Thoughts on the Realignment...

Now that I've finally had a chance to look at the realignment plans, I'm developing a deep sense of confusion. I actually feel like the NHL might've done something right. That doesn't happen very often, so it's going to take me a while to get used to that fact. It's not exactly what I would've drawn up in a perfect world, but it's a heck of a lot better than the current system. At least for the Wings and Columbus. It doesn't seem like it affects other teams nearly as much.

(Sidenote: All of these news articles are describing the decision as “radical.” Is it really that radical? The new Conferences don't deviate a whole lot from the way things are now.)

I think the thing that bothers me the most is the fact that the Florida teams are grouped together with the northern teams in the East. It just doesn't make sense to me, and things like that tend to annoy me forever. Also, through my Wings-fan goggles, it seems an awful lot like pandering to teams like Pittsburgh, Philly, and Washington. On that note, funny how the coddled little Eastern teams ended up in the smaller divisions, eh?

I'm also not super excited about having to see the same old boring Central Division teams over and over again, but that has a lot to do with the current quality of competition. A couple of years down the road, those teams could change a lot and make life interesting. Well, maybe not Columbus, but you get the idea.

Mostly though, I like the fact that the Wings' travel is going to be cut down significantly. This makes the biggest difference in the playoffs. I've said for years that there would be at least two extra Stanley Cup banners hanging in the rafters from the last decade if the Wings had been in the Eastern Conference. Think about how much easier all of those long playoff runs would've been if they hadn't included multiple trips to the west coast. I've always secretly enjoyed the west coast roadtrips because I like staying up for the late games, but I recognize that I'm kind of strange in that sense.

I think my favorite part of the plan is the potential reseeding after the second round of the playoffs. It opens up a whole array of Finals match-ups that could never happen in the current format. Imagine if the Wings had been able to face the Avs in the Stanley Cup Finals during the rivalry years when they were the league's two best teams by a mile. Imagine the possibility of a “Subway Series” with the Rangers and Islanders matched up in the Finals. (That one was a joke, ok?) The league's top two teams should have the ability to play for the Cup in the Finals, even if they both happen to be from the same Conference.

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Fourteen...

Caption Mondays: Norm killed me with this week's caption.

"4 out of 5 players agree: this team should be in Winnipeg."

Trivia Tuesdays: One of my real life friends from school, Ryan, won this week's trivia game.

This week's question: Which former Red Wing shares the record for most assists by a player in his first NHL game? How many assists did he have?

The Answer: Dutch Reibel picked up four assists in his first career game, a 4-1 win over the Rangers on Oct. 8, 1953. Roland Eriksson repeated the feat for Minnesota in 1976; oddly enough, it also occurred in a game against the Rangers.

Red Wings 2, Sharks 5: Post Game Snipes...

• I got a last minute invite to the game, so I headed down to the Joe straight from work. Unfortunately, I was wearing a shade of blue that was dangerously close to the Sharks' colors. Fortunately, I was also wearing an ugly, old man cardigan that covered most of it.
• Tonight was the quietest I've ever seen the Joe. Even during the first when things were going smoothly, it was quiet.
• During warmups, someone set their pop on the boards. Jiri Hudler noticed and shot the puck at it, knocking it off and spilling it all over. That was about the only good thing he did all night.
• Poor Budd Lynch must be coming down with a cold. His voice sounded awful, and kept getting worse as the game went on. He barely made it through the post-game announcements. Someone really should've gotten the man a cough drop. Feel better, Budd.
• San Jose's powerplay in the first period looked like it was moving in slow motion.
• I was pretty optimistic after the first period. The Wings looked pretty good and looked like they were getting ready to cruise to a win. Apparently they thought so too, as they proceeded to fall asleep.
• The Sharks' goals eight seconds apart just killed everything. What little crowd energy there was was gone, and even though the Wings were only down by one, it didn't seem like there was anything going.
• Why was there a dude in a Rangers jersey sitting behind the Wings' bench?
• I'm not sure if this ended up on the broadcast, but at one point, Homer took a pass at center ice right in front of the penalty boxes, and promptly fell flat on his back. The puck was scooped up by a Shark and returned to the Wings' zone. This is the conversation that ensued: “Was that Homer?” “Of course it was Homer. Who else would it be?”
• There was a trivia question posted on the big screen in which Sid Abel's name was spelled wrong. It's not like his last name is displayed prominently somewhere in the building that could be used for a spelling reference or anything.
• Hudler just isn't working. He makes me angry nearly every time he's on the ice and contributes nothing postive.
• Zetterberg was an impressive -4 on the night. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that he hasn't had many games like that in his career.
• Stop being a baby when you get hit. Just because someone nailed you doesn't mean you need to fight them. Try keeping your head up next time.

