Well…it’s sad day for Red Wings fans with the news that Pavel Datsyuk will be leaving the Wings at the end of the playoff run. Not really a surprise to those of us who follow the team closely, it is still a shock to see one of the best players in franchise history leave with a year left on his contract. But, reading the great article by Mitch Albom in the Free Press this morning, I hope that we all can understand why he is doing it…the pull of family and home just got too great for him to stay…when he talked about his 13 year old daughter and not being able to be there for her, you could hear the longing in his voice and how can you fault someone for that? It has been a great run for the “Magic Man” in Detroit and we will surely miss him…thanks Pavel…..
Tag Archives: Detroit Red Wings
Let’s Go Red Wings!
Well…it has been a nail biting couple of weeks watching the Wings try to get into the playoffs for the 25th year in a row….their play has been inconsistent and infuriating at times but, with two games to go it comes down to winning one of them. Last night, they put in one of their best performances of the year beating the Flyers 3-0 and looking like a complete team for one of the first times that I have seen. Tonight, they go up against the Bruins in Boston and, if they win, they’re in since Boston is tied with us and that will be the four point swing we need….so, the only thing left to say is…Let’s Go Red Wings!!
Some good news in sports…
Well….not sure why I haven’t written about this yet but there has been some good news for the teams I follow over the past couple of days…starting with Michigan just pummeling Florida in their bowl game and it is even more delicious that they beat a Florida team…for some reason, I just don’t like the teams from Florida and 41-7 was a pretty good beatdown. A good way to head into next season….not sure they will do better than a 10-3 season like this year but I can always hope. In a huge surprise, Manchester United won a game for the first time in 8 games and they even played okay…not sure if they should keep van Gaal or not but they need to keep playing in a more up-tempo fashion like they still like the game…it hasn’t looked like any of them really wanted to be out there and that has to change. In the past few minutes, even the Red Wings won a game…not in a shootout or overtime, but in regulation….and that breaks a three game losing streak that they had to get out of since they were sliding down the table toward not making the playoffs….so, overall…not a bad couple of days for sports for me…needed one of those…
Lots of sports…
Well…today is going to be filled with lots of sports and I am looking forward to it…was surprised to find the US men’s junior hockey team playing this morning so that is starting my day off….and once football starts at 4, I’m basically glued to the couch with the Wings coming on at 6…a weird time for a game but that will be cool since they will be almost over by the time State plays at 8….I am looking forward to a quiet day today….not sure why I ever went out on NY eve…don’t like crowds and sitting on a comfy couch is just more attractive to me now….State is a 10 point underdog to Alabama and I think they like it that way…no one giving them a chance…but, I don’t think they are as good a team as their record says…pulling out two wins in the last seconds of games…I guess I’ll have to have a backup to watch if the game gets out of hand early….
A little sports for the end of the year…
Well…haven’t figured out a political one yet so I thought I’d do a short one on sports…I was just going to say that all of my teams suck and leave it at that, but that just didn’t seem enough…so, here goes…
The Lions….what the heck can you say about the Lions? You would think that since 1957 they would have gotten to a championship game even if by accident…but, no…in 58 years, not one damn championship or even a whiff of a team good enough or lucky enough to even compete…and it doesn’t look good for next year, either…but, do I still watch? Yep…but with the understanding that they will be bad…not sure if I know a Lions fan that ever even talks about the super bowl….not in our vocabulary.
