Canadian Media Rejoices at Franzen News

Always looking for that chance to say "See! We told you the Wings were going to fail this year!" (they've been waiting for a while), THN posted this today, you can almost sense the satisfied tone the writer was using...hell, even the article was titled "Mule Kicked".

The Detroit Red Wings offense recently suffered a significant blow when winger Johan Franzen tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee in last Thursday’s 3-2 victory over the Blackhawks, sidelining him for up to four months.

Ah, so it was in an effort to defeat that same Chicago team that you predicted to roll over the Central Division, was it?

Don’t expect GM Ken Holland to look outside the Red Wings organization for help. He told the Detroit Free Press there’s no 30-goal scorer comparable to Franzen available either in the free agent or trade market, leaving Holland no choice but to look toward the young players in his system, which included recalling Justin Abdelkader from the minors.

Saying that Holland had "no choice" but to call up Abdelkader is a bit strong...but then again, we're dealing with THN here. The fact that Holland said has no interest in looking outside the organ-i-zation is a choice.

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I can't wait for #43 to come back.

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For all of you who were hoping the Wings might look at getting Shanny back...
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Holland told the Sporting News he had no interest in signing former Red Wings winger Brendan Shanahan, who was released by the New Jersey Devils and is now an unrestricted free agent. If Shanahan were the same player he was four years ago, Holland would likely snap him up. However, if Shanahan were that player, the Devils wouldn’t have cut him in the first place.

Rumor squashed.

Lilja: Ready. Holland: Not.

The sportingnews.com posted this a little while ago...

"I have to sit down and talk with doctors still, but my thinking is I'm going to play. If my headaches don't get any worse, as long as I can live with it, it won't bother me. I'm almost 100 percent sure I'm going to play, it's just a matter of time."--Andreas Lilja

Now, "matter of time" could mean lots of things...like say, at the trade deadline, or something. It doesn't necessarily mean Lils is thinking he's going to start the season.

Kenny Holland had this offer:

"There is a big difference between skating and practicing and playing in an NHL game. He's got to get cleared and I assume the doctors are going to want to know that he's symptom-free for a period of time before they clear him."



In other words, don't expect if Lilja starts the season on LTIR whether he wants to be or not. Kenny, the Cap genius, will figure out what to do with him later.

Fraser Elliot; Smarter than ESPN, THN

From bleacherreport.com a little ego stroking from somebody who apparently knows what they are talking about...

“To be the man, you have to beat the man.” Wrestling World Champion Ric Flair’s catch phrase also applies to the Detroit Red Wings. Since current General Manager Ken Holland joined the Wings’ front office in 1985, the team has only missed the playoffs twice (1986 and 1990).

Ever thought you'd hear Ric Flair and Ken Holland used in the same train of thought? Neither did I. In 24 years under Kenny, the Wings have only missed the play-offs twice. Some franchises can't even say that they've only missed the play-offs twice over the past 3 years. But let's not forget, The Pittsburgh Penguins, who have missed the play-offs eight times since Holland took over the Wings, are the model franchise (just ask Gary).

"The Wings have won four Stanley Cups, six Clarence Campbell Trophies (Western Conference Championship), six President’s Trophies, ten Western Conference Finals appearances and 14 Division titles.
Until a team can prove otherwise, all roads in the Western Conference will eventually have to go through Michigan. Since 1994, when the NHL changed the playoffs format from Divisional to Conference seedings, the Stanley Cup or Western Conference champs have either defeated the Wings or were defeated by the Wings in the Finals, ten out of 14 years. The Wings have been in the playoffs each of these years."

No additional commentary needed. These are FACTS, and we hold them to be self evident.

Hockeytown U.S.A. is alive and well. They have built teams under both the free-spending system and the cap-system. Has the pieces to the puzzle leave due to retirement or unrestricted free agency, Holland just replaces them, either through the draft or going out and finding affordable UFA that can take over the roles of the departed pieces. Players know if they want to win a Stanley Cup and Ken Holland’s number comes up on their cell phones, they definitely better listen.

Amen. Don't let them fool you, Wings fans. Tune out the drunken idiots from Chicago claiming there to be a change in the guard, they'll forget about their Blackhawks if the Bears start winning, and pay no attention to the sniveling brats from Pittsburgh, school starts up again soon anyway...we ARE the team to beat. Oh and of course, don't listen to ESPN, they hate the NHL anyway, they've probably covered more Brett Farve "re-tire, don't retire" BS than they did the entire NHL play-offs. And pay no mind to THN, most Canadian media hate the Red Wings. We're not re-building, we are reloading. This team is arguably better than the one we iced in 2007-2008, how did that season turn out?

