Well...we have our answer.  This version is via Khan(!):

The Red Wings will have defenseman Andreas Lilja back on their roster and presumably in the lineup Monday at Colorado, their first game after the Olympic break. But they will not have forward Kirk Maltby for at least the remainder of the regular season because he has opted to have surgery early next week on his chronically sore right shoulder.

So there you have it.  Looks like Jason Williams is staying (for now).  Malts, as expected, is disappointed, but is handling it with class...

"It kind of stinks, not how you want to finish a year, but when you can't do certain things and play the way you want to play on a consistent basis, it's something that had to be addressed, whether it was sooner or later.  I ended up playing with it all year. Now that the club's getting a lot healthier, it's an easier decision to do it now. 

Hopefully, there's no surprises when they (operate), which I don't expect there will be, and just take care of business, get it rehabbed as quick as possible, get back into game shape and hopefully be ready to help the team make a run in the playoffs."

Now the question becomes; which Lilja will be returning to action?  The one that started to win us over in 2009, or the guy who pretty much cost us the Cup in 2007?

Interesting day of hockey yesterday, no?

Only one of these teams will not be receiving a medal.

I have a really busy day today, but I promise that we'll discuss what happened yesterday in the quarterfinal games...eventually.

Maltby got his third cortisone shot into his shoulder (the maximum that you can receive in one year) and is hoping that this one will get him through the rest of the season, according to the Free Press:

“We’ll see how it feels over the next few days and how it reacts to getting back on the ice, but I would love to play the rest of the season and into the playoffs.”--Kirk Maltby

Those players not in Vancouver today for the Olympics will be taking the ice for practice at 2:00 PM EST.  Maltby, who has earned the right to at least be heard, had this to offer in terms of going on LTIR in order to free up Gary's Cap space for Lilja...

“That’s not my department, to worry about the salary cap and who may have to be moved,” he said. “I know we’re right there and if Lils comes off, something has to be done. Basically right now, though, it’s a lot of what-ifs. 

I’m a realist in that I know I’m on the tail end of my career, but I really want to play. I felt like this year, as far as my legs and my body, it’s held up pretty good. With the way the league is now, as long as you can skate, you’re able to play. I feel I can still contribute and help this organization win, not just this year, but maybe one more year. I do feel like I can fit that role of being a leader and still contributing in a limited role, especially as a penalty killer.”

Well...I'm sure Kirk and Kenny Holland are going to have a nice long chat once Tick Tock gets back from Vancouver.  What to do...what to do?

A 3:00 PM EST start time means that I am leaving the office at 2:30 PM to see Team USA take on the Swiss (again).  Hopefully we get the same outcome as last time.  Depending on how that game goes, I'll be following the Finns and Czechs fairly closely when they square up at 9:00 PM EST.

...oh and apparently some team from up North is playing Pavel Datsyuk's team tonight as well at 9:30 PM EST.  I won't be able to watch much of that live, since I have a Men's League game myself this evening.

I didn't stay up to watch the game last night...but you can bet I'll be hitting up the Winter Olympics on Demand when I get home this evening to check out the hit that Detroit's own Ole-Kristian Tollefsen delivered to Lubos Bartecko in last night's quarter-final game.

Apparently, Bartecko was carried off on a stretcher and OKT got himself a one game suspension.  Promting MaryAnne Hossa to say this:

“You hate to see elbows in the face like that and that was one of the ugliest I’ve ever saw.  That guy should be suspended for a long time. It’s difficult when you see a teammate going down like that.”

I'll wait to pass judgement until after I see the hit for myself, but I think we can all collectively say: "Shut the f**k up, Hossa."

From the Free Press...

Zetterberg was among the first 22 inductees Monday into the Triple Gold Club at Vancouver: players with a Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold medal and a world title (even though the Cup is silver).

Seven of them won the Cup as Wings: Zetterberg, Slava Fetisov, Igor Larionov, Brendan Shanahan, Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall and Mikael Samuelsson.

I miss Sammy a lot more than I thought I was going to, and I think Detroit does too.  Sure, I don't miss all of the blown shots high and wide.  I don't miss the puck smacking against the glass of whatever goalie is playing against us.  But Sammy's real worth came in the defensive zone.  His predilection to taking bad shots in the offensive zone I think overshadowed just how hard that guy used to work in the defensive zone to make sure to get the puck out.  I wonder if Hudler had told us he was leaving to begin with, would we have re-signed #37?

Zetterberg is sick, no matter how many times Rosby tries to tell us that "anyone would have made that play"...

Lidas är kung!  Nothing more needs to be said about Lidstrom.

Kronwall needed to drink more milk growing up, but when he's actually healthy, he's a beast.  He's quickly becoming a premiere defenseman in the NHL.  He's still young enough to get better which is good, because when we lose #5 to retirement, we'll need #55 to play twice as good to help fill the hole.

Not because of the hockey, but because of this man:

The simplicity of this is the real art.

How do use "disjointed" four times in 20 seconds???  How can Germany score a goal, and somehow you still talk only about Crosby?  How is your head that shiny?

