Drew Sharp, you know the DET MSM, Band-Wagoneer, that he is, had a write-up on last nights tilt, FREEP.com that really isn’t worth mentioning, except for this snippet:

Fabian Brunnstrom is a 23-year-old Swedish Elite League star looking for an NHL home. He’s an unrestricted free agent whom the Wings are aggressively courting along with Dallas and Montreal.

The Wings pride themselves in their organizational aptitude, preparing for every circumstance. But it’s even beyond their managerial skill arranging for Brunnstrom to witness firsthand what was basically a Swedish national team exhibition Thursday.

Isn’t it?

“Oh yeah, we planned it that way just for him,” winked general manager Ken Holland.

But if Holland’s sales pitch is the Wings’ history of developing stars, then it’s probably only a matter of time before Brunnstrom signs with the team.

“It was exciting watching how they play with such chemistry and enthusiasm,” said Brunnstrom, sitting outside the Wings’ dressing room afterwards. “When I watched the Red Wings tonight, it made me proud to be Swedish.”

Wings, last night, may have made the greatest sales pitch of all time in the history of sports!

Posted by Jeff - - OklahomaWingNut from Wind-Swept-Plains on 05/02/08 at 10:06 AM ET

“When I watched the Red Wings tonight, it made me proud to be Swedish.”

One of the funniest comments ever.

Also, I thought Canadians were better at geography than Americans?

The Red Wings can thank their lucky stars they hired Hakan Andersson as their director of European scouting. Andersson, based in Sweden, obviously is having success finding players there. While Detroit got every goal in Game 4 from a Swedish player and have eight Swedes overall, the Avalanche has had one Swede in their 13 years in Denver – Forsberg.

One lesson learned in defeat perhaps, therefore, is to beef up the Copenhagen scouting bureau a little more.

Copenhagen? 

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/02/08 at 10:15 AM ET

Okay, since the topic is Swedish players, check out this clip for the TSN Panel discussing if the Wings have too many Swede’s to hoist the Cup (i,e, Euro’s are too soft), the answers from the panel may surprise you (well then again maybe not).

Posted by Jeff - - OklahomaWingNut from Wind-Swept-Plains on 05/02/08 at 10:16 AM ET

I hate the “Swedes are soft” argument.  I mean, the Scandinavians are the descendants of Vikings, after all.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/02/08 at 10:19 AM ET

Baroque: even more assinine was Billy Jaffe’s (or should I say “Gaffe“‘s) post-game interview last night with Mule.  Apparently some Av’s fan threw an octupus on the ice.  Gaffe pointed it out to Franzen twice and said, someone has thrown a SQUID on the ice.  Franzen, to his credit, said nothing (twice), basically ignoring the comment, but looked at Gaffe like he was a moron!!!

Posted by Jeff - - OklahomaWingNut from Wind-Swept-Plains on 05/02/08 at 10:21 AM ET

I missed that.  Oy vey.

There are many biologically significant differences between the two cephalopods, but the biggest is octopus = eight appendages, squid = ten appendages.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/02/08 at 10:38 AM ET

even more assinine was Billy Jaffe’s (or should I say “Gaffe“‘s) post-game interview last night with Mule

Bob Harwood has Jaffe beat in the dopey Versus interviewer department, but I think Jaffe is worse overall because he feels the need to interject comments Douche Canoe-style during the game.

I feel I must give props to Andy Brickley, who has improved considerably over the three Versus games I’ve watched recently. A pleasant surprise, since listening to him on NESN makes me want to jam icepicks in my ears.

Versus’ stats people haven’t done themselves proud the last two games of this series, however. In game 3, they incorrectly showed the save percentages for Theodore over the first three games (they actually showed the total for him and Budaj). They also listed Babcock’s playoff coaching record as 24-6 (at the time, he was 33-20 overall and 18-14 with the Wings, so I haven’t the foggiest how they came up with that). Then they simply updated that incredibly wrong number to 25-6 when they showed it last night. Lame.

Posted by shep from california on 05/02/08 at 11:06 AM ET

That Octopus came courtesy of “DeepinDenver” from the A2Y blog:

http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/A2Y/comments/sweeping_the_dive_keys_to_game_4/

Posted by w2j2 on 05/02/08 at 11:07 AM ET

Did anyone notice the amazing number of Wings’ fans at the can last night?

Posted by w2j2 on 05/02/08 at 11:09 AM ET

Baroque: 

I mean, the Scandinavians are the descendants of Vikings, after all.

EGAD!!  Me too!!  Assinine is what it is, but that is Grapes modus operandi!

We need one of the “A 2 Y” photo-shoppers to create an amazing job of Mule in the viking helmet with that Big-As* ("MULE") viking sword getting ready to *eviscerate* some poor AV!!! 

That would be too *Swede* !!!!

Kronner is soft ?? 

Posted by Jeff - - OklahomaWingNut from Wind-Swept-Plains on 05/02/08 at 11:29 AM ET

Baroque: even more assinine was Billy Jaffe’s (or should I say “Gaffe“‘s) post-game interview last night with Mule. Apparently some Av’s fan threw an octupus on the ice. Gaffe pointed it out to Franzen twice and said, someone has thrown a SQUID on the ice.  Franzen, to his credit, said nothing (twice), basically ignoring the comment, but looked at Gaffe like he was a moron!!!

Posted by Jeff - - OklahomaWingNut from Wind-Swept-Plains on 05/02 at 11:21 AM

Perhaps the most assinine part was when Jaffe said something like “Don’t you want to go pick it up?” or “I bet you’d like to go pick that squid up.”

I was hoping Franzen would say he didn’t want to pay little gary $10,000 or that the tradition is about fans throwing octopi, not players picking up squid...although if the Avs wanted to start their own, new tradition along those lines they should go for it. I suppose his actual response was better, though.

Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 05/02/08 at 11:33 AM ET

“Picking up the squid” could become the euphemism for what the Avs do every year after they exit the playoffs.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.  I’ll behave now.

Posted by Primis on 05/02/08 at 12:21 PM ET