Big Red Machine

Red Wings hockey is almost back.  Russia got ousted today in a lackluster effort against Canada, and Sweden lost a stunner to the Czech Republic.  This means the only Red Wings remaining in the Olympics are Brian Rafalski (USA) and Valtteri Filppula (Finland), who are, interestingly enough, meeting on Friday to play for the medal game.

In 4 more days the Wings will take the ice in Colorado to play the Avalanche (a game that I will hopefully be at!).

And when that happens, we’re likely going to see Andreas Lilja play his first game in the NHL in over a year.  We will also not be seeing Kirk Maltby, who has opted to get shoulder surgery after all.  Via Helene St. James at the Freep:

Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland has told the Free Press he expects defenseman Andreas Lilja to be cleared either today or Thursday and that Kirk Maltby will have surgery.

Lilja said he still has to complete some paperwork before he is formally cleared. The Wings also need to put Maltby on long-term injured reserve, which would free up $700,000 to fit Lilja under the salary cap

Apparently there was some confusion about whether or not Maltby was actually going to get surgery, or if he was going to stubbornly decide to play the rest of the season, but the original article has been taken down (with no mention of the mistake.  Nice).  Regardless, it’s been sorted out now, and even though this clearly wasn’t the scenario Maltby, and I believe many fans, envisioned for him to end things, it’s still the smart move.  Especially now that the estimated recovery time has been shortened to 4-6 weeks, he could easily come back for a playoff run, should one be had.

It also sounds like Eaves and Holmstrom are ready to roll when the season starts up again.  So, barring Olympic injuries (knock on wood), the Red Wings should be able to ice a full lineup for pretty much the first time this season.

Oh, and Rafalski?  You better bring that level of play you’ve been showing with Team USA back to Detroit

Last night Ken Daniels mentioned that Holland was planning to make a move today.  Brad May has been waived, and now that 3pm ET has come and gone, there were no trades, even after much speculation that Lebda or Meech could be going.

Now it comes out that Kirk Maltby might be headed to LTIR with season ending shoulder surgery.

Per Khan:

“Kirk Maltby has been playing with a chronic shoulder (issue) since last June and it’s been progressively getting worse,” Holland said. “Maybe should have had an operation earlier in the year, but given all the injuries that hit us we were in no position to do it.”

Maltby is talking to doctors and his agent to determine what he should do. If he has the surgery, Holland indicated he would be out for two months, the rest of the regular season.

It’s certainly convenient that they’re bringing up surgery talk now, when he’s been playing with it all season, and apparently could have finished out the season with it.  But Lilja is suddenly on his way back and who else are they going to move?  They can’t just waive Lebda or Meech, because either of them would some sort of return value.  So to push the issue with Maltby is the easiest option on the tight deadline that is the Olympic roster freeze.

I am securely in the camp who believes that Maltby has gotten to the point where he deserves to end his career the way he wants.  It already seemed highly unlikely that Holland would bring him back for next season, so it’s unfortunate that this might be it for him.  He’s been a good soldier for the Red Wings, and a great hockey player over his career.  Yeah he’s become redundant in the past few seasons, with guys like Abdelkader and Helm coming up, but he’s always just done his job.  He’s still an asset, at least in terms of chirping and yapping and getting under the other team’s skin.  I’ll be sad when he leaves.

On the other hand, I hope he chooses to go and get the surgery done now, rather than at the end of the season.  For his own health, and to, as Matt put it, “take one for the team.”  It might be his only chance to have a say in how his career ends.

It’s Festivus!

And part of the traditions of celebrating Festivus is the “Airing of Grievances”–a declaration of how you’ve been disappointed by those in your life the past year. We may be only 30+ games into the season, but I’ve still got enough grievances to share…

Chris Osgood: You really let me down, Chris. I’ve been in your corner for a long time, defending your ability to actually be a number one goaltender, and then you go out for your first start in like, 40 games, and can’t even save the marshmallow-soft goals from 50 feet out. I know that’s typical for you, but you swore up and down during the summer that this season wouldn’t be like the last one, and that you’d be mentally ready this time around. Well sorry, Chris, but I didn’t see it in Sweden, and I haven’t seen it recently either, when Jimmy has been pushing you to improve your game. I thought after losing last season you would come out on fire, ready to prove your critics wrong once and for all, and it’s sorely disappointing to see otherwise.

Ville Leino: When Kenny went out and picked you up for pretty much nothing, we all crowed about how we got the Finnish Elite League MVP, laughing that we weren’t going to end up like the Dallas Stars, winners of the Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes, who has since failed spectacularly to live up to expectations. You were being lauded for your offensive capabilities, and in your first NHL game you scored on that beautiful spin-around backhand. I thought that you were well-suited to pick up some of the slack in terms of scoring. Last year you threatened to return for Finland if you didn’t get a spot with the big club, so when you did, I assumed that meant you were ready to roll. But you’ve clearly proven me wrong with your inability to finish, refusal to skate hard, and utter indifferent attitude.

