Kukla's Korner

Red Wings-Blackhawks Game 4 tailings: Wings still respect Hawks despite authoring improbable upset

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/24/13 at 01:08 PM ET | Comments (19)

Updated with one more audio interview at 1:43 PM: Prior to the Red Wings' 2-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday, both the speculatory-minded and measured thinkers in the Detroit media corps suggested that, "Whoever wins Game 4 will win the series."

Wings fans might agree with that assessment, but the Score's Cam Charron suggests that no one should write the Blackhawks off heading into Game 5 on Saturday...

And that's just fine with the Red Wings. As the Globe and Mail's Eric Duhatschek points out in his weekly notebook, Wings coach Mike Babcock readily admits that his team's playoff run seems highly improbable...

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Red Wings raised over $15,000 for fallen firefighter’s family

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/24/13 at 12:24 PM ET | Comments (1)

From the Red Wings' community relations department:

RED WINGS RAISE $15,029 FOR BRIAN WOEHLKE FAMILY FUND

… Fans Donate $11,529 at Game 4 and Zetterberg Contributes $3,500 …

Detroit, MI… The sellout crowd of 20,066 at Joe Louis Arena opened up their hearts and wallets on Thursday night prior to Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals against Chicago to support the family of fallen Westland firefighter Brian Woehlke, who passed away while battling a Westland fire on May 8.

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Sovetsky Sport reports that Pavel Datsyuk’s made up his mind regarding future with Red Wings

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/24/13 at 11:52 AM ET | Comments (58)

Updated 2x with Greenstin's comments to Khan and Duff at 3:06 PM: Ugh. Not what I wanted to wake up to:

Sovetsky Sport's Artury Enikeew suggested that Pavel Datsyuk has signed a tentative agreement to play for Ak Bars Kazan for 3 seasons beginning in 2014, and that the contract will be announced after the NHL season ends...

But Yahoo Sports' Dmitry Chesnokov reports that that's inaccurate:

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Will The Avalanche Approach Work?

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/24/13 at 11:17 AM ET | Comments (5)

from Damien Cox of The Spin,

There are eight teams still competing for the Stanley Cup, and precisely none of them operate on the model now being proposed by the new-look Colorado Avalanche.

Then again, it's hard to explain precisely what the Colorado model is, or how it will work.

What we do know is that of the remaining eight, none are run by Hall of Fame centremen with no previous experience or coached by Vezina Trophy winning goalies straight out of junior hockey with expanded powers beyond just minding the bench.

And the eight other NHL clubs that qualified for post-season play before being eliminated in the first round? Nope, they aren't using the buddy system the Avs are going with, the we-won-championships-together-so-we-must-know-how-to-run-a-team approach.

continued

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The NHL Will Have Two NHL Awards Shows

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/24/13 at 11:05 AM ET | Comments (6)

NEW YORK (May 24, 2013) – The National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players’ Association, in collaboration with national television partners NBC Sports Group, CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada and NHL Network, and NHL.com, will celebrate and honor the accomplishments of the top players, coaches and executives of the 2012-13 NHL^® season during two television specials at the 2013 Stanley Cup^® Final.

At 7 p.m. ET as a lead-in to Game 2 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final, NBC and CBC will co-produce and co-host a program announcing the winners of the Calder Memorial Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, James Norris Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award and Vezina Trophy.

Originating from the location of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, the hour-long program will be televised on NBC Sports Network in the U.S. and in Canada by CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada and will feature the hosts and hockey analysts from both networks. The program also will be streamed live online at cbcsports.ca.

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Morning Line

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/24/13 at 09:55 AM ET | Comments (5)

One of the two coaches in this series was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award. It’s time for him to prove he deserved it. Quenneville changed up his lines before this game and tweaked his power play. In-game, he cut ice time of under-performers and sat star players to cool them down. He’s hammering every button he can find and nothing is working. He’s being outsmarted by Mike Babcock at every turn and unless he can find a way to get his troops pulling in the same direction — or at least convince a couple of his guys to plant themselves in Jimmy Howard’s kitchen on a consistent basis — the Blackhawks are headed for a humiliating end in Game 5.

-Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated where you can read more on the Chicago/Detroit game last night.

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Video- John Tortorella On Benching Brad Richards

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/24/13 at 09:50 AM ET | Comments (7)

Right to the point.

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  Tags: brad+richards, john+tortorella

Morning Notes

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/24/13 at 09:42 AM ET | Comments (0)

Provided by the NHL...

FRIENDLY CONFINES
Home teams won all three games Thursday and have a 44-20 record (.688) in the playoffs, including a 14-3 mark (.824) in the second round. Home clubs also have won 15 of the 21 overtime games (.714) in the postseason, including all four in the Conference Semifinals.
 
The Kings set a franchise record with their 13th consecutive victory at STAPLES Center dating to the regular season. Los Angeles also has won a team-record seven straight home playoff games dating to last year.
 
DOWN, BUT NOT OUT
The Rangers overcame 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to force overtime and eventually win in the extra frame, marking the third time in franchise history that the team won a game in which it faced elimination and trailed by two or more goals. The other wins of that description were a triple-overtime victory in Game 6 of the 1971 Semifinals against Chicago and Mark Messier’s famous “guaranteed win” in Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Final at New Jersey. Thursday’s victory also marked the first time the Rangers won any playoff game in which they trailed by two or more goals since 1995 against Quebec. (Elias)

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Red Wings forward Joakim Andersson’s playing understatedly superb 2-way hockey

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/24/13 at 07:30 AM ET | Comments (15)

There's no doubt in my mind that the Red Wings' "x-factor" through their playoff run has been the performance of their third line, and while the Gustav Nyquist-Joakim Andersson-Damien Brunner line didn't factor in the scoring in the Red Wings' 2-0 win over Chicago last night, Nyquist deked and dazzled his way past and through Blackhawks defenders, registering 2 shots and 2 takeaways in only 10:26 of ice time, Brunner took 2 shots, attempted 3 more and probably (frustratingly) passed up half a dozen more, and Andersson had 1 takeaway, had 2:23 of PK time and went 5-and-1 in the faceoff circle...

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Grand Rapids Griffins to battle Oklahoma City Barons in AHL WCF, stand with Oklahoma City tonight

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/24/13 at 04:57 AM ET | Comments (1)

As noted on Thursday, the Grand Rapids Griffins have been a step ahead of the Red Wings in terms of their 2012-2013 schedule, and they're a step ahead of the Red Wings in terms of their playoff push.

The Griffins will face off against the Oklahoma City Barons in the AHL's Western Conference Finals tonight, hosting the Edmonton Oilers' affiliate for back-to-back games at Van Andel Arena before heading to OKC for 3 games.

The Griffins have posted an incredibly thorough, if not exhaustive series preview, the Detroit News's Ted Kulfan and the Grand Rapids Press's Peter J. Wallner both spoke to Griffins alums (Gustav Nyquist and Joakim Andersson) and the Griffins' coach, respectively, Wallner also posted the series schedule and a recap of the Griffins' regular season tilts against the Barons, and...

Well, the Barons' practice facility is located half a mile from the path of the tornado that tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, and several of the team's players, their equipment manager and coach told the Edmonton Sun's Terry Jones that they saw the tornado forming over their houses. Former Baron and current Griffins defenseman Triston Grant told Wallner that he had to check in on his friends in OKC, and Waller notes that the Griffins are very specifically holding a charitable drive to benefit the victims of the tornado at tonight's home game:

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