Hero: Mike Babcock
“Cute-fest.” I love it. It reminds me of how I like to say, “Awww, you're so cute,” in a baby talk voice to my dad. He usually snarls and says, “There's nothing cute about me,” and tries to do something macho like pretend to be Rocky.

Villain: Dany Heatley
As this debacle was going down, I thought to myself, “well, at least Heatley's on my fantasy team.” Of course, then I realized that since I went to the game straight from work, I hadn't had a chance to set my lineup and Heatley was benched. Thanks for nothing.

Final Thought:
Bert winked and did a finger gun at some guys standing near us during warmups. There's no word on whether or not they made it home alive.

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Six...

Caption Mondays: I'm declaring this week's caption contest a tie because I make the rules and I can do whatever I want. Don't like it? Get your own blog.

From Sara Neuie:
Eaves: Don't look at BizvNasty, don't look at Biz Nasty, don't look at Biz...
Homer: What's with all the homeless people holding rolls of toilet paper?
Tuzzi: I dunno, but something smells kinda funny... and what's with that girl staring at Biz Nasty? Something's not right there...
Biz Nasty: haha, soup's almost ready, BOOM!
Eaves (familiar with Biz's twitter account): Ew, ew, ew, ew, EW!


And from JennHo:
Eaves "What IS she DOING?"
Bert "Don't know but I don't hate it"
Homer "Fer Sure"
Biz "She'll be with me in the pressbox tonight boys. BOOM"

Trivia Tuesdays: Ari Twice from The Detroit Offices won this week's trivia contest. Congrats!

This week's question: Which team have the Wings gone the longest since last facing in the playoffs?

The Answer: The Wings haven't played the New York Rangers since 1950 when the two teams faced off in the Finals. The Wings won the series 4-3 with Pete Babando scoring the Cup-winning goal on home ice in double overtime in Game Seven. Interestingly enough, the Wings had five home games that series and New York didn't really have any. The two road games for the Wings were played in Toronto because the circus had taken over Madison Square Gardens. This was also the year that Ted Lindsay began the time-honored tradition of skating the Cup around.

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).

Wings 3, Rangers 1: Post Game Snipes...

