Cotsonika offers a definitive profile of Red Wings coach Mike Babcock
Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik
05/20/13 at 03:01 PM ET | Comments (4)
Yahoo Sports' Nicholas J. Cotsonika wrote one helluva profile of Wings coach Mike Babcock, and like Babcock himself, it pulls no punches while leaning heavily upon the impressions Babcock has made upon Brendan Smith and Jakub Kindl:
The Wings made the playoffs for the 22nd consecutive season, winning their last four games to get in. They upset the second-seeded Ducks in the first round, coming back from 2-1 and 3-2 series deficits to win in seven games. They entered Monday night tangled in a 1-1 tie with the top-seeded Chicago Blackhawks, responding to a 4-1 loss with a 4-1 win.
“He’s one of the best coaches in the NHL for a reason,” said defenseman Jakub Kindl.
It’s not because he’s warm and fuzzy. It has been an open secret around the Wings that Babcock has clashed with players for years now, from the top to the bottom of the roster. He has clashed with management this season, too, about how certain players are used and the composition of the roster, often issuing public reminders of how much less he has at his disposal. But is that a negative? Or is that a positive? Or does your perception depend on the results?
Filed in: | The Malik Report | Permalink
Three things: does Chicago ‘suck?’; praise for Datsyuk; 8:47 of Babcock being Babcock
Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik
05/20/13 at 02:17 PM ET | Comments (11)
Two of the three stories which follow are in the Red Wings-Blackhawks Game 3 update thread, which will continue to be updated this afternoon, but these three stories also merit specific mentions:
Topic 1: I happened to wonder aloud whether the Chicago Blackhawks' hatred for the Red Wings is analgous to that of Ohio State fans' hatred for everything related to the University of Michigan, and the website Alternative Hero provided a merchandise-hawking answer...
Filed in: | The Malik Report | Permalink
Who Said It?
05/20/13 at 02:07 PM ET | Comments (0)
The older I get, the better I was. I was fortunate to be on an Oyster River High School soccer team that was at the tail end of a dynasty (we went 96 straight regular season games without a loss) and we made it to the state championship game in two of my last three years in school. I played soccer at UNH before I had a Joe Theismann-type broken leg... came back for one more season, but was a shadow of what I was... and it got me into broadcasting purely by happenstance. It all worked out OK, and the lessons learned from soccer help me with hockey concepts every game.
and the answer is...
Filed in: NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Is It Fair To Call The Washington Capitals Chokers?
05/20/13 at 02:01 PM ET | Comments (0)
from Neil Greenberg of Capitals Insider,
In fact, it is because this team wins so much that it has fostered what I like to call a Culture of Perennial Disappointment: failing to advance past the second round since its dark-horse run in the 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs.
So, we should be able to agree this organization is made up of winners. However, is it also made up of chokers?
You know, calling the Caps “Choking Dogs” used to be funny. But it isn’t any more. Because it has been happening for 12 years. In nine of their past 12 playoffs the Capitals have either frittered away a substantial playoff lead or lost to a team they finished above in the regular season.
That was Tony Kornheiser’s Washington Post column from 1996, after Washington won the first two games against Pittsburgh before dropping the next four, leading to a first-round exit — a trend that plagues this organization with the term “chokers.” But it is a moniker that, sadly, has been earned.
The Capitals have the worst postseason record in games in which the team can win the series with a victory (minimum 10 games played in those situations):
Filed in: NHL Teams, Washington Capitals, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Pavel Datsyuk advances to EA Sports’ NHL 2014 Cover Vote semifinals
Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik
05/20/13 at 01:57 PM ET | Comments (4)
FYI, Red Wings fans:
You can't vote by way of hashtags on Twitter anymore: you have to go to http://covervote.nhl.com regis,ter, and vote there.
Filed in: | The Malik Report | Permalink
Trying To Move Ales Hemsky
05/20/13 at 01:52 PM ET | Comments (0)
from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal,
Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish simply isn’t going to pay $5 million a season for a second-line player who has world-class ability.
Although Hemsky goes into traffic, gets hurt and plays hurt — both admirable traits — the Oilers can find better ways to spend his salary. They need bigger forwards, even if they don’t have Hemsky’s skill set, which, apart from his first two seasons, has made him pretty close to a point-a-game NHLer.
