Kukla's Korner

Ken Holland’s low expectations = proper expectation management?

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/20/13 at 03:42 PM ET | Comments (28)

SI's Stu Hackel suggests that Red Wings GM Ken Holland's purposefully low-set expectations for his team's 2013 season serve as nothing less than a sterling example of how every team's management and ownership should realistically address their team's personnel issues, using the "Cuppy Cuppy Cuppy" turned every-spring "Woe is us!" phenomenon that is Ted Leonsis as a counter-example...

[O]n January 16, a few days before this short season began, Holland told a gathering of the Detroit Sportscasters Association, "There's the possibility that we might not make the playoffs this year."

His words seemed shocking because Detroit's last failure to reach the postseason occurred in 1990, but they weren't mean to be subterfuge. The fact was that the Red Wings had lost a pair of stalwarts -- the great defenseman, captain, and future Hall of Famer Nick Lidstrom, and one of their heart and soul guys in big winger Tomas Holmstrom -- to retirement. Veteran blueliner Brad Stuart had departed via free agency. A group of young players and new faces was coming in. How was this going to work?

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High heat and humidity might make the Joe’s ice less than ‘fast’ tonight

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/20/13 at 03:06 PM ET | Comments (7)

As noted in the game-day update thread and as mentioned this morning, Southeastern Michigan's expecting temperatures to peak around 90 degrees this afternoon and evening, and the local weatherpeople are forecasting a significant possibility of severe thunderstorms, so while the Chicago Blackhawks gushed about playing on the "fast ice" at Joe Louis Arena yesterday, the Detroit News's Matt Charboneau notes that the ice might not be so nice after all:

It was a common refrain around Joe Louis Arena on Monday as the Red Wings and Blackhawks prepared for Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals: The ice in Detroit is among the best in the league.

But even the playing surface inside Joe Louis Arena suffers when the temperatures outside are in the upper 80s and the humidity is high.

"It is good ice here," Chicago's Viktor Stalberg said after the team's morning skate. "But it didn't feel great this morning maybe because the heat outside. It usually is one of the better surfaces, that's for sure. It makes the game a little quicker and the puck tempo better."

The Red Wings bring in gigantic dehumidifiers that they park outside the Joe to aid in removing moisture from the air, but you can only do so much to aid a 34-year-old building's cause when you open the doors to let 20,000 people in, so the Wings and Hawks alike should expect the ice to be slushy and wet in the 1st period and hopefully improve as the game goes along. Al Sobotka and the Wings' building crew definitely have their work cut out for them tonight.

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Cotsonika offers a definitive profile of Red Wings coach Mike Babcock

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/20/13 at 03:01 PM ET | Comments (4)

Yahoo Sports' Nicholas J. Cotsonika wrote one helluva profile of Wings coach Mike Babcock, and like Babcock himself, it pulls no punches while leaning heavily upon the impressions Babcock has made upon Brendan Smith and Jakub Kindl:

The Wings made the playoffs for the 22nd consecutive season, winning their last four games to get in. They upset the second-seeded Ducks in the first round, coming back from 2-1 and 3-2 series deficits to win in seven games. They entered Monday night tangled in a 1-1 tie with the top-seeded Chicago Blackhawks, responding to a 4-1 loss with a 4-1 win.

“He’s one of the best coaches in the NHL for a reason,” said defenseman Jakub Kindl.

It’s not because he’s warm and fuzzy. It has been an open secret around the Wings that Babcock has clashed with players for years now, from the top to the bottom of the roster. He has clashed with management this season, too, about how certain players are used and the composition of the roster, often issuing public reminders of how much less he has at his disposal. But is that a negative? Or is that a positive? Or does your perception depend on the results?

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Three things: does Chicago ‘suck?’; praise for Datsyuk; 8:47 of Babcock being Babcock

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/20/13 at 02:17 PM ET | Comments (11)

Two of the three stories which follow are in the Red Wings-Blackhawks Game 3 update thread, which will continue to be updated this afternoon, but these three stories also merit specific mentions:

Topic 1: I happened to wonder aloud whether the Chicago Blackhawks' hatred for the Red Wings is analgous to that of Ohio State fans' hatred for everything related to the University of Michigan, and the website Alternative Hero provided a merchandise-hawking answer...

