As our joint venture with The Production Line carries on, today we look at the case for and against Jiri Hudler while going down the list of pending free agents and whether the fans think Detroit should bring them back into the fold (if even temporarily).

Here's the background info for this season:

The Detroit Red Wings currently have 18 players under contract for the 2012-23 season with $44M committed to that group. While this is a CBA year and we can't be sure, we're assuming that the Wings will bring $20M in cap space to the bargaining table looking for a two forwards (including one top six forward), two defensemen, and a backup goaltender.

With that in mind, we'll start off with a guy we've recently discussed who would fill one of those forward positions. Follow after the jump for the breakdown on Jiri Hudler.

Continue reading this post »

With a 3-2 overtime victory over the top-seeded New York Rangers on Friday night, the New Jersey Devils punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Los Angeles Kings, who took only a combined 14 games to eliminate the top three seeds in the Western Conference for the right to battle for the Cup for the first time since the mid-90s.

So let's take a quick look at the matchup and then get your predictions for what will happen when the Finals start on Wednesday.

Defensively

With a 91.2% penalty kill and 5 shorthanded goals, the Kings have allowed only 1.57 goals per game (23 total). While this isn't surprising, given their regular season numbers, they did only have to face one top-ten offense on their way. Still, a Vezina finalist and Conn Smythe contender between their pipes and a whole-team commitment to defense, the Kings are tough to score against. On the other side, New Jersey has given up only 2.33 goals per game (42 total). Their PK has struggled to a 74.2% clip and 1 shorthanded goal (from the regular season league-leaders in that category). Still, their success has hinged on having the best 5-on-5 for/against ration of any team in the playoffs thanks to a very effective counterattack.

Advantage: If you take the goals against totals for any two of the Kings' series combined and matched it to New Jersey's goals against in the Florida series, you'd get a smaller number for LA. Advantage goes to the Kings.

Continue reading this post »

The Kings await their Stanley Cup Finals opponent knowing that one way or another they're heading to the East Coast for Game 1 on Wednesday. Will the Devils finish off the Rangers or are we looking at yet another game 7?

New York Rangers (1) vs. New Jersey Devils (6) - 8:00 NBCSN: Zach Parise looks to captain his team to the Prince of Wales Trophy in front of his home crowd tonight as the Devils tangle with the Rangers. New Jersey jumped out to a 3-0 lead in Game 5 before giving it back. Fortunately, they were able to keep their composure and went on to win. Now the Rangers are fighting for their lives, just trying to earn the right to play their 21st game of the playoffs.

Blueshirt Banter (Rangers)
In Lou We Trust (Devils)

Tonight's Prediction: Marc Staal does something newsworthy.

Player two of our series with The Production Line is up over at TPL today, where they're looking at the case for/against Brad Stuart.

Click here to head over. read the full rundown, and vote.

I didn't see last night's game because when somebody offers to take your two-year old off your hands for a night, you go see that big movie everybody's been talking about for weeks (not the one with Tom Hanks). I see the Devils broke the alternating streak.

Hockeytown: No Limits

The Malik Report : Updated: a Nicklas Lidstrom red herring reminds us to not joke about a certain Red Wing’s future
Yesterday, an innocuous tweet from a small source lit off a firestorm when a misunderstanding of a joke led to somebody Tweeting about a certain somebody's retirement. It's like yelling 'Fire!' in a theater crowded with snowmen.

Jiri Hudler will benefit from thin free-agent market; how much is he worth to Red Wings? (poll) | MLive.com
Hudler is going to get a raise because there aren't many UFAs out there who can put up 25 goals. One interesting idea I've seen would to be sign him as an insurance policy against free agency disaster and then move him if everything goes well.

The Hunger Games - Red Wings Edition : Octopus Thrower
It's a long summer.

Wings are perfect fit for Ryan Suter and Zach Parise | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com
So just how likely is it that the two biggest free agents this season are a package deal?

Wings look to build new arena in Detroit : Windsor Star
Dave Waddell takes a good look at the details surrounding the Wings' new arena as well as what the team wants and why they're dropping in capacity.

