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It is really the most bizarre thing ever. Apparently its a callback to the old school swim wear required for the baths in Emma's home town. Even still... looking around that picture and seeing Z, Datsyuk, Flip, Lids and the others in those outfits almost put me in my grave laughing. 

My Take on Modano

So here is my opinion on the whole Modano thing since everyone else has weighed in. I'd prefer a quicker answer, but it doesn't much hurt us to wait. Holland already was set to wait to scrape the bottom of the barrel in August for a cheap veteran d-man... and that this rate it probably would just be Lilja.  He could still do that just fine. The only thing it really does is push off Helm and Abby's signing, which also isn't that large of a deal really.

They both understand the situation. Abbs understood perfectly well when he went down last year after we started getting healthy that it was for the good of the team. As far as it moving their position, I'm not sure if it affects Helm at all. Do they put him on the Wing if they move Abby down to 4th center? Or does Helm stay and Abby goes Wing? This could be seen by some as giving them a lesser role and taking away development time. At the same time, Babcock has been lowering the top lines minutes pretty consistently over the past few seasons any chance he can. Last year we had 2 checking lines... which didn't do our scoring any favors.

This season we should have 3 solid scoring lines, and 1 extremely stacked checking line. That doesn't mean the checking line will only get 4 minutes a game. I would think that the 4th line will get some decent minutes, not too terribly less than the 3rd, along with having the competition of those bottom 5 players to get ice time, that could create a better player in both Helm and Abby. 

Now, Ritola back to the Minors. This already seemed like Holland's plan. He signed him to a 2 way before the Modano stuff started. We all know this organization likes their players well seasoned, which as far as I can tell builds for good consistency.

Do I think Abby won't chip in as well as Modano could? I don't know for sure. Some bloggers have talked about Abby only putting up a few points all season when he was up. Babcock told him to check, so the kid checked. He was not in a goal scoring role, even in the injury plagued state we were in. Babcock relied on other people on the top 2 lines. When Abby went back down I've been told he was a very consistent scorer. We'll have to wait to pass judgement on his scoring ability until we see him put in that position. Especially with Hudler on his wing. I have a feeling Babcock will at least give him a shot here. If Modano comes on board he will likely not play every game of the season. 

Jimmy came out a few later, signed stuff, chatted and took pictures with everyone. I told him i thought he got robbed in the Calder votes... he replied, "Yeah... but the guy who won was very deserving as well." Very humble of him. 

He also gave us the promo pictures that Vaughn had for him to give out, along with signing the posted i brought and the 8x10 we printed at Albertson's for the girlfriend. It was all in a all a very cool experience that I am very glad i stumbled upon. 

We have another golden haired boy in the house.  I was alerted of this from one of my favorite Blogs, Nightmare On Helm Street. 

Since they already handeled the gist of it, and there is only 1 picture of the 28 year old elder Fillpula that I could find, I instead ventured over to youtube to see if there were any tasty bits of his Finnish Elite magic. Lets hope he sticks it out unlike the last Finish star we signed.  Here is one of the first videos I located of Ilari in action.

Don't get me wrong, I like Brian Rafalski. He has done good work here. My reasoning for wanting him gone is for a long term goal of getting ready for Lidstrom's departure, likely at the end of the next season. We have to get Kronwall to a new level. Under that tier we need Johnny E to play like he's been in the NHL. How do we do this when he is playing on the bottom line all the time?

I say trade away Rafi and give our rookies some top 4 time in rotation. We have more defensemen in the wings so i think we need to move one now before we are ditching underdeveloped players who succeed for other teams. I think either Kronwall or Stuart could step up for top PP line time, though Babcock could also opt to play a forward as he has been known to do on occasion. Or even Johnny E on the right side with Lids if he can harness that blast now that the Williams experiment was a failure.

Being a player myself and still in my developmental stages(I could be drafted at the age of like 28 at this rate lol) I know how a larger responsibility and more playing time really make for a better developed player. I know how much better I get after a few games my team has had when we were short on people and I ate up the ice time. We need to throw our rookies into the fire and see if they really are Red Wings. Most have been cooking plenty of time, they need to be given a real opportunity. 

Everyone knows what the big questions are now. Hudler is to return, who isn't? What is Nick's Future. Which of our loved Free Agents will not be invited back? Some of these will be answered pretty quick now. I am assuming that Lidstrom will give Kenny an answer fairly quick so that he can start planning for next season's run. He understands what his decision means to this team. I really would love to see him in a Wings jersey another few seasons. 

Time will tell and we the faithful will be here waiting to hear it, win or loose we are always Red Wing fans. 

Penalty Kill: It looked great for those 19 kills, then game 6 changed that. This really surprised me because the PK is some of our hardest working peeps. If they are not clicking or working their hardest then I don't expect the rest of the team to either. 

Power Play: We've come a long way from the 2008 Powerplay squad of Eurotwin magic. I miss you Todd M... 

