Gorilla Crouch

Tonight I wanted to take some time to look around and see what some of the other Red Wings bloggers are writing about. Bill over at Abel to Yzerman takes on the controversy surrounding Rory Fitzpatrick’s candidacy to make this year’s All Star game. Bill is dismissive of the whole concept of fan voting:

Until the all star rosters are determined by the players themselves, with maybe the exception of one write-in for each side, who represents each team means nothing. We, the fans, proved long ago that we can’t be trusted to vote based on stats and talent alone. Would you have voted for Patrick Roy in ‘97? I know I wouldn’t have.

I can remember being a kid and going to the old Tiger Stadium when you could to grab a handful of those punch card ballots and you had to punch the ‘chad‘ for each player you wanted to vote to the All Star game. It is much easier now as you can vote right from your computer.

If the fans are inclined to participate to the point that Fitzpatrick makes the team it doesn’t really bug me. The All Star game should be all about entertainment and while some people get upset when the best players aren’t always rewarded with an All Star nod they should realize that it is a popularity contest determined by those who are willing to vote…and vote…and vote…and vote again. As I am writing this I am watching the Dallas - San Jose game and just saw a promo from Mark Messier about voting for the All Star game. Jussi Jokinen scored on a nice backhander a minute ago.

Gloveside has a fun feature for each game - they write a haiku about the game! Here is the one for last night’s game against Columbus:

The rivals return
Their foe defeats them deftly
Their heads hang sullen

I also like their Redmondism of the night as I had the TSN feed for the game. I literally said “dammit it’s a home game and I want Mickey Redmond” when the game started last night. Gloveside feeds my need for classic quips from Mickey. Great stuff as usual from these guys.

If Leo Tolstoy covered Red Wings hockey he would be a contributor over at On the Wings. Matt chimes in with another opus on last night’s game. Combine this coverage with Matt’s gameday writeup and On the Wings does the best job covering the game. I particularly like his writeup of Detroit’s first goal and the corresponding Columbus power play.

So, the teams skated four a side for 1:36. Columbus had a couple chances in the Wings’ zone, with David Vyborny and Fredrik Modin getting off shots, but the Wings took it the other way and soon scored to put themselves up 1-0. Mathieu Schneider started the play at the blueline by passing it to Robert Lang, who dished it to Daniel Cleary, who sent it back to Schneider and headed across the front of the net. Schneider took the shot and Cleary tipped it on as he passed in front of Norrena. Great play by Schneider, Lang, and Cleary. The goal came at 5:46.

Just as the Columbus power play began, Rick Nash had a great rush into the Wings’ zone and only a nice defensive play by Brett Lebda prevented a chance on net. The rest of the power play was uneventful as Detroit killed it off easily.

Christy over at Behind the Jersey recently wrote a paper for a class at the University of Michigan which was also published over at Kuklas Korner. Christy’s opinion is expressed in the title of the article “Keep Fighting in the NHL” (but Christy, how do you really feel?!). All joking aside I do not disagree with her one bit. Her article is a great summary of how fighting has played a role in the league since its inception. She does a great job dealing with one of the ugliest moments in recent NHL history, when Todd Bertuzzi viciously attacked Steve Moore rather than challenge him to a fight. You can view the clip on You Tube here. As a result Moore suffered a concussion and several broken vertebrae in his neck.

While the NHL has certainly had its ugly moments throughout its history, serious injuries from fighting have only occurred when a player chooses to disobey the unwritten code. For example when Vancouver Canucks player Todd Bertuzzi sucker punched Colorado Avalanche rookie Steve Moore to the side of his head, Bertuzzi completely ignored the code and crossed the line into unsanctioned violence. Bertuzzi was trying to avenge a previous Avalanche hit on his captain, Markus Naslund, that had knocked him unconscious. According to the code, Bertuzzi should have dropped his gloves and fought him face to face instead of attacking Moore from behind.

I’ll finish off this post by taking a visit to Snapshots. George Malik has the best Red Wings blog amongst the major newspapers, as he constantly links to articles relevant to the Red Wings while also providing links to the newspapers that cover Detroit’s opponents. This post in particular focuses on Mathieu Schneider’s point streak.

Stellar Schenider on second-longest D point streak in a decade
The Red Wings base their offensive game upon their two towers on defence, and the one who doesn’t wear a letter on his jersey is leading in more ways than one:

December 21, Detroit Free Press: Mathieu Schneider extended his career-high point streak to 11 games with an assist against Columbus on Wednesday. The club record for a defenseman is 13, by Paul Coffey, April 5-29, 1995.

Schneider has two goals and 12 assists during the 11-game streak. His previous best point streak was six games (one goal, eight assists).

“As a defenseman, you need your forwards to be going in order to get point streaks like that,” Schneider said. “I think all of us in general have been playing better over the last 10, 15 games offensively. Our transition game’s been better. For me, it’s just moving the puck as quick as I can, jumping up in the rush and getting my shots.”

Wow:

December 21, ESPN: Mathieu Schneider extended his point streak to 11 games when he assisted on the first of Daniel Cleary’s two goals in Detroit’s win over Columbus. Schneider’s point streak is the longest by an NHL defenseman since 1996-97, when Brian Leetch registered at least one point in 14 consecutive games for the Rangers.

George also contributes articles to Kuklas Korner. All in all there is lots of really good material and perspectives from the various Red Wings blogs. I’ll take another spin around some other Red Wings websites sometime after the holiday.

Red Wings

December 21st, 2006
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

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