Big Red Machine

Dear fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning,

Today you have received a gift.

His name is Stephen Gregory Yzerman.  He comes with 3 Stanley Cups as a player, 1 more as an executive, 692 career goals, 1063 career assists, an Olympic gold medal as a player and another as the GM of Team Canada.  He has a Selke, Pearson, Masterton, and Conn Smythe trophy.  He is a Hall of Famer.

He’s Stevie Y, and for the past 27 years he’s been ours.  He is The Captain and the definition of a leader.  He built Hockeytown.  He took the Dead Things on his shoulders and raised them up to the hockey club they are today.  In return we raised his #19 to the rafters forever.

We love Stevie, and he’s belonged to Red Wings Nation and to Detroit and to Michigan for the last 27 years.  We’ve been spoiled to have him all to ourselves so for long.  And now we’re trying to learn how to share.

We understand that you’ve had a rough past few seasons.  You won the Cup in 2004, but where have you gone since then?  You’ve had a circus act of an ownership, had Barry Melrose behind your bench, and finished towards the bottom of your conference again.  You need someone who is unwavering and who will lead you.  Stevie can do that.  He will do that for you.  He gave his heart to Detroit, and we have no doubt that he will give what he has left to you.  Please be gentle with it.

We’re willing to share, but you have to promise us something.  Promise you’ll be patient.  Promise you’ll understand that he’s inheriting a mess of contracts and salaries.  Promise you won’t get angry with him over the mistakes of others.  Promise you won’t expect him to turn the Lightning around tomorrow.  Promise that you’ll believe he’s doing his best.

We want him to succeed, and to further cement his legacy.  If it takes 27 years in Tampa to build a perennial contender, so be it.  We love him and only want to see him excel, even if that means he’s no longer in Detroit.

After 27 years we are carefully handing him over to you, for now.

Take care of him for us.

Sincerely,

Fans of the Detroit Red Wings

–EDIT 8:52PM MT–

I’ve had some more time to absorb today’s news that Steve Yzerman is the new GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning.  I was stunned this morning when I woke up to find the announcement on Twitter.  Stunned, but honestly, not overly surprised.  I think that we all knew this day was coming sooner or later.

I watched his press conference this afternoon, and listened to him trip over his words while trying to describe his dreams and vision for this hockey club in Florida.  And I couldn’t decide how I felt about the whole situation.  It just seemed surreal.

Then I watched the interview he did shortly afterwards with Rick Peckham.  In the background you can see the marquee scrolling part of the phrase “Lightning Welcome Steve Yzerman.”  That’s when it completely sunk in.  Stevie’s not just ours any more.  We’ve already shared him with Canada, but this is completely different.  This is… weird.  There’s no other way to put it.  It’s really, really weird.

There was a question floating around the twittersphere earlier today, which was how do Red Wings fans feel about this news?  And I hope there isn’t anyone who is angry or mad with his decision to leave the Wings.  It doesn’t mean that he’s not still a Wing for life.  It doesn’t mean that he’s not still a hero and a legend and an icon in the city of Detroit.

I talked about this with Matt just a short bit ago, and as much as I’d love to see him come back to Detroit some day soon, I don’t want it to be because he failed in Tampa.  I don’t want to see impatient fans in a nontraditional market drive him out because their team hasn’t improved enough fast enough.  If it takes 27 years in Florida, so be it.

I wrote earlier today that it’s kind of like being happy for the person you’re in love with, who’s decided to be with someone else.  Because you love them, you want the best for them.  And that’s exactly how I feel about this situation.  Above all else, I want Steve Yzerman to succeed and thrive as GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning.  I want him to win, and I want him to prove that he can run an NHL club without the failsafe of Detroit’s front office behind him.  I want him to prove that he can manage a team that isn’t built from a fantasy roster of options.

I want people to be able to say that he was the ultimate player, Captain, and GM.

---

It’s official.  After much speculation and a lot of “yes he will” and “no he won’t” talk, the announcement has been made.

Steve Yzerman is going to be the new General Manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Being in Mountain Time, I woke up to this news first thing this morning, and for a moment I kind of wanted to cry a little.  I know, in the short term it’s better for Detroit to keep Ken Holland, the best GM in sports.  I know that Yzerman wants to run an NHL team.  I know he’s capable of turning around a mess like Tampa.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t be sad about it.  He’s been a Red Wing for 27 years (almost to the day, according to TPL).  He’s a hero and a legend in Detroit.  He is hands down all time my favorite player.  I cannot even imagine seeing him wear the logo of another NHL team.  I know the Lightning will present him with a jersey at the press conference this afternoon.  I know he won’t put it on, but just the image alone is seriously unsettling:

That’s just… wrong.

On the flip side, I’m happy for him.  It’s kind of like still being (or trying to be) happy for the person you’re in love with even though they’ve decided to be with someone who isn’t you.  Because you love them, and you want the best for them.  He’s made it no secret that he wants to run his own club and that he knows he’d possibly have to leave Detroit in order to do that.

