Kukla's Korner

Grand Rapids Griffins defeat Toronto 4-1, lead second-round series 3-1

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/18/13 at 01:04 AM ET | Comments (1)

The Grand Rapids Griffins have been playing lights-out spectacular hockey while I was away, and on Friday night, the Griffins took a 3-1 lead over the Toronto Marlies in their second round AHL series, defeating Toronto 4-1. The Grand Rapids Griffins' website provides a recap of the game...

The Grand Rapids Griffins pushed the Toronto Marlies to the brink on Friday night with a 4-1 victory at Van Andel Arena, taking a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Semifinals.

Landon Ferraro banked the game-winning goal off a Marlies defenseman and past former Griffin Drew MacIntyre with less than 10 minutes remaining, a rare reward for the home team on a night in which Grand Rapids outshot Toronto by a 2-to-1 margin (36-18).

The Griffins will have a chance to close out the Marlies and advance to their first conference finals in seven years on Saturday when they host Game 5 at 7 p.m.

If the Griffins win tonight, they'll advance to play the Oklahoma City Barons, the Edmonton Oilers' AHL affiliate...

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The Hossa-vs-Franzen debate, directly referenced, series-pertinent for the Hawks and Wings

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/17/13 at 10:19 PM ET | Comments (11)

I've not wanted to step into this minefield since the summer of 2009, but the Free Press's Helene St. James is a seasoned pro in navigating these sorts of things, so she went out and plainly stated that, for the Red Wings-Blackhawks series, anyway, Detroit needs Johan Franzen to match or eclipse the play of one Marian Hossa, and this is just a snippet from a much longer article:

Franzen himself repeatedly has said this time of year is, for him, “more fun. It’s tighter out there. More energy out there, and that’s fun. When you win, it’s fun. That’s all I care about, is if we win.”

It seems incongruous that Franzen doesn’t care more whether he scores, that he doesn’t connect him scoring with the team having success. It’s how it works, especially this time of year: Star players have to be star players. Like Hossa, who has seven points in six games.

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Red Wings pre-game 2 evening gnus: Wings hope to rebound, regain literal and figurative edges

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/17/13 at 09:23 PM ET | Comments (1)

The Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks will resume their "commuter" series (at least by Detroit-to-Anaheim-and-back standards) tomorrow at an early CDT hour (1 PM EDT, 12 noon CDT, on the CBC, NBC and 97.1 FM, with post-game shows on WDIV and Fox Sports Detroit), but if we are to believe everybody from Chicagoland's best to Jimmy Devellano, the Wings are down by more than a single game, and have a vertical climb in attempting to rally against the much-heralded Hawks.

NHL.com's Brian Hedger suggests that the Blackhawks have not only "surpassed" the Wings, but as their ascent has taken place amidst salary cap-era constraints, that the Hawks may in fact serve as the real model franchise going forward:

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Video- Come On Boys

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/17/13 at 06:24 PM ET | Comments (3)

Many NHL players were mic'ed by during the frist round of the playoffs.

Boy, boys sure is tossed around.

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Talking Puck Over The Glass And Missed Infractions

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/17/13 at 04:04 PM ET | Comments (1)

from Kerry Fraser of TSN,

Every other rule in the book allows for referee discretion to determine the existence of an infraction, along with the varying degrees at the referee's disposal to implement the final assessment ranging from a minor, double minor, major or match penalty. Aside from determining if the puck is deflected, the referee's discretion is nonexistent when it come to Rule 63.2 — Delaying the Game; Puck over the glass! 
 
We have seen more than one playoff game determined when a player accidentally put the puck over the glass to incur a penalty. It matters not if the puck was rolling and unsettled or the ice was bad and contributed to the flight of the puck. It's the only rule that I can honestly say is simply 'Black and White'!

It was very disconcerting for me to see obvious infractions that went uncalled in deciding games and particularly Game 7's that were played in the previous round. These 'discretionary calls' ranged from body slams to majors for elbowing, cross-checks from behind or a major cross-check infraction to the face (minor called), attempted slew-foot, goalkeeper retaliation with a blocker strike to an opponent's head, charging, and boarding. The referee 'discretion' implemented at times pretty much ran the gambit with a "let them play" mentality.
 
