Sweet Carolina

<oh, oh, oh>

8th place never felt so good...

<so good, so good, so f***-ing good!>

Thanks to the Hurricanes 5-3 victory over the Dallas Stars last night, Detroit still clings to that coveted final spot in the Western Conference play-off race.  Sure, it's still too early to be excited about being in the top 8, but maybe, just maybe, the Red Wings can find a way to stay there for the next 40+ games and let us get off of these pins and needles.

When is the last time you paid attention to how the Leastern Conference teams were doing against the Bestern Conference?  I have a co-worker who is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, and he and I can now agree that we won Toronto to win every game for the rest of the year, especially against Western Conference teams because Detroit is through playing them.

So whenever an East Team plays a West Team, it's "go, East, go!"

I'm still happy about the "Triage Trio" getting on the ice yesterday.  Early stages, maybe, but it's a sign of good things to come.

From the Free Press ...

“I feel pretty good.  It could have been worse, a lot worse.  I felt my leg go in the other direction, so I felt something was wrong right away. I was just glad that it wasn’t worse. I was in here and they took a look at it right away, and the things that worried me the most, they were pretty stable right away. So that kind of got my hopes up a little bit more. Then the MRI showed there was nothing wrong with my ACL, so I’m happy.”--Jonathan Ericsson

We won't really know how long the Big Rig will be out until the swelling in his leg goes down a bit.  So while we wait, let's see what Ericsson had to say about his assailant, Shane Doan...

"It was a clean hit, it’s just he hit my leg first and just hit the inside of my knee. That was where the big impact was. I don’t feel it was a dirty hit at all.”

I suppose I agree with that, even though Ericsson doesn't do a very good job of explaining it.  Unlike the Laraque hit on Kronwall, Doan did appear to lead with his shoulder...it was just an awkward collision.  Doan is a classy guy too, from what I can tell.  Apparently, Doan went to a trainer to see how Ericsson was doing, and expressed his sympathies for the result of their encounter.

“I appreciate those kinds of things.  Even though it wasn’t a dirty hit, he was still worried. I kind of respect him more as a player right now -- he’s concerned about me after what happened, and it’s nice.”

Very nice.  But you should still line him up next time you play against the 'Yotes.  Hell, I might just gripe about it being a dirty hit when I'm at the game in Glendale.  I don't have credentials.  No access coming my way.  What have I got to lose?

From Khan(!)at mLive...

Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Leino-Zetterberg-Eaves
Draper-Abdelkader-Miller
May-Newbury-Maltby

Defensive Pairings are the usual mystery:

Jimmy Howard (starting)
Chris Osgood

Kris Newbury will remain in the lineup only if The Namesake is not ready to go...

“I felt a lot better than I did on Monday.  There’s no point in pushing it and making it worse. Another day of rest and not using it, hopefully build it up and ready to go tomorrow.  I’ll probably get on the ice and see how it feels tomorrow. If it feels good I’ll play, if not then get some more rest."--Darren Helm

News on the walking wounded:

Center Valtteri Filppula skated with the team for the first time since his injury but did not participate in the drills. He practiced his shot for the first time and said he felt good and is hoping to return shortly after Christmas.

Defenseman Niklas Kronwall (sprained MCL) and forward Johan Franzen (torn ACL) skated briefly after practice, the first time either has been on the ice since their injuries. Kronwall is due back sooner -- early to mid-January -- than Franzen, who still isn't expected back until after the Olympic break.

Excellent news to hear the three of them are all skating.  Franzen has been working his tail off.  I hope that's for his return to the Winged Wheel and not the blue and yellow of Sweden.

Come to think of it...has Franzen officially been ruled out for playing in Vancouver?

Hey not much news going around...maybe I'll just start prattling on about how stupid...oh...I don't know...the Carlina Hurricanes fans and bloggers are.  Wait, no.  Nevermind...I'll stick to my own team.

From the Big Bad Blog's power rankings...

13. (16) 17-11-5   The Red Wings have won 3-of-4 and are getting in gear. But the loss of defenseman Jonathan Ericsson in Monday’s win over the Coyotes could limit their climb.

I have two problems with this.  Teams ranked 10 and 11 are Nashville and Phoenix, whom we just beat.  Would we have beaten them without the Big Rig?  Probably.  Some people might even say with the say Ericsson has been playing at times this year that Doug Janik, in some circumstances, is an uprgade.

