zaxx

The TSN analysts got it correct, Radulov was not trying to hurt anyone. I do not even think you can lump it in with the dirty meant to hurt hits. This is a talented young, hard working forward who just made a mistake. He was trying to finish his check (as he is told to do in the playoffs) and sadly the Sharks player did not turn as much as it looked like he would. However in the playoffs we see 100s of hits like this one, what makes this one different? Well the Sharks player had his head down and was not aware anyone was coming. He was not prepared and thus the hit hurt. The only thing Radulov did wrong was come off his feet. That was wrong but again look at any play where a player is protecting the puck along the boards and likely there will be some rough contact. Sadly this time it caused an injury. I think Radulov got just punishment by missing this game and he should miss the next but no more. The Sharks player will be back (as someone else said he got the wind knocked out of him, and perhaps from head hitting the glass a slight concussion). Anyway Radulov is an amazing player who just made an eager youngsters mistake. He should never be lumped in with Tootoo and Hartnell.

My story is a little strange but interesting nevertheless. When I was young and just starting out in Hockey Yzerman had just been given the 'C' and was getting tons of points. Everyone my age loved Wayne Gretzky or other big names (Mario). Since I like to avoid the pack I looked to Yzerman as my favorite player. Really was almost coincidence and luck that I picked him. This was really nothing major since I was too young to really understand the game and the players but I grew up in a great town for the Wings. I grew up in Kindersley Saskatchewan. I know what your thinking... where? Look up the stats on Dave Lewis and you will see he was born (and raised) in Kindersley. (Wiki) Well in the early 90's (I still loved Yzerman and finally understood why) my Grandmother moved to Kindersley from Newfoundland. She moved into a senor citizens apartment complex and my family would visit often enough. Well one day my grandma tells me that she knows I love the Wings and so she would like to introduce me to someone I may want to meet. I thought, great grandma is in the sauce again (yeah I was too young to think that but I figured she was crazy). She brought me to meet Alice Lewis mother of Dave Lewis. She was the kindest and sweetest older lady I met. We talked about the Wings and she told me all about her boy and how proud she was that he was involved with the organization. I was in disbelief but she assured me it was for real. After that meeting I started researching Hockey history, Yzerman, and Dave Lewis. I gained a lot of knowledge about the Wings and my love for the team grew. Along the way I would meet and chat with Mrs Lewis several more times and she was kind enough to give me Red Wings merchandise that Dave would send her. (pins, posters, etc) I still have my 1993 (I think) team poster. She would give me stuff like this all the time and of course being young I did not appreciate it much but today I do. The poster was the first one she gave me and it is in very rough shape (my brother and I had it on our wall until I moved out, like ~9 years later) but I still love it. It is in the original poster tube that Dave packed it in just rolled up and in storage in my home. She even gave me my most prized possession, which I am still not sure how she managed to part with. I have a picture of Steve Yzerman as he is about to take the faceoff and it is signed by him. I have had that thing on every wall/desk in every home I have ever lived. Best gift I have ever received. When Alice passed away last year I actually considered going to the funeral (My grandmother and parents went since they were good friends with Mrs Lewis) but I decided to skip it since I really only knew her through the Wings so I thought it would be disrespectful for me to go and be more focused on shaking Dave's hand then saying goodbye. I know I would have said goodbye there and thanks to Mrs Lewis, but I also would have taken the time to shake Dave's hand (since he is awesome) and that part would not have been appropriate. Although in my heart I know that she understands (where ever she is) that I loved the Wings gifts she gave me and that my love of Hockey is defined by her kind words. She was a wonderful lady who took it upon herself to share the Wings heritage with a young fan. Now I love the Wings but I sure want Dave to be successful as the Bruins head coach. I would love nothing more then a Bruins vs Wings final just so Dave could be recognized. (Yes the Wings would win!) So that is why I am a fan and why there will never come a day when I stop being a fan. My dream is to one day take a trip through Detroit and catch a game, just for a chance to soak up some more of the history of this great organization. If Dave Lewis ever reads this little post (what are the odds eh), I want him to know that his mother was a wonderful lady whom was loved by many people in Kindersley. She is dearly missed. I also want to thank him for his wonderful work with the Wings and for the great information/keepsakes that his mother passed along to a good for nothing young kid.

