Kukla's Korner

Praising the Red Wings’ endurance as an elite franchise, even during a rebuilding year

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/25/13 at 04:37 AM ET | Comments (7)

On Friday morning, the Globe and Mail's Eric Duhatschek began his NHL notebook by suggesting that the Chicago Blackhawks may have proved that, in the playoffs, running into a hot team on the wrong week can wipe out a shortened regular season's worth of unbeatable play, and in a very roundabout way, the Globe and Mail has posited two more articles discussing the Wings' resurgent play, yielding something of a, "How the Wings work" theme. The Globe and Mail's James Mirtle offers several reasons why the Red Wings' "demise has been greatly exaggerated"...

Five: Only five teams have had a better regular-season record than the Wings in the four seasons since they lost in Game 7 of the finals: Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington and San Jose.

Eight: Detroit is one of only eight NHL teams to make the playoffs in every one of those four seasons as part of an incredible 22-year postseason streak.

Thirty-nine: Including this year’s run, the Wings have now played in more playoff games (39) than 23 other franchises the past four years. And only the three recent Cup winners (Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles) and San Jose, Vancouver and Philadelphia have won more in the postseason in that span.

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Red Wings-Blachawks Game 5 set-up: Wings hope to match Hawks’ resolve with disciplined effort

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/25/13 at 04:25 AM ET | Comments (2)

The Detroit Red Wings head into Game 5 against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight (8 PM EDT, NBC/CBC/97.1 FM, and FSD will air a post-game show) holding a 3 games to 1 series lead, but they face a strange and difficult opponent for several reasons:

First, as the Hawks repeatedly mentioned on Friday, they rallied from a 3-0 series deficit against the Vancouver Canucks in 2011, and forced OT in Game 7; and second, Jonathan Toews is, depending on how you read his lecture about what a great player he is and how he's going to break out tonight, either due for a stellar game or due to completely lose it on Saturday night.

While the Blackhawks held an optional skate and were downright verbose in insisting that the series is still theirs to win, not lose, the Red Wings didn't practice and arrived in Chicago in the evening, stating that they both have to play better and must approach tonight's game knowing that Chicago's going to bring their best.

As they told NHL.com's Brian Hedger,  the Hawks are anything but down on themselves...

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Grand Rapids Griffins take Game 1 of Western Conference Final series vs. Oklahoma City

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/25/13 at 02:00 AM ET | Comments (4)

BEWARE: Auto-play highlight clips lurk within.

FYI and FTR from the get-go: Martin Frk and the QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads will play against the WHL's Portland Winterhawks in the Memorial Cup Final on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in the AHL...

Prior to puck drop, the Grand Rapids Grifins and their fans stood with citizens of Oklahoma City, but once the first game of the AHL's Western Conference Final began, it was all business, and the Griffins defeated the Oklahoma City Barons 2-1 (in the first of a slate of back-to-back games at Van Andel Arena). The Griffins' website provides a superb game recap:

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Kings Offence Down From 2012

Blog: The Puck Stops Here By PuckStopsHere

05/25/13 at 12:40 AM ET | Comments (2)

The Los Angeles Kings are the defending Stanley Cup champions.  They had a strong playoff run with a 16-4 record en route to the Stanley Cup.  This year they are trying to repeat but it is a tough road.  They are currently up three games to two against the San Jose Sharks.  They have a 7-4 record overall in the playoffs this year.  In order to match last season, they have to go undefeated through the rest of the playoffs.  That is an unlikely result.  To be fair their Stanley Cup run was also an unlikely result and one they are very unlikely to repeat.

The biggest change between the 2012 Los Angeles Kings in the playoffs and the 2013 Kings is offence.  The 2012 Kings had one and the 2013 Kings don't.  The 2012 Kings had the third best goals per game in the playoffs at 2.85.  They were behind Pittsburgh and Philadelphia who played a defenceless with 56 total goals in their six game first round series.  The 2013 Kings have lost almost a goal per game.  Their 2.09 goals per game is the lowest of all the teams that remain in the playoffs.

The Kings goals against remains about the same.  Jonathan Quick is having another very good playoff.  In 2012 he posted a .946 saves percentage and a 1.41 GAA.  This season he has a .948 saves percentage and a 1.50 GAA.  This is largely unchanged.