Elsewhere around the League

Minnesota Wild Sign Mikael Granlund - Hockey Wilderness
Granlund is a Finnish Star who had a good showing at the Worlds. For a $2.1M cap hit, it would be kind of ok if he Leinos on them. The bigger thing to consider is that this signing makes the Wild better and therefore a slightly more attractive team to certain free agents.

A Dream to a Nightmare and Back: New Jersey Devils Take Game 5 from New York Rangers, 5-3 - In Lou We Trust
The Devils are one win away from meeting the Kings in the Stanley Cup Finals. Life doesn't make sense.

Twitter / @dchesnokov: Oh, Sasha.
According to a Russian report, Alex Semin had a meeting with media and fans yesterday for which he overslept. When they did get a hold of him, he just said he wasn't coming. The event was rescheduled, but chalk this up in the "con" list if you're considering the risk/reward for the Wings signing him.

Alain Vigneault Signs Extension - Nucks Misconduct
This was obvious since Gillis got extended, but now it's official.

NHL Awards 2012: SB Nation Bloggers Select Lady Byng Trophy Winner - SBNation.com
SB Nation's collection of hockey bloggers have teamed up to vote for the 2012 NHL Awards. Yesterday, we revealed our selection for the Lady Byng Trophy. Also, somebody in the comments called Datsyuk a jerk.

CBC announces ‘While the Men Watch Hockey Night,’ sets off backlash over sexism | Puck Daddy - Yahoo! Sports
The WIIM Twitter got quoted and J.J. got a text from Anne FromKansas for making her famous.

Eulogy: Remembering the 2011-12 Phoenix Coyotes | Puck Daddy - Yahoo! Sports
The degenerates from Second City Hockey did the Coyotes' eulogy and it was good.

So the Western Conference finals are over and the Kings will compete for the Cup. But, while the men watch (*gag), the East still has a war raging to see who'll meet them.

New Jersey Devils (6) vs. New York Rangers (1) - 8:00 NBCSN: the back-and-forth battle of these two teams continue with neither showing what is looking to be the advantage the rest of the way. It felt in the first round like the Rangers just took too long eliminating the Senators. The 2nd round was closer, but New York was clearly the better team playing. This round? I'm not so sure the 1-seed is the better team right now. Then again, they win every other game, so we'll see if it's still the Rangers' turn.

Blueshirt Banter (Rangers)
In Lou We Trust (Devils)

Tonight's prediction: Brodeur outbattles Lunqvist.

Last season, we teamed up with The Production Line to gauge the feelings of the fanbase on bringing back or cutting ties with Detroit's free agents. In the spirit of the offseason, we're back again this year with eight guys to cover.

Here's the background info for this season:

The Detroit Red Wings currently have 18 players under contract for the 2012-23 season with $44M committed to that group. While this is a CBA year and we can't be sure, we're assuming that the Wings will bring $20M in cap space to the bargaining table looking for a two forwards (including one top six forward), two defensemen, and a backup goaltender.

With that in mind, we'll start off with a guy we've recently discussed who would fill one of those forward positions. Follow after the jump for the breakdown on Justin Abdelkader.

Continue reading this post »

So the Rangers still can't take a two-game lead in a series and now face the possibility of yet another round going to seven games after losing last night to the Devils. Meanwhile, out west, we'll have a chance to see a trophy not get touched tonight.

Los Angeles Kings (8) vs. Phoenix Coyotes (3) - 9:00 NBCSN: The Coyotes were dragged from the precipice by their heroic captain and an army of journalists who like to write stupid stories about heroic captains winning games where his team is badly outshot and his goalie gets a shutout. Phoenix is going to have to do one better than that one tonight if they're going to keep their postseason alive. Los Angeles hasn't lost on the road yet and I'm not wholly convinced they're ever going to again. Was Sunday the last snarl of a dying dog or is there fight left in these 'Yotes? Can they stop Dwight King from scoring?

Five for Howling (Coyotes)
Jewels from the Crown (Kings)

Prediction for tonight: Phoenix loses.

Yesterday, we covered how the Detroit Red Wings' penalty kill fared during the regular season. Today, we're going to swing the special teams pendulum to the other side and gauge how the Red Wings did on the power play.

