Kukla's Korner

Avs continue to get the band back together, add Adam Foote to coaching staff

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/19/13 at 11:34 AM ET | Comments (2)

Via Pro Hockey Talk's Mike Halford, Patrick Roy's the Colorado Avalanche's coach, Joe Sakic's the senior VP of hockey operations, the Avs are bringing Roy's old goalie coach, Francois Allaire, back into the mix, and now...

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Canucks are iffy on bringing Mason Raymond back

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/19/13 at 11:26 AM ET | Comments (0)

From News 1130 Sports in Vancouver:

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Wednesday’s ‘Cup of Joe’

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/19/13 at 11:24 AM ET | Comments (0)

From the NHL's PR department:

MORNING STANLEY CUP OF JOE – JUNE 19, 2013

SNEAK PEEK AT TONIGHT’S ACTION
Chicago @ Boston, Game 4, BOS leads 2-1, 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT, NBC, CBC, RDS

DID YOU KNOW?
* Since going to the best-of-seven format in 1939, teams leading the Final 2-1 have gone on to capture the Stanley Cup 83.0% of the time (39-8). (Elias)

* The Bruins have a 2-0 all-time record when holding a 2-1 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final. The Blackhawks are 0-3 lifetime when trailing 2-1 in the Final.
 

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The Red Wings wouldn’t have drafted Pavel Datsyuk had they not wanted to scout Dmitri Kalinin

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

06/19/13 at 11:21 AM ET | Comments (8)

The Detroit Red Wings' signing of Pavel Datsyuk to a 3-year extension (with one year already remaining on Datsyuk's current contract) is a game-changer in terms of shaping the team going forward, but Red Wings director of European scouting Hakan Andersson related a tale to MLive's Ansar Khan that few fans know: the Wings had absolutely no idea who Datsyuk was when Andersson made a trip to Yekaterinburg, Russia back in 1998:

“It was his last year as a junior player (1997-98) and I was going to Eastern Russia, to a city called Yekaterinburg, where the Czar was killed in the early 1900s,'' Andersson said. “The player I wanted to see was a defenseman, Dmitri Kalinin, ended up being drafted by Buffalo (18th overall in 1998).''

Kalinin's club, Traktor Chelyabinsk, was playing at Dynamo Yekaterinburg, which, unbeknownst to Andersson, had this really shifty, creative little eye-catching center.

“As the game went on I saw this little centerman who was pretty good,'' Andersson said. “He worked hard up and down the ice, had good hockey sense. He broke up a lot of plays and had good skill. I went away from the game with a report on Kalinin, but also a report on this little kid.''

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An update on Paul’s situation

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/19/13 at 11:10 AM ET | Comments (5)

As noted yesterday, Paul's not feeling well at present. He wanted me to let you know that he's doing okay, and that he greatly appreciate all the kind thoughts and well-wishes you've sent his way. He's crossing his fingers about getting back in the saddle tomorrow.

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Red Wings overnight report: extending Pavel Datsyuk is a keystone moment for the Wings going forward

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

06/19/13 at 04:24 AM ET | Comments (24)

The Detroit Red Wings' signing of Pavel Datsyuk to a 3-year contract extension earned the worldwide coverage and almost exultant joy GM Ken Holland (and Datsyuk himself) related to the Wings' press corps and The Fan 590 on Tuesday. Datsyuk remains one of the best players in the world at 35 years of age (see: TSN's Play of the Year showdown, in which Datsyuk dekes through the Nashville Predators), and locking him up until he's 39 (at a pretty damn affordable price, no less) assures that the Wings' "core" will remain intact--allowing the Wings to approach the free agent marketplace with needs other than replacing Datsyuk in a year or two in mind--as Holland told the Windsor Star's Bob Duff:

"It’s a great day,” Holland said after the 35-year-old centre agreed to a three-year contract extension. “He’s a world-class player. We’re all fully aware he’s from Russia and there’s a legitimate league over there that’s an option. Pav made it clear through the years he’s a Red Wing and if he’s not, he’s playing at home.”