• The first period was quite frustrating. It was one of the better opening periods the Wings have played this season, but they came out of it down 1-0. Luckily they were able to turn things around.
• The second and third periods seemed to go in slow motion. For those of you who think the Wings should move out to play at the Palace: watch the game tape from tonight and ask yourself if you’re really okay with the Wings having to play on ice like that at home on a regular basis. The second period seemed like it lasted for three years.
• Leino finally got benched again. Lo and behold, the Wings won. I’m pretty sure the Wings won last time he had to sit out too, but I’m not willing to go actually look it up. I prefer to make up facts that support my points. I don’t actually think he’s the reason the Wings have been losing, but he sure wasn’t helping either.
• Mickey Redmond actually agreed with the refs on the penalty shot call against the Wings. I’m taking that as a sign of the impending apocalypse. It turns out that we don’t have to wait until 2012 for the world to end.
• During the second intermission, John Keating tried to sing a line of “Pinball Wizard.” I had to blast my classic rock playlist on my laptop to keep from vomiting.
• Fortunately, Shanny’s interview salvaged that intermission. I miss the guy. He was always one of my favorites and as my friend-assigned alter-ego, he’ll always have a special place in my heart. He looked right at the camera and thanked the city of Detroit. It was a nice little moment.
• There was a second there when we thought the Wings had benefited from a bizarre intent to blow call. It turned out that the puck was never actually in the net, so maybe that will counteract Mickey’s support of the referees and keep the world from ending tomorrow.
• Cleary’s goal was a great little lucky bounce. It’s nice to see the Wings get one of those for a change. Especially in light of that puck that trickled through the Rangers’ crease in the first period and somehow managed to not hit a skate and bounce in.
• Draper’s empty netter made me laugh. The Rangers won the faceoff in the Wings’ zone, but it went right out to center ice. A few seconds later, Draper buried it to seal the win.
• Zetterberg’s tripping penalty on Avery was ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as Avery’s dramatic performance to sell the call. He surprised exactly no one by not missing a single shift. Later in the game, he missed a wide-open net and I laughed. Karma?
• I’m not used to getting this excited about regular season wins.
  

GP Answers:
1. There’s no word on the Wings’ starter as of now. Regardless of who is in net, will he be able to make enough saves for the Wings to win the game? That’s all we ask around these parts.
Absolutely. He stopped a penalty shot and kept the Wings in the game during their second third-period penalty kill. I’m still trying to catch my breath from watching the flurry of shots the Rangers had. He had a great game and it was a nice rebound from his previous outing.

2. There’s also no word on Brian Rafalski and his old-man back. Kindl’s been filling in admirably, so will he be able to keep it up if he’s called on again tonight? As I said in yesterday’s GP, I’m not entirely opposed to resting Rafalski as long a Kindl’s keeping things together.
Rafalski in. Kindl out. This question is irrelevant. Rafalski had a pretty darn good game, though. It didn't look like his back was bothering him. You know it's a rough season when you're excited about a Wing only suffering a short-term injury as opposed to a long-term one.

3. Will Datsyuk and Lidstrom decide to wake up and join the scoresheet today? Please.
Datsyuk scored a goal which Nick Lidstrom assisted on, and Lidstrom added another assist on the game-winner, so I guess the answer to this one is yes. Perhaps they sensed that the natives were getting restless because of their lack of production. Now they just need to keep it going.

4. How many saves will Brad Stuart make today? I kid, I kid…
None that I noticed, but he had another great game. And an awesome check on Anisimov. Mickey kept laughing at him for not having his head up.

5. Will the Wings actually show up to play for a change? This is a really depressing question to have to keep asking.
They actually looked awake during the first, which was a fantastic change of pace. They still found themselves down by a goal at the end of the period, but it wasn’t nearly as soul-crushingly depressing as a lot of the first periods they’ve played have been.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Jimmy Howard
See GP answer #1. I still can’t believe the Rangers didn’t score on that powerplay in the third.

Jonathan Ericsson gets the Golden Facepalm
Blown coverage led to the Rangers’ goal, and a hook that led to a penalty shot? Big Rig had a pretty rough game.

What I learned:
Basketball is the worst sport in the world.

Wings vs. Rangers GP...

Wings vs. Rangers @7 PM

1. There’s no word on the Wings’ starter as of now. Regardless of who is in net, will he be able to make enough saves for the Wings to win the game? That’s all we ask around these parts.
2. There’s also no word on Brian Rafalski and his old-man back. Kindl’s been filling in admirably, so will he be able to keep it up if he’s called on again tonight? As I said in yesterday’s GP, I’m not entirely opposed to resting Rafalski as long a Kindl’s keeping things together.
3. Will Datsyuk and Lidstrom decide to wake up and join the scoresheet today? Please.
4. How many saves will Brad Stuart make today? I kid, I kid…
5. Will the Wings actually show up to play for a change? This is a really depressing question to have to keep asking.