Percentage-wise, Detroit's power play hit at 16.1% for the year. The Red Wings' power play hasn't had a success rate this low since the 2006-07 squad's 17.1% rate (where they still scored 20 more goals on the power play than this year's team). Interestingly, both of those teams gave up the same number of shorthanded goals (11).

The percentage rank for the Wings put them in 22nd place leaguewide, which is the same position they would be in if you rated power play effectiveness by calculating how many minutes of power play time it took for each team to score one goal. Detroit scored one power play goal for every 10 minutes with the man advantage. For comparison, Nashville's league-leading squad took 7:25. Detroit would effectively waste an entire power play between the time the Predators scored and they did.

After the jump, we'll look at the power play effectiveness index and get into some of the individual numbers.

Continue reading this post »

The Coyotes are still alive because Shane Doan heroically stopped all 36 of Los Angeles' shots on goal and scored thanks to things which were beyond his control. What a leader.

New York Rangers (1) vs. New Jersey Devils (6) - 8:00 NBCSN: Out East, we've got a series, as the Rangers keep doing that thing they do where they win odd-numbered games (game 5 and 6 of the Ottawa series have been the only exception so far). The Devils will have to do pretty much the same thing they did in response to their Game 1 loss, since that's exactly what the Game 3 loss looked like. Despite what the box score tells you about Game 3, that was a fun game to watch. Hopefully they can match that excitement tonight.

Blueshirt Banter (Rangers)
In Lou We Trust (Devils)

In Brandon we don't Prust (because he's suspended for tonight after elbowing Anton Volchenkov in the head).

Tonight's prediction: pun wars.

The Detroit Red Wings' season ended in a disappointing fashion as a team that looked like all of its players weren't on the same page was picked apart by a Nashville team which wasn't suffering the same affliction (yet). While the Wings' PK in the playoffs wasn't part of the problem, one could argue their regular season kill was partly responsible for their disappointing seeding and, be extension, their early exit from the playoffs.

Today, we're going to look at how the Red Wings compared to the rest of the pack and to past Detroit teams in the PK to see just how bad it was.

First off, the Red Wings' PK during the regular season succeeded 81.8% of the time, good for 18th place among the NHL this season in that ranking. This is the worst the Red Wings have killed penalties since the 2008-09 season, when they finished 25th. Let's go a bit more into context there.

Continue reading this post »

Welcome to the Sunday open thread. As I type this, they're deciding who will win the bronze at the world with the Czechs currently up on Valtter Filppula's Finnish team through 2. Pavel Datsyuk's Russian squad will face off against Tomas Tatar's Slovaks a bit later. The game will be live at 1:30, but it will be replaying on NBCSN at 9:00. If your plan is to watch it tonight, be aware there may be spoilers ahead.

Later, we'll see if the Kings can win their 9th straight playoff game and complete their 2nd straight sweep of a higher seed.

Phoenix Coyotes (3) vs. Los Angeles Kings (8) - 3:00 NBC: Game 4 between LA and Phoenix drops puck at noon local time in the Staples Center. at 7:30 in LA, the Spurs and Clippers play there. It takes about 2.5 hours to transition the arena from hockey to basketball. I figure if there ever is a good time for a hockey game to go into four overtimes, this is it. Meanwhile, Phoenix doesn't much care how it gets done, they just want to find a way to win a game. They'll have Martin Hanzal back from his one-game suspension, but there's more to the Kings' dominance of the 'Yotes than just him. LA is beating Phoenix in just about every aspect of the game right now.

Five for Howling (Coyotes)
Jewels from the Crown (Kings)

Prediction for Today: Mike Smith steals this one.

If you woke up a lot earlier than I did, you already saw the result of the Russia-Finland game this morning. The Czechs and Slovaks are still due up, as is actual NHL Playoff action. Go Tatar.

New York Rangers (1) vs. New Jersey Devils (6) - 1:00 NBC: The Eastern series takes the national stage this afternoon tied 1 game apiece. The Devils were able to take away the home ice advantage from the Rangers thanks to a hard-fought 3-2 victory on Wednesday. Now that the games are in Newark, I wonder if it will be easier for the Devils to get into the penalty box.

