On to the Wings...
It's never easy to lose a Game 7. Watching the Sharks celebrate last night made my stomach turn. Yet, thanks to the admirable way the Wings fought back from an 0-3 series deficit made me proud. This loss wasn't easy to take, but it was easier.
The fact that every game was tightly contested shows how close these two teams were in terms of talent. Losing Franzen, Bertuzzi, and then Clearly severely hurt the Wings. They had to rely on Abdelkader and Hudler to carry a much larger load. When the buzzer sounded, it was only the Wings two star forwards - Zetterberg and Datsyuk - who had the talent to beat the Sharks staunch defense.
Now the Red Wings head home disappointed. They strive to win the Cup every year. Anything less is unacceptable. That's the standard this incredible team has set for themselves and their fans. As the players age, it's easy to write them off as past-their-prime. Yet, they proved this season that they are as elite as any team in the League. The salary cap crippled Holland's ability to lure free agents. But it's also brought talent-laden teams like Chicago and Pittsburgh down to Earth. All the teams are on a level playing field. There's very little wiggle room. So the Wings we see next season will likely resemble this squad.
Despite the ire that many fans feel toward playoff disappointments like Hudler and Rafalski right now, those guys are still valuable pieces. It might be nice to get Rafalski's $6million off the books, but who would've traded him after last year's Olympics? He was incredible. As for Hudler, he makes over $2million. If he's not scoring 18+ goals, he's not worth it. Yet, the Wings are stuck with him for now. So they just gotta roll with it and hope he turns it around.
And the rest of the team is pretty stable. Next year they'll return healthy and hungrier. This San Jose series galvanized the team and the fans.
It is Ken Holland's way to show patience and stay the course. However, I'm curious to see how a few things shake out.
ReplyDeleteFirst is regarding Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader. Babcock loves these guys, and they've elevated themselves past 4th line grinders. Pav, Z, Abby and Helm might all need to play on the top 3 lines. Abby even spent time as our #2 center. Even if Modano and Draper retire, there's still Emmerton and Tatar who are expected to be in the lineup soon. Which may finally make Filppula expendable (for a top 4 defenseman or a pure scorer). Nothing wrong with Filppula, he's a nice player and he fits our style, but it might be better to have another pure scoring winger (a second-tier Hossa, Shanny, Hull type) with our mix of centers and grinders (Cleary, Homer, Bert). Perhaps Filppula and Hudler can be sufficient trade bait, although, given Holland's reputation, I'll believe it when I see it.
I completely agree that Rafalski's contract this year is a burden, but we don't win the Stanley Cup in 2008 unless we sign him. So it's a burden I'm not going to complain about. Although, it would be nice to just have him retire. Maybe Illitch can sign him to a $6 million dollar scouting contract. But if Kronwall-Stuart is our #1 pairing, then Who does Nick play with? there aren't many good UFA d-men, and do you keep him with Rafalski? Does Ericsson re-sign? Does Kindl step up as a regular? Does Brendan Smith make the jump?
Finally, and no offense to Atlanta, but PLEASE let the Thrashers move to Winnipeg. The talk is that realignemnt would wait one year, but there are three teams that want to move to the East: Detroit, Columbus, and Nashville. I don't know if the Wings win that spot, but this would be huge for the Wings and their fans. 10 West Coast 10:30 games and another 6 Mountain 9:30 games reduced to about 5 total late games. Plus those grueling late-night playoff starts. The wings air travel time would be cut dramatically.
For an older team, this would definitely help.
Baligian was saying on WDFN the other day that there's no way Bettman will let the Wings leave the West, despite his promise.
ReplyDeleteApparently, the Wings are too valuable to the West. They draw fans in non-hockey cities. The East, outside of the Southern teams, does not hurt for NHL fans.
Bettman going back on his word makes my skin crawl, but I do believe Baligian is correct. Bettman doesn't care about pleasing Mike Ilitch. What's Ilitch going to do? Leave the NHL?
Which got me thinking...
Could the Wings leave the NHL? Form their own league? They could do it if they could take a few teams with them. My vote for the new hockey league:
- Detroit
- Colorado
- Chicago
- Nashville
- Winnipeg (a new team)
- London, ONT
I assume no teams from the East will want to join this new, fledgling league since the NHL caters to the East.