Mike Modano has signed a one year deal with the Detroit Red Wings.

For Modano, it’s a homecoming. The native of suburban Detroit will lace the skates for the Red Wings after playing 20 seasons for the Minnesota/Dallas Stars franchise. After the Stars said they wouldn’t be having him back, Modano spent roughly five weeks coming to his decision. He wasn’t ready to retire yet.

Modano said that he was also considering Minnesota (how Wild would that have been?) and San Jose as possibilities, but after discussing the matter with Brett Hull and other former and current Red Wings he landed on Detroit.

“They all told me what a great organization and city it is to play in,” Modano said. “And mix in the incredible talent they have playing there and it kind of made my decision for me.”

The Red Wings will certainly give Modano a chance to chase the Stanley Cup, so that has to be something to get excited about for the 40-year-old. The opportunities in Detroit for a player of his skill level are quite impressive, too, so Modano could be plugged into quite a few situations on the talented roster.

“Just in casual conversation so far, maybe third line and some power play. They have so many talented players and I’m willing to play wherever they need me to,” Modano said of his expected role.

There’s the issue of numbers to sort out, of course. Gordie Howe’s #9 is retired, so Modano will have to sort something else out. He says he has a “few ideas.”

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Nicklas Lidstrom, one of the greatest defenceman to ever play the game of hockey, isn’t offering any clues as to his future in the National Hockey League and/or with the Detroit Red Wings.

Lidstrom, who’s now 40 years old but plays like a 20-year-old, is fresh off of the elimination of his team by the San Jose Sharks in the post-season. He’s also already deflecting reporter questions pertaining to his future. As it stands right now, Lidstrom is slated to be a free agent when July rolls around.

Of course, Detroit wants their key player back in the fold. But Lidstrom isn’t telling anyone what his plans are and presumably hasn’t even discussed the future with his wife and kids.

Lidstrom has been a lifelong Wing, spending all 18 years with the club in Detroit.

“We want him back,” Holland said, stating the obvious. “I don’t know what process he’s got to go through.”

Lidstrom had a decent year, but it wasn’t one of his best. He’s still a defensive stalwart, proving a composed force to be reckoned with. He still makes few mistakes and he still has a nose for the puck like few other players. But his point production appears to be slipping, with this season seeing him reach 49 points for his second lowest total in 14 seasons.

And he wasn’t a Norris finalist for the second time in over 10 years. Imagine that.

Of course it’s entirely possible that Lidstrom’s legacy as a defenceman is too much for even him to keep up to. He played in his 247th playoff game on Saturday night.

His Red Wings had lower goals this season than other years, though. They seemed a team that just wanted to make the post-season, leaving behind the goals of winning it all and challenging for the Cup. Without as many offensive weapons as last year, Detroit had to compete with less this year. A rash of injuries to key players didn’t help.

Still, Lidstrom was a considerable force and the Red Wings are hoping he’ll remain in the fold. Another Red Wings legend, team V.P. Steve Yzerman, may be headed in the direction of Tampa Bay for the next season, so it would be good to keep Lidstrom as a critical piece of Wings history.

On the other hand, now could be the time to head in a new direction.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

Johan Franzen led the way with a natural hat trick and a total of six points (including another goal) as his Red Wings trounced the San Jose Sharks by a final score of 7-1 on Thursday night.

As brilliant as Franzen’s hat trick was - he scored the three goals in 3:26 minutes in the first period - the Red Wings still find themselves down 3-1 in the Western Conference semifinals.

“Mule is one of those guys - like (Joe) Pavelski - when you get hot, you just shoot the puck,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.

The series’ fifth game goes on Saturday night and gives the Sharks another chance to take home the series, but the Wings seem energized after the game and may make a series of it yet.

“Maybe this spanking will wake us up to know we’re not out of the woods,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “I’m saying it. We have to respond to it.”

The Sharks haven’t made it into the final four since 2004 and could be put in a precarious position against the more experienced Wings, but history certainly doesn’t favour the team from Detroit.

Thursday’s pounding should give the Wings some confidence, however, and may boost enough spirits in the locker room to make a significant difference overall.

Franzen’s performance broke the team playoff record of five points in a playoff game (shared by Steve Yzerman and Norm Ullman) and tied the team record for goals in a playoff game. He also almost set a playoff record for quickest three goals, but Tim Kerr of the Flyers scored three of his four goals 3:24 apart in a 1985 game.