Blueshirt Banter (Rangers)
In Lou We Trust (Devils)

Today's prediction: Artem Anisimov gets on the board

So Martin Hanzal won't be playing tonight because he didn't let up on a hit where he should have let up which ended up in a Kings player being launched face-first into the boards in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. Fortunately, Shane Doan will be playing, despite not letting up on a hit where he should have let up which ended up in a Kings player being launched face-first into the boards (and I don't care about Trevor Lewis "turning", Doan has a history of suspensions and absolutely finished his check when he could have let up).

Phoenix Coyotes (3) vs. Los Angeles Kings (8) - 9:00 NBCSN: Phoenix lost their minds as a team during Game 2 and the Kings were more than willing to let them do that so they could take a 2-0 series advantage back to their own barn. The Kings are playing insanely well right now and don't look like they'll ever lose again. Naturally, this should be cause for concern.

Five for Howling (Coyotes)
Jewels from the Crown (Kings)

Prediction for tonight: Coyotes win in OT.

Niklas Kronwall is known around the league for being an unassuming-yet-dangerous open ice hitter. The veteran Detroit blueliner patrols the entire surface, but he's most well-known for crushing checks on unsuspecting forwards who are turning from the half-boards to exit their own zone on transition.

Tuesday, at the IIHF World Hockey Championship, Latvian forward Kaspars Saulietis learned all about Kronwall.

Saulietis had to be helped off the ice and did not return to the game. Kronwall was not penalized on the hit, another in a line of big hits laid by the Swedish defender which toes the line with the rules of both NHL and international play, but is ruled allowable. The question becomes how much longer will this remain legal?

Continue reading this post »

Hey, the Rangers and Devils have plans tonight. I wonder if any of those plans involve losing their composure like the Coyotes did last night. Fortunately, Shane Doan is too nice to the press to suspend.

New Jersey Devils (6) vs. New York Rangers (1) - 8:00 NBCSN: No two ways about it, the Rangers outclassed the Devils in Game 1 on their way to a 3-0 shutout. New Jersey will have to do just about everything better. Maybe we could drum up some controversy if we assume that one goalie or another is asking his team to aim shots directly at the heads of their opponents. Would that work, you guys?

Blueshirt Banter (Rangers)
In Lou We Trust (Devils)

Prediction for tonight: Kovalchuk scores 2. McGuire gushes over him so much that people long for the good old days when nobody had anything nice to say about Russians.

It was very nice of the Phoenix Coyotes' owners to agree to host a Western Conference Finals game at 6pm local time so that you East-Coasters don't get too crabby at work tomorrow.

Los Angeles Kings (8) vs. Phoenix Coyotes (3) - 9:00 NBCSN: I feel mildly insulted every time I have to put that little (8) next to the Kings in these previews, since they're not the cup favorites for a lot of people. LA won game 1 and have yet to lose a game on the road during the playoffs. I mean, they've only lost 1 at home too, so it's not exactly like they're slouches at the very-busy Staples Center these days, but who cares? Tonight's in Glendale and the Coyotes are going to have to do a better job at not losing if they don't want to head to Tinseltown facing the same thing the Blues and Canucks faced.

Five for Howling (Coyotes)
Jewels from the Crown (Kings)

Prediction for tonight: punishment-bound Shane Doan takes an odd number of penalty minutes and it's the difference in the game.

One of the biggest questions of this upcoming free agency period will center around two players earmarked to make a very big splash as they look for new and expensive contracts. One of those players is still competing for the cup while the other is taking some time to talk to his family and weigh all of his options waiting for July 1st to come along. While nobody is certain what Ryan Suter will do this offseason, the majority of folks think he'll leave Nashville to seek his fame and fortune on somebody else's blue line.

The View from 111 asks that he considers all of the factors at play in his decision.

In his piece, the well-meaning author tries his best to offer Mr. Suter a different perspective on things, to help him decide on his future. For instance, what about the money considerations?

Suppose a team that covets your services, say Detroit, offers you a bit more to jump ship. Say $7.5 million per year. An extra $500,000 in your pocket sounds pretty good. Until you consider that the State of Michigan levies an income tax of 4.25% on those gross earnings. That amounts to a $318,750 haircut, and that $500,000 difference suddenly becomes $181,250. Oh yeah, don't forget that the City of Detroit tags you for another 2.5% off the gross earnings, or another $187,500. Suddenly, that extra $500,000 has evaporated and your net earnings are $6,993,750.