Even with the loss of key players such as; Kopecky, Hossa, Samuelsson and probably Hudler, the Wings are losing 88 goals and 187 points but as is the custom in Detroit, with increased opportunity comes increased production. They will be looking for contributions from Leino, Bertuzzi, Ericsson and Williams. They may not score as many goals but they should be better defensively.

And who wouldn't swap a few goals-for, for a lot less goals-against. I know J.J. from Kansas has been preaching this all along. Forget about mercenary Hossa's 40 goals if we can clean up the penalty killing this year. Ozzie will be better, Helm will be a PK machine and Ericsson may start to see some time as well as he continues to develop.

To recapitulate, Elliot Fraser knows that the Wings are going to be the team to beat yet again this year due to depth, growing prospects, and the best management in all of sports. Therefore, Elliot Fraser has more since than ESPN and THN put together.

There I said it.

Kenny Still Confident

Freep.com just posted a new one about the Bertuzzi deal putting us over the Cap. Well, nobody should be worried because Abdelkader goes down to G.R., despite what you guys wanted and Lilja isn't playing this year...it's the LTIR for him.

So staying away from the saturation of Bert-news-i, I thought I'd pull a quote from Kenny:

“We lost almost 90 goals. I read or hear people picking us to be about fourth in the Western Conference. Even though a lot of teams have gotten better, I still think we’re a Stanley Cup contender because our defense is as good as anyone’s defense and I like the rest of our team.”

That's right, Ken. Don't let those narrow-minded Red Wing hating idiots at THN fool you.

Don't even click on that link, unless you want to get angry.

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Ah...that's better.

Don't be too Hasty, Wings Nation

A lot of negative chatter over at A2Y already. I say hold your horses, take a deep breath, and think about this for a second:

So Hossa gets 40 goals for $7.4 Mil, if BOTH Eaves and Williams play up to their potential, we could keep those 40 goals at a fraction of the cost.

Now all we need is Leino and Filppula to pick up some slack for Samuelsson and Hudler. You can bet your bottom dollar that Zetterberg AND Franzen will have bigger numbers this year than they did last year. Datsyuk might finally reach that elusive 100 points if he stays with Z all year.

This is going to be just fine.

"Soft!" The opposition will cry. "The Red Wings are soft!" Well, our enforcer will once again be our power-play. I have a sneaking suspicion that this regular season's success will depend greatly on the combined strengths/weaknesses of special teams.

Anyone seen Jason Williams play the point on the power-play recently? Admittedly, I have not. Maybe, just maybe he's improved from what we saw during his first tenure with Detroit.

Try and stay positive. Don't second guess Kenny. Don't you freakin' do it.

Kenny on the Eaves Signing

From Dave Waddell of the Windsor Star...

Detroit signs Patrick Eaves, and a lot of people are talking. As J.J. from Kansas points out, a lot of people are billing this one as "the second coming of Dan Cleary". I don't know want us to get that far ahead of ourselves, but it's hard not to. Especially when Kenny Holland starts singing the praise of his new acquisition...

"I think Patrick is one of those guys like we've had that just needs a fresh start. He's scored 20 goals in this league before and we feel we play a style he'll fit into."

There's more kind words...a lot more, actually...

"We love his potential. We need some players on the team that are cheaper ones too. Given his history, we know he has lots of skill. Our feeling is Patrick is a young kid who maybe has lost his confidence a bit after some injury problems. We think he can come here and find his confidence with the players he'll get to play with."

As for what yet another potential turnaround possible...

"I think we've had success with guys like this because of the leadership and talent in our dressing room. It's an easy room to get comfy in. It's filled with good people, a winning tradition, it's team first and guys make sacrifices. Because of our stability, players coming in get to feed off that. We're not asking them to do something they've not done before."

Greatest professional organ-i-zation in sports. Got it.

It's also rumored that Kenny is looking to make at least one more move with roughly $1.2 mil left to work with. If that's the case, Abadabbadoo will most likely be starting the season off in Grand Rapids.

In Kenny We Trust.

Holland slams Sportsnet

"They're just making up crap. How can they come up with this stuff?"

From Dave Waddell of The Windsor Star today.

"Deal in the facts. They're misleading the public. Every conversation I've had with (Hudler's agent) Petr Svoboda he's told me he was playing in Russia. Hudler has publicly announced he's playing in Russia, so let's use some common sense."