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Who Said It?

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/20/13 at 02:07 PM ET | Comments (0)

The older I get, the better I was. I was fortunate to be on an Oyster River High School soccer team that was at the tail end of a dynasty (we went 96 straight regular season games without a loss) and we made it to the state championship game in two of my last three years in school. I played soccer at UNH before I had a Joe Theismann-type broken leg... came back for one more season, but was a shadow of what I was... and it got me into broadcasting purely by happenstance. It all worked out OK, and the lessons learned from soccer help me with hockey concepts every game.

and the answer is...

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Is It Fair To Call The Washington Capitals Chokers?

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/20/13 at 02:01 PM ET | Comments (1)

from Neil Greenberg of Capitals Insider,

In fact, it is because this team wins so much that it has fostered what I like to call a Culture of Perennial Disappointment: failing to advance past the second round since its dark-horse run in the 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs.

So, we should be able to agree this organization is made up of winners. However, is it also made up of chokers?

You know, calling the Caps “Choking Dogs” used to be funny. But it isn’t any more. Because it has been happening for 12 years. In nine of their past 12 playoffs the Capitals have either frittered away a substantial playoff lead or lost to a team they finished above in the regular season.

That was Tony Kornheiser’s Washington Post column from 1996, after Washington won the first two games against Pittsburgh before dropping the next four, leading to a first-round exit — a trend that plagues this organization with the term “chokers.” But it is a moniker that, sadly, has been earned.

The Capitals have the worst postseason record in games in which the team can win the series with a victory (minimum 10 games played in those situations):

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Pavel Datsyuk advances to EA Sports’ NHL 2014 Cover Vote semifinals

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/20/13 at 01:57 PM ET | Comments (4)

FYI, Red Wings fans:

You can't vote by way of hashtags on Twitter anymore: you have to go to http://covervote.nhl.com regis,ter, and vote there.

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Trying To Move Ales Hemsky

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/20/13 at 01:52 PM ET | Comments (0)

from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal,

Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish simply isn’t going to pay $5 million a season for a second-line player who has world-class ability.

Although Hemsky goes into traffic, gets hurt and plays hurt — both admirable traits — the Oilers can find better ways to spend his salary. They need bigger forwards, even if they don’t have Hemsky’s skill set, which, apart from his first two seasons, has made him pretty close to a point-a-game NHLer.

The problem is that Hemsky has missed 118 games the past four seasons — a red flag for other teams who like healthier players on their roster.

Can the Oilers get anything substantial for Hemsky these days?

“I don’t think there’s a market for him … I shouldn’t say there’s no market,” said former NHL general Craig Button, who now works for TSN. “But the salary cap is coming down to $64.3 million. He makes $5 million for one more year. Would the Oilers pick up half of that to trade him, 50-50 (with another team)? That would still free up $2.5 million in cap space for the Oilers.

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Red Wings-Blackhawks Game 3 game-day updates: Wings expect Hawks to bring their best

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/20/13 at 12:41 PM ET | Comments (11)

Updated 13x at 3:46 PM: The Detroit Red Wings took to the ice at Joe Louis Arena to prepare for Game 3 against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight (7:30 PM EDT, NBCSN/CBC/97.1 FM, post-game on FSD), and the Wings' morning skate was relatively uneventful:

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Quick can’t afford to dwell on Saturday night’s game

Blog: 23 Intently Staring Goalies By lsefton

05/20/13 at 11:32 AM ET | Comments (0)

"If you keep thinking about the last goal. you'll soon be thinking about the next, last goal."

Good advice if you're playing goal. You spend your time thinking about that last goal, and you won't see the next one coming. That extrapolates to playoff games--if you spend your energy thinking about the previous game, you won't have the energy to play well. If you're grumbling to yourself in the next game, you're not paying attention to the play. The puck goes in, and now you have more to dwell on. That's how games can go hyperbolic in a very short time.

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