At any rate, it looks like the Red Wings have something to be proud of for a change in this series. It doesn’t change the overall circumstances much, as they’re still just one game away from being bounced from the post-season. But it should give them plenty of pep for Saturday night and that might be all they need to pull off the upset.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

With the San Jose Sharks up 2-0 in their playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings, it’s safe to say that they smell blood in the water. The Sharks are brimming with a confidence seldom seen in San Jose during playoff time.

Heading into the Joe Louis Arena for the third game in the series, San Jose seems to have shaken off the cobwebs that have hung around in past spring seasons. Their third period comeback in the second game is being touted as prime evidence that they’re in it to win it, but they’ve got a significant challenge on their hands as they roll into Detroit.

Even so, the Sharks believe that sticking with the game plan will lead them to ultimate victory.

“We stuck with it,” Sharks centre Manny Malhotra said of the second game of the series. “We never got down on ourselves. We got behind a couple of times, but we were able to persevere. We believed in ourselves, we believed in the system. We knew that it was going to pay off if we continued to play well, play the same way.”

Of all the reasons for the Sharks’ success thus far, Joe Pavelski’s play has to be at the top of the list. He’s on a five game playoff scoring streak and popped in two power play goals in Sunday’s win. First place in the post-season scoring race, Pavelski will be wearing one hell of a target on Tuesday night at the Joe.

“He’s playing out of his skin right now,” Ryane Clowe said of Pavelski. “He was hungry coming into these playoffs and he’s stepping up, for sure.”

The Red Wings will need to avoid penalties if they expect to stay in the series. “We can blame the refs if we want, but we’ve taken some penalties that were correct,” Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg said. “We’ve just got to be more disciplined, have the puck a little bit more and make them take penalties.”

With the second game of the series on tap Tuesday night, the Sharks will be looking to capitalize and take a strangehold on the series. At this point and time, they are clearly the hungrier team in the series.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

The 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs are rolling along and we’ve seen quite a few surprises so far. While we haven’t had the participation we would have liked to have had in the playoff discussion thus far, we’re hoping more of you get involved as things roll towards the Finals. Participating in the conversation is a great way to boost the site’s reputation and to ensure we get more cool contests like the Ryan Kesler contest we have on currently.

Anyways, enough prodding. Here are your matchups for the Western Conference:

Detroit Red Wings vs. San Jose Sharks: The Sharks and Wings will be one of those matchups where either team could walk away with it all. Both teams were heavily favoured going into the post-season, but both teams showed signs of weakness against their respective first round opponents. The Red Wings own the regular season head-to-head record against the Sharks and have the playoff experience, but San Jose has the size advantage. The Sharks have been trying to play a strong puck possession game to emulate the Red Wings in the post-season thus far, too, so it’ll be interesting to see how the San Jose attack does against the team that mastered it.

My Prediction: Red Wings in 6.

Chicago Blackhawks vs. Vancouver Canucks: The Canucks took some time to get going in the post-season but showed moments of decisive dominance against the Los Angeles Kings. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, showed their stuff knocking off the Predators in six games. To say there’s bad blood between the ‘Nucks and ‘Hawks would be an understatement, as the Canucks will be looking for a measure of revenge against the team that took them out last year. There’s also been considerable bad blood between the teams throughout the year, so this should be a heated matchup that could go the distance. In the end, goaltending will be the difference maker. I know, I know. How profound.

My Prediction: Canucks in 7.

Feel free to list your predictions in the comments section below.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

I always grab my kids and stick them in front of the TV when something spectacular is about to happen in sports so that some day they can tell their kids “I watched Wayne Gretzky play his last game” or “I watched Tiger beat Jack’s major championship record”. I know that last one hasn’t happened yet, but you can bet that my entire family will be watching when it does. I’ve always thought that we live in a very exciting time for sports figures. Orr, Favre, Jordan, Tiger, Gretzky…

If you think about it, it’s really quite incredible.

As a result, I have always thought there were a handful of records in the NHL that I assumed would never be challenged. Gretzky’s 92 goal season or 215 point season, Selanne’s most goals as a rookie with 76, a little known goalie named Sam LoPresti’s record of stopping 80 shots in one game. Yes, it was only 3 periods (against the Bruins, of course) and no, he didn’t play for Toronto…it was Chicago, actually. The other big record that I never thought I would see fall is Terry Sawchuk’s 103 career shutouts, and yet Martin Brodeur is set to break it over the course of the next few weeks or months.