The Tigers……boy what a fall for the Tigers…contending for the world series last year and just stinking up the place this year and I’m not really sure what happened….lots of injuries did them in for the most part and staleness of the management team didn’t help…thankfully, some of that has changed for next year but the starting pitching looks like it is mediocre at best…
The Red Wings…after last night’s game, I’m not sure what to think of the Wings…looks good for a playoff spot for the 24th year in a row but I think their mindset is that that is the ultimate goal…just to get to the playoffs…for such a young team, that’s not the way to think…there has to be a loftier goal…back to the Stanley Cup finals at least to get some of these guys motivated….I can’t remember a Wings team that had the swagger they used to have and tuning in to watch we were confident that they would dominate the other team…I want that back…
Manchester United….worst…team…ever…just horrible to watch…just painful to watch these guys play right now and I’m not sure I will for much longer…no killer instinct…no defense..no nothing…looks little better than the David Moyes team…Louie VanGaal has to go…along with some of the players if this club wants to return to the Man U that used to be….I can’t remember the last time they even scored a goal…
Okay…that’s it for now…was going to talk about nascar a little but just don’t feel like it right now….more later…
Some sports…and filler…
Well…sitting here waiting for the temp to come up so I can get on the bike so I thought I’d get one of the last ones for the month done while I wait…so, it’s going to be sports…yay! I just can’t figure out the Tigers this year…at or near first place all summer and then, bang….they just can’t win a game…I was almost sucked back into watching them as they played well this summer but that was killed after they started to play like a minor league team…I’ll be the Whitecaps could have beaten them this summer. Not sure if I have hope that they will be better next year…probably not….but, they are still not as frustrating as the Lions who look like they have regressed from last year by a bunch…I mean, 0-3 already? But, the frustration in my case is over 50 years old and I probably should know better than to have hope with those guys. But, the Red Wings might make me happy this year with all of the young guys coming up and the addition of a couple of pretty good veterans…they looked good in preseason but that is preseason…we’ll know more after the first game Friday. Then, there is Manchester United…who, even after playing like crap to start are at the top of the table…but, I think that is more the weakness of the Premier League this year…..in European competition, the Premier League has been beaten up pretty bad…I guess we’ll see this afternoon when they play Wolfsburg in the Champions League….fingers crossed
Hockey hall of fame…
Well….just wanted to do a short one on our Red Wings inductees into the hockey hall of fame this week….of course it would be Nick Lidstrom…one of the best defensemen to ever have played the game and we got to watch him for his entire 20 year career…but he was just as good off the ice or even better…never heard one unkind word about him in all the years I followed the Wings and I think that’s why he is so missed in Detroit….the other inductee I have mixed feelings about…Sergei Fedorov…while he was a good player with the Wings, I have never forgiven him for taking less money to move to LA…a selfish move that I think tarnishes his on ice accomplishments….and he was never the two way player that Stevie Y was…they had to bribe him to play defense and he always made it known that he didn’t like it….probably should get over it, huh? After all, it has been 15 years…and this was the last one for the month….
Babcock update….
Well…it appears over for Mike Babcock in Detroit…it was just announced that he has taken the job in Toronto for a monstrous amount of money…50 million dollars over 8 years making him the highest paid coach in NHL history by a huge margin….6.25 million a year and the next highest paid coach gets about 3.25 million…so, the Wings offer of 4 mil per wasn’t even in the ballpark….but, I think there is more to it than money…he now has the opportunity to take an original 6 team and rebuild it and try to prove he is as good of a coach as Scotty Bowman…that’s a stretch…. and I can’t wait to beat them next year….
Bye, bye, Mike….
Well…it appears from the news reports that Mike Babcock is going to leave the Red Wings for somewhere else when his contact expires at the end of June. I really don’t think this is that big of a surprise after he decided to talk to other teams about a month ago…I can’t remember any other coach looking at other teams and then coming back to his current team and signing…so, I guess this is goodbye, Mike…it was fun having you in Detroit and I hope you do well at your next stop…..
A little more Red Wings…
Well….it’s game 7 day and I thought I’d do a little commentary before the game tonight…it doesn’t look good for the Wings with Kronwall getting suspended for tonight’s game for a open ice hit on one of the Lightning….no penalty given on that play but the league thought it was a hit to the head…I could see there was a little bit of an elbow but what about the two guys on the Lightning that left their feet to slam Abby into the wall? That hit was worse and they are still playing so I don’t understand the disparity in the penalties. It’s as if the league just doesn’t want the Wings to win…yeah, I know…one guy being out shouldn’t cause the team to lose but when the teams are evenly matched, losing one of your best defensemen can tip the contest pretty easily. But, that just how it is now and Kindle will have to step up and play his best game ever…only one last thing to say…Let’s go Red Wings!