For those of you who haven’t wandered over to Abel to Yzerman today, you need to.  It seems that in his boredom, BReynolds at Hockey Wilderness decided it would be a good idea to openly mock the Chief over at A2Y.  Bad idea.

Here’s a little snippet of what BReynolds (Buddha…a self proclaimed nickname..seriously) had to say about the Red Wings’ fans and bloggers:

I don't often read Red Wings blogs because they tend to, as Puck Daddy's Greg Wyshynski would say, be part of the tinfoil hat wearing crowd. Despite the fact that the Wings are a perennial powerhouse team, constantly in contention for the Cup and every other award there is, the fans and bloggers still seem to think the entire NHL fanbase and the NHL itself is out to get them somehow.

So already this guy is throwing his hate in with Puck Daddy, so you know that it’s going to be downhill the rest of the way.  We’ve already heard all of the tinfoil hate and conspiracy theory crap.  We dig it.

 Now what do you have to say about the Chief?

The main poster at From Abel to Yzerman, IwoCPO, is truly the most homerific of all homerific bloggers I have ever read. Is there anything wrong with that? Nah, as long as the reader understands that and takes every word written there with that information in hand.

First of all, you get the name wrong.  I don’t know about this “From” Abel to Yzerman place…never heard of it.  But I don’t think the rest his comment can be debated any better than Nathan of the 19…

You’d have to be a retard to land on this page and NOT understand that it’s a blog written by a RED WINGS fan, for RED WINGS fans, about the RED WINGS.

Posted by Nathan from Jonny Ericsson's ice cream truck on 12/16/09 at 08:52 AM ET

Let’s get to the guts of this thing:

"Writers" like IwoCPO (see what I did there, with the quotes?) are the example NHL teams point to when they refuse to credential bloggers. Bloggers such as him (her?) serve as the antithesis of what most bloggers are, which is fans who have some semblance of objectivity.

Ahem…semblance of objectivity?  So you run a Minnesota Wild blog, yet claim that you have a “semblance of objectivity”?  Are you serious, bro?  It’s a blog dedicated to a team for dedicated fans.  Didn’t we go over this already?

It is also "writers" like these that lead to hatred of the Red Wings and their fan base. Whether it's fair or not to lump all Detroit fans in with IwoCPO, he (she?) is one of the more vocal folks, and attitudes or viewpoints like his aren't exactly conducive to planting seeds of goodwill. Not that he (she?) and every other Red Wings fan really care what other fan bases think of them, but they sure seem to complain a lot about it. Don't they?

In a word: no.  We don’t complain about people like you not liking us.  We dig it.  I bathe in your hatred with pleasure because you know what it all boils down to?  Jealousy.  Old as Cain and Abel (yeah I meant to do that).  Jealous Minnesota will never be the franchise that Detroit is, and jealous that the Chief’s style of “homerific” writing is about a million times more entertaining than any “semblance of objectivity”-laced piece of garbage that spews out of your joke of a blog.

Thank you IwoCPO, and From Abel to Yzerman for ensuring that NHL teams always have plenty of ammunition to use when denying credentials to bloggers who actually have some professionalism. We appreciate it.

Yes, I’m sure that the Chief is the only reason that the Wild won’t let you into the locker room to sniff the game worn jock straps.  Maybe they looked at the picture you posted in your profile…

Hack status confirmed.  This is the guy complaining and making up excuses about not getting press access?  Child, please.

Here’s some of what the Chief had to say in response:

“Buddha”, the blogger in question, is not happy with me and you.  Not. Happy. At all. He’s offended by our bias, offended by my grammar...specifically my selective capitalization and use of question marks.  It literally offends him, or so he says.  Because if you look at him, you can tell that when he’s in front of his AP English class and he’s going all Milton and shit on them? No doubt who the lit expert is.

And he’s just getting warmed up:

For the record, I can’t recall ever writing a word about Minnesota hockey.  We’ve never seen them in the playoffs, play them four times per year? Just a non issue.  I’ve never read a Wild blog because I don’t care about their team.  Is that the problem?  Maybe.

But I don’t think so.  Nope.  “Buddha” is going to prattle on about our lack of objectivity (a new development here) and the wacky way we write (alliteration bitches) our headlines...also something shockingly new.  And he’s going to spend paragraph upon paragraph talking about...grammar, on a hockey blog. 

