Kukla's Korner

Red Wings-Blackhawks Game 4 set-up: Wings must calmly rebuff Hawks’ best efforts

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/23/13 at 03:08 AM ET | Comments (8)

The Detroit Red Wings face off against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight (8 PM EDT, NBCSN/CBC/97.1 FM, and FSD will air a post-game show; tonight is also the "Fill a Boot" night fundraiser to help the family of Dearborn firefighter Brian Wohlke) knowing that "things will move pretty fast" from here on out. Starting with Game 4 this evening, this series will switch to the familiar play-every-other-day format, with Games 5, 6 and 7 scheduled to take place on Saturday (8 PM, NBC), next Monday and Wednesday...

So the two-day breaks' worth of bluster will soon be behind us (there were two practice posts, an evening multimedia post, injury updates and multiple discussions of the Wings' rebuilding-on-the-fly status for a reason; for the record, it's going to get up to 60 today with scattered showers, but the low for tonight's forecasted at 37 degrees, so the ice should be much better at the Joe, too), but Wednesday's practice chatter did end in something of a flourish from Chicago, where the Hawks still insist that they must play "angry," and where Joel Quenneville's decided to jump-start his power play and his team's scoring by adding Bryan Bickell as a net-front presence and prescribing more Andrew Shaw to get in Jimmy Howard's grill, respectively.

The Hawks didn't absolutely insist that the series will head to Chicago tied 2-2, but they came pretty close while speaking with Comcast Sportsnet Chicago's Tracey Myers...

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Video- Coach’s Corner From Wednesday Night

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/23/13 at 12:31 AM ET | Comments (0)

Ron MacLean pointed out Crosby cheating in the faceoff circle, Don Cherry discussed the first period of the Pens/Sens game, defensemen getting their stick in the way of a shot and the 4th-liners in the playoffs.

Cherry then went on to talk about Milan Lucic and Joe Thornton and MacLean talked a little about the refs in the playoffs.

Cherry then talked about the dismissal of Vigneault in Vancouver and feels Gillis threw some of the coaching staff under the bus.

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Video- What Is Alfredsson Trying To Say?

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/23/13 at 12:09 AM ET | Comments (7)

The last question asked on this interview is the one the twitter world has been talking about the last hour.

Make sure to follow the recent timeline of Erin Nicks' twitter for discussion and clarification.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: daniel+alfredsson

Paul MacLean keeps it brief after Senators’ loss to Pittsburgh

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

05/22/13 at 11:44 PM ET | Comments (1)

The Ottawa Senators had a rough night in their own barn, dropping a 7-3 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who now lead the teams' second-round series 3 games to 1, and Yahoo Sports' Sean Leahy reports that Senators coach Paul MacLean held a short press conference. Short doesn't begin to describe it, but its description would probably read longer than what MacLean had to say:

And I quote: "Um, it's, uh, I think everything's right here" (shows game summary to press), "It's 7-3, see you in Pittsburgh. We're going to Pittsburgh, and we're coming to play. Have a good night."

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Holland, Babcock and the Red Wings’ players discuss ‘rebuilding on the fly’

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/22/13 at 11:10 PM ET | Comments (10)

Over the course of the both the Red Wings-Ducks and Red Wings-Blackhawks series, Ken Holland and Mike Babcock's roles on Detroit's "rebuilding on the fly" season (which, as the Oakland Press's Pat Caputo noted this afternoon, does not involve tanking to be bad enough for long enough to stockpile high draft picks like the Blackhawks did), and with the Grand Rapids Griffins advancing to the AHL's Western Conference Finals, Martin Frk dazzling at the Memorial Cup and the team adding to its stockpile of drafted prospects by bringing over Calle Jarnkrok (temporarily), Teemu Pulkkinen (permanently) and signing Nick Jensen and Mattias Backman recently (and adding free agents like Damien Brunner and the rapidly-headling Danny DeKeyser hasn't hurt, either)...

The Wings' NHL and AHL rosters don't necessarily lack talent or depth, though they're certainly not the Blackhawks.

Now the story about Mike Babcock heading to Anaheim instead of succeeding Scotty Bowman isn't necessarily as gruff as Ken Holland told the AP's Larry Lage earlier today--Babcock was coaching the AHL's Cincinnati Mighty Ducks in the 2001-2002 season, and when Babcock approached Holland stating that he wanted to coach the Wings, Holland told Babcock that he simply couldn't hire a coach with no experience as opposed to stating that the team "doesn't hire interns"...

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Red Wings evening multimedia: spotlighting Patrick Eaves and previewing Game 4

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/22/13 at 10:29 PM ET | Comments (1)

The Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association named Patrick Eaves their nominee for the Masterton Trophy, which recognizes perseverance and dedication to hockey, because Eaves successfully recovered from a concussion that consumed 13 months of his professional career.

I don't think that anyone, including the Red Wings, imagined that Eaves would have become so invaluable to the team's penalty-killing or provide such no-frills defensive play that he'd be bumping Todd Bertuzzi and Jordin Tootoo out of the team's playoff lineup, but he's doing just that, and WXYZ's Tom Leyden penned a story about and filed a video profile of Eaves earlier this evening:

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Evening Line

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/22/13 at 08:17 PM ET | Comments (0)

I am proud of many of the things we accomplished as a group these past seven seasons in Vancouver and only wish we were able to win the Canucks first Stanley Cup. I am a career coach and it is what I love to do. I hope to coach again in this League and will always have good memories of my time and the fans in Vancouver.

-Alain Vigneault.  Read more from a release he sent out at the Canucks' website.

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  Tags: alain+vigneault

Kings Still Hungry For A Repeat Performance

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/22/13 at 07:52 PM ET | Comments (0)

from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

They're finding out that repeating is awfully tough.

"The physical part is obviously huge, but just the highs and lows that you go through, you got to be ready for that in your head," said Kopitar. "Last year we had lot more highs than we had lows. This time it's a little bit different. Mentally, it's challenging. You have to take it as a new day and prepare that way."

This a good test for the Kings, who have character and guts. It would be a shock if they didn't raise their game and step up to another level in Game 5 on Thursday at Staples Center.

This team still has the hunger.

"Absolutely, absolutely," said Williams, who appears to be playing banged up in this series. "We're professionals, we're here for a reason. That Stanley Cup, the big silver jug, is the pinnacle of success in our professional life. Regardless of whether you've won it once, twice, five times, come playoff time that's all you want."

more

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Only One Game On The NHL Playoff Schedule Tonight

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/22/13 at 07:00 PM ET | Comments (6)

The Pittsburgh Penguins are visiting the Ottawa Senators in game 4 of this series.  The Penguins lead 2-1 and the Senators need a win in order to avoid an elimination game in Pittsburgh  on Friday.

The puck drops around 7:37pm ET and can be watched on NBCSN, CBC and RDS.

Feel free to comment below on the game or anything related to the 2013 NHL Playoffs.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Gustav Nyquist Joined NHL Live Today

Blog: The Malik Report By Paul

05/22/13 at 06:46 PM ET | Comments (6)

Listen/watch five minutes with 'Gus'.

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