Well I know what I saw last night was amazing, Detroit gets no respect in the league for strength and grit but last night the Wings were flying and the Flames were running. I even saw Lang stand up to a few guys. (Not knocking Lang but the man is not a grit player) If the Wings can keep the hit streak going the Flames are in trouble. Most hits by the Wings in one game this year: http://redwingscorner.blogspot.com/2007/04/hit-parade.html Also I enjoyed that after Hasek was made fun of for his dive 2-3 weeks back against Calgary we see Mika pull one last night. The man was 5 feet out of the crease and Cleary was going straight down the line when Mika came out an extra foot and got in the way. Then the little bump turns into what Mika made to look like a career ending cheap shot. He even curled around the post for crying out loud. To hit someone with that much equipment on hard enough to spin them around and send them back 6 feet would be amazing and painful, Mika took a dive. CBC analysts (Kelly Rudy & Ron MacLean) called him out on this embellishment and oversell of th collision. Not that I am saying Cleary did not do anything (he obviously made contact and therefore deserved a penalty) but come on Mika grow a pair and stop the embellishment.

Thanks man, I love these interviews!

Great picture man! Th thing that is wonderful about watching Datsyuk play is that he looks much younger then his years (not that he is old). So when he is happy and playing well it looks like a kid is out there just having fun living his dream. Anyway good for Pavel, good for our Wings and keep going strong cause we want to see the parade this year!

This is a great recording especially for fans who are not from the Detroit area. We never get to hear the player interview like this. If you ever get more please post them. Thanks for this great listen.

We all know PK and PP are the most important factors in the playoffs and last night the announcers even said that the team with the best pk in the playoffs has always been successful. So how long into tonights game will the announcers wait before touting the great faceoff abilities of the Flames? Didn't Edmonton have the upper hand in faceoffs against us last year and this was something that was mentioned as a large reason for their success. I think faceoffs are something we should be concerned about and the guys are going to need to have Yzerman give them a school in how to win the draw.

Seems to me that Stephen Yelle is going to be a big problem for Detroits powerplay. If he is pk'ing and we cannot win the draw because of it then our pp will be weak.

I must be out of touch on Hartnell, can anyone tell me (perhaps with youtube videos) why you all call him a dirty player? This is the first time I have seen him do something like this although I do not pay as much attention to many teams in the regular season (only get so many games). Also in watching the video on TSN it sure looked like it was an intentional elbow with a mistaken knee. However the pictures being posted paint a different story. I am very interested to see what the league says about this situation.

Last year we had an unprooven goalie and the team never had a chance to gain the confedence to rally around him. This year we have Bert and Calder to get the grit going and Hasek to make the big save. Those two factors will help us keep momentum and energy through the playoffs. Not that Manny was a bad goalie just that he did not make enough big key saves to get the team to rally around him. Take my word on this, a few big hits on Phan, Ig, Conroy combined with some frustratingly crazy sazes out of Hasek and Detroit will have the momentum and energy to break Kipper.

Love it, that needs to be in your signature! To the rest, you know Don has to pick Calgary. They are part of his core market and they play his style of game. Hard hitting, dump and chase, with the odd fight. Detroit is all talent and just recently a bit of grit. I am sure that when Detroit wins Cherry will call them to win the cup. He respects teams that can beat his style of game. It will be cool to see Cherry talking huge of Zets/Dats/others an claiming that there are some Europeans who can excel even against the hard hitting NA style game. Make him eat his words, he has been wrong in the past and when he is, he admits it.

Hey thanks, this little back and forth was fun! I enjoyed it. I will see you on here all through the playoffs and when Hasek raises the cup we can take solice in the fact that we predicted his success. Go, Wings!!

The best part of the article is the comments by Holland about Hasek and his reasons for coming back. The wings were not even interested in Hasek unless he was coming back due to his competitive drive and willingness to persevere. The man may be labeled as loud (always leading both on and off the ice) but he is driven. I said in another post, the man spent last year watching the Senetors get knocked out of the playoffs due to a groin injury. He is so competitive that I bet he was begging to get cleared to play. He thrives for the intense action. My bet, Wings take the series and only due to the incredible play by a focused, prepared and competitive Hasek. He will be amazing and he will show why he has won so many trophies. He knows this may be his last chance at fulfilling his competitive needs, he will deliver. However due to this I expect Detroit to score very few goals and just rally around Hasek. The defense will need to be superb or Hasek will put them in their place. That is until the last game of the series when Calgary simply folds onto itself in penalties and Detroit opens up offensively. Similar to the beating we gave to Colorodo in game 7 of the western final a few years back. (7 - 0 if I recall) I cannot wait until tomorrow night, Go Wings Go! Side note, I live 7 hours from Calgary so there are a lot of Flames fans at my office. They all have their jerseys on today and likely will until the Wings knock them out. One guy keeps coming by telling me how great Mika is and how he will lead the Flames to victory. However everyone expects Hasek to either be injured, go crazy from the stress (of being hit), or just play horribly. He is the actually the underdog(!) but he will deliver, mark my words. There will be some tears on the red mile this year.