When I first heard how close he was, I have to admit that I was skeptical about the comparison. You know, I thought Sawchuk had played far fewer games than Brodeur…actually only 35 to date. That’s not a very big gap, so I compared the rest of the stats trying to find where Brodeur would fall short and Sawchuk would be far and away, the better goaltender. Feeling somewhat enlightened, let me share with you my findings;

Seasons Played – Brodeur 17/ Sawchuk 21
Minutes Played – Brodeur 59,448 min/ Sawchuk 57,194 min
Goals Against Average – Brodeur 2.21/ Sawchuk 2.51
Wins – Brodeur 561/ Sawchuk 447

Some other key differences are obviously, the size of the pads in today’s game. In comparison, the goalies that play today would look more like lacrosse goalies if put beside goalies of the 60’s (not to mention Sawchuk played without a mask until the 1962/63 season with just 8 seasons remaining in his career). In Brodeur’s defense, today’s players are bigger, faster and shoot harder. The game is quite different now in some aspects.

Sawchuk was taken from us too early, and there will always be a little bit of mystery surrounding his death. In the summer of 1970, an alcohol induced wrestling match with teammate Ron Stewart ended up in Sawchuk being rushed to a hospital. His gallbladder was removed and he also had a lacerated liver. Unable to recover, the nurse said “His heart just stopped”.

The HHoF’s 3 year waiting period was waived for him and he was inducted in 1971, which puts him exceptional company. The waiting period was waived for only ten players deemed exceptionally notable: Dit Clapper (1947), Maurice Richard (1961), Ted Lindsay (1966), Red Kelly (1969), Terry Sawchuk (1971), Jean Beliveau (1972), Gordie Howe (1972), Bobby Orr (1979), Mario Lemieux (1997) and Wayne Gretzky (1999).

It’s always difficult to compare players from different eras, but Brodeur is as close a comparison to Sawchuk that we will likely see in our generation.
We are indeed, very fortunate to be witness to some incredible athletes in sports history.

An emotional Gordie Howe was once quoted as saying this;

“The Uke (Sawchuk) was the best goalie I ever saw, everything that a goalie should be!”

He could say the same for Brodeur.

Posted By Pat Lynch

His team might be off to a slow start, but defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom isn’t letting that get to him. In fact, he reached a milestone in helping his Red Wings get back to a .500 record when he notched his 1,000 career point. That makes him the first European defender to reach that mark and the eighth player in NHL history to do it.

Of course, if you ask the veteran defenceman, he’s likely to tell you that Detroit’s 5-2 victory matters much more than his individual record does. And, in many ways, he’s right. Detroit has been struggling out of the gate this season and really needed tonight’s win over the Los Angeles Kings to bring them up to a 3-3 record.

Lidstrom’s accomplishment puts him in good company, especially when he’s among fellow Red Wings like Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman and Alex Delvecchio. With 229 goals and 771 assists in 1,336 career games, his career is nothing short of spectacular. But some of his real accomplishments have little to do with scoring statistics, as Lidstrom is one of the league’s most defensively reliable players at any position.

Lidstrom, who is a six-time Norris winner, has been one of the NHL’s most consistent players. His conditioning is impeccable and he shows up every game with energy and the hunger to win. He is a model player for young kids looking to get into the game at the defence position and will remain so for a long time.

“It’s a huge accomplishment, 1,000 points, but he’s done it over his whole career,” Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood said. “So it’s something you can’t really be surprised about. It’s consistency over a long period of time.”

Indeed, Nicklas Lidstrom has been at this level for his whole career. In fact, The Hockey News recently selected him as the best European-trained player ever in the National Hockey League. At 39, it’s safe to say that Lidstrom’s career may be reaching its twilight hours, but it’s also safe to say that when he does retire, he’ll go out playing at the same consistent level we’re all used to.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

After ten seasons with the storied franchise, veteran defenceman Chris Chelios will not be spending the 2009-2010 NHL season with the Detroit Red Wings. At age 47, many are speculating as to whether the rugged defender will be hanging up his skates for good.

Detroit GM Ken Holland informed Chelios that he won’t be offered a new contract with the club and thanked him for ten seasons of service.

“I met with Chelios and told him we would not be offering him a contract,” Holland told the Detroit Free Press. “He wants to play again. I really think that he does have another year in him. I think he can play 10 to 15 minutes. I think he can play on a third pair.”