For the love of all things holy, SHUT UP for three seconds man. Wonder why the USA/Canada game was so great to watch?  Turns out, it was because McGuire was nowhere to be found.

There is even a petition to remove him from TSN.  Make it happen NBC/TSN.  He is ruining hockey for me.

To:  TSN

We the people of Canada demand higher standards for the colour commentary of our national sport. Pierre McGuire has raised the ire of Canadians across the country. We recognize that Pierre McGuire continuously speaks about the game of hockey as though he were the chap who first came upon a frozen mottle of cow business and decided to whack it around with some wood. Sure, we can all put aside his regal 93-94 season in which he took the helm as interim coach of the Carolina Hurriances. In that season he shone his glorious omnipotent beam of hockey knowledge upon the dark skies of the carolina tarfields, leading them to a 23-37-7 rcord. While he may always be able to hold this accomplishment over the head of anyone who questions his rink prowess, it does not stop us the people from standing up to this little man. His constant browbeating analysis of the minutiae of every mistake during every second of the entire game amounts to nothing more than an auditory garbagecan. Furthermore, the constant repeating of the same points over and over ad nauseum, have left many of us nauseous before the end of the 1st.

We wish to ask Pierre McGuire to reaize that his falsely inflated hockey ego has reached epic proportions and that he must step down in order to keep the integrity in the game.

Sincerely,

http://www.petitiononline.com/mcguire/petition.html

Has the world gone crazy when I actually agree with something Lil Gary Bettman says?

Bettman states that the Olympics shutdown costs the NHL money, disrupts the season, and has other issues including:

1. The control the IOC asserts over rights and media access
2. NBC’s terrible scheduling of Olympic matches on little brother networks that many people don't even have access to
3. The obvious risk of injury to its best players.

Before this Olympics, I wouldn't have thought the risk of injury was all that great.  But after watching the preliminary games, my mind has been dramatically changed.  These boys are out to hurt each other.  When Bobby Ryan is cannon ball-ing Corey Perry (he won brownie points with me for that), something tells me that the Olympians really don't give a hoot about who's a teammate back in the NHL sandbox.

NBC's coverage is absolutely horrible and everyone knows it.  What's the solution?  Give it to VS?

The IOC is a bunch of politically correct-obsessive twits...as opposed to the hypocritical twits running the NHL right now.

So are there issues?  Of course there are.  Solutions?  Not so black and white.  And I hardly think Gary Bettman is the man to solve them.  Bottom line is that I think that the NHL players should be involved if you're looking to find out who's the best of the best (sorry, Mike Green).  And guess who agrees with me?

“It’s great for the league and hockey as a whole, a chance to showcase the best players in the world on a world stage.”--Nick Lidstrom

However, Gary's not convinced that the Olympics does more good than harm to the NHL...and I just can't say that I completely disagree with him.

So yesterday I introduced you to Wings Win, Eh?, the newest member to the Red Wings blogging community (as far as I know).  The one thing that I told Rob over there that he needs is a banner.

I pitched him the idea of running a contest to make you people do his job for him and he liked it.  Actually, Rob, like myself, are not gifted in the ways of photo shop and could use all the help we can get.

So c'mon, peeps...help a brother out.

He keeps it pretty simple:

Guidelines: Try to incorporate the blog name, with a little bit of Canada and a little bit of the Red Wings.

See if you can beat this...

This made me laugh, so I figured I'd pass it on to you.  Here's the prelude via macleans.ca:

I had a late lunch yesterday at a bar on Robson and overheard a few guys analyzing the performance of Canada’s men’s hockey team. I thought you’d appreciate hearing their input since they seemed pretty confident they had it all figured out. That’s why I took notes. I guess what I’m saying is: Give this a read and it’s pretty much “Good night, Germany.”

P.S. The language they used was a little saucy so I took the liberty of replacing the “f-word” with the names of various Osmonds.

I had no idea that there were this many Osmonds...but let's get to the conversation:

Guy1: Here’s one thing I don’t Donny get. This Merrill business about chemistry.

JFM: Marie right.

Guy1: You’re making $40 million Jimmy dollars a year or whatever, you should be able to step on the Merrill ice and say, “Hi, my Alan name is Sidney Donny Crosby, let’s go score some goals together.”

JFM: Marie right.

Guy3: One of those Jay guys came in here right now, I’d say it to their Alan, Merrill face.

JFM: Marie.

Guy1: You’re playing in your own Jimmy backyard. I just don’t Wayne understand.

[Long pause. Some contemplative beer drinking.]

Guy3: What you gotta Merrill do is go into that Donny dressing room and kick some Alan ass. These guys are so Jay pampered.

JFM: Marie right.

Guy3: Get in there and tear a Donny strip off ’em!

Guy1: Motivate ’em.

JFM: True. Marie true.

[Another pause.]

Guy1: Donny Brodeur.

Is 'tear a Donny strip off' 'em' good enough for a new phrase to use around here? 

I think so.