So which blog are you more likely to read at this point?  Do we read blogs to get news with a “semblance of objectivity”, or do you guys come here because you want to be entertained?  I think the whole point of going to sites like A2Y and to a lesser degree, The Nightmare on Helm Street is both get updates on what’s going on with your team and be entertained in the process.  But anyway, back to Chief laying the smack down…

But you want to know the real issue with this guy?  He wants to take his little itty bitty cybershot camera into the Wild lockerroom, get a snippy snap of Derek Boogard’s back tattoo and the team won’t let him.  “Buddha”? He’s sad.  He’s angry.  He’s a blogger, by god, and he deserves the same access as a beat writer.  But fatass can’t get in and he’s looking for someone to blame.

I don’t give a flying foxtrot if you or any other hockey blogger anywhere has access to jack squat.  Just like I don’t care if the Wild have any games on Versus (do they?) or if team ownership in Minnesota, despite one of the best fan bases in all of pro sports, refuses to spend money on the product. I literally don’t care.  Access wouldn’t make my stuff more appealing to the 19 people who read it. And, therefore, I don’t care about it.  I don’t want it. And frankly, I frigging laugh at the ass-hurt nimrods, whining little bitches, pathetic piss-ant, wannabee journalists who get off on thumbing through a sticky-paged thesaurus, doing their pseudo-pretend sports reporter game recaps on their commodore 64’s while the fantastic beat of Gloria Estefan pounds in the background really frigging loud but don’t worry about waking up the girlfriend or the wife because with that hat? Yeah, not an issue.

Ouch.

Deal with it, or don’t.  But I’d highly recommend you consider who you’re going to slam next time because you’re out of your league.

Understatement of the day.

And any other hockey blogger who wants to claim I’m hurting your chances at the ever-elusive “access”?  You can suck it too because I, again, literally don’t care.

There’s a lot more over A2Y, so go ahead and chime in, whether it's here or at A2Y.  I'm sure this was all just a big ploy by "Buddha" to get hits on his site, but seriously, let us all know what you think.

The National Post ran a little piece about the newest Griffin to get called up to the big squad amidst the nearly countless injuries plaguing the Red Wings...

"I just try to play my game, work hard in practices, and let the chips fall where they may.  I bring some speed and some rough, physical play."-Kris Newbury

I'm guessing we all would have been less surprised that he took a penalty on his first shift we had known this fun fact: he had 29 penalty minutes in one single period during a game with the Griffs last week.

"Newbury understands how he's supposed to play."--Mike Babcock 

Where Detroit stands in the Western Conference play-off race, I think calling up Newbury and Janik (guys with experience) makes a lot more sense than bringing up a young kid to get him some time with the big club.

Right now, we're trying to keep our head above water, so the safer bet would be to call up someone who isn't going to make a lot of waves, play sound positionally, and not make any glaring mistakes.  Newbury might head to the box once or twice a game, but he knows what he's doing out there.  He brings an always welcome edge to the Wings game.

So all of you people hoping for Tatar (who left anyway to go play for Slovakia in the World Junior Championships), just be patient and give Williams a chance to stick his finger in the dam.

"He's a little bit of everything.  He's all over the place, he's quick. He's a big body, but he's got some skill."--Jeremy Williams

From mLive.com...

Dick AxelssonThe Grand Rapids Griffins lost another forward, as Dick Axelsson has abruptly decided to leave the team and return to his native Sweden.

Griffins general manager Bob McNamara confirmed Axelsson's decision Tuesday. McNamara said the organization knew Axelsson hasn't been happy recently, but the move still came as a surprise.

He was not given permission to leave.  You may remember me posting about Jim Nill taking a firm stance with Axelsson by forcing him to stay.  Well my fears were realized and the kid decided he was going to go anyway.  That is very un-Red Wing like.

Oh and we can make it so he can't play if we want to, since we still have his rights.

Some welcome updates from the Detroit News...

The news on Jonathan Ericsson was as good as could be expected for the Wings.

Tests revealed a deep bone bruise on his left knee and in his calf muscle, but no structural damage.

"What I've been told is that he'll be out a minimum of two weeks, but we will know a lot more in a week or so," general manager Ken Holland said.

No structural damage is good...well...as good as can be expected.

Holland said the Wings will recall Doug Janik from Grand Rapids to replace Ericsson.

"Janik has the ability to kill penalties, and Jonathan Ericsson was eating up a lot of minutes on our penalty-kill," Holland said. "We needed a guy with the same ability to eat up those minutes."

Janik, who has played in one game with the Wings this season, had 15 points and a plus-10 rating in Grand Rapids.

Janik looked solid in the one game that he did play.  I have to admit, the veteran looked a lot more comfortable than young Jakub Kind, which could be expected.

