State of the Blog
Written by Kyle Kujawa   
Monday, 15 February 2010 16:29
Orange County News - February 14, 2010

Considering we went into the break with games against San Jose and red hot Ottawa, taking three out of four points is pretty good. Really good, in fact, when you consider the Wings actually mounted some comebacks leading up to the break instead of just blowing leads, and then beat an Ottawa team that had lost once in something like 13 games. Sorry, not beat, but dominated.

Naturally, any momentum built by this is destroyed because Detroit's best players are about to go up to Vancouver, risking injury, and frankly, Detroit's playoff spot for a chance at national glory.

Good things:

  • Andreas Lilja and Patrick Eaves will be back after break.
  • Tomas Holmstrom is not going. It must be a bummer to get removed from the team, but he clearly has not been healthy.
  • Jimmy Howard is going to get some much needed rest -- yep, you better believe he's carrying the load into the playoffs.
  • Jonathan Ericsson will have some time to better learn how to play defense.

Now, what happens here the next two weeks? Who knows. I don't really have a plan to cover the Olympics. I don't want to dedicate myself to force coverage on the United States, but if they're doing well I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about them. There's a couple interesting players on each team, like the Griffins' Sergei Kolosov (Belarus) and the recently acquired Ole-Kristian Tollefsen (Norway), not to mention Norway's Mats Zuccarello Aasen, who Detroit has been rumored to be scouting. I'll probably keep tabs on their progress at well. A lot of blogs have set out to cover the progress of the rest of the Wings, so I'll figure I'll let them do that and sit back and relax.

However, I won't not be doing nothing (triple negatives are the best way to construct sentences). I'm hoping to catch a lot more Griffins games, who I've been neglecting since they've started to struggle. Ideally I'll be at two this weekend, so expect some coverage on those, with potentially a few more if I can catch them online.

Anyway, the country's attention will now turn to the team the man on top here assembled, and I'm at a total loss who to root for. I'm all about the United States, but they only have Brian Rafalski, who I'm lukewarm at best to. If Canada wins, accolades and superlatives will be dripped all over Mike Babcock and Steve Yzerman, which is always a ton of fun to read. From a Wings perspective, Sweden makes the most sense to root for, but Canada losing on home ice is a virtual guarantee for a few articles blasting Yzerman's decisions, even though the only one he's really at fault for is putting Corey Perry on the team and giving the 'C' to Scott "Captain Hook" Niedermayer. The ideal situation, in my mind:

  • NO INJURIES
  • The United States does not embarrass themselves after the recent progress they've made internationally.
  • Kolosov and Tollefsen prove themselves by not looking out of place against NHL talent.
  • Pavel Datsyuk gets a boost by playing with Ovechkin/Semin/Kovalchuk and plays every game post-break like the five or so games he did before break.
  • Johan Franzen gets red hot and hits the ground running after break.
  • Rafalski and his weak immune system don't contract some strange disease to spread to his teammates from the Olympic village.
  • Valtteri Filppula makes a significant impact for Finland.
  • Canada dominates (until the gold medal game).
  • Ryan Miller dominates, but at least one person suggests that maybe Jimmah should have been a USA backup instead of Tim Thomas or Jonathan Quick.
  • Sidney Crosby has a terrible tournament.
  • Sweden takes bronze.
  • Corey Perry passes off an easy play for a fancy one, Rafalski submarines him, steals the puck, streaks down the wing and puts a shot right under the bar to give the States a 6-5 overtime win in the gold medal game.
  • People blame Perry and not Yzerman/Babcock.
And I will live happily ever after.

 



Digg! Reddit! Facebook! Technorati! StumbleUpon! BallHype: hype it up!
< Prev   Next >
 

Babcock's Death Stare on Twitter

Follow Us

BDS Poll

Who is the most underrated prospect in Detroit's top ten?
 

Search BDS

About Bloguin

Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics.

Advertisers

The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.

Bloggers Wanted

The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.

The Bloguin Login

The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!