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Damn. This hit me harder than I thought it would. Though he's now five years removed from the ice, knowing that Stevie Y was still in the Red Wings organization did provide some comfort that my hockey hero was still a Red Wing. There are certain athletes that come to define their team, that truly serve as the nucleus around which all other pieces revolve. They are not only the heart of the team, ...

Really, this isn't anything any Red Wings fan wants to think about. The thought of seeing the best defenseman in franchise history leave the team, when he's still capable of playing at a high level is a painful one. Still, Nicklas Lidstrom has told Red Wings GM Ken Holland that he will ponder his future for the next couple of weeks and then inform him of his decision. While many believe that Lidstrom ...

"We can't keep everybody." Now, I heard that phrase escape Red Wings GM Ken Holland's lips about 56,874 times last season. Facing the impossible task of extending Marian Hossa's one-year, $7.45 million contract, and also giving raises to guys like Mikael Samuelsson, Jiri Hudler, and Ty Conklin; Holland made it clear that fans should not expect to see all of these names back for the 2009-10 season. Little did we (or Holland for ...

"What if Bobby didn't fly?" That was the first of several "what if..." questions posed using the NHL's newest ad campaign that began at the beginning of the NHL playoffs. In an interview with Bleacher Report on Friday, NHL Executive VP of Marketing Brian Jennings said that in creating the first spot using Bobby Orr's iconic "flight" after scoring the Cup winning goal in the 1969-70 Stanley Cup Finals, the league ...

With their season officially set to "off" mode, the Detroit Red Wings face no small amount of uncertainty as they set their sights on the 2010-11 season. New contracts, possible retirements, front office positions and the team's status as perennial Cup contenders are all up in the air. Though it's tough for Red Wings fans and players alike to start thinking about next year, instead of the next playoff series in early ...

Let me begin by saying that, honestly, any talk about a historic mid-series sweep is silly, if not down-right delusional. There is a reason this has happened only twice in NHL history and has not happened once in the past three decades. Like a blackjack dealer playing a six-deck chute, a team with a 3-0 lead has the odds overwhelmingly stacked in their favor to the extent that beating them becomes something ...

As a deeply passionate Red Wings fan and columnist, it makes me nauseous to think that, largely by their own doing , the Red Wings have effectively ended their 2010 playoff run. The Sharks can sweep the two-time defending Western Conference Champions tonight at Joe Louis Arena. However, even if the Wings manage to win the battle tonight, the war that is the Western Conference Semi-Finals is essentially over. I've often said ...

For those of you in the know, you understand how significant whipping out these silly "Crystal Ball" predictions have been for the Red Wings. For those of you who wonder what the hell I'm doing, let's review. Detailed, numbers driven, historically grounded game predictions are still just predictions. No matter how sophisticated the breakdown, any prediction is still, at its core, a wild-ass guess. So, a few months ago I started posting wholly unscientific ...

On Saturday, the NHL saw two of its best teams overcome incredible odds en route to improbable victories. In the East, the Penguins had seemingly squandered a chance to close out their series against the Ottawa Senators. Down 3-0 midway through the game, the defending Stanley Cup champions clawed their way back to even the score at three before winning the game in overtime, thus closing out the series and moving on ...

The Cinderella Team. What would the NHL playoffs be without them? Whether it's your team or not, as a hockey fan, you've got to give a lot of respect to those teams that can, despite a mountain of odds, prove the doubters wrong, muster enough resolve that they then turn into confidence and, suddenly, become a legitimate threat to any team they face. As Philadelphia, a team that has suffered from broken goalies, ...