And for the best news...

Darren Helm, who has a strained tendon in his wrist, will be evaluated again Wednesday. He could play Thursday against Tampa Bay.

Helm on the night of the Ugly Sweater?  What could be better?

We Injure Numerous Guys Simultaneously

It's been a season of turmoil.  The Red Wings are winning, but keep losing players faster than the Phoenix franchise is losing money.

We win against Chicago, Franzen is injured.

We fought back for a loser point from Edmonton, Filppula gets broken

We sucked as usual against Toronto, Williams falls.

We win against Montreal, and Kronwall gets clipped.

We play like crap against St. Louis, Cleary gets nailed.

We win against Anaheim and surprisingly, no one was hurt.

We win against Nashville, Helm goes down.

We win against Phoenix, Ericsson gets banged up.

First it was Johan Franzen, whom everyone expected to lead our team in goals this season.  I was thinking 40+.  He has an awkward collision with a Chicago player and BOOM; out at least until after the Olympics, though one Swedish doc is saying he should play it safe and sit out the whole season.  It's a terrible thought for this year...but remember Bobby Orr's knee?  Remember?  At least we beat Chicago...again.

Then came Valterri Filppula, amidst a valiant comeback against the Swine Flu infected Oilers, Val took what I thought was a cheap shot from Gilbert Brule (yeah, what a goon) and broke his wrist.  He's the next player due back (pending results on Ericsson and Helm). Who knows how long it will take the Finnish wonder to get back on track.  Maybe just the fact that he'll be on the ice will somehow shake fellow Finn Ville Leino out of his slumber, who knows?  We lost that Edmonton game in a shootout.

And then there was Jason Williams, who was slightly underachieving as far as points were concerned, but certainly overachieving in terms of defensive prowess while playing the the right point on the second power-play unit.  He fell awkwardly against Toronto during another stinker in the Air Canada Center and broke his leg.  He shouldn't be out too much longer, hoping for sometime in January.

Did you see Georges Laraque?  He tomahawks Helm in the face and then sticks his big stupid knee out and there goes Kronwall.  I still think that the "repeat offender" classification, which is vague as can be to begin with, should state that these cement heads should sit as long as they player they injure is forced to.  So Kronwall sprains his knee (and we're damn lucky it was just a sprain) and his out until at least the early days of 2010.  At least we won the game in a shootout, right?

While skating to yet another 40+ shot, zero goal effort against St. Louis, Barret "I never should have won Rookie of the Year over Zetterberg" Jackman decides to lay out Dan Cleary and separate his shoulder.  Cleary should be ready in less than two weeks now, but losing everyone's favorite Newfy was heartbreaking.  Cleary, no matter how bad the rest of the team is playing, will always give that 110%.  Well that's gone now, at least for a while.

The Wings, despite all of the injuries and the crap-tastic offensive showing scattered throughout the first 29 games, somehow find a way to win against a much less goonish Anaheim Ducks.  Perry tries to hurt people with an elbow and a few punches, but he fails.  Bert is the hero of the night.

I don't know what happened to Helm against Nashville.  But something happened to his wrist that shouldn't have happened.  We still don't know how serious it is.  Bert was the hero in OT again.

And finally Shane Doan takes a run at Ericsson and in yet another awkward collision, Big Rig's knee pretends that he's Gumby...Johnny's skeletal structure didn't approve of the impersonation.  Ericsson laid there basically motionless while the 'Yotes enjoyed their pseudo man-advantage.  They scored on the play, but fell short on the final scoreboard.

What an impressive array of injuries.  Basically, these are top 6 forwards and possibly top 4 defenseman on every other team in the NHL.  But for the Red Wings?  They're now reduced to nothing more than roster spots to fill and distant promises of glorious returns.

No one in the league but Detroit would be able to weather this storm...and I mean no one.

The Red Wings' official site...

DETROIT – It's time to pull out the old cardigan and dusk off the worn-out argyle.

It's Ugly Sweater Night at Joe Louis Arena!

Wear your ugly sweater to the Red Wings’ home game this Thursday, Dec. 17., against the Tampa Bay Lightning for a chance to win great prizes!

The five ugliest sweaters seen by the Wings’ promotions team will be qualified to win the Ugliest Sweater Award during the third period. The winner of the Ugliest Sweater Award will be chosen by fan reaction at Thursday’s game.

Ugly sweaters for the game against Tampa Bay, eh?  Well, I think the automatic winner is the person who wears one of these...

Or even worse...

The horror....the horror