Apparently, Hudler also told Detroit that he if he didn't like playing for the Dynamo after a season, that he would come back...and then we could deal with him doing a reverse Radulov and see where that takes us.

The Pursuit of Agent-ness

Khan(!) has been talking to Ol’ Kenny Boy, and Mr. Holland has apparently been disagreeing with some of my free-agent choices.

Holland declined to comment on Jason Williams' revelation that the Red Wings offered him a one-year contract, saying only that he has had conversations with several player agents, including the one for Williams.

Jason's “excitement” to come back and play for Babcock may have been as well grounded as Sportsnet.ca’s story about Hudler staying in Detroit (they fixed the website if you didn’t notice).

"We're exploring the market," Holland said. "We don't have a lot of (salary) cap space. We'd like to add a forward or two between now and September."

September? Are you REALLY planning on making us wait until September, Tick Tock? This has already been the slowest of slow seasons in recent memory. And most news has been bad news. Come on, Kenny…throw us a freakin’ bone here.

Taylor Pyatt, who played for Vancouver last season, and Manny Malhotra, who played for Columbus, do not appear to be on the Red Wings' shopping list.
Pyatt's agent, Todd Christie, said he has had no conversations with anyone in Detroit.

Squashed. Pyatt was one of the guys I thought might be a good fit. He has good size and strength and the youth factor. “Excuse me, Mule…could you show me how to do that?” Oh well, looks like Kenny’s not interested.

Malhotra's agent, Paul Krepelka, said he made a pitch to the Red Wings on July 1 but hasn't spoken to anyone in the organization since then.

HE made the pitch? It’s been 30 days and we’re not even giving this guy the time of day to even speak? The Detroit brass must have been entirely un-impressed with what they saw in this guy. Maybe it was the whole ‘goal off the glove’ incident (?)

Let’s recapitulate some of the free agents we have discussed on here on how they currently stand with the Wings organ-i-zation:

Jason Williams: No comment
Todd Bertuzzi: Heading East (refuses to play for another Canadian team)
Taylor Pyatt: No calls made
Manny Malhotra: Call received, but made no call back
Petr Sykora: Contacted
Mike Grier: Contacted…”interested”
Blair Betts: ???
Andy Hilbert: ???
Maxim Afinogenov: ???

Didn't take long to Squash that Bug

Per Khan(!) over at MLive

Kenny Holland:

"The story's over. He's going to play in Russia. We're waiting on the terms (of the salary arbitration case) he has to (honor) if and when he returns to the NHL.''

Let's get those terms so Kenny can get a pen and some paper for someone who values winning the 2010 Stanley Cup over making tax free dollars in Russia. No offense, Happy...well maybe a little.

Stay Tuned, Ken is working

Teddy Kulfan of The Detroit News reports that we're going to be looking for some additional help through free-agency once the Hudler issue is resolved...

"We're kicking some tires, we've called a lot of people," Holland said. "We don't have a lot of (salary cap) space, but we have a little bit and we'd like to find a good fit."

Sounds like ol' Tick Tock really HAS been keeping busy throughout the whole "Happy Days" saga. I know it's not much, but I find it comforting to know that at least someone has been making calls.

The question is, who's been on the other end?

September 16th is closer than you think...

I know that this is the “slow season”, but I think I speak for many Red Wings fans when I say that I think that this far too slow a start to make any moves in the off-season. I realize that we’re going through league mandated negotiations with a player we already thought we parted ways with (thanks, Gary by the way), but there are still a lot of decent free agents out there and they’re getting picked off one at a time.

Have you seen this? 10 forwards, 9 defensemen, and 1 goalie are all the players currently listed on our roster (as per the official website). And that is with Abdelkader whom we’re not sure will start with the big club this year. Yeah I know we signed Williams and Newbury but they might be seeing a whole lot of Van Andel Arena this year.

Pre-season starts on September 16th and Sasquatch will be waiting, elbows up as usual. That is less than 2 months away. Seems like a long time, but when you have an incomplete team nearing the end of July, it might be time to start filling the roster spots.

We all justified Hossa’s departure by saying it would give us room to sign Samuelsson and Hudler (both have at least attempted to leave, one succeeded). So we’ve lost 168 points from last season and have gotten virtually nothing in return to this point.

I understand that Kenny Holland is the best in the game, and I understand that he has deserves our respect (and patience). He’s probably out there right now, as I type this trying to pull yet another rabbit out of his hat. Hakan Andersson is probably somewhere in Eastern Europe finding yet another diamond in the rough. I just want you guys to start showing me something…anything.

Let’s get final closure on this Hudler situation for better or worse so we can finally move on.