Game 6 Notes
Helene St. James has a nice article on Nik Kronwall’s breakout playoff performance. Ansar Khan wrote one as well. I’ve mentioned a couple times that he has taken his game to a whole new level this season and that’s obviously great news for the Red Wings. He has been given the nickname Junior and St. James offers a brief description why:
The coaching staff refers to Kronwall as “Junior” because he’s Swedish like Nicklas Lidstrom, shares a first name with Lidstrom, is sublimely talented like Lidstrom, and is, for that matter, also — like Lidstrom — extremely polite. But there are differences between them, and as Wings defensemen present and past go, Kronwall has more in common with Vladimir Konstantinov, the ferocious open-ice hitter whose career ended 11 years ago after a limousine crash.
The Konstantinov comparison really doesn’t fit in my opinion. Vlad was about as abrasive as sandpaper with thumbtacks glued to the surface; Kronner is a great open-ice hitter like Vlad but doesn’t have that same level of abrasiveness. This quote from the article fits his game better and is why I compared him to Scott Niedermeyer:
“Because of his physical dimension, it makes him different than Nick and Rafi, and yet with a lot of the same offensive flair,” coach Mike Babcock said of Kronwall. “Actually, Junior is more active than Rafi or Nick — they’re more supportive from the back and Nik takes off and jumps in more.
That actually sounds a lot like Niedermeyer, although Kronner is more of an open-ice hitter while Niedermeyer tends to lay out guys who are camped out in the slot area. At any rate, it’s been great to see him contribute during the playoffs. The saying goes that you don’t appreciate what you’ve got until it’s gone, but in this case I don’t think we could fully appreciate Kronner until we had a chance to see him play during the playoffs. His game is ideally suited to this time of year.
John Glennon from the Tennessean has a blog post on Jason Arnott’s status for the game. He says that he hopes it’s just the flu or food poisoning but that he suspects Arnott suffered a concussion during the celebration after his game-winning goal in Game 3. If true that makes it less likely that he’d be able to play today and would be a huge loss for Nashville. It looks like the decision on whether David Legwand will play is a gametime decision.
Congratulations to Norris Nick for setting the franchise record for most playoff games by a Red Wing. The guy is easily far and away the most unsung professional sports icon in Detroit and I’m sure he wouldn’t have it any other way. Steve Yzerman is the guy who comes closest to the sustained level of brilliance that Lidstrom has displayed over his 15 NHL seasons. Barry Sanders would obviously be in the conversation as well but Nick’s career to date stacks up reasonably well against anyone in professional sports over the past one and half decades. His closest counterpart in terms of production and temperment might be Tim Duncan, who had a pretty nice game yesterday.
Mike Babcock commented on how Mikael Samuelsson, Valtteri Filppula and Dan Cleary all seem to be getting back to full speed following late season injuries. Fil obviously scored a goal and Sammy was good at carrying the puck and trying to find seams to work his way into the slot area. If those guys can pick up where they left off during Game 5 the Wings should be in good shape.
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[…] Dave @ Gorilla Crouch: That actually sounds a lot like Niedermeyer, although Kronner is more of an open-ice hitter while Niedermeyer tends to lay out guys who are camped out in the slot area. At any rate, it’s been great to see him contribute during the playoffs. The saying goes that you don’t appreciate what you’ve got until it’s gone, but in this case I don’t think we could fully appreciate Kronner until we had a chance to see him play during the playoffs. His game is ideally suited to this time of year. […]