We could also look at the $7,500 that the state of Tennessee charges solely for the privilege of playing hockey in their state, but you'd be looking at that regardless of whether you signed in Detroit or Nashville. However, signing in Nashville means that what you won't be looking at is freedom from state taxes in places like St. Paul, Chicago, Columbus, and even Detroit (where you'd be playing more than 10% of your games in total). Michigan has reciprocal agreements with those three states, so you won't be paying taxes to them as a Red Wing.

Sure, the taxes on your income should overall be lower if you play 41 of your games in Tennessee compared to Michigan, but I'm not going to do a quarter of the math and pretend like we're finished. I trust that you've got people with a pretty great grasp on the cost differences there and that your agent is going to be hard at work getting you the best value.

More after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

The Coyotes got a goal from center ice and still couldn't beat a Kings team which carried play for most of last night. Tonight we'll see the other intra-division conference finals series touch off as it's the Atlantic's turn.

New Jersey Devils (6) vs. New York Rangers (1) - 8:00 NBCSN: One of the best goaltenders of all time goes up against one of the best goaltenders currently playing as tonight's series starts. These two teams were separated by six points and three positions in their division this year, as both squads were better defensively than offensively, and both rely on a tough-to-play-against American captain and a highly-skilled european to create offense for them. I continue to root against New Jersey for purely selfish and Red Wings-related reasons (both historical and future).

Blueshirt Banter (Rangers)
In Lou We Trust (Devils)

Kings/Coyotes kicks off tonight with Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. I'm sure that the players will spend a lot of time this Mother's Day honoring each other's in conversations tonight.

Los Angeles Kings (8) vs. Phoenix Coyotes (3) - 8:00 NBCSN: Perhaps NHL history's most-dangerous 8 seed will meet the Pacific Division champions in what looks like it will be one hell of a goaltending duel. The Kings' have been absolutely killer while shorthanded, but the Yotes are no slouches at special teams. Both teams have dominated 5-on-5 scoring while being consistently outshot. I don't know what's going to happen in this series, but I expect it to be an excellent matchup.

Five for Howling (Coyotes)
Jewels From the Crown (Kings)

With a 2-1 win in Game 7 for the Rangers over the Capitals, the Conference finals matchups are all set. New York will welcome the 6th-seeded New Jersey Devils into Madison Square Garden on Monday night to start their series while the Los Angeles Kings will be in Phoenix for a Sunday night matchup against the Coyotes.

I went 1-for-4 in 2nd round predictions (correctly guessing the Rangers would win in 7). I clearly have no idea what I'm doing, but here goes:

Kings vs. Coyotes: These teams play pretty much the same game, but the Kings appear to be the better team on paper. This clearly means the Coyotes will sweep.

Devils vs. Rangers: The Rangers took 14 total games eliminating seeds #8 and 7. I don't see why they'd change anything up now. For that reason, I'm taking the Devils in 5.

So who are you picking for the Cup Finals?

Valtteri Filppula is so focused and hardcore. It's like they just forgot to dub this all to 'Lose Yourself'. Let's do some links and then just leave this one up for tonight's Game 7.

Hockeytown: No Limits

Give Me Patrick Kane " The Production Line - TP:60
Disch from TPL's been drinking the turpentine, but you know what? He's not completely off his rocker. Kane is among the dumbest people in the NHL, but the kid puts up points and would likely be better-sheltered in Detroit than he was in Chicago. The risk/reward on this one is big time. It wouldn't take me long to stop throwing up long enough to welcome him to [urp] Detroit.

Wings coach Mike Babcock motivated to win another Cup, Olympic gold medal | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com
It's hard to remember that Babcock is only 49, since at times the job makes him look like he's pushing 60. Still, he really does enjoy his work. You can question his tactics, but nobody questions Babcock's drive.

Could Stuart be on his way back to San Jose? | ProHockeyTalk
I shall call this "articles from this February."