While I'm not suggesting that this poor standard of enforcement is in any way acceptable, it further demonstrates the absurdity of the puck over glass rule as it now exists.

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Spezza Could Play On Sunday

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/17/13 at 02:54 PM ET | Comments (0)

from Bruce Garrioch of Off The Posts,

A source told the Sun Spezza is targeting a Sunday return, but has to get clearance from the doctors.

“He continues to skate on a daily basis and makes progress,” said MacLean Friday. “We’ll go through practice (Saturday) and the pre-game skate and we’ll see where it is. If he’s available to us, it’s Jason Spezza, we’re going to have him in the lineup.”

The Senators will have an optional skate Saturday and Spezza will skate with that group.

“I know I’m going to be there to watch it,” said MacLean. “I might not be on the ice, but we’ll make a decision from there. I don’t know about all the medical hurdles but I’ll know more about that (Saturday).”

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‘Octopi Hockeytown’ and ‘Throw Your Wings Up’

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/17/13 at 02:25 PM ET | Comments (16)

According to the Free Press's George Sipple, the Red Wings' official playoff theme is "Octopi Hockeytown," and a local artist named Baby G has a tune about "Throwing Your Wings Up"...

As they say, "Pass or fail?"

Update: From, well, me:

It's a solid website, but the octopus-tossing is in picture form only.

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Red Wings pre-Game 2 practice updates: Miller may return; Babcock expects team to rebound

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/17/13 at 01:49 PM ET | Comments (13)

Updated 10x at 4:11 PM: The Detroit Red Wings took to the ice for a much-needed practice after a much-needed day off to allow the team to mentally and physically regroup from both their 7-game series against the Ducks and Wednesday's stumble against the Hawks, and while the schedule of the first four games may give the Wings a significant advantage tomorrow's essentially a re-set (1 PM EDT start on NBC, the CBC and 97.1 FM, and both FSD and WDIV are airing post-game shows), and the three-game break between games 3 and 4 also theoretically aids the cause of the underdogs (or "the nail," as it were)...

If the Wings' task in attempting to win four of the next six possible games wasn't enough of an uphill battle, the Macomb Daily's Chuck Pleiness noted that the Wings have a significant historical milestone marker serving as something of a millstone...

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Jimmy D discusses the Red Wings-Hawks series and ‘rebuilding on the fly’

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/17/13 at 12:56 PM ET | Comments (16)

Via RedWingsFeed, Fox Sports Detroit's Art Regner spoke to Red Wings VP Jimmy Devellano, and Detroit's representative on the NHL's Board of Governors doesn't mince words in suggesting that the Wings are the underdog team in terms of attempting to battle the Blackhawks...

“It would be the upset of upsets,” he said. “Chicago is really very, very talented. Our team is in the middle of the pack now. We don’t have the depth of star players anymore. We can match up with Kane and Toews with (Henrik) Zetterberg and (Pavel) Datsyuk, but we don’t have a Patrick Sharpe or Marian Hossa. Their depth of star players exceeds our.”

He tells Regner that the Wings were unable to keep the aforementioned Hossa for a simple reason...

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Afternoon Line

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/17/13 at 12:44 PM ET | Comments (3)

The Caps lose playoff games by the margin of Ovechkin’s negative thoughts. They will do this for as long as they let silly contentions about officiating and league conspiracies blind them to the larger fact of their performance. Buried in Ovechkin and McPhee’s remarks is the suggestion that they were really the better team. They weren’t. They got purely outfought, especially by the Rangers’ third and fourth lines, and mentally collapsed. The refs didn’t play swarming defense that blocked 27 Capitals shots in Game 7. The refs didn’t hold Ovechkin to just one goal and one assist in the entire series.

Nine times the Caps have blown two-game leads in the playoffs — three of those in the last five years. That’s a pattern. Until they have a very candid conversation with themselves — until they ditch their mood of sulky complacency in favor of real self-examination — you can count on it to continue.

-Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post where you can read more about the Capitals' mindset.

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