Hey gang,

I have another bone to throw at you in the form of another new Red Wings blog to welcome into the fold.

Wings Win, Eh?

The dude who runs it, Rob, is from Windsor so Eats and the rest of you Canadians readers here at NOHS already have three things in common right out of the gate...

1. You're from Canada
2. You love the Red Wings
3. You're angry about what happened last night

So head on over to WWE (nice) and say hello, but as always, you have to promise to come back.  Welcome aboard, Rob.  Now don't let us down.

...last night's game was bigger than I thought.  Just check out these standings:

Anybody see that coming?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?  That game had quite the impact on everyone's road to the gold.  For a full play-off bracket, click here.

What securing that #1 seed did was ensure that we (USA) don't see Sweden, Russia, or Canada until the Gold Medal Game...sweet.  There's no "easy" road, but the USA will walk the path of lesser resistance to the medal round.  Switzerland, Belarus, Czech Republic, and Finland are all potential opponents.  I'd say that's a little more favorable than Norway, Germany, Russia, Canada, and Sweden.

That win for Team USA was huge.  But there's still a lot of hockey left to be played.

We already knew that Hockey Canada loved them some Red Wings hockey (except for Brian Rafalski as of this morning).  They hired one of our vice-presidents, our general manager, our head coach, and apparently a few fans along the way as well.

Canada's Olympic Women's Team forward Meghan Agosta told the Windsor Star about how she brought her #40 Henrik Zetterberg Red Wing jersey to Vancouver with her, in case she got a chance to meet the Swedish sniper.

She got her chance:

"I was at the (cafeteria) with (teammate) Jayna Hefford.  So we're sitting there and all of the sudden, Jayna has this weird look on her face. I'm like, 'What?' She said, 'He just walked in.' I turned around and he was there.  I walked back with the jersey and got him to sign it," Agosta said. "I was pretty shy to ask (Zetterberg) because I don't want to bother those guys."

Easy, Meghan...you're cute and all, but you're no Emma.  Sorry.

And this has been yet another installment of "Obscure Red Wings Fan Discovery".  I hope you enjoyed finding out that our fandom knows no bounds.

First the World Junior Championship and now this...USA is on a roll against Canada this year.

A three point night for the Red Wings' own, Brian Rafalski.  He scored 4 in a row for Team USA as his pair from the Norway game spilled into another pair of g-notes in last night's slug fest against the Canadians.

"I think I'm going to let Rafalski plant his seed in (my girlfriend) Brittany"--text from my buddy Phil last night after Raf popped in his second of the night.  That kind of sums up his performance doesn't it?

Obviously Babcock, Kenny Holland, and Stevie-Y are feeling bitter about the loss, but c'mon...that have to feel a little bit of happiness for Rafalski and the way he's playing.

Final thoughts on last night's game...

• Ryan Miller once again wasn't fantastic, but played well enough to win
• Ryan Callaghan has a bunch of new fans
• So does Brian Rafalski
• That looked like and old fashioned Red Wings game (Canada being the Red Wings), whereby the Canadians pretty much dominated the play, but the USA capitalized on almost every singe scoring chance they got
• That game could have easily went either way, with blown chances by both teams
• Three breakaways in like 10 seconds...crazy
• Why is Brendan Morrow on team Canada?  Did he even play after the 1st?
• USA! USA! USA!
• There is a lot of pressure on both teams now.  Everything that could have been will come pass to they lose another game before the medal round and the Americans have a giant bulls-eye on their back now.
• This game wasn't as big as USA vs USSR in 1980, though I'm sure it will draw some comparisons today.  Team USA beat the Ruskies in the medal round back in '80, this year's team could see Canada again before it's all said and done.  It's a big win no doubt, but there's a lot more work to be done.

If you don't think that was an exciting game last night, you're a bitter, bitter, Canadian, or you're not a real hockey fan.  What a game.

So I figured I'd give an update of how the Wings are doing over in that little tourney that is going on over in Vancouver.  Good to see the Mule get on the board.  Raffy is leading the Wings with two points and two goals.

From the New York Times...

“This is going to be unbelievable.  It’s going to be on every TV in Canada and a good number in America. Anyone who is a hockey fan will be watching.  It’s going to be a great day for hockey.”--Ron Wilson (former Red Wing whipping boy) Team USA Head Coach

Tomorrow will prove if Brian Burke knew what he was doing by switching to a younger, more in-your-face version of hockey for the United States.  It will be Canadian GM Stevie Y's biggest test to see if he picked the right men for the job.

No Red Wings will find themselves on opposing ice tomorrow, one team has but one player and no management, the other has most of the management and no players.

...should be interesting.

Out of Friday boredom, I decided to wander back over into the Hockey Wilderness to see if our boy, Pinky was up to no good again.  I was extremely disappointed in what I found...not in his writing, mind you, it's as lame as ever.  But just look at his new profile pic:

No Judge Smails hat?  No MGD deuce-deuce?  And he has his hands at his side?  That's just straight bunk.  I can't for the life of me think of any reason why someone would want to change this...

...as their photographic window to the internet world.  So he donned the shades, a baseball cap and went fishing.  But don't worry, the true Pinky will never be forgotten.  And since you're busy playing with your pole, let us handle the MGD...

There ya go.

It could have been titled: "Trev takes On - Holding Back Tears".  In his latest post on foxsportsdetroit.com, Trevor Thompson laments the waiving of Brad May.  I'm starting to like these reads, though obviously John Keating is a lot funnier than Trevor Thompson.  But anyway...

The team tough guy is always a fan favorite. I can tell you, firsthand, that he's also almost always one of the nicest, funniest, personable, well-thought-of players in the room -- and often gives the best interviews.

There he goes, waiving that all and powerful access in our faces...Pinky would be furious.  It won't even be the last time Trev throws a covert "look what I get to do" at us in this article.  But let's move on to the guts of this thing... 

I hate to see him go. I wish a different move had been made, but it's not my call. This is what the salary cap does to teams. GMs are forced to make tough calls and live with them.

And what, pray-tell, would have been the different move that you would have made should the call have been yours?  I'm quite curious.  Would you waive both Meech and Lebda (tempting) in order to keep Brad May around?  Okay, maybe that's the wrong question to ask. Let me put it another way; now that Boogerman Leino is gone, which forward do you sit in order to put Brad May in the lineup?

Forget about that for a second and just listen to this charming little tale...

In his last interview with me (which wasn't really an interview) May participated in a segment of "Trev Takes On" in which we went at in Wii Boxing. It was hilarious and we had a blast. He was a joy to work with, although I did work him over for the win.  He didn't like that one bit, but he sucked it up with grace and moved on. I'm imagining the same could be said when he was given the news about his future with the Wings; he didn't like, but he sucked it up with grace and professionalism.

Touching, no?

Turning a few stripes and a pair of pants from red to blue took entirely too long.

What do you think?

I'll keep it up for the duration of the games.  USA! USA! USA!

If you happened to glance at the bench for Belarus recently, you might recognize a familiar face...

Запомніць мяне? Сволачы абвінавачвалі мяне за ўсё.

Yeah, it's former Detroit Red Wings assistant coach / head coach / scape goat Dave Lewis.  Confirmed here at the Belarusan Telegraph Agency's website:

Headcoach of Belarus Mikhail Zakharov is assisted by Dave Lewis.

So Lewis is a Canadian...yet he's coaching for Belarus...weird.

But he isn't the first to do something like this.  In fact, the late great Herb Brooks actually coached France's team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano before returning to Team USA in 2002.

A beer at H2H to the first person who correctly translates what I have Dave Lewis saying...