As Holland told the Wings' other beat writers, Datsyuk had assured Holland that he wanted to remain in North America throughout the season, and at his exit interview, Datsyuk decided to add three years to the last year of his current contract:

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Zdeno Chara, work in progress? At one time, he most certainly was just that

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/19/13 at 03:19 AM ET | Comments (3)

Yahoo Sports' Nicholas J. Cotsonika penned a fantastic profile of Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, and it is absolutely essential reading because he tells the truth: the NHL's most dominant defenseman at present didn't burst onto the NHL scene--he kind of stumbled onto it, taking years to grow into that big, mean body through oodles of hard work:

Before he was the biggest of the big, bad Boston Bruins, Zdeno Chara was just big. He was more of a curiosity, a 19-year-old kid from Slovakia, a third-round pick of the New York Islanders. He was trying to adjust and develop half-a-world from home in Prince George, a tough lumber town in the forests of British Columbia.

His junior team printed life-sized posters of him with measurements on the side, so regular folks could compare themselves to the giant and his 6-foot-9 height. Fans would hold them in the stands. Opponents could see them as they whirled around the rink for warm-ups. This being the Western Hockey League, the pugilists lined up to prove themselves – until Chara proved himself as a fighter. He still had to prove himself as a player.

“He wasn’t a guy that you looked at right away and said, ‘Wow, he’s going to be unbelievable in the NHL,’ ” said Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference, who played against Chara back then. “He was a guy that you looked at and you’re like, ‘Well, he’s got a lot of work to do.’ ”

Continued, and Cotsonika's article is worth your time.

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Senators GM Bryan Murray stirs the trade rumor mill

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/19/13 at 03:14 AM ET | Comments (0)

Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray was one of the original architects of the Red Wings' 90's teams, but I'm glad that he's not the Wings' GM anymore. The GM of the team that resides in the newly-rechristened "Candian Tire Centre" has never shied away from talking about his desire to make personnel moves, and the Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch found that Murray was eager to talk about his desire to move up at the entry draft, and that he'll spend Wednesday's GM's meetings mining cap-troubled teams for a top-six forward as well:

The Senators are supposed to pick No. 17, but Murray is bound and determined to try to move up.

"We have a chance to get a good player this year. The draft, through the first round, is fairly decent," said Murray. "There's a variety of types. We know now that we've got a core of young players coming with a fair amount of talent. There's a certain type of player that we'll be looking for in that spot. It's hard to say at the moment what that is, but a player who is going to fit into our hockey team in the future."

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Gregory Campbell should be good to go fro Boston’s training camp

Blog: KK Hockey By George Malik

06/19/13 at 03:03 AM ET | Comments (0)

According to ESPN Boston's James Murphy, Gregory Campbell will need 6 to 8 weeks to recover from his broken right leg, and the Bruins expect him to be ready to go for training camp. Campbell addressed the media on Wednesday, and he didn't suggest that blocking an Evgeni Malkin shot during the Eastern Conference Final was a heroic act. Instead, it was just a hockey player doing his job:

Just how much pain was he in after getting drilled by Evgeni Malkin's shot?

"I mean, it hurt a little bit," Campbell said. "It was sore. But your adrenaline's going pretty good at that point. You're stuck on the ice with a couple of the best players in the world. You really don't have much time to think about anything else but trying to help out and kill a penalty."

Campbell also said that he knew something was different about the pain he was feeling, but was not certain he had a broken leg at the time.

"I've got asked that a few times: 'Did you know it was broken?' You know, I can't say with 100 percent certainty that I knew it was broken," Campbell said. "But I felt like it was a different feeling. I blocked a few shots before. This just seemed different. Then once I was able to get back to my feet, I was not positive, but fairly sure that there was something wrong. I don't have X-ray vision, so I didn't know at the time that it was broken for sure."

Continued

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Grand Rapids Griffins overnight report: Calder Cup championship precedes changes to come

Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik

06/19/13 at 02:46 AM ET | Comments (5)

The Grand Rapids Griffins captured what DetroitRedWings.com's Bill Roose notes is the first Wings AHL affiliate's championship since 1992 and the Griffins' first Calder Cup championship, period in what I'm still calling the tightest 5-2 win I've seen in ages--minus the empty-net goals, it was a 3-2 triumph--and the Griffins celebrated heartily (clicky for multimedia) before returning to Grand Rapids to take part on a Wednesday evening fan rally at Van Andel Arena.

The Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, New Holland Sentinel, Michigan Hockey's Michael Caples (with a spiffy "champs" picture from Jennifer Leigh) and the Crunch's website all provided narrative recaps; if you want to check the stats, the AHL's website provides the scoresheet, as well as a link to merchandise sales (the Griffins are selling championship merch, too), and in a slightly weird twist, the AHL's auctioning off the vast majority of game-used jerseys and game pucks from the Calder Cup Final, too.

The AHL's press-release style recap is where we'll start the discussion of "Series O"...

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