Franzen-Datsyuk-Cleary: I like this line a lot, however they are not getting it done. Franzen is practically invisible. Game 6 I had to ask my girlfriend who is just getting into Hockey if she had seen his number on the ice half way into the 1st. Wake up boys or you will all be headed to your summer homes this weekend. 

Filppula-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi: I can't place why this line didn't produce game 6. Flipper was far from invisible. I'd really love to see Fil and Z on a line all next season. Fil really has shown how strong he can be with the puck... and now he just needs to pray to the hockey gods to let his great chances pay off. Puck luck and all that bit. Just a little bit more hard work will pay off 10 fold for this line. 

Draper-Helm-Eaves: Helm and Eaves both should be making Williams and Bertuzzi money next season. Draper I think I would have liked to have seen switched out one of the games. Give one of the Black Aces, maybe Ritola a shot to be this year's surprise playoff rookie, Ala Helm.  I'm a softie for Drapes though, so I'm glad to see him out there jawing at the opposition. This line just needs to keep doing what it is doing. 

Holmstrom-Abdelkader-Miller: No complaints at all about this line. Miller works hard, gets scrappy. Abby hits everything in site. I never have any complaints about Homer. It is foretelling that he ends up on one of the lower 2 lines in the post. We will likely see a similar line to this next season, and it may include Homer. As long as they keep providing the energy they do we will win tonight. 

Howard-Osgood: Some people may not really include Ozzy in their review of our recent goal tending seeing as he has played 1 game in the last 3 months. If you were to overlook the massive effect Ozzy has on Howard in practice or in the Locker room you would be cheating Chris from his deserved recognition. He has been here, several times. Howard is a rookie and playing his first playoff series. The pressure is crazy high on Howard and how can he be expected to cope with it? Well he has had Osgood right there with him, coaching him along. Letting him know how to best deal with everything. Ozzy, you may have been utter crap in goal this season, but I think you deeply for your mentoring of Howard. Jimmy, keep up your good work. I don't blame you if you or the team has a bad outing as long as you go out there and give it your all. 

My playoff beard(or as good of peach fuzz as i can grow) is itchy and I think that means we're moving on to the next round. If we don't my girlfriend will be thrilled that I have to shave it all off. Either way, someone wins tonight. Let's Go Red Wings!

Funny number, 19... It almost has a deeper meaning being that it is the number 19. I don't really believe in Jinxes, but if you do you may want to disregard the rest of this paragraph. What would be better than winning our 5th stanley cup of the current generation on the 19th playoff appearance? Could anyone else see a better fitting way to show some good old fashion Red Wings love for The Captain? Maybe sending Lidstrom off with one for the thumb. Anointing Zetterberg as the next leader by example? Just spitballing here. Sorry if anyone thinks by saying this I've doomed anything.

I know I haven't been around much and I apologize. I've been very busy and out of town for work. Okay that was just for a week and a half. The rest of the time I've been spending with my girlfriend. We did wake up yesterday to watch Ozzy give up all those softies, but I have missed a lot of games recently. She is going to be out of town tomorrow through Thursday so I'll have time to fix my homemade DVR box (MythTV) so that I can make sure i catch the last few games of the season and insure  that I can watch every playoff game.  

And no she is not stealing me away from Hockey. She even goes to all my games to cheer me on. When my friends, her and her family showed up to my last game we crushed the opposition 10-3. That felt amazing to win our first game infront of my friends and my new family. Woo for me. She even bought me this Red Wings blanket which I hung up in my office at work with my Z bobble-head. 

I am going to go on record and say this was one of the better seasons of Hockey I've followed so closely. There was lots of stress and anxiety. It created a real question of if the Wings would make it. Guess what? They did. Now for another great Playoff run where we will surely upset a few teams (I'm looking at you Chicago). Rock on bitches.  

Versus has returned to DirecTV. Now when the Wing make the playoffs I can see the games. Took the two super douche conglomerates long enough to agree to terms. 

Not a ton of update because I just have no time right now, after work slows down a bit I should be back to a regular level of posting, maybe even increased a bit with some more creativity. See you on the flip side. 

Instead of going home before Hockey practice and watching the game I choose to go to my girlfriends house and watch Law Abiding Citizen with her and her father. I think i made the correct choice to DVR the game. I may not even watch it on DVR now. I don't need to be more depressed when I think about where this team is and where it should be at this point in the season. 

Is Ozzy going to get a better look now? Babbles has been pretty stubborn to not even pull Jimmy on the few bad outings he had earlier in the season. Show him he can mess up a bit and not ruin his playing career, but now he pulled him and let Ozzy get in there. Does Chris get to start the next game and prove he can be consistent? I am a huge Jimmy fan, but maybe it is time for Ozzy to get his shot. Right now neither of them really shows the huge upside of winning games over the other.