Well….haven’t really talked a lot about sports lately but with the debacle that is my Red Wings, it’s time to wade in with my two cents. Stevie Y, it’s time to pull the plug on Jeff Blashill and go a different direction…after all, we are nearing a club and league record of losses and the Wings are in last place so what could it hurt? You have a Cup winning assistant on the bench in Dan Bylsma and even if he isn’t your long term solution, this situation shouts that there is change needed…I know that firing Blashill won’t magically give the team more talent, but with the young players on the team, there is a real danger that some of them could be permanently damaged by losing, losing and losing….and the prospects of luring top level coaching talent for next year is going to decrease with every loss so why not now? I wince every time I see the box score from a Wings game now when I used to look forward to every game and I don’t think I’m alone in that….Stevie, think of the fans who have supported you and the Wings for their entire lives…it’s time to try to give them some hope by doing something, anything that starts us on the road back to respectability…it’s too damn hard to watch my Wings the way things are….
Tag Archives: Detroit Red Wings
Maybe the Wings are for real?
Well…getting up so early has it’s drawbacks in that I already have all the online papers read and it’s only 7:30…so I thought I’d come back here and talk a little bit about the Red Wings. They have been under the radar so far this season…for me anyway, with playing pretty terribly over the first ten games where they only won one game…but, there has been something happening with them over the past two weeks where they have won 5 of 6 games and have been competing with the teams that are going to make the playoffs…one of the things that might be a concern…and is to me, is that they have come from behind in every one of the wins…and three of the wins have been either in OT or shootouts and that is not a path to success in the league. Still, last night’s game was pretty exciting with the winning goal coming with 5.4 seconds left in OT and I guess a win is a win….and now I think I may need to follow them more closely…was hoping that the young guys would step up and at least make them credible…and they are starting to…and there is much more talent just waiting in GR so maybe the playoffs are not too big a stretch? Hope so….Let’s Go Red Wings!
Let’s go Red Wings!
Well….another fall comes and another Red Wings season starts tonight and I am going to admit that I am still excited when a new season starts even though they have missed the playoffs the past two years. That excitement is tempered this year by the retirement of Henrik Zetterberg who has been my guy since he came into the league in 2002 and has made me some money betting on who would score the next goal over the years…but, I am glad that he is going out on his own terms and is thinking about his health and the rest of his life…I am going to miss him but maybe there will be one of the youngsters that will step up and provide the excitement that Hank did over his career…we can hope. The boys have looked good through the preseason but we all know that really doesn’t mean much and the season is a long grind….the one thing I can say right now is that we are undefeated and I will be watching…and will be breaking my no cocktail policy for tonight…Let’s Go Red Wings!
A little sports…
Well…sitting here waiting for the idiot trump to do his next bit of idiocy and thought I’d just do one on sports while I wait…okay, it’s mostly the Wings but I may touch on other sports, too….the Wings looked pretty good last night in their 4-2 win over the Wild and they even scored a power play goal…so that was cool…and my guy Hank got one, too…that is just icing to me….now, I’m not going to get carried away by one win, but they could have gone the other way and that would have dampened a lot of my enthusiasm for this year…it is cool to see the youngsters hold their own and get some goals, too….now, I guess I’ll talk a little about Man U and their start to the year….only one tie for the first 8 games and that puts them tied for first in the league this year….after last year’s 5th place finish, I have hope they will do better…at least in the top three to get into the Champions League without having to go through the Europa league to get there…not much to say about the Tigers other than I am a little curious who the new manager is going to be…I think it’s best to just forget about their season….oh, almost forgot to talk about the Lions…3-1 so far and they should be 4-0…but, they didn’t look good in their last game at all…so all of the hype about the playoffs I’ll take with a grain of salt being the long time Lions fan that I am…that’s enough….
Let’s Go Red Wings!
Well…another fall, another hockey season starts tonight…for us anyway and I’m not sure what to think about it…last year was such a bust with half of the team in a slump that lasted the entire season and not making the playoffs for the first time in 25 years. But, when any new season starts, there is hope that we will play better…we really can’t play any worse…I mean not scoring an away PP goal for three months? I am still going to watch them tonight…and I’ll have my gear on with the hope that they get back to being the Wings again…..
Red Wings….
Well….look at that…I AM going to make the goal for the month with just a little cheating here at the end…..not sure what to say about the Wings…I think they rate right up there on the frustration scale with Man U….after barely making the playoffs last year…or season…it was this year….they look even worse now than they did then…I know injuries have been part of it and the youth of the team is something we haven’t seen in a long time, there is no excuse for not trying the entire 60 minutes…something they have done many times this year. I’m not sure if we have the players to be competitive any more and the thought came to me on the bike today that even Scotty Bowman couldn’t win with this group. So, this looks like the last year for the current coach, Jeff Blashill, if something magical doesn’t happen soon….I need something to cheer about…
A little sports…
Well…I can’t remember a time when all the teams I follow have been so bad…okay…except Michigan, but they lost this past weekend so maybe I should add them to the list. Normally, there is at least one that I can watch and depend on to do well…let’s do a count…how many teams do I follow? Man U, the Lions, the Red Wings, the Tigers…USA mens soccer, Michigan State, Michigan, Notre Dame,….hmmm…I would add some other BPL teams, too, but they are more just fillers when I’m bored…so…9 teams…and they all are pretty terrible right now…but what do you do? I should be used to terrible teams by now after following the Lions for so long but Man U sucking for the third year in a row? And the Red Wings playing no better than .500? I guess it just goes with everything else that is happening in the world right now….I did find headlight bulbs at Rock Auto for 5 bucks a pair including shipping so I guess everything isn’t terrible…just almost everything….
Let’s Go Red Wings!
Well…as I do every year before the first Wings game, now is the time to take a look at the Wings prospects for the year…what the pundits are saying and my own impressions from what I’ve read over the past month or so. Today, there was a long interview with Hank Z in the Free Press that struck me for it’s wistfulness…and Hank’s realization the the game has changed since he entered the league in 2002….he talked about Stevie Y and Nicky and it sure sounded like he was trying to put a good face on the teams prospects for this year but it was clear that this year will be a struggle to stay even where they were last year…and barely making the playoffs can’t be the goal for the year. But, what do you do to change that when the talent just isn’t there? As always, I am holding out hope that a miracle will happen and the youngsters will step up and gel into a team that can go farther than the first round of the playoffs….still looking forward to the season but with more reality intruding than I can remember….but, I will get out the gear and watch every game I can…Let’s Go Red Wings!
Bye, bye Pavel…
Well…it’s the day we all saw coming but we hoped would never get here…Pavel Datsyuk announced today that he is retiring from the NHL to go home to Russia. There is something about Russia that seem to pull it’s people back to their homeland, and Pavel is no different…he just wanted to go home to be with his teenage daughter and the rest of his family…and who can fault that? I will always remember his magic on the ice, and his sense of humor that came through even his broken english….he could do things on the ice that earned him the nickname “the Magic Man” and, as he has gotten older, he wanted to take what’s left of the magic and play in front of Russian fans to finish out his career…he is 37, after all, and age catches up with even magic…we will miss him playing for the Red Wings, but the highlight reels are still there to help us remember what he meant to us…bye, bye, Pavel…and good luck!
RIP Mr. Hockey
Well…Hockeytown is mourning this morning with the news that Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe has died. He was one of the greats of all time, playing for the Red Wings from 1946 to 1971 and winning Many Stanley Cups including 4 in a row in the 50′s. Sadly, his playing time with the Wings ended before I became a hockey fan but his story has been told many times since my son got me interested in hockey in the early 90′s…and what a story. RIP Gordie….