparing to flock to the Joe this week, here's a picture of another group of Hockeytown's finest who brought their team spirit all the way to the wasteland that is Florida.  It's fun to play Where's Waldo with the Tampa fans.

Red Wings 6, Lightning 2: Post Game Snipes...

• One of my lifelong dreams has been to attend a Wings road game. I went to see them play Tampa last night, but I'm not sure that counts. Walking up to the arena, Wings jerseys outnumbered Lightning ones 4 to 1. I didn't see my first Bolts gear until I actually made it to area right outside of the rink. I expected there to be a significant percentage of Wings fans in attendance, but it was still exciting to see the army of red and white sweaters heading into the building. That has to be demoralizing for the home team/crowd.
• They were giving away noisemakers last night, but I was denied one because I was a Wings fan. I was okay with it though, because I don't have any desire to own anything that features the logo of another NHL team, even if the Bolts are my Eastern Conference secondary team. Once the game got underway, I figured out why they chose last night to do that giveaway: without the noisemakers, the home crowd didn't stand a chance of being heard over the thunderous LGRW chants the Wings fans started. The Bolts fans played the living daylights out of those noisemakers all game long. I found it obnoxious until I grabbed one on the way out. It was only then that I realized why they had been playing with them non-stop: they're incredibly fun and addictive. I used mine to play music to accompany my CD player for most of the trip home.
• I got to the rink excessively early because I wanted to make sure I had time to take a lap around the concourse and explore the only non-JLA NHL arena I'd ever been in. The place was nice enough, but I still missed the campiness of the Joe. The walls of the concourse were covered with giant replicas of front pages of the St. Pete Times from the past. It was more of a shrine to the newspaper than to hockey, which is also my number one reason for wishing against all odds that the Wings will never have to share a building with the Pistons.
• More I-miss-the-Joe notes: they only sell bottled pop there; I keep saying this wasteland is uncivilized and nobody believes me. This should prove it. Food and drink prices were way more expensive than I was used to at the Joe. I guess we really are spoiled back home.
• Call me a sap, but I also missed the old scoreboard at the Joe. The one in Tampa is slick for sure, but I found it hard to read, especially when I was trying to see how much time was left on powerplays. (Old people live in Florida. They should use larger-sized numbers so they can have a chance at seeing vital info like that. I could barely make it out and I'm young and spry.) [The entire purpose of the rant in parentheses was so that I could use the word “spry.”]
• The loudest cheer of the night came (predictably) when they showed Steve Yzerman on the scoreboard before the game started.
• By the time the Wings got the scoring underway, the ratio of red to blue in the stands had evened out for the most part. When they netted their first goal, half of the arena stood up and cheered. There was an entire section in the lower bowl that was almost full of Wings faithful.
• A fun game might be to play Where's Waldo? The Lightning Fan? with this picture:
  
  
  
• The Wings brought their A-game in the first period; perhaps they were eager to show Stevie that he should've stayed in Detroit.
• During the first intermission (and maybe the second—I left my seat during that one), there was what boils down to a zamboni party bus. It was towing the Bolts' mascot behind it on a wake-board. It was...interesting.
  
• Things went decidedly downhill during the second period as the Wings allowed the Bolts to erase their lead and tie the game up. Somehow they managed to wake up again and take back control of the game.
• I managed to get a shot of Abby's goal as the puck hit the twine. It was a really exciting moment for me.
• Here's a SSDD exclusive look inside my thought process during Darren Helm's breakaway goal: “Ooooh loose puck! What a chance to-oh, wait, it's Helm. Crap. Oh my god he scored!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Don't get me wrong—I love Helm as much as anyone, but I'm so used to seeing him go the donut goalie route on chances like that that I pretty much expect it now.
• I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Pavel Datsyuk is a ridiculous human being. There's really nothing more to add about him.
• The box score says the Lightning had twenty shots in the third, but it didn't seem like it at all.
• The final octopi tally for the night was three. One of the arena workers even twirled one. This made me deliriously happy, albeit a tad confused.
• I had a total emo moment during the third period when I started to wonder if it would be the last time I ever got to see Lidstrom play live. Last time I did an internship here, I missed Yzerman's last season. Things like this give me anxiety.