Chelios didn’t record a single point in 28 regular season games this past season with the Red Wings. He also played in six playoff games.

Chelios has 948 career points (185 goals, 763 assists) in 1,644 games with the Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens and Red Wings. He has become known for his hard-edged style and outspoken locker room presence. Through the past few years, his on-ice efficacy has certainly been slipping but he still remains as one of the league’s most iconic defencemen.

Chelios was largely bothered by a leg problem in the 2008-2009 NHL season. He was put in a reduced role when he returned to the line-up, so the year was certainly a disappointment by his usual standards.

As far as Ken Holland his Red Wings are concerned, the time has come to move on and make some room for younger players. “It’s time for us to create opportunities for some of our younger kids,” Holland said. “His (Chelios) commitment to fitness is year round. I believe he’s got some hockey left in him. He’s been a great Red Wing in his time in Detroit.”

Chelios did not offer any comments to the media.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

The scene at the Stanley Cup Finals after the game tends to be chaotic and this year was no different.

Pittsburgh Penguins team captain and superstar Sidney Crosby isn’t apologizing for an alleged snub of the Detroit Red Wings during the post-game celebration of Game 7 of the Finals. With some Red Wings leaving the ice before he joined the handshake line, it was interesting to note the backlash against Crosby coming from Red Wings forward Kris Draper.

“Nick (Lidstrom) was waiting and waiting, and Crosby didn’t come over to shake his hand. That’s ridiculous, especially as their captain, and make sure you write that I said that!” Draper told the Associated Press.

During the post-game celebration, Crosby was ushered around to various media outlets and took part in celebrating the Stanley Cup victory with his teammates. He was also the last person to join the line, by which time many key Red Wings players, including Lidstrom and Draper, had already left the ice. Somehow, Crosby received the blame for not doing the honours.

“I had no intentions of trying to skip guys and not shake their hands,” Crosby said. “I think that was a pretty unreasonable comment. The guys I shook their hands with, they realized I made the attempt. If I could shake half their team’s hands, I’m sure the other half wasn’t too far behind. I don’t know what happened there. I have no regrets. I’ve been on both sides of it, and it’s not fun being on the losing end. But it doesn’t change anything. You still shake hands no matter what.”

The comment from Draper is, in my opinion, more than unreasonable. It’s downright petty and rude. The reaction of some of the Red Wings players to leave the ice before the handshakes were fully completed, even if Crosby was somewhat late in arriving, simply reflects a sort of “sore loser” mentality. It was a classless display and it was even more classless to somehow blame their exit on Crosby.

Crosby shook hands with more than half of the Red Wings roster, including coach Babcock and goalie Chris Osgood.

It is interesting to note the contrast between this incident and last year’s. The entire Penguins roster waited around for the Red Wings to finish celebrating and reach the handshake line, but this year the shoe was on the other foot and the Wings acted like spoiled children not getting their way. It’s a situation that probably would have been largely ignored were it not for Draper’s idiotic post-game comments.

Grow up.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

In true heart-pounding fashion, the Pittsburgh Penguins rose to the challenge and defeated the favourite Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup. That they did so without the services of Sidney Crosby for more than half the game was remarkable, too, but for the most part this win was about character and heart.

Winning their third Cup in franchise history in Detroit’s building couldn’t have been an easy task for these young Pens and it almost didn’t happen. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made a critical save in the dying seconds of the game to keep his team’s 2-1 lead and Maxime Talbot provided both Pittsburgh goals.

In the end, it wound up being about depth and role players for the Penguins. They were able to get pucks deep and play hard along the boards against the veteran Wings, giving their team and their young players the extra boost over the edge necessary to get the better of the prepared, skilled Detroit team.

Evgeni Malkin earned the Conn Smythe Trophy after scoring 36 points in the post-season. He is the first Russian-born player to win the award.

Crosby missed about half of the game after being clipped by Wings centre Johan Franzen along the boards in the second period. He returned for only one shift of the final period and had to sit on the bench while his team pulled off the victory. “I don’t recommend anyone trying watch the Stanley Cup final, Game 7 from the bench. It’s a tough situation,” Crosby said after raising the Cup as the youngest player to do so.

The Penguins also become the first road team since the ‘71 Habs to begin a Stanley Cup final down two games and yet still win it all in the seventh and deciding game away from home.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.