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Abel to Yzerman

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More Equal Than The Others?

by IwoCPO on 11/29/08 at 06:35 AM ET
Comments (8)

Uh oh.  This may get interesting, and we may be looking at a sure indicator as to who will be leaving when The Decision needs to be made by our hero Tick Tock Kenny Holland. 

Marian Hossa, after scoring two goals last night, gathered the Diggers ‘round his locker and said that after one quarter of the season there are two things he’s asked the organ-I-zation:  (1) Permission to stay in separate, more expensive, accommodations on the road and (2) a season-long exemption from practice, saying he gives 100 percent every game and that practice would take an unnecessary toll on his body.

That would suck if it really happened.  But it didn’t. Not one word of it.  But...imagine with me for a second the reaction of Wing fans, and the entire hockey-loving world.  Oh, the torches would be lit.  I’ve been thinking about this since I read that Mr. Character, Allen Iverson, decided to skip a “mandatory” Thanksgiving Day practice.  We’re not talking about a fairly innocent mistake.

This was a deliberate slight to the franchise and his teammates.  And you just don’t see things like that happen in hockey.  But, and raise your hand if you’re surprised by this, Drew Sharp wants you to know it’s....ok.

But Curry cannot forget that coaching superstars in the NBA remains part message, part massage.

He must communicate what he expects from Iverson as the stranger still learning how to best coexist with his new teammates, but Curry must also give Iverson the proper latitude in self-determining how A.I. can best maximize the remaining basketball gifts available to him.

Read the rest.  Our pal Drew sanctioning the coddling of a star athlete.  It’s pathetic, and predictable.  It’s the NBA and it’s Drew Sharp and I’m happy like a school girl that I don’t have to deal with either one of them. 

Seriously...can you even imagine a Detroit Red Wing skipping a mandatory anything? 

Oh, and guess what?  Boston’s the new Minnesota.  Oh yes.  Remember?  St. Paul annointed the “real Hockeytown”?
Bob Ryan says Boston’s up there now too.  Oh yes.

So here come the Stanley Cup champion Red Wings tonight, hoping to wipe the smiles off the faces of all these players, coaches, management figures, and fans who are reveling in this hockey renaissance in America’s oldest and best hockey city.

Bring ‘em on, I say. It’s a fair fight now.

Yeah. He’s probably right.  Boston’s the best hockey city in America.  And that’s why Ryan, Boston’s own Delicate Genius, hasn’t typed the word “Bruin” in any column other than today’s since last April. 

Hockey renaissance indeed.

So, guess what I’m reading the morning after every home game?  Ok...I’ll pause a second while all you smartasses reply with “Osgood: 3 GAA”.  Done? Great. 

MacLeod.  His blog’s got a new look, a heavy Oakland Press presence, and he’s been giving us something very consistently: his impressions of the previous night’s game.  I dig it, so to speak.

Henrik Zetterberg was flying tonight. I thought he was the best forward for Detroit. He’s had a better season than Pavel Datsyuk thus far. And have you noticed that Zetterberg’s all-Swede line with Mikael Samuelsson and Johan Franzen has become the shut-down forward line instead of the Datsyuk line? I think the Datsyuk line was thrown out against the top opponents at the beginning of the season, but that role now belongs to Z’s line. When Kristian Huselius and Rick Nash were on the ice, so were Zetterberg, Franzen and Samuelsson.

I hadn’t noticed Zetterberg’s line as the prominent shutdown line. Had you?  But now that we have it’s time to start the campaign, Z for the Selke. 

Wow. Look how far we’ve gone into this post without mentioning Chris Osgood getting violated from center ice. Awesome.  Hey, had you forgotten what it was like to throw up in your mouth every time the opposition lets one fly from ninety feet?  Really? Well gather the kids around, break out the Nog and everybody start swaying back and forth because nothing says family fun like wondering if our starting goaltender has enough time to position himself to stop a puck that began its travels in Midland.

3. Goals. Against.  3 Goals. Against.  Fork. In. My. Temple.  Last time he didn’t let in 3?  Oh, whew.  Because I wanted to remember this today.  November 11th when he gave in 7 to Thid and and his boys.

Cool. Check this out.  Out of his 14 starts, Osgood’s let in less than 3....three frigging times.  Break out the slide rule bitches ‘cause it’s time for some cipherin’.  He’s let in three or more goals eleven times so far, eh? 

Yeah.  Last year?  16 times total.  Oh and last year at this time, Osgood had 16 starts.  He’d given up 24 goals on 316 shots. 

This year? Check this out.  14 starts.  46 goals.  376 shots.  Extrapolate a bit then get back to me.  Two more starts, a roughly equal amount of shots as the total after sixteen games last season.  But 22 more goals.  Thankfully, only one from center ice.

25 percent of the season is gone and here’s what we know about our goaltending:  our starter, statistically, is worse than he was last year with the same amount of chances to stop pucks.  Way, way worse. 

But hey.  Ozzie’s optimistic.

“As of right now, I’m just not getting any bounces whatsoever,” said Osgood. “The old cliché, you know how much I like those, you’d rather have them now than later. You’d love to get on a huge roll where you get some shutouts and one-goal games. I’m on the cusp of that. I’m just waiting for it to happen. ... It sure isn’t pretty. But you’re getting wins and that’s what matters the most. I know it’s going to turn and things are going to catch on fire. It will be awesome in the next week or two.”

Cool.  We’ll be waiting.