puckloo39 I understand that Babcock was upset that the media made it sound like he was placing the blame for the loss on Dom when in fact it is a team game and they made many mistakes. You win as a team and you lose as a team. However Babcock did not come out and say that he was misquoted and felt that Dom did not take a dive. His quote in reference to Dom was: "It wasn't interference at all. Our goalie tried to draw the penalty and he dove and they shot it in the net," Babcock said. "The bottom line is embellishment is something that happens in our games, probably too much, and when you try and draw a penalty and they shoot it in our net, it's a tough one." So it does not matter that the media stretched this into Babcock blaming Hasek for the loss, in fact the only thing that matters is that Hasek took a dive and we got scored on. If it happens in the playoffs we are in trouble. However Dom is a pro who will rise to the challenge of the playoffs and this crap will not happen. On that note I imagine that last years playoffs were horrible for Hasek, he had to sit and watch his best time of the year from the sidelines with a groin injury. Anyone who suggests that he will not be on his game is crazy. He has had 2 long years of waiting to get back here and he knows this may be his last. He is going to go at it 100% and he will perform above even his best levels. People forget that absence makes the heart grow fonder, Dom lives for competition (has to or he would not still be in the league) and he will be on his game. To go 2 years without playing in the post season for a guy who loves the competitive play, wow. This is going to be a Hasek domination. (you can quote me on that) The dominator will be in full force. He will get knocked around by Calgary but it will be the competitive, focused dominator that we all love who prevails.

I am amazed at a couple of things about you: 1. You think that I do not support Hasek, I love the guy and think he is the sole shot we have at the cup this year. I simply acknowledge the fact that he has taken a costly dive in the past against Calgary and understand why we need to watch out for this in the series since Calgary knows he has a bad groin (try to wear it down) and that he can get off his game. However as I said before Dom is a playoff performer and he will step up to perform. The regular season dive and puck handling goofs will not be present since he thrives on the stress of the playoffs. 2. You are disagreeing with what Babcock, and the entire Hockey press has said about the incident. I bet even Dom himself would admit that it was a foolish attempt at drawing a penalty. If you do have it on your DVR then please pull it off and upload to youtube. I would love to prove to the world that Ig should have gotten a penalty. In fact it would help Detroit since it would show that Dom did not suffer from a bad dive but from an elbow to the head. This would also put some spotlight onto the refs and Ig and take it off Dom. So please upload it and share, since the entire Hockey sports analyst community is wrong and you are the only one who say the play.

Wow you are wearing some rose colored glasses, take them off and wipe the sleep out of your eyes. I should not need to defend my backing of the wings but in a few sentences here it goes. I have been a Wings fan since I started playing hockey in the mid eighties, and have followed them every year. I went to Edmonton last year with my Wings jersey on to watch a playoff game and was booed and screamed at the entire time. I love the Wings and accusing me of anything else is just wrong. However look around at the sports information surrounding the Detrois@Calgary game and they will all say the same thing. Hasek took a dive to try to draw a penalty, it backfired and Calgary got the game winning goal. I agree with most that Hasek will not do this stuff in the playoffs but it is something Calgary can remember since their in your face play worked once. Please stop with the infighting between Wings fans and face facts. Hasek is a great goaltender, he is not an actor and he should only go down when someone actually does something. Ig from CAlgary had his back turned to Hasek when the "elbow" was thrown. I have been searching for a video of this dive but so far I have not had any luck. That is all I have found, but I recall TSN had a great highlight showing the phantom elbow that cost us the game.

Did you miss the dive he tried to sell against Calgary a couple of weeks back. He was crowded in front of the net so he faked an elbow to the head and went down crying about it. Calgary scores when he is out of position and then take the game 2-1. We need Hasek to be solid and strong, like he has been in the past. But we need him to stop trying to do it all and just focus on his job in net. By the way, even Babcock called him out on the dive, it was a dive and no one can dispute that.

For those of us who do not have access to the live feed from TSN see: Story (should be updated once more is released) http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/trade_deadline/news_...-trade_deadline Live Blog of Today's Activities (From TSN) http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/trade_deadline/news_...-trade_deadline