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Paul MacLean wisely suggests that his Senators can learn from Penguins’ ‘clinic’

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

05/25/13 at 12:09 AM ET | Comments (3)

I believe that this is an auto-play video, but Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean put things particularly eloquently after his team's series-ending 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, ending the teams' second-round series in 5 games.

MacLean's bottom line on the series, as he told Sportsnet? "I hope they don't charge us for the clinic," he said, referring to the example the Penguins set for Ottawa's younger players as to how a team must continually improve its play to persist in the second, third and fourth rounds:

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Jimmy Williams, Detroit’s secret weapon

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/24/13 at 11:51 PM ET | Comments (11)

RedWingsFeed was watching "Pardon the Interrupton" on ESPN this afternoon, and I wasn't. This happened:

This gentleman (sorry, I don't watch PTI so I don't know who's who) apparently corrected himself after a commercial break.

Edit/clarification: I am not attempting to condemn ESPN's hockey coverage per se or Mr. Michael Wilbon. I'm glad that TMR readers state that Wilbon watches hockey in Chicago, and while we may slag on ESPN for its TV coverage, Barry Melrose and Steve Levy have been breaking down every game in 3-minute clips online, ESPN has been dispatching Pierre LeBrun and Detroit-based Craig Custance to games, Katie Strang provides strong Rangers coverage and was a stalwart during the lockout, ESPN Boston loves its Bruins and ESPN Chicago loves its Hawks (and the Bucci Overtime Challenge is a pleasant bane of my existence). ESPN's TV coverage of hockey sucks. ESPN's online coverage of hockey is the reason it's been my browser's homepage since 1996.

Put simply, especially because this guy's from Chicago, my reaction was, "HAHAHAHAHAHA."

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Red Wings arrive in Chicago wary of desperate Blackhawks

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

05/24/13 at 11:42 PM ET | Comments (2)

Very briefly: the Red Wings didn't arrive in Chicago until the NHL announced the following...

"The starting time for a potential Game 6 of the series between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings, if necessary, has been set for 8 p.m. ET on Monday in Detroit."

But the Wings were very blunt about the concept that the pressure they face to take the Blackhawks out on Saturday night comes from within, and that they're well aware of the fact that the Blackhawks will not go down easily, as DetroitRedWings.com's Bill Roose noted:

“Pressure? No, pressure’s for tires, that’s the old saying,” said forward Daniel Cleary, while speaking to reporters at the Red Wings’ team downtown hotel Friday afternoon. “Our thing is it’s a race to four. Those guys are champions, they’re winners, they know the toughest game ever is to try and eliminate a team. We have to be ready. It’s going to be the hardest game we’ve played all season.”

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Penguins Advance To Eastern Conference Finals

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/24/13 at 10:20 PM ET | Comments (2)

With a 6-2 win over the Ottawa Senators, the Pittsburgh Penguins move on to the Eastern Conference Finals. 

The Senators had a tough time finding any momentum and now many will ask if Daniel Alfredsson has played his last NHL game. 

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Watching Game 4 Chicago/Detroit

Blog: The Malik Report By Paul

05/24/13 at 08:14 PM ET | Comments (4)

from Paulsen of Sports Media Watch,

Game 4 of the Blackhawks/Red Wings second round Stanley Cup playoff series drew a 1.1 U.S. rating and 1.8 million viewers on NBC Sports Network Wednesday night, the highest rated and third-most viewed second round game ever on the network. Only Rangers/Capitals Game 3 last year (1.9M) and Sharks/Red Wings Game 2 in 2010 (1.8M) drew more viewers.

The strong numbers came despite competition from the other high-profile second round series — the overtime Game 4 between the Bruins and Rangers. Bruins/Rangers drew a 0.7 U.S. rating and 1.4 million viewers on CNBC.

The Blackhawks/Red Wings and Bruins/Rangers games overlapped from 8:00-10:00 PM ET, earning a combined 3.3 million viewers over the two-hour period. During those two hours, the Stanley Cup Playoffs was the top draw on cable in total viewers and the adults 18-49 demo....

Locally, Blackhawks/Red Wings Game 4 scored a 10.04 rating in Chicago — the market’s highest ever for a second-round game on NBCSN — and a 12.35 in Detroit.

a bit more on the ratings...

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Video- Brenden Morrow Goal Tonight - Kicked Or Not?

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

05/24/13 at 08:09 PM ET | Comments (7)

Good goal according to on-ice officials and Toronto.

added 8:26pm, NBCSN call is below...

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  Tags: brenden+morrow

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