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Comments

Morning Sir. Missed out on the live blog watching the game out n about last night.
First frigging thing out of my mouth was NOT AGAIN on the 3rd goal off the freaking pond skimmer. Puke in the mouth indeed. To Ozs’ credit, he did make some good saves after that, so the ghosts of years past didn’t carry on past the red lamp.
Get this $hit out of our g’damn system already. Sitting on frigging pins n neddles against the BJ’s is ridic. Have a repeat performance tonight and the B’s will skate circle round us. I’ve been thinking we’re clicking on about 60-70% of our capability, I’m almost going to down grade that to about 50%. Why though? Intensity? Passion? Motivation? Don’t get it.... we’re just mushy as a team.  We kicked this ball around in the discussion of the “C”, I still don’t think we answered it. At the 1/4 season mark, these “bugs” should have been worked out of the system by now, ergo they’re not going to solve themselves. Who is going to step up and take the onus on themselves? Habits have become trends. Bad ones no less and relying on a sinfully successful PP is a double edge sword as well.
Agreed Z was very good last night, but seeing Sammy on his line still pisses me off to no end.
NBA, who cares. A player of the class of Iverson double up on the serving of who cares. Players like Iverson, The Rapist in LA and company speak volumes on why I’ve totally blocked out the NBA, NFL et al.
Drew Sharp… see the side bar. Right back atcha, bitch. Or should that be Iverson’s bitch.
At least Santa showed up early yesterday. 32” LCD tv in action for tonight, woohoo.

Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 11/29/08 at 09:12 AM ET

You’d love to get on a huge roll where you get some shutouts and one-goal games. I’m on the cusp of that. I’m just waiting for it to happen.

On the one hand, I understand what Ozzie is saying. He is making more big saves than he did a few weeks ago. Two weeks ago, all of those breakaway shots last night would have gone in. On the other hand, he still gives up a maddening number of weak goals.

At .878, Oz’s Save Percentage currently ranks 42nd out of 44 goalies who’ve started at least eight games. Only Fredrik Norrena and our good buddy Marty Turco rank lower. A wee bit of that is due to the D not playing up to last year’s standards yet, but most it it rests solely on Ozzie himself. And you almost sense a slight Legace-style fatalism in his words, like “As of right now, I’m just not getting any bounces whatsoever”. Boo hoo, Ozzie. Man up. Stop the damn puck no matter how it bounces. Period.

As for Iverson, why the Pistons would trade a heart-and-soul guy like Billups for a no-heart and no-soul guy like Iverson is beyond me. Frankly, the Pistons are getting exactly what they deserve. If I’m not mistaken, they were 6-0 before the trade. Since? 4-5. As the Chief likes to say, you do the math.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 11/29/08 at 10:52 AM ET

Fantastic post Chief. At least the Wings fans are hitting their stride.

Posted by Osrt on 11/29/08 at 11:43 AM ET

Yeah, goaltending is the main concern right now, and not just because we’re Wings fans.

ConkBlock has been really really good, and he was really really good for the Pens last year, but it’s hard to tell if that’s who he really is, or if he falls apart playing 20+ games through May and June.

Ozzie looks like 1994 Ozzie, not 1998 or 2008 Ozzie. He’s a veteran. Let’s give him time. I am concerned about his game, but won’t be truly worried or in panic mode unless we get to the All-Star Break and he’s still in this bad form.

The defense has really been improving for about 10 games now, and the keeping, Ozzie in particular, has let it down on a few occasions. That deflates a team. Especially when they know they’re positioning themselves well, getting back to basics, and doing what they’re supposed to do. When you’re doing that and it isn’t working, you get bummed.

Again. Give Ozzie till the All-Star Break before we rename the Club Car in his honor.

I THINK his quote is accurate, and I do THINK he’ll put it together in the coming weeks with all the home games, but I don’t think any of us can honestly say we don’t have at least a little shred of doubt in our minds.

Posted by Nathan on 11/29/08 at 01:24 PM ET

Give Ozzie till the All-Star Break before we rename the Club Car in his honor.

I’m sorry, Nathan, but “Save me a place in the Osgood” just doesn’t have a good ring to it.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 11/29/08 at 01:50 PM ET

Drake is sorely missed.  With Cleary returning last night, it was obvious how much
empty ice that style and intuition can create.

All is not well with the wings, and maybe the Oz shouldn’t be taking all the heat.

Not sure where the problem lies, but there is only one thing for sure:

McClelland
and
Scotty
are off the hook.

I want Cheli back....
I hope they are lying about the whole deal,
and he is really off at the cloning farm.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd from upset when blogs don’t live up to my expectations on 11/29/08 at 04:16 PM ET

As I said before, we have ourselves a goalie controversy…

In my humble opinion, Ozzie’s stellar play (behind Hasek) last year was:  AN ABERATION.

This season we have returned to the normal Ozzie we all know & love.

There is only 1 solution:

Babs needs to whip out his Conk.

Posted by w2j2 on 11/29/08 at 04:49 PM ET

As for Iverson, why the Pistons would trade a heart-and-soul guy like Billups for a no-heart and no-soul guy like Iverson is beyond me. Frankly, the Pistons are getting exactly what they deserve. If I’m not mistaken, they were 6-0 before the trade. Since? 4-5. As the Chief likes to say, you do the math.

This was a salary dump (expiring contract on AI) in the guise of a trade.  They’re blowing up the team, no question, they just did it in such a way as to still sell tickets.

Posted by shanetx on 12/01/08 at 05:20 PM ET

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