The Malik Report : Justice for the Mule? Russian players may be disciplined for spearing, breaking Wings forward’s nose
The Sweden vs. Russia game at the Worlds got a little heated and Franzen ended up getting his nose broken. Sweden was up 3-1 in the 2nd period and went on to a 7-3 defeat at the hands of the Russian squad, who woke up on the power play thanks to a couple of dives by Alexei Emelin. Malik has the videos of Franzen getting abused, as well as the Val Filppula video I borrowed for the header of this post (you're welcome, ladies).

Elsewhere around the league:

The Vocal vs. The Money - The Cannon
Matt Wagner takes an interesting look at the screaming "fire everybody!" fans versus the stuff that organizations actually listen to, the money stream.

30 Embarrassing NHL Team Name Google Image Search Results - Battle of California
The most embarrassing Google image search result for each NHL team. Don't skip right to Detroit and then get mad because it's not the funniest. This stuff is great.

For better and worse, players from the former Soviet bloc - 05.14.12 - SI Vault
New evidence states that Raddletits only missed curfew by one hour instead of the "out until 4 AM" we have previously heard. Naturally, some Preds fans are now mad at the team for what they're calling an overreaction. I call those people idiots. Team rules are team rules and those jerks blatantly disregarded them. Besides, anybody who actually watched Game 2 knew how bad Radulov looked.

Down Goes Brown: A fan's guide to handling the pressure of Game Seven
DGB has some helpful tips for the fans going into tonight.

Game Preview:

Washington Capitals (7) vs. New York Rangers (1) - 7:30 NBCSN: It all comes down to tonight as both of these teams want to be the one to win their second game 7 of this playoff season. I'm rooting for a blowout either way just because I think it would be hilarious. I've made peace with the idea that I could go 0-for-4 on my 2nd round predictions, I just want tonight's game to consistently match the excitement that the overall series has reached, despite long stretches of kind of boring hockey.

Blueshirt Banter (Rangers)
Japers' Rink (Capitals)

So there are two great things about writing a Eulogy for Puck Daddy: The good feeling of the supportive comments from people who've laughed with you through it and the hilarious feeling of reading the comments from the people who hated it.

I'll start by thanking you all for the first of those experience. Just because the Eulogy is done doesn't mean we're done laughing together. Let's share in some of the hate.

We'll start off with Twitter, where some real winners jumped on the hate.

@wyshynski Thanks for wasted time - nothing remotely funny in that eulogy, just sore-loser juvenile attacks - want fun? read @DownGoesBrown

— Stéphane Demers (@Frenchie_TO) May 8, 2012

For the record, I wholeheartedly endorse reading Down Goes Brown.

@wyshynski You Suck! You're a terrible writer and a worse person! The preds are the best in the NHL....and next year we'll win it all!!

— Reese Gwin (@Gwiner25) May 9, 2012

Picking among the three horribly stupid things from this user was tough, but I think I picked the one that best captured it.

Yawn...expected much better RT @JJfromKansas I wrote a eulogy sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck…

— DaveWuesthoff (@Tide311) May 8, 2012

One of the few Preds fans who still cops to following me just so he can keep an eye out, this is pretty much the same thing that he posted at Yahoo before it got thumbs-downed into oblivion by people who deserve to at least read original hate. I expected much better of you, Dave. Cool 311 tattoo though, joke.

After the jump, we'll head right to the Yahoo! comments and then later grab some SB Nation love.

Continue reading this post »

NHL Teams are a dying breed these days, just like [political joke redacted]. We've already got the Western Conference Finals matchup between the 'Yotes and Kings. We already know the winner of the Washington/New York series will face the New Jersey Devils after they knocked off the Flyers last night. Just one series left to decide.

New York Rangers (1) vs. Washington Capitals (7) - 7:30 NBCSN: The games themselves have jumped up and down on the excitement meter, but the overall tug-and-pull of the series makes it a good one. The Rangers have won all the odd games while the Caps have won the evens. The good news for the Caps is that this is an even. The bad news is that if the trend bucks tonight instead of later, their season will be over. Game 5 was all set to do just that, but a Joel Ward high-sticking double-minor led to a game-tying Brad Richards goal with 8 seconds and the OT game-winner by Marc Staal. I'm rooting for the Caps tonight just because I want this to go to seven games. Then I want the Rangers to win Game 7 so I can get ONE 2nd round prediction right.

Blueshirt Banter (Rangers)
Japers' Rink (Capitals)