Hero: Pavel Datsyuk
His two goals made my night.

Villain: I'm not making anyone a villain for this game. I'm still in too good of a mood.


Final Thought:
I felt more at home at the game than I have at any point since I've been in Florida. I love hockey.

Red Wings vs. Lightning GP...

Red Wings: 34-16-6

Lightning: 43-17-6

Red Wing Zen:

Henrik Zetterberg

17-44-61, +/- 11, 28 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Teddy Purcell

12-24-36, +/- -4, 10 PIM

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: Drew Miller...

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 10 days until the Wings open the regular season. Get excited. Today's subject:

Drew Miller

2009-2010 Regular Season: 80 GP, 10-9-19, +/- 2, 12 PIM

2010 Playoffs: 12 GP, 1-1-2, +/- 2, 4 PIM

Season Highlight: His flying goal against Nashville.

Season Lowlight: Getting waived by the Lightning.

Drew Miller wasn't really even on my radar at the beginning of the season last year. He was tucked away in one of the league's hockey wastelands, and didn't seem particularly important. He ended up getting waived by the Lightning, which I would consider vaguely insulting coming from the Lightning (of course, this was in the pre-Steve Yzerman GM days). Ken Holland snagged Miller off of the waiver wire (which seems like a rarity for the Wings in the recent past), and it turned out to be another good find on his part.

I was glad to hear that the Wings re-signed him over the off-season. He's fighting for a spot on the fourth line this season and it's not clear what kind of ice time he's going to be seeing. He endeared himself to me last season with his hard work, but he might have a hard time cracking the lineup unless there are injuries. Also, did you know that Ryan Miller is his brother?  Wowzers.

What he needs to do to make me smile: Keep rocking that salt'n'pepper hair.

Draft Nonsense...

I've spent the last couple of days writing about the draft for the Chicks blog. I wrote about the Wings' picks here, and did a shorter piece on Tampa Bay's selections just for kicks.

My very belated season recap should be coming up soon. I'm going to set the three parts to auto-post while I'm on vacation.

New Stomping Grounds...

This past week, I was invited to join the team behind the blog Chicks Who Give A Puck. I’ll be giving my Red Wings-biased opinion about, well, whatever I feel like. I got to know Courtney when she visited last weekend. My first write-up was about Steve Yzerman’s departure for Tampa Bay. I already wrote a piece about it here, but I tried to explain what he means to fans of this team for “outsiders” who don’t get it. It’s a little dramatic and apparently made my mom cry, but you can find it here. I’m going to keep posting stuff at SSDD regularly, so I’m not going anywhere. The Chicks blog can be found here, and this is the blog’s Twitter account. I’m pretty excited about this opportunity. I’ve turned down a couple of offers in the past to join other blog staffs, but I think this is a good fit. Besides, someone has to represent the best organization in hockey over there.

I Won't Say Goodbye...

We’ve all known this day was coming for a while now. I honestly didn’t think he was going to take the Tampa Bay job, but I guess that shows what I know. It could be a lot worse. Tampa is in the East, so we won’t be seeing a lot of Stevie’s new team. I’ve also never found a reason to hate them. My feeling toward the Bolts is best described as “indifferent,” with an occasional tinge of general dislike toward warm-weather teams.

That being said, I feel like a little kid who has just been abandoned. It’s a weird feeling. It’s the same way I felt when he retired. This is the first day in my life in which Steve Yzerman is associated with another NHL organization, and seeing that picture of him with the Tampa Bay lapel pin is somehow jarring. I prefer to imagine that we're loaning him out to Tampa even if that makes no sense at all. I’ll get over it, I guess. I really do wish him the best of luck. I don’t think anyone in Detroit could begrudge his decision to take this next step. I do suspect, however, that I’m going to be spending the next week having nightmares about a Wings-Lightning Final someday.

You can have him as your GM, Tampa, but he’ll always be our Captain. You can’t take that away from us. There's a banner hanging in the rafters of Joe Louis Arena that proves he's a Wing for life. It hurts to see him walk away, but in the end I can't help but be happy for him. So no, I won't say goodbye...just good luck.