Abel to Yzerman
Pre-Dallas Digging
by IwoCPO on 01/02/08 at 06:24 PM ET
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1855: We’ll do the liveblog on this post tonite.
Man…getting old sucks. And no, that’s not a lead-in for a Chelios story. I’m talking New Year’s recovery time. Pepe Lopez appeared again, and the results were not good.
Yes, I DVR’d the loss to our little sisters from St. Louis. Yes, I watched it yesterday morning. No, I don’t recall much of it. No, our lead diminishing to a mere 19 in the Central does not have me concerned.
How will the Wings respond? Oh, I think they’ll be just fine…especially considering the return of the future captain. Fortunately, he returns to a team that appears much more balanced than it was prior to his injury. Uncle Mike’s splitting up the Circus.
“I’ve been talking about it forever and no one ever wants me to do it,” Babcock said of splitting up Zetterberg and Datsyuk. “To me, for us to be the team we’re capable of being, in the end they gotta play apart. But we gotta have enough development of our players so they can. They gotta have guys to play with.”
Agreed and agreed. No way he was going to put Datsyuk and Zetterberg back together with the way Hudler, Filppula and—yes—Samuelsson have been playing. The potential is too great for two dominant lines. Zetterberg-Hudler-Samuelsson/Datsyuk-Cleary-Filppula. Name a player among those six that isn’t on fire. Oh, and Datsyuk?
He’s been named the NHL’s “second star” for the month of December.
Datsyuk ranked third among NHL scorers for the month with 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) and posted a +11 rating in 15 games. He recorded points in 11 of 14 games, including two goals and an assist against Montreal Dec. 4, three-assist games against Minnesota Dec. 7, Washington Dec. 17 and St. Louis Dec. 26 and the game-winning goal and two assists against Phoenix Dec. 29. Datsyuk is second in scoring on the Red Wings and ninth among all NHL players with 49 points (15 goals, 34 assists) in 40 games.
Mark Hartigan’s been sent back to Grand Rapids, as a result of Zetterberg’s return. Homer’s almost ready, and Maltby should be back within two weeks as well.
Khan(!)
“Back’s feeling a lot better, the main thing now is just getting the legs and the lungs back into game shape and the only way you can do it on the ice and getting into some games,’’ Maltby said. “Hopefully about a week of practice and then I’d like to get into a game sometime definitely in the next two weeks.’
And, just as the Wings are getting healthier, Bubba Sr. continues to win despite some fairly significant injuries of their own.
Jussi Jokinen is out two to three weeks with a sprained knee; the Stars have been successful filling holes left by Jere Lehtinen and Philippe Boucher, and they’ll need that again.
“With injuries to key people, we’re asking others to step in and do the job. But they can’t do it alone,” coach Dave Tippett said. “It has to be a team effort. That’s the way we’ve been successful in the past, and that’s how we’re going to be successful in the future. Simple as that.”
Worse news for the Stars, Sergei Zubov has been scratched with an “upper body injury.”
Finally, A2Y favorite photog—David Guralnick from the Detroit News—posted an up close and personal look at a nice battle wound to his eye…and claims it was work-related.
Guralnick, Detroit News
I’ve been shooting the Red Wings for nine years now with only one scratch to show for it (from Homer’s skate). And then the college kids come into town for the GLI tournament at the Joe over the weekend and one of them confuses my head for the puck. I was even wearing a helmet at the time. Six stiches later (thank you Dr. Colucci), here I am.
Sure thing Dave. When you’re describing facial wounds to wives and bosses (especially wounds that occur on New Year’s) always make it an on-the-job injury. No one believes it but it sounds better. This one time in Pusan…
Nevermind. Live blog here tonite.
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