The problem is that Hemsky has missed 118 games the past four seasons — a red flag for other teams who like healthier players on their roster.
Can the Oilers get anything substantial for Hemsky these days?
“I don’t think there’s a market for him … I shouldn’t say there’s no market,” said former NHL general Craig Button, who now works for TSN. “But the salary cap is coming down to $64.3 million. He makes $5 million for one more year. Would the Oilers pick up half of that to trade him, 50-50 (with another team)? That would still free up $2.5 million in cap space for the Oilers.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Edmonton Oilers, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: ales+hemsky
Red Wings-Blackhawks Game 3 game-day updates: Wings expect Hawks to bring their best
Blog: The Malik Report By George Malik
05/20/13 at 12:41 PM ET | Comments (11)
Updated 13x at 3:46 PM: The Detroit Red Wings took to the ice at Joe Louis Arena to prepare for Game 3 against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight (7:30 PM EDT, NBCSN/CBC/97.1 FM, post-game on FSD), and the Wings' morning skate was relatively uneventful:
Filed in: | The Malik Report | Permalink
Quick can’t afford to dwell on Saturday night’s game
Blog: 23 Intently Staring Goalies By lsefton
05/20/13 at 11:32 AM ET | Comments (0)
"If you keep thinking about the last goal. you'll soon be thinking about the next, last goal."
Good advice if you're playing goal. You spend your time thinking about that last goal, and you won't see the next one coming. That extrapolates to playoff games--if you spend your energy thinking about the previous game, you won't have the energy to play well. If you're grumbling to yourself in the next game, you're not paying attention to the play. The puck goes in, and now you have more to dwell on. That's how games can go hyperbolic in a very short time.
Filed in: | 23 Intently Staring Goalies | Permalink
The Twenty-Cent Opera And Not-So-Secret Biases
Blog: Abel to Yzerman By VooX
05/20/13 at 11:25 AM ET | Comments (52)
Jonathan Toews is a broken little boy. The past couple of days he has gone to bed muttering to hiimself, when not biting his pillow, and waking up needing to change his sheets. He is haunted by his personal boogeyman, Henrik Zetterberg, whose defensive coverage of Toews has been so suffocating, the lack of oxygen affecting "Tazer's" brain and emotional stability so badly, that he finally snapped.
As time expired in Detroit’s win, Jonathan Toews took the faceoff and immediately began to cross check Henrik Zetterberg. Again and again as the seconds ticked down, he went after Zetterberg who was trying to actually play defense.
As expected, the Red Wings weren’t too happy. Zetterberg went right after Toews, Bertuzzi got a couple of requisite shots in and then Jimmy Howard stepped in and did his part.
Filed in: | Abel to Yzerman | Permalink
Wings Must Play Big And Match Chicago’s Effort Tonight
Blog: The Malik Report By Paul
05/20/13 at 11:02 AM ET | Comments (8)
from Craig Custance of ESPN (paid subscription),
The best playoff teams have that element of size and strength in their top-six, and it's something Abdelkader provides for Detroit. Over the course of a long series, his physical style against the Blackhawks' best players can potentially chip away at their will and wear them down....
And Ericsson has settled in as a reliable partner with Niklas Kronwall, developing into a player Babcock can trust completely. With the Red Wings' season on the line in Game 7 against the Ducks, he played 26:10, the most ice time he has gotten in any game this year that didn't go into overtime.
"He's playing like a No. 2, that's a major progression for him," the NHL scout said. "He has size. He plays like a stopper and he can move the puck. He wants to do more with the puck, he thinks he can and he's getting there."...
If Detroit is a split second late, Chicago will blow right by them. It's why the Blackhawks are the best team in the league right now and why it's hard to put together back-to-back efforts like the Red Wings did Saturday against them.
When the Wild beat the Blackhawks in overtime in the first round, Chicago responded by scoring eight of the next nine goals to end Minnesota's season.
That's what a championship team does and there's no reason to believe the Blackhawks won't find that same effort tonight in Game 3. Whether or not Detroit matches it will go a long way in revealing just how much they've closed the gap.
Filed in: | The Malik Report | Permalink
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