dat's sick

Yeah it's difficult to get the crowd going in the Globe. People were trying to start chants but it didn't stick. The arena was probably at it's loudest when Sundin appeared, and during the 1st period of that game. There wasn't a whole lot to cheer for other than that though. Walking around Stockholm these past few days was great. Lots and lots of hockey fans, mostly Wings fans but a surprising amount of Blues fans too. I hope they do this again in Stockholm next year. Even if it's not the Wings again, I'll probably go just to be a part of the whole thing.

Just got back from Stockholm. Had a ******* awesome time! Sure, it would have been nice if the Wings had played a bit better and maybe even won atleast one of the games, but it was still awesome just to see them play. The 1st period of Saturday's game was amazing, a shame that's the only really great period the Wings put together. Anyway, the highlight of my weekend wasn't actually the games. Me and my two buddies were walking around Stochholm in our Detroit jerseys a couple of hours before the saturday game, looking for a place to eat. Suddenly these two girls, who would soon find out were canadian, walk up to us and pretty much just tells us they're on their way to the Wings player hotel and ask us if we want to tag along. Like..uh...f*** YEAH WE DO. So we run to the subway, get on a train, go a couple of stops, run out of the train to the hotel, just as Chris Osgood is walking on the bus. I yell at him like an idiot "have a good game!", not knowing Howard would get the start. D'OH! Anyway, the bus was pretty much empty so we get into the hotel lobby and pretty much get to see most of the Wings team up close. I got my picture taken with Datsyuk (he didn't like it very much it seemed like haha) and Jiri Fischer (whom I actually managed to say a decently coherent sentence to, and what a nice guy he is!), and took a ton of pics of my buddies with guys like Kronwall and Daniel Larsson. Stupid me didn't have a pen, so the "only" autograph I got was when mr. ******* NICK LIDSTROM was signing a couple of people's stuff and I got him to sign my Datsyuk-jersey Such an awesome experience. The day before, right before the game, I saw Ken Holland walking around in the Globe arena corridors. I thought that was amazing. Little did I know that not 24 hours later I would be standing right next to Datsyuk, Ericsson, Lidstrom etc. If Dawn and her sister (whose name I didn't catch in all the commotion) read this, which I doubt since they were actually Senators and Canadiens fans, thank you so damn much for walking up to us on the street. Totally made our weekend.

I'll be there. Wings better show up too Gonna go with a goal each from our top 3 lines: Leino 1, Bertuzzi 1 and Franzen 1. Lidstrom with 3 assists to give him 1000 points and a standing ovation. St Louis scores 2 from Berglund.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/hock...ticle5884775.ab Translation: Babs also said that the game showed him that they have a good goalie in Howard, and that Zetterberg has a long way to go before he's in gameshape.

He still needs to shoot a bit more, but he's looked great during pre-season. So has Leino, although he can sometimes make too many chance-passes. I'm guessing his decision-making will improve with more NHL time. Those two are going to be incredibly fun to follow this season, they could land anywhere between 30 and 70 points each.

When something is wicked, you should know that it's most likely done by Mr. Wicked himself, Pavel Datsyuk.

plane tickets to Stockholm are cheaper than plane tickets to Detroit

Gotta be in it from the start this year! Last year I did pretty good but I started way too late to have any kind of chance. Friday Florida vs Chicago St. Louis vs Detroit Philadelphia vs Carolina NY Rangers vs Pittsburgh Saturday Chicago vs Florida Vancouver vs Colorado Detroit vs St. Louis Carolina vs Boston Montreal vs Buffalo Philadelphia vs New Jersey Pittsburgh vs NY Islanders Ottawa vs NY Rangers Toronto vs Washington Tampa Bay vs Atlanta Minnesota vs Columbus Nashville vs Dallas Calgary vs Edmonton San Jose vs Anaheim Phoenix vs Los Angeles Sunday No games are scheduled for Sunday.

Yeah, for both friday and saturday

That was actually kind of surreal to watch. Like it's just now that it has really sunken in that MY Detroit Red Wings are visiting Sweden.. Man, Friday is going to be AWESOME. Btw, it was an attendence record for the arena today. Pretty cool.

Nice save by the 17-year old

He's looked pretty good though.

No, the 17-year old kid is entering now.

Z' skating hasn't looked good imo. I hope it's just first-game-fatigue and not his groin hindering him.

Hudler and Linus Omark is playing in the same team? Or was I seeing things? That'd be amazing to watch.

So far this preseason, all the players that need to take another step seem to be doing it. Franzen is looking like his playoff self already, hopefully it stays that way. Filppula is amazing, and Kronwall looks solid and should have a better season than last.

I think that Johansson dude that had the shot off the nice behind-the-back pass towards the end there is drafted by the Caps. Marcus Johansson I believe? 1st round pick by the Caps? Can anyone confirm? edit: ah, beaten by swayze.

I think so.

I want a big win today. Farjestad is my most hated team in the SEL and I wouldn't be able to stand it if they even came close to having a chance against the Wings. A hat-trick from Hank and 2 goals from the Finnish connection in the 1st period plz

Leino-Anisimov-Stalberg Tavares-Duchene-Filatov Riemsdyk-Wilson-Benn Wallin-Helm-Abdelkader Hedman- Ericsson (does he count still?) Karlsson-Gunnarson (though he'll be in the AHL I think) ????-????? Gustavsson Varlamov

I'm sad to see him go, but it's time. I wish he would have gotten a cup though, no one deserves it more.

Yeah I know, like I said the NHL is a much better league. Faster, more skill, more people around the net etc. But having seen what Lundqvist looked like in the SEL and how he did when coming over, I have a feeling that there's not going to be too much of an adjustment period for Gustavsson. Of course I don't think he'll put up the crazy numbers he had last year (like 1.03 GAA in the playoffs), but judging by his preseason I think he is ready to step right into the action. Btw, they play 50 games in the SEL. Gustavsson played 42 games I think last year, plus 12-13 games in the playoffs. So if he becomes the starter it's definitely going to test him physically like he hasn't really been before.

So true, people seem to be forgetting that he's not some 18-year old coming straight out of juniors. He is a mature guy that has worked extremely hard to become the goalie he is today. He's only really unproven to people that haven't seen in him the SEL. I know the NHL is a much better league than the SEL, but the way he played last year was so awe-inspiring that I can't see him being anything less than atleast a very, very solid goalie in the NHL. He has all the components to become one of the best in the league; size, atleticism, speed, mental strenght etc. He just has to tighten up his rebound control and he's set.

The Blues beat Linkoping 6-0 tonight. No surprise, Linkoping has had a terrible start in the SEL and looks far from being the top team that they've been in recent year.

If the Leafs made a decision based on only pre-season, Gustavsson would probably be starter with McDonald as his backup. Toskala has been terrible.. and this is supposed to be a bounce-back year for him. Personally I think he'll split games with Vesa 50-50 for a few months until Gustavsson becomes the #1.