Brett Lebda: You are not a forward, Brett, you are a defenseman. Please stop moving up with the offense on the rush.

Brad May: At the beginning of the season it was a novelty to have a pugilist back on the team, and you fought like 5 times in your first 5 games.  But now it’s just getting silly, with the most glaring example being that of the “fight” with Kry Barch of the Dallas Stars.  You’re supposed to “keep the flies off,” but I have to say that I haven’t seen much of that recently.

Kirk Maltby: Same goes with you, Malts.  Sometimes you look like a real NHLer again, like at the start of the season when you scored a shorty, had some chances, and got a few points.  Now you’re back to floating around and occasionally blocking lanes and shots.  You’ve given Detroit a lot, and they’ve given back by keeping you on the roster.  But you are slowly being replaced by Justin Abdelkader.  Please don’t overstay your welcome.

Todd Bertuzzi: You know, Todd, I honestly can’t find too much fault with you right now.  You’ve backchecked, and hustled, and now you’re finding chemistry with Pavel to regain that scoring touch.  So I just have one grievance with you, and that’s to please, for the love of all that is holy, stop with the spin-o-rama.  I understand that you scored with it earlier this year, but I know, deep down, you were just as surprised as I was to see that puck actually go in the net and not sailing wide.  But why don’t you just put that move away for a while–you don’t want to become Brian Campbell.

Jonathan Ericsson: It’s not entirely your fault, kid.  Part of it was the inevitable letdown from a strong playoff performance by a rookie defenseman to figuring out the grind of the regular season. But I was disappointed to see very little to none of the confidence and poise you exhibited in the post-season.

Pavel Datsyuk: Yeah, Pavel, you.  Until recently you simply haven’t looked like yourself out there.  I didn’t see the usual Pavel Datsyuk that we’ve been privilege to the last several years.  Where were the Datsyukian Dekes and the dangle dangle?  I’ll be honest, I was getting very close to being frustrated with you.  I know, I know, notoriously slow starter, you had some problems finding a good stick, Bertuzzi couldn’t finish on an open net, whatever.  I’m glad you seem to be getting things going now, there was a time when I was Not Very Happy with you.

Well, those are my grievances for the year so far.  Feel free to share yours in the comments.

The Red Wings also share some of their grievances with each other at the Freep, which are honestly pretty hilarious.

What about the “Feats of Strength”?  Well, news has arrived that Rafalski may not play due to the flu, so for the Red Wings, their feat will be trying to beat a largely complete Blackhawks club, with an insanely depleted roster.

As for the rest of us?  Well, our feat of strength will likely have to do with how long you can deal with abdominal pain from the dry heaves as you cling to the toilet bowl all afternoon.

Let’s take a quick poll:

Is anyone concerned that the Red Wings have only won 2 out of 7 pre-season games thus far? And that they’ve dropped the last 5 consecutively?

I’ll be honest: it’s a little disturbing to see the same trend that plagued the Red Wings last year rear its head again. That trend was playing 20 to 40 minutes of a game, usually either starting slow or falling asleep in the middle, and cranking it up in the third.

The goaltending I’ve seen so far also hasn’t done a whole lot to inspire confidence. Howard has been what I expected–inconsistent and not extremely solid. Larsson looked to be fighting pucks a bit the two games I’ve seen him in. McCollum looked nervous in the one I saw. Pearce has yet to play, as far as I’m aware, which is a little odd since he hasn’t been cut, either. Greg Eno wrote a piece on the promise Osgood made to never have as season like 08-09 again, and to be better prepared this year. Oz isn’t looking awesome so far. He’s certainly not playing like he did just a few months ago during the Finals, but does anyone really expect that? He knows this is pre-season, and he’s not going to blow his groin out to make a save now. But I think he’ll be ready when the puck drops for real. I believe in Oz.

What concerns me more is the defense. I watched the game they played against the Leafs on Friday, and while they iced mostly regulars, it was not Red Wings defense that I saw. Kronwall’s played about 4 or 5 games, but he still looks like he’s figuring a few things out. As is Ericsson, but that’s more expected given that he’s had fewer years of experience. Meech and Lebda are absolutely killing me and I fear for the third pairing on the back end.

Babcock knows all this, but still he’snot freaking out–too much:

“You always wonder, ‘Geez, what’s going on?’ But you just watch and see how things go.”

And Kirk Maltby makes a blindingly obviously, yet still astute comment that basically sums up what they need to do:

“…we need to start getting into regular-season mode now and not wait until a month into the season.”