And so I wish him the best of luck.  This may be his first ever NHL GM job, but look what he did with the Canadian Olympic team.  Some of his player selections were questioned at the time–no Mike Green, no Dion Phaneuf.  But he won Gold with that team.  I’ll defer back to Petrella who put it well:

It may not be quick, and they’re still embroiled in a messy ownership debacle, courtesy of Saw guy and hardly-was NHLer. But, rest assured, like he always did on terrible Red Wings teams, Steve Yzerman will find a way to make the most of it.

I don’t have an Eastern team that I really root for, but I might have to adopt the Lightning for now.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Drew Miller (Rafalski); Todd Bertuzzi (Holmstrom, Datsyuk); Patrick Eaves (Lidstrom, Rafalski)
Tampa Bay: none

This whole game was one big effing Minus because of what happened with a minute and change left in the first period.  Mattias Ohlund plastered Henrik Zetterberg, and I died on the inside when I saw him being helped to the dressing room.  During the first intermission, Drew Miller sounded convinced that Z would be back, but he was unfortunately wrong.  Turns out Hank drove himself to the hospital for an MRI during the game.  I tweeted, “I can’t even articulate how I feel about the possibility of Z being out for a while.  It makes me sick to my stomach.”  I still can’t.  8 major players out with injuries.  There is no team in the league that has or could withstood this kind of devastation to their team and still be competitive.  The only good news out of this insanity is that Filppula’s aiming at a December 26 comeback, according to Custance.  More bad news?  He’ll likely be back before Darren Helm, who we all thought was just DTD with his wrist injury.  It’s gotten to the point where I almost just have to laugh hysterically because of the sheer absurdity of this entire season.

The big Plus?  The Wings stay determined in the third and not only get a win, but Jimmy gets his first career shutout.  We got outshot, outhit, and beat in faceoffs, but we shut them out.  The Wings looked a little distracted and disjointed in the second, and I can’t blame them.  I really stopped paying attention around the same time, because I was more concerned with an update on Hank.  But they gathered themselves together for the third for 2 more goals and the win.  Way to handle the loss of Hank with aplomb and not just fall apart.  Major, major kudos to Miller and Eaves, who continue to personify the style that the Red Wings need to play right now–hard work and hustle.

Hoping for good news tomorrow on Hank.

–edit, 11:35am–
According to Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune, Osgood is 17-0 against the Bolts.  But Jimmy’s getting the start.

From what I recall reading, Young James is getting the start again.  I can’t even begin to fathom what Babcock’s method is for choosing his starter at this point.  I know for a while it was to reward Jimmy for playing well, but at a certain point, as I’ve mentioned before, you’d think that Osgood needs to get more starts to get into the groove of things.  But what do I know?  No goaltending controversy here.

Howard’s never played against the Lightning before.

On the opposite end, I’m going to guess Mike Smith gets the call for the Lightning.  He had to come in for Antero Niittymaki, who was chased after 4 goals in 14 shots Wednesday.
Career stats vs. Detroit
Played: 3
Won: 1
Lost: 2
GAA: 2.29

Tampa Bay is 13th in the East with 31 points (can I take this moment to point out that I think the East is a cupcake conference?  13th in the West is Columbus with 34 points.  Detroit is in 8th right now with 39, which would be good for 5th in the Eastern Conference, looking at Boston, who has 38 points.  Ridiculous).  Anyway, the Lightning got shellacked in Nashville on Wednesday to the tune of 7-4.  Maybe they should practice more and play “strip shootout” a little less often.

I’m not going to lie–I don’t think I’ve ever actively watched a Lightning game.  I think I’ve probably had it on TV when they play the Rangers or something, but I’ve never sat down to purposely watch one, and I know I didn’t watch when they won the cup in 2004.  Should be interesting–heard that Lecavalier guy is pretty good, and while the Lightning haven’t been playing all that great, we all are acutely aware what kind of game this is.  It was brought up on Sunday’s Obstructed View podcast that the Wings haven’t played that great with a couple of days off.  I’m also concerned about them taking the Lightning too lightly–an amusing thought when you consider Tampa is on a 5 game losing streak, but Vincent Lecavalier had a 3 point night against Nashville (2-1-3) after a fairly unproductive start, and Tocchet was apparently pleased with their effort.  Alex Tanguay was a healthy scratch last night but will return to the lineup vs Detroit.

For the love of God, let’s not be the team to end the Lightning’s streak.

According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Detroit has picked up winger Drew Miller off waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Twitter: “Detroit claims Drew Miller on waivers from Tampa.”

I know absolutely nothing about Miller, other than he’s related to Ryan Miller.  And he won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 07.

Here are his career NHL stats, via hockeydb.com:

		Regular Season					Playoffs
Season	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2006-07	Anaheim Ducks	–	–	–	–	–	3	0	0	0	2
2007-08	Anaheim Ducks	26	2	3	5	6	–	–	–	–	–
2008-09	Anaheim Ducks	27	4	6	10	17	13	2	1	3	2
2009-10	Tampa Bay Lightning	14	0	0	0	2
	NHL Totals	67	6	9	15	25	16	2	1	3	4